Virginia's Challenge

Virginia is hosting a challenge over on her blog called "Beat the Winter Blue's Challenge" . The key is to have a wow factor and beat the winter blues. I have been wanting to try this folding technique found here .

So I created a card where the wow is just about the folding and unfolding. :) This card was created for someone special and the sentiments were selected because of them.

The front of the card folded looks like this. The ribbon is important, and if I had thought about it more I would have designed a little differently to accommodate the ribbon.

If you don't use the ribbon your card will look like this...

Even with a bone folder and creasing this the folds alone won't keep the card closed.

When opened it looks like this:

The last picture isn't the greatest but I wanted to show what it looks like completely flat.

The card on the Outside the box blog was 3 1/2" x 3 1/2". I wanted to make mine bigger. So I took 2 sheets of ivory card stock and cut them 5 1/2" x 11". I then scored them at 5 1/2". This gives you two 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" cards which I just overlapped the inside of the two cards to make the inside of this card.

Score the front of the cards at the diagonal. This is easy to do because you go from your score line to the corner. Make sure you score one in one direction and the other in the other direction so when you fold them up they meet in the middle on the front of the card.

The rest of the card is about stamping and masking where you do/don't want the patterns to mix. I folded the front of the card and stamped the flowers across both parts of the front. I also stamped my background across the front of the card.

I almost forgot... Tanya asked me to post this little tag she made awhile ago and I am just getting around to it. So here is a tag Tanya created from some of my scraps.

She punched the tree out and then hung it on there and found the snowflake stamp and stamped that too.

Thanks for stopping by... I hope you have a lovely Sunday.

Suzz

Silhouette Burst

Happy Saturday!

I had an idea Friday that I wanted to try with masking the circle and stamping the silhouette burst in the masked circle. I was planning on having the flowers stamp outside of the mask partially.

I actually ended up with two different cards. I created this one first.

I used the same mask and reverse masked to get the sponged circles. I added a touch of brown flowersoft to the edges. This didn't end up reflecting what I had first envisioned so I created a second card which was closer to what I was thinking of. I also switched the colors to make it more spring like.

The dark color is actually purple but it shows up black.

I hope your weekend is going to be very inky. :)

Suzz

Tag Tuesday Challenge # 36

Tag Tuesday Challenge # 36 theme is time. Much easier than last weeks challenge. :)

This was so fun and easy to create. I have one Time set of stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms. (LL-6005FUM Time to Stamp) which makes the starting point for the tag really easy.

I also pulled some of my new Hero Arts Stamps to stamp up the background. The butterflies were left over from my last project and I decided to add them as accents.

Products:

• Cornish Heritage Farms - LL-6005FUM Time to Stamp
• Recollections - Autumn Pearls
• Hero Arts - K5285 Outline Bold Flourish
• Hero Arts - K5314 - Silhouette Fern
• Hero Arts - H5312 Silhouette Burst
• Hero Arts - Artistic Butterfly
• Versafine - Black Onyx, Vintage Sepia, Toffee
• Zing Embossing Powder - Brown
• Ranger Distress Inks - Faded Jeans

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Mojo Monday Sketch - 123

Mojo Monday sketch challenge this week is from Teresa Kline and offered the choice of a round or square format.

I knew when I saw the sketch that I wanted to play, as I am really fond of circle cards.

Here is the results of one of the cards I started for this sketch. The main image is the Hero Arts Silhouette Bells. Love this stamp! I embossed the background with Zing chocolate embossing powder and then sponged in the background color and added a little white coloring pencil around the edges to lighten up the sponging.

The edges of the ivory surfaces have been sponged with a brown dye ink and stamped using versafine vintage sepia.

I had such a great day yesterday... in addition to my fun news with Hero Arts, I also received my March Cardmaker magazine in the mail from them. I have a card posted in the magazine and had forgotten about it so was pleasantly surprised to get the magazine in the mail! I also blogged over on the Outside the Box blog with a favorite card of mine!

I also wanted to say thank you to everyone for their wonderful comments yesterday, here, the Flickr group, on the HA blog and even over on SCS. I recieved so many kind words from everyone which were really unexpected and very appreciated.

Suzz

Tag Challenge # 35

Today is Monday and a new tag challenge will come out tomorrow. SO I have to get this posted up today... The challenge by Louise was to create a doll tag.

