Back to Basics - CCB challenge

The City Crafter's blog challenge this week is Back to Basics. You are to use some type of paint and some re-cycled cardboard. I love the distressed cardboard that everyone is using in their projects and what fun to rip up some old cardboard and paint on it!

Here is my end project. I think it would be nice as a wall hanging or on an easel.

 The images are from the Class Act - Chapel Road Artstamps - Vanity plate.  The floral branch is Recollections. 

The background is a piece of cardboard that I distressed and painted with Sand Acrylic paint from Ranger. The flowers are from the Vanity plate and are stamped across the background using Ranger Archival ink - Coffee. The little flowers are stamped on ivory cardstock and colored using watercolor pencils and distressed around the edges with brown dye ink.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Dreams and Flowers

Happy Memorial Day!  We are planning on grilling out later and definitely spending some time in the pool. The weather is going to be very lovely and warm today. My MIL is coming over later to share in our dinner. I will have to clean off the patio set so we can eat outside if the weather permits. (My youngest loves to eat out on the deck and is going to be thrilled)

I had a chance to play in a couple of challenges today and was thrilled to see Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge was to use your favorite stamp. Wee memories challenge is to be inspired by pinterest or etsy which are  both great sources of inspiration.

Here are my cards created by a little inspiration mixed with some of my favorite stamps:

and a second card created at the same time with the same idea...

The beautiful inspiration photo from Etsy a picture taken by Liz Garnett:

The Agapanthus stamp from Stampendous is one of my many favorites and worked beautifully with the inspiration photo.  I also added in a few of my other favorites: Websters Pages papers, Hero Arts Antique Engravings Butterfly, and my Verses Rubbers Stamps.

I had so much fun playing with some of my many favorite products today!
Have a wonderful day!

Suzz

CR84FN30 - Spring Sings

Happy Sunday!

The CR84FN colors this week are kraft, light blue and light yellow.

 The Memory Box Valise papers are a perfect fit with the colors this week. 

I blended a few flowers from Memory Box into the sections and added Flowersoft touches.  The birds in the nest were stamped and pop dotted. I attempted to color the birds to coordinate with the lovely birds on the paper. 

Products: Memory Box - Valise Papers, Flowersoft - light yellow, Watercolor pencils, Memento - Rich Cocoa dye ink, Memory Box - Nesting Birds (D1315), Dill Print (F1356), In The Spring Nature Sings (B1337)

The sweet CR84FN30 colors:

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  * Lin Brandyberry (Guest Designer)

This week is the last week for Lin as our guest designer. Thank you Lin for your beautiful contributions this month. Stop by her blog and leave her some love. 

We are also celebrating Deb's birthday!  Happy Birthday Deb! I hope it is special!

We are also celebrating

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Suzz

Embellish - Text Color Trends Challenge

The Embellish Challenge is to use shades of black/grey and text.  The sponsor for this challenge is Hero Arts. (Yeah!)

I had fun playing this morning with the colors and stamps.

I sorted through all my Hero Arts stamps to pick out which ones I wanted to use. I decided to stamp the lovely flowers in a soft grey mixed with a slate blue/gray onto the envelope pattern background.  I added a touch of black to the petals with a watercolor pencil.

The text was added last. I inked up the definition cling stamp only along the bottom half of the stamp with a black dye ink. Wipe away with a wet wipe along the top edge of the ink to give it  blurred edges. Stamp over the envelope pattern background.  Wipe clean the stamp and repeat for the top half of the main image.

This works really well as the envelope pattern and friends definition are the same size stamp so positioning it was not a problem.
The butterflies were punched from glimmer misted crepe paper and stamped with the friends definition.
Products: Hero Arts - Envelope Pattern, Friends Definition, Sweet Threads - Thank You, Essential Messages

Hope everyone is having a lovely long weekend.  I am looking forward to using our pool as we are expected to get up in the 80's on Monday.
Suzz

Miracles of Springtime - Lily Pad Cards Inspiration Challenge

Today is a Lily Pad Card Inspiration challenge.I was inspired by Sherri's card here.

The wonderful sponsor for this challenge is Simon Says Stamps!

I loved the idea of the butterflies starting out as being embossed and turning into three dimensional objects and of course she had me with the glimmer mist background! :)

Here is my CASE of Sherri's beautiful card.

