Thursday, July 05, 2007

The Comfort Zone

I chose this as the title for my new CJ which has just gone off to Ireland for it's first port of call.
Obviously, keeping in with the theme, the natural choice for decorating the cover had to be my comforting Black and White. I decided against adding a splash of colour to the covers and went instead for a bit of sparkly silver.
The fabbylicious ribbon is all from Ribbon Oasis; in fact the wide, sparkly, spotty stuff was my starting point for the rest of it. I made the flower decoration from a couple of different sizes and shapes of chipboard, coloured, covered and sanded and generally tarted up!
The button was a plain white one decorated with some black tulip paint.
I had a total failure with the first title I made so after leaving the whole thing lying around in disgust for a few weeks, I eventually went for a simple, computer generated one - and actually I like the simplicity of it - there's enough faff and fuss with athe ribbon and flower jobbie so it doesn't need any more. Well that's my excuse anyway!

These are the sign in pages at the back. There are 10 people in this circle so I've gone for little folders tied with lots more ribbon this time. I keep counting to make sure I've got enough for everyone. I never trust my aritmetic abilities! Quite chuffed with the picture actually because these are two seperate photos which I've merged together - cor! what a techie I'm becoming - hahaha - not a chance!

It was Em's birthday at the weekend.
Poor love has been working so hard lately for her NVQ, she's had no time to play with paper and ribbons at all - but she's nearly there and I bet she can't wait to come out and play again!
I'd already decided to give her the little maze book I made for the Ribbon Oasis Design Team - it was the coffee and cream one.

This is the card I made for her:
I used those gorgeous We Are Memory Keepers papers again - such wonderful colours, I love those dusty rusty pink shades and the fact that they are all double-sided so you get perfectly matched plains to go with every colour in the patterns.

Still loving doing mosaics too - brilliant for using all those little scraps you can't bear to throw away!
More chipboard here - the flower is covered with paper, triple embossed and an extra layer of kaleidoscope powder in there for a bit of sparkle, the monogram is from the Bubbly Funk shop (get your chipboard there folks, Caroline is specialising in the wonderful stuff, and some of it is BF exclusive too!) - I just covered this with paper and sanded the edges, no embossing or whathaveyou!
Oh I invested in a new set of tools the other week, it's a set of files from Basic Grey (I think), so now I can get into all those tiny corners that used to be really hard to make tidy, definitely worth having if you're rubbish at cutting out like me!
Flowers are Prima Essentials, rest of the bits are from my stash.

Hope you liked the card, Em and that you had a fantstic birthday.
Keep working hard, the finishing post is in sight now!

12 comments:

Angelnorth said...

Lovely stuff Kathy. Particularly like Em's birthday card - you're right, those colours look lovely.

Karva said...

Your CJ arrived and its even nicer in the flesh IYKWIM. :):):)

love the card

Leigh said...

absolutely stunning work! All of it.

Anonymous said...

YOUr neice will love that card and maze book. Love the card, I can't take my eyes off it. Whooo hooo your cj rocks!!! Love the colours you chose and I like how you did the sign in pages, very cute.

Lisa said...

Ok first of all - that CJ is stunning! I love the black and white and the sign in pages are brill! I am in two 10 people cj's at the moment and it is hard work but worth it!

Then Em's book is gorgeous - I love the colours.

And the card is amazing! She doesn't deserve it all you know!

mum-on-the-run said...

Great work Kathy, your CJ looks gorgeous. I just love black and white

Paula J Atkinson said...

Im sure Em will love the maze book for years to come. My boss certainly loved hers.

Im just sorting out my CJ for my team one. I am struggling to decorate it as I keep coming up with different ideas!!!
Like the folders at the back.
I can't decide on tags or doors.

Lynne said...

Em will be over the moon with your lovely creations. They are gorgeous.

Hurry back Em - we miss you.. :)

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous card, I love the colours.

Anonymous said...

Love the look of black and white and it really looks gorgeous as usual Kathy. I've been in a few CJ's which have lasted ten months or so, and its sooo wonderful to have them back again. Have fun with it!

Hazel said...

Absolutely love the CJ, Kathy (and will feel privileged to be part of it when it gets to me). Also love what you did for Em - gorgeous colours.

Sam said...

OH MY GOD ...I love your stuff SOOOOO much!!! You have such fabulous ideas for layouts and use colours so well...such an inspiration!