I thought about this for awhile and had a few failed attempts... I am a little worried how easily I was able to cut little legs and arms from cardstock that actually looked like legs and arms. Maybe something left over from childhood paper dolls?

But I decided to go way outside my comfort zone and try something very different for me.

Anyways... Without further ado...

I think she looks a little like a garden baby? I think it is always good to try something new and different and helps us grow in our creativity.

So show a little kindness to my little butterfly girl.

The little girl's face is a Paperbag Studio stamp. The body is made using the Hero Arts old french writing and antique flower brocade. The wings are from a beautiful stamp set from Tattered Angels.

Thanks for stopping by..

Suzz

My fun news...

I was lucky enough to be asked by the Hero Arts crew to be a Hero Arts Hostess. This means I get to help out over at the Flickr Group for Hero Arts Challenges. There is so many interesting topics and inspiration over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group.

My introduction was today on the Hero Arts Blog. One of my cards is posted today on the blog too!

Very exciting as I am a big fan of my Hero Arts stamps!

On to other fun stuff... Here is a card that I am teaching in my next class with the new Memory Box stamps.

No surprise here ... More trees!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my good news.

Suzz

New Memory Box stamps

I promised to share some of the new Memory Box stamps and here they are...

My idea was to create a pocket card...

Which I did but I ended up using the same image on the pocket insert as the inside so it really didn't need a pocket. :)

One of my favorite from the new stamps is the tree stamp.

The recipe is very simple. The only thing I did that required some pre-thought was to die cut the paper and lay them all together when I stamped the corners.

Products:

• Memory Box Gossamer
• Memroy Box - Tree of Life
• Memory Box - New beginnings
• Memory Box - Script Block
• Versafine - Vintage Sepia
• Memento - Bamboo Leaves, Rich Cocoa, RoseBud
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Labels 2

Everyone have a lovely weekend!

Suzz

Sending some Sunshine your Way

This is another card for the Cards for Kids Drive that Jennifer McGuire is hosting.


I have three adorable punches from EK Success (frog, crab, and starfish). They were the inspiration to start a little beach party.

The crabs are created using red pattern paper that I received from Sanne (thanks Sanne).


I also used this fantastic Cosmo Cricket paper that I think looks like waves for my ocean. After I had my ocean and my fun crabs I knew they needed to have a beach party, so I made them a beach ball to play with and a little sunshine.

After I had done all that I realized there was no stamping and I couldn't let that happen so I created the sky using the friends definition stamp.


The inside of the card has the sentiment "Sending you Sunshine and Laughter".


I hope you are having a sunny day!



Suzz

Masculine Valentines Card

My brother is a Valentine's baby... So every year I like to make him a masculine valentine's card for his birthday.

The inside will contain his birthday wishes.

The pattern paper is part of the Gossamer collection from Memory Box. The hearts are cut from the Sizzix die cuts original dies. The swirls and flourishes is Hero Arts - Heart Flourish. The lovely pearls are from Recollections - Autumn.

The sentiment is a Memory Box stamp. I stamped the green card stock with a wood finish stamp from Hero Arts and love the effect. It didn't fully stamp but picked up the grain of the card stock.

Products:

• Hero Arts - Heart Flourish
• Hero Arts - Wood Finish
• Memory Box - Gossamer Paper
• Memory Box - Happy Valentines Day
• Versafine - Vintage Sepia
• Memento - Rich Cocoa
• Sizzix - Hearts
• Recollections - Pearls
  

Have a lovely day!

Suzz

Cards for Kids Drive

Jennifer McGuire is hosting an on-going card drive for kids who are ill and for their families too. I usually dont' have too many kids cards on hand, so I decided to create a few to send off to the card drive.

I told my daughter I wanted to do a knock knock card with a frog and she came up with the knock knock joke and wrote it down for me.

The papers are Cosmo Cricket and all the stamps are Hero Arts.

I had to switch to orange frogs as I ran out of the green pp. :)

Hope you are having a lovely day... I think I can start sharing some of the new Memory Box images and I have some other fun news I can share next week.

Suzz

Impression Obsession Weekly Challenge - Shapes

This week the new Impression Obsession Challenge is to create a card that is shaped. The challenges are fun and the prize is a 25.00 gift certificate to IO. I already was selected once before and it was so much fun shopping for my stamps!

I wanted to create a flower. This sent me searching through my punches and dies to see which one might make a good petal. I decided to use my trusty Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 4 die.