Memory Box has just released some beautiful new dies and I used them to create the flowers (Catalina Border) and dimensional butterflies (Butterfly Delights).  The stamps are Memory Box (Miracles of Springtime - B1766, First Flight - F1328).

Recipe: 

1.Spray white cardstock with blue glimmer mist. 

2. Stamp butterflies using versamark and clear emboss with white embossing powder. (Make sure the glimmer mist background is completely dry. :) 

3. Stamp sentiment using versamark and heat emboss with white embossing powder. 

4. Die cut border and butterflies from white cardstock.

5. Cut background panel and front panel to size and add die cut pieces of flowers to create flower garden. :) 

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

For more inspiration visit the wonderful design team:

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

Have a wonderful Friday!

Suzz

Secret Garden

Happy Thursday!

This week has been a long week for me... Glad to be getting to our three day Memorial Day weekend.  The kids are winding down from school so lots of activities going on including their last exams. :)

I snuck in some time to play along in the ColourQ #86 challenge.  My card has mostly brown with hints of the other colors.

I started with the Stampin Up Bingo stamp. Love the size and the image and pulled it out for the background of the card.  I then decided that the sweet kids from the Artistic Outpost Think and Wonder set would look cute in the corner. I added some flourishes from the Artistic Outpost - Serenity plate and birds from B Line Designs to create a secret garden. 

Here is the inspiration photo:

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Merci

I am playing in two challenges: Paper Craft Color Inspiration #5 and Card Patterns Sketch #116.

The butterfly is much more glossy and delicate. Hard to get a good picture. The background is created from a really cool circle stamp from Stampers Anonymous. I used the watercolor markers to color the alternate circles with orange and pink. I spritzed it with some water and stamped in a diagonal to create a fun background. The Merci stamp is from the Hero Arts Thanks Clear Stamps Set. The butterfly pin is from Claires. I have taken to stalking the clearance center there with my DD when she wants to browse the jewelry.  They have so many fun pieces of jewelry which make great accessories on the cards. :)

I love the pink and orange color combination and thought this was a very fun pattern.  I worked from a loose interpretation of the sketch and used the tulle to give the effect of the sketch. :)

We had some big thunderstorms last night but no damage and no tornadoes which I am very thankful for. Today looks like some beautiful weather.  Hope your day is filled with sunshine!

Suzz

CR84FN29 -

Soft and lovely are the colors for the CR84FN29 challenge this week.  
  

I have been wanting to use this beautiful set of butterflies that I won over at the Hero Arts challenge an thought it would be fun to create a butterfly swarm using the pretty colors for the CR84FN challenge. 

There are four different butterflies and they are randomly stamped around the panel. The background is a repeated stamping of the Hero Arts script stamp.  The butterflies are colored using a combination of watercolor pencils and the water brush. To add a soft finish the edges were sponged using grey ink and the entire surface was clear embossed.

The sentiment is from Verses Rubber Stamps - Troubles be Less. The butterflies are Papillion and the script is Old Letter Writing.

The beautiful colors:

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  * Lin Brandyberry (Guest Designer)

Have a blessed day!

Suzz

Friends - Wee Memories Challenge # 57 - Stamp It

Wee Memories challenge this week is to Stamp It and I thought it would be fun to ink up these fun girlfriends and create a card with them.  I am sure my DD's will want to use this for one of their friends. 

The image is drawn by Mo Manning. I am a huge fan of her work. (Thanks to Alice and her lovely cards using Mo's images I started looking for her images in rubber)  There are a couple of companies carrying her images in rubber and I purchased the BFF stamp from Stamping Bella.  The background is the friends definition from Hero Arts. The sentiment came with the image and a wonderful sentiment for the image.

The image was stamped on watercolor paper and colored with markers and a water brush. The background was stamped with brown pigment ink. The ground was painted with the waterbrush and distress ink.

The butterflies are cut using the new Memory Box Butterfly Delight die cut and Memory Box dots paper.

The little tags are from a Hero Arts clear sentiment set.

