Reflections

Hedgehog & Ladybug Greeting Card

There is quite a bit of excitement in our household at the moment but I can't reveal exactly what it's all about just yet . . . let's just say that it's been a long time coming and something that we've looked forward to doing 'one day' - well, that time has finally arrived!

Stay tuned for an update on that later BUT in the meantime, I thought I would share a cute little Greeting Card that fellow Longford Crafter - Jan - showed us how to make last year - sorry it's taken me such a long time to get around to sharing it!

 

Isn't it cute!  It's got a simple stamped background which features stamped ladybugs & diasy flowers - the latter of which was highlighted with White & Gold Gel Pens.  The background was then matted onto black cardstock and then mounted onto a plain white greeting card.  The oversized white border on the card perfectly compliments the stamped white tag don't you think!

The white tag features a stamped Hedgehog & Ladybug which I've coloured with a little watered down ink . . . I could have used my Water Colour Pencis, but I hadn't taken them with me on the day that we made this!  None-the-less, I love how the colouring has come out - it's soft & subtle!  Here's a little close-up of the stamped image on the tag!

Thanks for sharing this fun idea for a Greeting Card Jan!  I'm not sure who is going to be the lucky recipient of it just yet but once that is decided, I'll add a greeting to the card front too!

Have a great day!

Shirley

Birthday Cards - Kaszazz Stamps & Smooch!

The wind is blowing, the sun is hiding behind the clouds and the temperature is struggling to get into the 20's! Just where has our Summer gone?  I'm sure it will return again soon but it sure does seem strange to be reaching for the jackets & jumpers at the moment!  Yesterday was unbelievable - so windy, rainy & cold - looking outside you could have thought you were in the middle of winter!  Some areas in the mountains yesterday even had SNOW!

On a more brighter note, today I thought I would share a set of 3 Birthday Cards that I've made using two gorgeous Kaszazz Daisy Stamps that I've coloured with a product called Smooch!

The brown background is actually plain white cardstock that I've lightly inked before adding the stamped & decorated white panel to!

Smooch is a product which resembles a nail polish bottle.  After giving the bottle a little shake to ensure that the pearlised paint is nicely mixed, you unscrew the lid and use the brush like applicator to paint or decorate your project!

I love the combination of the Hot Pink, Yellow & Lime Green on these cards - I think they work so well together!

I can see that the few bottles of Smooch that I've invested in are going to last me some time too because you hardly use any colour to complete a project such as this - a little of it goes a long way!  I might just have to invest in a few other colours I think!

The checked ribbon was some I think I picked up in Spotlight - I simply took a length of it, tied the ends into a secure knot (you'll end up with a circle) before laying it on my project where I wanted the knot to be and then cutting it to size so that I could secure the ends at the back of my project!  Once I cut the finished ends into a 'v' (when I've completed my card) I also like to seal the edges with a little Dimensional Magic - it just stops the ribbon from fraying!

I'm thinking that colouring stamped images with Smooch would be a great travelling holiday project because you don't need to take many supplies with you, therefore they won't take up much room AND then when you return from your holiday, you'll have a heap of coloured images ready to get creative with!

So - there you have it - I love that I am replenishing my stockpile of cards - it's amazing how quickly the supply can dwindle down isn't it?

Have a great day!

Shirley

Kaszazz Greeting Card

A little bit of playing with some Kaszazz goodies after I was inspired by a workshop my dear friend Jan showed our local group using a Kaszazz 'Elegant Inspirations Card' Project - here's the end result!

Can you believe it but there's no hand stitching on this card - *grin*

The coloured bird was a rubon applied to a transparency sheet, cut out and then coloured using some Smooch - I love the effect and it was a demonstrated technique that I hadn't tried before too! When it was dry, I then used a little silicon glue to attach it to the card!

On the homefront, unfortunately due to the cold, wet & windy weather, not a lot has been happening outside in the garden like I'd hoped it would these school holidays. My poor vegetable garden is looking quite neglected and I had hoped to get stuck into it - I have my fingers crossed that the weekend will be a little more favourable to me being outdoors and getting some things done! *fingers crossed*

Have a fantastic Thursday!

Handstitched Greeting Card

With the weather being really cold & windy so far these school holidays, there's been lots of time spent indoors.  The Pool Table, Wii and Playstation are all getting a good workout BUT it's also been great to see the boys taking time to draw, play games with one another and to read!  Speaking of reading - James is progressing well with his MS Readathon goals - many thanks to everyone who has offered to support his fundraising goals!  It's great to see him with his head in a book - even if he does have a head cold as well!

Anyway - I've just got a quick post today to share another card that uses up a few more supplies that I've had sitting around.

 
As you can see, I couldn't resist adding a little hand stitching to this one!  The quote and flower images are both Kaszazz rubons which were simply added directly onto the card background once the stitching was complete.

 
To create the ribbon trim, I took a length of ribbon and tied it into a knot (you end up with a circle).  Then I carefully worked out where I wanted the knot to be on my card and cut the ribbon so that I had enough to take to the back of the card and secure it in place with a little tape.

I then chose two co-ordianting buttons and hand stitched them in place, one directly over the knot and the second just slightly off to one side!

The final step I always apply to my ribbons, aside from trimming them to size, is to add a little glossy accents to the cut edge to stop any fraying of the ribbon!

Time to get busy in the kitchen - Red Lentil & Ham Soup with Ciabatta Bread for dinner tonight AND Pea & Ham Soup to get cooked for tomorrow's lunch as we have visitors joining us and I don't want to be cooking that first thing tomorrow morning!

