Oh Deer!

Time for week#8 tag at Linda's Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas.  Her challenge is sponsored by her boutique The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  Her tag inspired me to cut out trees to emulate her forest on her lovely tag.  I also used hanging banners from the top as I loved her design on her tag.

 My background is a mix of sponged stars from the Memory Box stencil and spots of blue stain spray.  I then used a mix of October Afternoon Papers.  I cut a few trees drawn by hand and sponged the edges with brown dye ink.

I added a touch of glitter on the deer hat and bow.  I cut the words and covered them in red glitter. I ended up with a few other ideas from this tag but will save those for a future post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Flip Advent Calendar

Hi!  I am sharing over on the Basically Bare blog today this Advent Flip Calendar using the Easy Easel Album. 

The album came with a certain number of pages.  I had to add extra pages for the advent calendar.  I used the mixed media card set and  scalloped tag set to add additional pages.  All the items area available to purchase on-line at the Basically Bare retail shop.

 Each day was fun to put together a mix of images, embellishments and lots of glitter.

 There is a mix of papers but mostly from Authentique and October Afternoon old and new papers.

 My stamps are Artistic Outpost, Darkroom Door, Momenta, Penny Black, Inkadinkado, Stampendous, Stampers Anonymous, 7 Gypsies, Technique Tuesday

 This is the Basically Bare Wings Die Cuts along with the Celestial Shapes on a Scalloped Tag Set felt tag.  I glittered it up with Stampendous glitters!

 One of my favorite Stampendous birds and Memory Box stamp!

 The easel worked well with all the extra bulk I built into the calendar.

 Frosty from Artistic outpost!

 This doesn't show off how beautiful this is on acetate.  The buck is from Indigo Blue.

 Love me my vintage Santas!

 Plain silhouette but striking none the less!

I will be sharing the rest next week!

Thanks for hanging in for all the details!

Suzz

To the Moon

Happy Tuesday!  I have my take on Tim's May Tag. His tags always inspire me and a great way to kick off the month.

I dug into my ephemera drawer and found a series of ephemera from an October Afternoon set related to the moon and rockets.  I decided to use that as the base for my theme. 

I pulled out my photobooth images from DarkRoom Door.  The background is made up of a piece of burlap attached to the tag.  Layered in the ephemera and then stenciled on a patch of stars.

I finished off with a smattering of rub-ons and the stamped sentiment cut up and arranged along the side.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Tag Day!

Tag Day!  Tim shared his May tag yesterday and I had to play around with the techniques this morning. I ended up creating two different tags.

My first tag;

 I loved Tim's technique of adding the clear stickers onto areas of the tag to resist the ink applied.  I didn't have too many of them in my sticker drawer so I used a few Christmas ones.  I added a few rub-ons.  I then stamped the Statue of Liberty and New York from the DarkRoom Door - New York Volume I set. I added highlights with the white gel pen. The background is distress stains.


I created a second tag: 

 I used a mix of rub-ons and clear stickers. I love the effect of the clear stickers as they keep it white.  I didn't have enough on hand to play around more. I used a mix of October Afternoon and Maya Road Rub-ons on this tag. I stamped the flowers form DarkRoom Door Garden Greetings.  I used my new Distress Stains (Thanks Lisa!) to ink up the background. 

I ripped my second tag!  I was trying to put a pearl brad in the dragonfly (Artistic Outpost) by piercing it with my stylus and the tag ripped right off.  ARGH!  I just taped it back together to finish photographing it. But I had fun and learned a few things along the way.

Have a lovely Thursday!

Suzz

Happy Christmas Eve!

Happy Christmas Eve!  There is no challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp and Show but the DT is sharing holiday wishes along with a few projects!

I am sharing a tradition in our family:

Every Christmas we will let our kids open one gift on Christmas Eve.  They know it is their Christmas Pajamas.  I always try to find some warm and snuggly pajamas for the kids and they wear them to bed on Christmas Eve. 

I decided to up-cycle a paper bag given to us by a store:

The bag had a store logo on it and wasn't a pretty shade of color. I decided to take some scraps from my Christmas paper and create a patchwork.  I cut them to different size and shapes.  I distressed the edges with the distressing tool and sponged on white acrylic paint.  I covered the entire bag.

After the bag was complete, i created a little coordinating tag with jingle bells and white ribbon. I topped the bag with four doilies wrapped around the edges.  I added to white tissue paper with some snowflakes scattered across the surface of the tissue paper and spraying the paper with red glimmer mist.

Products:  October Afternoon - Make it Merry, Artistic Outpost - Frosty & Friends,  Adirondack Snow Cap Paint Dabber, Signo Uni-Ball White Gel Pen

Simon Says Stamp is offering a special discount code: 40% OFF everything in their end of year sale category.  Use coupon code: CLEAR40 now through December 31st.


Happy Happy Christmas Eve!

Suzz

Gift Cards

This week the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge is all about Gift-spiration.  The design team will be sharing tips and showing crafty projects they cooked up for the holidays.  My post is all about gift card holders.