This is how it looked when I was finished...

The laying flat view:

Recipe:

1. Cut 6 petals from white card stock of each size. The sizes started from the second to smallest die and up two more sizes.
2. Spray all the pieces with a lovely shimmery coat of Lemon Zest Glimmer Mist.
3. Lay the medium petals in the center of the largest petals and spray them with Tuscany Sun Glimmer Mist.
4. Spray the smallest petals with Tuscany Sun Glimmer Mist.
5. Stamp the largest and smallest petals with red pigment ink.
6. Stamp the middle petals with orange pigment ink.
7. Sponge the edges of the large petals with brown dye ink.
8. Spritz the white card stock for the bees with the Lemon Zest glimmer mist.
9. Stamp the bees using a black pigment ink.
10. Apply orange stickles to the bees and the button for the center of the flower.
11. Each petal was rolled onto a pencil first the long way and then in half.
12. Die Cut two circles for card base. 3 1/2".
13. Attach the largest petals on the bottom of the petal to the circle. Push the petal up in the middle and flat again at the end.
14. Repeat for all petals.
15. Attach button in the middle.
16. Cut out bees and pop dot onto card.

Products:

• Impression Obsession - 8129, A8128 Left & Right Bee Side
• Impression Obsession - F2051 Small Swirl Background
• Versafine - Crimson Red, Habenero
• Memento - Rich Cocoa
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Labels 4, Large Circles
• Button
• Embroidery Thread
• Ranger Stickles - Orange
• Tattered Angels - Glimmer Mist - Lemon Zest, Tuscany Sun

The next project I am working on is a few cards for Jennifer McGuire's Cards for Kids Drive.

As always thank you for stopping by... It is greatly appreciated!

Suzz

Mojo Monday Challenge #121

I wanted to play along in the Mojo Monday sketch challenge because sketch challenges are the hardest for me and it is good to stretch your creativity. This also fits into the Hero Arts theme this month of friendship.

Here is the sketch:

Here is my card...

I think cards form their own personality. I start with an idea but have to follow the card's personality once it gets started. (Just like your children) This ended up being a masculine type of card and I wanted to add frills but couldn't make it work. :)

Products:

• Hero Arts - Friends Definition
• Hero Arts - Designblock - Tree
• Memory Box - Tree (Hearts)
• Versafine Vintage Sepia, Crimson Red
• The Stamp Barn - WOR 183 F
• Ranger Distress Inks - Spiced Marmalade, Mustard, Faded Jeans, Shabby Shutters

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Little bits of love

I have been wanting to play in the Hero Arts Challenge for Valentine's or Friendship this month but have been busy playing with other cards. Last night I decided to create a few valentine's cards for my kiddos.

We have a 14 year old boy, 12 year old girl and 8 year old girl. The idea was to create a valentine's card for each of them.

The first one is for my darling Kaeli... She is such a smart cookie. I created this card because she loves doing puzzles. She will love the puzzle and the charm will be something she can put on a necklace and wear.

The second one is for my youngest Tanya. She will love the dog on the card. I think she will think it is fun that he is red and white.

The last one I tried to create something more masculine and used the tickets as my starting point but I always struggle with teenage boys. This was intended for my son Zac, but I will probably create something else for him.

Have a lovely Friday... We have a nice long weekend because not only are the kids out of school on Monday, I have off work too! Yeah!

Suzz

Love birds

Just playing around with some stamps from Memory Box.

The background is stamped in Antique Linen on Ivory cardstock to give a shadow effect. I sponged the edges with brown dye ink.

I added the little heart notes with the Just a Note sentiment using a red dye ink. The ribbon is this gorgeous ribbon I purchased at my LSS. The birds are colored using my watercolor pencils.

I have been working on lots of other projects that I can't share just yet...

Products:

• Memory Box - Alpha Background E996
• Memory Box - Love Birds E1173
• Memory Box - Just a Note - B864
• Memory Box - Heart Notes A1171
• Ranger Distress Inks - Antique Linen, Fire Brick Red
• Memento - Rich Cocoa
• Versafine - Vintage Sepia
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Label 4

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

I'm Nuts about you!

This is my valentine's card for my husband... The Hero Arts challenge all month is to create a valentines or friendship card. I joked previously about using duct tape on a masculine card....
Well.... I started with some duct tape hearts and created my first version of the card. The shape is to represent a nut. Trying to go all out handyman theme... My husband is very handy and can fix lots of things. After my son saw the card he said it needed to be more masculine. So I created a second version which I die cut from duct taped cardstock.

