Outside of the Box

I am very excited to be part of the new Memory Box Design team. I am contributing to the Outside the Box Blog and my first post is today!

I thought I would share a card which I made that is similar but different to the card I am sharing on the Memory Box blog.

The design is very similar but there is one main difference between the two cards. Can you guess?

Products:

• Memory Box - B1181 Periwinkle
• Memory Box - E1036 Blossom Branch
• Memory Box - B1264 Cappa Flourish
• Memory Box - CL133 Little Birdie
• Spellbinders -Nestabilities - Labels 4
• Martha Stewart - Cornice Edger
• Memory Box Pearls
• Versafine - Vintage Sepia, Toffee
• Memento - Rosebud
• Watercolor Pencils
• Ranger Stickles - Fruit Punch

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a wonderful New Year's Eve!

Suzz

Tuesday Trigger - Moxie Fab World

Wow! Two challenge entries in one day... Only because I am on vacation this week could I create two different projects within a day of the challenges. :)

The Tuesday Trigger Challenge on the Moxie Fab World was created by Kazan Clark and inspired by this picture from Coastal Living.

Here is my take on the trigger:

Love the inspiration piece that Kazan created and I probably might try another card which emulates the clean and simple lines. But this morning the inspiration hit to try to capture what inspired the room design.

The background stamp is the new Hero Arts Silhouette Grass. I stamped it in the Versafine Toffee stamp. (I am loving this color more and more) The grass is shaded with watercolor pencil to make it pop on the background. I sponged the background with the Adirondack pool color. The shells, birds and dragonflies are from a new Hero Arts Clear Design set Antique Engravings. The sand is sponged using a dauber and then I added texture and colors using a textured sponge.

The sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms Joys and Sorrows.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Tag Tuesday Challenge #32

Louise's challenge this week is a Happy New Year challenge. The rules allow anything related to Happy New Year... I don't have very many celebration stamps so I decided to use my Cornish Heritage Farms set which has all different time stamps.

The background is sponged using Ranger Distress inks (Spiced Marmalade, Broken China, with a touch of Brown Corduroy). I stamped the images using Versafine - Habenero, Vintage Sepia and Deep Lagoon. The images for the time stamps are all Cornish Heritage Farms and the Flourish is a Stampabilities and the Happy New Year is from Hero Arts.

After I sponged the background I dripped water across the front to give it the watermarks. I also added a few star gems that I colored with my Copic. I felt like I had to have some bling for New Years!

Thanks for stopping over...

Suzz

Wings of Dreams

Just playing around with my new Hero Arts Designblock Silhouette Grass.

I had a labels 8 die cut shape from white cardstock sitting on my desk from another project and decided to create a background.

The background is created by smearing tattered rose on my craft mat and spritzing water on the ink until it beads. Then use your finger to mix up the ink into swirls on the craft mat. Drag your white card stock through it until completely covered. Let dry with something on it to keep it flat.
Stamp the grass using versamark. Stamp the sentiment and birds using a brown pigment ink. Heat emboss using a clear embossing powder.

Sponge over the bottom half of the card with brown dye ink and top half with Ranger Distress Ink Tattered Rose.

Sponge the edges with brown dye ink and around the tops of the grass to give them a shadow.

Tie some twine around attach a button and you are done. :)

Products:

• Hero Arts - Silhouette Grass
• Hero Arts - Old Letter Writing
• Memento - Rich Cocoa
• Versafine - Vintage Sepia
• Ranger Distress Inks - Tattered Rose
• B Line Design Cube - Birds
• Verses - QQ0841-3 Wings of your Dreams
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - labels 8

I forgot to mention my new header. I enjoyed pulling out some of my vintage goodies for my holiday header that I thought I would go rummaging again. The cards leaning up in the background actually have a price tag from Woolworth's on them with 30 cents! I loved Woolworth's when we were growing up, you could always get a great deal. The other set of cards says it is the property of the churches woman's club that my Great-Aunt belonged to. Don't know how my mother ended up with them but glad I have them. My favorite is that little dog and his rug. My mother loved that dog and he always had a spot of honor on her shelf in the kitchen.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Bluebells and more Bluebells

