Mojo Monday 179

I'm almost a week late with my Mojo - apologies!  No excuses!

Here's the sketch:


And here's my card:

The colours are Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery and Whisper White.  The entire design (apart from the MM sketch) came out of the large flower punched shape which I had leftover from another project.  All supplies are SU except for the eyelets which I've had for so long I can't remember where they came from!   This is another good card for using up scraps.   The flower & it's centre are made using the wax resist technique which we're doing in class this week.  Come along if you want to know more!

Happy Monday!
Karen

Sympathy Card using Season of Friendship

Here's another card I made yesterday, but it wouldn't photograph well - I know, I have to work on my photo skills.  A new camera is on my wish list for 2011!   Anyway, I had more success in the morning light today.

This one is very plain, and uses the stamp set directly on the card - it's almost a one layer card with just those bits of trim on the right hand side and the scallop edge.    I've put DSP onto the inside back of the card to show up against the scallop and add some interest.   The Season of Friendship stamp set is sadly retired.  It was a favourite of mine because you can do so much with the tree - it also has a flower, bird & snowflake stamp.  But why am I telling you this when it's not for sale anymore......:-(( sorry!

Pop back tomorrow for my Mojo Monday sketch.
Karen

Sympathy Cards

These are cards I struggle with - and I don't think I'm on my own here.   Anyway, I played around with a few designs today after casing a card I saw on SCS.  It seems that anything goes and you can find samples in every design and colour.

But for me, I think the best cards are simple ones when it comes to this sad occasion.   And perhaps an understated colour scheme is best too.  Tone on tone works well and you can always add depth by sponging edges to give definition without adding fussy details.

Here's the cased card - mine's a little different to the original but the idea is to get a silhouette against a sunset or early evening sky.    I quite like it.

Then there's the leaves - they are a popular one for sympathy cards and the colours in this card are lovely.   I really like this leaf punch.  It's a nice size, it layers well and I love the shape. 

I also made another card but I couldn't get a good picture so I'll photograph it again and add it tomorrow.

Thanks for looking
Karen

A special day

i try not to do too much personal stuff on here preferring to keep it to business, but I wanted to share something about yesterday.

Valentine's Day is extra special to us because it's the day we arrived in San Diego to live for one year - which turned into 4 1/2 years!!  My memories of that day are so mixed - first we left Sydney and all that was familiar.  Our life was packed into a shipping container and enroute somewhere in the ocean (scary thought), the dog was boarding for 3 weeks before her flight to join us, and we were saying goodbye to all our friends and family and going to a place where we knew no-one.  Quite daunting.

We arrived in SD around lunch time only to find that the keys to the vehicle we were to have for the next month or two were back in Sydney with a business colleague (he'd taken them by accident!).  That meant what was to have been a quick 5 minute trip to our rented accommodation was now over an hour with two taxi's back and forth.  An emotional arrival at the rented condo with two tired small children (7 & 4) and all the bags followed by an afternoon nap - we were all exhausted.

That evening, with no groceries in the condo and no keys to drive the car anywhere, we went out for dinner.  Remember it was also Valentine's Day.  We went to a small restaurant called Voyage in the community of Little Italy where we were to spend the next few years.  It was lovely - despite the tiredness, homesickness and sense of upheaval. 

That began our tradition of going out for dinner on Valentine's Day as a family rather than as a couple.  All the years we were in SD we dined at Voyage, later to become Zia's Bistro on India Street.   Last year, our first back in Sydney, we went to Pellegrini's in Balmain.  Nice enough, but not quite what we wanted.

This year, Matthew surprised us by booking a mystery restaurant in Neutral Bay, coincidentally in the building that he worked in when I met him many, many years ago.   It turned out to be a nice surprise - it was an American restaurant called Blue Plate.  We had a lovely meal and giggled and reminisced about our great American adventure.    There were some old favourite dishes on the menu that we need to go back to try - not least of which was the Fish tacos, a San Diego dish.  And the lychee Cosmopolitan went down very well!
To top it off our waitress was from Orange County, just north of San Diego!

It may become an annual event, you never know!

Thanks for indulging me on my journey down memory lane!!

Karen

Owl's That?

Our cute little owl punch - it's actually an Extra Large Owl punch - is a lot more versatile than you might think.  Aside from being absolutely darling as an owl - see my little cuties here:

....it's also nice to use as a lady with a posh hairdo!   Here's an engagement card I made for my downline, Tracy & her fiance Dan....... (yes, I've apologised to Dan for his "head"!!)

There's also a nice flower you can make - tulips from Amsterdam perhaps......

And I'm sure there's much much more.    I'm going to play some more and see what I come up with.

Happy Valentine's Day!


Karen

Card Storage

Like many crafters, I have a HUGE number of cards, largely because I'm teaching classes so there's always a lot of samples left over.    Of course I use a lot of them - you can hardly buy a card for someone when you're a cardmaker....tsk tsk.  

That said, I'm also really particular (some may say obsessive) about keeping a record of all the projects I teach throughout the year.   Consequently, I need a lot of storage!    Fortunately, as an avid lover of shoes I have a lot of empty shoe boxes, but as they're a tad boring (I know I could cover & decorate them....) I make little boxes to store my projects in. 

This one is super simple - I did make one in the US with my upline's team some years back.  But do you think I could remember it?  And guess what?  I couldn't find it either!!!   

So, this one was made from scratch, measurements and all.  It's a little different to the previous one I think, but it's kind of cute and will hold about 10 cards and envelopes.  It will also look nice in my craft studio.

I will be teaching it in a class next week, so come along if you can, but after that, if you'd like the instructions I'll be happy to email them to you.   

Oh, and an added plus, I only used retired cardstock & scraps of DSP.  Love that!

Happy Wednesday!
Karen

Mojo Monday 177

It's been a few weeks since I did a Mojo Monday sketch.   And like everything else, once you've been on holidays for a while, it takes a bit of 'oomph to get going again.   I'm really feeling it this year because I took the whole of January off.   And when you're your own boss, you have to be very disciplined to get back into the groove - basically, because there's no one breathing down your neck telling you to get your skates on!

So, here's my interpretation of this weeks sketch:



Mojo 177

Supplies used: Stamp Set:  Well Scripted
Cardstock:  Very Vanilla, Marina Mist, Melon Mambo
DSP:  Blueberry Crisp
Ink:  Night of Navy, Melon Mambo
Chipboard Flowers (non SU)
Basic Pearls
Wide Oval Punch (used on Very Vanilla - I hand cut the Melon Mambo layer)
Big Shot (you need one of these!) with the Elegant Lines embossing folder & Sizzlits Little Leaves.
Ribbon - Navy Wide Grosgrain

If you've lost  your Mojo, have a go at this card layout and see if it helps re-invigorate your crafting experience.   And if you need more, pop along to a class to pick up some new crafting ideas and let the enthusiasm of other crafters rub off on you too!

Thanks for looking!
Karen

Aviary Gift Picture

I've been very slow getting back into the crafting this past week.  Don't get me wrong, I've been doing things, just not finding the time to do the photography/downloading & blog typing.  I really don't know where the days go.

Anyway, as I'm going to use the Aviary stamp set in my next class, I thought I'd share a picture I made using it.  This is a gift for someone and I've chosen the colours that I know are favourites.   I did a lot of layering because I've used a box frame, so it allows for some dimension.   These frames are so easy to use and go quite nicely with all sorts of themes & colours.  I've used them for kids bedrooms with a colourful collage of bugs, and for a friend of mine who wanted some pictures to hang over her bedhead.   They are also great for framing photos that you've embellished to showcase a special event or holiday shot.  Here's a couple of links from previous posts:  http://kcpaperlady.blogspot.com/2010/06/simple-stylish.html     http://kcpaperlady.blogspot.com/2009/10/more-pics.html    http://kcpaperlady.blogspot.com/2009/10/pictures.html

You can buy the frames at Ikea in a variety of sizes.  Some box, some not.  And they're easy enough to reuse and change the picture if your decor changes.

Supplies used:
Aviary Stamp Set
Card stock - Very Vanilla, Kiwi Kiss (R) & Pacific Point
Loop to Loop rub-ons (R)
Ink:  Kiwi Kiss (R) & Pacific Point
Narrow cream coloured ribbon (non SU).   I've also dyed two pieces of ribbon using Kiwi Kiss & Pacific Point inks: super easy to do by running the ribbon over the surface of the ink pad - I use a sponge dauber on my finger so I don't get ink all over my hands.  Remember to let the ribbon dry before adhering it to your project otherwise it will soak into your cardstock and leave a yucky mess.
Jewels - Basic Rhinestones


Hope you like it!
Karen