Bingo Time with the Southern Girls

We've got a really fun challenge this week at Southern Girls Blog. Yes, a bingo board so the challenge is to use a line on the board or you can be real greedy & use all the board but the main thing is to have fun, our sponsor for this week's challenge is Lacy Sunshine & I absolutely love the image I chose to work with & only hope I have done it justice. I will not tell you how long this took me to colour but it was a lot of fun. I used the line : dies, image, bling.

I kind of cheated a tad as I loved the colouring & the image so much I wanted it to shine, so I used a die (from Essentials by Ellen) & some gold glitter paper; so my bling & die is a combined element. I've used my Copics to colour up and added a bit of detail with my pencils & also re-outlined some of the finer deatil with a 0.1 Copic black multiliner.

My image is called Poppy Woodland Enchanted Kingdom Fairy House & is part of the enchanted kingdom digital stamp range by Lacy Sunshine stamps. So I hope you can join us in playing bingo & you could be the lucky winner of a Lacy Sunshine stamp too.

✿ Karen ✿

I am in love with PRILLS!!

I had the opportunity recently to attend a workshop at Krafters Cart where we created this beautiful card. I must admit when Meetu advertised the class I thought that's not my normal style but I'm thrilled I did decide to book in as I loved it ALL!

A lot of the elements were prepared for us but I'll try & recall what we did. We sponged each flower & leaf with a co-ordinating Memento ink. Then the fun started we dry embossed the back of each flower petal with a Tonic embossing stylus tool. I mainly used the one with the biggest ball even on the smaller flowers as it was fastest. The big ball was amazing it really made each petal bend beautifully & the wee mat that comes with the set is deep & spongy so it also really helped a lot. At first I was using an old mouse pad I had taken & I borrowed the 2nd biggest tool of someone as my old ones with tiny balls weren't giving the depth that others were getting. Using my old mouse pad with a Tonic big ball stylus it was working but slow going & not really that deep a pop, so I would personally recommend buying the whole set & getting the Tonic pad as well. The whole set is $35 from Krafters Cart. I do love that about Tonic how reasonable all their products are.

We even dry embossed the leaves a wee bit but just dry embossing down the main central vein.

The flowers in this set are Heartfelt Creations Dogwood Flowers and whats also very cool as I discovered is that the Heartfelt Creation flowers actually stamp out clusters of individual flowers so even though it looks like a lot of flowers it's actually 3 stamps for the flowers and 2 for the leaves so the stamping & die-cutting is not really that onerous. Looking at the cluster above I'm guessing the leaves have been stamped twice to give us the number we were working with.

The flowers were glued down on the mats (Spellbinders) then we added a pool of Art Glitter glue (another new product for me) & added some mini Prills. The colour I used was Lettuce Entertain You! The Art Glitter glue dries clear & it was fabulous to work with.

As my title says I am in love with these, I'm not sure if a stick-on pearl will ever cut the mustard again. I think this little jar which cost me $8 will last me a very long time as a little goes a long way.

Well I discovered lots of great new products to play with & I'm sure some lucky person that receives this card will be pretty blown away about how fabulous it is. Thanks Meetu I had a ball & I'm looking forward to the next crafting day.

✿ Karen ✿

Southern Girls Challenge - Sticky Business

This week we want to see things stuck on your project, i.e. things like washi tape, sequins & enamel dots. I decided to do the latter as I often stick sequins on cards & I personally have never really liked sticking washi tape on cards. This also meant I could use some of those enamel dots sitting in my craft drawers feeling unloved.

 I knew I had the perfect stamp set or in this case purr-fect stamp set I had bought a while ago from  Krafters Cart who once again are sponsoring this week's challenge with ppinky dolls. The stamp set is called Purr-fect friends (My Favorite Things).

I coloured the very cool cat image up with my Copics which made the whole thing really easy. I matched the letters to hopefully match my colouring.

Recipe
Stamp set: Purr-fect friend (MFT)
Ink: Memento Black, Versamark
Card stock: XpressIt blending card stock, white, black, Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight
Copics used: BG10, BG13, BG15, RV25, Y06, YG06, YG25, YR15
Dies: Double stitched rectangle (SSS), Purr-fect friends (MFT), Big Hugs (MFT)
Other: Brights enamel dots (SU! to match the cardstock), dimensionals, white embossing powder

Well I hope you can join us with getting "sticky" and once again thank you to our 2 fabulous sponsors who are offering you the chance to win some free goodies.