Hope your Saturday is off to a good start. I have a few errands to run today and lots of cleaning. (Sigh) Seems like the dust bunnies have been playing in my house this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Starry Starry Night

Today is a Lily Pad Card Lucy's Fine Lines sketch #2 challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Lawn Fawn Stamps. My card uses the adorable Critters in the Forest set. 

 The card is a little scene of the forest using the stair step fold. This fold is so fun to use when creating a scene and the critters work perfectly in the scene.  

The papers are October afternoon and seemed appropriate with the forest theme.  The animals are colored using a variety of distress inks, watercolor pencils and aqua brushes.

Here is the lovely sketch: 

All the details of the challenge are at the Lily Pad Cards Blog   and there is a fabulous prize from Lawn Fawn! 

For more inspiration visit the wonderful design team:

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

Have a wonderful Friday!

Suzz

Chapel Road Artstamps Blog Challenge - Masculine Altered Project

The challenge this time at Class Act is to create a masculine altered project.   I went digging through my pile of alterable items and found a paper mache box. 

I tried to create the feel of a chest that has been sent around the world.  I asked my DH what he thought and he said "Oh that is nice, you could use it for a jewelry box." LOL!  So much for what I think is masculine. :)

The base was painted with acyrlic paint (white). I let that dry and then pulled the orange dye ink across the surface which looked like grain in the wood. After that it was a mix of stamping and tissue tape.
The straps are made from leather strips and the buckles are from Zutter. I added a row of brass accents along the sides to add a little touch.

The stamp sets used for the project include: Wonderful World, Find Your Way, and Scribe.

You can check out the rest of the teams fabulous creations and the details of the challenge at the Class Act Insider. 

So glad you stopped by!  

Suzz

ColourQ Challenge #85

I saw the beautiful colors at ColourQ this week and loved the earthy tones. The colors inspired me to create two very different cards.

First I created this card which is also for the Hero Arts Monthly Challenge.

I used the Envelope Background Designblock to create the background. The poppies one of my favorites was stamped in StaZon grey ink. The flowers are colored using distress inks and watercolor pencils. (Rusty Hinge, Memento Rich Cocoa) The sentiment (Hero Arts) is stamped using brown pigment ink. Added a touch of silver glimmer mist to white tulle and added to the background.

The second card is a masculine card. 

The image is from Class Act Chapel Road Artstamps - Northern River . The background is an script stamp called old script but I really thought it looked like birch bark and would be a fun background to the trees. :)

The image was stamped using the StaZon grey ink and colored with distress inks.  After the image was colored it was covered in clear embossing powder. 

 Here are the beautiful colors from ColourQ:

Tomorrow I have two challenges to share for Lily Pad Cards and Chapel Road Artstamps.  Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Stripes and Polka Dots

The challenge this week over at the City Crafter Challenge is Stripes and Polka Dots.   I needed one more card for a class I am teaching.

I had to be creative to get the polka dots in and decided to emboss my butterflies with the polk dots embossing folder an sponge them to make the dots pop!  This card also is for the Hero Arts Monthly challenge this month is ATC's, Flowers or coloring.  The Hydrangea is Hero Arts and the sentiment is also Hero Arts.

Here is the second card I am teaching in the class. This uses a Pansy stamp.

Hope you are having a lovely week.

Suzz

Embellish Tags & City Craft Challenge By the Sea

 I merged the Embellish Tags & Color Challenge with the City Crafter Challenge - By the Sea to create this seafaring card.

I love this old lighthouse from the Artistic Outpost Beyond the Sea plate. It is so fun to color. The sentiment is a new one from Verses Rubber Stamps - QQ1203-E Salt of the Ocean.  The background music is from the Artistic Outpost Ephemeral Backgrounds plate.

I had a lot of fun embossing the kraft cardstock and distressing it with the white acrylic paint. The image is colored using distress / dye inks with a dash of the white paint over top.


I hope you had a wonderful weekend. 

Suzz

CR84FN28 - A little Whimsy

I love the bright and cheery colors for the CR84FN28 challenge this week.  The colors are red and yellow and neutrals.  I found this beautiful paper that reminded me of old wallpaper and had to use it for the base of the card.
  

 The rooster has been hanging around on my desk for a few weeks waiting for a chance to show up on one of my cards. I thought he was a fun touch of whimsy as well as perfect for the colors this week. The lovely lace is from Webster's Pages and it is soft and pretty and I hated to cover it up.

