Love

The orchid branch print stamp was one of my favorites from Memory Box in the last release. The clean lines of the orchid are so elegant. 

This is day 2 of my cards being shared over on the Memory Box blog.

 

The background is embossed using an embossing folder on the lovely Memory Box card. Sponge on Adirondack snow cap acrylic paint to soften and highlight the embossing. 

Stamp flower on white cardstock using black archival ink. Repeat multiple times on vellum. Color using white and purple watercolor pencils and paint with water brush. I love the effect of the watercolor pencils on the vellum. The color doesn't really absorb it move around on the vellum. 

Products: Memory Box Cocoa Bean C1714, Love, Orchid Branch Print G1718, Ranger Archival Black Ink, Watercolor Pencils, Embossing Folder. Memory Box Diamond Jewels.

Have a wonderful day! 

Suzz

Artistic Outpost Release - March 2011

There are four beautiful plates being released today at Artistic Outpost!

The wonderful sets include:

• Gatsby  features the main characters of the novel in photograph style with deco backgrounds.  
• Flapper Fashions is a wonderful collection of "flappers" wearing their fabulous stylish outfits!
• Huck Finn is a collection of collage and illustration images featuring Huck, paddle boats, and that friend of his Tom Sawyer.  
  Windows and Doors features some beautiful background and focal images along with lovely sentiments.

All of the new stamp sets are available both as unmounted red rubber sheets for $14.00 or pre-cut and mounted on EZMount cling foam for $22.99.

Here are some fun projects using the new sets:

The first card is from the wonderful Flappers Fashions. I selected one of the beautiful flapper images and framed her with some beautiful Webster's Pages papers and the sentiment and images from the Paris Exposition plate.

My second card uses the striking image from the Gatsby plate. He was so handsome and elegant I immediately thought of a wedding card.  I created a card that could be used as a thank you card for a groomsman in a wedding or even a card for a groom. The sentiment is from the Song Birds plate and the flourish in the background is from the Flappers Fashions plate.

The boys from the Huck Finn plate are so fun and inspired a card exploring and I could just see them gazing out across the water at the steamboats.

My final card is a triptych using the wonderful Windows and Doors Plate.

I stamped the image on acetate and embossed using gold embossing powder. Hand cut out the outside and the windows. I then stamped the sentiment on white cardstock. The frames were linked using jump rings. The birds are from the Song Birds plate.


The design team has created some really fantastic projects and cards which you can go see in the Artistic Outpost Gallery. The design team is also sharing wonderful projects on their blogs:  

*Lisa Somerville *Gerrie Johnnic *Lynn Stevens *Barbara Washington *Connie Paxman *Stephanie Severin*Judy Hayes* Louise Granlund

For a limited time, if you purchase all four of these sets, you'll receive a 15% discount.  Please note you must purchase all four to be eligible for the discounted price.  Simply use the code:  GATSBY during check out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Lilypad Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Lily Pad Cards Blog Hop!

If you arrived here from the very talented Mary Dawn's you are in the right place. If you missed any of the previous stops in the hop please go to  Lily Pad Cards to start at the beginning of the hop. This blog hop started yesterday and features seven blogs per day and it culminates on Friday, April 1, with the grand opening of Lily Pad Cards.   Lily Pad Cards is a new challenge blog that will feature interviews, articles, videos, challenges, great prizes, and more!


Although Lily Pad doesn’t officially bloom until April 1, 2011, you’ll be able to see a new sneak peek every day until then. And you’ll definitely want to drop by because there are three prize packages with a total retail value of over $800 - including a $100 gift certificate to a very popular online store! Go here for specific prize details and contest rules. 


The hop’s theme is Welcome because not only are we welcoming Lily Pad Cards to the neighborhood, but we’re also welcoming all of you to come in and join in all the fun. In the spirit of welcoming you to the new blog I created a fun little neighborhood to welcome everyone!

The little neighbors and their hood are all from Crafty Secrets - Fairyland.  I drew in the little doors on the mushrooms. :) The background and clouds are stamped using Hero Arts Friends Definition Cling. I hand wrote the Welcome on the sign and was pleased how it turned out. The background was sponged using dye inks and the image colored using watercolor pencils.


The next stop on the hop tomorrow morning  is the fabulous Alice's blog Alice's Little Wonderland you don't want to miss out all the other wonderful designers. If you hit a bad link, you can always go back to Lily Pad Cards and click on the next link in the hop. Please report any bad links to Inlinkz

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Happy Bee-Day!

I have been  playing with some twinkling H2O's and my new Memory Box stamps and created this fun project.

The flowers Gorgeous Mini Bloom B1761, Gorgeous Bloom  E1716, were stamped using Ranger Archival ink black. Spritz the H20's with water and use a water brush to color the images using a gold and beautiful orange Twinkling H2Os.

Color to add shading on the flowers (after they have dried) with a coordinating watercolor pencil.

Heat emboss using clear embossing powder. Cut out and fold the edges.

The stems and leaves were torn from book pages and sponged with brown dye ink.

The background was painted using white and blue acrylic paint daubers. The tiny bees and sentiment came from another new Memory Box stamp called Happy Bee-day. They were stamped using Ranger Archival Ink (Black). The bees were colored using watercolor pencil and a little glitter.

The edges of the background were also sponged using the brown dye ink and mounted on the Soiree Truffle paper from Memory Box.

Now onto some really exciting news!

Today is the start of a blog hop to celebrate a  brand new super fun  blog called Lily Pad Cards. There are some fabulous prizes up for grabs. There is also a wonderful blog hop that is being kicked off today and you don't want to miss out! Here is where you start on the blog hop: Vicky's.  The blog hop will be hopping starting today all the way through Friday of this week.

Have a beautiful week!

Suzz

CR84FN21- Live With Zest

The CR84FN21 challenge this week has some beautiful rich colors: garnet, cream and chartreuse. 

I finally broke down and picked up a set of the Hampton Arts images that goes with the Graphic 45 papers. I have been wanting a few of the sets and finally decided to pick up the Dixie Band set.

The background was created by overlapping two of the images from the set. Color the images using watercolor pencils and aqua brushes. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

 The lovely photos for this week are courtesy of Adam at Embrace Life Photo

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

The wonderful CR84FN Design Team:

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

Today is the last week for our wonderful Guest Designer - Deb Hickman.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Hope

Dave is sharing creations from each of the team over on the Memory Box blog in the next few weeks.  He shared Deborah's beautiful creations last week and this week he is sharing some of my projects. 

I love this beautiful Hope Collage stamp which has the lovely rose buds, script and the word Hope. I immediately thought of using pinks and grays. 

The background is  the lovely birch branch print G1720 stamped in Memento London Fog with a hint of pink. The flowers and sentiment are stamped multiple times and cut out to create the draping flowers and sentiments. The word hope was stamped using the same pink from the watercolor pencils and cut out.
I layered some embellishments (Prima, silk ribbon and stick pin)to add some depth.

Have a fun weekend!

Suzz

Chapel Road Artstamps Blog Challenge - Blue and Around the Edge

Today is my first challenge for  Chapel Road Artstamps at the Class Act Insider. 

The challenge is to use Chapel Road ArtStamps, the color blue and a punched border.

I used the beautiful butterflies from  Butterfly Square and  Butterfly Angle. The sentiment is from  Birthday Edwardian .

The challenge details are here: Class Act Insider. 

The design team have all created some lovely projects for the challenge and you can see them by visiting their blogs:

Barbara Washington
Chelsea Barnes
Gini Williams Cagle
Holly Brown

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz