Great Love

 With Mother's Day coming up I decided I better get cracking and get a card created for my MIL.  She has a birthday and Mother's Day within a few days of each other.  I will have to be working on the birthday card next!  This card started with looking for some favorite stamps for Simon Says Stamp and Show your Favorite stamp (which is like picking your favorite child) and also is for the Moxie Fab World Challenge - Damask or Brocade.  I used some of my much loved Hero Arts stamps (Classic Tea Rose, Fabric Background, Thanks Definition Cling) along with the sentiment which is from Verses Rubber Stamps - QQ0846 Mother Teresa quote.  I think a mother & father's love is all about the small things. :) 

The background is stamped with the beautiful damask pattern using a mix of yellow and orange dye inks spritzed with Perfect Pearls mister.  Overlaid is the thank you definition (again as a thank you to his mother for all she has done for him). 

The flowers are stamped and colored with watercolor pencils. My DH helped with the design too. I had two different backgrounds and he selected the design he liked better. So he did help with his Mother's card. LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Friends are Treasures

I started with the beautiful  Mojo Monday Sketch #240.I feel like I have been in a nautical mood for awhile...

I laid out the sketch and cut all the pieces using the beautiful Bo Bunny Country Garden collection.  The next step was to select a sentiment. I picked up the beautiful ODBD Faithful Friends for a sentiment to put on my banner. Then I was trying to think of something that provides shelter and the lighthouse from ODBD Keep My Lamp Burning  was sitting on my desk from another project and seemed like the perfect fit.  After I stamped it on my smaller circle I of course smudged black ink in the background on the circle.  No problem... just add some acrylic paint over the background to add a nice distressed touch. :)

Than the sketch with the banner covered up too much of my light house so I had to modify it slightly?  :)

Anyways, I am happy with the end result.  The Sketch:

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Eternal Summer

Week II of CR84FN53:

 

The layout was an attempt to try something different.  I had the lovely sweet peas from Flourishes on my desk and decided to use them.   I used some scraps from my pattern paper to stamp over. I added a hint of pink in the flowers and sponged the blue around the edges.  Added a few punched butterflies, lace and ribbon and done. 

Here are the soft and dreamy colors:

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

Please visit the fantastic CR84FN Design Team:

Deborah Frings * Sue Lelli  * Andrea Matthews *  Suzanne Czosek (me)  *  Heather Jensen * Mona Pendleton  * Lisa Somerville * Shannon White* Pauline Pollington

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Today is the first Saturday in the month  which means Stampendous Monthly Challenge starts with something new! Simply make a gift, gift set (could be cards, could be an altered item), or a gift card holder of some sort no later than Thursday, May 31 at 11:59 PM EST .

I didn't have a gift project created yet to share but wanted to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day and am sharing a layout using the lovely Stampendous stamps.  The ODBD blog is celebrating National Scrapbooking Day as well with a ODBDSLC107 - Layout Challenge this week to create a layout.  I have included another layout in this post for that challenge too!

My first layout:

I water-colored the beautiful Cottage Roses a few times using watercolor markers and watercolor paper. I stamped the text in the background and on some scraps (for my banners).  The rest was cutting and layout.
The stamps are: Stampendous - Jumbo Cling Cottage Rose, Stampendous Dream Text, Stampendous Small Typewriter Alphabet, Recollections Flourishes.

My second layout:

This is a mix of two different family trips at Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon.  I usually make them line up for a traditional family pose!  You can see how much they have grown in the two years!

I used the Our Daily Bread Designs - Honeycomb, Brocade Background and It is Well With My Soul.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

Circus Time

Simon Says Stamp and Show is  Kaleidoscope of Color and the ColourQ challenge inspired me to create a birthday card.

I started with this wonderful Memory Box paper that I love.  I haven't used it enough but I love all the happy circles in the different colors.  I toned it down with some brown distressing around the edges.  I went into my circles bin and pulled out a brown circle and cut a coordinating pp circle.  The rest was just picking a design and adding the fun Artistic Outpost Vintage Circus images in the background an as my focal point.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Text & Tulle - City Crafter Challenge

I had an idea in my head when I saw the Mojo Monday sketch but my card had it's own idea...I started with  the City Crafter Challenge of Text and Tulle... (Love the alliteration and the idea of tulle and text). That inspired the text background and putting the tulle on the card...

All of the card was made up of pre-cut pieces in my pending folders. (Sounds better than scraps.)

I stamped the lovely mail definition from Memory Box in the background in gray.  I added a layer of the Elemental Damask in Peach Bellini.  Then the birdcage was sponged with the peach color and stamped over with the damask in gray.  The butterfly followed the same stamping as the background.  The ribbon and flowers were leftover from other projects using these colors. The is a layer of tulle behind the ribbon. Hard to see in the picture but very pretty IRL.

Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

ODBD May Release Blog Hop - Beach Journal

Welcome to the Our Daily Bread designs May Release Blog Hop! If you got here from Angies’s beautiful blog, you are in the right place. If not you might want to start at the Our Daily Bread designs Blog and start from the beginning.

For my project I decided to create an envelope journal. I apologize up front as there are quite a few pictures of the different pages. :)  My inspiration was the new release and my family is going on a cruise later this summer somewhere tropical and warm.  I created a travel journal to hold all the bits and pieces of paper we will gather on our vacation.

The front of my journal:

    (To see any of the pictures close up - click on the image)

I used the brand new set Happy Retirement from Our Daily Bread Designs which works beautifully with The Lovely Sea. I merged the two images together to create my beach scene.  The background papers on the entire journal are from the new Bo Bunny Country Garden collection.  The sentiment is from the Simple Things set. 

The back of the journal:

 I love this lighthouse image.  So lovely.  I don't think we will be seeing any lighthouses on our trip but it definitely fits with the nautical theme.  The sentiment is from the new Dreams set. The image  is from the Keep My Lamp Burning.

Next is the first set of pages. 

 The fun part of the first set of pages includes  both envelope pockets. I enhanced the opening of the envelops by using a circle punch to create a different look on each envelop pocket. 

The paper is stamped with "It is Well Within My Soul" and the fishnet was laid over the paper and glimmer misted blue.  The Mini Dogwood and the bird from You Will Find Refuge are stamped in the left hand corner and the sentiment from the same set was stamped.  On the right page the cattails and dragonflies from the With Heartfelt Sympathy set were stamped and colored.  The tags use a repeat of the images.

On this page I used the new Dreams images with the olive branch on the frame and the dove over on the other page.  The sentiment is from the You Will Find Refuge and the tag uses the As You Graduate set.

My next page uses the beautiful The Lovely Sea and repeats on each panel.

I added a tropical flower and butterflies page using the Sweet William Small stamp.   They were stamped multiple times and colored with watercolor pencils.  There is a second layer of flowers on the larger flowers to add depth.

The last page is the beautiful butterfly bush from the Faith set.  I used a coordinating paper with butterflies and colored my butterflies to match the butterflies on the paper.



The  Hop Details:
The Hop will run 8am EST May 1 until 8pm EST May 2. The winners will be announced on the ODBD Blog on May 3. Three hoppers will be randomly selected to win ONE FREE SET of CHOICE, and One blessed hopper will win this month’s BREAD BASKET BUNDLE!!!

Here is what you have to do to be qualified to win one of these prizes:
Hop to each designer’s blog and leave a comment Return to the Our Daily Bread designs blog and leave a comment telling us that you completed the hop, making note if there were any you could not comment on. Answer the question on the ODBD blog when you leave your comment.

From here hop on over to the talented  Rosemary's blog.

Suzz