There are a couple of new cling stamps from Hero Arts which are silhouette stamps. I purches the Silhouette bells and wanted to create something based on Jenn B's gorgeous card. I will still have to try that because I ended up with a bunch of different cards using my bluebells but not one used the technique that Jenn did. :)

This is the last one I created. I used watercolor pencils to color in the flowers and stems and added a touch of glitter along the edges.

The stamp is so lovely by itself that I first created a set of cards using nothing but the stamp and a sentiment stamped in a solid color.





You can guess what happened on this card... I stamped off center and had more room at the top. So I compromised and stamped my sentiment on the top.

This is a gift card holder. The card slides in under the picture. The background is a mix of distress inks inked onto the stamp randomly.
The tag slideds out like this:
These two I masked the area and sponged/stamped over the bluebells...


I just wanted to mention that everytime the stamp was used I kept thinking of the old song we used to sing while jumping rope... Bluebells... Cockershells... Evy, Ivy, Over...

Hope you had a beautiful Christmas and are resting up. We had a lovely celebration and I had 15!!!! Copics in my stocking... I think Santa did really well for me.

Have a lovely day!

Suzz

A few more Christmas Cards to share

I received a couple more Christmas cards from my stamping friends...

The first is from Nancy not only is she inspirational in her card making but she is also inspirational in her faith. She sent me this beautiful card:

What is so lovely is she used a muted ink on the background and stamped several images and the colors are so soft and lovely.

The second card is from my friend Lyn... Her daughter Lisa is my best stamping buddy. They both have taught me so much about stamping and techniques. She lives in sunny Florida!

Love the flamingo for a Christmas card.

The last is something I created inspired by these cute pillows from Pottery Barn. Here is my card based on the inspiration picture:
Joy to you and your family this holiday and for all of next year!

Merry Christmas!

Suzz

Tag Tuesday Challenge #31

Louise's challenge this week is a shaped tag. I have this really nice Silhouette which I was lucky enough to win from Hero Arts and QuicKutz. Unfortunately, it does not get enough use. So I went over to my library of shapes and ended up creating three different tags. (I had so much stamping time yesterday! Yeah!)

The first is this stunning design from the Silhouette shapes. It comes cut out and all I did was trace the shape to create a background and glimmer mist the front with candy apple.

I added the little tag on top with the sentiment but like how it looks without the little tag too.

The bird is a new cling stamp from Hero Arts and it is part of the Two Birds Cling set. I also have a EK Success leaf punch that looked very similar so I used it to create a nest for my bird.

The next one is an owl shape which came in multiple pieces all cut out by the silhouette. The owl is stamped using a Cornish Heritage Farms Scrapblock Ledger and then layered with a Hero Arts Flourish stamp. The tummy and eyes are stamped using a Hero Arts Script stamp. I decided to not create a tag with this and use it as a gift card holder and added a pocket on the reverse side.

Louise's tag was so cute and reminded me of the old ornaments you could find on the Christmas tree that I wanted to create something similar and ended up creating this Christmas Tree tag. I used the Jolly By Golly Paper from Cosmo Cricket. There is stamping under the ribbon. (But not much)

Finally... I had to share this. When I carried the tags over to take pictures I set them down and started with the beautiful flower shape and when I looked over the tree was sitting on the owls head and looked so much like an elf hat that I had to take a picture of it!

I think he looks so serious and has this goofy Christmas hat! I hope you enjoyed the tag show. I didn't list all the stamps but if you would like to know, drop me a line. I am always happy to share product lists.

Well today my children are having friends over to make sugar cookies... Lots of flour, sprinkles and frosting everywhere! So I don't think there will be too much stamping going on unless maybe later..

Have a wonderfully frosty day!

Suzz

So lucky....

To have friends like this....

I have been puppy guarding the mail box.... (New term I learned from my kids while playing tag - Their definition is you can't stay by base and wait for someone to get off the base to tag them). I have been waiting for a few things to come in the mail and was so happy last night as I received two packages and several cards.

This first one is from Kiara I wasn't expecting this and it is gorgeous! Love her elegant style. She is the master at mixing elements so beautifully together.

The next package I received was from Jacqueline. Love her style! She makes such beautiful dreamy and softly elegant cards. I was so excited because it was a package of goodies. I am sharing her cards and tags but there were other lovely gifts too!

I love the unusual shape of these tags and all the gorgeous details. (These came in the box below and I have to admit I sat and looked at all of these for quite some time)
Here are two more of the gorgeous tags which she won the challenge over on the Hero Arts blog with:

Stunning!

This was the cute box she sent them to me which she even stamped a cover for!

and then to top it off she also sent me one of her lovely vintage Christmas cards!

Love this color combination along with her layering of the different papers. She always using such pretty muted colors. These look a little bright because I doctored it after taking my picture to try to give the cleanest picture.

Thank you Jacqueline and Kiara....

Suzz

Tag Tuesday Challenge #30

I am a little late on this tag. :) Louise will have her new challenge posted tomorrow. So this is right at the deadline. The tag challenge this week is to use punches on the tag somewhere.

The background stamping is a new cling stamp from Hero Arts called flowing flowers and leaves. I paired it up with the CB folder and they look very similar in style. My punching is the little butterflies. I have 2 sizes from Marvy Uchida and they are great as accents.

Thanks for stopping by...

First time for me that I have everything done for Christmas.. Even did my grocery shopping this morning early. Very nice to not be rushing around. (Doesn't mean I won't run out for something at the last minute though!)

Suzz

Gift Card Holder

The Hero Arts Blog Challenge for this week and next is gift card holders. I decided to use up a labels 8 shape sitting on my desk to create the gift card holder and then attach it to a card.

The gift card sits in the labels 8 shape and I tied a ribbon around it to be the accent on the top and to allow them to pull it from the slot. This is what it looks like when the gift card is removed.

The background is created using two Hero Arts stamps. One is from a Christmas Borders Clear set and the other is a Poinsettia stamp. The leaves are stamped using Memento Bamboo Leaves and the flowers are stamped using Versafine Toffee.

The tag sentiment is Amuse and is inked up partially several time to make it fit my circle tag.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Cracked Glass

This was inspired by an ornament I saw online where they had the picture under a layer of glaze. These are some of the new stamps from Hero Arts. I went out yesterday and picked up some of the new sets. The rose comes with two beautiful sketched birds. The butterfly is part of a clear set called Antique Engravings and it has other butterflies, dragonfly and shells.

After I applied the yellow dye ink background, I wish I had chosen another color but once it was down I had to keep going.

The main panel was stamped in memento and the flowers were colored with my Copics. I then stamped the butterflies and dragonflies and used my watercolor pencils to color them. The background is sponged with yellow dye ink and around the edges with brown dye ink.

I than stamped the entire image with versamark watermark ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I repeated that process 4 times and then cracked it. I then applied a layer of brown dye ink and wiped up the excess.

The rest is just piecing the background together.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Holiday gift cards or containers

This weeks challenge over at the Hero Arts Blog is to create a card containing a gift. I have been so busy this week that I didn't have much time to play. But I had this sitting next to my garbage waiting to be recycled.

and I got an idea for a little card/container for a gift that looks like this:



The intent was to make a swinging card front that opens to reveal the center where you can store some goodies. (I intend to put a bracelet).

After I took the picture I cleaned up the rough edges with a nail file. Colored it brown with a permanent marker.

I also wanted to see how it would look with a bow... So I added a bow and took this picture:




I think it is nice either way.

Recipe:

1. Pull off top and bottom of spool. Trace onto paper of choice. You will need 3 to cover inside and out of top and bottom. :)
2. Die Cut using pendants nestabilities the Fleur De Lis pieces.
3. Stamp tree and bird on cardstock using pigment ink.
4. Stamp background script using versamark. Heat emboss using clear embossing powder.
5. Sponge yellow dye ink over background. Sponge brown dye ink around edges.
6. Attach fleur de lis pieces around the top. Attach stamped image over the border.
7. File edges of circle frame on spool to remove excess glue and cardboard. Color frame edge using marker or ink pad.
8. Plan for your brad to stick into the edge of the ribbon center. (I made a mistake and had to use a foam dot to attach my swing top. I also used a glue dot on my brad tip to add additional stickiness in holding it into the frame. Poke hole through frame and top and attach with brad.
9. Cut a strip of cardstock to size to wrap around outside of spool and another for inside. I stamped on the inside piece.
10. Cut circle for center inside and stamp sentiment. Attach to bottom.
11. Cover bottom with cardstock on both top and bottom. Re-Attach to frame.

Hope you enjoyed this. I was pleased with the results and would like to re-do another one now that I have learned a few things along the way.

Suzz

Lovely Pinks and Browns

The inspiration for this card is this new paper from Memory Box. I love the pinks and browns. They are so pretty together.

The birds in the nest are new from Memory Box as well. They are stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia and cut out. I colored them using my Prismacolor pencils and added a little accent from my gel pen.

Products:

• Memory Box - (6 x 6 Gossamer)
• Memory Box - D1315 Nesting Birds
• Versafine - Vintage Sepia
• Vintage Lace & Button
• Twine
• Uni-Ball Signo Gel Pen
• Spellbinders - Nestabilities Label 8
• Memento - Rich Cocoa
• Prismacolor Color Pencils

Hope it is warmer by you. We are in the teen's and it is really chilly outside.

Suzz

Fishing on Valentine's Day?

This is the card I was working on for my January Memory Box Class...

You pull out the string and there is a little note of love!

I made a little pocket on the inside to store the letters. They can than just pull the fish out and find their little note.

I am very excited to have been selected to be part of the Memory Box Design/Instructors Team. So expect to see more wonderful Memory Box stamps and papers!

The little hearts and middle size tree are part of the new Memory Box Release for Valentines day. The papers are gorgeous and I hope to show you a few of them as I build up a few more cards for my January class.

The penguin is also a Memory Box penguin. I changed his appearance to fit my fishing. The fishing rod is one of their cute stamps and made me think of ice fishing.

My grandpa took us grandkids out on the ice after they had drilled the hole and let us try fishing. What I remember is that it was very cold and when you did get a bite it was really hard to bring the fish in as you had to pull it up through the ice which was very deep.

Sorry I have been away for so long, but I have this cold that I can't shake and busy getting ready for the holidays.

Hope all is well with you and your families.

Suzz

Tag Tuesday Challenge #29

I know I said I was done with tags... But Louise has the weekly tag challenge and I enjoy participating. So one more tag this week. The colors for this challenge are Teal, Wine, and Blue. She is kind enough to let us select the hues of the colors we use.

I was thinking of how to incorporate the colors together and I thought of wool knit mittens we had as children.

I first hand drew the shape of the mitten. (would have been helpful if my little one were around or had mittens in the house) I think it looks pretty close to the correct porportion. The background was stamped using StaZon Teal blue ink and the Hero Arts Dots and flowers Designblock stamp.

I added a dot in the center of each flower using my blue watercolor marker. The edges are sponged with stonewashed blue.

The buttons and ribbon are a burgandy color but unfortunately when photographed they reflect the highlights. The other button is a nice deep blue which looks like black in the picture.

I hope you enjoyed my little mitten tags as much as I enjoyed making them.

Products:

• Hero Arts DesignBlock - Dots and Flowers
• Adirondacks - Stonewashed
• Watercolor Marker
• Lace, Buttons, Twine, Ribbon - Unknown
• StaZon - Teal Blue
• Versacolor - Burgandy
• Hero Arts - Holiday Messages

Thanks for stopping by...

Mitten update... I am like the kittens... I have lost my mittens...

Due to the Christmas decorations being put up, I have had to move my shadow box where I take my pictures onto the floor in the other room. I sometimes leave my project in the box until after I clean up and load in case I need to take another picture. Unfortunately my puppy who is almost a year old was very quiet while I was typing away in here. Yep.. She was having a feast on my lace, twine, ribbon and buttons. I don't even want to think about where they went. So my poor mittens are destroyed.

Suzz

Our Christmas Card

This is our family Christmas card or at least half of them. I usually like to have 2 different cards to send out to our family and friends. This is one of them.

I had this idea to use this stamp and color it and then take it to our local copy store and replicate it to save some time.

The stamp is from Serendipity Stamps. I used my copics to color the main images and sponged the edges with Memento Soft Plum.

Products:

• Serendipty Stamps
• Memento Soft Plum
• Copics
• Ranger Stickles - Crystals
• Nestabilities - Labels
• Cuttlebug Embossing Folder - Snowflakes

Going to be a little slow on the creativity this week as I am working in another town in all day meetings which means long commute times. :(

Thanks for stopping by..

Suzz

Last of the tags for now!

I didn't use up all my tags but did finish off a few more this evening. I also finished the second design for our family Christmas Card which I will share tomorrow.

The first tag was a little tag that I just got as part of a bundle of paper I purchased at my LSS. They hold a quarterly garage sale. This is the first time I went over to check it out. It was really fun. People sign up and pay to sell their stamps, supplies they want to purge. I went with a friend and we picked up some good deals. This was a tag intended for a wedding. I strategically placed my bow and flower to cover up the wedding bells printed on the tag.

Such a simple tag to create and so pretty. I can't wait to put it on a present.

The second tag was stamped with water and distress inks for the script in the background. The birds and poinsettias stamp from Hero Arts was stamped using Versafine Toffee. I added additional colors using my color pencils to give some shading and definition.
Products:

• Hero Arts - Birds and Poinsettia Designblock
• Hero Arts - Old French Writing
• Hero Arts - Holiday Messages
• Watercolor Pencils
• Ranger Distress Inks - Shabby Shutter, Broken China
• Versafine - Toffee
• Hero Arts - Lace Flower Cluster
• Pink Embossing Powder
• Versafine - Olympia Green

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Tags and More Tags....

Here is the parade of tags...

Tag # 1 - A stylish orange and green background accented by velvet and felt snowflake.

Tag # 2 - is sporting some elegant blue snowflakes along with a metallic finish Christmas Tree..

Tag #3 - Is highlighting this season's weather with some gusting winds and snowflakes.

Tag # 4 - Traditional Style with a hint of red around the edges.

Tag # 5 - Strong bronze and browns to highlight the lovely map background.
I hope you have enjoyed the parade of tags...

Have a fabulous day..

Suzz

Impression Obsession Challenge - White

The Impression Obsession Challenge this week is White. I love all-white cards. Since I don't own many IO stamps for the holidays, I decided to use a lovely house image (H1745) and stamp it in grey...

Yup! Not in grey... :) I stamped it and played with it and decided I wanted more emphasis so I pulled out my plum and this is where we ended up. There are little snowflakes entwined into the ribbon and glitter everywhere the snow should be.

Very simple and much prettier and softer in real life. (I promise)

Products:

• Memento - Soft Plum
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 8
• Impression Obsession H1745 (Cling Mount)
• Glitter
• Glue Pen
• EK Success - Snowflake Punch
• Purple Stones, Ribbon - Unknown
• Cuttlebug Snowflake Embossing Folder

I am off to play with more tags!

Suzz