CR84FN26 - Rain Rain Go Away

The  CR84FN26 challenge this week has some beautiful yellow hues. My good friend Lisa  gave me this adorable stamp and I couldn't wait to ink her up!

The sentiment is from Hero Arts and the adorable Mabel Lucie Attwell A stamp is from The Artistic Stamper. 

The image is stamped on kraft using Ranger Archival Ink and colored with watercolor pencils.

The clouds happened by accident. I stamped the sentiment on Labels 21 and decided it looked like a cloud and decided to create a second one. :)

Here are the beautiful  inspiration colors from CR84FN:

For all the details on the challenge this week go to the CR84FN blog.

For more inspiration the fabulous CR84FN Design Team:

Deborah Frings * Sue Lelli  * Andrea Matthews *  Stephanie Kraft * Suzanne Czosek (me)  *  Heather Jensen * Mona Pendleton  * Lisa Somerville 

This month we have a brand new guest designer Lin Brandyberry at Sending Hugs! So happy to have her join us!

Happy Birthday Stephanie!  Have a wonderful day and I hope it is very special!


Have a blessed Sunday. My youngest is going to be participating in a May crowning today and I am sure it is going to be wonderful.

Suzz

Lily Pad Challenge - Inspiration

Time for another fun Lily Pad Cards Challenge.  This week is an inspiration challenge.  Deborah provided links to several inspirational sites.  I found some beautiful color palettes at the Color Collective blog. I picked my inspiration from Daniel Egneus. 

Here is my inspiration project:

The stamps are from Chapel Road Artstamps Dandelions Etc  

The background was created using Silver Glimmer Mist and Acetate. The flowers were stamped using a grey StaZon ink and highlighting with watercolor pencils.

I was trying to achieve a foggy morning where all the colors are greys, blues and purples.
 

Here's the inspiration photo: 

All the details of the challenge are at the Lily Pad Cards Blog. and our wonderful sponsor is Simon Says Stamp.

Visit the wonderful design team and see what inspired them:

Design Team: Alice Wertz, Deborah Nolan, Lin Brandyberry, Nancy Krueger, Sherri Thompson, Vicki Papaioannou

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

ColourQ & Moxie Fab Tissue Paper is Magic

Welcome to the fish bowl. A few of you commented yesterday that the background felt like it was an underwater scene. I too had the feeling after I finished my background yesterday.  I actually created a few fish to fit into that scene using the Colour Q colors.  Somehow I ended up with fish and flowers.  Hence a fishy post today! I had to create something to hold my fish and I used the colors from the  ColourQ Challenge #82 and crepe paper seaweed for the  Moxie Fab Challenge - Tissue Paper is Magic challenge. 

The background of the fishbowl and the crepe paper are misted with Chalkboard Glimmer Mist. (Decadence, Peacock, Sprout).

The fish are from Inkadinkado using their new clings. (They worked wonderfully). The fish are stamped on watercolor paper using Ranger black archival ink. Colored with watercolor markers and waterbrush.  They were highlighted with a little white gel pen.  The sentiment is Hero Arts.  The fun part was nestling the fish into the seaweed and putting on the acetate front. Which is bowed to create the bowl effect.

A great little birthday card for one of my DD's friends.

Here is the inspiration color photo:

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Suzz

Moxie Fab - Tissue Paper Magic

The Moxie Fab Challenge is Tissue Paper Magic. I had fun pulling out the tissue paper and playing around.

 

Take out a sheet of tissue paper and spray it with the chalkboard glimmer mist (Peacock). Let it dry.  Attach a sheet of the sprayed tissue paper to cardstock. Layer on additional pieces with torn edges. Smear white acrylic paint over tissue paper to add texture.  

Stamp the sentiment Verses Rubber Stamps - A Thought Away - FS1138C using black archival ink. 

Stamp Flowers Hero Arts Elegant Weeds using black archival ink and color using watercolor pencils. Stamp butterfly  Antique Engravings. using black archival ink and color with watercolor pencils and white gel pen. Accent flowers and butterflies with glitter and glue pen.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Song in your Heart

 These were both created at the same time for the Stampotique challenge which is to use newspaper and for the Simon Says Stamp and Show buttons.  I was inspired by Kim's use of the newsprint and Lisa's fabulous flowers. 

I started with glimmer misting some newspaper. (Several sheets as I kept trying different things)  I wanted to use this beautiful sentiment from Verses Sing it Back to You - FS1135 - E and the beautiful stamp from Stampers Anonymous. I added a few birds from B Line Designs to sing their songs!

The lace trim is from Webster's Pages and the inspiration for the green color.  The glimmer mists used include: Key Lime Pie and Decadence.I had fun misting the paper and twisting and folding to create my newspaper flowers.


Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

CR84FN25 - Celebrate

The  CR84FN25 challenge this week has some pretty colors that remind me of summer.

I immediately thought of sailboats and summertime. I didn't have anything with sailboats, instead I went with summertime and 4th of July celebration. 

The stamps are all Hero Arts.

I was so inspired by the colors I created a second card as a baby card:

All the stamps on this card are  new from Memory Box. There are some new adorable stamps for baby cards. The paper is from Memory Box as well.

Here are the inspiration colors from CR84FN:

For all the details on the challenge this week go to the CR84FN blog.

For more inspiration the fabulous CR84FN Design Team:

Deborah Frings * Sue Lelli  * Andrea Matthews *  Stephanie Kraft * Suzanne Czosek (me)  *  Heather Jensen * Mona Pendleton  * Lisa Somerville  Guest Designer:  Silke Ledlow


A wonderful Easter Blessing to you and your family! 

Suzz

Lily Pad Cards Challenge - Lucy's Fine Lines

Time for another fun Lily Pad Cards Challenge.  This week Lucy is providing a lovely sketch.  Our wonderful sponsor is Penny Black!

Here is my interpretation of Lucy's sweet sketch:

Recipe:

1. Cut black cardstock form card base. .
2. Cut layer of beautiful embossed paper Penny Black hearts white. Distress edges and sponge with Memento Rose Bud dye ink. 
3. StampPenny Black - perfect pair on white cardstock using Black archival ink. 
4. Spray Tattered Angels glimmer mist on Craft mat. Pull bottom half of paper through gilimmer mist to add pink color. Wait to dry and sponge any additional pink ink to finish the pink on the background behind the birds.
5. Stamp sentiments using glimmer mist. Spray glimmer mist on craft mat and ink up stamps and stamp onto cardstock. 

All the details of the challenge are at the Lily Pad Cards Blog. 

For more inspiration visit the sweet design team:

Design Team: Alice Wertz, Deborah Nolan, Lin Brandyberry, Nancy Krueger, Sherri Thompson, Vicki Papaioannou

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Chapel Road Artstamps Blog Challenge - Unique Fold

Time for another fun challenge over at Class Act. The challenge is  to use a unique fold. Lucky for me I had a little help from an on-line friend who found a fun new technique called the napkin fold for me to play with. .

This is the view of the card folded and with the band around it.

Here is the view with it open:

Rather than me try to explain how I created this I will send you right to the source: Napkin Fold. 

The only main requirement was a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock. I pulled out some of my Bazzil bling and some beautiful shimmer paper from The Paper Company. The stamps are from the Chapel Road ArtsStamps and include: Variations Lilacs and Butterfly Square.

The edges were punched using a EK Success border punch and the doilies are from Spellbinders.

You can check out the rest of the teams fabulous creations and the details of the challenge at the Class Act Insider.  The Design Team links are on my sidebar as well!

The great news is that the challenge is open to any stamps, if you use any of the Class Act stamps or Chapel Road Artstamps  you will get two entries in the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by..

Suzz

Miracles of Springtime

When you are sitting in a few inches of snow with daffodils blooming you do appreciate the miracles of springtime!  I created this for the Outside the Box blog. 

The background was created when I was playing with water, watercolor paper, twinkling H2O's and table salt.

I started with a sheet of watercolor paper and covered it with water by brushing on water until the entire surface was wet. The next step was to apply randomly Twinkling H2O's in a variety of colors in different areas. I finished it off with a layer of randomly sprinkled table salt. Let dry and brush off the table salt.

The table salt absorbs some of the color and I actually threw it on another sheet of cardstock and spritzed it until it got wet and it bled the colors back onto the paper so I had another beautiful background from the original sheet.

The rest was just stamping and coloring with watercolor pencils and white gel pen for highlights. The stamps are all Memory Box (Stand of Trees, Miracles of Springtime). The ground I created using some brown twinkling H2O's and a black watercolor pencil for shading.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Gatsby Flapper

There was this lovely lady in the Gatsby plate from Artistic Outpost and I had fun creating a few different projects using her image. 

I created a card:

and an ATC

My card started with the image stamped using black archival ink and pieced with the image stamped with Versafine Red pigment ink. The image is colored with watercolor pencils. My DD Kaeli started dressing up the flapper with the gems and I finished her off with a feather.She is all dressed up and ready to go out.

The images and sentiments are all from the Gatsby Plate and Flapper Fashions from Artistic Outpost.

Hope your week is starting out wonderfully! We have 2 inches of snow on the ground. :( That is spring for you.. One day you are in the high 70's and the next day snow on the ground.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

CR84FN24 - Time Out

Time for another lovely selection of colors for the   CR84FN24 challenge this week.

I love this image.  She is so sweet with her attitude and her friend. The sentiment to me is very funny. I showed this card to my daughters and they didn't think it was funny. :)  They used to tell me that if I was bad they were going to put me in time out. What they didn't realize is that any mom would gladly welcome a time out! :)

Products: Stamping Bella - Time Out (Mo Manning), October Afternoon, Watercolor Markers (Tombo).
 

Here is the beautiful inspiration colors from CR84FN:

For all the details on the challenge this week go to the CR84FN blog.CR84FN Design Team:

Deborah Frings * Sue Lelli  * Andrea Matthews *  Stephanie Kraft * Suzanne Czosek (me)  *  Heather Jensen * Mona Pendleton  * Lisa Somerville  Guest Designer:  Silke Ledlow

Take a little time out for yourself today!  

Suzz

Crafts N Things - Faith

I  have been waiting for the June Crafts N Things magazine to hit the stands, and they are now available!  My technique article in this month's Crafts N Things is alcohol inks. This is one of the projects that I included in the article with instructions on how to create.

 

I had so much fun playing with the inks.  The lovely verse on this is from Verses Rubber Stamps IN0226-E Mustard Seed.  The fern and background stamps are from Memory Box (Fine Fern Print G1719 & Script Block E453).

Hope you have fun plans for the weekend. I am going to spend some serious inky time as a I have a few Autumn projects due.  Come back later for the CR84FN post. The colors are beautiful!

Suzz

Lilypad Challenge - Dimensional Challenge

This weeks challenge for Lily Pad Card is to create a project with dimension.  We were all fortunate to be given wonderful frames from Globe Craft Memories to use for the challenge.

Recipe:

1. Cut cardstock to size of frame. Stamp branches (Memory Box) using brown pigment ink.
2. Sponge blue dye ink over background.
3. Stamp vintage ledger stamp over background.
4. Stamp butterfly images (Memory Box) onto vellum. Color using watercolor pencils and waterbrush.
5. Cut pattern papers for frames and attach. (Memory Box Brioche, Minuet)
6. Accent butterflies with crystals (Memory Box).
7. Accent frame with Prima flowers and silk ribbon.

All the details of the challenge are at the LilyPad Blog.

