Salty Seahorses!

My gorgeous friend Mel has set another challenge - this time to use the "Salted Background" technique. I'd never tried this technique before, and there must be a knack to it, because it sure was a challenge for me! One whole box of rock salt and several sheets of glossy cardstock later, I finally have something to show!

For my salted background I used Taken with Teal, Night of Navy & Brocade Blue reinkers. Then I carried those colours through onto the card. The seahorses are from Fishy Friends (which ironically I don't own but had stamped some of Mel's onto watercolour paper before leaving Katherine and have been waiting the perfect opportunity to use them!). I stamped "Miss You" (from Taggers Dozen) in whisper white craft ink onto Night of Navy punched out with the Rounded Tab Punch and finished it of with some Navy grosgrain.

Thanks again Mel for the challenge, I hope you like my contribution! I'm dedicating this card to You and all my other gorgeous friends in Katherine & Darwin, You know who you are - I miss you all so much!

Kaz xx

Long Weekend Layouts

As I mentioned last post, I managed to get a little bit of scrappin' in over the long weekend. I know that was over a week ago, but better late than never!! These are the two pages I did...

This first one is photo's of Breanna on her first day at Preschool hence the title "Our Beautiful Preschooler". This layout was done with papers, CS and accents from the Secret Garden Simply Scrappin Kit. I added some Groovy Guava double stitched ribbon and the chipboard P monogram. The title was stamped with the Short Order alphabet. I used an old olive Stampin Write Marker to journal around Breannas silhouette (not sure if you can see that in the crappy photo!) Here's the second layout...

This one features photos from our visit to the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens on Mothers Day. This was a really quick simple page to do, but I like it. The beautiful paper (Brocade Background) does it all - no need to add anything much to it!

Mini Caty Bag Front

I spent some time on the weekend doing some scrapbooking - YAY! and after doing two pages (which I'll show you later!) something possessed me to make a bag front for my mini caty bag (which those of us lucky enough to attend convention were able to purchase). Sorry about the glare in the photo, but you can get the idea...

Ive used papers from Spring Silhouettes, Baroque Motifs (again!), pearls, beads, flowers and hat pin from the Pretties kit, double stitched ribbon, and an on-board chipboard monogram. The colours are Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky & Very Vanilla.

Mel's Colour Inspiration Challenge

I don't really know what possessed me to do this - I'm definitely not an orange girl, but Mel set the challenge to use Only Orange, Basic Black & Whisper White - you can see the photo these colours were inspired by on Mel's blog here

This is what it inspired out of me (not very creative really - considering its a lot like the photo itself!!)...

Sorry, it's not a great photo - I couldn't wait to get natural light tomorrow so I just photographed it on my desk! Ive used the Chalkboard technique for the flowers which are from Petal Prints, greeting is from Short and Sweet - and you know the colours!

Thanks for the challenge Mel - certainly took me out of my comfort zone!

eScape Promotion

Put down the phone, turn off the computer, and break free from the ‘e’!
Remember when you got letters in your mailbox instead of your inbox? During June Stampin’ Up! is taking the time to unplug and unwind, and reconnect on a personal level with friends and loved ones through handmade cards. And we invite you to eScape with us!
Reconnect with your “wireless network” by attending my eScape event or hosting one of your own! Take advantage of the 25% discount on products in the eScape bundle to help you create that special message from the heart.
The eScape Bundle includes the Circle of Friendship stamp set, Love Notes assortment, and the 1-1/4″ Circle punch valued at $78.40 for the special eScape Bundle price of $58.80! (products featured in the picture above)

My eScape Stamp-a-Stack

Come along, eScape and stamp 8 cards and matching envelopes in an afternoon class at my house on Saturday 28th June 1.30pm. If you'd like more information please email me

Faux Silk

These cards are a bit old now, but I thought I'd show them anyway...Faux silk was one of those techniques I'd seen a lot and really liked but hadn't tried yet, so I did the tutorial and became hooked! I think I pumped out about 10 of these babies in the space of about a week!! I did make two I was really happy with - a welcome card for my new team member Amanda, and a Birthday card for my friend Vicki, but I forgot to take photo's!! Anyway, here's a couple did take photo's of...

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Think Happy Thoughts
Colours: Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Blue Bayou
Accessories: Chocolate Chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Scallop Punch, Circle Punches, White Gel Pen

Stamps: Artfully Asian, Short and Sweet

Colours: Ruby Red, Garden Green, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Scallop Punch, Circle Punches, Chocolate 1/4"grosgrain ribbon (retired)

Brayered Backgrounds

Finally...has anyone else had blogger problems? It's taken me three days to finally be able to post something!!

OK, recently I did a workshop for Ruth and the Crafty Sisters (Hi!), Ruth asked me to demo a masculine card (which I struggle with too!) so I thought it has to be Lovely as a Tree, and at the time I had been trying out some Michelle Zindorf tutorials on Brayered Backgrounds (check out her blog - that woman is AMAZING!!), so I decided to do a sunset...or maybe it's a sunrise...here it is...

I used the colour combo that Michelle used in one of tutorials - Really Rust, More Mustard and So Saffron, hers was snow so she had left the ground white - I added a brayered section in old olive then sponged it over with Always artichoke to get some grass like texture. Masking technique was used for the horizon line and the sun. The base card was stamped with the Speckled wheel and the greeting was from Wonderful Favorites - which worked out well because the ladies could tailor it to whoever their intended recipient was. If you'd like to have more detail on this card, I prepared an instruction sheet for the class which I'll happily email to you.

I also tried my hand at a moonlight version...

New Caty Swap

I recently participated in a New Caty Swap with some lovely ladies I met at Convention and some of my team members - Hi Amanda, Dannie, Mel, Sharon, Leah, Julie & Clare! All the cards I received were gorgeous!! Thank you all so much. This was my offering...

The rules for the swap were that you had to use at least one new in-colour, I chose Purely Pomegranate and teamed it with the simplicity of black & white. I stamped the background with the Baroque Border wheel in whisper white ink. The main image is from Brocade Basics and the greeting is from Think Happy Thoughts. I've used double stitched Purely Pomegranate ribbon (yummy!) and the scallop and circle punches.

Sorry, that's all for today...aren't I mean making you wait! It's been a rather big weekend and I'm super tired, and have heaps to do before work tomorrow. More cards to come soon- promise!