The inside on both cards says "I'm nuts about you!"

Recipe:

1. Duct Tape a 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" piece of white cardstock. My rotary cutter cut the duct tape off the edges for me. Cut a second piece of white cardstock in the same size.
2. Take the second largest octogan die cut and center in the middle of the white cardstock and die cut the paper. Repeat with the duct tape cardstock.
3. Lay the cardstock with the center cut out on your cutter. Line up the center side of the octogan with the 1" line. Cut off the excess paper. Turn to the next inside side and repeat. Continue until you have cut all the way around. Repeat with the duct tape cardstock.
4. Die cut a few hearts from duct tape covered cardstock.
5. Decorate as desired!
   

I think he will get a big kick out of his valentines card.

Products:

• Hero Arts - Valentines Sayings
• Hero Arts - Happy Dads Day
• Silver Embossing Powder
• StaZon - Jet Black
• Twine
• Washers
• Spellbinders Nestabilities
• Duct Tape

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Moxie Fab World - Tuesday Trigger

The Tuesday Trigger on the Moxie Fab world was selected by Maren B. Here is her inspiration picture from Pottery Barn.

Now you would think.... that if you had 3 porcelain plates purchased at a discount store with the intent of stamping on them..... that you would have had an Ah Ha moment when you saw the trigger....

Unfortunately some of us take a little longer. :) I love these plates I picked up and just this morning did I remember that they were sitting there and that they would look lovely with a similar idea.

The best part is I have had this poem from Verses which works perfectly with the image.

The hardest part about this project was finding something to put my cling stamps on that fit in the center of the plate. It only took me 5 failed attempts before I decided to look for a circle surface for my cling stamps. (glass jar top)

I stamped using my StaZon ink which takes nicely on the surface. If you make mistakes you can wipe it off using the StaZon cleaner. I don't have a sealant over my stamped image, so this will be a decoration only.

The verse in case you can't see it clearly is as follows:

Hope is the thing with feathers

that perches on the soul,

that sings a tune without words

and never stops at all.

Emily Dickinson

Products:

• Stampers Anonymous collection - Artful Flight
• Inkadinkado - 98170-K
• Verses - QQ1007-D Hope Feathers
• StaZon - Timber Brown

Off to Church and then cleaning up the Christmas decorations. The house always feels so bare after the holidays.

Hope you have a blessed Sunday!

Suzz

Caardvarks - Sketch Challenge

Caardvarks first challenge this year is a sketch challenge...

Here is my take on the sketch:

I had been looking through favorites a week ago and this card by Donna stuck in my head. So when I saw the sketch I thought about creating a white card with some texture.

When I was done I decided I wanted just a hint of color so I added the little pink gems as embellishments.

Products:

• Hero Arts - Antique Flower Background
• Hero Arts - Lace Background
• Quietfire Design - sentiment
• QuicKutz - Embossing Folder
• Versamark
• Clear Embossing Powder
• Gems, Ribbon
• Marvy Uchida - Butterfly Punches
• Cuttlebug Embossing Folder - Swiss Dots
• Ranger Ruler
• Piercing Tool

Hope your day is a little less snowy... We are expecting up to 1 foot in snow between today and tomorrow.

Suzz

Mojo Monday Challenge 120

Mojo Monday blog has a lovely sketch created by Teresa Kline for the challenge this week. Here is my take on the sketch:

The little puppy dog is from Hero Arts and my youngest daughter wanted it and picked it up when we went to the store last week.

I am always needing practice with my copics and this was a great image to practice on! She thought it was funny that I gave the puppy the Target eye as she calls it...

The paper is from the Merrymint collection from American Crafts. I was lucky enough to win it from the Moxie Fab Blog and thought it would look lovely with the puppy.

Well.. my real puppy is whining to play now, so I must go throw her the ball.

Thanks for stopping by..

Suzz

Tag Tuesday # 33 - Polka dots and Stripes

Louise's challenge this week is polka dots and stripes... Sounds like so much fun doesn't it? Her tag is really cute and lives up to the fun description.


I had all intentions of creating a tag using bright colors and showing off my polka dots and stripes! But once you start creating you follow the project to where it wants to go...