Do check out the Southern Girls Challenge site to see what the rest of the fab design team came up with this week.

The fab Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge site has a cool & also easy theme this week to emboss it so I'll enter my card there as well as I've used white EP to make my sentiment pop, though I seriously need to buy some more as my pots are all looking cream!

Wow there's a few sites with crazy colours this week so I'll enter my card with them too
Colour Crazy Challenge - anything goes
Glitter & Sparkle blog - use bright colours - purrfect even if I say myself - incoming pyschaedelic kitty kat coming!

Good luck everyone if you have a go too.
✿ Karen ✿

Mermazing mermaids!!

Not sure what is happening but the crafting world seems to be mermaid crazy at the moment. I ordered from My Favorite Things & Hero Arts their mermaid stamps etc from the May releases & it took nearly 3 weeks to get my package down under & then we headed across the seas ourselves for a wee winter break in Australia so it was nice to have a play today with my goodies.

I ended up combining stuff from both releases. I also learnt that white Signo gel pens don't dry that fast! I had originally drawn scales on my mermaid's tail with my white gel pen but 10 mins later when I went to add some clear Wink of Stella I washed out my scales & made an opaque wash. I actually liked how it all looked, I actually felt it matched the beautiful glimmer paper better as I had toned down the colours a wee bit. But I went over the black lines on the tail with a black sharpie pen as they didn't look good with a white wash!

The mermaid, fish & saying are BB Mermazing from My Favorite Things (MFT). The die cut frame is Hero Art's (HA) Reef Border which was an add-on for their May 2017 My Monthly Hero, the beautiful glimmer paper is from the kit & is just sensational in real life, it was such a shame to only get a 6x6" piece in the monthly kit as it doesn't go very far!! To the best of my knowledge we can't buy it from Hero Arts at this stage.

I've used Copics to colour up the wee mermaid.
Mermaid tail: BG10/13/15, B00/02/05
Pink Hair/Top: RV21/23/25
Green Hair: YG21/25/17
Skin: E50/00 R30
Fish: YR21/15 and YR20/02

I've tried doing the hair dip-dyed which is a technique from my Kit & Clowder hair class & it's also a technique we're using in this month's colouring class, which believe it or not were more mermaids, this time a digi stamp from Conie Fong.

Well expect to see more mermaids from MFT & HA & also my monthly colouring class when it's finished until then have a "flipping" good time crafting!

My favourite shopping place Simon Says Stamp & challenge site has Anything Goes for their Wednesday challenge so I'll enter my wee mermaid card in the challenge as it truly was anything goes!

✿ Karen ✿

Just adorable

Just sharing a card I shared/taught to some gal pals last weekend as I was kind of shocked to find out so many of them have bought MISTIs & didn't know how to use them.  I think it's a really invaluable tool & my number one must have in my craft room.

Well the get together with 2 others became 5 others in the end so I had to think of something we could do simply & easily so I turned to my Adorable Elephant set from My Favorite Things & my trusty ZIG real colour brush markers which make colouring wee images like this so easy.

We also got to play with Cracked Pistachio & Broken China distress oxide ink for the background using MFTs new cloud stencil. Its all pretty self explanatory but so cute. We used aquapainters or clear Wink of Stella for our colouring or another brush marker. The sponged background & the wee images were all coloured on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper.

Recipe:
Stamp set: Adorable Elephants (My Favorite Things)
Ink: Memento Blcak, Cracked Pistaschio DO, Broken China DO, Aig real color brush markers
Paper: Whisper White thick (base card), Bristol Smooth (Strathmore)
Dies: Adorable elephants (MFT), Stitched rectangle (SSS)
Other: Cloud stencil (MFT), aquapainter, clear Wink of Stella, MISTI, dimensionals

I see Simon Says Stamp's Monday challenge is "Little critters" so I'll enter my wee elephant card in the challenge too.

Thanks for popping by.
✿ Karen ✿

It's Time to SPARKLE

It's challenge day at Southern Girls Challenge & we have a fab & fabulous fun challenge this week to add some sparkle to our projects . For those of us living in NZ this is  a great idea as winter gloom is setting in but personally I always like a bit of sparkle on my projects all year!

I used an adorable digi-stamp by one of our sponsors Polkadoodles called Horace & Boo Party Friends which I just adore!!! If you wanted to buy your own digi-stamp - wait for it it's only a couple of pounds to buy & download is instant (click HERE if you do), but if you're like me & you can't decide which Horace & Boo you want to colour, you can look in their shop & buy the whole collection i.e. the Big Kahuna for a fraction more which contains more cute images to colour, digital papers, embellishments & so much more.

Now trying to photo the card to show the sparkle at this time of the year was harder than colouring it up with my Copics was but hopefully my 2 best-est snaps can show the sparkle from the glimmer paper (CTMH Green pack) & the Wink of Stella on the balloons & present ribbon. I really enjoyed colouring these 2 rascals up & can't wait to use another digi-stamp from the collection.

Copic markers I used.
Boo (the cat) : W1, W3, W5, R20
Horace (the dog) : E53, E55, E57, E59, R20, N1, N7, N9, 100
Green balloon/ribbon : YG21, YG25, YG17
Blue balloon/present : B02, B04, B06
Scarf/Cat collar : R32, R35, R46
Envelope : YR20, YR21, YR 31
I also used my colourless blender (0), Copic black multiliner 03 & a Sakura black gel pen for their eyes.

I printed my image out at 25% gray-scale with the help of  a fab resource on working with digital stamps by Some Odd Girl which is free to download, they also have some other cool tutorials on their blog. Their free e-book can be located HERE.

As always anything goes  as long as it has sparkle this week. Our fab sponsors this week are Polkadoodles & Krafters Cart so two players will be chosen by a RNG to win. So what have you got to lose!

Thanks for popping in & hope you can make the time to play along with us this week.
✿ Karen ✿

Lesley's Polaroid Card for Mother's Day

Hi everyone Mother's day is looming fast & I decided this year for Pete's mum we'd give her this fabulous "Polaroid" card that Lesley Stewart designed & taught to me at an Extravaganza with Sally Williams. It's one of those cards that is so fabulous that it can can only go to a special person.

I'm guessing Lesley called it a Polaroid card as we're looking through a window. As Lesley & Sally are both SU! demonstrators all products used on the card are Stampin' Up!

Recipe:
Stamp sets: Flower Ship, Petite Petals, Dictionary, Gorgeous Grunge, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Ink: Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Paper: Naturals White, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, Gold Foil
Punches: Pansy, Petite Petals, Itty Bitty Butterfly, Bird Builder
Other: Square framelits, gold metallic baker's twine, dimensional, basic pearls, acetate

The Polaroid frame was made with a piece of Natural White card stock measuring 10 x 8 cm & the 2" square framelit was cut from the top of this mat to leave approx. a 1.5 cm border on the "top" 3 sides. The gold foil was 6.5 x 6.5 cm square and again the 2" square framelit cut out the middle of the gold foil. The Dictionary stamp was stamped on a square 6.5 cm of Naturals White with Crumb Cake ink.

A lot of the products used in this card are retired from SU! now but I'm sure we all have something similar in our craft rooms. I certainly think having the flowers on the lovely Polaroid window really adds a touch of WOW so thanks Lesley for such a fab design I'm sure Pete's mum will love it!

So a Happy Mother's day to all our mums - I know I'll be thinking about my mum, this will be the 5th Mother's Day without her.

✿ Karen ✿

Copics 301 : Continuing to learn with online colouring classes

Hi everyone I must admit I haven't been making too many cards lately apart from my DT work with the Southern Girls. Though my card stash to go is a little low so I'll have to get creating again soon & restock up.

Lately I have still been enjoying learning to Copic colour & I think I have my "happy place" with the online monthly classes that Alyce from Kit & Clowder releases on the 15th of each month. The monthly class is $20AUD (Australian $) & comes with a step by step booklet you can print out plus a video of Alyce colouring the same image in which is ~2 hours long.

Last month's class came with the image below plus 5 others birds, yes 5 more so truly was phenomenal value. Most classes we still need to buy the digital image from the person/company which is normally 1/2 price so a few $ more. Either way it is truly phenomenal value. For myself the Aussie dollar is just a few dollars more when I convert to NZD but for the majority of the world it's probably half to a third less.

Alyce is the best teacher I have found with my online classes (I have done 2 others) so a limited sample but if you read my Copic 201 you can see who the others were. I have enjoyed all my classes & learnt HEAPS & I would/will continue to do classes with all of them if they have something I want to do/learn.

Anyhow as this is "My INKredible Journey" here's my very first online monthly class I did with Kit & Clowder which was the March class for markers (yes she has classes for you coloured pencil queens too which are similar but different).

I still can not believe I coloured that all up, it is 5" x 7" so we can frame up or make a very big card. I learnt so much about colouring leaves & flowers let alone making feathers for my bird.

I finished this with about 10 days to go to till the next class release and I couldn't wait that long so I actually bought another online class from the Kit & Clowder website which cost me $10AUD, which used an image from Ppinky Dolls called "Working with Animals" which I believe was created for Alyce's class.

Isn't this just adorable! I can not believe my colouring for the hair (or the cat's fur) I finally can do wee strokes not blends for hair. Even though I am still working my way through the original Hair & Skin class I signed up for with Kit & Clowder I know what I have already done has helped me heaps. The official skin & hair class has a 99-pages handout plus an awful lot of images to colour up. So knowing the basics plus I was able to follow along with the instructions, video for this class much more easily.

Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be back with April's class image which I will start on this weekend, we have a delightful wee girl this month to colour up. So I know I'm going to learn about colouring folds in clothing I can see which makes me happy.

Anyhow if you haven't checked out the Kit & Clowder website you should as well as the monthly classes, Alyce has a FREE 101 class which is phenomenal to do, plus a lot of classes like skin & hair, working with animals, colouring clothing, colouring flowers etc. If you do decide to join up to a class can you mention my name (Karen Rogers) in the sign up process, I'd really appreciate that.

Also we have a Facebook group where all sorts of craziness goes on apart from fab inspirational colouring, there are free digital stamps, colouring comps, bingo, chat about books & TV shows plus it really is a very happy supportive place.

And in case you missed them my Copics 101 post HERE and Copics 201 HERE

✿ Karen ✿

Southern Girls Challenge - About A Boy

Sounds like a great title for a movie but we have another relatively easy challenge this week with anything really goes as along as it's all about a boy!

It's great to have a few masculine cards in our stash so I was really exited about this challenge & the lovely digital image I was given to play with from Sasayaki Glitter Shy Flies a Kite which was lovely to colour up with my Copic markers.

 I used my puffy cloud border dies from Lawn Fawn to die-cut out some clouds with some old DSP I had in my stash.

Copic markers used:
Face: E000, E00, E21, R20
Hair: E43, E44, E47
Cap: B02, B04, B06, Y15, Y19
White shirt: C0, C1, C3
Trousers, bows on kite tail: R32, R36, R46
Shoes: E71, E74, E77, E79
Kite: BG10, BG11, BG13, BG49
Chick: Y11, Y15, Y19, YR21, YR23

Thanks so much to our sponsor...

I hope you can join us this week, as always just by entering you have a chance to win a prize from our sponsor & do check out the Southern Girls Challenge blog as there's some fab cards been created using this digital image.

I'm really enjoying using digital stamps as they are really cheap to buy, they take up no room in my craft room & they always give a perfect impression when you print them out. I do print them out on XpressIt blending card stock when I want to use my Copics & I use the grayscale setting.

✿ Karen ✿

Southern Girls Challenge - is this an easy challenge or not - just use a die cut

Hello, its time for another challenge with the Southern Girls. And it's a real easy one you just use need to use a die cut on your card.

I also managed to squeeze in my first play with some Distress Oxide inks (see the balloons) but I only had 3 colours to work with as they had sold out of the pretty colours.

Even so if you look especially at the blown up pink balloon you can see we have some reaction/oxidation going on!

This card evolved from the original concept in my mind as I wanted to use my very newly purchased Distress Oxide inks to make the background but they were too strong a colour. So I went back to my original Distress inks to make the background.

Below is my very first play on a scrap piece of watercolour paper. I smooched the ink pads onto an old plastic bag which was sitting in my rubbish bin then spritzed with water; then smooched & scrunched each colour onto the watercolour paper, drying each colour with my heat gun. You certainly could layer up more colour. I stamped the balloons  with Versafine black ink & then clear embossed.  You can also see the whoopsie if your water colour paper is not completely dry below you get a puddle of clear embossed powder ☹

But back to the challenge & not the wonders of Distress Oxide one of our fab sponsors is Krafters Cart which is a new addition to the NZ market. I discovered them at SENZ 2016 & was delighted that a local company was bringing in the brands I love such as Altenew, My Favorite Things, Avery Elle, Gerda Steiner & Whimsy Designs to name just a few. I've personally done bigger orders to the States in the past to justify the shipping costs which always seem horrific. Now I don't have to worry about that so I can budget my shopping more carefully, just getting one or two items at a time especially as Meetu from Krafters Cart often has free shipping on stamps & dies.

I think the rest of the card is pretty self explanatory so the full recipe is below starting off with the DIE CUTS instead of the stamps as we're all about the die cut this challenge. To be honest I often won't buy a stamp set if it doesn't have a die as I don't enjoy fussy cutting.

Recipe:
Dies (all MFT): BB Adorable Elephants, Wonky Stitched Rectangles, Stitched Sentiment Strips
Stamp set: BB Adorable Elephants (MFT)
Paper: Watercolour, Soft Sky (SU!), Sunkissed DSP (Prima - very OLD)
Distress Inks: Twisted Citron, Dried Marigold, Tumbled Glass
Distress Oxides: Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, Iced Spruce
Zig Real Colour brushes: Pale pink, green gray, light grey
Other: Watercolour brushes, Versafine Black ink, clear embossing powder, dimensionals, MISTI, various sequins (also bought at SENZ 2016), heat gun.

So I hope you can join in on the just use a die-cut challenge (see the SG Challenge site for the rules, which are very minimal) and as always we have TWO amazing sponsors for this challenge, so there's goodies to be won too. Winners are drawn randomly, so nothing to lose.

Our awesome sponsors for this challenge are....

❀ Karen ❀

It's starting to feel like autumn is rapidly approaching

So I'd bettter share this very cool shaker card using Cool Treats stamp set which I made awhile back at a class at Debbie Lamb's.

It uses the Cool Treats stamp set, Tasty Treats DSP and Sprinkle embellishments all which can be found in the latest Stampin' Up! Occasion catalogue. The stamp set also has a matching die for easy popping out all the treats & wow there are a lot in the set (looks like 7 to me).

In my opinion one of the coolest things SU! released  with it's last annual catalogue was long foam adhesive strips which make the making of shaker cards a real doddle. In a pack you get 40 strips plus 4 long sides so really 44 strips which measure 3.2 mm x 22.9 cm. I've also found they're really good when attaching something on a box etc. If anyone is interested in ordering they are $17 which works out about 39c a strip (kiwi prices). I noticed recently Jennifer Macguire is also using them now. And anyone that follows Jennifer knows she is always on to the latest & greatest in the stamping world.

I really like the mix in the sprinkle embellishments having round & square sequins and wee pearls. It is perfect for a shaker card.

Well I hope we get a wee bit more sun and a few more ice creams but if not the images in this set should make us reminiscent.

✿ Karen ✿

Wedding Bells are ringing

Well it's been a week since Cassie & Jake got married at the beautiful Boathouse at Lake Karapiro, the wedding has been 18 months in the making & gosh weren't we lucky the event was last weekend & not this weekend when an awful lot of New Zealand is flooded. In a lot of places we're getting our monthly average of rain in a day or in some places more than double. But last weekend the sun shone & we had a fabulous time celebrating this special day.

I was really fortunate that I had the perfect card sitting in my card stash for the day. I made this card at one of Sally Williams' card classes and at the time I went ohhh this is just stunning, I'm saving it for Cassie's wedding day.

All products are Stampin' Up! & we used the Floral Phrases stamp set & detailed Floral thinlit dies.

Thanks Sally for such a fab card.

✿ Karen ✿

It's nature time at Southern Girls Challenge

Today's challenge is all about nature.  Remember we are not just a card blog, we love to see scrapbook layouts, art journal pages and all types of papercraft.

The rules are pretty simple so do click HERE or on the LHS of my blog to take you to the challenge site & check out all the design team's cards  with some element of NATURE included and even if I say so myself we really have excelled this time. We also have a scrapbook page by the talented Kelly. Now how easy is this week's challenge.

Two people have the chance to win by just entering & by luck with the random.org generator a prize from our fabulous sponsors plus there's also the challenge favourite top 5 picks badge to earn.

I was extremely lucky that I was sent by Meetu from Krafters Cart the really cute Fall Mice stamp set by Gerda Steiner Designs to use for this challenge. I fell in love with GSD stamps when I saw them on the Krafters Cart site before Christmas & made some really cute tags with the Peeking Friends stamp set which I blogged about HERE.  These wee mice were so much fun to colour up & as well as pumpkins & gourds they had all sort of other goodies that could be "barrowed" about. I must admit the wee barrow caused me quite a lot of consternation as my first go at creating my scene was stamping barrow, masking barrow, stamp 1st set of pumpkins, then mask them then stamp more pumpkins & then the gourds. That didn't work when I removed the masks the veggies were all sitting behind the back handle. OK 2nd go I masked barrow & left the back handle unmasked, that also didn't work as the veggies had the line from the 2nd handle. 3rd go I stamped the veggies all by themselves then using my craft knife I slit the barrow & inserted them. I hate to think the only way it could really work would be to cut off the back handle, but 3rd time worked perfectly for what I wanted.

Recipe:
Stamp set: Fall Mice (Gerda Steiner Designs)
Paper: Natural White (SU!), Gumball Green (SU!), Tip Top Taupe (SU!), Xpress-IT blending card
Ink: Memento Black, Versafine Black Onyx
Other: Birch trees die (MFT), Landscape borders die (WPlus 9), Clear embossing powder, dimensionals, masking paper, black Memento marker (I ran the marker around the edges once I had cut everything out), sharp scissors!
Copic Markers Used:
Mice: W00, W1, W3, W5, W6, R20
Pumpkins: YR31, Y17, Y38, YR18
Gourds: YG67, G17, G28
Barrow: E33, E35, E29

Our awesome sponsors for this challenge are....

Polkadoodles

Krafters Cart

Many thanks to Polkadoodles & Krafters Cart for providing images for our design team to use on their projects.

I am so looking forward to seeing what fab cards are submitted this time by you all. 

✿ Karen ✿

Happy Valentine's day

Pete is a lucky chap or will be when he gets home as I must have been a stroppy class attendee lately demanding this time to make the planned Thinking of You card & matching box into a Valentine's card at a recent class I attended with Sally Williams. It wasn't too much of a demand as the stamp set I needed was on the table I just needed a block to mount it on to make my tag say hugs & kisses instead of thinking of you!

 You can see Sally's card & box & the recipe HERE & the saying & wee hearts I've used come from Sealed with Love stampset (Stampin' Up!).

I really like this colour combination of Sweet Sugarplum & Mint Macaron, it's the same colour combo from my last blog post.

Talking of Sealed with a Kiss stamp set, when I attended a class at Debbie Lamb's we got to make this wee treat for a loved one using the stamp set & the Love Note framelits dies. it was one Jaffa for the bag, one for my tum!

The wee envelope is so cute I almost don't want to give it away. Well I hope Pete enjoys his treats & you all have a fab V-day!


✿ Karen ✿

Wedding wishes - cute as a bird

Happy weekend everyone, it's a gloriously sunny day in the Waikato today which is just as well as we're off to a wedding this afternoon. I must admit I had a few ideas in my head for the wedding card but when I saw what my friend & Stampin' Up! demonstrator Debbie Lamb had planned for her last card class I thought it was perfect & transformed the "birthday card" she had planned for us into a wedding card.

Recipe (all products Stampin' Up!):
Stamp Sets: Builder Birdcage, Marry Me, Avant Garden (SAB)
Ink: Stazon black, Mint Macaron, Sweet Sugarplum
Paper: Mint Macaron, Basic Black, Whisper White
Other: Falling Petals Textured Impressions EF, Mint Macaron sheer linen ribbon, basic rhinestones, dimensional.

I love the new embossing folder falling petals but have to say they're very weird petals!! They look like wee hearts to me which is just perfect for my wedding card.

I hope everyone has a fab weekend, I plan to do some more of one of the online classes I've paid for with my Copic markers. That's one of the fab things about colouring I only need the image & the markers to play with. It's nice being away from home as I don't have to worry about housework that needs to be done on my days off.

Thanks for popping in.
✿ Karen ✿

The love affair with Beautiful You continues for me

I'm still trying to work out how I have so many birthdays in the next 10 days. I'm not sure what was going on in NZ many years ago about 9 months ago but I know it's mid-winter, so maybe I should say no more. I'll blame the stars as Arians get on really well with Aquarians! But enough digressing this is a card making blog!!!

Below is a quick collage of the cards I've created using up retired DSP from SU! which is just lying in a drawer. I think the DSP umbrellas are just too adorable and of course the beautiful girl stamp.

The DSP I used came in packs, so after I had die-cut out a mat there was more than enough to stamp the umbrella again & then fussy cut it out. I have used my Zig Real Color water brushes to colour the girl up.

I had bought myself a pad of Strathmore Bristol smooth surface card stock as quite a few bloggers had commented that this was their favourite paper for using with the Zig brushes. I'm not sure how you all colour with the Zig brushes but normally I lay down a bit of colour & then use my aquapainter to blend - whoa that don't work on this paper, as it seemed to be impervious to water & I had big puddles sitting on top which were  all mopped up real fast with one of my dry baby wipes that I have handy. Saying that once I knew I couldn't use water the markers blend well with each other  & also with the clear Wink of Stella brush. The end result is a much more vibrant look than my norm with the Zigs and water.

I used my Misti & a scrap of paper to work out the placement of the girl & words as the stamp set is a rubber stamp set. Once I was happy I stamped up 8 images real fast. I used Versafine black ink & then clear embossed as my original plan was to use water for blending.

Once I had my stamped image I used the 2nd largest stitched rectangle die to cut out the girl & saying. I used the largest stitched rectangle die for the DSP.

My favourite umbrella is the wee butterfly one, I decided the paper which is adorable was too dark which is why I made a mat out of Calypso Coral.

I only have the 36 set of the Zig real colour brushes so I chose colours I thought worked best with the DSP, it's not a perfect match but they are so easy to colour with making mass production a breeze.

Here's the cards all by themselves to see them a wee bit better.

My favourite umbrella, the small butterfly image is just perfect!

Who would ever think that this DSP which I have always gulped at before would look so lovely as a mat & also on the umbrella.

There's 3 delightful girl images in this set, so looking forward to creating some cards with the 2 other girl images real soon.

Recipe:
Stamp set: Beautiful You (SU!)
Ink: Versafine Black
Paper: Bristol Smooth (Strathmore), Fresh Prints (SU!), Pretty Petals (SU!), White (SSS), Calypso Coral (SU!)
ZIG brushes: Pale pink, light carmine, carmine red, mid green, olive green, persian blue, blue, flesh colour, oatmeal, blue gray
Other: Clear embossing powder, clear Wink of Stella brush, dimensionals, stitched rectangle dies (SSS)

I've used SSS white card stock which is a lovely heavy weight card & is sized appropriately for the rectangle dies. It doesn't matter who's die you use they all "American-sized" as that is the biggest market & yes I could cut my A4 card stock into 11" long by 4-¼" wide but it's easier to just take a piece of 11" x 8-½" card stock & chop in half. Even when making mats without a die it's easier to work in inches in my opinion but that maybe my age showing.

So happy birthday Debbie, Donna, Faye, Sally, Jo & Tracey I hope you all had a very lovely day when it was your day.


Karen ✿

Party like a rock star

I just love this saying & when my best friend's hubby turned 50  & the theme for his party was to wear glasses I decided I was going to use Stampin' Up!'s Marquee Messages for the card, as when I bought the stamp set I bought it to make masculine cards & I hate making masculine cards (don't we all) but this was a great set to whip up a card but I did a bit of fussy cutting & popped some of the images up with dimensionals.

I can't believe it I didn't take a picture inside the card but it used the saying from the set "Party Like a Rock Star" and a few stamped images of sunglasses from the Day At The Beach stamp set (also SU!)

I must admit I made the card not that masculine but thought it had to be sparkly as a BIG 50 party & it's not every day you turn 50

All supplies are SU! apart from the glitter paper which is American Crafts which is called Powder but it matches the Soft Sky card stock really nicely.

I really like to dress up so decided we'd go a bit silly with our sun glasses. I found these fab daisy sunglasses at Look Sharp & if you're going to wear silly sunglasses you might as well find a matching costume to go with the glasses & I loved my boho hippy gal outfit & then I had a yellow wig in my dress up box at home. So not sure if I looked like a rock star but I partied like I was one. Happy big 50 Paul! I had a blast & hope you did too.

Well I have 6 birthdays in one week so I am into mass production of birthday cards at the moment which are all using the same design but different DSPs. Times like this I just want to hug my MISTI! So will be back to share them later in the week.

Thanks for popping in.
✿ Karen ✿