Dreamweaver & Stampendous Hop

All this week the Stampendous DT and the Dreamweaver DT are hopping and sharing inspiration using both the Stampendous and Dreamweaver fabulous products. There are chances to win wonderful prizes for leaving comments!

The theme for the hop is Summer.  My first card uses a cool wave stencil which I used in two different cards:

I used the lovely waves stencil as a mask and spritzed over the stencil with a green and blue glimmer mist. I thought it looked like a tropical paradise.

I cut a hole and popped the sweet Hula Kiddo on a wobbler in the window.  I stamped the  sentiment  from Stampendous Thoughtful Wishes in a coordinating blue color and cut it to fit around the edge of the circle.  I accented with a a few tropical flowers and twine.

My second card shifts to more of a wintry icy cool color palette.

I used the Double glitter technique to add color to my stencil in the background. I mixed in the micro glitters from Stampendous.  Ice Blue Micro Glitter,  Royal Ultra Fine Jewel Glitter and   Silver Micro Glitter.   I then decided I loved how it looked but it looked like a nice wintry storm.  I decided to add the new unicorn along with a sentiment for something rare and wonderful. I high lighted my unicorn with coordinating glitter.
Stampendous Unicorn Forest, Rare and Wonderful

Onto the important details:

The fun prize packages:

There will be  two prize packages given away  to two randomly selected comments on the posts (of both teams) Monday through Thursday this week, then another prize package for a randomly selected winner from comments on Friday!

Hop along and leave some love:

 Stampendous Blog

Dream It Up!
Krissy Fossmeyer
Lea Kimmel
Heidi Erickson
Cyndi Bundy
Suzanne Czosek
Louise Healy
Jessica Griffin
Tenia Nelson
Pam Hornschu

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Make your Own Sunshine

The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is an Ode to Sunshine. 

My card was inspired by the man with the umbrella holding off the rain and actually making his own sunshine.

I started with a piece of vintage paper.

I painted a middle section of the paper and let it dry.  I stamped the umbrella man in black ink onto the paper. I then inked up the sunburst image with yellow dye ink and then followed it up with orange dye ink. I stamped that over the top of the umbrella.

I stamped the sentiment along the right side. I then drew in the line for the ground along the bottom. I then used a waterbrush to soften the bottom. I used watercolor pencils and waterbrush to add a halo effect around my man.

I cut out the main panel and layered it over another panel of the vintage newspaper. I splattered white paint around the edges. I cut out a few different banners of the painted background and layered them on the right hand side. I added crystals, stars and a game spinner with brad to the right.

Products: Visual Artistry - Grunge Cirque, Visual Artistry - Purely Random, Vintage Paper,
Ranger Archival Ink - Black, Memento - Dandelion Dye Ink, Memento Tangelo Dye Ink    Waterbrush, White Paint, Game Spinner, Brad, Brass Stars, Crystal   

Now I encourage you to go off and spread a little sunshine and join in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for a chance to win a $50 Give voucher for Simon Says Stamp.

Shared Happiness

Hello! Welcome back to another day of House-Mouse Designs.  All this week the Stampendous Design Team is sharing House-Mouse Designs.   For my card today I used the sweet Berrying Gifts.

 I added the sweet sentiment from Rose Thoughts Perfectly Clear Stamps.  

The card  is a gate fold design:

I tied it together with a red silk ribbon.  The full instructions for the card is located here.

For more inspiration hop over to the talented:

Jenn Dove

Kristine Reynolds 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Floating Along

All this week the Stampendous DT is sharing exciting news and inspiration using House-Mouse Designs®.  Stampendous is now selling the adorable squeakers in the store.

I had a lot of fun coloring these little guys.  I started with a fall image. 

It looked like fun floating along on the leaf.  I created a background behind the mouse using the new Leafs and Tree stamps over a piece of pattern paper. I added a touch of gold micro glitter on the edges of the leaves.  The images were all colored with watercolor and waterbrush.

