Breezy Birthday and Sleigh Time

Hi there,

time again for Makeesha challenge this week a sketch. Here it is:

I liked the sketch as soon as I saw it , but for some reason struggled to come up with an idea. Late Sunday, like 10:30 Pm (this is really late for me) I was still browsing through my stamp file (this was a fantastic idea I picked up several years ago from Tracey Harp, basically when you get a new set, you photocopy the label stickers before you mount them on the stamps and you put that set image in a little folder. That way you can always see everything you have just by flicking through the folder). Ok back to the cards, anyway thankfully courtesy of inspiration from flicking through my stamp file and just plain lots of mulling on it I did some up with some ideas. In the end I couldn't help myself I had to make two if them.

The first one "Breezy Birthday" is intended for my Dad for his birthday (today - its going to be a little late). Here is it.

A close up of the dragonfly

I used the Parisian Breeze DSP as inspiration for the colours. I did the image panel first - stamping the tips of the grass from Inspired by nature across the panel. I decided to wanted to have a dragonfly up on the top LHS as per sketch. So I dug out my Winged Things set (retired) and I wanted it to be sort of translucent. So first I stamped it in Brown Satzon on acetate. Then I tried colouring in his wings with Copics - but it was just too faint. I then stamped a second dragonfly on vellum, and coloured the vellum in with two copics (BG13 and BG18), cut out the wings from the vellum, and adhered them to the acetate dragonfly (also trimmed out). Now I got the effect I wanted - his wings were a lovely bluey colour but still translucent. To finish it off I added a silver brad through the head and stuck it on the the grass panel with two glue dots. The sentiment (from Upsy Daisy) was added at the bottom, accented with a little Baja circle. Below the image panel I added a strip of Kraft taffeta that had been knotted three times - it was that or hemp and I decided to go with this in the end. The broad stripes from the Parisian Breeze DSP seemed to complement the image so that what I went for as the main matte on the card. The inside is just finished off very simply with a bit more of the DSP.

Now for card two - this time a christmas card. I realised in the process of thinking this one up that all my Christmas sets are retired bar Tree Trimmings - sorry about that but retired sets are part of my stash and so far have stayed with me.

Obviously a red and white theme, (real red and Whisper White) I think my initial thought was that I wanted to white emboss the sleigh onto red, so all the layering worked out from there. The white main layer is stamped with stars also from the same set. The embossed central panel was set off with the holiday sentiment from Rivetting (also retired but so very useful) at the top and with a Button Latte button threaded with red embroidery cotton and backed by a little looped white grosgrain ribbon. I added the scalloped border at the bottom to represent the element Keesh had at the bottom of the sketch.

Hope you liked them and thanks for visiting.

Kim

I am running really late with getting dinner ready so I am going to have to leave this without adding the recipes, any questions please just ask.

H.M.A.S Welcome Baby

Hi there,

At first when I saw Kristina’s Werner’s latest colour challenge I wasn’t entirely sure how the colours would all go together but when I got all my card stock scraps out to start this card, I realized they make a great combination. As a colleague at work and his wife had just had a baby boy, and the inspiration photo was baby bibs I decided to stick with the theme and make a baby card. The colours are so bright and cheerful and came together to make, I hope, a fun card, celebrating the arrival of a new little boy. Here are the colours for this week.

Like my last Mojo card (scroll down to my last post) I made the background paper myself using Seeing Spots and Rivetting and the striped ribbon to echo the patterns on the baby bibs. I watercoloured the image with markers, ink pads and aquapainter. To make the ocean I used a small strip of cuttlebug, cut it to match the waves and sponged the top with white craft ink.

To finish the card I might use my Black Glaze pen to write in the babies name on the bow of the boat - but before I do that I want to check the spelling - it wouldn't be a good idea to get it wrong !

Recipe:
Stamps: Boatloads of Love, Short and Sweet, Seeing Spots, Rivetting
Card Stock: Brocade Blue, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, watercolour paper
Ink: Brocade Blue, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, White craft, Black stazon
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie striped grosgrain ribbon, Brocade Blue eyelets, Cuttlebug Distressed Branches folder, Large Oval and Word Window punches, Dimensionals, Snail adhesive, Aquapainter

Summer time

Hi there,

this week Makeesha has an inspiration challenge - the idea being to use the theme and colours in the photo to inspire your card. The photo, to me, just said summer days, and the colours were such typical Aussie summer colours, bright and bleached by the sun at the same time. Since I liked the Mojo Monday 73 sketch so much this week I decided to use that again. Just click the MM73 link to see the sketch or scroll down to my previous blog entry. Anyway here is the inspiration pic.



I just got the Spring Break papers last week and when I looked through the pack there was this lovely flowery Hawaii shirt pattern in Soft Sky, that just said summer, beach, surf board to me. So thats what happened.



I used the ute from Loads of Love and drew a freehand surf board to go in the back, then cut that out from some So Saffron DSP and sponged and coloured some of it in with Rose Red. The colour palette ended up being Whisper white, Taken with Teal, Soft Sky, So Saffron with a few touches of Rose Red. Since the theme was summer I thought the Happy Holidays from Rivetting was a good match. I can just imagine driving off in that ute - OK may'be 10 years ago. These days the back would be full of travel cots and nappies not surf boards. Some crystal effects, assorted brads and ribbon - I love that Teal velvety ribbon - its so lucious to touch (sadly retired though) finish it off.


The inside is finished off simply with some stamped flowers that match the DSP (from Polka Dots and Petals and Eastern Blooms). Sorry the photos are a bit dull - still overcast here.

Recipe:
Stamps: Loads of love, Rivetting, Polka Dots and Petals, Eastern Blooms
Card Stock: Taken with Teal, So Saffron, Soft Sky, Whisper White
Ink: Taken with Teal, So Saffron, Rose Red, Soft Sky
Accessories: Crystal effects (on surf board, car windows and soft sky circle under rhinestone), Dimensionals, Snail adhesive, So Saffron brads, Ice Rhinestone, Teal ribbon from Flirty pack, Apricot Appeal narrow grosgrain ribbon - but this so looks like So Saffron, Soft Sky double stitched ribbon, 1 3/8 , 1 1/4 and 1/4 circle punches, Spiral punch, So Saffron DSP, clear Sakura glaze pen to outline the little cut out flowers.