July Birthdays

I combined two of my favorite challenges together to come up with another  July birthday card. The ColourQ challenge and the City Crafter Challenge combined together gave me the inspiration for this card:

I bought this sentiment along with a similar one for the month of April. I don't know who makes them but I love that they describe the months in celebration.  I purchased them for my girl's birthdays month and think they will get a kick out a card with their birthday month mentioned in the verse. (Of course they will get plenty of use for other birthdays too :)

The background paper is Webster's Pages and is perfect for the blue and grey tones. I stamped the sentiment using Versacolor Burgundy ink. The sparklers (Northwoods Rubber Stamps) was stamped using StaZon Grey ink.

Everything was sparkled up using my handy dandy Stampendous Crystal Glitter (ultra fine).

The charm with the stars is another one of my jewelry finds on clearance and is an earring.

Here is the fun inspiration picture:

I am looking forward to a long holiday weekend! Come back tomorrow for another fun Lily Pad challenge.

Suzz

Faith

This card is for the  Our Daily Bread Designs - Anything Goes Challenge. 

The Our Daily Bread stamp set is beautiful and it is called Faith. You know I can't pass up anything with butterflies and the verses are all wonderful.

I created a little easel card using the butterflies on the branches and the spellbinders die.

Short post today... So much going on with summer in full swing..

Hope your day is lovely!

Suzz

Happy Birthday - Rooster

Today is my last day as a guest blogger for Layers of Color Art Stamps.  Today's card uses the beautiful Happy Wishes set and the fun Rise and Shine set along with the beautiful Floweret stamp. 

The background paper is a lovely text paper with distressing already incorporated. The frame is the lovely Bella Brocade stencil and distress inks sponged onto it.I water-colored the sweet rooster and added some lovely flowers as accents and finished everything with a big bow.


Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

CR84FN32 Part II

I am enjoying being able to play twice with the same color samples for the CR84FN. Having the challenge for two weeks gives me a chance to try something different with my second card.

My first thought was to create yellow and green flowers using distress inks. I rooted around in my Hero Arts drawers and found this beautiful Garden Star Flower. I stamped the flower using black ink and sponged on the greens and yellow.  I cut them out and accented them with white gel pen.

The Butterfly was an afterthought and was stamped and colored using the sponged distress ink.



The verse is from Verses Rubber Stamps - Kiss of the Sun - QQ0386-E.

The lovely  CR84FN32  inspiration photos courtesy of Creative Mint:

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

This week Deborah and Mona,  and Heather are also sharing new cards using the colors, so stop by for some more inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Stampendous Blogstars - Let's Celebrate

I am  excited to announce that  I am going to be guest designing over at Stampendous!  I am one of their blogstars for the next three months!

In celebration of the announcement I decided to create a fun project using one of my Stampendous sets of stamps....

 Here is a close up of just the box: 

The project started as a left over popcorn box... :) My daughter had popcorn at some event where they were giving away free popcorn and when she was done I was left holding the box. (Not that happens to any of you other moms!)  I started looking inside the box and noticed it wasn't hardly used and decided to put it in my stash for future use. 

Recipe:

1. Stamp adorable dancing food. Fun Food  Stampendous using Ranger Archival Ink Black on watercolor paper. Color using watercolor pencils and a waterbrush. 
2. Hand cut food out. Versamark entire surface. Heat emboss using Stampendous Stamp N Stuff clear embossing powder. 
3. Die cut stars from red cardstock. Accent with white gel pen. 
4. Sponge edges of stars using brown dye ink. 
5. Cut circle from white cardstock to cover center of popcorn box. Sponge edges using brown dye ink. 
6. Attach stars to cover of box. 
7. Attach dancing food across box front. 
8. Attach letters to banners and pop dot across string and attach to front of the box. 

Now I have a fun gift box for one of my 4th of July  birthdays!

Suzz

Star Spangled Birthday

In our family July is a big birthday month. Several of the nieces and nephews were born around 4th of July.  So when it comes time to create birthday cards the red, white and blue are my favorite colors to use on their cards.

The ColourQ Challenge #90,  Off the Wall Challenge #56,  and the JUGS challenge this week use the same color scheme and patriotic 3D theme.  This helped me finish off two birthday cards for my nephews. (I made this card twice for them both).

Very clean and simple card:

The stamps include: Stampers Anonymous - Psychedelic Grunge CMS 056 and a Happy Birthday Sentiment from Inkadinkado.  My 3D for the Jugs challenge is the stars are popped with the buttons attached. The stars are edged in red. The stamp was inked up in several shades of blue.

The lovely inspiration photos:

Hope you have some fun plans for the weekend.

Suzz

Inspiration Challenge - Lily Pad Blog Challenge

This week the challenge at Lily Pad Cards. is all about inspiration. Our challenge is to look through all the fabulous cards people have shared on the blog and pick one that inspires us.

I picked Lisa's fabulous Freedom card as my inspiration.  I loved the design and the images and she makes the most wonderful patriotic cards.

Here is the card with the front closed:

 and here is the easel open:

I love this LilyBee paper and it worked with the patriotic theme. I used the Hero Arts Vintage ladies as my focal image and some fun banner stamps to share my message. 

All the details of the challenge are at the Lily Pad Blog. Our wonderful sponsor is Simon Says Stamp!

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

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Show your Metal

Metal is the challenge this week over Simon Says Stamp and Show. 

My first card ended up with only a little bit of metal:

 
The background consists of two papers.  The first is a page from a  book.  I also used the same book to create the page on my dress form.  The second layer of torn paper uses the technique of dragging the ink pad across the surface to give it a wood grain effect.  Then a layer of stamped images from the vintage sewing elements in the Chapel Road Artstamps Sew Much to Do. The ink on the background is Ranger Distress Inks Weathered Wood and Vintage Photo.

The dress form is die cut twice in kraft and a book page and then torn, distressed painted on and sponged on. :) Of course than I had to pretty it up with lace, twine, pearls and a lovely metallic diamond pendant.

My metal is my silver embossed scissors, two tiny sewing needles snuggled in behind the diamond metal pendant on the dress form.

The sentiment I have had forever and is from Amuse Stamps. The sentiment is stamped in Versafine Smokey Grey and sponged with the vintage photo.

My second card features  stamps from the new Artistic Outpost Release:

The background is from the Ephemeral Backgrounds plate and is stamped in Ranger Archival Black ink. 
Layered over that is images from London Underground, Loverly London, and Paris Exposition.

My metal is the charm and the little white dots are from the new ranger enamel accents.

The background was sponged using a combination of Vintage Photo and  Broken China. 

Have a wonderful day!


Suzz

Hero Arts Monthly Challenge and Gallery Idol

Hero Arts Monthly Challenge for June includes weddings and  congratulations which fits perfectly with the PaperCraft Gallery Idol contest.  I created this card for both challenges.

Recipe:

1. Cut circle from white cardstock. Spray with chalkboard glimmer mist. (Tattered Angels - Peacock) 
2. Stamp background image over glimmer mist background using acrylic paint. (Hero Arts - G2444 Large Fabric Design)
3. Paint chipboard bird with white acrylic paint. 
4. Stamp bird using music background and blue ink. (Hero Arts - CG222 Music Background). Sponge edges with light brown dye ink.
5. Stamp sentiment on circle using black ink. (Verses - Grow Old with Me - QQ0806C)
6. Frame circle with Websters Pages Trim and gems.
7. Glimmer mist edges of Prima flowers and add touch of glitter. Attach with more trim. 
8. Add doily and bird to front of card. 

The only issue is I don't know if I will use this as a card, tag or front to a bag. It turned out larger than I had imagined when I started. :)

Hope your day is beautiful wherever you are!

Suzz

Best Wishes

Today is Tuesday which means I get to share another lovely card  for Layers of Color Art Stamps. 

Today's card uses the beautiful Happy Wishes set and the gorgeous Bella Brocade stencil.

The background paper is a lined paper and the stencil was sponged on using a light brown dye ink. The edges were sponged with vintage photo. The heart charm had a rub on initial added to personalize the wedding card. The die cut was cut out from ivory cardstock and cut in half and sponged around the edges. The lovely sentiment was stamped using brown pigment ink. The top half of the background is embossed using the Cuttlebug embossing folder on ivory cardstock. Accent the center with ribbon, twine, velvet ribbon and Prima flower and Maya Road stick pins.



Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Congrats

The Paper Crafts Idol challenge is for congrats cards. I saw this beautiful cake at Cath's Moxie Fab World and was inspired to use crepe paper, glimmer mist and white acrylic paper to create this:  

The background was created by glimmer misting strips of white crepe ribbon. I then tore the misted strips and layered it onto white cardstock using my tape runner. Add  white acrylic paint by swiping over the crepe paper.

The flowers were glimmer misted to match and the embellishments added to the white tulle bow. To finish it off the congrats sticker letters are attached to the tulle.

