My New Fave Embellishment - Buttons...

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a lovely holiday season. I received some lovely Christmas cards - thank you to those who sent these to me. I loved them all.

Before Christmas I went on a button splurge. Lots of colours and shapes and sizes. I was like a kid in a lolly shop. Far easier on the teeth and waist line. Then I had to use them. I started with the fairly generic floral card above but I think the colours make it special.

Then I saw a birdie card by a very talented chick called Karen Thomas over at Luv to Stamp which heavily inspired the following:


And then I came up with this one:


Hope you can visit your button stash and create something with buttons too.

Thanks for looking.

Love from Crafty Kim

Please help us find Winnie Beagle Dog

Hi,

It's with a very heavy heart I write this post. Some of you will know that I am part of an animal rescue group called Beagle Rescue NSW (also on Facebook).

One of our foster carers has lost one of her own much-loved beagles. Sheryl and Bec live at Captains Flat near Canberra & a week or so ago when there were very bad storms down that way, Winnie & Buffy beagles escaped. Buffy came back the next morning but Winnie has not been sighted since.

They have searched wide and far on foot, motorbike and car then placed an ad in the paper & contacted the Pound & vets in the area but no joy. It is possible she has been picked up and moved out of the area hence the campaign to spread the word far and wide.

Please pass this message on to anyone you think may be able to help. Above is a photo of Winnie - everyone please pray and/or cross everything that she finds her way home.

Please email enquiries@beaglerescuensw.org.au or phone me on 0402 347 010 if you have any news.

Thanks for reading and if possible, acting to spread the word.

Love from Crafty Kim

Christmas Ornaments

Just popping in quickly to show you this cute fella with his baubles. I coloured him up to match the decorative paper and used a jumbo eyelet and ribbon to jazz-it up. Greeting and two punches later, it was done. Voila!

Hope your Christmas-card making is more advanced than mine! Instead of making cards, I've been trying to clear out some household bric-a-brac and I'm on quite a roll. But do you think I can find anyone to take a large box of quality toys? We're not talking incomplete/lost/broken here, but good stuff. These days many charities accept only new items. Our toys just want to be loved and played with. To suit toddlers, a mix of boys and girls stuff. So if you're local to me (North West Suburban Sydney) and can use them, they're all yours. Just email me or leave a comment.

Back to card-making soon; my son finishes his current school year next week and the kids exchange cards and treats so I need to magic up 20+ items real soon.

Love from Crafty Kim

Polar Bear

Like the icy blue polar bear? Nothing could be further from Christmas in Australia but I still love these snow scenes and images. One day I hope I'll enjoy the novelty of a White Christmas, 'til then I'll make the cards for my Northern Hemisphere friends.

My photography isn't up to showing you but there are tiny dots of glitter at the bears' paws and on his purple-and-green scarf.

Thanks for stopping by,

Love from Crafty Kim

Gingerbread Hugs

Back to Christmas cards. I love gingerbread; to stamp and colour that is, not so much to eat (I'm more of a shortbread girl). I've had this gingerbread stamp and matching sentiment for a long time so I coloured it up. I used a glossy accent on the hearts in the centre of the little men. I decided to continue the heart theme - what I really wanted was a heart embossing folder but nothing suitable in my stash so I made do with some heart punches.

I've loved the loopy border punch since I first spied it. Christmas cards need something sparkly so I added some small rhinestones to selected loops along the border. Some ribbon finished it off nicely.

Thanks for looking.

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