Heroes

Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge  this week celebrates Heroes

This card celebrates the men and women who serve our country.  My brother and his newly wed wife are serving in the armed forces. I was thinking of them when deciding what to create. 

 The card uses a mix of Artistic Outpost images to create a card celebrating our soldiers.

I started from a kraft card base.  I added two banners embossed with stars. I distressed and sponged the edges of the banners.

I stamped the solder on white cardstock using black ink. I then cut the image out and sponged with brown dye ink. 

I colored the flag portion of the stamp using watercolor markers:

After I colored the image with my red and blue marker I spritzed it with my water bottle to keep the ink moist.  I layered the solder over the flag. I distressed the edges of the flag image and sponged it with brown dye ink.

I stamped the Hero sentiment by coloring the stamp using the same watercolor marker and stamping it onto white cardstock.

I decided to add hinges onto the edge of the card:

I took the little screws that came with hinges and cut the ends off using my wire cutters.

I always cup my hand over the screw when cutting. (I had heard of someone shooting it into their eye!)

I then just glued them into the opening after gluing on the hinge.

I also wanted to create a card in remembrance of 9/11.  There were so many heroes during that difficult time and this card remembers them:

Products:  Artistic Outpost Hero,  Artistic Outpost - She-Roes, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder Stars, Ranger Distress Inks - Broken China, Ranger Distress Marker - Broken China, Ranger Distress Marker - Fired Brick ,  Paper Artsy Hardware

Come join us and play along in the challenge.  Everyone who plays along in the challenge has an opportunity to win a $50.00 Gift Voucher to Simon Says Stamp.

 

Have a wonderful Monday!

Suzz

A Haunting We Will Go!

Good Sunday Morning to you!  I have been busy playing with ATC's.  A series of Halloween ATC's for a Halloween Vintage swap.  They also are perfect for the Fashionable Stamping Challenge of Good Things Come in Small Packages.

I have used a mix of images from Reminiscence Paper and Artistic Outpost stamps:

 Isn't she cute?  She is from Reminiscence Papers  and I placed her over the Hero Arts Fabric background stamp. The Hello Punkin is from Artistic Outpost.

The next one is a little more dark and spooky:

 The background is embossed with a sizzix embossing folder and misted with a mix of black, green and orange.  I added a metal fence and the crow and pumpkins. (Those pumpkins crack me up like they are getting into trouble)

The next is my favorite because of the little witch:

 She is from the Artistic Outpost Vintage Halloween plate and I think she is sweet! She is stamped and colored using distress inks and touches of highlight using the white gel pen.

The last ATC is another witch but using the paper image: 

I layered the image over the same embossed background and cut out part of another image to piece together her pumpkin for her treats. 

Products:  Artistic Outpost Haunted Halloween, Vintage Halloween.  The Artistic Outpost Halloween sets are on sale right now.  They are 20% off until September 19th in the store.  
Reminiscence Paper, Sizzix Embossing Folder, Twine, Lace Trim, Ranger Distress Inks, Ranger Archival Ink, Glimmer Mists (Black, Green, Orange), Ultrafine Glitter, Black Twine, EK Success Border Punch,  Metal Corner & Fence. 

Hope you Sunday is blessed!

Suzz

Pages in a Book

Today I am mixing up the Moxie Fab World Repetition challenge with the ColourQ #153 colors.  For my repetition I used the background stamp with all the houses in a village. I added touches of the colors to the houses using the palette.

I decided to use the Hero Arts Designblock houses in the village and stamp them using brown dye ink.  I mounted the card on brown cardstock and the button is brown too. (They look black in the photo but really are a nice chocolate)

The sentiment is from Verses Rubber Stamps World is a Book and I wanted to give it a big pop so I added the big button and tied it around the card.

Here is the color palette:

Have a great Thursday!

Suzz

21 Years Part II

I'm back with my revised Anniversary card for my DH.  I spent a few minutes yesterday changing out a few details to make it more masculine. :)

I took out the coral colors and replace the paper with kraft and rust colored chevron.  I re-arranged the layout a little too. 

I thought I would share the new card just to show the difference a few changes make. :)

The card from yesterday:

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

21 Years

Friday is my  21st anniversary.  I decided to use the Mojo Monday Sketch 257 as my layout and create a card for my DH in celebration of our 21 years of marriage.

The papers are from My Minds Eye - The Sweetest Thing and Bo Bunny.  I only stamped two things on this card! :O  The I Love You which is from a cute Unity Love Bug set and the numbers from 7 Gypsies.

I think the colors may be a tad too pretty.  I think I might have to re-work the card a bit and use it for another purpose. :)  Hmm...

Have a lovely Tuesday!

Suzz

Stamptember at Simon Says Stamp!

The Simon Says Stamp and Show DT are helping kick off STAMPtember ™  festivities with a Blog Hop for this weeks challenge! You have multiple chances to win gift certificates by hopping along on the DT blogs leaving a comment and entering in the Simon Says Stamp and Show "Read All About It"  challenge. Each DT member has a $25.00 Gift Certificate to award to a randomly selected participant! Winners will be announced at 8 AM September 12. 

Simon Says Stamp was founded in 2002 with an interest in exclusively selling rubber stamps. It didn’t take long until they realized they couldn’t stop there. Over the past 10 years they have celebrated rubber stamping in its full glory by giving access to people around the world to a one stop shop. Rubber stamps still remain the heart of their business and they are celebrating by hosting a “STAMPtember” ™ event intended to inspire, educate, and celebrate the greatness of rubber stamping. Part of the enticement of rubber stamping is that stamps can be used in creating or complementing ANYTHING! From stamping dates on bank documents and postage parcels in the early 18th century, rubber stamping has dramatically expanded to include card making, scrapbooking, mixed media and many forms of altering and expressing art.

The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week is Read all about it!  The challenge is to be inspired by text, books, journals or words in general. 

My project started with a section of pages from an old book. 

I was thinking of the Indian in the Cupboard and how the characters popped out of the story and were running around his room.  I tried to create that effect on my  card. 

I took a few pages from a book and tore an opening in the top page:

I distressed the edges and sponged ink around the edges of the opening and the pages.  I stamped the trees in the background along with creating a skyline.  The cowboy is stamped on tan cardstock using black ink and colored with a touch of watercolor pencils.  The cowboy is placed along the edge to make him appear as part of the story and to be jumping out of the background.

To finish off the edges I added twine, stamping and brads in the center of the stars to give more texture.

Products: Stampers Anonymous Purely Random, Stampers Anonymous - Wild West,  Artistic Outpost - HOME, Ranger Archival Ink, Ranger Distress Inks - Broken China, Brads, Twine

Please hop to my teammates' blogs. Each of them has a special handmade work of art to share with you and also more prizes along the way! Enter the "Read All About It!" Challenge and be sure to put a STAMP on it and you could be the lucky winner of our GRAND PRIZE $100 Simon Shopping Spree!

The next stop in the Simon Says STAMPtember ™  Blog Hop is the inspirational Terry! 

Here is the list of the team in case you encounter a broken link:

• Anna-Karin Evaldsson 
• Ashli Oliver  
• Candy Colwell 
• May Flaum
• Sandra Mouwen  
• Sarah Engels-Greer 
• Suzanne Czosek  
• Terry 
• Tracy Evans
• Simon Says Stamp Blog

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you play along!

Suzz

Quoth the Raven

Time for Tim's tag for September!

I spent today crafting with my good friend Lisa.  We both spent all day working our tag. We had lots of laughs and fun today, even if we didn't get too much finished. (Thanks Lisa!)

My tag started from the cool technique shared by Tim and morphed into a dark  Halloween tag.

 Once I started down the path of aluminum foil and black ink I never left it.

The background is created with layers of aluminum foil and I added the rivet and texture.  I then added my alcohol inks and sanded the layers off.

I die cut the Sizzix Clock from chipboard and coated it with Distress Paint - Crackle - Brushed Pewter.  After it dried I sponged Black ink over the surface.  I finished it off with a white gel pen edging and black gems.

I stamped the stampendous raven using black ink and embossed with black embossing powder.  I cut him out to add him to the center.

I die cut a center circle from aluminum foil and embossed with the embossing folder.  I smeared black ink over the surface to pick up the embossing.

The flowers are die cut using the Tattered Flower Die from Sizzix on more aluminum foil backed by cardstock.  After they were cut they were embossed and smeared with black StaZon ink and highlighted with silver stickles.

The branches are a Memory Box die and colored with Black ink and highlighted with the Stickles.  The background is stamped using the Stampendous Raven. I inked up the stamp with Versamark and masked the raven to stamp just the quote.  I heat embossed the quote with black embossing powder.

I also created a few other pieces that hopefully I will be able to use in future projects.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz