A Year in Review

I love when people do a year in review as it brings back beautiful projects they have done. I decided to go through the months and grab some of my favorites from the year. Disclaimer... This is a really long post! Lot's of pictures and I hope something enjoyable to wander through... I love seeing all the different styles, techniques and fun things I learned this year. 

I created this back in January for Memory Box.  I love the layers of flowers, stamping and embellishments. I looked through my January folder and it was 70 percent pink and gray color combinations. :)

For this card I remember using up some scraps of beautiful black, grey and white papers with creating a shimmery heart as my focal point.  The verse (Verses Rubber Stamps)  is one of my favorites and I must have used it so many times this year.

This card was created for the Moxie Fab Challenge to use tissue tape in an innovative way.  It didn't win but still is a favorite of mine as I loved how the copics colored on the tissue tape!

The next was my blog header created in the spring/summer which I get to use some of my favorite flowers and butterflies from Hero Arts.

I love this background stamp from Hero Arts and love adding color to the peacock and glitter!

I am a big fan of the Lucie Attwell images from Artistic Stamper and had to include one of my cards with with one of her sweet images:

I was able to play with this lovely butterfly bush from the Faith set at Our Daily Bread and decided to make a die cut easel card and I loved how this design turned out:

This was a piece of lovely pattern paper which I mixed some Hero Arts and Verses Rubber Stamps together to create a summery flowery scene. This was another quick and easy card.  I wasn't sure about it when I was done but it grew on me. : )

This card started with an unusual sketch with two circles. The sketch inspired me to use the Artistic Outpost timepiece as one of my circles and a similar AO image should be used in the second circle.

The next piece uses a Sparkle Rubber Creations image on a cute bookmark.  My girls loved this!

This one was fun for me as I love designing small grids and blending the colors, images and sentiments together into a hopefully cohesive card. 

The next was a set of three bird houses which were very fun to create!  I love the color combination on this birdhouse and will probably re-visit the birdhouses again.

This one was a struggle and so not my usual style. I was pleased with how it ended up and we gave this to my daughter's teacher for her Christmas gift and she loved it as she rides a motorcycle and has actually rode her motorcycle to some of the places on the map! 

The next was a card using the Whimsical Melange plate from Artistic Outpost. The plate has these wonderful house shapes and they are perfect for birds as well as frames for other images. I enjoyed the unusual design along with the litter banner around the circle.

This was created at the same time and I love the ruler in that plate and decided it would make a fantastic background.

This next card was a easy design just a leaf layered on some beautiful Memory Box paper. Some of my favorite designs come from scraps of die cuts or pattern paper which I play around with for a design first. That is what happened with this card. Layering the papers and then adding the focal image.

This fall thank you card was all about the distr4ess inks and techniques. I played around with some inks and layering of the leaf images.  I added a frosty painting to some of the leaves to give them a washed out effect.

The next card using the dragging of the inkpad across the paper to create a faux wood effect. Love how this creates a rustic background quickly. The Stampendous flower was so beautiful and easy to pop into the corner with a few flourishes.

I have a fascination with the star shape and used that with a wreath on this card which I love the effect. The background is a repeated pattern of a few different Memory Box stamps. Love how the star showcases the wreath and the background showcases the star.

I had to share one alcohol ink background as I love playing with the alcohol inks and the effect of the inks on glossy cardstock is so beautiful. This just highlights a warm and rich background with a simple sentiment. So not only did I get to play with my inks I also ended up with a masculine birthday card!

This just showcases a lot of my favorite things: The paper flowers, glimmer mists, distress inks and layering textures, images and papers all together.

This is one of my recent cards using the white on white and a verse.  I love the softness of the monochromatic card and the tissue paper flowers.

This next card was created for ribbon challenge where I was given four different ribbons and asked to show them all on one project.  I love how the ribbons created the banner and effect across the front of the card.

My last three projects were my blog header for winter and a few of the tags for tim's twelve days of tags.  His techniques really inspired me to play around with some new toys and I had a blast.  Of course I used some of my old favorites of glimmer mists, embossing and glitter.

 Sorry my year in review was such a long post.  I had fun re-visiting my projects and actually was surprised by how many I loved from this year. :) 

The majority of the stamps here are from: Memory Box, Hero Arts, Stampendous, Artistic Outpost, Chapel Road Artstamps, Verses Rubber Stamps,  Our Daily Bread Designs, The Artistic Stamper, Lily Bee Designs, Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps.

Have a wonderful day! 

Suzz

Class Act & Chapel Road Blog Hop

Welcome to the Class Act & Chapel Road Artstamps Blog Hop! The blog hop today will share the newest releases from both stamp lines. Please leave a comment on each blog in the hop for additional chances to win a free rubber stamp from Class Act. A random winner from all the comments will be selected.

Our theme is bright colors!  I pulled out my glimmer mists to create a background using greens, purples and
blues. I created a variety of projects using the background.

My first project is a card:

The second card was more of a mixed media effect and I included an old photo  of sisters:

Then I created a  little tag with some lace netting for the ribbon:

The next is a mini card with some lace trim and flowers.

My last project and one of my favorites is a bookmark.

Stamps: Chapel Road Artstamps

The next stop on the hop is the talented Sheila. Hop over and see what she has created for the hop!

If any of the links get broken along the way here is the list for the hop! 

Class Act

Suzanne (You are HERE) 

Sheila

Holly

Gini

Barb

Chelsea

Have a wonderful weekend!

Suzz

You Make Me Smile

This card is for my youngest as she does make me smile and the image reminds me of her.  She will be so happy as she usually looks at my cards and says pretty or cute but too vintage. LOL!  So this is a cute card more her style.  I used the fun colors from the ColourQ challenge #97 and the Hero Arts Monthly Challenge which is cards for kids.  I added a little doodling for the City Crafter Challenge Do Ya Doodle. (Very difficult to do!)

The stamps are all Hero Arts and the background uses a paint splattering which Sally shared on the HA blog.  The image is colored with watercolor pencils.  My doodling is the grass and the flowers. :)

The inspiration colors from ColourQ Challenge #97

 

Hope your week is going well... Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Shimmery Flowers

I am using the lovely sketch from the Christmas Challenges blog to showcase a few shimmery flowers.

The flowers are from the Chapel Road ArtStamps - Poinsettia Plate.  I stamped them on a page from a book using black archival ink. I colored them with watercolor pencils.  The entire surface was covered in Kaleidoscope embossing powder from Stampendous.

The rest was a layering of the beautiful Bo Bunny papers.

There was a bad storm that swept through here yesterday morning...

We lost our power yesterday for 12 hours. Nothing major and nothing life threatening. But I got a little taste of what it feels like to be without power and all the other conveniences. I did a lot of driving around yesterday as my two daughters were in two different places in the morning and I saw first hand the damage wreaked by a storm that lasted 45 minutes...

Our neighbors on the other side of the street from us still didn't have power last night.  We got home from my MIL around 8:00 and our power had just came on and I was so relieved...

I had a few pictures to share of the damage just on our street.  Our neighbor next to us has three old trees and all three were cut in half in the storm.  It really changes our skyline as he will have to take them all down.

 Doesn't this look like a big pile of ice?  Well... It is our second patio table we have lost to storms.  They pitch up over the side of the deck and fly off and crash... Now to have to pick up all the glass from the grass.  We will be keeping the kids and dogs out of here for awhile..

We were very luck and only had lots of branches and cleanup to do. I am so thankful that it was only an inconvenience and that we all were safe.


Suzz

Ruffles & Trims

Happy Friday! I was having fun with my vintage sewing stamps and created a card for the following challenges:  Class Act  - Vintage stamped project, Moxie Fab World - I'm Sew Excited, The Ribbon Reel Challenge #4 - Color Challenge and Simon Says Stamp and Show Distressed/Torn Edges.

Click to enlarge

The background is a combination of stamps from the Class Act - Chapel Road Artstamps Sew Much to Do set randomly stamped. The kraft cardstock is distressed using white acrylic paints and torn along the edge.  The doily is distressed using antique linen.

The flowers is some lovely ruffle trim. Punch circle from cardstock apply tape over entire circle. Roll the ruffle into a flower and accented with twine and buttons.

Products: Class Act, Chapel Road Artstamps Sew Much to Do, Ruffle Trim, Buttons, Memento London Fog, Watercolor Pencils, Ranger Archival Ink - Black

For all the details on the Chapel Road Artstamps - Vintage Challenge and for more inspiration from the design team head over to the blog. 

So glad you stopped by! 

Suzz

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Guest Designer

I am so happy to share that I am guest designing this week at the City Crafter Challenge Blog.  The challenge this week is ATCs and I do love to create mini pieces of art.   I created three different ATC's. 

The first ATC I created used the Hero Arts Etched Medallion stamped on an alcohol ink background.

I blended yellow, red, and orange alcohol inks to create a warm background. Then stamped the flower two times on the background using versamark and heat embossed using yellow embossing powder.  I cut out the flower and pop dotted the center onto the second flower.  I accented with the embellishment and some ribbon.


The second ATC goes west... Another alcohol ink background using greens, caramels and blues. The stamps are the fun Wild West set from Stampers Anonymous.

 The last one is from the new stamp set at Chapel Road Artstamps - Class Act.  The set is called Typing Time. 

 Love the old typewriter and the sentiment is priceless.


The challenge runs for the next week. Go check out all the details at the City Crafter Challenge blog and the inspiration from the wonderful design team!

Suzz.

CR84FN31 - Sew Fun

Sew happy you stopped by... (Excuse my  pun....:)  The Moxie Fab World Challenge is I'm sew excited which I combined with the beautiful CR84FN colors to create a vintage sewing card.

I started with some lovely Websters Pages papers for the background which were distressed with a little white acrylic paint and the Ranger distressing tool.

The background was stamped over using part of the beautiful new stamp plate from Chapel Road Artstamps Sew Much to Do .  I hadn't inked up the sewing image before and loved the graceful lines of the lady working away at her sewing machine. (A skill I definitely don't posses :)

Products: Websters Pages - Beautiful Life, Class Act - Chapel Road Artstamps - So Much to Do, Ranger Acrylic Snow Cap Dauber, Charm, Silk Ribbon, Rose - Recollections, Ranger Archival Ink - Black

The lovely CR84FN31 colors:

The photos are courtesy of Steve Steinhardt.

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

The CR84FN challenge is going to change up the time-frames for the challenge during the summer months.  We will be posting the challenges every two weeks and you get extra time to play along!

The fabulous CR84FN Design Team:

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

This week is Andrea's birthday!  Happy Happy Birthday Andrea!  I hope you have some inky time!


Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

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

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

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

Chapel Road Artstamps Blog Challenge - Unique Fold

Time for another fun challenge over at Class Act. The challenge is  to use a unique fold. Lucky for me I had a little help from an on-line friend who found a fun new technique called the napkin fold for me to play with. .

This is the view of the card folded and with the band around it.

Here is the view with it open:

Rather than me try to explain how I created this I will send you right to the source: Napkin Fold. 

The only main requirement was a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock. I pulled out some of my Bazzil bling and some beautiful shimmer paper from The Paper Company. The stamps are from the Chapel Road ArtsStamps and include: Variations Lilacs and Butterfly Square.

The edges were punched using a EK Success border punch and the doilies are from Spellbinders.

You can check out the rest of the teams fabulous creations and the details of the challenge at the Class Act Insider.  The Design Team links are on my sidebar as well!

The great news is that the challenge is open to any stamps, if you use any of the Class Act stamps or Chapel Road Artstamps  you will get two entries in the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by..

Suzz

Distressed Lilacs

Oh how I love our Lilacs in the spring. They smell wonderful! I have this lovely set of stamps from Chapel Road Artstamps called Variations Lilacs. (So glad to have this set as I didn't have any lilacs in my stamp garden. :)  

The challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show is to show your distressing which inspired my card using the lovely Lilacs.

The sentiment and butterflies are also from Chapel Road Artstamps Butterfly Squares and Birthday Edwardian.  The background is from Chapel Road Artstamps Old Script. I stamped the script onto a thin sheet of vellum and tore the edges and sponged them with StaZon ink.

The lilacs are stamped with StaZon brown ink and colored with watercolor pencils and accented with white gel pen. The background is sponged with brown dye ink and distressed.

Hope you are having a wonderful week!

Suzz