The sentiment is Verses MCS0643 -F Wishing You Always.  I stamped the sentiment and then embossed using an embossing folder and added a hint of yellow dye ink. The ribbon is seam binding and is dyed using the Ranger Stains (Mustard Seed).  Love how the Ranger stains quickly dye the ribbon.

My lovely rooster friend is from Layers of Color on a lovely set of stamps called Rise and Shine.

Here are the beautiful inspiration photos courtesy of Adam at Embrace Life. .

And what a perfect quote... So many times I second guess what I am doing on my cards and then I get wonderful feedback from my friends.  So I think to try something new is a good thing even if it doesn't shine the first time it helps us become better and more creative.

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  * Lin Brandyberry (Guest Designer)

Happy Sunday to you!

Suzz

Happy Birthday Marilyn!

Happy Birthday to Marilyn! This is for my wonderful MIL.  She has a wonderful green thumb and this card with all the beautiful flowers is perfect for her.

The challenge over at Flourishes was to create a card using a combination from their bingo board. I knew I was going to use their beautiful flowers so I added scallops and die cuts to the combo.

 

  

I just love this dress form as it can be decorated in so many ways. :)  The flowers are from the lovely Violets set from Flourishes. They are colored using watercolor pencils and highlighted with a little clear glitter. 

The butterflies are punched out using an Marvy Uchida punch on some more violets.  The background paper is Websters Pages and I added the Hero Arts Flourish to add a little pattern on the background. 

The distressing is Vintage Photo from Rangers Distress Inks. The frame is left over from one of my other projects where I used the newspaper and glimmer mist. 

I hope you have wonderful weekend planned. Thanks for stopping by.. 

Suzz

Lily Pad Card Challenge - Emboss It

Today is another fun challenge at Lily Pad Cards - Embossing. 

Our sponsor this week is The Crafts Meow! They  provided us with lovely images to work with this week. I was lucky enough to receive the Simply Delightful set.  Here is what I came up with:

Lisa's beautiful card here inspired me to try this fold technique and she tracked down the link with the fold measurements. I was so happy to try out this fun fold with my new lovely stamps. 

All the details of the challenge are at the Lily Pad Blog   and there is a fabulous prize from The Crafts Meow! 

For more inspiration visit the wonderful design team:

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

Have a wonderful Friday!

Suzz

Masculine Card - ColourQ Challenge #84

I was playing around with some beautiful collage stamps from Chapel Road Artstamps and  the lovely colors from the ColourQ #84 Challenge to create this masculine card:

The Paper Crafts Sketch Magazine had this lovely sketch which uses scraps to create a grid card and left the sentiment to the left. I liked that design and decided to use it and a bunch of my white cardstock scraps to create a grid card.  The stamps are all Class Act Chapel Road Artstamps.  The colors are Ranger Distress inks (Antique Linen, Faded Jeans, Forest Moss) and Memento Dandelion.


Here is the inspiration photo from the challenge:

Happy Thursday! I will be back tomorrow with something very feminine for the Lily Pad Cards challenge using some new stamps from the Craft's Meow!

Suzz

Wildflowers

I was playing around with some colors for a challenge and they didn't quite come together and I ended up with this card instead.  I was happy with the pretty background. The quote  from Hans Christian Anderson seemed very fitting for a card made up of wildflowers. Then I botched stamping the sentiment on the panel so instant fix... Re-stamp on vellum and overlay in the exact same position! :)

The background is glimmer mist and a lovely stencil from Layers of Colors. (A scrap from another abandoned project.) The verse is from Verses Rubber Stamps and the flowers are all Hero Arts.


Hope your day is fantastic!

Suzz

Home Sweet Home

Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week is anything goes. I have the lovely globes from GlobeCraft Memories and decided to create a wall hanging of the homestead. I used some old photos that I had in my stash.

Here is the full piece. Hard to see so I took individual photos:

 

The homestead reminds me of my great uncles farm house in Wisconsin. I remember walking through and playing with all the old photos: 

 

The next couple look so handsome all dressed up and having their picture taken in front of the porch with the trellis.  The pictures were taken in 1920's. 

Love the expression on the man's face in this photo. She is beaming and he looks so taciturn.

The backgrounds are a combination of papers and stamped backgrounds using the Artistic Outpost Ephemeral Backgrounds Plate, Oz collage, Home and The Outpost Plate.

Very fun to mix and match some of my vintage photos along with some bits of lace, charms, and papers. 

A close up of the header.

I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to get a picture of the project. :) 

Hope your Mother's Day was wonderful! Mine was terrific! Have a beautiful Monday!

Suzz

CR84FN27

I went a little shabby chic for the  CR84FN27 challenge this week.  The colors are bright pink, grey and cream. I was inspired by some lovely papers from Echo Park Paper Called Love Letters from the Be Mine collection. 

The dress form is the Sizzix Die Cut dressed up with a little lace, crocheted flowers, and gems. The stamps are Hero Arts - Old Letter Writing, Lace Background and the sentiment is Layers of Colors - Happy Wishes.
The ink is Versafine Smokey Grey and StaZon Fuchsia Pink.

I love the pink, grey color combo and created two cards for the challenge this week:

The stamps are Penny Black (Cattails) B Line Designs (Bird) and Verses Rubber Stamps (Begin Each New Day)

Here are the beautiful  inspiration colors from CR84FN:

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

To see all the wonderful creations from the CR84FN Design Team:

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

If you are in the U.S. I hope your Mother's Day is wonderful!

Suzz

Hero Arts Monthly Challenge

The challenge this month for Hero Arts - Flowers, ATCS or Watercolor Pencils includes some of my favorite things.  I love my Hero Arts flowers, ATCs  are so much easier for me as it is all about the artwork and not so much about the design, and watercolor pencils which are my favorite coloring medium....

I worked on two ATC's this morning for the challenge. 

First the fabulous peacock stamp:

 I love this striking image and it allows you to use sponging of colors over the image. The background is the music design block stamped in soft sand shadow ink from Hero Arts.

My second ATC uses the beautiful cling rose stamp from Hero Arts:  

 

The inks include Ranger Archival Ink, Memento Rose Bud, Memento Bahama Blue, Memento Pear Tart  and  Versafine Smokey Gray. 

Hope your Saturday is wonderful! 

Suzz

Everything is just Ducky!

Time for another fun color challenge at Lily Pad Cards featuring Kathy's Color Throw Down 

and we have a wonderful sponsor this week The Greeting Farm! They  provided us with lovely images to work with this week. I selected this adorable image called Duckie Rain to color.

I had so much fun coloring in the sweet ducky! He is colored using watercolor pencils. The background is sponged with dye ink and embossed using an embossing folder. The circles are outlined with a little glitter as well as the puddle under my ducky friend. The sentiment is from Memory Box.

Here are the wonderful colors from Kathy:

All the details of the challenge are at the Lily Pad Blog   and there is a fabulous prize from The Greeting Farm!

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 wonderful Friday!

Suzz

Baby Card

 I mixed the Mojo #189 Sketch Challenge with the Color Throwdown #140 colors to create this whimsical baby card. The new Valise papers from Memory Box are based on kraft paper. Love the colors in the papers and they fit perfectly with the challenge colors. I decided to pair it with the fun Memory Box Bubble Gum dots paper.

The sweet elephant and balloons are from Memory Box. Memory Box has dies now!  I used one of the new dies to create the scalloped doily border. They cut like a dream.

Here is a list of all the products: Memory Box: Valise, Bubble Gum Dots, Dies - Pearl Lace, Little Banner, Mama and Baby Combo, Balloon Bundle, Thank You Combo, Nestabilities Lacy Circles, Watercolor Pencils, Glitter, Memento Rich Cocoa Dye Ink, Black Versafine Pigment ink

I was inspired to try a second card using Stella Rose papers:

Here is the lovely sketch:

Hope your week is going well!

Suzz

Wonder

Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge is to show  your Hands. I had this beautiful compass stamp from Class Act - Chapel Road Artstamps - Find Your Way and decided to combine it with the Scribe hands.

The background is a thin piece of wood and glimmer mist with orange, green, and purple. The image is stamped using black archival ink. 

The sentiment is stamped using brown pigment ink on ivory cardstock. Sponge edges with vintage photo dye ink.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz