Scrabble Card

This is the card I made for my friend [no prizes for guessing her name ;) ] who is very keen on Scrabble. The Scrabble-themed paper pretty much does it all. And I was running late by errr, a few months, so I kept it simple but took the time to decorate the inside too:

Well this post has to be very short but sweet (I hope) as the hour is late and the work day tomorrow is rushing up at me at high speed.

Thanks for looking.

Love from Crafty Kim

Soccer Mad

Got a soccer-crazed person in your world? I've got several! Recently my son went to a joint birthday party for two of his friends (great idea - why didn't I think of that?). It was hosted at an indoor soccer venue. It was the usual pre-party rush so I kept it simple. I enjoyed using my new background stamp (I'm a sucker for background stamps). It is called "envelope" or some such. I was thinking more like "criss-cross" but it is named after the blue printed lining of business envelopes. Ring a bell for you? Anyway, whatever it is called, I like it.

So, two colours for two boys, along with co-ordinating envelopes:



Thanks for looking,

Love from Crafty Kim

Yellow Poppies for Mum

Well today has been pretty grey and damp in Sydney town. Bit like the June day my mother's birthday fell on this year. My brother chose a restaurant on the ocean to celebrate the occasion with a family dinner. It would have been a lovely place to gaze at the sea had the wind not been swirling and the rain pelting against the windows and shades. Not to worry, we enjoyed the meal regardless.

Yellow is my mother's favourite colour. I bought this Poppy stamp set after being inspired by Jules' red poppy cards HERE. I'm going to try some red poppies in time for Rememberance Day in November. I've been eyeing off the large scallop border die for some time and decided it was time to give it a go.

I decided to decorate the inside and envelope as well:

I still have two more Asian cards to share when I get a chance. Blogger has been having some issues and between work and school holidays, there's not much blogging time but thanks for visiting, always appreciated.

Love from Crafty Kim

A Pink Hippo Card

Remember this card? Well I re-fashioned it to suit my niece for her 3rd birthday.

The pink, grey and green colour works well and I used a loopy edge border punch and a number embossing folder to add some fun. Had to add the die-cut "3" because like all three year olds, she is very proud to reach this milestone (she wants to catch up to my son, her 9 year old cousin).

And, her Mum, being a keen cake decorator made her this lovely purple and orange Dora cake:


Looks too good to eat!

Hope you're sneaking in some craft in this rainy weather. Hoping you don't have to go out all weekend.

Love from Crafty Kim

Forty and Fabulous

Or is it "Forty and Still Naughty?". Maybe "Forty and Foxy?". What about "Forty and Sporty?" The age of 40, there's quite a few possibilities...enough philosophy I hear you say, what about the card?

I made this for my much older friend (not). Pulled out every number stamp set I own and stamped fours and zeros on some decorative paper which resembles book pages. I was going for a slightly vintage/shabby chic look on this card so didn't heat emboss - decided to go with varying ink coverage.

Then I got my dotty embossing folder out and ran the vanilla card stock through my Big Shot. Two ribbons (why stop at one?) and I settled on "Forty and Fabulous" for the sentiment. And I love the die cut doily behind the sentiment, really makes the card in my humble opinion.

Do you like the little roses?

I got these from a lovely stamping friend in the USA.

Last, I made a matching envelope:


Well, better get to bed. Tomorrow I'm off to stamp camp with my crafty friends for two days of paper-crafting. So I should have plenty to share in the next fews weeks. But first, I have to rest up from packing my supplies into my station-wagon (it's a squeeze).

Thanks for visiting,

Love from Crafty Kim

Autumn Birthday Card

Here I am with a very speedy post :D It's not like me to be so brief but small or nothing is the order of the day.

I made this card for a dear friend of mine who hails all the way from Canada. Hence the maple leaf which was one of the first stamps I ever bought about 8 years ago.

And then this gorgeous autumn weather, with the sun shining through the deciduous trees, set the colour combination.

Lots of sponging, some more stamping, leafy paper, twine and do you like the branch border? Thought it perfect for this card.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you're keeping warm and getting a chance to enjoy the festival of falling leaves.

