Reminder - SU! Spring Catalogue Finishes Soon

Just a quick post to remind you that last orders for the current Stampin' Up! Spring Mini Catalogue will close on the 30 November 2009.

This Mini would have to be one of my all time favourites. There are so many great stamps, paper and accessories. I thought I would share a quick blog hop with you to showcase some of the wonderful creations arising from the Spring Mini. So here goes (just click on the links to see the full card):

1. Forest Friends from Marelle Taylor


2. Great Friend from Mary Beerman


3. Unchartered and Parisian Breeze Paper from Beth Stewart


4. Tree Trimmings and Ski Slope Paper from Kylie


5. Soft Summer and Scalloped Oval Punch from Michelle Dyson

(All designs and photos courtesy of the card-makers indicated above.
With thanks to Marelle, Mary, Beth, Kylie and Michelle).

I hope you enjoy these creations. Sometimes it seems I like looking at cards more than making them. But then I stop procrastinating and make one of my own and know that holding your own creation in your hands is the best feeling.

If you want anything from the Mini before it disappears forever, please contact me on phone 0402 347 010 or email me by 8pm on Monday 30 November 2009.

Thanks for visiting.

Love from Crafty KimT

Hot in the City

Us Sydney-siders have been enduring 4 days of hot hot hot weather. A small complaint on the world scale but it's really got me out of sorts. I tried picturing snow-themed Christmas cards to chill me out with limited success.

So, I thought I would post a "refreshing" card. It's not my usual style, or should I say colour combo. But I'm happy enough with it. It was also a challenge because I don't own full sheets of this paper, I was working with 3 x 3 inch squares. Oh the pressure!

I made it for my Fiji travel companions, Michelle and Andrew, by way of thanks for coming along and sharing the experience. I decided to decorate the inside of the card too but it did limit the space for writing which cramped my long-winded style but some might find it an advantage.

I also wanted to show you a close up of the cocktail drink:


I used Crystal Effects to make the cocktail glass look like real glass. I also cut out parts of the image and popped it up with Stampin Dimensionals. The miniature parasol was stamped on the paper too and cut out.

The stamp set used is Cheers to You which I bought at a low price while on promotion. I didn't think I'd use it much but it's come in handy lately and I really quite like it.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Thanks for reading. Bring on the cool change I say.

Love from Crafty Kim

Scalloped Edge Medallion Cards

Well after that flurry of recent posts, I suddenly went quiet. I thought I'd better get back to Christmas since it's not far away. This is one of the techniques I demonstrated at our Christmas Craft Day. Using a scallop border punch (which is very popular so many of you will already own one), I made the medallion-style matting for the greeting. It is VERY easy and you can learn how to do this here.

You can also rotate the square so that it is a diamond, as shown below in a card created by Kirrily Matthews:

(Card design and photography with thanks to Kirrily Matthews)

Both of these cards also use the Square Scallop Punch as well which you can currently receive FREE with qualifying orders, for more details, please click here.

Of course, you can put anything on the scalloped medallion, circles or squares with greetings or images. It's up to you now.

Love KimT

Fiji Wedding

One of the reasons we travelled Fiji recently was to attend the "2nd wedding" of our friends who originally married in country NSW. Ten years later to the day, they affirmed their commitment to each other on a beach in Fiji, surrounded by their beautiful children, other family and friends.

It was a very relaxed ceremony, possibly a little less nerve-wracking than the original version. Here is a picture of the family just after the happy couple renewed their wedding vows:

Their daughters were lovely attendants. They were very excited to be part of the ceremony and were clothed in beautiful dresses.


Now I'm sure their eldest son was excited about the proceedings, he just kept his excitement on the inside, right? You can see him here with my son Ashley (they are good mates those two), playing on the beach:

It would appear that the waves, the sand and the passing snorkeller were at least momentarily more interesting than pretty dresses, bouquets, cameras and glasses of bubbly.

I made the card shown at the top of this post for the occasion. In keeping with the informal setting in Fiji, it's a casual kind of card. I added a bit of sparkle via Dazzling Diamonds to the champagne glasses:

Along with the rhinestones, this gave the card a special feel fitting to the event. And they are a "wonderful couple"; very much in love after ten years and four kids (their youngest child has just celebrated his first birthday). Of course, I only just gave them the card and gift some two weeks after the date but there wasn't any point taking it over just to bring it home again! That's my excuse ;)

It was indeed a privilege to share this time with them all, and we really appreciated being invited.

Love from Crafty Kim

Down at Filbert Farm

During the recent school holidays, my son and I were invited to stay at Filbert Farm, a hobby farm in the Southern Highlands belonging to Jim and Lauren, otherwise known as Michelle's parents. Filbert Farm grows hazelnuts for sale at local markets as well running a few head of Dorper sheep. Lauren also keeps chooks (which produce eggs with yolks the colour of Summer Sun) and grows a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. Her Filbert Farm jam is much sought after and was a big hit at our recent Christmas Craft Day.

I made this card as thanks for our farm stay which was full of such fun as performing sheep pedicures, spotlighting nocturnal animals, camping in a tent, riding motorbikes and swimming in the dam (that was Toby Beagle's favourite activity). I've used Thoughts and Prayers stamp set with the Faux Woodgrain Technique but this time I made the background look like floor boards. The card design is almost an exact CASE of a card made by Marelle Taylor which I loved as soon as I set eyes on it. Thanks for the idea Marelle. Notice the corners of the main image panel? I used the eyelet border punch as a corner punch - don't you love it when you get many uses from one tool?

Here are a few happy snaps from the weekend:

The Two Helmet Heads, Ashley and Ciaran

Ashley, Ciaran and Andrew with Dorper Lamb

Michelle aka Leadwrist, looking very fetching as she gears up for a ride in the neighbouring State Forest

Toby Beagle enjoying a swim in and shake near the dam

It all ended well but we got a bit of a fright on Sunday morning when Toby Beagle ate some rat poison (buried deep under a stack of wood). But thanks to the quick action of Michelle and a Moss Vale vet, no harm was done. Not sure how welcome Norty Dog is to visit again...

Love from Crafty Kim

Quick Plug for Digitally-Created Beagle Christmas Cards

Remember these cards? Well, I didn't make as many Christmas cards as the Beagle Rescue organisation could use so they've supplemented what I made with some digitally-created cards.

In an effort to spread the word far-and-wide, I'm posting the details for the sale of these cards. Most of my blog visitors make their own cards but if you know anyone who might be interested in purchasing some cards for charity, please pass this message on. There are gift tags available too.

For more details of cards available and pricing, please click here.

Thanks for your attention,

Love from Crafty Kim

Faux Woodgrain Birthday Card for Andrew

I thought I would take a brief respite from Christmas cards, we'll be seeing plenty of these in the next month. Back in August I made this card for my friend Andrew.

I used a technique called Faux Woodgrain which is great for male cards. If you'd like to learn how to do this (it's VERY easy), please click HERE for a YouTube tutorial from Dawn Griffith. In her tutorial, Dawn shows you how to make the woodgrain look like timber floorboards by drawing in brown lines:

The technique of swiping the ink pad directly onto paper is quite handy when you don't have any other suitable background options. And this technique can be applied to other colours too, I recently saw it done in blue tones which gave a "denim" look to the background of the card:

(Card and photography courtesy of Sharon Arkley, with thanks)

For Andrew's card, I used images from Loads of Love. Notice how I "grounded" the image so it doesn't look as if it is floating. I then decided to use some twine, a brad and double-sided foam adhesive to make the image look like it was a picture frame hanging on a wall.

Hope you're having a good weekend.

Love from Crafty Kim