You are simply Amazing!

Hey-llo there!! We just got back from our family vacation to Sri Lanka and I have missed you all!!! I wanted to stop in real fast to share a quick card. And let me just say it is a quick one! Because in the morning I'm heading out to Thailand for the weekend! I am very excited. One of the perks of living in Singapore is the chance for travel. And considering I have 4 kids, I don't get many chances!

So before I leave, just wanted to share this one little thing with you:

This has a few sets in it: Watts Up by Simon Says Stamp and the sentiment is from Wplus9. I heat embossed the rays in gold and added the hearts in Ripe Tomato by Hero Arts. I really LOVE that ink!

Sorry for the quick one today but when I come back I will have some new things to share. Next week will be fun! So, hope you have a great weekend.

love to you and yours

k

Wha, What? A scrap page?! Oh, no you ditten!

Hey there! Just cleaning out the cobwebs from creating a bit ago. I rarely do scrap pages but I did have a bug to take care of these pictures from way way back, so thought I would share!

This is a page all about die cuts:

 Die cut balloons, sentiments, thought bubbles and party garland. All are Papertrey Ink except the thought bubbles which are Simon Says Stamp.

 Just a quick little page to celebrate the super here in our family: (from 8 years ago!)

I have been so over the top with this Gallery Idol stuff that I haven't created anything new this past week. But I'm no longer in the running and have some new packages to crack open so there will be lots to share soon since I will have the time to play! And I do have some crafting residuals I have to share but I haven't edited the pictures yet. Mostly, I wanted to come by and say HI! How are you??

I hope things in your neck of the woods are fine and dandy! We are celebrating our summer vacation, of which we only have ONE month to live it up before school starts again. Singapore local schools enjoy their biggest break during November and December, not right now. So we are trying our hardest to pack it all in these next few weeks before getting back to the books.

Hope you have a great summer day!
loves
k

Gallery Idol 2014 Round 4: Makin' Waves

Hey there, welcome back!! Can you believe it's been another week and another round for Gallery Idol 2014?!

Gallery Idol 2014

Honestly, time is flying and I can't believe I'm still in the running!  I wouldn't be here without your votes, so THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Each and every one of you!!! It's been such an honour and pleasure to be apart of this contest thus far. Here's hoping for a chance at the final round!
So lets get to it...

Meet my card.
I like to call it: "Waves Hello"... HA! Get it?  I thought it was kind of funny when it came to me, so it stuck. This week's challenge is all about using border stamps in interesting ways. So let me show you what I did.

I used this stamp set by Waltzing Mouse Stamps. It really is the only set I have that I deemed an authentic "border" stamp set. But out of this entire set (which is well loved) I used only ONE stamp to create my card.

I started by stamping the zig zag stamp four times in 3 different shades of blue. After stamping them in ink, I heat set a layer of clear embossing powder to make them nice and shiny.

For the next steps I fussy cut each zig zag image (yup... each one) and started to braid them together by weaving them around each other. As you can see below I alternate one zig on top and one zag underneath, repeated with each strip.

Here is my first block of blue colour woven together. Isn't it lovely?! It has such an amazing effect. I think it really brings the image to life. You can see in the second photo the backside of my woven strips. I think the white is equally as striking! (hmmm, I will save that for another card ; )

I decided I didn't want an entire sea of blue (OY! the puns never end!) so I coloured my own yellow panel using Copic Markers to layer underneath the waves.

I took my woven strips and yellow panel and laid out my card to get a general idea of what it would look like before committing to it with glue.

I decided to cut this card to be almost standard size. I didn't want to lose any zig zags so it is 6 inches tall but the standard width at 4.25. I took a darker shade of a yellow Copica and added some shading to the bottom of my negative spaced yellow diamonds. It really helped add some more dimension since after all those waves, the yellow alone seemed a bit flat. (compare diamonds from the photo above to this photo below... big difference!) 

I die cut my HELLO sentiment 4 times. The bottom three layers are a dark blue which helps add some dimension and shadow. The top layer was cut out of white and I used my two Copic colours to add an ombre effect to my letters. I heat embossed my crane (Mama Elephant) and added some shading with yellow and a glitter gel pen. Then finishing with some candy dots that I coloured with the same Copics. This took my regular yellow dots that didn't match at all and changed them into something usable! Which of course I love.

You can see some of the shine the embossing gives the waves and hopefully some of the dimension too! This card was delightful to put together. And can you believe I only had to do ONE version! The stars were aligned for me this weekend and it seemed to just come together so easily. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

So that's it! My border stamped card for you to enjoy. Hope you like it! And if you do like it and want to send me on to the next round, please head over to Paper Crafts Mag and cast your VOTE! Remember voting STARTS this Tuesday at noon and ENDS this Thursday at noon (Mountain Daylight Time) so head over as soon as you can. Cause if you are anything like me, once Wednesday hits, the week is basically over in a flash, and BAM you've missed the whole thing!

I want to take this time to thank you again for all your support. Whether by comments, votes or the sweet emails you send me, it means so much to me! You are appreciated! This hobby o' mine has become such a joy in life because of the amazing people I have met and the generosity that is shared in the crafting community. It's amazing to behold!

That's all for this week. After thursday I will come back and show you the other cards I made with all the leftover zig zags... boy did  I cut A LOT!

Hope you have a great week!

Thanks for stopping by,

k

Crafting Residuals: Stencils

Hey there! I have a card to share today which didn't make the cut last week for my Gallery Idol Stencil submission. It's been a few days now so I thought I would share it here. Because honestly this is all I have worked on all weekend so I don't have much more to share right now.  

Here is my card:

I used the same technique as the card I submitted, but with different stencils. I used the fish net stencil and a honey comb stencil. I sponged my ink for one layer and then removed the fish net stencil and kept applying ink to tone down the fish net pattern. I then took a black gel pen and randomly drew straight lines in some honey comb spaces. I added a vellum die cut and the hello die cut for my centre sentiment.

Here is a close up.

Man, I tell ya, those neon inks are to die for. (HA! I almost typed to DYE for!... that's my fathers dorky humour coming out. Love ya dad!)

I felt really inspired by this photo here:

Which as you can see, is where the colours and black lines came from. Isn't this photo amazing!? that is all graffiti. Done with spray paint. It just floors me! I would say that's one of the bummers about clean Singapore... you don't get stuff like this here.

I miss it, in a strange way. As long as graffiti is art, I don't mind seeing it. It's when its all swear words and private parts that it gets super annoying. Anyway, I digress.... Hope your week is going well. Only one more day to vote! Thank you to everyone who has voted so far. For me or any of the other designers. We couldn't do this without you!! Be sure to check back on friday to see who will be moving on!

Until next time, 

k

Gallery Idol 2014: Round 3

Hey all! Welcome back! It is officially Round 3 of Gallery Idol over at Paper Crafts Magazine. Thank you so much for all of your votes last week! Seriously people, YOU ROCK! Thank you so very much for all your support! I feel so lucky to still be in the running, thanks to you. And I'm having a great time!

This week, I am seriously blow away by the talent of all these ladies, and I know you will be too! Head over to take a look. The other 14 contestants really know how to craft-it-out! 

Gallery Idol 2014

Alright, lets get started. This round is all about Stencils.

Here is my submission:

I used two stencils to layer and blend colour for my card front.  I then fussy cut the stencilled area to create my card. Let me show you how it came together.

First I started out with two stencils and my favourite Neon inks by Hero Arts

I layered the circle stencil on the bottom and the fishnet stencil over it and secured it with masking tape. I then started adding some colour. 

When I had a layer of colour down how I wanted it, I took the top fish net stencil off and was left with the circle image stencilled into the fish net pattern. I then took more colour and sponged over the circle stencil again to blend in the colours and mute some areas of the fish net pattern. Then keeping the stencil in place I took a light pen and added in my own free hand waves to add some dimension and interest to a few of my bubbles.

I knew I wanted to fussy cut the bubbles out and keep the card front a sort of window card, so I cut the back of my card to the size I wanted and folded down a quarter of an inch along the top to create a flap. I then adhered my card base to the top of the flap thus creating a full folding card.

Here it is opened. You can see that it has a peg leg! Only that one little bubble sits flush with the back of the card. It's kind of fun, I think!

I added some glossy accents to the YOU sentiment and added a die cut for the AWESOME all nestled in together.  I felt like the bright colours of this card was just screaming awesomeness!

My card base is a shimmer blue card stock from Papertrey Ink. It's very fun when the light hits it.

And there you have it, my finished card!  Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a look. And if you feel like it deserves your vote, please head over to Paper Crafts and cast a vote for me! You have until Thursday at noon so be sure to get it in when you can. And thank you again for voting me into this round! I have had such a great time playing with all of my stencils and seeing what the other amazing designers have created. They are each so talented and inspiring. It has been amazing to be apart of!

Have a great week.

loves,

k