Here is the inspiration photo:

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

CR84FN32 - Happy Birthday

Today is a special CR84FN challenge,  we are celebrating Mona's birthday!  Happy Birthday Mona! I hope it is wonderful!


I created a fun birthday card using the happy colors for the challenge this week.

Lisa was kind enough to gift me this adorable image (For You - The Artistic Stamper).  I love these Mabel Lucie Attwell illustrations. The baby  is so sweet bringing a bouquet of flowers.

The image was stamped on watercolor paper and colored with markers and a waterbrush.  The two panels were cut and embossed using the Cuttlebug Embossing folder. The one was sanded to reveal the white and the other was sponged with white paint to highlight the embossing.

The bright and happy  CR84FN32 colors with inspiration photos courtesy of Creative Mint:

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

The fabulous CR84FN Design Team:

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


Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Ruffles & Trims

Happy Friday! I was having fun with my vintage sewing stamps and created a card for the following challenges:  Class Act  - Vintage stamped project, Moxie Fab World - I'm Sew Excited, The Ribbon Reel Challenge #4 - Color Challenge and Simon Says Stamp and Show Distressed/Torn Edges.

Click to enlarge

The background is a combination of stamps from the Class Act - Chapel Road Artstamps Sew Much to Do set randomly stamped. The kraft cardstock is distressed using white acrylic paints and torn along the edge.  The doily is distressed using antique linen.

The flowers is some lovely ruffle trim. Punch circle from cardstock apply tape over entire circle. Roll the ruffle into a flower and accented with twine and buttons.

Products: Class Act, Chapel Road Artstamps Sew Much to Do, Ruffle Trim, Buttons, Memento London Fog, Watercolor Pencils, Ranger Archival Ink - Black

For all the details on the Chapel Road Artstamps - Vintage Challenge and for more inspiration from the design team head over to the blog. 

So glad you stopped by! 

Suzz

Lily Pad Challenge - Lucy Fine Lines

This week is a sketch challenge at Lily Pad Cards. 

Our sponsor is one of my favorites.... Memory Box!  Memory Box  provided the team with the beautiful Tree of Birds. I am lucky enough to be on the Design Team and have a large selection of beautiful papers and stamps to play with. :) 

Here are two cards I designed using Lucy's beautiful sketch:

The Adore Peony Collage G1433 was the perfect design as it has the two striking flowers point upwards like the sketch. :) I stamped the collage stamp over the beautiful Valise paper. (I love this paper it was printed on kraft and has such wonderful background prints)

The image was colored with watercolor pencils and a waterbrush. After dry the flowers were covered in glossy accents. 

The butterflies (Periwinkle - B1181) were stamped on vellum using Ranger Archival Ink Coffee and colored with watercolor pencils.

The sentiment (Thank You - B1751) was stamped on the backside of the Valise paper using the Ranger Archival Ink.  The background is green vellum embossed using a Sizzix embossing folder and sponged with vintage photo to make the embossing pop.

The second card .

The second card follows the same design but the flowers are colored with a lighter shade of pink.  The paper is still the Memory Box Valise collection. The butterflies are stamped on the kraft cardstock.   The sentiment Love is another Memory Box stamp.

Here is the sketch:

 

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

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

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

ColourQ Challenge #89

I am loving the rich masculine colors in the ColourQ challenge.

The background was created by inking up the lace background (Hero Arts) stamp and spraying with pearl misters.  I added a touch of light blue in the flowers. The main image was inked up with the rust, Burgundy and brown dye inks. I used the Sizzix die cut for the frame and sponged the edges to match.

Here is the lovely color palette:

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

London

I have very fond memories of London. When I was eighteen I used up all my savings to hop over the pond and go visit my sister in London. We had the most wonderful time. We spent two weeks bumming around and I made my sister visit all the tourist sites. (She was there for quite awhile and had already done all the tourist spots) When I saw the new plates from Artistic Outpost I was thrilled as they brought back some wonderful memories for me. 

There are two new plates being released today:

London Underground a collection of iconic images of London.  

Loverly London  a collection of vintage inspired imagery of idealized London.

There is also a special going on right now. If you spend $42 on rubber stamps,  you can save 20%. Simply use the code London at check out!

Here are two of the projects I created using the new stamp sets: 

The first one was fun to ink up all the different images and piece them together in a grid card. Of course I had to distress the edges a little. :) 


The second project looks so much cooler in real life. I had this lovely paper weight in my collection of alterable items and it actually magnifies the image.  The picture is soft around the edges because of the surface being half of a globe.

