Birthday Wishes

Both my older children have birthdays this week.  My oldest turns 17 today. Happy Birthday Zac! Yikes... I remember him crawling around on the floor and it seems like yesterday.  My middle child turns 15 on next Saturday.  Happy Birthday Kaeli! I have been busy making birthday cards.

I am sharing Kaelis's birthday card today which I created in shades of green for the Inspiration Journal blog challenge shades of green.   (Kaeli is a big fan of green, orange, and purple)

 Here is it laying flat:

I thought these fun stamps from Chocolate Baroque - Punky Romance would be fun for my daughters card.  They are a nice combination of steampunk and feminine details of flowers and butterflies.  I think a good combination for a teenager? 

The background is a combination of glimmer mists and chalkboard mists in shades of green. I stamped the images multiple times using black ink and layered a few of the flowers, gears and butterflies. 

The sentiment is from Verses Rubber Stamps - Begin Each New Day - BB0441-E and the shape of the card is from the Triptych Kit templates.

I will be sharing Zac's birthday card tomorrow as there is a special blog hop celebrating another birthday tomorrow! 

Have a lovely Saturday!   

Suzz

Spring Thank You

I created this for the Mojo Monday Challenge using my sweet new Viola papers from Memory Box.

Products: Memory Box - Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Moonlight Butterfly, Viola Paper, Mercer Rose Background, Dogwood Wreath, Memento - Lilac, Ranger White Acrylic Paint, May Arts White Silk Ribbon, Watercolor Pencils.

Short and Sweet today. Need to get cracking on a birthday card. :)

Suzz

Artistic Outpost - March Release

Today is March release day for Artistic Outpost!  I was thrilled to receive the new plates!  I have been happily playing with the new plates.  The release includes: Quote and Quotables, Flower Market, and  Secretary Pool.

The Quote and Quotables includes quotes from a variety of women.  Including J.K. Rowling, Audrey Hepburn, Lucille Ball... So many wonderful quotes to play with.  The Flower Market is a combination of butterflies, flowers and French elements. (All of my favorite things!)  The Secretary Pool provides a vintage blend of all your office tools and so fun to ink up!

My first project took me over a day to create but I enjoyed the exploration of trying something new and different:

 Click to Enlarge

I started with an old book which I spent some time burrowing into on the one half to create a little space for my fairy and lavender.

I am not going to share all the details on the book as it would take awhile.  If you have questions, please feel free to email me.  Products used: Artistic Outpost - Flower Market, Neverland, Paris Exposition,  Watercolor pencils, Glimmer Mist - Purple, White Acrylic Paint, Vintage Photo - Ranger Distress Inks, Pearls, Doily, Recollections Flower Trim, Sizzix Rose Blooms Die Cut, Ranger Archival Ink .

My next project uses one of the new quotable stamps:

 I love this quote and it works so beautifully with the Birds of a Feather plate.  I stamped the script from the new Secretary Pool on muslin in the background with a little smears of white acrylic paint.  The quote from Emily Dickinson is stamped on tissue paper using Versafine green ink.  I added burlap, feather, statice and buttons as accents.

My final card mixes in the Secretary Pool plate with the Steampunk plate:

 

The background of everything is glimmer misted green and yellow.  Then the images are stamped using Ranger Archival Black ink.  Then a layer of white acrylic paint is smeared onto the surfaces to soften the color.

The images are stamped from the new Secretary Pool and the Steampunk plate.  The edges are distressed with the distressing tool and sponged around the cardbase with Vintage Photo. The edges are stapled and accented with snaps.

For more inspiration and fabulous creations take a peek at what the rest of the DT has created!

Anita Houston  

Gerrie Johnnic

Lisa Somerville  

Linda Coughlin 

Tracy Evans 

Yvonne Garner

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Life Without Love

Simon Says Stamp and Show Your tag challenge kicked off my project this morning. It inspired me to create a tag. 

 

I started with a piece of this fantastic paper from 7 Dots Studio.  I won this paper over at the Snazzy's Design Team blog and I love it!  It has a lovely heavy texture to it and the patterns are soft enough to be used as a lovely background. I stamped the Flourishes Raspberries across the front and the sentiment from the same Berry Sweet set. I added the house from the Artistic Outpost - The Outpost plate in the corner. 

I am enjoying having a week off of work.  The kids are on spring break. I am spending a lot of my time running the kids around.  We have a few plans as a family to take in some local activities this week in between hanging out with their friends. I am hoping to get in some more time to play with my inks too!  

Have a lovely day!

Suzz

CR84FN50 - Week III - Happy in My Heart

We are at the  last week of the  CR84FN50 challenge and I was inspired to create a card for the Moxie Fab World Don't Throw it Away Challenge.  The paper for the grids, trim and twine are all bits left over from other cards. They get stuffed in an odds and ends twine & lace container on my shelf behind my desk. Perfect for these types of cards.

I used my lovely ODBD stamps to create a grid card. 

I used the Two Step Butterfly,  HoneyComb Background, God's Love,  and Sentiment Collection.

A mix of scraps, twine, buttons, lace and flowers. Distressed the edges mixed up the inks between the pink and orange.  The yellow is glimmer mist.

I blended the following inks together to create my scene: Memento Tangelo, Memento Dandelion and Stampin Up - Pink.


Here are the lovely colors:

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

Please visit the wonderful CR84FN Design Team:

Deborah Frings * Sue Lelli  * Andrea Matthews *  Stephanie Kraft * Suzanne Czosek (me)  *  Heather Jensen * Mona Pendleton  * Lisa Somerville * Shannon White (This Months Guest Designer)

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Hope is the thing with Feathers

The City Crafter Challenge this week is to use the most beautiful bird image on a project. The image is courtesy of  The Graphics Fairy.  I also was inspired by the Moxie Fab World Practical Solutions - Don't throw it away challenge.  I saved some scrap ribbon and lace from other projects and they worked perfectly as trim  on the pail.

Here is my project:

The image was glued on using water and glue onto the surface of the pail. I added a touch of script to the image.  The sentiment is from Verses Rubber Stamps.

The lace trim was distressed with a touch of brown dye ink.  The ribbon is glimmer misted and with a touch of brown dye ink.

This project was so easy!   I use recycled containers on my desktop for my pencils, brushes, and scissors and tools. This is definitely going to replace one of them!

Have a lovely Saturday!

Suzz

Owls

Another couple of entries for the Simon Says Stamp and Show your background. I love creating backgrounds. I started with the beautiful Owl stamp from La Blanche.  I stamped it several times and pulled a few scrap pieces from my scrap pile of backgrounds I had created previously and never used.

My first card is done in oranges, touches of yellow and brown: 

 The backgrounds are both Hero Arts stamps. (Artistic Windows, I tried finding the second one and I think it must be retired) The sentiment is from Stampscapes Nature Plate B.  They have the most lovely plates full of verses to go with their stamps.  I have one plate and have used it so many times.
 
My second card started from a green and blue background:

The sentiment is from the same Stampscapes Plates. The background is stamped with Hero Arts Old French Writing stamp.  The owl stamp was stamped onto the background first but didn't pop enough so I re-stamped onto tissue paper. Then glued it over the original image with a combination of water and glue.  I was still able to color the image and background with watercolor pencils and waterbrush.

This was my first time using the La Blanche images. I have been wanting to try them after seeing them at CHA. Their designer at the show is a brilliant artist and so inspiring. The details on their stamps are fantastic.

Have a lovely day! 

Suzz