Kaszazz - Blended Sunset Card

It would seem that everyone enjoyed another fantastic Longford Crafters day and whilst I may have only got one card complete, because I was busy helping Adam to complete his set of cards, it was certainly a fun technique to play around with and something that I'll definitely try again!

 
I have to admit that my distress ink blending was probably a little on the dark side - there's a little too much of the red down low in the sky for my liking BUT it has given the effect of a bushfire sunset I suppose - *grin*

 
The first step in making this card was to tear a hill (the approximate size of your background) from scrap paper and then use the top section to create a mask for the inking of the hill itself.  Once you achieve the desired depth of colour on your hill, you then commence working on the sky by applying a light layer of yellow ink, followed by a sun mask (a punched circle) to which you apply blended layers of orange & red ink over the top.  Once you are happy with the rest, you peel off the sun maskto reveal the un inked sun!  I love the sharp edge of colour around the sun!

 
A blossom branch stamp was then applied using black ink and then the blossom flowers coloured with a little distress ink and an aqua brush!  I love the delicate shading that this technique results in!  I also chose to colour in more of the stamped branch using my Zig Pen too!

After mounting the image onto some co-ordinating cardstock and then onto a white blank card, I added a few Kaisercraft pearls for a little finishing touch along with a clear greeting sticker!

Thanks again Jan for another fun workshop - I think everyone had a great day!

Kaszazz - Tree Hugs Greeting Card

I've got another greeting card complete and tucked away in my stash!  This one, like my previous post, also features Kaszazz goodies - particularly rubons!

 
The background for the card was was created by cutting a Kaszazz Rubon Frame into pieces and then re-assembling it to the desired size of my cream cardstock background.

The rubon word HUGS was applied to the background before moving onto the next step where I created the transparency tree.

 
I applied the tree rubon to a clear transparency sheet, cut it out, leaving a border around the whole image and then attached it to the background using some silicon glue.  I chose silicon glue because it added a little dimension by lifting the tree off the background as opposed to it being flat on the surface!

 
I finished off the card with a couple of co-ordinating buttons stitched in place in the bottom right hand corner.  It's a simple design but the card has come together quite nicely!

Kaszazz - Country Patchwork Card

Today I thought I would share a tweaked Kaszazz Country Patchwork Card that has been sitting around needing completing for a white - you know me . . . I can't just follow the instructions - I've always got to add my own little touches here and there! *grin*

 
All the patchwork pieces have all been lightly inked around the edges and either had rubons applied to them - the two little birds - or have had a swirl stamp stamped in the middle.  Of course I couldn't resist adding a little hand stitching to frame the smaller sections of the patchwork - it's just a plain white backstitch but I think it adds a lovely finishing touch to the overall look!

 
A word greeting rubon was added on the lower left pieces and just two buttons in colours that compliment those used on the card were added near the centre - I tried adding 3 (my favourite number to work with) BUT it just didn't seem to work - I think it's because there are now already 3 groups of the pink/orange combination on the card - the two bird squares and the buttons.  Anyway - I just decided on two buttons and hand stitched them into place.

 
When it came to the assembly of the card, I framed the white background piece onto brown cardstock before then attaching it to my cream square card.  They're just a few subtle changes but I love the end result.

Now . . . onto the next project that needs completing - there seems to be quite a number of them about at the moment and I'm very determined to make some progress on getting them done and out of the way - *grin*

Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Blended Background Card

As promised, here's the second of the cards that feature the Tim Holtz Distress Ink Blended Background that I demonstrated at our last Longford Crafters get together.

 
The background on this card was created in much the same way as the previous card I featured (see Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Blended Backgrounds post from yesterday)  but this time before stamping & embossing the white flower stems, I stamped two different flower stems onto my background with black ink.

 
I then moved onto the the white embossed flower stems before using three Tim Holtz Distress Ink colours horizontally across the card and softly blending them together to create the effect you see here!

 
Black ink was used to define the edges before the background piece was attached to a plain white card.  A Dragon Fly was stamped onto white cardstock and cut out leaving a thin white border before being applied to the card along with a greeting sticker too!  Viola!  Another card to pop away into my stash!

Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Blended Backgrounds

At our last Longford Crafters get together I gave a demonstration on Blended Backgrounds using Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  Here's one of the cards I've finally finished that I used in the demonstration!

 
I started off by firstly stamping the flower heads with Perfect Medium and then embossing them with White Embossing Powder.

It was then just a simple matter of blending the Tim Holtz Distress Inks to create my desired blended background.  Once that was achieved, I then added a little black ink to distress the outside edges before attaching it to a plain white card.

 
The two large butterflies were stamped onto white cardstock and then cut out, leaving just a think border of white showing.  A smaller butterfly was stamped directly onto the background before the other two were attached to the card with a little liquid glue!

 
I actually demonstrated two different backgrounds, the second of which is another greeting card that I'll add the finishing touches to and share next time.

Our Longford Crafters group has decided that they'd like to do more with this blending technique, so we've decided that our next get together will be an Ink Blending Workshop.  What a fun day that one is going to be - Jan has got a great idea in mind!

Scrappit

For those of you who have been customers of Scrappit for a while you might know that I've been on the Scrappit Design Team for quite some time - since January 2003 infact!

Well, today I shared my final post over on the Scrappit Blog and as a member of the Scrappit Design Team . . . you can read the full blog post here!

 

 You can find more details on the techniques I used on this card here!

 
Scrappit has been such a big part of my life for the past 8 years, but with time comes change and as those of you who follow THIS blog know, I obviously haven't had much time to keep things updated around here.  I hope to rectify that in the coming weeks so stay tuned . . .

Shirley