Products: Stampendous House-Mouse - Fall Flight, Stampendous Trees and Leaves, Stampendous Micro-Glitter Gold,     Ranger Distress Ink - Rusty Hinge,  STAEDTLER Karat Aquarell Watercolor pencils,  Raffia, Glue Pen

For more inspiration head over to:

Jamie Martin

Rhea Weigand
Jennifer Dove 

Suzanne Czosek (Me)

This week I also created two more House-Mouse cards and they are posted on the Crafts N Things blog if you would like to see some more fun mice!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Hero Arts Summer Blog Hop

Welcome to the Hero Arts Summer Blog Hop!  All week long the Hero Hostesses are sharing cards inspired by summer.  If you arrived here from the fabulous Jenn Biederman you are in the right place. If you just joined in the hop go to the Hero Arts Blog to start from the beginning.

Of course when we talked about summer I was thinking of the glorious flowers that fill the landscape during the hot summer days.  Being in the north we really only have the summer months to enjoy our flowers so I really appreciate the months that they shine.

 A few steps to create my card:

1. Lay stencil over white cardstock and spritz with gold mist. Lift stencil and place onto white cardstock and pick up the reverse image from the stencil.  This was the reverse image piece that I used in the background. 
2. Paint black cardstock with white paint using foam brush. 
3. Stamp flowers over dry painted surface using black water resistant ink. 
4. Color flowers using STAEDTLER Soft Pastel Chalks and a waterbrush.  The waterbrush will pick up the chalk and apply it like watercolors.  Repeat until desired shading. 
5. Add highlights in center of flowers using white gel pen. 
6. Splatter a little gold watercolor around the edges by inking up the waterbrush and splatter around the flowers. 
7. Add shading around edges of flowers using watercolor pencils and waterbrush. 
8. Cut rectangle around flowers and hand cut edges of flower. 
9. Stamp sentiment using Gold ink along edge of flowers. 
10. Accent with lace trim and gems. 
11. Assemble card. 

Products: Stencil, Hero Arts Made With Love, Hero Arts - F529 Garden Star, Versafine Toffee, Yellow Gems, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Dijon, Lace Trim

My second card was inspired by the hot summer days where the sun is so hot that the air shimmers and you see sun spots.  I decided to create a background using alcohol inks in yellow to reflect the hot summer day.

 Steps for the sunshine card:

1. Ink up glossy cardstock. Smear a blend of alcohol blending solution and yellow alcohol ink over the entire surface. 
2. Drip alcohol inks directly on the surface yellow let dry. Drip the next shade of yellow overlapping circles. Let dry. Repeat with different shades of yellow and Alcohol blending solution. Let dry between each color to hold the circles. 
3. Stamp flowers using Versamark onto the surface randomly. Heat emboss using light yellow embossing powder. 
4. Stamp butterflies on extra piece of alcohol ink background using versamark. Heat emboss with light yellow embossing powder. Cut out. Accent centers with pearls. 
5. Assemble card. 
6. Stamp sentiment on coordinating cardstock. Cut in banner shape attach to front of card.

Products: Ranger Alcohol Inks - Sunshine, Butterscotch, Alcohol Blending solution, Hero Arts -
H3257 Real Salvia, Hero Arts - Everyday Sayings.Hero Arts - Papillion

We decided to share some of our favorite recipes for summer..  As you know from previous posts, cooking is not my strength. :)  When we have family parties in the summer I am usually asked to bring the pudding salad.   No cooking involved and easy to make. 

Pudding Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

• 8 oz Cool Whip
• 1 5.9 box of Vanilla Instant Pudding 
• 1 15 oz can of Mandarin Oranges 
• 1 15 oz can of Fruit Cocktail 
• 16 oz Maraschino cherries
• 2 medium size Bananas
• 3 cups of Milk (for pudding)
• Optional:  Marshmallows

1. Make Instant Pudding per instructions. 
2. Fold in cool whip into pudding.Stir until completely mixed.
3. Drain cherries, fruit cocktail, and mandarin oranges of juices. 
4. Mix in fruit into pudding. 
5. Slice up bananas and mix into pudding. 
6. Add marshmallows if desired. I have never actually added them. :) 
7. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving. 

Everyone loves the fact that you have full cherries in the salad. They are like little surprises.

Now onto the next stop in the hop.  The extremely talented  Donna Mikasa. 

Don't forget to leave a comment at every blog because Hero Arts will be doing random drawings from all the blog comments. There will be three lucky winners, and the more you comment, the greater your chance of being one of them!!! 

If you encounter a broken link, just go to to the Hero Arts blog for a list of all the blogs with their links. Please report any broken links to blog[at]heroarts[dot]com.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Time to Put on our Party Hats!

The Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge has a new home and a new name.  The new location is here and our new name is Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. To celebrate the anniversary of  our challenge we are hosting a celebration challenge this week. I decided to put on my vintage party hat to come to the party.

I needed an idea of how to create my party hat so up to the party decorations I went.

I de-constructed a party hat to get the general shape of the hat to create my own template. 

Next step was to pull out vintage newspaper print.

I laid down a stencil and used the gold embossing paste to create a harlequin pattern over the paper. I repeated this process on several pieces of paper.

I tore it into pieces and applied watered down glue under the pieces and over the pieces to cover the party hat. After the hat was covered with the newsprint and embossed pattern I smeared white acrylic paint to soften the effect in areas of the hat. I distressed around the edges with brown dye ink.

I cut crepe paper into strips. Placed tape around the bottom edge.  Crinkled and attached the crepe paper.   I stapled the crepe paper to hold more wrinkles in place with the tiny attacher.  I added that hint of brown again on my crepe paper with the brown dye ink.

I then die cut stars from cardboard and distressed with the gold embossing paste and white paint.

I attached the stars to the hat. I then made tulle poms by cutting a bow from white tulle. Cut the bow ends to form a pom pom.  I sprayed it with gold glimmer mist.  I then used a glue pen and added chunky silver glitter to the poms. I added an accent in the center with small brass stars.  I added more glitter around the bottom and finished the top off with another larger pom pom with glitter.

I had a hard time getting a good photo of my hat so I asked my youngest to put it on and took several photos. For her last photo I asked her to pout and this is the photo:

 I love the sad look. :)

Products: Wendy Vecchi Gold Embossing Paste, The Crafters Workshop - Harlequin Stencil, Melissa Frances Vintage Crepe Paper, Basic Grey Brass Stars, Stampendous Silver Crushed Glass Glitter , Tattered Angels - Gold Glimmer Mist, Vintage Papers, Glue Pen, Tiny Attacher, Ranger Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Spellbinders Stars

Come and celebrate with us this week for a chance to win a gift certificate from the ever generous  Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Flowers & Stencils

Happy Saturday!  I was playing around this morning in my craft room with a leftover piece of paper that I created using a new stencil, paints and mists.

I ended up with a shadow effect on the doily/flowery pattern.  I decided to add a layer of flowers over the top and create a card.

The flowers are from DarkRoom Door - Bold Blossoms.  The sentiment is a new one from Verses Rubber Stamps - Live in the Present QQ1206-D.  The little moth is from 7 Gypsies Hampton Arts. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Suzz

Fall Leaves

I am back today with another sneak peek for Stampendous.  There is this gorgeous stamp full of leaves which I couldn't wait to play with in the new release.

I used this stamp in several projects because I love the details in the leaves and that it is a larger background stamp.

The background on all the paper is misted with Glimmer Mists.  I stamped the leaves on the misted background after it was dry using Versamark. I heat embossed the image using Stampendous Aged Bronze Embossing Enamel.  

To add a little more depth to the leaves I added a few touches of shading using watercolor pencils.  I stamped the lovely sentiment using black ink on another misted background.

The stamps used are R175 Leaf Background and V284 Kind Friendship.

To see the other wonderful inspiration hop along to:

Krissy Fossmeyer

Kristine Reynolds

Rhea Weigand 

Suzanne Czosek (me)

Remember there are sneak peeks all week and you can find out who is hopping every day over at the Stampendous blog. Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Holiday Hop

Welcome to the Artistic Outpost Christmas in July Blog Hop. The team is sharing a variety of winter holiday inspired projects on the hop this month.

I spied this old paintbrush at the Flea Market about 2 months ago and I have been holding onto it for a special project. 

I decided my old paintbrush would be the perfect surface to create a rustic Christmas decoration to be hung on the wall during the holiday.

I painted the handle with white acrylic paint to make the images pop.  I stamped the images onto tissue paper using Ranger Archival ink. I tore out the images.  I then applied watered down glue to the back of the tissue paper. I placed it onto the painted background and brushed glue water over the surface.  I started with Father Christmas first and then added the house and trees on the right and the trees on the left.  I added the snowflakes up the brush handle.

I added a piece of lace trim across the bottom with twine and several glittery silver bells.  I then tied on a bow to the handle with a stamped Joyeux Noel using black ink on white cardstock. I cut the tag and attached with twine to the bow.

The sets used include: Midwinter, Snowy Woods, and Sleigh Ride.

Hop over to check out the rest of the cool holiday projects by the design team:

Gerrie Johnnic 

Lisa Somerville 

Suzanne Czosek (me)

Tracy Evans

Linda Coughlin 

 Alison Bomber

Terry Horrall

Kate Yetter

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Shh... Sneak Peek Time

Stampendous is all packed up and ready to go to CHA with all their new stamps and powders!   The DT was lucky enough to get a preview of all the goodies and get to play with them.  I am sharing a sneak peek using several new wonderful sets from Stampendous.   The stamps will be available at Stampendous later this month and you can request them from your local stamps stores now. 

Onto the sneak peek..

This release includes a series of Charms clear sets.  The new sets take many of my favorite Stampendous stamps and make them in a charming size that allows you to make inchies, ATC's, Jewelry or just place many of them on a card like I did with my card today.

I pulled images from the new SSC1183 Christmas Charms, SSC1177 Butterfly Charms, SSC1173 Trees & Leaves, SSC1175 - Poison Labels.  I stamped them on white cardstock and colored the images using STAEDTLER Karat Aquarell Watercolor pencils and a water brush.  I the butterflies a second time along with the bird and colored them and cut them out to add a second layer.  I matted the separate pieces onto black cardstock and onto the white background.  I then realized I had a little gap so I added a stamped border between my pieces.

Hope you have enjoyed this sneak peek. All week long different design team members will be sharing inspiration using the new stamps on their blogs.  To see who is hopping each day stop over at the Stampendous Blog.  For more inspiration hop on over to:

Krissy Fossmeyer

Kristine Reynolds

Suzanne Czosek (Me)

Thanks for stopping by... 

Suzz

It isn't easy being Green

I had to say "It isn't easy being Green" as our challenge this week is all about green at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  I kept singing the Kermit the frog song about "It isn't easy being green" while I was working on my project.

You can interpret green in a variety of ways as being in the colors that you use on your project or as in being green and up-cycling something.

 My project has no shades of green on it but I did up-cycle a vase that was a previously failed project.  I tried a technique on it and wasn't successful.  This gave me an opportunity to up-cycle my failed project into something new.

I started with a colored glass vase.

And added a layer of tissue paper and doilies around the edges:

I then added a touch of grunge embossing paste through a stencil one one side and lace trims and flowers around the other areas.

I painted all the surfaces:

Including my embellishments:

And started adding embellishments:

Buttons, Flowers, and a stamped butterfly.

I added metal embellishments and other re-cycled bits and bobs.  I painted everything in white acrylic paint. I loved how it looked in white but wanted to see how it would look with color.

I pulled out the glimmer mists and misted areas in yellow and then added areas in pink.

The hardest part was getting photos to show of the softness of the misted surfaces.

The other side:

Another side view:

I finished it off with a spritz of perfect pearl mist. 

Products: Perfect Pearls - Pearl Mist,     Claudine Hellmuth Ranger Studio - Paint   PaperArtsy - Grunge Paste Medium Texture, Tim Holtz Idea-ology Timepieces, Keys, Studio Calico - Wood Butterfly Hero Arts Antique Engravings Butterfly, Buttons, Tim Holtz Idea-ology Lavish Trimmings, , Prima Flowers, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Yellow, Pink, BO Bunny Medium Doily, Idea-Ology Game Spinners, The Crafters Workshop Mini Zinnia Stencil

Come join in and show us your green for a chance to win a gift certificate from the ever generous  Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Celebrate

I recently played with the beautiful Peacock background stamp form Hero Arts and my STAEDTLER  Karat Aquarell Watercolor Crayons and Pencils.

The background is created with mixing colors of  watercolor crayons. I smeared the water color crayons together on STAEDTLER watercolor paper and then used water to blend them together. I used a mix of spritzing water and my fingers to smooth out the colors and blend.   After that had dried I stamped the peacock with purple ink.  I then came back and added colors to the peacock using the Karat Aquarell watercolor pencils.  Then to bring back in the highlights I used a white gel pen for touches of white. The sentiment is from the Stampers Anonymous - Simple Sayings plate stamped using the Rose Madder color from Ranger Archival Inks.  I inked over the stamped image with Versamark. I heat embossed with the Stampendous Crystal Embossing Powder. It adds a beautiful subtle shimmer to the surface. 

I sent this card off to my sister whose birthday was yesterday.  Happy Birthday Lisa!

Suzz

Masculine ATCs

Happy Friday! I am back sharing my Masculine ATC's today... I used a mix of pattern papers and my Artistic Outpost stamps to mix up a series of ATCs. The theme was not only Masculine but also found objects. I pulled out all my bits and pieces to add interesting objects from my embellishments and bits and pieces.

My first ATC takes us to Paris during the Balloon Exposition:

 I love the color combination of the pops of red with black and white.

I moved onto the boy image and love how he is translucent against the blue wood panels.

This reminded me of artwork my sister created where she painted her people as translucent and blended into the background.  The work was described as us leaving imprints of ourselves in places with our memories.


The next ATC features the Englishman from the Loverly London plate from Artistic Outpost:

His image fits the sentiment from the same plate and I thought it was fun and quirky. I used an eye hook to give him a eye glass.

I love this image on my next ATC because of the joy on his face.

And the ruler broke easily enough to fit along the top and I had the perfect screw tops to attach to give it the rustic feel I wanted.

Products: Artistic Outpost - Paperboy, Paris Exposition, Loverly London, The Outpost, Country Life, Old Grist Mill, STAEDTLER Karat Aquarell watercolor pencils, waterbrush, Prima (Gears), Maya Road - Wood Bingo Chips, Ruler,  Tim Holtz - Sticker

Well thanks for sticking with me again on a long post.  If you are still here. :)  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Suzz

Shaped ATC's

Happy Wednesday!  I have been working on a series of ATC's for a swap.  The rules include shaped ATC and images that are digital or illustrations.  My desk is the biggest mess right now with all the different bits and pieces of pattern paper, embellishments, ribbons, and ephemera.  You name it and I have it strewn around. 

My first ATC was inspired by the adorable baby image.This image makes me smile everytime I look at it.

The baby image came from a Crafty Secrets sheet of funny images and sayings.  I cut her out and distressed the edges. I put her on a background stamped with a background script from the Artistic Outpost Secretary Pool in brown ink.  I had the sentiment on vellum embossed in brown embossing powder. I cut out the pieces to attach.  The roof was a wallpaper sample acquired at the hardware store.  The little tickets were part of another set of Crafty Secrets images.

My second ATC is a fairy:

The image was provided to me by one of my ATC swapping friends.  I added a set of butterfly wings from a K& CO sticker. The background edges use a doily stamped on vellum and embossed in ivory embossing powder. I added the sentiment from Artistic Outpost - Flower Market.

I moved onto a leftover stamped heart and placed a sweet angel in the heart.

The words came form a leftover stamped sentiment on vellum. I cut it up and took the few words and used them on  my ATC.  I love that I got to use up scraps of some beautiful paper that were left over for my backgrounds.

My next one used a map as the background which had me pulling out my traveling stamps.

I used the Artistic Outpost Charles and Amelia plate along with the Industrial Backgrounds to put the images together on the ATC.

The next one started from this beautiful paper that is embossed. 

The paper, trim, and image were all sent to me by various members of the ATC group. (Thank you ladies!) I mixed them with the stamped Eiffel Tower and sentiment from Artistic Outpost - Paris Exposition. 

Thanks for hanging in there through all the different ATCs.  I am off to work on 6 more ATCs using masculine images and found objects. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz