Fall Leaves

Hi!  I am thrilled today to share that I am guest designing at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge this month. They have a beautiful inspiration board full of beautiful fall colors for the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #30. 

Which had me thinking of autumn colors, leaves and how quickly the weather changes from warm summer to chilly evenings.

I laid down a layer of crackle embossing paste using the beautiful leaves layering stencil from Tim Holtz.  After it dried I ended up laying into some leftover inky spray on my craft mat. I got some beautiful speckling and color absorbed into the crackle.

I then decided to highlight the leaves and added a bit of shadowing with a watercolor pencil.  This helped make the leaves stand out.

It was beautiful as is but I decided a series of vellum butterflies embossed and splattered with the same colors would be the accent to highlight the tag.

Here is the lovely inspiration photo:

For all the details of the challenge and to join in on the fun pop over to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #30.

Suzz

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

All Hallows Eve

I have been a quick Halloween Card making mode.  I needed a few cards and with the big event happening tomorrow I had to whip out a few cards.

I had fun playing around with a few different Halloween sets.  This was created for my daughter who liked my card last year for her brother because of the eyes in the beaker.

 I decided to create a similar card but switch up a few of  the elements.

I stamped the beaker a couple of times to create the clear surface and gap for the eyes to float around.  I decided that I would add a second vessel to mix up some Halloween potions in.

The lovely sayings were from various sets (Stampers Anonymous) and the chemist containers from Inkadinkado.

I think she will get a chuckle out of her spooky card this year. 

I am entering this in "A Vintage Journey's October Challenge: Make it Spooky".   The design team's creations for the challenge as well as all the entries are fabulous. 

Happy Halloween!

Suzz

Autumn

Hi!  I am back today with a few different cards using the leftover leaves from my previous projects.  The Anything But Cute Challenge this month is An Autumn Day.  

My first card is a little different take on Autumn because it is being sent to a friend who just shared that she has breast cancer.  I wanted to show my support by making the leaves pink and stamping them with prayers. 

I stamped the leaves with prayers that were painted with white acrylic paint to give a soft resist.  I then sprayed them with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Bubble Gum. I waited for them to dry and then sponged the edges with Worn Lipstick to deepen the color around the edges.

I stamped the beautiful verse from Our Daily Bread Designs and sprinkled a few silver glitter. 


The next two cards work together.

The first card is the base for my Hero Arts card the other day. I loved how it looked but needed the leaves for another card.  I popped off the leaves and used them on another card.  (Which I didn't take a picture of!)

It left this lovely card base with no focal point.  I thought it would be interesting to die cut three leaves from the tissue base background.  I took out the leaves and inked up the inside of the card with a lovely mix of distress inks which then shine through the openings. I also splattered the same colors on the front of the card.

I then took the leaves that were die cut and created this card:

I stenciled wood grain over the background using a mist and a stencil. I stamped the lovely Verses Rubber Stamp sentiment in the corner. I added a hint of blue ink to the background.  I then stamped the branch and hung my leaves.  The leaves were sponged with orange dye ink to give them color. I also added a hint of shading around the leaves.

Here is the Challenge Photo:

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Ghostly Greetings

Happy Wednesday!  Time for the Funkie team to share their creations for the "A Very Vintage Halloween" challenge.

Zoe is hosting the challenge and she has challenged us to get our witches hats on and create a project in a vintage style with a Halloween theme.

I had fun playing with some Idea-ology, Prima and Ranger distress stain sprays to create a Halloween card.

I started by painting the background with black acrylic paint over the Halloween stencil. I came back and added a layer of texture on the spider with black embossing paste.

I then waited for that to dry and added layers of splattering of distress stain sprays including wild honey, citron, and wild violet.  I then splattered a bit of white and black paint over the surface.

I painted the silver frame with black paint and then highlighted it with white paint.  The lovely brass stars are painted with yellow, orange and white paint and sprayed the flowers with coordinating colors.

Come play along with us in the challenge. The team will choose their top four picks with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot here at Frilly and Funkie and the next three will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

Happy Haunting!

Suzz

Tim Holtz Layering Stencil Halloween	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Baroque Frames TH93267 (February Pre-Order)	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Small Talk Occasions	May Arts 1.5 Inch Crochet Ribbon - Black	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Wild Honey
Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber - Pitch Black	Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber - Snow Cap White	Ranger Tim Holtz Twisted Citron Distress Spray Stain	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain - Wilted Violet	Ranger Tim Holtz Hickory Smoke Distress Spray Stain
Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - Black	Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Ball Chain	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Findings Game Spinners	Prima Marketing Salvage District Say It In Crystals (March Pre-order)

Hero Arts Blog Hop

Hi and welcome to the Hero Arts Hostess Hop, featuring wonderful stamps from the new 2016 release and winter catalogue!  

If you’ve been following along, you’ve just arrived from the extremely talented Joy Taylor's blog!

Hero Arts will be awarding 4 prizes:
 
Today's hop:
1 $25 Hero Arts shopping spree
1 bonus prize on the Hero Arts blog

Tomorrow's hop
1 $25 Hero Arts shopping spree
1 bonus prize on the Hero Arts blog

 The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning! Please comment by Sunday Oct 30 by 11:59pm PT for a chance to win.

If you find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts Blog.

I love fall and using the new Grateful Leaves allowed me to create several cards highlighting the beautiful colors of fall. 

 I started by inking up the solids with a mix of distress inks in fall colors. I stamped them on white cardstock and cut them out.  I then stamped the veins using a brown ink.  I added a touch of tissue tape to the background and stamped the beautiful sentiment on the cardbase. 

