Can someone tell me where November went?

I can't believe it's December already...how did that happen?

I'm not ready for Christmas... I'm still in the 'I've got ages to think about christmas' mode. Of course it's not true, time is running out and as usual I will be shopping right up until Christmas Eve. On the plus side, because I've been in christmas denial I've had the chance to make lots of cards LOL!

So here's a few of them...

Firstly, this weeks Mojo Monday



I really enjoyed this sketch, and I love Lily and Milo, they're so cute!  The image is coloured with copics and papers are SU and Kaiser.

I decided to use the circles cut out of the Lily card to make a quick christmas card, which led to this...



So when I was packing away my stamping stuff I stacked the two cards on top of each other which led this...



Now you can see why I'll still be shopping at the last minute...one thing leads to another and before you know it I've spent the whole afternoon making cards instead of thinking about what I need to do for Christmas!

thanks for stopping by, til next time

Back with challenge #2

My good friend Bron inspired me to have a go at this one as I loved her card on her blog.  I headed on over to the 'Anyone for Anya' challenge only to find that the challenge was to use the colours in your flag.  My first thought was YIKES that's so out of my comfort zone as I almost never use dark blue and I NEVER use it with red...but you know what I kinda like them together! I've also used paper tole on her dress.  The colouring on this is far from perfect, but you know what they say practice makes perfect, so I'll keep trying!

So what do you think?? I know it's not Anya, but it's her friend Dahlia, also from the Greeting Farm:)



Thanks for stopping by. I've had a great day today just pottering about, making some cards and I remembered how much I love it and how relaxing it is for me, so there's bound to be more creations popping up here soon.

til next time

hugs Kirsty

Yeah I stamped!

Hey there, can you believe it's been so long? I finally stamped today and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  Without boring you with the details its been a busy few weeks around here and I've been a little unwell so I've generally been way too tired by the time the kids have gone to bed to even think about stamping.  But today was a public holiday here in Melbourne (can you believe we get a day off for a horse race???) which meant no kinder, no swimming and no school runs. So when Daniel asked if we were doing anything, my answer was a very big 'NO...I just want to make some cards!' so thats exactly what I did:)

First on my 'to do' list was the Mojo Monday challenge.  This was so much fun, I love these papers, I only found them yesterday and I had to grab them.  The image was also great fun to colour. So here the sketch and my take on it...

 

Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back shortly with another challenge...I've missed these:)

stamping hugs

Kirst

Circle Circus

I've not been feeling so well for the last week or so and my mojo's kinda left the building but I did manage to make a card last night, the first one in a while, so here it is...



Everything in the card is SU. I've used Ski Slope dsp, baja cardstock, kiwi kiss ribbon, kiwi kiss and baja corduroy buttons.  I used emboss resist and my brayer for the flowers, which were made with 'circle circus' and the scallop punch.  The stems are from 'scribble this' and the sentiment is from the hostess set 'best  yet'.

With a bit of luck I'll be feeling tip top in no time and back to doing all the challenges!

til next time

Mojo Monday 107

Hi again, hope you're all rugged up and relaxing on this cold Tuesday night here in Melbourne. I'm hoping the sunshine returns soon, it makes me feel so much better and so much more motivated! Kira has an excursion to Healesville Sanctuary tomorrow and she is SO excited (she's our own little Bindi the Jungle Girl LOL). I really hope the weather holds out, it will be such a shame if the class misses out because of bad weather, she'll be so disappointed. Fingers crossed!

As promised I'm back with last weeks Mojo Monday sketch. I went back to a SU favourite for this one...Fifth Avene Floral, love it. It has to be my favourite floral set at the moment.  The other supplies are Old Olive card and ribbon, Ski Slope DSP and white ribbon and pearls. Sentiment is from PTI.



Hopefully this is a more productive week and I'll get to play with all my new stamps.  Who knows I might even finish a Mojo Monday challenge in the right week...a girl can hope can't she;-)

til next time, hugs

K

It's been a while...

The blog title says it all really!  It's been a while since I've had the time to sit and just make some cards... there's always been something else to do or I've just been too tired to even think about being creative LOL! But the last couple of days have been better and I've actually got a few projects completed...so I'll skip right to it:-)

I'm always struggling to come up with cards for boys (particualy late primary, high school boys) and SU in their US catty have the most amazing silhouette stamps of skateboarders and musicians and I SO want them but they're not available here yet, anyway the lovely Rosemary at Picture2Page very kindly lent me her Inkadinkadoo set which comes mighty close to the SU ones.  Here's what I came up with...



The papers are from Kaisercraft and I just love them.  I love the colours and the grunge backgrounds. The layouts are pretty simple,  just something I came up with while messing around at my desk but I think for boys less is definitely more. So what do you think...would a teenage boy be happy with these?