The design team has created some really fantastic projects and cards which you can go see in the Artistic Outpost Gallery. The design team is also sharing wonderful projects on their blogs:  

*Lisa Somerville *Gerrie Johnnic *Lynn Stevens *Barbara Washington *Stephanie Severin*Judy Hayes* Louise Granlund


Thanks so much for stopping by!

Suzz

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Guest Designer

I am so happy to share that I am guest designing this week at the City Crafter Challenge Blog.  The challenge this week is ATCs and I do love to create mini pieces of art.   I created three different ATC's. 

The first ATC I created used the Hero Arts Etched Medallion stamped on an alcohol ink background.

I blended yellow, red, and orange alcohol inks to create a warm background. Then stamped the flower two times on the background using versamark and heat embossed using yellow embossing powder.  I cut out the flower and pop dotted the center onto the second flower.  I accented with the embellishment and some ribbon.


The second ATC goes west... Another alcohol ink background using greens, caramels and blues. The stamps are the fun Wild West set from Stampers Anonymous.

 The last one is from the new stamp set at Chapel Road Artstamps - Class Act.  The set is called Typing Time. 

 Love the old typewriter and the sentiment is priceless.


The challenge runs for the next week. Go check out all the details at the City Crafter Challenge blog and the inspiration from the wonderful design team!

Suzz.

Chicks Night Out

Today I get to share another fun project created for Layers of Color Art Stamps. 

I decided to create a little gift set for a Chicks Night Out.  The set includes nail polish, little box of chocolates and a little card.

This is a close up of the little candy box.

Take the  Vintage Medallion Stencil and lay it on the sides of the box and sponge  pink dye ink. I repeated for each side of the box and the front of the mini card. Tie pink tulle  into a bow on top, cut the loops to form pom pom. Stamp chicks LOC Rise & Shine set using Ranger Archival Ink (black) on watercolor paper. Color using watercolor markers and waterbrush. Die cut tags and stamp with sentiment from Happy Wishes set.

All the pieces to the set are accented with Prima flowers. These were so fun to create!


Have a happy Tuesday!

Suzz

CR84FN31 & Ribbon Reel Challenge

I decided to try a new challenge called the Ribbon Reel Challenge and combine it with the colors from CR84FN31.

Here is the sketch:

I used some lovely Memory Box papers and images to create a vintage card. The image was stamped, colored with watercolor pencils and embossed with clear embossing powder.

Products: Memory Box Gossamer, Adore Collage, Cocoa Bean Butterfly, Vintage Lace Trim, Recollections Resin Flowers, May Arts Silk Ribbon.

The lovely CR84FN31 colors:

The photos are courtesy of Steve Steinhardt.

The CR84FN31 challenge is open until Friday to play along.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Happy Father's Day! (A week early)

The JUGS challenge this week is to use a fun wood grain technique. Father's Day is coming up and I decided to use the technique to create a card for my DH.  And while I was making father's day cards I created one for my Dad.

Here is the card using the wood grain technique from Gina K.

This card is for my DH. He really deserves it!  He is so handy and fixes the kids toys all the time when they are broken.

The images and sentiment are all Hero Arts.  The wood grain was created with kraft cardstock, white acrylic paint and Ranger Distress Ink Vintage Photo.

The second card is for my dad.  Growing up my dad was always in a suit and this handsome fella from the Artistic Outpost Gatsby plate reminds me of my dad. 

 Have a wonderful weekend! I am hoping the sun will break through the fog later.

Suzz

Lily Pad Challenge - Ribbon

This week's  challenge at Lily Pad Cards is ribbons and our wonderful sponsor is May Arts!  

I created two cards using my May Arts ribbon.

My first card used some of this beautiful crochet lace to create a mask:

 

The lace was laid across the white cardstock and covered the entire surface and sprayed a lovely pink glimmer mist onto the white cardstock. 

The big butterfly and the vines (Hero Arts) were stamped onto the background using Ranger Archival Coffee ink. The vines were highlighted with a white gel pen. The butterfly was shaded with watercolor pencil and highlighted with white gel pen. The edges of the butterfly were cut out with the exacto knife and popped up. 

The sentiment (Hero Arts) was stamped using the same brown ink. The edges of the panel were sponged with  brown dye ink. The smaller butterflies were stamped on a remnant of the background and shaded with watercolor pencils. Fussy cut and attach to background.

The second card using the same lace and some beautiful Wrinkled  ribbon.

 

The background paper is sponged and stamped over using Old Letter Writing (Hero Arts) and Stampers Anonymous Sewing set. The dress form has a lace skirt with a knot tied from the lovely wrinkled ribbon. The stamp is from Nina B and fits the label 18 die cut. 

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

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

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Wild Wild West

I am having so much fun with the Wild West  set from Stampers Anonymous.  The stamps bring back fond memories of wallpaper my brother had in his room with Cowboys and Indians. And images of my baby sister Jodie, the summer she spent wearing a fringed vest and skirt with a coordinating cowgirl hat in just that shade of red when she was about five.

Here is my tag for the Simon Says Stamp and Show a Tag challenge this week and it uses the lovely color combination from the ColourQ Challenge #88.

The tag is made out of Kraft paper. The image and sentiment are Stampers Anonymous. The script and flourish on the top are from Hero Arts. (Fabulous Flourish) Inks: Ranger Distress Inks Vintage Photo, Ranger Archival Ink Coffee, Versamark. The papers are from BoBunny Timepiece Collection.

The lovely inspirational colors:

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Rise and Shine

I was so happy and excited to be asked by Laura to Guest Design for Layers of Color Art Stamps.  Layers of Colors has such  beautiful stamps and stencils!

I will be sharing every Tuesday in June a new project using their beautiful products.  Today I am sharing a fun wall hanging.

The base of the wall hanging is this beautiful metal tin frame from Darice. I added alcohol inks to the ivory background to give it a more distressed warm color.

The rooster topiary and sun (Rise & Shine) were stamped on white cardstock using a brown pigment ink. They were colored with a combination of watercolor pencils and distress inks and a waterbrush.

Stamp a few of the eggs and detail cut and distress with tan dye ink. Add to the scene. 

The edges of the main panel were sponged with a touch of gold and brown dye inks.

To finish off the background the beautiful Bella Brocade Art Stencil was laid over the images and sponged rusty orange dye ink into the background.

All the images have a coat of glossy accents to bring out the colors and add texture.

The seam binding ribbon was died with orange dye ink. (Thank you Donna!) Accent with some flowers and ribbon on the wire.

Hope your day is fabulous!

Suzz

Going to the Chapel

The Hero Arts contest this month is wedding, congrats or watercolor.  I paired this up with the lovely sketch #194 from Mojo Monday and created a wedding card.

The colors are a little off because I couldn't get the sharpness without intensifying the colors.  The background is stamped using versamark and embossed using Chablis embossing powder. 

The lace was twisted behind the flower to make a backdrop.  The little tags are stamped using Inkadinkado stamps. 

A very simple card based on the Mojo sketch:

Hope your Monday is going well. I will be back tomorrow to share something I created about a month ago. I am really happy to be able to share it now!

Suzz

CR84FN31 - Sew Fun

Sew happy you stopped by... (Excuse my  pun....:)  The Moxie Fab World Challenge is I'm sew excited which I combined with the beautiful CR84FN colors to create a vintage sewing card.

I started with some lovely Websters Pages papers for the background which were distressed with a little white acrylic paint and the Ranger distressing tool.

The background was stamped over using part of the beautiful new stamp plate from Chapel Road Artstamps Sew Much to Do .  I hadn't inked up the sewing image before and loved the graceful lines of the lady working away at her sewing machine. (A skill I definitely don't posses :)

Products: Websters Pages - Beautiful Life, Class Act - Chapel Road Artstamps - So Much to Do, Ranger Acrylic Snow Cap Dauber, Charm, Silk Ribbon, Rose - Recollections, Ranger Archival Ink - Black

The lovely CR84FN31 colors:

The photos are courtesy of Steve Steinhardt.

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

The CR84FN challenge is going to change up the time-frames for the challenge during the summer months.  We will be posting the challenges every two weeks and you get extra time to play along!

The fabulous CR84FN Design Team:

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

This week is Andrea's birthday!  Happy Happy Birthday Andrea!  I hope you have some inky time!


Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Summer Days

Yeah! It's Saturday!  We are having family over to celebrate the 8th grade graduation of our DD Kaeli!  So we will be cleaning up the house and preparing some yummy summer food for later. But this morning early... I was able to play around and create a card for a few challenges.  The ColorQ Challenge #87 and Wee Memories - Anything Goes inspired me to pull out some bright and cheery papers from my stash and put together this card:

The images are from Artistic Outpost (Songbirds,  Bluebird).  The papers are from Crate Paper.
Simple grid with some distressing with the acrylic paints, vintage photo and the distressing tool. The main image is stamped with vintage photo and highlighted with a little yellow tones. The buttons are even distressed with a little brown ink. :)

Here is the color swatch:

Hope your day is beautiful!

Suzz