Create your own Journey

I pulled together a few challenges and had a fun time creating a tag with a surprise.  Louise at Kard Krazy has a fun challenge for Tag Tuesday this week it is to have a surprise on your tag.  The City Crafter Challenge is In My Pocket and the JUGS challenge is to use acrylic smoosh technique.  Roll all those three challenges into one and this is what you get. :)

Here is the secret tag that hides in the pocket.

Here is the picture of both the tag with pocket and secret tag.

The background was created with Shabby Shutters re-inker dripped on the craft mat and spritzed with water and pearl misters Kiwi and swirled together. Drag the tag through that.  Spritz with Chalkboard Glimmer Mist Peacock Blue. Stamped the images (Tim Holtz Collection Stampers Anonymous Air Travel CMS102) using Ranger Archival Sepia.  I also have B Line Designs Ticket Duo and Telegram Duo stamped on the outside.  The inside tag uses the same SA set and a Hero Arts Sentiment.

I had to post today as I had a good friend send me an email saying.. ."Hello... Your blog is calling." Made me laugh. Been busy trying to catch up on projects before vacation. So not as much to share. :)

I will be back later with the CR84FN card.  Fun colors!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Suzz

Orange and Turquoise

I saw the wonderful colors for the Stampotique challenge and wanted to play along.  I love the colors of orange and turquoise together. They are so striking.  Stampotique's challenge is to use Stampotique stamps and the colors orange and turquoise. The Altered Alice blog challenge is to create a project with something altered or a dress form and Louise's Tag Tuesday Challenge is to use more than one circle. 

I combined all three challenges and used the  Stampotique  mushrooms and sentiment to create this tag. 

The circles are punched from pattern paper and a backgorund I created using the Layers of Colors Art Stencil Belle Brocade and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Patina. 

Everything is sponged with Ranger Distress Ink Rusty Hinge and Memento Rich Cocoa. 

The butterflies are actually created from the smallest mushrooms. I cut the tops off and used them for wings. (My altered touch along with the fact that butterflies start as caterpillars) All working into the Altered Alice challenge. :) 

Storm update:  We have snow blown into a big pile by the front door which is at least 4 feet high.  The poor dogs are having issues getting outside. Every trip requires me to go out there and shovel away a couple feet of snow and a path. The puppy doesn't like it as she isn't used to this.  The older dog just wants to get out and back in as soon as possible. :) (I know the feeling) 

Have a wonderful day... By the way, I am so happy that our power has held, the heat is on and we are all home safe and together. 

Suzz 

Happy New Year!

I was SO done making Christmas cards and projects. I was happy to put away my holiday sentiments... and then... Louise at Tag Tuesday Challenge this week is to use Christmas leftovers. That had me thinking about what I had saved from my Christmas leftovers and I thought of the candy bars in my kids stockings.  I loved this nutcracker on the chocolate bar that my children had stuffed in their stockings. He was the inspiration for my tag.  Of course encouraging one of my kids to eat their chocolate bar was not a problem. LOL!

I cut out the nutcracker, a piece of the silver inside, and the Hershey's name. The silver was embossed and distressed with a little black paint. The Nutcracker received a little stamping to his hat and shirt.  His hat received a little bling and red feathers.

This was a fun tag to piece together. I only had to pull out a few Christmas stamps to finish off my tag.

Now I am off to clean up my work room and do a little organization.  My DH is working on some new drawers for my desk top and a I received a few new cabinets. So I will be pulling everything out and cleaning it up and putting it back in place.


Wishing you all a wonderful new year to you!

Suzz

Happy Christmas Eve!

Happy Christmas Eve!

We are off to my MIL's to have a Christmas feast with my in-laws. We always look forward to Christmas Eve with the extended family and Christmas Day at home.

I created a tag for Louise's Tuesday Tag challenge. The challenge this week is to create a  Christmas tag with silver or gold.

I created the tag as an ornament/tag with the lacy square shape die cut and a cracked glass image. The background was sponged with blue dye ink. The bird was die cut from the Sizzix birdcage die. Stamped with the holiday trio definitions and sponged with Vintage Photo Dye Ink.

The holly was stamped using a pigment ink and colored with watercolor pencils. Finish everything with clear embossing and fold to crack. Apply brown pigment ink over the surface.

Stamp the sentiment (Memory Box - Merry Christmas) onto white cardstock and sponge edges with vintage photo dye ink.

Accent edges of pieces using Krylon Silver pen.

Have a lovely Christmas Eve!

Suzz

Tag Tuesday! Yeah!

It has been awhile since I was able to play along with the Tag Tuesday and the Hero Arts Challenge.  This week's Tag Tuesday is front and back tags. You need to go check out Louise's tag and challenge because she has such a clever and beautiful tag.  Hero Arts theme this month is gift tags or gifts. I combined the two challenges and came up with this:

The front of my tag:

 and the back of my tag:

The idea behind the front and back tag was to carry your image over onto the back. I did stamp the trees on the front and back in the same position but you don't get the same effect as Louise's tag. I did change up my back to have no highlights which I kind of like as if the front of the tag is what is in the light and behind the trees the colors are stronger and darker. :)

Late post as I gave up on my tag halfway through and set it aside and worked on a few other projects. I came back to it and decided to finish it. I also had a last minute panic thinking I made something very similar last year for the Hero Arts challenge. I went back and looked and it wasn't the same tag. LOL!

The tree and stars images are Hero Arts stamps and the sentiment is Penny Black. Colors (Ranger Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire and Adirondack Purple)

Have a good night!

Suzz

Tag Tuesday - Calendar

I have not been able to play along in Louise's Tag Tuesday Challenge. So this morning I saw the challenge is calendars and decided to play along.  I also was inspired by Jacqueline's beautiful tag.

I have had this Maya Road stamp forever and haven't used it as it is a little calendar stamp you can use to stamp and highlight a date. I stamped it across the bottom and top and loved that it looked like a border.

The sentiment is Hero Arts. The leafy branches along the side are Hero Arts. Of course I had to add my little butterflies. The paper is Websters Pages. The woman is Rubber Stampede.

Have a wonderful day! 

Suzz

Midnight Butterflies and a few challenges

Louise's challenge for Tag Tuesday this week is Butterflies..  Now you know I am not going to pass that up.. :)  Simon Says Stamp and Show's challenge this week is to use layers. (Stamping or layering of anything) another thing I have a hard time refusing...

I started with my tag in the shape of a butterfly and put it onto a card. My picture is of the finished project.

 I saw this dress on the Emmy's last night and I thought it was absolutely stunning because it was black and faded into greys and shades of black.  (Of course on the shows where they reviewed the clothes they hated it! LOL! Oh. well.. I won't be going to any red carpet events)  The dress was the inspiration for my Midnight butterflies! I don't want you to adjust your monitor. I couldn't believe how my picture turned out... I kept adjusting it in my editing software to get the hues to show up.

You can see the faintest hint of color on the flourish as that is actually a silver piece of shiny cardstock.  I think the camera must have done something to translate this into a black and white photo. :)  Here is a second shot that tells me that it is just the fact that I used all the shades of silver, black and grey.

See the little bit of blue in the reflection?  That is from something on my desk in front of the shadow box reflecting on the flourish. All I can say is this is much prettier IRL you can see all the shades and hues of the black and white.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Tag Tuesday Challenge - Not on Paper

Here is a little different project. Louise's tag challenge this week is to create a tag not on paper. 

We went to the beach on Lake Michigan last Saturday. We don't do it that often but I threw the idea out last week when one of the cousins from Texas was staying with us. We didn't manage to make it to the beach with him but decided to head over as a family. 

The water is sooo cold.. The weather with the heat index was over 90+ but you step into that water and freezing! The kids went in for awhile and came out with blue lips. :)

Sorry I digress... My youngest daughter Tanya and myself love to pick up the stones because they are so beautiful and as we were doing that I found a piece of wood that had been smoothed with the constant ebb and flow.  So my tag this week not on paper is from this little driftwood found at the beach.

Sometimes when I take pictures of my projects they look better on film and other times they don't look as good on film.  This is one of those that doesn't look as good on film. :)   I think it is because you can't see how soft the embossing looks on the wood and the texture.

Very simple project of stamping and embossing on the wood. I used my piercing tool to drill two holes into the wood to make my string to hang this. I ended up making it a wall hanging as I thought it was pretty enough and my youngest has already asked me for it.

I added a touch of iridescent gold to the flowers petals and the edge of the wood.

Hope you have a blessed Sunday.

Suzz