In our family the nieces and nephews pick names from their cousins and purchase gifts for their cousins.  As the majority of the nieces and nephews are teens now the main request we get is for money or gift cards.

I have been storing up gum boxes to up-cycle into gift card holders:

I started with two different gum packs in two different shapes but both are the perfect size for a standard gift card.

You can either paint over the surfaces or use pattern paper to cover up the original box.  I decided to cover mine with paper.  To do so I needed a template. It was really easy to pull the glue off the sides of the gum packs and trace the shape on the reverse side of the paper I wanted to use:

After I cut it out I scored on the dotted lines. if you want to keep the shape for future gift card holders you can create a separate template. I also traced the inside in a coordinating paper to cover the inside of the holder.

After I cut and scored the paper I taped the paper to the outside and inside. 

Before I taped the inside piece on I stamped Vintage Christmas words over the paper using black ink.  After the paper was attached I smeared a touch of white acrylic paper over the entire surface inside and out.

I decided to create a little card to go inside with the gift card.  I cut a piece of scrap cardstock and folded it in half.  I cut a piece of the patter paper and attached it to the front of the card. I gave it a coat of white paint to match.  I stamped the deer and snowman on white cardstock using black ink.

I colored the images with a touch of watercolor pencils and waterbrush.  The tree was from pattern paper and was cut out and attached.  I finished off the bottom edge with a mix of glitter and mica flakes for snow.

I stamped the sentiments on a piece of white cadstock and cut it the shape of  tag and stamped the other sentiment on a peice of pattern paper to mount on white cardstock and attach to the front.

The other card holder was even quicker:

I covered the outside and inside with pattern paper.  I punched a piece of brown cardstock with a border punch.  I attached it to the inside lip and the top on the outside.  I added a thin strip of glittery pattern paper along the edges.  I bought a pack of these pretty stickers and attached one to the front.

Products: Bo Bunny,  American Crafts POW paper, K & Company Christmas Stickers, Martha Stewart Lattice Punch,  October Afternoon - Make it Merry, Artistic Outpost - Frosty & Friends, Memory Box - Vintage Christmas Words, Adirondack Snow Cap Paint Dabber, Button, Stampendous Mica Flakes, Blue Glass Glitter, White Hemp, Signo Uni-Ball White Gel Pen

Come join in the challenge for an opportunity to win a gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp:

 Thanks for stopping by.

Suzz

Small Things

Monday again!  Always a slow start around here. :)

I have a tag that is for the Simon Says Stamp and Show Anything and for Linda's new challenge blog Frilly and Funkie which is I'll Take your Word For It.   When I saw the challenge at Frilly and Funkie I knew I had to play along as I love my verses.

The Floral part of the tag was part of a tag kit from October Afternoon. The background was sponged with white acrylic paint and brown dye ink.  The sentiment is from Verses Rubber Stamps stamped using brown ink over the background.  A layer of flourishes (Hero Arts) around the edges and a touch of small birds (B-Line Cube) to finish off the background.  Then accented the tag with flowers, leaves, brads, lace and pearls. 

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Suzz

Starry Starry Night

Today is a Lily Pad Card Lucy's Fine Lines sketch #2 challenge.

Our sponsor this week is Lawn Fawn Stamps. My card uses the adorable Critters in the Forest set. 

 The card is a little scene of the forest using the stair step fold. This fold is so fun to use when creating a scene and the critters work perfectly in the scene.  

The papers are October afternoon and seemed appropriate with the forest theme.  The animals are colored using a variety of distress inks, watercolor pencils and aqua brushes.

Here is the lovely sketch: 

All the details of the challenge are at the Lily Pad Cards Blog   and there is a fabulous prize from Lawn Fawn! 

For more inspiration visit the wonderful design team:

Design Team: Alice Wertz, Deborah Nolan, Lin Brandyberry, Nancy Krueger, Sherri Thompson, Vicki Papaioannou

Have a wonderful Friday!

Suzz

CR84FN24 - Time Out

Time for another lovely selection of colors for the   CR84FN24 challenge this week.

I love this image.  She is so sweet with her attitude and her friend. The sentiment to me is very funny. I showed this card to my daughters and they didn't think it was funny. :)  They used to tell me that if I was bad they were going to put me in time out. What they didn't realize is that any mom would gladly welcome a time out! :)

Products: Stamping Bella - Time Out (Mo Manning), October Afternoon, Watercolor Markers (Tombo).
 

Here is the beautiful inspiration colors from CR84FN:

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

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

Take a little time out for yourself today!  

Suzz

Hero Arts Food Challenge

This month's challenge at Hero Arts is Food, Travel and Book Making. I decided to combine the book making and Food challenge into making a tag book for recipes.  I have to admit I was very inspired to create a tag book after seeing some beautiful inspiration here and here.  Although their books were assembled much differently it gave me the thought of taking the tags into a book format.

Here is a picture of my recipe book assembled.

I put the tags back to back so I have 3 pages but 5 pages with pockets for recipe cards.

This is a good reminder of why I don't scrap layouts... Lots of time spent trying to coordinate papers, images and colors. :) Lot of work for 3 pages. And they aren't even 12 x 12's and don't have the usual detail I like to add.


The images are all stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black or Rich Cocoa to allow me to use my Copics. :)
I used a variety of papers from October Afternoon (Fly a Kite, Farm Fresh) and Cosmo Cricket (Garden Variety).

The stamps are all from Hero Arts (CL440 - Kiss the Cook, Cl320 Sparkle Clear - Designer Fruit, CL345 - What's the Scoop).

Love the papers they remind me of my Grandma's kitchens, aprons etc. 

Hope you are having a fun Sunday!

Suzz

Tag Tuesday Challenge # 39

This weeks challenge from Louise is to create a cutsie tag!

Now this is a perfect challenge for me because I have some cute pattern paper burning a hole in my pocket.

I purchased a few sheets of this adorable October Afternoon Splish Splash - Ducks in a Row paper after seeing these chicks on a few of your blogs!

This is going to become a bookmark for my youngest DD. She kept asking me if it was done yet this morning.

You have to see the expression on the last chicks face. He looks like he is sad so I made his umbrella dragging because that is what would happen with my chick when they were not happy.

Don't their umbrellas look like have of an egg shell? I thought that was fun too!

This was much easier for me than the last couple of tag challenges.

Thanks for stopping by... Suzz

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to you and your special ones! I don't have any valentines' cards left to share. :) Instead I have still been playing with the green and gold color combination. I made these shamrocks which were very fun as they were kissed using two different stamps. The Hero Arts Artistic Windows and the Memory Box Shamrock. I still have to create two st. patty's day birthday cards for my brother and sister in law and to top that off they are turning 50 this year.

So the twist is to incorporate all three concepts into one card. We will see if I can come up with anything fun.

I inked up the shamrock stamp with the versafine olympia green and then placed that stamp face up and laid the artistic window ontop of it and removed some of the color. I then ended up stamping both stamps on white cardstock. Both stamped beautifully. I only used the green ones an saved the other ones for another time.
As you can see I repeated that a fewt times more. The background is the wood grain stamp from Hero Arts stamped using the Versafine Toffe. I then created a little wreath and added some twine and buttons.

The second card was inspired by the October Afternoon Farm Fresh Paper. It has a lot of fun patterns in the pack. This one reminded me of the Toffee color I have been using alot lately so I paired it up and stamped some flowers on the pattern paper.

I cut the flowers out and created my stem from the flourish ontop of the wood grain stamp.

Very simple card. Both are for the Hero Arts Challenge this month. St. Patricks Day and Flowers.

Well I hope you have a lovely valentine's day and that it is special!

I wanted to make a correction to my post yesterday, several of you asked about the butter cream embossing powder. Well... I was going to use my Zing Cream EB powder but decided to you my Ranger Adirondack Butterscotch embossing powder on the flowers on my card. Hence the Butter Cream. :O Ohh... Sorry about the confusion. Now I am doing it with my embossing powders. Used to be just the kids I am calling by each others names.

Suzz

Last Minute Gifts

This is another entry in the Hero Arts weekly challenge for last minute gifts. The idea came from my daughter Kaeli. She liked when I was paper piecing the Snowman's hat a couple of weeks ago and she said you should make some other outfits. This idea has been percolating and when the challenge was last minute gifts I decided to make a stamped version of paper dolls.

This is the front of the little gift. What you can't see is the Cats are in a little acetate pouch on the front. So they have a storage compartment. They don't have any clothes on right now.



The inside is where all the clothes, accessories, hats and scarves are stored. I attached 2 sheets of acetate.



Here are the young ladies with two of the frocks on...

A couple of fun things...

• There are extra eyes so they can switch the eye color.
• The gems, pearls are for necklaces and bracelets.
• Use repositionable tape from Kokuyo to attach the paper products to the acetate.
• The cats are made from glossy cardstock.
• The cats need a dab of repositionable tape on them to assist in sticking the outfits.
• Included is the white version of each piece to allow them to use as a template/color in their own version.
• There is extra space on the dresses area to add more items.

Products:

• Hero Arts - Dancing Cat
• Hero Arts - Cap and Scarf Penguin
• Hero Arts - Lace
• The Paper Loft - Grandma's House, GH108- Herb Garden/Annie's Apron
• Basic Grey
• October Afternoon

This was a lot of fun to create... thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Suzz

Just stopping by to say Hi....

No Challenge for this card. Just wanted to create a holiday card using my Basic Grey Paper. The Cuttlebug embossing folder looks just like the paper and I thougth it would be fun to design something using both of them.

Products:

• Hero Arts Clear Design Warmest Winter Wishes
• Basic Grey Paper
• October Afternoon - Sugar Cookies
• Versacolor Opera Pink
• Versafine Black Onyx
• Hero Arts - Holly Bird
• EK Success Adornments - Red
• Cuttlebug Embossing Folder - Spots & Dots
  

TFL!