A quick and easy Thanksgiving card to give to the hostess of Thanksgiving dinner.

 The leaves are so versatile because the lines are separate from the solids.  I decided to create a resist with the veins for my next card. 

I stamped all the veins using Versamark and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. I then stamped the leaves using Saffron Archival Ink.  The sentiment was added last with a brown ink. I finished with a splattering of fall colors across the surface. 

I have to finish my post with a cute step card created to root on one of my home teams who are in the playoffs.  Hero Arts has the cutest sets of stamps from Kelly Purkey celebrating different cities and I couldn't resist the Kelly's Chicago set.

 I created a mini step card and added a few pennants to root on the Cubs!

Now it is time to head off to the amazingly creative Heather Doran and see what she has created to delight the eyes!

If you missed anyone else on the hop here is the full list:

Virginia Lu

Emily Leiphart

Sue McRae

Sarah Kapteyn Moerman 

Nancy Krueger

Tiffany Ervin 

Arlene Pagent McClung 

Joy Taylor

Suzanne Czosek --> you are here

Heather Doran 

Hero Arts 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Halloween Fun

Tim's tag for October is a fun mix of metal monsters and a grid background.

 The main focal image was a bit of a problem for me as I don't have any of the monster die cuts and had to come up with a different image to use.  I decided to emboss multiple pieces of foil and paint them with black paint.

After that I tried using the frames and other images as pieces on my tag.  After awhile I thought wouldn't it be cool if there was a big spider die?  (As long as it is fake I can deal with the size of the spider) I decided to try to create my own spider using a few embossed pieces from various folders.  The compass embossing folder gave the coolest pattern to the body of my spider.  The head is from the ledger embossing folder.  The legs are from various pieces left over from my different sheets.

 I was happy to use up some of the fun ephemera for Halloween sitting in my files in the grid pattern. I coated it with the collage medium (sepia) and used a charcoal pencil for shading. 

I did pop the spider and bowed her body a bit. 

She received a bit of sequins and gems to highlight her look.  I stamped the sentiment and cut it out to add to the front of the tag.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Suzz

A Trio of Tags

Hi!  Happy Saturday!  I have been busy playing with tags today.  Linda of The Funkie Junkie is hosting her annual 12 tags of Christmas.  She posts her tags on Monday and you have until Dec 19th to play along for chance to win to her boutique The Funkie Junkie Boutique. 
 
Week # 1 Tag.  I loved Linda's soft bluish tint behind the gorgeous gold stars and decided to continue with that color scheme and include gold trees.

Week # 2 Tag:  Linda's week #2 tag had me thinking of  a charming rustic Christmas. I love how Linda used the red polka dots and red pattern on the top and bottom of her beautiful tag.  I decided to use a gingham effect on my tag.

Finally Week #3 tag:  Linda's rich gold and black color combo was striking.  I had to change up the elements a bit as I was lacking in most of the same elements.  I loved how the gold stood out on the black backdrop. 

Thanks for stopping by!


Suzz

Author Author

Welcome back! Today is Funkie Time for the Design Team at the Frilly and Funkie Challenge.  The challenge is "Author Author".

There are so many wonderful books that inspire the mind to imagine the worlds created within them. Think fairy tales, mysteries, romances or even science fiction and use that to inspire your art. Your challenge it so create a shabby chic or vintage styled project inspired by a book. Provide an explanation of how the book and author inspired your project.

The team will choose their top four picks with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot here at Frilly and Funkie and the next three will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I was thinking of some of my favorite authors and books from growing up.  I read extensively as a child and it was hard to narrow it down to pick one.  I ended  up with two different projects. one from the book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and the other from Charlottes' Web by E.B. White. 

I loved the character Meg in the book Wrinkle In Time.  Her faults were some of her greatest strengths and she learned to appreciate who she was through the journey to save her family. 

 I wanted to represent the time, math, multiplication and the final overriding love that saved her and her family.

I used a mix of green, yellow and blue to create the stenciled image and then the touches in black because of the darkness that threatened to take over everything.  If you haven't read this book you should give it a spin. I am definitely going to pull mine out and re-read it again.

I used the new Wendy Vecchi Select a Stencil to stencil the title along the side and I loved how easy it was to use! 

The second project is a bookmark inspired by Wilbur and Charlotte from Charlotte's Web.  I decided to create a bookmark that I could use in my books and because I wanted to use some of the Halloween stencils laying out on my desk.

 I had this cute pig from an older stamp set and he reminded me of Wilbur and Tim's new layering stencil has a wonderful spider to represent Charlotte.

I sponged on the background over the stencil using a gray dye ink. Afterward I drew in the lines of the web with a glue pen and added a touch of glitter.  I stamped the words over web using stamps and black ink.

I stenciled the black spider using black embossing paste. I let her dry and then added a few black pearls for eyes with a touch of white gel pen. 

I hope you will be inspired to join in the challenge.

Suzz

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Clockwork	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Peacock Feathers	Ranger Tim Holtz Twisted Citron Distress Ink Pad	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Squeezed Lemonade	Rayon Seam Binding
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Numeric THS054 (March Pre-Order)	Tim Holtz Layering Stencil Halloween	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - Black	Tim Holtz Distress Glitter Clear Rock Candy	Prima Planner Glue Pen
Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber - Snow Cap White	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot	Ranger Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool-With 2 Blending Foams	Wendy Vecchi stencil Select a Stencil	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Splatters
PRE-ORDER Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Shatter	Ranger Tim Holtz Hickory Smoke Distress Ink Pad	KAISERCRAFT Pearls - Self Adhesive Black