The fabulous design team:

Design Team: Alice Wertz, Deborah Nolan, Lin Brandyberry, Nancy Krueger, Sherri Thompson, Vicki Papaioannou

Have a beautiful day!

Suzz

Distressed Lilacs

Oh how I love our Lilacs in the spring. They smell wonderful! I have this lovely set of stamps from Chapel Road Artstamps called Variations Lilacs. (So glad to have this set as I didn't have any lilacs in my stamp garden. :)  

The challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show is to show your distressing which inspired my card using the lovely Lilacs.

The sentiment and butterflies are also from Chapel Road Artstamps Butterfly Squares and Birthday Edwardian.  The background is from Chapel Road Artstamps Old Script. I stamped the script onto a thin sheet of vellum and tore the edges and sponged them with StaZon ink.

The lilacs are stamped with StaZon brown ink and colored with watercolor pencils and accented with white gel pen. The background is sponged with brown dye ink and distressed.

Hope you are having a wonderful week!

Suzz

Private Doors

Love this sentiment. The sentiment and doorway image are part of the new Windows and Doors plate from Artistic Outpost. The doorway just looks so inviting. (Mine never looks this green and beautiful!:) 

The image was stamped using Ranger Archival Black ink on watercolor paper. The doorway and greenery were colored using the watercolor markers and waterbrush. The background panels were some beautiful paper that I have had for awhile.  I stamped the flourish from the AO Serenity plate in the corners.

Very simple layering of pieces of the lovely paper with flourishes and the main image. I love the serene feel to the image.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Dream

I was playing with the colors from the Color Q challenge which unfortunately I missed deadline. :)  The colors were pink, blue, green, black and white.  This beautiful stamp is from Chapel Road Artstamps - Northern River.  The image is based on a painting from Tom Thomson. I love the look of the trees and it reminds me of spring as the first signs of spring for me are when the days start to get longer and you have the beautiful multi-colored sunrises and sunsets. 

The background is a combination of sponging of different colors. I used Memento Rosebud, Blue Bahama and Pear Tart. The image is then covered in Perfect Pearls Mister and the Tattered Angels glimmer glaze.

I kept the design simple to showcase the main image and was pleased with the effect.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

cr84fn23 - Pretty Petals

The  CR84FN23 challenge this week is some of my favorite colors: pink, black and cream! Combine that with a lovely sketch from Card Patterns #110 and you get my card. :)

I had just purchased the Hero Arts Garden Star F5429 flower and I was inspired to create some pink vellum flowers.

The flowers are created by:

1. Spray thin sheet of vellum with glimmer mist. (Viva Pink) Let dry. 
2. Stamp flowers using Versamark on glimmer mist background. 
3. Heat emboss with cream embossing powder. 
4. Cut out. Curl up sides of petals using fingers. Glue dot together. 
5. Accent centers with black gems. 

I had some help with the inspiration on the vellum flowers: Heather's gorgeous vellum flowers, Sue's Vellum with Alcohol Ink Flowers, Janet's lovely card to me for CCC.
 

Here is the beautiful inspiration colors from CR84FN: 

For all the details on the challenge this week go to the CR84FN blog.CR84FN Design Team:

I also want to wish Sue a very special birthday this week!  She is so talented and a wonderful person!  Stop by her blog and wish her a happy birthday! 

Deborah Frings * Sue Lelli  * Andrea Matthews *  Stephanie Kraft * Suzanne Czosek (me)  *  Heather Jensen * Mona Pendleton  * Lisa Somerville  Guest Designer:  Silke Ledlow

Have a lovely Sunday! 

Suzz

Voice of the Sea

The sentiment is from Verses Rubber stamps called: Voice of the Sea (QQ0845-F).  The background image is from Stampscapes H139 and it is the longest woodblock stamp I have ever owned. :) I loved the length of the image it is a panoramic view of the water washing up onto the beach. I truncated it to use it on my card but it would be gorgeous along the bottom of a scrapbook page.

I colored the water using the Twinkling H2O's and a waterbrush. I stamped the image using Ranger Archival Black ink two times to create the sentiment piece and the background.  My poor fish net in the kid's bathroom keeps mysteriously losing pieces of it. (Behind the door of course) LOL!  The charm I picked up at Hobby Lobby and loved as it was a little lighthouse.

Hope your weekend is wonderful! We are celebrating my son turning 16 and my daughter turning 14 with the family today. It will be a nice day to catch up with all the family on what has been happening.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Lily Pad Cards Challenge - Ramona at the Beach

Whoo Hoo!  The first challenge for Lily Pad Cards starts today! And it is a color challenge using bright and fun colors: LilyPad Kathy's Color Throw Down Challenge,

The colors spoke to me of sunshine and outdoors. I knew that this happy gal from  Penny Black would be perfect for the colors.  My daughter said she looks just like Ramona from Beverly Cleary's series and I think so too!

Here is the easel card closed.

Recipe:

1. Cut cardbase from white cardstock. 5 1/2" x 11". Score at 5 1/2" and 2 3/4" on the front of card.
2. Stamp Penny Black images on watercolor paper.  Color using watercolor markers (Tombo) and Water brush.
3. Using Sea Sponge dab in brown dye ink and sponge onto kraft cardstock. Cut 5 1/2" x 3". Rip edge and sponge along edge with brown dye ink.
4. Mask bottom half of  front of card with copy paper. Stamp Hero Arts Clouds using blue dye ink on top half of front of card.
5. Sponge blue dye ink on bottom half of front of card.
6. Tape down kraft cardstock to bottom of front half.
7. Repeat sponging blue dye ink on inside of card.  Create second kraft piece with sponging for inside of card.  Stamp and color row of shells and starfish and use as prop to hold open the easel card.
8. Stamp sentiment (Hero Arts) on inside using black archival ink.

Here are the colors from Kathy:

All the details of the challenge are at the LilyPad Blog   and there is a fabulous prize involving Letraset Markers!

The eligibility requirements.

1. Meet the challenge’s requirements.
2. Follow Lily Pad Cards (either follow our RSS or subscribe by email).
3. Submit no more than two cards.
4. Enter only those cards made after the post date of this challenge (cards entered in previous challenges or made prior to this challenge are ineligible to win).
5. Link directly to the post (or photostream entry) containing your card NOT your blog or photostream (a general blog/photostream link will disqualify the entry).
6. Provide a working link to Lily Pad Cards in either your post or photostream entry, OR display a Lily Pad Cards blinkie  in your sidebar (preferred). (Get your blinkie here.)

The deadline. This challenge closes on Thursday, April 14th at 11:59 p.m. EST. The prize winner and four runners-up will be announced on Monday, April 18.

For more inspiration and to see some beautiful projects visit the wonderful design team:

Design Team: Alice Wertz, Deborah Nolan, Lin Brandyberry, Nancy Krueger, Sherri Thompson, Vicki Papaioannou

Have a colorful day!

Suzz

Sew Nice

My friend Lisa hosts a fun challenge on Fridays called Bloggers Challenge. This week's challenge is For the Birds. 

Here is my card For the Birds:

The background was leftover from another project .  It was created with a glimmer mist background stamped over with the Artistic Outpost Ephemeral Backgrounds and Wonderland Collage in brown pigment ink. I stamped the Stampers Anonymous dress form using brown pigment ink. The doily is from Hero arts and is embossed with white embossing powder.  The birds are from a B Line set that I love as it has a set of 7 or 8 birds all in different sizes.

Here is a link to all the challenge entries:



Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Journey

The Moxie Fab World Challenge is In My Beautiful Balloon and it intrigued me to see if I could create a hot air balloon. I decided to pair it up with the Hero Arts Monthly challenge which includes creating a masculine card.The design is based on the Card Patterns sketch #109. 

This was a challenge for me in more than one way as I tried to limit my ribbons, lace, flowers or fancy embellishments and create a hot air balloon. :)

The balloon is a circle with the bottom cut off and a rectangle with rounded corners. Stamp balloon using Hero Arts Antique Map and Old French Writing in a brown pigment ink. Sponge balloon using gold, light orange and brown dye inks.  The basket is a rectangle with rounded corners. Stamp basket using Hero Arts Envelope Pattern and Old French Writing in a brown pigment ink.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Alice & The Rabbit

The Altered Alice challenge this month is to create something that is predominantly blue and yellow, the colors associated with Alice and is sponsored by Artistic Outpost.

I was lucky enough to have the lovely Artistic Outpost Wonderland Collage plate and used it to create a collage of the mad hatter, Alice and time. 

 

The background is a combination of the ledger from the Ephemeral Backgrounds plate and stamping of the words from the Wonderland Collage with a mix of distressing using blue dye ink sponged  and white acrylic paint.

The images and words were stamped using the Versafine blue pigment ink. The yellow was added with a touch of the watercolor pencils.

 

If you use Artistic Outpost's Wonderland Collage in your project, you will receive two chances at the drawing instead of one!  The challenge ends  Friday, April 22 at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4:00) and the winner will be posted sometime on Sunday, April 24 on the Altered Alice blog. 

Thanks for dropping by! 

Suzz

Twinkling Memory Box Blog Hop

     

Memory Box and Creative Imaginations have teamed up and are having a joint blog hop! There are prizes and lots of  inspiration on the  Outside the Box blog and the Creative Imaginations blog.  

I had a lot of fun playing with the Twinkling H2O's and creating backgrounds and coloring images. The details on how I created this project are in my post on the Outside the Box blog. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

CR84FN22 -

The  CR84FN22 colors this week are lovely and very earthy. .

I love coloring on kraft and when I saw the colors this week included kraft I decided to try the black magic / white magic technique.  

The image was stamped using white pigment ink on kraft. Color over inked image using color pencils. The sentiment is Verses Troubles Be Less MC0336-D

Here is a second card created using the lovely Memory Box stamps:

Here is  the wonderful inspiration photos. I love the quotes on the color photos and this weeks is truly applicable to me. I am always trying to learn something or do something new when creating.

For all the details on the challenge this week go to the CR84FN blog.

CR84FN Design Team:

Deborah Frings * Sue Lelli  * Andrea Matthews *  Stephanie Kraft * Suzanne Czosek (me)  *  Heather Jensen * Mona Pendleton  * Lisa Somerville   

It's a new month which means we have another fabulous guest designer...  This month's guest designer is the wonderfully talented Silke Ledlow .

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Live Richly and Savor Life

Just for fun and using up some scraps. I was playing around with this scrap that I had received from Jacqueline (thank you!). I have been hoarding this label as it is gorgeous and I wanted to create something special. 

I started with the label and stamping the hydrangeas (Hero Arts) onto the label in black ink. The images were colored with watercolor pencils. The edges were already finished in gold. I continued the gold edges on all the additional layers of the card. The doily was a leftover from another project. The front of the card was stamped using the lace background stamp (Hero Arts) using Memento soft plum.

I added a little charm of a wedding couple and I think this could work for a lovely wedding card or anniversary card.

I hope your Saturday is wonderful!


Suzz

Happy Fools Day!

Deborah hosts a wonderful card exchange challenge. Very fun! She also gives you a choice of challenges. (Color, Sketch or Theme)  I took the easy way out and took theme. I selected April Fools Day.

This card was a little different for me but I really enjoyed the fun colors.

I was lucky enough to send my card off to Godelieve.  I haven't received my card yet. Can't wait it is sure to be beautiful!

Happy Fools Day to you and yours! I hope it is fun!

Suzz