I started with was an ivory tag. I stamped the stripes cling stamp from Hero Arts first using the toffee Versafine ink. I then stamped the dots cling stamp from Hero Arts over that with Versafine Vintage Sepia. I embossed the stamped images with clear embossing powder. Then I sprayed Tuscany Sun Glimmer Mist over the entire tag.

I decided to use the bird that was leftover from another project to nest on my tag. Which led me to this great definition stamp from Impression Obsession that gives the definition of nest. To get that to show up I stamped it on an acetate tag cut to the same shape as my original tag. I stamped using my StaZon brown ink.

The flourish for the stems on my flowers and the script on the flowers are from Hero Arts. The flowers are Prima and are also spritzed with the Tuscany Sun Glimmer Mist.

Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Suzz

Glimmery Butterflies

After my stamping fun on Saturday, I had to pull out the colors that Dawn used to create her butterfly garden. They were so gorgeous... I sprayed some Lemon Zest, Tuscany Sun and Mustard Seed Glimmer Mist to create this gorgeous background. I also used one of the masks from Tattered Angels which creates the lighter areas on the background.

The rest is just stamping overlays... I stamped the script (Hero Arts - Old Letter Writing) using Toffee which is a very similar color to the background.

I stamped the flourishes (Hero Arts Heart Flourish) and butterflies (Hero Arts - Antique Engravings) using a brown pigment ink. The sentiment in stamped in purple pigment ink.

I accented the beautiful butterflies with some brown and purple coloring with watercolor pencils.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Denim anyone?

As I was doing laundry a few days ago, I notice a big rip in my son's jeans. I know rips and tears are in on jeans but this one was in an inappropriate place. :)

I was going to through them out as I am not a sewing kind of gal.... But then I thought... Hmm... I need a fun project for me and my stamping buddies... What if I stamp on the denim?

Here it is.... Our project from yesterday using denim as the stamping surface...

I was really pleased because the die cut actually cut through the denim with the exception of the ends which it almost cut through. I think it would have but my boards are very warped for my CB and I think it prevented it from completely cutting out the denim. I handcut the ends.

Couple of things I tried and didn't work...

• Bleaching on this denim. (Too light of a surface to begin with and the stamps need to be less detailed.


• Coloring on denim. The copics do color but the color is different due to the blue tint in the background. This would require more play time and a bleached surface.


• Stamping on denim. Didn't give enough punch of color so I used embossing powder to make the color really pop.
  

Couple of things I tried and liked....

• Glimmer mist on denim. I really liked the effect. It added a glisten to the fabric. I then stamped in versamark on top and embossed with a white embossing powder and it looked fantastic.


• Ranger Puffy Embossing Powder - Fun effect added another layer of dimension. Need to play with colors to see which look the best. (Does not work for any really detailed images/sentiments)


• Die-cuts and the denim. I die-cut even a small piece.
  

Products:

• Versafine - Vintage Sepia
• Zing - Chestnut Embossing Powder
• Hero Arts - Silhouette Burst, Silhouette Spray
• Impression Obsession - Lofty Dreams
• Spellbinders - Nestabilities
• Rangers - Stickles - Pink

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Butterflies

I had such a wonderful day today! A couple of good stamping friends came over to have a play date with me. (My kids called it that.) I wanted to try something new and share it with them.

Two different ideas inspired what we created. One came from Vanessa's awesome blog header. The other is from a technique that I saw on Godelieve's blog awhile ago with some gorgeous butterflies and she reminded me of it with her post today.

The technique we used was to create a background using inks and remove some of the color on our stamped image using bleach.

Recipe:

1. Spray glimmer mist/s on white card stock to create a background paper. Waited for the paper to dry. You will probably want to place something on the paper while it is drying to prevent curling up.

2. Stamp your swarm of butterflies on the glimmer mist background using a black pigment ink.

3. Emboss images using clear embossing powder.

4. Place small amount of gel bleach on acetate and use a small brush. Dip brush in bleach and paint the areas where you want to remove the color.

5. Cut out butterflies.

6. I sponged my background with a dye ink but my friends used the remainder of their glimmer mist paper to create their background and it was prettier than my background.

7. Stamp the grass using whatever colors works with your background. I used the Versafine Toffee with brown pigment ink accents.

What was really fun is we each used different colors for our backgrounds so each of our cards came out completely different.

Hope you enjoy my swarm of butterflies. I will share tomorrow the other project we worked on. I want to clean up mine and share the end result.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz