Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  All of our kids have gotten to old to Trick or Treat but not too old to get a card from mom and dad on Halloween.

 I didn't have any idea of what I wanted to create other than a card, but I had plenty of Halloween stamps that I have collected and that had not been inked up yet!  

I laid out all my stamp sets and just started playing. I started with this fun clock from the Hampton Arts Graphic 45 collection and decided to make it into a mini shaker.  I stamped it multiple times on acetate and cardstock.

I cut out the clock and then cut out the center. I used that to draw where I wanted the opening on the front of  card.  I filled it with some rich colored sequins.  That determined the colors I added to the front of the card.

I spent some time masking to get the layered effect of the definition and the owl.

 My next one was inspired by the skull. I wanted to stamp him as my focal point.  I then stamped the newspaper background using rusty hinge and a little spritz of water. 

I wanted the skull to pop a little more so he received some shading with a watercolor pencil and waterbrush.   I still wanted him to pop even more so I drew a rectangle around him with a permanent marker and then added more shading with the watercolor pencil and waterbrush.

I sponged the black on either side as the stamp didn't quite cover the front of the card.  I stamped the sentiment on another piece of cardstock and coordinated the colors to blend in.

Have a spooktacular and safe Halloween!

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

Nevermore

One of the new stamps from Stampendous is this fabulous Raven with the background script from Poe. The DT from Stampendous are hopping this week using the super fun Action Wobbles.  You can buy these super fun wobblers at The Scrapbooking Queen.

I was inspired to make a steampunk wobbling Halloween card..

I started with misting an embossed piece of white cardstock using gray, green, purple and orange mists.  I distressed the edges.  I then repeated the process on a larger piece of cardstock to create my background.  I stamped the raven and quote on white cardstock.  I treated that background to a touch of orange and green glimmer mist.  I sponged the edges with a touch of black dye ink.

I stamped the raven a second time and cut him out using my trusty detail scissors.  He also received a little orange bath of mist.

Than the fun began with adding wobblers under the bird and the clock faces.  I added additional gears to the clocks along with the hands.  I finished it off with a few clips embossed in aged gold embossing enamel.

When you hold it upright the bird really wobbles with the chain on his hat making it really move.

Now you don't want to miss out on all the fun, hop along to see all the inspiration: 

Here's who is playing today:

Action Wobbles

Jan Garber

Janelle Stollfus

Julie

Pam Hornschu

Sherri

Suzanne Czosek

We'll choose one of the above bloggers at random and they will choose one commenter on their blog at random (so be sure to comment on all of them) to win:

          6 Action Wobbles Springs

and

CRQ157 Cling Lion Baby


Have fun!

Suzz

Artistic Outpost - March Release

Today is March release day for Artistic Outpost!  I was thrilled to receive the new plates!  I have been happily playing with the new plates.  The release includes: Quote and Quotables, Flower Market, and  Secretary Pool.

The Quote and Quotables includes quotes from a variety of women.  Including J.K. Rowling, Audrey Hepburn, Lucille Ball... So many wonderful quotes to play with.  The Flower Market is a combination of butterflies, flowers and French elements. (All of my favorite things!)  The Secretary Pool provides a vintage blend of all your office tools and so fun to ink up!

My first project took me over a day to create but I enjoyed the exploration of trying something new and different:

 Click to Enlarge

I started with an old book which I spent some time burrowing into on the one half to create a little space for my fairy and lavender.

I am not going to share all the details on the book as it would take awhile.  If you have questions, please feel free to email me.  Products used: Artistic Outpost - Flower Market, Neverland, Paris Exposition,  Watercolor pencils, Glimmer Mist - Purple, White Acrylic Paint, Vintage Photo - Ranger Distress Inks, Pearls, Doily, Recollections Flower Trim, Sizzix Rose Blooms Die Cut, Ranger Archival Ink .

My next project uses one of the new quotable stamps:

 I love this quote and it works so beautifully with the Birds of a Feather plate.  I stamped the script from the new Secretary Pool on muslin in the background with a little smears of white acrylic paint.  The quote from Emily Dickinson is stamped on tissue paper using Versafine green ink.  I added burlap, feather, statice and buttons as accents.

My final card mixes in the Secretary Pool plate with the Steampunk plate:

 

The background of everything is glimmer misted green and yellow.  Then the images are stamped using Ranger Archival Black ink.  Then a layer of white acrylic paint is smeared onto the surfaces to soften the color.

The images are stamped from the new Secretary Pool and the Steampunk plate.  The edges are distressed with the distressing tool and sponged around the cardbase with Vintage Photo. The edges are stapled and accented with snaps.

For more inspiration and fabulous creations take a peek at what the rest of the DT has created!

Anita Houston  

Gerrie Johnnic

Lisa Somerville  

Linda Coughlin 

Tracy Evans 

Yvonne Garner

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Manly Card

The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week is to show men.  The layout of my card is from the sketch at Mojo Monday #208.

I decided to use the sketch like a grid card and try to put together 4 panels of manliness using Artistic Outpost stamps and 7 Gypsies paper.

The sets used include: Artistic Outpost - Steampunk, Huck Finn, Paris Exposition, and Loverly London. 
Lots of distressing with the sponge and Vintage Photo. Touches of watercolor pencils and stamped using Ranger Archival Black Ink. Finished off with a touch of white gel pen highlights.

It's Raining... It's Pouring..... More rain in the forecast for us today and tomorrow. 

Hope your day is seeing a little sunshine!

Suzz

Journey

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

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

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

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Masculine Cards

I created a series of cards for my November class at my LSS.  I used Artistic Outpost and created a series of  masculine cards.

Here is the first card I created. Love this stamp plate, Cracker Jack  it consists of  vintage baseball images.  Baseball is very popular in our house so this stamp plate is going to get a lot of use.   :)

The next card was created using the Steampunk stamp plate. The images work beautifully with the Graphic 45 Steampunk paper.

 

The last card is from the Old Grist Mill stamp set. 

 Sorry about the triple card post. :) 

Glad you stopped by and hope your weekend is fun! 

Suzz