Wisteria

Hello,

I am still enjoying partaking in these wonderful challenges I keep finding in the blogosphere. The one I am sharing today though was around when I first stopped blogging and that is Just Add Ink. I also used to participate in their challenges from back then too and enjoyed it. Can someone tell me why I stopped creating again……? Oh, it may have been my becoming an equestrian mummy.

This weeks challenge at first glance seemed easy,

but then when I sat there thinking about embellishment and ribbons and all those good things I realised it wasn’t going to work. So it seem I have a process in card making and it includes embellishments every time. I do, however, love my card. Ever since I saw this set I thought it would be great to recreate a Wisteria type tree. And seeing as it is Spring in Australia it seemed fitting to make one now.

I used the colours Gorgeous Grape, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, and splattered some Blushing Bride and Frost White. I could have sponged a sky to make it pop some more but I really liked the simplicity of this. I do have a couple more cards to share that are not in relation to the challenge but are similar to this card…..but with embellishments.

I made these cards a couple weeks ago, not long after getting the stamp set Life is Beautiful and the sequins. It was also my first real play with this years In Colors.

Well that’s it for todays share. I have a date with a local Art Supply store today and I am having a gander at some watercolours. Should be fun.

See you soon,

Kirsty xx

Season’s Greetings

Hello again.

I played with another challenge yet again, but this time it is from the team at Freshly Made Sketches.

Quite a simple design but you can be very creative with this. Some entries already submitted are very clever. Since I am on a Christmas themed stint of card making there are no surprises with my creation.

I am loving the Dainty Diamonds embossing folder as it gives a beautiful pattern in vellum paper. Vellum paper is something I have been using a lot lately. It’s a great addition to any card without making it ‘heavy’. On this card I have backed it with Real Red CS. As you can see I am still on the spritzer wagon. I love the randomness of it.

Oh, and this card only took me 35 minutes to pull together from start to finish…..maybe sketch challenges are the way to go.

See you agin soon,

Kirsty xx

Jingle Bells

Hello again. I am back with another challenge entry. I must say these challenges are helping me get inky even if it takes two days to complete. I did have this one in mind for two challenges, but I have missed the deadline for the Color Throwdown challenge #617 of Kraft, red, dark green and light green. I do, however, have some time left to enter the TGIF Challenge #288. This challenge is all about circles.

I had a quick look through my stamps and found Cherish the Season with all the bells in the set and thought it would work well. I ended up using the matching die set Sounds of the Season to create my bells and used the sentiment out of the stamp set. I have also decided I will probably buy a whole heap more spritzers and create a colour mist for every current SU colour I have. I am definitely addicted. I used Real Red, Frost White and White.

Even though it took two days to put together I liked the end result. Now I am off to find another challenge (hopefully one that doesn’t take me so long to complete…lol).

See you again soon,

Kirsty xx

I’m back…..

Yes that’s right. I’m back to paper crafting. I have rejoined Stampin’ Up! and I am reconnecting with a lot of old friends and we are having a laugh at how out of the loop I am! LOL. You have to understand its been 5 years since I have even posted on this blog. You could imagine my surprise that I remembered my password, but my dismay at finding my computer no longer supports Photoshop Elements 13. Boohoo. I think I am up for a new computer anyway. Thats my story and I am sticking to it.

So, if you follow me on my Facebook page then you already know I am back and have seen some sneak peaks at my attempts of making a card or two. A few definitely were fun and easy to make, but many were taking way to long with my “should I do this or that?” or “does this work?”. You can imagine my hubby and kids thinking why the heck did we tell her its a good idea to do this again. LOL

Anyway…..I decided I would kick start my blogging again off with a challenge. I went looking at some of the old challenge blogs I used to participate in and found all of them finished up. So I went on the hunt for more. I found the Spot Creative Challenge Blog. The current challenge is a sketch.

I have to say I did struggle with this one. We won’t be showing my first attempt. I tried a CAS card but I failed miserably. My second attempt is more my style.

Its not quite traditional Christmas colours being Petal Pink, Crumb Cake, and Calypso Coral. I like to be different. I also enjoyed creating some spray mists with white craft ink and the Frost White paint. The shimmer is gorgeous. I just didn’t quite capture it in the photo. Something else I have to relearn…..taking decent photos. If you have any questions about my creation please send a message and I will answer as soon as I can.

So here’s hoping I can keep this going and belt out some regular blog posts.

See you again soon,

Kirsty xx

Some Equine Love!

Hello everyone,

As some of you know, and can tell from my previous post, my girls are equestrians and I think their horses are pretty darn special. We had our good friend from Kontour Photography come out and take photos of the girls with their horses including the one from the previous post. I thought I would share them all with you, please note that is my watermark on them but Bria Hurst is the photographer.

Now I will let you all bask in their gloriousness…..

Those two are of Elle (Evalasting Magic) and Jemma.

Those two are of Derek (Jive Bandit) and Jemma.

Those four were of Georgie (Prospect Hill Georgie Girl) and Akayla.

Here is one of the girls together,

The last two are of the horses, Derek and Georgie by themselves,

They are simply stunning. My only regret is we ran out of time to include our fourth horse Dusty. We will do this again and include him for sure as he was a very important part of the girls beginning to their riding career….and the best friend you can have.

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into our horsey heaven.

Thanks for dropping by!

Kirsty x

Happy Heart

Hello everyone,

Day two of my return to blogging…..total shock, horror!

Haha! It won’t last long I assure you as I have to get back into the swing of things and I am sure I will have days where I am too busy, just like everyone else.

I have returned with another layout, and I think it is going to be a favourite for many years. We had some professional photos taken back in January of this year by the lovely Bria Hurst of Kontour Photography. I am in love with them all but this would have to be my favourite picture of them all. I printed this photo out on my Canon Selphy which was my Birthday gift to myself last year. When I have some time I will do a review on it for you all.

Anyway onto the gorgeousness…..

OMG!! I fall in love with it just a little bit more each time I look at it. It’s so simple, but striking.

Most of this LO is created with January Hip Kits. The base is from an old Stampin’ Up! Speciality Designer Series. It is an emboss resist paper with a lovely scallop pattern. I just sprayed some Mr Huey’s inks onto it- Boss Lady, Cameo, Mary Mary and Gold. They were the closest colour I had that suited the paper behind the photo. I had a little trouble balancing out the black tag on the top left but I had to have it. I didn’t want to use the black, clean cut and patterned scallop border to balance it as it was not in theme with the remainder of the layout but leaving the white border around the feathers and the word ‘beautiful’ helped it tie in. I did cut the white from the butterfly and flowers as they ‘popping’ too much off the page

I have some more of these photos to scrap so keep tuned.

Some close ups

I tried to get a good close up of the gold ink, but the light was not in my favour. I hope this has been of interest and helpful in your own scrapping adventures.

Thanks for dropping by!

Kirsty x

No longer MIA

Hello everyone,

Long time no chat (or sharing of any creations). My life is totally different to what it was 3, even 4 years ago. In some ways it is better, and in other ways it’s not.

The good– My daughters are now competing Equestrians. They do predominantly dressage and show jumping. It is so exciting, but very tiring with the long hours training, caring for the horses and competing. We first started with Pony Club events, but last year we also delved into the world of Interschool. So now most of our weekends are spent out and about travelling SE QLD competing. My eldest son is now 19 years old and he is an apprentice plumber, but still lives at home. My youngest son is busy also with his soccer and athletics (he particularly loves his sprints and high jump. So yes, the kids are keeping me super busy…..but wait there’s more. I have also taken on roles within the pony club and school. I am on my third year as treasurer for the PC and my fourth year as vice president at the school as well as the uniform shop convener. I have also achieved my first level in instructing at pony club. See, I’m busy.

The bad– Such a busy life means less time for the crafting, so it has suffered a great deal. I have resigned as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and I haven’t made a card in nearly two years. I didn’t do last years Christmas in the Country Craft Show for the first time in seven or eight years. I have been doing some Smashbooking and Project Life, but nowhere near enough to keep up. I have realised of late however, that I need to do more of it as it really does keep me sane. I cannot guarantee regular blog posts, but this is a start, right?!

Now to kick us off I have created this Christmas LO, which in itself is also a miracle because I have only ever made one other Christmas LO, and that was back in 2008 (I think).

Pretty basic, just paper layers and a few embellishments. I have a very small amount of mixed media on this page and it is under the title. It’s a little bit of Shimmerz dimensional paste in the colour of Foiled Again. I did not like the plush toys above Santa, they were so distracting. The paste has muted them a bit and now not so obvious.

This page was created solely using the November Hip Kits. I have been buying their kits since September last year. I have to say these are the best kits I have ever purchased. Very happy with them and postage is cheap.

Some close ups

I am now digging into my January kits (yes I am quite behind), and I have some really nice LO’s on their way. So keep tuned.

Thanks for dropping by,

Kirsty

Silhouette Goodness!

Hello everyone,

I have a gorgeous creation to share. Admittedly I created this for last years Christmas in the Country Craft Show, I just ran out of time to share with you all.

Anyone who owns an electronic cutting machine will know about SVGCUTS. It is my absolute favourite place to go for beautiful projects. Mary and her team are very clever and I love all they create. The one I am going to share with you is from the Country Market collection and its so darn cute!

I made three but only showing two as I never took photos of the third one complete. The first one I think is my favourite….what do you think?

SVGCUTS also have a Facebook page where you can share your creations, see other people’s beautiful work and get all the latest updates. Definitely worth checking out.

I am doing some project life and have realised I have never shared any of that with you. Might have to do something about that.

Thanks for dropping by!

Kirsty xx

 

My Crafting Space!

Hello everyone,

This post has been  a long time coming. So long in fact that the photos shown in this post were taken April 2013.

When we moved here to Southbrook, I was excited to see that there was a room I could use just for me and my crafting.

We went to Ikea and bought some furniture for my new craft space. Take a look at the results-

My computer desk. I love it, especially that gorgeous computer. I now also have a gorgeous white Canon printer on there too.

My new work station. I absolutely love this thing. It was in the Island Kitchen Bench section at Ikea. What I love about it is I sometimes like to stand and create and this thing has a very good size bench top to have all my goodies spread round. I’m a very messy crafter. You should see it now! LOL

Look at those big drawers. The top two have trays that are what you would call utensil dividers and they can be removed if need be. They are great for pens or tools.

It still needs some tweaking though. But I just love them and the handiness of it all.

I love these cubes. I must say these days it looks very different. After playing in the room for a while you start  to realise where you want things and how you want them set out. I also no longer have that particular ink pad holder I have bought a new one from Colcraft on Facebook. This is it

She’s a beauty. I am however thinking I need a different one. I will let you know how I go with that. I need more ribbon and punch room.

Last but not least I needed a workshop table set up and this is it. I even have a kitchen (2nd kitchen in this house) right at my disposal behind this set up. Very handy for clean ups and of course morning tea or supper set ups.

I am very spoilt, I have gone from the kitchen table and having to pack up after every craft session in Gatton to having lots of room, storage and peace and quiet. I love it!

Thanks for dropping by!

Kirsty xx

 

Artful Stampers Challenge #52

Hello everyone,

It’s time for a Artful Stampers Blog Hop Challenge.

I missed the last one. I have been so busy with getting a horse stable built, time slipped by and I forgot the challenge. Oh well, I am back on track with a groovy colour challenge. Check it out

Not a bad combo, but Melon Mambo has always been a challenge for me. It is so bright, and very pink. I would have to say it would be one of the colours I would not reach for. But I figured you can take the emphasis off of it by adding only a little and adding a whole heap of one of the other colours. I chose to use more Crushed Curry

This is what I created.

 

 

I enjoyed the process of this one and loved the idea of stamping in between the embossed lines of the Stylish Stripes embossing folder. I will have to do that again. I also inked a doily up with Crumb Cake, cut it in half then scrunched (or roughly folded it) it up and put it behind the Deco Label panel. The sentiment has been clear embossed to make it pop. I love how it turned out.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping by!

Kirsty xx