Got to scoot off to Dylan's kinder committee meeting now, will be back later tonight with some more cards, including last week Mojo Monday (oh well better late than never!)

til next time

hugs xo

It's been a busy day at work and I was definitely happy to get home to spend some time with my babies. It was the first day back at school and Kira was happy to be back with all her friends. Dylan also got to spend the day with Gramps while I was at work, and I'm not sure who was more tired at the end of the day, Gramps or the four year old!  They're asleep now (Gramps probably is too LOL), so it's time for some stamping and TV!

This is a card I finished the other day.  It's one of the little gothic girls in my two favourite colours. The lights reflecting of the card a little but I've used plain black cardstock for the base and added some crimped purple card and purple dsp.  I'm off to try  Nichole Heady's world card making challenges now, the sequins and jewels have certainly got my imagination going. Nothing better than a bit of bling!

til next time

hugs

Mojo Monday

Oh I almost forgot I actually finished a Mojo Monday challenge.  I'm not entirely happy with it, but what the hey, I'm going with it anyway LOL!



hugs

The holidays are over...

It's back to school tomorrow and it feels like this week has flown by! We've had a fantastic weekend with family and friends at Glenburn to celebrate my mother in laws 60th birthday.  It was such a beautiful sunny day and it was so nice to have one of the family's big get togethers there again. It's the first one since the horrible fires earlier in the year.

After last weeks much needed rain the place is looking greener and Bronwen has been busy replanting all her garden beds, so it's starting to look a little brighter. Although I'm sure it will be years before we see it as it was before.  There was around 60 - 70 people there yesterday and it was great to see the kids running around kicking the ball and everyone enjoying the day.

I've been working today :( so I promised the kids my undivided attention for Australian Idol (a weekly Kirsty and the kids ritual). Now that everyone's asleep and all ready for tomorrow I'm can sit down and finally post the cards that have been sitting on my desk for days... but better late than never!

This gorgeous stamp has the same name as my little girl, so it was a must have!  I just love fairies, so much so that I even have a tattoo. It think it's because they look so sweet and innocent but really they're a little bit mischievous underneath!  It's a fairly simple card, I'm still just playing with my ever growing collection of copics (favourite new toy much??)

As a side note; at the insistence of my seven year old I've just got Kate Miller Heidke's new CD, not bad at all, if you haven't already heard it it's definitely worth a listen! Kudos to the kid for liking stuff a little left of centre:-) Now on to the next card...

I love this little guy! This stamp was responsible for a 'should I, shouldn't I' that seemed to go on for ages. As you can see I caved and bought it.  When I see it stamped, why oh why did I even think twice!

Now that everything's back to normal I hope to have some more time to stamp. My dear friends Bron and Dee are coming on Tuesday for a long overdue bad food and stamping night!  We're always hopeful of creating at least one card but the talking always seems to get in the way LOL.  Be sure to visit again soon and see if we actually come up with anything!

til next time, hugs

It's been a while...

It's been crazy busy around here lately and DarkArts has definitely been neglected!  The kids are on school holidays, I've been working a little extra and I'm choked with the cold, so it doesn't really make for a very productive household!

What I have been doing is colouring some of the new stamps I bought at the 'From Picture 2 Page' scrapbooking expo last week.  As a self-confessed shopaholic I was very impressed with myself.  I actually made it all the way around without spending a cent...until I got  to the very end.   There were so many beautiful stamps at the Heavenscent stand and I just couldn't decide..so whats a girl to do?  Over the next day or two I intend to spend some time putting the cards together so I can share my latest 'must haves' LOL!

Here are my first two



It's my Dad's birthday today and one of the things I love about my dad is his ability to make me and everyone  else around him laugh.  I grew up in a house filled with laughter, good fun and great comedy and I wanted to make him a card that was fun! In the card above I used Art Impressions 'Golden Oldies' Dive In stamp with SU card stock and dsp.  The image is coloured with copics.



This gorgeous stamp is from Stampavie and was too cute to pass up.  The card is a case of one I saw at the HeavenScent stand at the expo.  I've used my Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss some Old Olive card from SU and combined it with some red ribbon and card from PaperTrey Ink.  I also stamped the sentiment on the ribbon with my palette ink.

That's all I've got finished for now, but I don't think I can resist a Mojo Monday challenge so check back tomorrow for more!

hugs

Kiss Challenge

You'd think a 'Keep it Simple, Sweetie' challenge from Pals Paper Arts would be easy , right?  Nope, it took ages! I just couldn't decide what to do.  I'm so used to multiple layers, ribbon and papers that the idea of 'simple' gave me stage fright:-) Anyway once I decided it only took 5 minutes to finish. So here it is...

Supplies: SU Polka Dot Punches & On Your Birthday stamps, SU dsp, SU Pink Pirouette cardstock, SU Rose Red ink.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you all enjoy the weekend.

hugs

Friday Sketch Challenge

Just a quick post before I head out the door for work.  I finally got around to finishing my card for Amy Rysavy's Friday Challenge.  I liked the layout so much I made two...so here are my creations and the original sketch from Amy in case you want to play along! You can visit Amy's blog here.

It's a real mix of stamps and supplies for these cards! On the button card, the flower is a Whipper Snapper stamp I've had for forever. As for the paper, I've had it for so long I can't remember who they're by...oops;-) The cardstock and circle stamp (circle circus) are from Stampin Up.

The Owl card is SU paper, card and ribbon. The stamps are from Kelly Pannaci/Sandylion. I've coloured the bird and owl with Copics.

Check back later, I've got a cute little Lily & Milo image that's almost finished.  So I'll be sure to upload later today.

Til next time

Introducing Popcorn

It's been a few days since my last post but some weeks are just crazy busy and this was one of them.  I did manage to get a my hands on some new stamps and I finally got the chance to play with them last night.  This cute little guy is Popcorn...how sweet is he?? I've been looking for a really nice bear to colour and I finally found one. I just love him! I kept the card nice and simple - kraft cardstock with some patterned paper and faux stitching.

I'm off now to get a start on Amy R's latest sketch.  After telling Bron I was going to do it last night, I totally lost my mojo!  Be sure to check out Bron's take on the sketch here, her Sarah Kay card is awesome.

hugs

This stamp rocks!

I had a workshop last night that was all about Versamark and the many things that can be done with it. I created the card below to show four of those techniques.   The workshop was a group of mums  so I decided on  'Just Jawing' to create a fun kids card.

I've used Orchid Opulence as the main card front and added a basic black layer over the top.  To this I stamped SU 'Gratuitous Graffiti' in versamark and clear embossed.

Next, I wanted to show how to emboss with dye (fast drying) inks.  Firstly I inked my stamp with versa and then with my dye based ink; in this case basic black. The versa extends the drying time and allows the clear embossing powder to stick.  Once heat set, you're left with a crisp, embossed image in the colour of your choice.  The real benefit here is the ability to emboss in a range colours without the need for slow drying inks or coloured embossing powders.

The next technique involved using chalks to colour an image. I stamped the sentiment in versa and simply dabbed chalk over the image to colour it. This is fantastic if you're new to stamping and don't have a huge selection of inks.  Buy a small pack of coloured chalks and you're ready to go!

Finally I stamped the bow image on orchid opulence card with versamark and used heat and stick power to adhere Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Put it all together with a bit of bling and you've got a kids card that rocks!

hugs

Fathers Day

Can you believe I have made some cards BEFORE they're actually needed??  I'm usually rushing to finish them as we head out to the occassion they're needed for but this week I seem to be organised - well with my cards at least ;).

Below are two cards I created for Father's Day. I really struggle with male cards. What colours?? Is it too girly... yada, yada,yada! So for these I stuck to the basics...blue, brown and when in doubt throw in a sailboat!

I'm happy with how they turned out, hopefully the dads will like them too!

hugs

Super Stampers Christmas Swap

Here is a card I finished yesterday for a christmas swap I took part in.  My lovely upline Karen Woods organises these swaps and I love getting my bundle of cards back in the mail.  It's so nice to see everyone's creations.  Anyway here is my card..the ribbon is a little different because I ran out of baja grosgrain, so for mine I had to improvise!



Supplies: Season of Joy & So Swirly stamps, Baja Breeze & Whisper White cardstock, Whisper White, Baja Breeze and Red Riding Hood ink, Two Way Glue, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Corduroy Button, Round Tab Punch, Dimensonals, Sponge Dauber, White Satin Ribbon.

until next time,

Watercolouring with inks and aquapainter

Hi there, just a quick post before we shoot out the door for Pink.  This is a card I finished for the ESAD cyberstamp.  It's using SU Fifth Avenue Floral and Urban Oasis DSP again but this time I embossed the image and used ink pads and aqua painters to colour the image and used dimensionals to make it pop off the page.

Off to Bron's tomorrow night to make some cards, so check back soon for all the new creations

hugs

I Stink You're Sweet!

Ok, so I mentioned that I was addicted to surfing the web. Tonight is another perfect  example of my how my intention to make a few cards can fly right out the window. It  all started at Makeesha's site, which led to Amy R's to view a copic video, a visit to All That Scraps, a little visit to Stampavie and then back to Amy for this sketch challenge (did I mention I'm  a sucker  for those too??).  So at about 11.00pm I finally got around to starting  something!

Now anyone who knows me, knows I'm not normally a multi colour kinda girl, but  how cool are these papers??  They just arrived yesterday  and although they're supposed  be christmas papers I'm SOO not ready to start with that caper yet!  So for the challenge,  I settled on this cute little image from SU's Pun Fun.  The kids just love this set, full of cute little images  that are perfect for their friends birthdays.

For details of the sketch you can visit the very talented Amy R here.  For my card, I've used red cardstock, SU Ski Slope DSP, SU Pun Fun, Copic markers and white brads.

On that note, I should probably think about  getting some sleep. Work in the morning then taking my little girl to her first concert. She's so excited and thankfully for me, it's Pink and not The Pussy Cat Dolls or something really poppy like that (there's only so much a girl can take!)

hugs