Anchors Aweigh

When I saw this brilliant sketch from Freshly Made Sketches I knew I wanted to use it in a nautically themed card for my MIL.  Married to a naval commander for over 50 years, the sea is very much a part of her life.  Even now she refuses to fly and will only travel by ship.  I chose this sentiment from the WMS Safe Harbour Sentiments and my husband wanted the anchor image from WMS Ocean Bound included.  Rather than another pennant, I replaced it with two knotted strands of red and white baker's twine.  The stripes on the top were cut with the Papertrey Ink Chevron Stripes Border die.

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to comment.
Kate

Glossy Accenting

This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is 

LOVE THIS TECHNIQUE

Applying Glossy Accents is definitely one of may favourite techniques - I love the shine and the depth it gives to an ordinary die cut.  Sprinkling a little glitter while it's still wet will also give a little sparkle and who doesn't like a little sparkle. 

Here I've applied Glossy Accents and sparkle to some stars and a chevron strip.  I've popped up the large star on an acetate spring (made simply by cutting and bending a thin strip of acetate packaging).  I came up with this idea a few weeks ago and it's definitely becoming another favourite technique to make die cuts pop (quite literally).  The spring folds flat for postage but pops up and wiggles when opened.

The stamp used for the sentiment panel is from Waltzing Mouse Stamps Man of the Hour.  I selectively inked up various parts of the stamp using Sellotape and stamped these separately (using WOW! Mandarin and Blueberry embossing powders and Salty Ocean Distress Ink) to build up the complete sentiment. The beauty of clear stamps is you can line them up perfectly.  Not sure I love this technique - it's a bit fiddly but I wanted to use more than one colour and I couldn't think of another way except for cutting up the stamp (sacrilege I know but I have been known to do it).

I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

DIE CRAZY

I'm also entering this card in the current Male Room Challenge to use neon colours

Thanks for stopping by,

Kate

K-uhu-l Card

My friend Jo makes these adorable stuffed animals and today Simon gave one to a friend of his from school.  Lexy's owl was actually blue (that's her favourite colour).  Jo is terrific, she made one in blue with only 2 days notice.  Unfortunately I didn't have time to take a photo of it but I do have a silver one I photographed previously.

 I made a birthday card for Lexy to match using a very old Sizzix Original Owl die. I coated his wings and feet in Glossy Accents and sprinkled them with glitter.  His eyes and beak were also "Glossily Accented".  I sat him on a branch cut with the Spellbinders Cherry Blossoms set, and double mounted that using the WMS Stitched Rectangles and WMS Scalloped Stitched Rectangles.  I cut Lexy's name using the WPlus9 Folk Art Alphabet and popped the letters up on small acetate "springs" and made a little computer generated sign for the owl to hold - Uhu is a German word for owl.

This week's Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is Die Crazy, so I'm entering over there.

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment,

Kate

Cock-a-doodle-doo

Here's a fun card I made for a very dear friend who turned 50 last July but is celebrating this milestone tomorrow night with a country and western style party.  I'm taking a chance posting this tonight but I'm hoping she's far too busy with party business to check out blogland.

I don't have much in the way of country and western, but I hope this WMS Chicken Wire Background will pass muster.  Her surname is Koch so I knew I had to have a rooster in pride of place - this handsome cockerel is from WMS French Country.  The cock-a-doodle-doo sentiment is from a Freebie stamp from Craft Stamper.  

I generated the inside sentiment using Burnstown Dam font.

If you're wondering about those digits, here's a close up.

As you can see I attached acetate "springs" to the 5 and 0.  They fold flat to go into the envelope but then pop up again when opened (I hope).

I'm entering this card in Darnell's NBUS Challenge #5 as there are several NBUS items here - the Chicken Wire background, the French Country cockerel and the craft stamper sentiment.

Freshly Made Sketch #203 gave me the idea to mount the cockerel inside a frame and to attach the sentiment to the left of it.

And Seize the Birthday has an Anything Goes challenge (as long as its a birthday card) so I'm entering over  as well

Thanks for stopping by - especially if you take the time to comment,

Kate

For my Super Dad

I have been thinking about this card for a long time and I bought the WMS Man of the Hour set in May with the intention of making something special for dad back then.  The trouble is that thinking about my dad makes me feel so sad and it's severely affected my mojo.  He's 12,000 miles away but because of dementia he's even further away than that.  My poor mum can't manage any more after he had a fall and he's been in a nursing home for the past three months.  I would have loved to visit him through the summer but my own wee lad hasn't been well enough to travel as he has had yet another medication adjustment to try and control his epilepsy and he's been struggling to deal with it.  Hubby's been working away from home a lot so there was no question of travelling without him.  

I wanted to make a card to sit on dad's bedside table so that anyone who didn't know him before would know just how wonderful he is.

The main inspiration for this card is the wonderful Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 5 challenge.  I've bought so much over the last few months - about time I used some of it.

I was inspired by this brilliant Mojo Monday Sketch 414.  

Also by CTD359

And probably most importantly by this week's Muse Joan Bardee.  Joan's card reminded me of the sentiment I had been "thinking about" for dad and her message gave me just the kick in the pants I needed.

This photo of my dad taken on Anzac Day last year gave me a little more inspiration as well.  I tried to make my sentiment panel look like a medal of honour such as those he's wearing here.

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a message,

Kate