Love from Crafty Kim

Blokey Cards

Cards for blokes, bit tricky aren't they? Some might contend it's not worth spending much time making cards for the significant males in our life but I like to think it's worthwhile.

My first card (shown above) is inspired by a current paper-crafting trend, hot air balloons. I don't have any balloon stamps so pulled out some spotty paper and put my punches to use. I used dies to cut the clouds and sun and made my own tag with computer-generated sentiment (perfect for when you know what you want to say but don't have the stamp to match).

The second card is to appeal to the home handyman. I also love the bright colour combination. The card elements come mainly from the decorative paper along with some rub-ons but I've dry-embossed the black panel with a tool folder (in the Big Shot) and sanded the paper to make the raised images more pronounced. A home-made sign completes the card :)


This one is my attempt at vintage card, designed for the "young at heart". It's a style that doesn't come easily to me by I think I've pulled it off. I love those cogs. And twill, with metal embellishments, all great for guys. I "aged" or "distressed" my card using Glad Wrap and an ink pad (as an alternative to using a sponge). It's a good if your sponge is missing in action. The little clock face is cut-out and popped up too, although you can't really see it in the photo. I also love the colour combination (yes, another one); rustic red-brown (Cajun Craze in SU! speak) is one of my favourite colours.

Lastly something for the petrol-heads...vroooom. I tried what is termed "motion stamping" which is basically repeat stamping without re-inking in between. Or stamping in a progressively lighter-coloured inks. Each time you shift the image across and up or down (away) from the original image. See those large silver brads, I wanted to put them in the centre of the wheels, thought that would look very cool. But I was advised by the MOTH (man of the house) that it wouldn't be correct. Given he is representative of the target audience, I relented and put them on the side instead. But I wasn't alone in thinking this wheel placement of the silver brads was a good idea, my talented friend, Fiona Redknap (go check out her blog, she's been posting up a storm lately), made the same suggestion to me without any prompting. Note for the keen stampers, motion stamping works best with rubber stamps rather than acrylic - they just stamp-off so much better.

I have this long list of ideas for male cards if anyone is interested to receive it? Just leave a comment with your email address or email me and I'll email you the file.

Just looked at the time, off to bed for me. Hope you're keeping snug and warm in this chilly Sydney-town if you live in my city.

Love from Crafty Kim

Cricket-Themed Birthday Celebration

Back in February we celebrated my son's birthday with a cricket-themed birthday party for 34 kids. No, it's not a typo, we hosted 34 kids on a warm, sunny Sunday morning. Mostly 9 year old boys. It was a big effort on the part of the grown-ups but the little people had a blast, especially with their water guns to keep cool with. Thanks go to the grandmothers, Sports Kickstart and other parent helpers for their assistance.

Ashley is passionate about cricket and sport in general so there really wasn't any other consideration for a birthday party theme. I made the above birthday card for him in keeping with this theme. The idea for the card came from the inspiring Jayne Mercer. I've used Just Cricket stamps on watercolour paper with markers to colour in the cricket bat. The background grass is from Inspired by Nature - this grass has so many uses, I never knew how much I needed it until I acquired it.

On the day of his birthday, Ashley opened gifts and enjoyed a home-made chocolate cake. It was a quick after-school and post-work effort so I was lucky to find these little cake decorating charms at Woolworths:



Pretty cool heh? But for his party, he wanted a cricket pitch cake. Out came the old edition of Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Cookbook and I started to scope out the job. There were thoughts of coconut tinted green for grass but I was beginning to feel overwhelmed - and the birthday boy objected to coconut ("I don't like it") - so along came Veronika from Sugar Dreams Cake Design who made this beautiful cake:



If you're into cricket, you'll note the play on words with Ash's Cricket (versus Ashes Cricket).

In my next life, I'm going to take up cake decorating because it seems like a lot of fun....thanks for stopping by.

Love from Crafty Kim

Flowers on the Fence

I'm back here briefly to show you a card I'd been wanting to make for a long time. It was heavily inspired by Karen Thomas of Luv to Stamp fame (one of my favourite card artists). When I first saw Karen's card, it brought back memories from my childhood - of neighbours' 5 foot timber fences covered with flowering vines. These days fences tend to be taller and the tops not so much in the line of a child's vision. I've pretty much CASE'd Karen's card, save a few changes due to not having the same supplies/tools.
I've used a woodgrain timber embossing folder and Tag Punch to imitate the fence. I sponged white ink over the embossed card to accentuate the texture. The butterflies, leaves and flower petals are cut from dies; in the case of the flowers, I've used multiple layers of tissue paper, all scrunched up, similar to this card. A greeting from Teeny Tiny Sentiments (so handy, if you only buy one sentiment stamp set, this is THE ONE) and the Word Window and Modern Label punches along with some Always Artichoke ribbon finishes it.

Thanks for popping by...

Love from Crafty Kim

Cupcake Card

It's been a busy two weeks but I did promise to show you a card made using products from the new Stampin' Up! Autumn Mini catalogue. This card was designed by Jayne Mercer and I made it at our team training.

It uses the new stamp set, Create a Cupcake, and the co-ordinating punch, Build a Cupcake (both of these are shown on page 12). There are lots of extension ideas for this punch. It can be used to make clouds, ice creams and hot air balloon baskets among many other items. Click HERE to see what Clare Mcilhatton (Crafty Cow) has created with this punch.

The above card also uses a new BigShot border die called Tasteful Trim. I love the big scallops and the rick-rack borders.

On the subject of catalogues, you might be interested to know that there are some carry-over products from the Summer Mini which finished on the 31 March. Click HERE for more details.

If I'm not back here before Easter Sunday, wishing you all an enjoyable extended Easter break, choc-full of crafting.

Love from Crafty Kim

Punch Art Animal Cards

I do love my animals and my punches so....punch art animal cards are a natural outcome of this. Above is my lady bug card, with thanks to my friend Frances for her gift of the black rick-rack (ribbon) - the card wasn't the same without it.

And with Easter on the horizon, I got busy and made this:

And possibly my favourite card of this batch was this one:

With thanks to another Kim (Score) for the hippo inspiration.

Thanks for dropping by, I'll be back with more soon so please visit again soon.

Love from Crafty Kim

Cricket Card Inspired by Coke Zero

One Saturday morning, I found myself in a hurry to make a birthday card for one of my son's friends ahead of his party. Like Ashley, this kid is into cricket. I spied a can of Coke Zero in the kitchen as I tidied up after breakfast...and so I copied the relevant graphics from the can and came up with the above card.

Here is the inspiration:


And for the animal lovers out there, here's my furry cricket fan - don't get between her and the bat - just joking...

Thanks for visiting.

Love from Crafty Kim

For The Teacher

My son's teacher recently celebrated his birthday and Ashley was keen for the whole class to celebrate with....cupcakes. 25 banana and chocolate iced cupcakes later I decided to answer the call to use some of this school-days-themed-paper. There really wasn't much to do - the paper did the job for me.

And I decorated the envelope with a old stamp I have which depicts the joy of children's smiles and inside, in keeping with the learning theme, I stamped with a "birthday" definition stamp:

I'm sure the kids' barely noticed the card but the teacher did write a nice note in the homework diary for me :D

Thanks for stopping by to look at my cards.

Love from Crafty Kim

Clowning Around

This is the card I made for my youngest nephew's first birthday. In keeping with the circus theme for his party. And look at the wonderful cake his clever and talented Mum made:

The bar for family birthday cakes has been raised hugely....really had to get my cake-making act together for Ashley's 9th birthday.

And while on things circus, Ashley attended another circus-themed party in December. It was held at a circus school in Hornsby. Pretty impressive. I was in a mad rush to make this card and to me it needs more colouring-in but I remember that day I was packing to go away on holidays, Christmas shopping, setting up the house/pets for my Mum to mind, attending a carols-by-candelight service at St James Anglican Church in Turramurra ahead of driving 5 hours up the Coast in the evening (and of course, my husband had already gone) so this was as good as it got:

If you want to see a truly fabulous card made with this same stamp, please visit one of my favourite card-makers, Paula Tracy, with her pencils. Here's a sneaky peek but click on the picture to see the whole card and visit Paula. Be sure to leave her a comment.

Well I'm enjoying having time to post this week. But I'm due to make cards for my next class and it's only one down, two to go at this stage but better get back to it before school is out.

Thanks for dropping by,

Love from Crafty Kim

Soccer Boy

This was a card made in a hurry. No time for fancy stuff. But I reckon the image and background paper are big enough stars to pull it off.

I got this stamp from my friend, Julie. It really suited the occasion because Ashley's friend had a soccer-themed birthday party. Picture about 20 boys running around a soccer field. Then came a thunderstorm but the kids quickly adapted the soccer game to a water bomb site. One child proclaimed it to be the "best party ever".

Ashley is off at another party today in this Sydney heat. I left him slipping and sliding along a sheet of plastic sprinkled with water and soap. It's a pretty good life for an 8 year old boy in our end of the world. This time he made the card for the party boy so I'll be back at some stage to show you his work.

Happy Hot Sunday in Sydney and thanks for visiting.

Love from Crafty Kim

A Mini-Beastly Card

My son and his class mates have been working on a Mini-Beast (whatever happened to the word Invertebrate?) project for the past month. Last Friday was the hand-in and present date which saw the teacher hosting two redback spiders, a scorpion and a jar of Mosquito wrigglers for the day. The kids were very excited...

During the preparation period, one of Ashley's school friends celebrated his birthday so I thought a Mini-Beast theme would appeal. This card was inspired by a creation from the very talented Karen Thomas. It's a very simple but cool idea to use two different circle punches to make a magnifying glass. The handle can be hand cut but I used the ever-handy Word Window punch from SU!

I always like to decorate the inside of the card if I have time which is no often as I tend to make these cards on the morning of the party :0


Did you see the button on the card? Well Buttons are my new obsession. I've just taken delivery of a whole stack of them from the US, courtesy of the mighty Australian dollar. Enjoy it while it lasts I say.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope your wet weekend includes some paper-crafting.

Love from Crafty Kim

Skateboard Dude

Here is another boy card I made. I've used a draggin' stamp technique I learnt from the very talented Renée Van Stralen over in Canada land. Make sure you go and visit her hugely inspiring web site, she's one of my favourite stampers ever. She has posted some very helpful tutorials too.

It took a few practice draggin' runs to get the look I wanted but I was really happy with this card in the end. I wouldn't have thought to put purple and orange together with brown (I copied the colour scheme), but I think it works. I was also happy to find a home for these fancy paper clips from my stash.

Hope the coming week goes well for you. Thanks for visiting my corner of the papercraft world.

Love from Crafty Kim

Computer Guy

A quick post today. Here's a card I made for one of my son's friends when Ashley attended his ninth birthday party. I've got a few boy images to colour and use for upcoming birthday parties.

It's interesting looking back at cards no longer in your possession, I often think I should have done something differently. This card is no exception; not sure about the ribbon placement over the black scallops!

Hope your weekend is going well, thanks for visiting.

Love from Crafty Kim

Happy Birthday Andrew

One month and one day after my birthday, a friend celebrated his birthday. I made the above card for him using papers in some of my favourite colours and punches. Lots of sticking-down but apart from that it was very easy and I was chuffed with the end result. Another great way to use paper scraps (click here and here for other ideas).

We had a good night out at Gourmet Pizza Kitchen followed by a memorable walk through a construction zone (don't ask). I was a bit slow to capture the moment with my camera and he wasn't keen to pose so this is the only photo I managed to get:

I've been a very good blogger lately; still more cards to share so pop back when you can. And check out my links (on the right, down) which I've updated - lots of eye candy there.

Love from Crafty Kim

Hot Chocolate

Well Spring is upon us in the southern hemisphere so I'm a bit late posting this wintery card which I made for the occasion of my friend Leanne's birthday. Leanne really feels the cold and has endured a chilly winter while her home has been renovated (meaning part of the house was open to the elements and no central heating). She also loves hot chocolate (like me, she drinks neither tea or coffee).

So this image was perfect for her card. In keeping with hot chocolate, I used cocoa and chocolate coloured paper and card. The pink was only chosen because it goes well with brown and the blue, hmmm, it must have been to go with the jeans.

Anyway, hope you have a warm and sunny day tomorrow whatever the weather is.

Love from Crafty Kim