Monday 14 July 2014

Tagged Teacher Thank You


A super quick card for Simon's class teacher.  The background had already been stamped with WMS Cabin Plaid Backgrounder.  I usually do a couple of these large background stamps in a sitting as they always come in handy.  The tags and grommet were cut with the largest of the WMS Stitched Tag set. One was embossed with numbers and the other with letters using the M-Bossabilities Numbers and Letters embossing folder.  The background had been stamped with Adirondack Peach Bellini and I used it to highlight the embossing on the tags as well.

Once again I was inspired by Seize the Sketch #24,



Thanks for stopping by,

Kate




Just a Pink Note


Another musically themed card for the end of school year, using the Mojo Monday 353 sketch 


Thanks for stopping by,
Kate

Sunday 13 July 2014

Tweet Thank You Starting from Scrap




I still seem to be on a crusade to use up unfinished bits and bobs.  The background was created ages ago while experimenting with various distress ink techniques - in this case Peeled Paint and Broken China.   I think I used scrunched up paper towels to remove some of the colour after the inks had been blended.

I also found a sheet of green card on which I had stamped the musical score from de Stempelwinkel, and I used it to cut this wee Meadow Bird from Memory Box and the Honeycomb cells from Clearly Besotted.

The tag and grommet were cut using the WMS Stitched Tags  die set, and was stamped with one of the sentiments from WMS Country Labels 4.  I finished it off by adding a little Karen Foster Scrapper's Floss bow.

As you can see inspiration came from Retro Sketches #122

Thanks for stopping by
Kate

Friday 11 July 2014

Late Note for the Teacher



 I made this Belated Birthday Card for my friend Michaela who just happens to be a teacher, so I thought I'd go with a notebook theme on this card.  I have also used DPs featuring travel paraphernalia as she loves to travel and a map of Italy as this is definitely one of her favourite destinations.

I put an order into Clearly Besotted on Tuesday afternoon and it arrived yesterday (Thursday) - that's what I call service.  Among the items I ordered was this lovely notebook edge die and this notebook page stamp.  I teamed it with this Just a Note sentiment from the WMS Funky Feathers set.

Inspiration for the layout came from Seize the Sketch #24.


I am also entering this in the current Make My Monday challenge to use Mail Art, as one of my DPs has a telegram on it !


Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend,
Kate


Thursday 10 July 2014

Mojo From the Scrap Heap




Another last minute card for one of Simon's therapists.  The last few days I have been going over my boxes of scraps and elements in an attempt to get some order into them.  Not only did it help my flagging mojo but I was able to knock up 2 cards quickly yesterday afternoon (no time for photos) and this one today. For this card today I just had to stamp the sentiment and label from WMS Country Labels 4 and die cut with Spellbinder Labels 4.

The sketch I used was from Mojo Monday 353.  I just searched for some suitable scraps large enough for the various elements in this sketch and put them all together.


Thanks for stopping by,
Kate



Wednesday 9 July 2014

Sketchy thanks for the Music


A last minute card for Simon's trumpet teacher to thank him for all his hard work and understanding this past year.  

Seeing as how my Mojo has deserted me, I have relied heavily on inspiration from some of my favourite Blog Challenges.  Color Throwdown 300 and Freshly Made Sketches 143 were my saviours today !!!


Thanks for stopping by,
Kate

Tweet Farewell


Simon finished  music solfège classes yesterday and I made this card for his teacher who has had him for 4 years now.  She has always been so patient with him, understanding the difficulties that he faces  and also recognising the love and gift for music that he has.

The MFT Homespun Bird House elements were cut from scraps of card which had been stamped with WMS Cabin Plaid backgrounder, WMS Gingham and Co.WMS My IslandGreen Room Design Heirloom Patterns (also from Waltzing Mouse) and de Stempelwinkel musical score.

The sign was computer generated and I stamped a little frame around it and fussy cut it out.

The current sketch at  Fusion Card Challenge (I've rotated it 180°) gave me the idea to use the bird house with its A-line roof as an "Ecole de Musique" with Simon's "teacher" sitting on the roof seeing him off.



I am also entering this in the current Waltzing Mouse Fanatics Challenge


Thanks for stopping by,
Kate

Tuesday 8 July 2014

More than Words


An end of school year card for Simon's Speech Therapist, to thank her for all that she does for him and has done for him throughout the years.
The largest WMS Stitched Tag was embossed with the M-Bossabilities Numbers and Letters, and distressed with Black Soot DI.  The sentiment is from WMS Country Labels 4, stamped with Memento London Fog.
Thanks for stopping by,
Kate

Monday 7 July 2014

Creative Blog Hopping

Last week my good friend Jaine asked me to join in a Creative Blog Hop.  I was warmed (and slightly humbled) by her glowing account of my work.  I only hope I don't disappoint.
My blogging is somewhat sporadic at the best of times, but as I'm just back from a quick trip to Australia where my mother has virtually no internet access and having left my husband in charge of the house and children, I had a bit of housework to catch up on when I returned.  
Anyway I am slowly returning to normal, and as Monday has arrived, it's my turn to answer a few questions about myself and my work.

1.  What am I currently working on?

I've just finished a project to make thank you cards for my son's communion last May.  I know I'm late but fortunately I have very understanding friends.  It's more of a keepsake than a thank you.  Naturally I thanked all my friends on the day for their contributions to the ceremony and party afterwards, and Simon thanked everyone for their generous gifts.
I enjoy big projects - it gives me a chance to combine my organisational skills from my computer analyst days with my creative side. 
Here are the cards/keepsakes.




I had planned to use the Spellbinders Die-Lite Window 3 - a very elegant gothic church style window.  In fact this die was partially responsible for the idea for this design.  However it was pretty obvious that I was not going to be able to make a large number of cuts with these 2 dies as they are a bit temperamental.  By the time I has realised this I was too far along the design path and so I looked to the Silhouette site and found a suitable shape I could work with, changed it up a bit using the Silhouette Designer software and cut the card fronts, the toppers and the frames with my Cameo.  The sentiment (and the other inspirational factor behind the idea for the card) was from WMS Light of the World.  I loved the idea of Simon's "light" shining through the window of the card front.
Here's the inside


Special cards for a really special little boy.  Jaine mentioned that he is partially disabled, but anyone who knows Simon knows that he spreads sunshine and happiness wherever he goes.  It is a joy to have been given the privilege of looking after this wonderful little person.

2.  How does my work differ from others in my genre?
I think many of my cards are more about an idea rather than a work of art.  I was always a failure in art classes at school, not being able to draw for peanuts (I don't even like my handwriting).  However when I discovered stamping (about 18 years ago) all of my creative energy just bubbled to the surface.  
Not long into my card making journey, I became fascinated by quirky cards such as shaker cards and I used to pore over my children's pop up story books to get ideas for pop up cards and reveal cards.  More recent experiments include double sliderswaterfall cards and swing cards.
This penny spinner was my own invention as I felt the butterfly should  spin around the circle not just go back and forth.   I have seen other more recent circular spinner cards, but when I made this one and it's predecessors I came up with the idea myself.


This swing-out geared card where turning the gear revels the end of the sentiment "2 turn 60 is time to celebrate" was another card I "engineered",


as was this growing sunflower 


I also must confess to having a corny sense of humour as with this Zoo card I made for one of Simon's friends, where the inside of the card (supposedly being from the inside of the lion's mouth) reads - Pleased to Eat You.







I also like to include song lyrics into my cards such as this Hello Dolly card (but then I am one of those annoying people who are known to constantly find and sing song lyrics in everyday conversation).


  

3.  Why do I create/write about what I do?
I think everyone needs a creative outlet.  Life seems a little brighter when I can look back and say oh wow "I made that" (it's even better if you look at something you made a few years ago and can still say that).  What I like most about card making is that I get to create something beautiful (hopefully) for people I care about.  Cards are not big things - they take up very little space, but they are made with love and I like to think of that love sitting in someone's bottom drawer and being taken out and aired every now and then. 
My friends Jaine and Lena were responsible for me creating a blog.  Initially it was only for my benefit - a way of remembering my design processes and how I had created a design in case I wanted to revisit it as a later date.   I have always thought it important to share ideas and techniques, but for a long time I only had Jaine and Lena following me, so there wasn't much sharing going on.  However as I started joining in challenges, I got a little bit more noticed and when people started saying nice things about my cards or thanking me for sharing a technique ... well to be perfectly truthful I was tickled pink.  

4.  How does your creative process/writing process work?
When I make a card for someone I try and think of what they enjoy or what colours they like.  I keep a catalogue of my stamps and dies on my computer and (also on my iPad for when I'm on out) so I can peruse it easily - gone are the days when I remember every stamp in my collection (and not just because my memory is going).
I have a long list of challenge sites to go to for sketch inspiration and colour combinations.   I think challenge sites are wonderful - so much eye candy in the one place, yum !!!
The hardest part is always picking designer papers.  I have a ridiculous number of them.  I can't stop myself from buying them and I have real difficulty parting with them.

If you've made it this far without dying of boredom then thank you very much.  I have no one specific to pass on to in this blog hop but would recommend you scroll through any of the blogs I follow on the right scroll bar.  There are some extremely talented card makers there as well as genuinely wonderful people.

Hopefully you'll drop by again and often, 
Kate

Saturday 5 July 2014

Spanish Christening


A card I made for a friend who is attending an adult Christening this weekend.  The recipient is Spanish and she wanted this Spanish text placed on the card.

I've used the WMS Opera Tags (largest and smallest for the name tag attached to ribbon) and WMS Bright Season and WMS Little Lanterns for the the candle and the candle glow.

The little red heart was cut from felt attached to red card and cut with a Sizzix Original die (needed some grunt to go through the thickness of the card and felt).

A wee bit of distressing needed to tone the colours and some pretty DPs and voila !!!

I hope she is pleased with it 

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Baby Blues


Well it's blue in real life but that's inside photography and pearlescent card for you.  

I bought this little B Baby die set a few months ago and I've been wanting to try it for a while now.  The Card Concept Challenge #13 has a Baby theme this fortnight so I had the perfect excuse, although I'm not exactly sure what category this card falls into - possible clean and layered.


Cards for Guyz also has a Baby Boy Challenge this week so I'm entering there as well.

I stamped the background using WMS Cabin Plaid backgrounder and embossed with white.  I love the look and texture of this - the photo doesn't do it justice.

I've put the sentiment on the inside Welcome Little One from WMS Big Day Today but I've left the front fairly plain as it's only for the stash at the moment and I may wish to personalise it at a later date.


Have a great day,
Kate

Tuesday 1 July 2014

A Ray of Sunshine


A quick little card I made up for my stash.  It actually started out as a Baby Girl card (I based this card on the Brian Cadd classic from the sixties) but I had to change it as very few people outside Australia and/or born after 1970 would have heard of the song.  So it's now a pick-me-up or get well card - also always useful to have in the stash !!! 

The sentiment was computer generated using the American Typewriter font (I think).  I had loads of this pink card from Maggie's place cards last month, so I just added a bit of DP and a few pearls.  The sun rays are actually cut using the Spellbinders Nested Pennants and the cloud is a Memory Box Marshmallow cloud.

If you would like to hear the song (sung by a really young Glenn Shorrock), check this YouTube video.

Hope the sun is shining in your part of the world,
Kate