Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! 

I spent a few hours last night making a few tags and a card for my kiddos to give them today with a little treat.

For my teenage son:

 I wanted to give him something slightly spooky and edgy and thought a combination of the My Minds Eye Lost & Found Halloween paper set the perfect tone.  I added the Stampendous Skeleton Poem and the sentiment is from a Sparkle Stamp set and the spider is Artistic Outpost Gothic 31.

For my teenage daughter I decided the Stampendous Sprite was goth enough for a teenager:

 

 I colored her in the greens and purples that my daughter loves.  The background is stamped with the Stampendous Grate in a coordinating purple. 

My last one is for my youngest daughter and she loves this cute mummy with the puppy:

 I stamped the image using black ink  and colored the image using my STAEDTLER Aquarell Watercolor Pencils. She likes my cute cards and I had to pick a cute image for hers.

I also wanted to share my Edgar Allen Poe Arch ATC's I made for a swap.  They were required to have a picture of him or a raven. I already shared the Raven ones but enjoyed looking up his stories to embody in my ATC.  I remember reading his stories in school around this time of the year.  


My first ATC shows a picture of Mr. Poe with some distressing, decoupage, and stamping.

 

 My second ATC was inspired by his story The Tell Tale Heart. 

 

The last one was inspired by The Cask of Amontallado where in his story the man was bricked up in a wine celler:

 I knew I wanted to create an door way to open up and find EAP inside:

The candelabra was just a fun touch on his head.

I hope you have wonderful Halloween!

Suzz

Happy Fall!

I am sending prayers to all of you who are experiencing the difficult weather right now.  I hope you are all safe. 

I was delighted to be asked by Crafts N Things to be a contributor on their new blog.  My very first post for them was yesterday and shares this card:

I provide step out and detailed instructions over on the blog.  Hop over if you want the details.  

Products: STAEDTLER Watercolor Crayon, STAEDTLER Aquarell Watercolor Pencils, Hero Arts Thanks Definition, Glimmer Mists, Distressing Tool, Artistic Outpost - Old Grist Mill, Memory Box Happy Fall

Check out the new blog!  If you like to dabble in all kinds of crafts there is always different inspiration everyday! 

Suzz

Pearls & Feathers

This week at Simon Says Stamp and Show the challenge is Just Add a Pearl.  I took the opportunity to create a card for my sister's birthday. 

I used a lovely blue glimmer mist combined with a brown chalkboard mist.  I started with multiple layers of old book pages and music sheets. I sprayed them with blue glimmer mist and add a touch of yellow.  I then sprayed over the surface using perfect Pearls Mister.

I misted my flowers with the same combination of inks.  I added a stamped clock in the background and a flourish.  Then layered in pearls, flowers, feathers and wooden clocks.

The birds are stamped and colored to coordinate into the scene.  I think my Sis will like her card.

Products:  Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish, Big clock,  Artistic Outpost Birds of a Feather,.  Prima Flowers Clock,   Patina Glimmer Mist, Chalkboard Spray, Perfect Pearls Mister - Pearl  

Come play along with us for an opportunity to win a $50 voucher from Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Christmas in Paris

Another tag today!  I am following along with Linda's twelve tags challenge and we are on week #6.  Her challenge is sponsored by her store The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  Linda's tag is really lovely this week and posed quite a challenge for me as I didn't have anything on her tag on hand. :)

 I decided to use the colors and layout.  The colors are appealing as I don't usually mix the blues and reds together for my holiday tags/cards.

I started with the Stampendous Eiffel tower stamped in the bottom left corner to give the height of the trees. I found this beautiful wood snowflake that I painted white and added chunky glitter and frosty glitter. 

I sprayed the lace and flower with a deep red glimmer mist to give the rich red tones.  The background is script form Hero arts. 

Products:  Stampendous Cling Eiffel Noel, Stampendous Chunky Glass Glitter, Hero Arts - Old Letter Writing, Ranger Stickles, Petaloos

Hope your weekend is lovely. We are trick or treating this afternoon and I am so looking forward to the costumes!  I love seeing what clever ideas people have.  My youngest is going as Thing 1 with a friend of hers being Thing 2 from the Cat in The Hat.

