Inspired By Stamping Challenge Entry - Colours #3 & Birthday Theme

Hi everyone, this is a really hurried entry into Inspired By Stamping's challenge bonanza, it's 11.46pm...I hope I have til Midnight today 17/10/13... it will be removed if not...wish me luck!

Here is the colour combo I'm working with and click the link to see the other entries for the colour challenge and the birthday theme:

 

And here is my very fast (fastest card in a long time) clean and simple card for the challenges:

Thanks for stopping by again!

PS: A little update, it's 12.01am and I couldn't get the linky thing to work, but whilst I didn't manage to get this card into those two challenges, I have made a really pretty card - so no loss there! :o) 

Cheers again!

Inspired By Stamping - Challenge Entry Sketch #3

Hi again!  I have my third entry into the Inspired By Stamping Challenge bonanza!  This follows hotly on the heels of entry #2 and then after I get the rest of the washing off the line, sort out the pets and humans dinners and play around with facebook for a bit, I'll have a stab at challenge sketch #4!

Here is sketch #3:

 

And my entry for the sketch - all are viewable here.

I was trying something new here, new stamps, new embossing folders, new ribbons, lol.  I decided to step outside my box a little more and go for a white and gold theme.  The half circle at the top was cut using my silhouette cameo, stuck to a double sided adhesive sheet and glittered generously.  The background embossing folder used is an Anna Griffin design and the other is from Kaszazz - Scrollwork.  The framelits are from Inspired By Stamping and I also used gold cardstock from my stash and gold ribbon from Woolworths.  The Anniversary stamp was part of a free stampset on a magazine and I put the ribbon and bow across the card to hide the seam between the two embossed panels.

I must say I found it really hard incorporating the half circle - the next sketch also has one and my brain is already excercising trying to think up something.

Thanks again for looking!

Cheers

 

 

Inspired By Stamping - Challenge Entry Sketch #2

Gidday to you all this fine Sunday - fine - huh, isn't that an understatement?!  It's so hot today - it's really making me appreciate our new airconditioning!

Well, I've been a busy bee (well for me anyway)... I've created the next two entries for the Inspired By Stamping 2 year anniversary challenge bonanza.

I was up until 4.30am this morning finishing sketch 2 - I was colouring and colouring - not just that picture but 3 others as well, it's a time consuming but enjoyable passtime.  I was shocked when I checked the time - my mind was buzzing but I made myself go to bed, lol.

Here is the challenge sketch #2:

 and here is my answer to sketch #2:

Entries for all the sketch challenges can be seen at the bottom of this page link for Inspired By Stamping.

A while ago I fell in love with this wrapping paper that I found at the Reject Shop - in lots of colours.  I spent a lot of time hand cutting it into roughly 12x12 paper sizes.  That is what the foiled background is made from.  The checker pattern is from Stamp TV's paper pack Casual Friday.  The circular patterned paper is from the My Minds Eye 29th Street Market.  The dark brown cardstock is from Kaszazz and it blended into the foiled background too much so I coloured the edges with a dark brown copic marker to change the colour.  The stamped image is from La-La Land and it's called Koala Luka - so cute!  I coloured that in with my Tim Holtz distress markers and a water brush.  The sentiment is also from Kaszazz and the word birthday was a little too fine to read so I went over that with a black gel pen.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers

 

Inspired By Stamping - Challenge Entry Sketch #1

Hi again, another entry already!  Wonder's never cease to amaze - and all that, lol.  

First, let me start off by saying that I'm on holidays this week and go back to work on Wednesday next week.  So what have I been doing with all of this free time?  Well!  I've done something I've been wanting/needing to do for a long time!  I've been reorganising my craft/tv/office room.  And I don't just mean a little bit - I've completely reversed the layout and made the crafty/office area the main part instead of the little bit.  I have so much stuff!  I still have stuff in other rooms and need to empty my wardrobe of 'junk?' and put my clothes in there...but I've only been concentrating on setting up my crafty area.

I think I've finished - for now anyway, here's a pic:

I'm loving this new layout and extra storage!  There's another desk with my monitor on it and my silhouette cameo, but I've messed it all up already by creating my first card in the challenge bonanza on IBS, lol.

It's Inspired By Stamping's 2nd birthday and Joanna Munster is celebrating in style!  Check out the challenges currently going here.  Entries for all of these challenges must be in by October 17th 2013.  The prizes are huge: each winner will receive the entire October 2013 release valued at $83!

It's taken me this long (all week) to get into my craft room and create something - and I have to say I really like what I came up with.  I was a bit daunted by the sketches and now I think I've grown to appreciate how they can push you to go outside your box and try something new!

The challenge is for sketch #1 pictured below: (if you click the link on the word challenge; scoot down to the bottom of the webpage to see the entries)

And here is my entry:

You can't really see that there is a bit of the flowery background under the banner - due to the angle I took the picture at.

I had the girl (Marci - La-La-Land Crafts stamp) in my stash - I'd stamped her in stazon and water coloured her with Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  I cut the background leaf pattern and the black frame with a Martha Stewart Circle Cutter (I actually got it to work properly for once!) and layered the frame over the green circle and popped Marci up on dimensional foam pads.

The flowery background and green papers are both from a giant stack I got at the Papercraft Expo a few years back - the pad is from My Minds Eye - 29th Street Market designer papers.  The banners were cut from First Edition papers - Boho Chic.  The sentiment is from Inspired By Stamping - Fancy Sentiments and the flower stamp from StampinUp - Itty Bitty Bits stamped in Old Olive ink.  I didn't have any green gemstones so I coloured a couple with an alcoholic copic marker.  The card base is white 300gsm cardstock.

Whew, time to catch up with the girls on StampTV and get to starting my second sketch entry.

Wish me luck!

Kaszazz Mega Demo Day - 27th September 2013

Well hi there everyone, I thought I would update you a little on what's been happening lately.  I went to a Kaszazz Mega Demo on Friday the 27th September and met some lovely local and not-so-local ladies.  It was held at the Blenheim town hall so I now know how to get to Blenheim, lol.

We all listened and watched as Sandra demonstrated some of the products and ways to use them.  We then all jumped in an made butterfly cards - and it was amazing how different they all were!  I didn't really like my card, but it was more about the techniques and products rather than the overall look.  Some of them were really pretty, however, I can't link to a shot of them as I don't think Sandra's site is published as yet!

Here are some snap shots of the day:

A great day was had by all and we all did a little shopping.  I had my tax refund so I went on a shopping spree and bought a ton of cardstock, bling, embossing folders, stamps and ribbons.  I was also the lucky winner of a pack worth more than $25.

I've since received my order and I have to say that the quality of the Kaszazz products is wonderful - I'm really impressed.  The stamps stamp like a dream - and the card stock is lovely.

If you click these links they'll take you direct to Kaszazz and their latest catalogue.

Well, I have to sign out and write up my next entry, thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Challenge Entry: Inspired By Stamping - IBSIC #64

Hi everyone, today I finally completed a challenge card for the Inspired By Stamping challenge using pale pink, pale blue and grey.  The challenge tag is: IBSIC #64.  

 

 

 

I found this to be a real 'challenge' for me, being limited to three colours was quite difficult and until this challenge I hadn't realised how little 'grey' I had in my stash!

 

The card base is pearlised grey cardstock with the top and back side dry embossed with the swiss dot folder.  I put pale pink ribbon in two strips on there, but as it was an organdy ribbon it was really hard to see (see through) so I added lines of pale pink bling on there with pale blue in the middle.  The sentiment stamp is from Inspired By Stamping, where as the flower stamp is from a freebie from a card making magazine.  The flowers were stamped onto pale blue and pink cardstock, fussy cut out and then I coloured in parts with sakura gelly roll pens in pale pink and blue. And finally to cover the right side of the card where all the bling didn't line up with the card edge properly I put a bit of gorgeous blue ribbon from my stash - so glad I bought that one years ago!  Oh and the sentiment was cut out on my cuttlebug with a spellbinders romantic rectangles die.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Happy Father's Day to my Dad

Hi everyone, wow, two entries in one week, I'm on a roll!  I just thought I'd leave a quick note for you to see what I made for my Dad's Father's Day card this year. 

Father's day was Saturday 2nd September 2013 in Australia - which is different to America and possibly other countries, I'm not sure (and I haven't googled it, lol). 

Masculine cards are always so hard to do and I wanted to show you a couple of wonderful new stamp sets that I bought recently from Inspired By Stamping which makes creating masculine cards a breeze!  The sets I used are called Masculine Tags 2 and Background Basics.  I will need to buy quite a few more of Joanna's stamp sets which you will surely see here in the future.  For inspiration, feel free to drop by the IBS Customer Gallery.

Here is the card I made my Dad this year, I made it late due to a burn injury (which has healed) and hopefully he either got it today or tomorrow! I made a matching envelope and stamped the rope stamp on it in frayed burlap distress ink.  Sorry about the shadow over the picture - I'll do better next time.

Thanks for dropping by, it's past midnight so I'd better get myself off to bed for work in the morning!
Take Care

 

Creation History - Birthday Cards

Hi there, hope all is going well with you as it is with me!  The weather is warming up around here in South East Queensland and Spring is in the air.  I really hope that Summer is not going to be stinking hot (as usual), but it seems likely as we've been getting above average temperatures here for a while now.  Which is troubling if I need to do heat embossing as that and ceiling fans don't mix at all well, lol.  I might be getting air conditioning this Summer, depending on if we pay off the Solar panels nice and early! That will be awesome!

 

I've been looking through my card collection and decided that since I have so many other cards that I've already made but not yet posted here that something had to be done about it.  Answer: Historical posts.  That way I can separate the historical stuff from the newer creations at a glace - well that's the plan anyway!

 

If all goes to plan I want to start taking some 'in progress' pics of my cards to tell the story a little easier, I'll need to start doing that soon I guess.

 

Anyway, this particular post is for the birthday cards I've made (and found pics of).  Some were made as gifts but most were made to sell - and boy is that a hard one to accomplish!  People like to pick them up and comment on how nice they are and then put them down (and sometimes throw them back onto the table)... I don't mind not buying them but seriously that is a bit rude!  What can you do but smile?  No time for feeling grouchy about that...

 

And now it's time for some eye candy I reckon, I hope you enjoy my cards!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, that about brings me up to date with the images I've been able to find.  I have them really disorganised on my computer and I may even find some more birthday cards later on, but don't worry, because if I do, I'll be sure to do another entry for you!

 

Take care and happy crafting!

 

Crafty Kazza's Cardmaking - Cards by Karen Hawkins

An introduction to Karen Hawkins - me:

Hi there, I'm Karen and I love, love, love to make cards!  In fact I think I was diagnosed at some early age as having a stationery infatuation, as I love all forms of stationery and can be found wandering around browsing in any stationery aisle - anywhere! LOL

 

Well, for a little bit about me; the person: I'm a single 38 year old with no children, which is great as far as I'm concerned.  From the tender age of 5years old I've been telling my Mum that I never wanted to have kids and it's still true to this day.  I think some people are made to be mothers and I think that I'm not one of them.  I prefer cats and dogs I guess, I've always gotten along better with animals than humans. I'm a middle child of 3 kids, divorced parents at age 13 and the 'quiet' child of my siblings.  My star sign is Gemini which can be a blessing and a curse sometimes as it's hard to make decisions and stick to one side of the fence when you can clearly see both sides of every story.  I'm chatty with people I know and shy with everyone else in person, but type like a demon online given half the chance.  Sometimes speak before I think, but mostly over annalyse everything.  I really don't like excercise, unless it's clicking my mouse for the next YouTube video!... Don't much like driving to new places but once conquered it's not much of a problem. 

 

How did I start making cards?

I originally started out with scrapbooking, which was a very brief love affair as I have avoided taking pictures most of my life and hence I ran out of pictures pretty soon.  I can't really remember what made me start making cards but I know it was around christmas time 2010 as I remember my first card was this one:

 

I found that I really enjoyed making this card and I'm pretty sure my love of cardmaking stems directly from there. I'm sure all the wonderful comments from family and friends helped with that too.  The next two cards followed in quick sucession, along with another couple of cards that I won't post as I really don't like them.

 

 

Since that humble beginning i've now made quite a few cards and when I figure out this blog thing a little better hopefully there'll be a way to have a gallery of cards to make it easier to see and post them.

 

Where do I get my inspiration from:

YouTube is mostly responsible for my inspiration and my spending! Probably about 50% or more of the 'cardmaking stash' that I have has been been influenced by YouTube and watching other cardmakers videos. It is a wonderful tool for learning about new products, techniques and ideas. YouTube is like having a crafting/cardmaking tv channel available 24/7. The only problem I've found with it is it can tend to chew up all of my 7gigs of internet usage... it would be fantastic if we got a crafting channel on tv - free to air tv I should say.

I also gain ideas from cardmaking magazines, and my choice of mag is usally directly linked to what the freebies are for that mag, like most cardmakers I would imagine. I'm actually considering getting a subscription or two with my tax refund this year, when I eventually get around to doing it.  A few of the mags in my collection include: Australian Simply Cards, Creative Cardmaking Magazine and Scrapbooking Memories to name a few.

 

The funny thing is that I rarely make cards based on the magazines I read!  LOL, I really enjoy reading them and finding out new techniques.  Most of my 'creations' are just that, creations! 

 

Anyway, I think I'll sign off for now and see what else I can do with this blog, thanks for reading!

 

Cheers