“Gorgeous Posies”

Hi Friends,

I hope you are all going well and keeping safe! I have been busy at work and not much time for craft this week. I was going to join in an online event yesterday but didn’t make it. I decided today I was going to have a play with my new Gorgeous Posies Card Kit!

Also, I had to move my craft stuff out to have our new blinds installed so I decided to move my desk over to the lovely bright window, that I can look out and see the garden. It was great to do some creating today……………………

The kit above comes in the gorgeous box. The stamp set I added for more options to decorate and for the Greetings. It made 16 standard size cards with a few things let over to use on other cards. You also get great instructions for the beginner to get creating straight away with minimal supplies. I mainly used my Tombow glue, the foam dots, scissors, a stamp block, few ink colours and the stamp set.

You can see above the lovely card fronts included to add to the bases, plus the great instructions booklet is easy to follow.

There are lots of pop out die cuts and some sentiment strips all ready to use. It also comes with some gorgeous ribbon and twine. I layered these with our Dimensional foam dots so they sit higher on the cards. and give a layered effect.

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As you can see you can make them as simple or intricate as you like. It is a great kit for all skill levels. I really enjoyed putting these cards together and now I have 16 finished cards to use for friends and family ready to go. I hope you have enjoyed seeing this kit from Stampin’ Up! If you would like any information about the Gorgeous Posies Kit or you would like to purchase one, please feel free to contact me @ kerrismith455@gmail.com or leave me a comment and I can reply to you.

Stay Tuned as I hope to have some more crafty projects on the go during this next week.

Have a great evening, and be safe.

Hugz Kerri x

“New Scrap Space”

Hi Friends,

We are slowly getting back to “normal” here, whatever that is at the moment 😉  We moved on the 3/8 to our new home, just as Stage 3 Covid-19 Restrictions hit us in Regional Victoria, in Australia. I haven’t seen my oldest son for about 5 weeks and I do miss him…… We are nearly all unpacked and able to see the floors!!! Life is really busy with work etc, and its nice to be finally getting settled!

I have had this weekend off so I thought I would share with you what has been keeping me so busy!

I thought you might like a little peek of my new scrap space which is wonderful. We have a living area that is not being used, as I have a dining area in the kitchen 🙂 So, it is all mine!!! I was going to use the third bedroom, but not big enough lol!!! 😉 Noooo…. I don’t have too much stuff 😉  This is looking from the kitchen door into the living area then down to the lounge room.  Yes, I had some helpers!! Trishka on the left and Nitro on the right…………….. There are lots of windows and natural light. I am just waiting on my new blinds to be made which will be awesome!!!

To give you and idea, this door is the entrance from the front door/hallway.

LOUNGEROOM SIDE BEFORE…..

AFTER………

I tried to do one area at a time. This is my desk where I will mainly create. I wanted to use as much wall space as I could do get the maximum storage. I sorted and did a bit more de stashing as I went and it did take a bit more time, but well worth it.  I have my shelf storage and my Raskog Cart well used.

I have two of these shelf units. They are smaller and the best size for storing my ink pads, punches, stamps, tapes and extra supplies I have used Velcro to attach the ink blend foams near the inks, so they are there to use and I don’t have to search for them.

Here I store on my desk my most used supplies. I have my larger tools, watercolour pencils and hand sewing items on the top. There is mainly stamps and cardstock on the second shelf and on the shelves below is paper, adhesives, embellishments and all easy to access. I have a large non stick mat and a small cutting mat to the side.

Right behind me I have my sewing machine set up on my white desk, with my Photo Printer on there as well, ready to go.

KITCHEN SIDE BEFORE…….

AFTER…….

The kitchen side wall is made up of built in shelving and my book cases. I have used all the same furniture that I had. I like using see through storage for as much as I can, plus baskets. The large case I have had for at least 15 years, the light coloured one probably about 10 years and Jj bought me the tall slim one last year. It fits 12×12 storage perfectly.

My large bookcase on the right holds albums on the bottom then smaller albums and Junk Journal books I use. The ring binders house quite a lot of my red rubber and cling stamps. There is also my Stampin’ Up! Paper and cardstock plus other A4 size supplies.

The middle book case shows some of my Journals down the bottom with my spray inks on the left. In the baskets, I have stamps, stickers, ephemera etc.

My tall think bookcase holds 12×12 storage that has paper and junk journal supplies. It also homes my larger cardstock and pattern papers. The light coloured book case holds my smaller 6×6 and 6×8 paper and pad on the top. JJ supplies, paint, my cardmaking supplies also.

I have this area across the room near the window with my Die Cutting Machine set up. The cube shelving house my dies, emboss folders, washi tapes, ribbons and flowers, plus other tools and things. The lovely big window looks out onto the side lawn area. We have a gas heater in this room and the lounge has a split system.

My Ikea Raskog cart which I think I have had about 5 years is the handiest storage. At the moment it has my mixed media supplies (brushes, stencils, paints etc) on it and the magnetic tins are great for holding anything you need.

I may change a couple of things as I go along, so it works for me, but as a whole I am really happy with my set up. It hasn’t happened overnight and I was thinking I was never going to get it sorted again. I plodded along a bit each day in between work and life and finally got it done!!!

I hope you have enjoyed my first post back, even though it was a bit long! Stay tuned as I have a couple of storage solutions to show you next…………..

Happy Crafting

Hugz Kerri x

 

 

 

 

“Watercolour Smoosh Technique”

Hi Friends,

Who loves to watercolor? I do and I have most of today off, so I have been playing with a few different pens and inks, using the Smooshing Technique, which is easy and lots of fun!!

There are some great YouTube videos out there and I decided to do a sort of Step x Step for you.

 

Supplies Needed – Any water-soluble media like pens, crayons, ink pads, mists, etc that you have in your stash. A sheet of clear acetate or any clear packaging would work also, a spray bottle with some clean water, watercolor paper which is designed to hold wet mediums, any stamps or embossing powder you have to use for finished papers. I cut mine to A2 card front size which is approx 14 x 10cms, a non-stick mat or work surface, A heat gun if you have it.

STEP 1 – Using your piece of acetate on your work surface, lay down some different colored inks, mist, etc, then spray with some water. You will see it change or bubble.

STEP 2 – With your piece of watercolor next to you, turn the acetate onto the paper and with your fingers smoosh the ink over the paper. You will see the ink move through the acetate and you can move it to where you want your color.

STEP 3 – Lift the acetate off your paper and you will see the color and water blended on the paper. If you have a heat gun dry it before continuing.  Just watch what colors you put together as some of them will go muddy!

 

STEP 4 – Continue these steps, to add layers of color to your paper until you are happy with the result. You can see above the different layers from letting each application of ink dry.

After I made mine and they are fairly dry I put them under some heavy books or punches which helps flatten them out a bit.

STEP 5 – If you want to you can now stamp with your embossing ink and use whatever color emboss powder you choose on your card front. I had a go with the black and Gold and all of mine are Stampin! Up’© stamps. You can also use these as backgrounds and add some pattern paper and other bits to make them your own 🙂

I created the black watercolour for the background on this one and added some extra stamping and some lace to finish his card off for a black and white challenge for a FB group that I am in:)

This is a fun, quick technique with a great result and for quick cards! I hope you have a go at ‘smooshing” and I would love to see some of your creations also. If you would like any info on the products I used, please feel to message me and I can help you.

Happy creating

Kerri x

 

 

“Beginner Stamping Technique”

Hello, my lovely friends,

I hope you are having a lovely Monday!

Apologies for being a little absent, but I have been flat out with work as I probably told you and my oldest son Cody had a bit of a brush with a kangaroo last Wed nite coming home from work, on his motorbike. I am feeling pretty drained, but the main thing he wasn’t too badly hurt and his bike will be fixed!

In between everything and having most of today off work, I have been trying to get some cards made but not much luck. I thought I would make a One Sheet Wonder to show you, which is great for anyone to use and you can make some quick cards with it.

SUPPLIES NEEDED: 

1.   3-4 Ink Pads in your choice of colors

2.  Some nice white cardstock to stamp on. I always use Stampin’ Up! © Whis[er White in A4 or 12×12 size.

3. Some set/sets of stamps with a few different size images.

 

STEP 1 – With a larger stamp, randomly stamp a few images over the cardstock, leaving a lot of space in-between. I used for this OSW the Floral Essence stamp set which has a few different size stamps in it. I just used ink colours that I thought looked nice together.

STEP 2 – Next I used a few more stamps, a little smaller, with different colours to fill in some of the gaps. Make sure to stamp off the page also, so it is covered around the edges. I used a few stamps from the Pop Of Petal stamp set for this step.

STEP 3 – To finish off filling the sheet of cardstock with stamped images, I used a bee image from a retired set of stamps to fill in the other areas and used two different toned inks. The more stamping you have on your page the better for this technique the better your finished cards will look 🙂

STEP 4 – (optional)  I really like the look of the open images, but I decided to go a bit further and give some of them a tint of colour. Instead of using a water brush to paint over them and draw some of the ink into the open parts of the image, I used a Wink Of Stella glitter pen which gave them a lovely shimmery, bling look. I didn’t use any extra ink on these so it just gave the flowers a soft coloured look.

As I also need to make a few masculine themed cards I thought I would get out my grungy and background stamps and create another sheet using the above stamps.  I just stamped the large Crackle Paint, Handwritten and Birch backgrounds partially over the cardstock first. I then filled in with the smaller images from the Artisan Textures set. I just used random brown and blue inks and layered them for a bit of depth. Backgrounds would have to be my favourite stamps that I use the most, as you can do so much with them.

 

   STEP 5 – Once you have finished stamping your One Sheet Wonder backgrounds, you can go ahead and cut them up to your desired pieces to add to your cards.  Above are a few cutting templates to guide you or you can cut it up as you like.

I found this image on Google just to give you an idea of how you can use your stamped sheet of paper or use a piece of pattern paper also. You can make them Clean and Simple, or add embellishments etc to them. It’s up to you………………….

All of the stamp sets I used can be purchased from me and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me here or over @ my online shop “HERE”

I hope you enjoy my little Step x Step on how to make a quick background, to make some quick cards for your stash, to have on hand.

Stay tuned as tomorrow, I am hoping to create some cards to show you using the two I have made today 🙂

Happy stamping

Kerri x

 

 

 

 

“My Stampin’Up!© Kit”

Hi, my friends,

This last week has been a huge one at work with two of the team away and starting on a new team. I am really enjoying the challenge of the new team but will be happy next week not filling in extra shifts.

My SU Kit arrived, Friday but I have only just opened it! The weather is  as cold and horrible as yesterday, so hoping today to get some craft done

I know not everyone will be interested in seeing what I have received, but for anyone that doesn’t know a lot about Stampin’ Up! ©, here is a little look at what you can pick if you would like to join my team anytime………….

I was able to pick $235 worth of any products that I wanted for $169 and all my catalogs and business supplies are free as well as postage!

The new Annual Catalogue is absolutely gorgeous with so many new products and I am happy to send you one from the warehouse to your door or if you are local I can pop one around to you!  You can also click the catalog image in the sidebar to the right and it will take you to my online shop where you can browse. As I have been a demo before I still have some current products already 🙂

When I first started. I ordered items to enable me to create cards and scrapbook-like stamps, cardstock pattern papers and my adhesive, inks, etc. I am happy to help you even if you are a beginner or a seasoned crafter.

I hope you have enjoyed a little sneak peek at what I am going to e playing with and stay tuned to see the cards I create. Have a lovely Sunday 🙂

Kerri x

 

 

 

“World Card Making Day”

Hi, My Fellow Crafty Peeps!

Sorry for the late post, as I have been working over the weekend and the time has flown!

If you didn’t know October 5th is World Card Making Day!! So… Inbetween work and a bit more gardening I found some inspiration to make Wedding cards yesterday., and still going today also. I have a permanent place with a stallholder at our Murray Street Market and my cards sell quite well. I need to catch up so hence the busy today!!

I am quite happy with my achievement this weekend and I will be making some later in the week also after a few supplies I have ordered arrive 🙂  I tend to forget what I need when I haven’t made them for a while 😦

I like buying my cards pre-cut and scored as this saves me time and wasted cardstock. I have stamped a background base for each of them then, I tore some black cardstock and layered some different laces from my stash on top. I then stamped and fussy cut out different stamped images for the focal points and finished off with a die-cut or stamped sentiment.

It was fun to get my stamps and die cutting machine out and get using them again!

I hope I may have inspired you to get creating this weekend!

enjoy

Kerri x