Suzz

School Days

Today is the big finale for Stampendous October Release Hop!  I decided to share some of the sweet vintage children from the new release.

I started with a fun chalkboard:

This started with a picture frame in the shape of an easel.  I painted it with white acrylic paint.  Cut a two pieces of Chalkstock to fit in the frame.

I stamped the Kids on Wheels using black ink and colored with my STAEDTLER Aquarell Watercolor Pencils.  I sponged the edges with blue dye ink.

I used the Altered Type Alphabet
to stamp the letters and numbers using a variety of ink colors.  The edges are sponged with yellow dye ink.

I created a coordinating card to go with the chalkboard:

 

 I added a coordinating Graphic 45 paper for the rulers. 

Now onto all the other inspiration in the hop: 

Stampendous Blog 

 Annette Witherspoon 

Asia King 

Barb Turpin 

Cyndi Bundy

Janelle Stollfus  

Jennifer Ingle 

Jennifer Dove 

Kristine Reynolds

Lea Kimmel 

Mary Dawn Quirindongo 

Melinda Gleissner  

Pam Hornschu 

Rhea Weigard

Suzanne Czosek

Tenia Nelson

Tobi Crawford

Wenday Jordan

Wendy Price 

Yana Smakula 

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Journey

Today is another day in the Stampendous Hop showcasing the new stamps in the October Release.

I was inspired by the Vintage Car and decided to create a travel tag:

The background is a piece of map that I had laying around. I cut the map to fit on my tag and tore a section out in the middle.  I added some really cool Aged Teal Embossing Enamel with a touch of Aged Gold Embossing Enamel around the edges.

I stamped the Vintage Car using versamark on a piece of the map and heat embossed using black embossing powder.  I stamped again on tan cardstock using brown ink.  I cut them both out and slightly overlapped them to give a cool effect.

I embossed an old key added an Idea-ology link and added it to the tag.  I stamped the Time Flies clock twice once I embossed in Aged Gold Embossing Enamel and the other in black ink.  I added a hint of teal blue to the clock face. I punched the clock face out in the embossed version and layered them together.

Just for fun I decided to try to coordinate my seam binding by embossing it with the Aged teal embossing enamel.  I sponged the surface of the ribbon using versamark and sprinkled the embossing enamel over the surface and shook off the excess.  I heated it up with the heat gun. You need to be careful and hold the heat gun further away so as to not start the ribbon on fire. :)  

For more wonderful inspiration:

Asia King
Janelle Stollfus
Jennifer Dove
Kristine Reynolds
Melinda Gleissner
Suzanne Czosek
Tenia Nelson
Wendy Price

And of course, you can browse the catalog below by clicking on the cover (all of the Stampendous catalogs as cool flippy books are on the Stampendous website at the bottom of the home page, too)

Wish Big

A birthday card using the Mojo Monday Sketch #264.

I was using up scraps on my desk from another project and decided to use the sketch from Mojo Monday to create a birthday card.

 

I stamped the new Stampendous Butterfly a second time onto white cardstock and colored using the STAEDTLER Aquarell Watercolor Pencils.  I stamped the sentiment from Penny Black and used papers from My Minds Eye - The Sweetest Thing - Honey.

Should have been a quick and easy card that took me two hours of swapping out pattern papers to get the layers of color and texture. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Circus Star!

The  newest products from Stampendous  October 2012 Catalog are being showcased this week with fabulous designs from the Stampendous DT. Each day this week there is a blog hop featuring the new release.  Start at the Stampendous blog each day to get a list of who is playing along that day!

The new release includes a series of vintage Circus stamps  which inspired my Circus Star!

Click to Enlarge

I started with party decoration star. (12" x 12") It had a shiny surface which I pulled off to expose the chipboard underneath.  A few coats of acrylic paint and some polka dots and it made the perfect background for my Lil Joker and vintage Circus poster.

I stamped the little clown multiple times on white cardstock and colored with a combination of dye inks and watercolor pencils. I cut him out and added white polka dots.

The poster was stamped on white cardstock and colored with dye ink and watercolor pencils.  The stars are die cut and sponged the stars with dye inks.

I stamped the sentiment and cut it apart to allow the clowns to hold it like placards. 

The new Stampendous stamps include:  Lil Joker, Circus Poster, and Life is a Circus.

Hop along to see all the other great inspiration by my team-mates:

Stampendous Blog

Janelle Stollfus

Jennifer Ingle

Jennifer Dove
 Kristine Reynolds

Melinda Gleissner

Rhea Weigand

 Suzanne Czosek (You are Here)

Taylor Usry

Wendy Price

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

A Wish made by the Heart

This week the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge has a special guest designer ..... Wendy Vecchi!  She will be sharing a special guest post this week at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  Our challenge this week is to be inspired by Wendy!

I was very inspired by this blog post from Wendy Vecchi to play in my new art  journal.

I had this beautiful set of inspiring words that worked perfectly with the fun images from the AO Neverland set. 

My  journal page started with the star on Wendy's journal:

I sprayed the page with glimmer mist and added a layer of white acrylic paint over the surface to smear the colors.

I hand drew the star using watercolor pencils and highlighted it with white gel pen and added a touch of glitter.  I used  a stencil to add a little Chevron in the background.  I used a sponge tip to create the polka dots of orange dye ink.  I printed out the sentiment from the movie to cut out and add to the page.

I added additional stars and images from a few different AO sets in the background.  The words work perfectly with my whimsical Peter Pan page. 

Products: Artistic Outpost Neverland, Artistic Outpost Huck Finn, Artistic Outpost London Elements, Stampers Anonymous - Just Word Art, Ranger Distress Inks Rusty Hinge, Signo Uni-Ball White Gel Pen, Ranger Archival Black Ink, Chevron Stencil, Glimmer Mist, STAEDTLER Karat Aquarell Watercolor pencils.

Come play along with us for an opportunity to win a $50 voucher from Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by

Soft Pastels

I had to whip up an anniversary card to be sent off today.  I pulled out the Mojo Monday Sketch # 263 and used the CR84FN65 colors to help jump start my card.

This card is for my SIL & her hubby.  They have been married just about as long as me and my hubby.  Their oldest daughter is at West Point.  I remember when she was born!  Time goes by so quickly.

I looked through my pattern paper for coordinating colors and found a beautiful pad of paper from My Mind's Eye - Follow Your Heart - Be Happy which had the perfect colors to match the CR84FN challenge.

I cut the paper to fit the layout added a touch of distressing and dye ink.

I added the beautiful sentiment from Verses Rubber Stamps - Bright Hopes Anniversary backed by the poem How Do I Love Thee. 

I also added a sneak peek of the brand new butterfly from Stampendous being released this week! (all next week the Stampendous DT will be sharing the new catalogue!)

The last detail was to take a gem flourish and to mute it with liquid pearls.  I didn't have a pearl flourish that coordinated with the colors I had.  I took the gem flourish and coated it with liquid pearls in a soft pink and it worked perfectly with the color scheme.

Hope your Saturday is spectacular! 

Suzz

Silent Night Holy Night

Linda has been posting every week a tag as a challenge for us to play along and has a lovely prize sponsored by her store The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  This weeks tag #5 has some beautiful music in the background with a resist of snowflakes.  I started from that idea and pulled out a vintage music pamphlet that describes the creation of the carol Silent Night.  I photo copied a few bits of the book to use for my tag. 
 

This was my second version of the tag. I started with the resist of stars in the background over my music and then sponged it with the plum but it got too dark.  This version didn't use the resist which allowed me to just add highlights of the soft plum to areas of the tag. 

I used this beautiful church scene from Magenta Stamps AO2185S.  I added in the clouds using a Stampscape cloud stamp.  I added color with a watercolor brush and Memento Soft Plum.  I added highlights with the white gel pen.  

At the end of the little book there was the German and English words for the Song which I used on the bottom of my tag.

I knew I wanted an angel in my sky and had nothing small enough to fit.  I pulled out my Shrinky Dinks acetate and stamped the Stampendous Angel and shrunk her to fit.  I added a little white acrylic paint behind her to make her stand out and to give her appropriate glow.  I decided to add in the moon and was going to stamp some words on it but had a few failed attempts and decided to leave it alone. :)

Have a wonderful Thursday!  So glad it is almost the weekend. :)

Suzz

P.S.  Here is the first version if you want to see how not to align your words and the resist. :)

Leaves are Falling

Happy Fall! Welcome to the Artistic Outpost Monthly Blog Hop!  This month the Design Team created Fall themed projects to share.

I really like when the weather is crisp and the sun is shining.  That is perfect fall weather for me!  The leaves start to change and there are so many beautiful trees in varying shades of colors.  I started with those beautiful leaves as the inspiration for my project:

I stamped the beautiful leaf from The Outpost plate. I inked it up with a variety of colors from the distress inks.  I used yellow, orange, red and brown dye ink  to create the leaves. I inked up from lightest to darkest colors on the stamp.   After the leaves were stamped I hand cut them. (This took time but I like to do this busy work while watching TV)  After they were cut I sponged the edges with brown dye ink.  To finish them off I added a layer of Distress Crackle Paint.  I stamped the house and tree using black ink and added color with distress inks to the tree.  I stamped in the background the ledger from the Ephemera Backgrounds. I finished off the scene with several layers of clear embossing powder.

The sentiment is from the Flower Market.

When I finished my first project I had some of the beautiful leaves left and decided to create a tag.

 My inspiration was a nest of leaves for a bird.  I decided he needed a tree in the background and stamped the tree from The outpost along with the ledger.  I added the sentiment from the Kudzu Kafe. 

Products: Artistic Outpost Birds of A Feather, The Outpost, Ephemera Backgrounds, Kudzu Kafe

For more inspiration hop along to the rest of the design team:

Linda Coughlin

Tracy Evans

 Lisa Somerville

Have a wonderful day!

Suzz

Turning the Pages

Today I am sharing one of my favorite things, a book, which I have used as a base for my project today.  Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge this week is to share a favorite, idea, project, photo, product, etc... 

 

My project started with an idea I had seen in a mixed media book.  The mixed media book showed a book with the pages folded in different ways to created different angles along with die cut pieces inserted. 

I decided to start by folding pages into triangles and alternating with folded pages and using border punches on other pages. I continued to fold and folded with a regular pattern all the pages in the book. 

The next step was to spray over the entire surface of the folded pages and inside of the covers with a mist. I die cut four clocks from pattern paper and acetate to create my clocks which are my bookends on either end of the book. 

I added the birds and branches intermixed into the pages: 

 

And how the project looks from the front:

 

A few other things:  

Stamped the rulers on cardstock and sponged and distressed them and taped the m to the edges. I added patterned paper to the inside covers to coordinate with my blues. 

The bird on the front is sitting in a nest made from moss. 

I stamped the inside of the clock and used the stamped pen nibs for hands on the clock.  I added the sentiment stamped onto the acetate and pop dotted it to allow for the hands and brad inside the clock. 

I misted the flower to coordinate with a touch of seam binding behind it. 

The folding of the pages took some time but it was fun to do while watching t.v. with the family. So a nice project that didn't require too much thought. :) 

Products: Sizzix Tim Holtz Caged Bird Die, 

EK Success Slim Edger - Arches Punch,

Tim Holtz Sizzix Tick Tock Die , 

Prima Flowers Danseur ,

Memory Box Leafy Branch, 

Stampers Anonymous - Artful Artifacts ,

Stampers Anonymous - Alpha Sampler

Artistic Outpost - Typography

Ranger Archival Ink - Coffee

StazOn - Jet Black

Ranger Distress Ink - Peacock Feathers

Tattered Angels - Patina Glimmer Mist

Come play along with us for an opportunity to win a $50 voucher from Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by! 

Happy Fall

I was looking through blogland and saw Barb and Donna had created some beautiful entries for the CAS-ology Challenge #14.  CAS is a good challenge for me to try. :)

 This was my third attempt using my spray of leaves in a design. :)  I started with stamping the Hero Arts leaf three times using brown archival ink.  I smeared STAEDTLER Karat Pastel Chalks in the centers of my leaves.  I used a sponge to smear them together and around the edges.  I spritzed the surface with Goose Bumps and waited for that to dry.  I then smeared the yellow pastels over the surface to add the hint of yellow.

I then cut it into the shape of a tag and layered it onto the white cardstock. Added the embossing and sentiment from Memory Box.

It is hard not to add more to the background but I like a good challenge.

Have a happy Saturday and don't worry I have a very complex and multi-layered project for tonight's SSSS post! :)

Suzz

Snow Angel

Today is the last day of  the Stampendous DT and the Coredinations team hop. All you have to do is hop along and leave a comment for a chance to win.

Today I am featuring the Black Magic Cardstock and the Stampendous Caped Angel:
 

I started with the beautiful Coredinations Protect cardstock. I dry embossed the cardstock using a Sizzix Embossing folder.  I sanded the embossed areas using the Coredinations Sand It Gadget.  I then poked a hole in the middle with a pair of scissors and started folding and rolling the edges back to expose the center. I sponged the rolled edges with a touch of black ink.

I stamped the Stampendous Cape Angel using black ink on white cardstock and colored the image using STAEDTLER Karat Aquarell Watercolor Pencils.   I stamped in the background the  Cling Jumbo Holly Season Set using a soft pink ink.

On the little tag I stamped the sentiment using the Altered Type Alphabet. I also added a touch of ultra-fine crystal powder on the wings and trim on the cape. (Can't see it in the photo but it adds a lovely glisten IRL.

Hop along to see all the other fabulous inspiration:

StampendousBlog

Core'dinations Blog

Melinda Gleissner 

Annette Witherspoon

Cyndi Bundy

Janelle Stollfus

JenniferIngle

KrissyFossmeyer

Kristine Reynolds

Lea Kimmel

Mary Dawn Quirindongo

Rhea Weigand

Stephanie Lee (Arty Carty)

Suzanne Czosek

Tenia Nelson

Wendy Jordan

WendyPrice

Jennifer Dove 

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Country Christmas

I had several tags on my desk this week between Linda's Funkie Junkie Week # 4 challenge and Tim's October tag.  Linda's challenge is sponsored by her store The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  I finished up my tag for Linda's challenge yesterday.

 I was inspired by Linda's Rustic Christmas charm on her tag.  She had gingham in the background and on her ribbons.  I didn't have a gingham stamp but thought why not use the ticking stamp from the Kudzu Kafe plate from Artistic Outpost.

That lead to a Kudzu Kafe Christmas. :)  I stamped the ticking stamp in two directions to create a gingham effect. I embossed a kraft panel and softened it with a touch of white acrylic paint. I stamped the store and added some fun faux flowers. The happy Christmas is from the Snowy Woods plate.

I added a little plaid ribbon that was recycled from a Christmas gift. I inked up white buttons to add a touch of green and brown.

I also wanted to share my second tag inspired from Tim's Tag of October.  I created the background using tissue tape, acrylic paints and a touch of distress inks. I added a layer of perfect pearls.

The images are from the Artistic Outpost Paris Exposition.

Happy Friday to you!

Suzz

Make it Work

I am a big fan of the Project Runway Show.  I love watching what the designers have to create in a short time frame with different challenges thrown at them. My tag I created today inspired by the  Tim Holtz October Tag ended up being a stylish little number. (Hence the project runway reference!)

My tag uses the techniques Tim shared and mixed up different design elements to compensate for me not having the fun die he used.

My tag's focal point needed to be die cut and glittered up.   I had an "aha" moment and decided to create my own chic black dress.

I started with tissue paper and stamping the tissue paper with the script background using archival ink.  I then crinkled up my tissue paper to get the wrinkles in before I applied it to my tag. 

I mixed Elmers glue with water and Dylusions spray(Yellow) and painted it onto the tag. I laid my tissue paper onto the tag leaving in the wrinkles.  I then applied another layer of my yellow glue over the surface.

While it was still wet I sprayed in spots the blue Dylusions spray and dabbed off the excess.

I then let this dry.  After it dried I came back and sponged on distress inks (Peacock Feathers, and Lemonade)

I added a coat of perfect pearls and edged the tag with black acrylic paint. I die cut the dress form and applied the black glitter per Tim's tutorial. The rest was stamping and cutting.


Products: Stampers Anonymous -  Attic Treasures, Artistic Outpost - French Flight, Stampendous - Eiffel Tower, Tim Holtz Sizzix Die - Sewing Room,  Prima Flowers - Say it in Crystals,  Dylusions Inks, Ranger Distress Inks - Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers, Adirondack Pitch Black Paint

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Nevermore

This week the Stampendous DT and the Coredinations team are hopping together. 

My project features the black magic cardstock:

What a better image to pair with black magic than the beautiful Stampendous Raven Background?  I started with a piece of the Abracadabra cardstock. I dry embossed the cardstock using the Sizzix Embossing folder.  I sanded the embossed areas using the Coredinations Sand It Gadget. (I love that the sand paper on the sanding block can be replaced after it is used up!)  I added a layer of Adirondack Pearl paint over the embossed ares to add a sheen to the background. 

The raven was stamped using black Versafine ink and embossed with Stampendous black embossing powder.  I added a hint of orange watercolor pencils to the raven and the sanded background.  I cut out the raven and pop dotted him onto the background.

The words were stamped using the Storybook Alphabet set and the Tiny Alphabet Clear Set. I added a touch of white gel pen to the letters to make them pop

The finishing touch is the beautiful May Arts ribbon with twine and a feather.

Hop along to see all the other fabulous inspiration:

Stampendous Impressions Blog

Core'dinations Blog

Ellen (CoreTeam)

April Derrick

Annette Witherspoon

Suzanne Czosek (You are Here) 

Don't forget to leave comments for a chance to win some fun prizes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Stirring up some Haunting Fun!

 Rustification is the challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  You can take the idea of rust and create any kind of projects.  I knew I wanted to make something fun with a wood paint stick, I picked up at the home restoration store.
 

My son and I discussed what colors to use to create my rusty look and we decided to go with black gold and black again.

I stamped the fun images on white cardstock using black ink and colored them with distress inks. I added highlights using the white gel pen. 

Here are the step outs to create the rusty look:

1. Paint the wood stick with black acrylic paint: Let dry.

2. Smear Metallic Distress Stains - Brushed Pewter and Tarnished Brass randomly across the black paint.

3. Smear Versamark around the edges. Heat emboss using Aged Gold Embossing Enamel.

4. Smear StaZon Jet Black Ink over the surface of the gold embossing enamel.

I created a second spooky paint stick after the first one because the first one was fun! Here is the top half:

The bottom half

and the full stick!  I used some dollar store skeletons which got a touch of the tarnished brass rubbed over them along with some chain aged with the same techniques as the paint stick.  I attached the word Halloween using grunge board letters. The too were painted, embossed and stained.  They are hard to see in the picture but add another layer of dimension.

Products: Versamark Watermark Ink, Stazon Jet Black Ink, Adirondack Paint Dabber - Pitch Black, Ranger Archival Ink - Black,  Stampendous Aged Gold Embossing Enamel, Ranger Metallic Distress Stain - Tarnished Brass, Brushed Pewter, Graphic 45 Happy Haunting, Grungeboard Basics Alphabet, Ranger Distress Inks - Rusty Hinge, Scattered Straw

Play along with us this week in the challenge for a chance to win a $50 voucher from Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz