Coffee and Cake

Hi there,

well for a change this card isn’t for a challenge and isn’t a Christmas card. That’s because I actually made this card for my husbands birthday earlier this year. So with out any more ado here it is. Almost closed..

Almost open - up pops the wiper!

And with a hidden extra message panel.


I started out with two premises. Firstly that I knew my hubbie would like something interactive, and secondly that he really likes his coffee. Fortunately not long before I was going to make the card I saw a tutorial Beate Johns had posted about a wiper card. Think of a car windscreen wiper to give you an idea of the motion. It’s a bit hard to show through just taking pictures of a card (watch the video Beate did) how it works but it’s quite fun. For the basic dimensions and how to put one together (very simple) just get the details from Beate’s tutorial. I knew I wanted to use a Chocolate Chip and Riding Hood Red combo for the card, so for the main panel I started with a Chocolate Chip base, then added a layer of Vanilla , then some striped RRH pattern from the Washington Apple DSP. For the first of the two accent panels (only visible when you “open” up the card), I used the same layering but for the second I went Choc Chip, RRH then a layer of different DSP from the Washington Apple DSP. I used this same DSP pattern to underlie the actual pop up wiper, which has a little birthday cake on it. I loved being able to use my new Choc Chip glitter on the ends of the candles! For the main image panel I used the coffee cup from Pun Fun, kindly lent by my good friend and talented crafter Sam. I stamped that twice, once on a Vanilla panel, then again on some scrap Vanilla. I wanted to create a saucer for the cup, so I masked the coffee cup on the panel. Then using some scrap, which had an oval punched out from it I just sponged Choc Chip ink over till I got the colour depth I was after. I trimmed out the second coffee cup after I had coloured in the bottom part of the pattern, using a Ruby Red marker. The Vanilla panel was layered onto RRH and then Choc Chip. I mounted it up on dimensionals carefully placed at the edges, as, since the card doesn’t have an inside as such, I added a little pull out message panel that tucks in under the coffee cup panel. So you can actually pull it out I made a little handle using the Designer Label punch, a jumbo brass eyelet and some ribbon. To balance out the handle I added brass brads and ribbon tabs to the top and bottom corners on the opposite side of the panel.

I’m pleased to say that my DH was very happy with the end result and so was I.

Thanks for visiting.

Kim

Recipe: All SU unless noted otherwise
Stamps: Pun Fun, Party Hearty, Birthday Whimsy (R)
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, Ruby Red marker
Accessories: Washington Apple DSP, Small oval punch, Designer Label punch, Large Brass brads (Bo Bunny), Brass Jumbo Eyelet, Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain ribbon, Chocolate Chip glitter, sponge, dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

Modern Birthday Boy

Hi there,

Its time again for me to post my go at Makeesha’s weekly challenge. This week it was an inspirational challenge, and something a bit different, a sleek modern kitchen. Here’s the pic.

I wanted to make a very clean, simple, sleek card that reflected the colours you can see in the pic. The colours, and the “style” I thought would a suit a birthday card I wanted to make for my little brother, who hits one of those significant birthdays this year. So the colour palette is pretty simple – Chocolate Chip, Whisper White and Silver. Using Chocolate Chip and using some metal hardware also qualifies the card for another challenge – the first Creatalicious Challenge. Here’s the card.

Here's a side view to show you the layers and also a glimpse of the inside.

Using a Verve sketch from April, which had the clean lines that I wanted, I started with a Choc Chip base, layered that with Whisper White. I ran some silver cardstock through the cuttlebug using a brand new folder – Diamond Plate. Perfect for my bro, as he is a builder by trade. I thought it also suited the kitchen pic too, in a trendy designer way. In the practical sense perhaps not – too many lumps and bumps. Then I layered those onto Choc Chip. Finally over the top a panel of Choc Chip, which has a big Chocolate cake (clear embossed to give some shine) and the sentiment adhered to it. Originally I had stamped a Choc Chip cake onto Whisper White then planned to mount the paper toiled cake over the top, but I decided that it looked better mounted straight onto the base Choc Chip layer instead. The finishing touch some brads with Phillips Head screw tops.

I was quite happy with how this turned out and reckon my little brother will like it too.

Thanks for stopping bye – have a good week.

Recipe: All SU unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Birthday Whimsy (R)
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Metallic Silver (not SU)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Versamark
Accessories: Cuttlebug Diamond Plate folder, Phillips Head Brads (Bizzy Becs), Clear Embossing Powder, Heat gun, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, Double sided tape.

The Night Train

Hi there,

Well its time again for Makeesha’s weekly challenge – this week a colour challenge. Here is her colour pick.

And here is my card.

It looked like a nice combo. Since I had a nice little boys set awaiting its first inking (Choo Choo) I went with a boys card. For some reason my concept for this card was a quilted bedspread with the train traveling across it. Then again may’be it’s because I just went to the Craft and Quit Show last week. The card itself is pretty simple, the base is Bashful Blue layered with Pumpkin Pie and Very Vanilla. I used my 1 ¼ inch square punch to get 6 squares each of Certainly Celery DSP and Bashful Blue DSP (from Spring Showers), then laid them out in an alternating grid. I used my white gel pen to faux stitch around the edge of each square. I stamped three of the train sections in Pumpkin Pie on Very Vanilla, cut them out and again went around the edges with my white gel pen. I also rolled out the train tracks and paper toiled a stretch of them out too. The tracks were SNAILed straight onto the “quilt” background while the train carriages and puffs of smoke are all up on dimensionals. To give the card some extra dimension I crimped the end of the Very Vanilla layer, as well as the lower layer of the sentiment banner. Basically Bashful Blue buttons with threads of Pumpkin and Bashful Blue cardstock finish it off. Oh and I also tried to give the train carriages some extra shadowing using inkpad lid ink and an aquapainter before finally adding some crystal effects over the top.

Well wishing you all a good week and a touch of spring like the first daffodils we have in our garden.

Recipe: All SU unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Choo Choo, Birthday Whimsy (R)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery
Ink: Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Crimper, 1 1/4 " square punch, White Gel Pen, Bashful Blue buttons (R), Certainly Celery DSP (R), Spring Showers DSP (R), Crystal effects, SNAIL adhesive, Dimensionals

Three Little Rocketships

Hi there,

I hope everyone has had a nice Easter. My Miss 4 had stacks of fun searching for Easter eggs at a friends place. She kept running around holding up her basket, which was absolutely gorgeous and made by Sam, whose place we were visiting, saying "look at all the eggs I found" with a huge smile on her face.

Now onto my card, I had a bunch of ideas to try with the latest Mojo Monday sketch, but funnily enough what I ended up doing wasn't one of them. It was a last momment - opening of the stamp cupboard inspiration. What I have ended up with a birthday card for a three year old boy. Anyway here is the sketch.

Using some DSP scraps as colour inspiration I decided on Tempting Turquoise as the base and then layered the next two panels in red, one then has a cuttlebug panel layered over it and the other some DSP. The kind of overall theme is dots, stars and rocketships. One point to note is that the chipboard was pressed into my Real Red ink pad a couple of times and once dry then covered with crystal effects. I had my first go with colouring with Copics, which turned out OK I think but I need more practice. Once coloured the rocketships were highlighted with crystal effects on the yellowish windows and nose cone and I used a atyou Spica clear glitter pen to add some subtle sparkle to the blue clouds. Ok here's the card...




Here is a close up of the crystal effects and spica glitter. Even with the close up its hard to see the glitter. But its there - really!

$%*^&%$ Just discovered that I missed the Mr Linky cut off - oh well I hope some of you, my regular(?) viewers enjoy it.

Recipe:
Stamps: Birthday Whimsy, So Many Sayings, Boatloads of Love and a Studio G rocketship stamp
Card Stock: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red
Accessories: Copics(R27, R29, YR23, YR24, B02, B05, B06), Bella chipboard miniz, Paper Mills star brads, Crystal effects, atyou Spica clear glitter pen, Cuttlebug Spots and Dots folder, narrow Real Red grosgrain ribbon, Silver Hodgepode brads, small star punch, East Coast Prep DSP, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

Button Birthday

Hi there,

well as usual late on a Wednesday afternoon with a very clingy Mr1 by my side (any typos are because he keeps trying to grab the keyboard) I am posting my card for Makeesha's latest challenge - in this case it was an inspiration challenge. Here is the inspiration pic.

The whole mugs of soup said Autumn to me. Autumn here in Canberra is full of colour and every where you go at the momment you see the whole spectrum from green, burgandy, red, orange yellow and brown. Its just breath taking sometimes and we are starting to get that lovely chill in the air in the mornings and evenings. So to create Autumn I first stamped some Chocolate Chip card stock with the Weathered background stamp then freehand cut out a tree. (I did use the tree from the US set Branch Out as inspiration). Then I selected a bunch of little buttons in Autumn shades and scattered them across the tree. Thats the nub of it anyway. So here's the card...

The inside was just finished off simplying with a layered strip of Pumpkin card stock and Close to Cocoa DSP.

Recipe:
Stamps: Weathered, Birthday Whimsy
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie
Card Stock: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Accessories: Close to Cocoa DSP, Wide grosgrain Chocolate Chip ribbon, Narrow grospgrain Pumpkin Pie ribbon, Buttons from Earth Elements, Neutrals and Soft Subtle packs, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.

Happy Happy Birthday

Hi there,

well Kristina's colours initially had me stumped in this week's challenge. But I kept turning them over in my head, and eventually decided to try a mostly white background (all white did not work) and have little mixed and matched swatches of this weeks colours and just use black as an accent. First here are Kristina's colour picks for the week.

I went with a square card to balance the shape of the little square swatches and because of the pinks it had to be a girly card, so I wanted to add some extra girly touches - brads, ribbon, rhinestone, scallops. The final point to note is that the sentiment is black embossed (my first time using black !). Overall I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out, not perhaps my normal "style" so not bad for a first go.

Its a bit hard to see but all the panels are stamped with a little flower from Eastern Blooms, I stamped off once before stamping because I didn't want the flowers to dominate but given how light they are perhaps I shouldn't have. Live and learn. I haven't finished off the inside yet as I am only only to make the deadline by the skin of my teeth as it is.

Recipe:
Stamps: Eastern Blooms, Birthday Whimsy
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Regal Rose, Versamark
Cardstock: Ruby Red, Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Regal Rose
Accessories: Berry Bliss DSP, Black Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, Black brad, Circle Fire Rhinestone, Kaiser Pink Flower Rhinestone, Bashful Blue Striped Grosgrain ribbon, Black Gingham ribbon, SNAIL adhesive, Dimensionals, Scallop edge punch, Mat pack and piercing tool.

Blooming Birthday

Hi there,

Sorry it’s been a while but our home and its inhabitants have had the full spectrum of colds and tummy bugs for the last week, thankfully now everyone is mostly on the mend.

So it was a very close run thing as to whether I would make Makeesha’s inspiration challenge this week. Here is Makeesha’s inspiration image.

I came up with the layout idea in the middle of the night as I was cuddling my Mr1 back to sleep, the main elements being the three panels and inter weaved ribbon. As the inspiration photo has dark on light and light on dark panels in the bedding I wanted to reflect that, which is why I went with the white embossed blooms on the Not Quite Navy panels and stamped Not Quite Navy blooms on Whisper White. Basically it’s a fairly simple card, one reason why I had time to make it this week, and since I didn’t have time to fiddle I will say that the embossing is supposed to be patchy like that - really.

Overall I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, although if I’m honest I’m not 100% sure about the happy birthday label.

I just finished the inside off simply like this.

Recipe
Stamps: Eastern Blooms, Birthday Whimsy, Looks Like Spring
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Versamark
Card Stock: Certainly Celery, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
Accessories: White embossing powder, Heat Gun, Wide Certainly Celery Grosgrain ribbon, Blue Bayou striped grosgrain ribbon, Not Quite Navy brads, Scallop Edge punch, Corner rounder, Papercraft dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

Little fish, little fish

Hi there,

well back with my last challenge for this week, although I have been trying to work on the next one today already. But back to this, as I don't have long, as my one year old is already fishing for the computer mouse. Next stop on his agenda will be to pull the computer plug out of the wall -its happened at least twice - arghhhh!

I had another birthday card to make, this time for a two year old boy, who lives up in Townsville in far North Queensland, and that led me to use Fishy Friends, for the layout I am playing along with Makeesha's latest sketch challenge. This is the sketch

I went with Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery and Basic Gray as the colour combo (I've been wanting to try this combo after seeing a gorgeous card by Kate Lewis recently (and I thought the colours worked for a sea/fishy card). This was the result.

I tried to keep a watery feel by using a variety of texture, cuttlebug, white embossed bubble background, some dry embossed bubbles with the cuttlebug (on A2 settling), distressing, twill tape and hemp twine and finally some sparkle on the fishy - cause little boys like a bit of bling too.

Recipe:
Stamps: Fishy Friends, Birthday Whimsy, Straight Up Alphabet and Numbers, Beyond the Basics
Card Stock: Ballet Blue, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery, Watercolour paper
Ink: Basic Gray, Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery (markers), Black Stazon
Accessories: Aquapainter, White embossing powder, Heat Gun, Cropodile, Cuttlebug Distressed Branches folder, Distressing tool, Twill Tape, Hemp Twine, Certainly Celery narrow grosgrain ribbon, Scallop Circle punch, 5-petal flower punch, 1/2 inch circle punch, 2-way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, Certainly Celery DSP, Dimensionals

Turning Four Mojo

Hi there,

sorry about the lack of posts for the last week, but between work, being a Mum and looking after a sick bubba (and the accompanying broken sleep at night) I haven’t had much time or energy. I have had a few cards in the works and this is the first one for the Mojo Monday 75 sketch.


I liked the sketch but definitely found it a challenge to organize and plan all the layers. I decided to use the sketch to make a birthday card for the daughter of an old friend who will be turning four soon. Having learnt already from my daughter that glitter and flowers are especially attractive to four year olds – I knew I had to incorporate both. I dug my Blooming with Happiness set out of the cupboard and using the Petals and Paisley paper as inspiration went forth and created the card below.

In the end I actually decided to make my own paper, stamping Whisper white card stock with Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron and Pretty in Pink, and combined that with the pink P&P DSP. The dress I watercoloured using marker and an aquapainter, once dry, I coated all the pink flowers and bodice in crystal effects and then using the two way glue pen added glitter to all the Turquoise and Saffron flowers. The flowers below the central panel, I clear embossed, added a pink rhinestone to and mounted on a dimensional. This photo shows some of that detail.

Recipe:
Stamps: Blooming with Happiness, Whimsical Numbers, Birthday Whimsy
Card Stock: Whisper White, Pretty In Pink, Tempting Turquoise, Watercolour paper
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Going Gray, Versamark, Black Stazon
Accessories: Scallop edge punch, 1 3/8, 1 ¼ and 1/8 circle punches, Tempting Turquoise and Pretty in Pink narrow grosgrain ribbon, Petal and Paisley DSP, Kaiser Pink Rhinestones, Clear embossing powder, Heat Gun, Dimensionals, Snail adhesive, Aquapainter

Makeesha's Sketch Challenge #4

Hi there,

well after a blog deprived day on Monday (I started a new job and hubby was home looking after the kids) he said it was a "breeze" - but then he didn't have to do any washing or cook dinner when he got home either - hmmmmm.

Anyway Makeesha put up her new sketch challenge on Sunday and I plunged straight in - staying up a bit too late trying to get it finished. I decided to steer away from flowers for a change and turn the sketch on its side and make a birthday card for a boy.

Here's the sketch:

I went straight to my trusty boy colours, Brilliant Blue and Pumpkin Pie, but then decided to lighten it a bit by adding in Bashful Blue as the base, rolled in Brilliant Blue - came up well I reckon. I had fun trying something new - using DSP to paper piece the By Land truck together and I added a little bit of Going Gray in the drivers window to shade it then overlaid it with some acetate. I got to use my new Cropodile to set the eyelets, and dug some blue staples out of my stash to fix the Pumpkin ribbon in place. See what you think....


Card Recipe:
Stamps:By Land, Birthday Whimsy, Rough Texture J.wheel
Card stock: Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Confetti White, Pumpkin Pie
Ink: Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Cutter kit, Cropodile, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie and Bordering Blue eyelets, Pumpkin Pie striped ribbon, Dimensionals, Jersey Shore DSP, Acetate, Going Gray marker, Aquapainter, Tag punch, Reflex blue staples