Thursday, August 25, 2011

The life you love...

One of the Kaszazz slogans is to
'create the life you love with Kaszazz'.

It's a catchy little slogan, and I like it. I wanted to share with you the reasons why I love working with Kaszazz. I've been thinking about this over the past few days, and would love to share my thoughts with you.

1. I love the creative aspect! Yes, I can be creative on my own (that is, not as a consultant), but I love that challenge that being a consultant provides!

2. I love getting creative with other people. Again, I can do this on my own, but running workshops and helping people with their queries gives me such a lovely sense of knowing that I'm helping someone else to be creative! And creativity is such an important part of who we are! We have creativeness built into our being! I love helping others find this creativeness through Kaszazz! To see their faces light up when they realise that I wasn't lying when I said they can create a beautiful card, and then to see them 'take flight' with their craft is such a joyful thing to me!

3. I love the FREEbies! Yes, it's true! I admit it! But, who doesn't love something for FREE?

4. I love paper. Twice a year, I go to the Paperific Expo. Every time I went, I would buy paper. It got to the stage that I had so much paper, I had nowhere to store it! I had to decide a few years ago, that I wouldn't buy any more paper! I actually had to ask my friends who were with me, to stop me from buying copious amounts of paper!

5. I love stamps. You've seen the huge collection of Kaszazz stamps, right? Yes, I do want them all! :B

6. I love inks! I love the texture of them. I love their different uses. I love the many inking techniques!

So there you have it! A few of the reasons why I love working with Kaszazz!
~ Are you following your passion?
~ Are you doing something that you love?

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Favourite Things...

These are a few of my favourite (craft room) things...

1. Bellish Ezy-Press












2. Heat Gun













3. Plastic Containers
This one probably needs a little further explanation! I keep all my small embellishments in little plastic containers, and have everything colour-coded. It's a great way for me to see what I have (otherwise it's 'out of sight, out of mind'), and makes the craft room look colourful, which I love! Being plastic, I'm also not worried if they get broken, and if I'm crafting on the go, all I need to do is grab a container and go!


4. Stamps!











Yes, I am totally addicted to stamps and stamping! I store all my stamps together by theme, so they're easier to find! For a post on the basics of stamping, have a look here.


5. Inks
Because stamps and inks go together like a horse and carriage! For a post on inking, have a look here.


6. Ribbons
They add colour and texture to cards.


7. Laptop and phone
To stay in touch with you through my blog, email, text and phone calls, and when I'm not doing that, to stay up to date with what's going on in the papercraft world, and listen to music, or podcasts!


For my list of what you need to get started as a cardmaker, see this blog post.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

On my mind...

There have been a few ladies on my mind this week, and what better way to let them know I'm thinking of them than with a hand-made card!























There is something very special about getting a hand-made card in the mail letting you know that someone has been thinking of you. I love the way cardmaking makes the recipient feel, and I love making cards knowing the joy they can bring!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Happy Birthday!

Today is my sister's birthday!
Happy Birthday Kat!




















There seem to be lots of birthdays at this time of the year, so here are a few more I've made this week:





















Wishing you a happy birthday if your birthday is around this time!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Colour Charts

Last week one of my customers was trying to figure out which ColorBox Chalk Inks she should buy. She already had some, and loved the way they stamped. The problem was, she didn't know which ones she already had, and which ones she wanted that would compliment her existing collection. I tried in vain looking for a colour chart online similar to the Tim Holtz Distress Ink chart (here). Eventually I decided to create one myself! Now, I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this! In fact, Guest Blogger Distress-D has done something very similar!

So, in the interest of being community-minded, and wanting to save you the hassle of creating a colour chart from scratch yourself, I've included links to the charts I've created! All you need to do is stamp something in the box above the ink name, and you've got yourself a colour chart! Get together with friends with similar inks to complete your chart!

Ink colour charts like these are great for so many things, including matching up with cardstock and project embellishments!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Something new!


Well, it’s been a quiet week here on the blog, but my mind has been very much the opposite! I have some exciting new ideas that I’m working on, and will hopefully be able to share them here soon (just working on the finishing touches)!

In the meantime though, I’ve been enthusiastically encouraging one of my fellow stampers to do some guest posts for me, and I think all my encouraging (I won’t call it nagging) has paid off! This lady does incredible things with all things Distress Ink, but I’ll let her tell you more about herself through her blog posts!

I hope you’ll learn as much from her about Distress Inks as I have!
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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Let's Celebrate!

A young couple we know have recently announced their engagement. To help them celebrate, I made these Congratulations cards.


















The Eclectic Alphabet stamp set makes another appearance on this card! I love how big the letters are, but also how adaptable they are, depending on the colour you stamp them in, and the papers and cardstock you team them with! So versatile!

As the letter are so big, I couldn't spell out 'congratulations', but instead went with 'congrats'. Each letter is stamped in black, then fussy cut. For most parts, I used a pair of scissors, but for the trickier parts, I used the retractable knife - what a wonderful tool! The background is simple (Ebony and Ivory paper on a black cardstock matt) because the letters in the foreground are so busy. I wanted the letters to stand out, and not drown in a busy background.

The red and black heart is from some old paper I had in my stash, and went perfectly with the theme of this card. It added some colour, and filled in the space after the 's'.





















For this card, I wanted something a little simpler. Flowers are so simple, but yet so complex at the same time! For this card I used Colorbox Chalk Ink for a nice finish. The taller flowers symbolise the newly engaged couple. The card has a calming sort of feel to it, especially at this hectic time for a young couple.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Product Review: Clevercut Mini

I've had my sights on this trimmer for a while, and finally decided to order myself one! I'd heard lots of good things about it and decided I needed to try it out myself!


















These are my thoughts on the Clevercut Mini:

  • It's light!
    If you're after a sturdy trimmer for your desktop, this might not be one that you're after.
    I like the lighter weight as it means it'll be easier to carry when I'm creating on the go. A lighter trimmer means more weight for other essentials!
    This trimmer is noticeably lighter than the previous pink Cutterpede trimmers - when I got it out of the box, it's the first thing I noticed!
  • It has three different cutting options in the one cartridge!
    I really liked this feature, and was one of the reasons I wanted this trimmer - it's a three-in-one.
    The wave is small, as is the perforation cut, but I like it! The perforations are noticeable, but not so obvious that your cardstock is falling apart. I think this blade will come in very handy for invitations or other projects that require someone else to 'tear off' a portion.
    As a bonus, to change the blades is very easy. There's no need to take the whole cartridge out - you just flick a little switch on the side of the cartridge and you're done!
  • The arm has no elbow!
    So it doesn't bend. Again, some might think this is a negative aspect, but I like it. I have heard a lot of people complain that the arm on their Cutterpede trimmer has broken at the elbow. Let's face it, it's one of those things that's bound to happen. For that reason, I like that the Clevercut arm has no elbow! It also feels very smooth - the arm extends with ease.
  • It stays together!
    Whenever I pick up my Cutterpede, the cutting arm usually swings up, and it looks awkward. If I remember to pick it up properly, this doesn't happen, but sometimes, especially if I'm out and about, and packing up, I'll just grab it by the base and there goes the cutting arm! The Clevercut doesn't do this. You need to slide your paper under the little plastic guard. While I like that it's a little more secure, I'm not sure I like that I need to slide my paper under the guard. If I wanted to cut more than one piece at a time, I'd be scared that the pages would move. Having said that, perhaps I need to play around with it a bit more! This guard should also hold the paper in place, so I shouldn't need to.
  • It's sleek!
    Or at least as sleek as trimmers get! It's got a very neat little look to it! And let's be honest - we want our stuff to look good!
As my new trimmer only arrived yesterday afternoon, I haven't had a proper chance to play with it yet. These are just my initial observations. I still have my Cutterpede trimmers and unless they break, can't see myself getting rid of them just yet. The Clevercut will be my personal trimmer (unless I need an extra one for a workshop), so I'll have plenty of time to get lots of use out of it! I have a guillotine on my desk, but I love having a personal trimmer beside me as work as it's a lot easier to use, especially for smaller bits of paper.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Have a bright birthday...

Continuing with my recent 'theme' of brightly coloured cards, I needed a birthday card for a friend, so I whipped this card up! At the moment I'm really loving the butterfly stamp, and the eclectic alphabet stamps. They hardly get put away, but rather just sit on my desktop waiting to be used again on another card!
























My thought for this card was to be bright and happy! Because I couldn't spell out 'happy birthday' with the alphabet stamps, I went for three letters per word, which fit perfectly on the card, but also added a bit of a whimsical feel to it.

It seems to be birthday season at the moment, so I'll be posting more birthday themed cards over the next few posts. If it's your birthday around now, happy birthday!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Colours Squared!

This card didn't turn out quite how I expected it to! The picture I had in my head was very different! Like the card in my last post, I wanted to use bright, vibrant colours while still using my scraps.






















To create this card I cut all my pieces of cardstock down into 1.5" squares. I put a few strips of non-permanent adhesive onto a scrap of paper, then arranged them in the order I wanted, with a gap in between each one. Once I had them arrange, I stamped the sentiment in the bottom right hand corner, then stamped the butterflies randomly on the squares.

The non-permanent adhesive is great for projects like this because the elements of your project don't move unless you want to move them!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Life goes on...

Hello again!

I'm back and just want to say a big thank you to everyone for their care and concern over our recent sad news about our dear little Bobby.

Bobby's passing was unexpected and came as a total shock to us. I think this made it harder for us to deal with. I miss him a lot. He had a lovely whistle, and always gave me pleasure to listen to him whistling away to himself. My husband and I would often giggle to ourselves as we lay in bed in the mornings listening to our cute Bobby as he whistled his little tune! The house is very quite since he's been gone.





















This photo was taken of Bobby a few months ago. He loved being near me during the day, and here you can see him sitting on the chair in my craft room as I work. He loved nibbling on paper (anything actually), so he always got my small scraps to play with. It was a bit of a running joke actually – that we both loved paper!

He was a cheeky, but lovable pet, and our lives are richer for having him in them, despite our feelings of hurt and loss now!

This post wasn't meant to be all about Bobby, but I guess now it has turned into a bit of a tribute.

I will be back later with more cards, but for now, I will leave you with a bright and lively card, that I created using some scraps.





















The flowers were cut using the Ezy-Press, which is a great way to use up small bits of cardstock! These colours are lovely and vibrant together - look out for more cards with a similar colour scheme!

The sentiment reads " Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."

Farewell Bobby. We will miss you.