Sea Birds!

Hello again & Happy Saturday friends!! My kids are STILL sick and I'm still not feeling so hot myself, so I'm keeping it short & sweet for ya today! I will have lots of new projects, my 100,000+ Blog Candy & more CHA pics for ya starting on Monday---so make sure & check back with me 'kay?

My card today uses a great stamp set from Storage Units, Ink & More called "Look What I Caught"---the images I used from this set are not the main images you would think to use from this set! But I wanted to show you the versatility that the SUINK sets have and how many options there are to create so many different scenes with one set!

I stamped half of the pier from the set (the boy sits on the other end) and then stamped on the pelican. I drew in my water with my Copic multi-liner pen (0.3) and stamped out fish, colored them & cut them out too along with the cattails. After cutting the circle out with my nesties I sponged the edges w/ blue ink for my sky and added stickles to the water for shimmer.

The fun dp is from Paper Trey Ink--I love me my polka-dots & they have lots of good paper with 'em! The ribbon & cs is PTI too. This card reminds me of my dad---he loves the water (like me) and loves to sail! So this will probably be put away for his Father's Day card---I'll actually be early with it this year, lol! A quick and easy card to put together and fun too!

BTW, before I leave ya---Susana's Custom Art & Card Design is having a great Web Candy giveaway over on her PCP group site. Up for grabs is a $25 gift card to her store and some yummy Rubber Romance stamps signed by Robyn Ireland(illustrator/owner) herself! Stop by and enter to win---you can find out all the details & enter right HERE!

Have a great weekend and see ya back here on Monday!

Suzanne

The Queen of "Cut & Pops"

Happy Friday everyone! I know ya'll love the weekends as much as I do! Yes, once again it is after midnight and I am typing this (crazy, you're thinking, uhhuh...come on & admit it)!! I knew I wouldn't have time in the morning to get it done and then I'd stress because I really wanted to get it done--lol!

I have 2 cards for ya today, both of which I made yesterday. I actually made 4 cards yesterday, that's a record for me! It usually takes me between 2 & 4 hours to complete 1 card--I'm pretty slow I guess, how about you? But that includes figuring out what I want to do, products I want to use and playing around with the layout until I like it--I'm pretty meticulous and somewhat of a perfectionist so that always makes it more difficult. If I have to make multiples, the others always go much faster of course.

The first card I made is for the Ismaki Challenge #25 that you can see here. I really like the sketch they came up with this time, really different. I also love the fun colors in this dp from Memory Box (summer)--fun & bright. My stamp is from Magnolia (yes, again)--this is another one that I'd forgotten about. Love the cake she's holding. I used Diamond Glaze (next to stickles, its my fave) on the icing, candle and her shoes (so they look like patent leather)--love that shiny look. I cut her out after coloring her w/ my Copics--I feel like the "Queen of Cuts" because I cut and pop-up everything. I love to have depth & dimension on the card--layers give cards so much for interest and I just love it! The flowers are from Prima and most of the ribbon is Offray. The sentiment is from Hero Arts--I like that pop of black mixed in with all the other brights. Just a cute, fun birthday card!

The second card I think I'll give my brother this weekend for his birthday (maybe)--I have such a hard time letting my "babies" (creations) go! Does anyone else have this problem? In my last post I told ya'll how much I love eating my Maryland crabs (gonna have some this weekend) so I just had to break out this set from Gina K called "Just Be-Claws" (even the name is cute)! This set is not one of her new ones, but new to me because I just ordered it. I know most people color their crabs red, but live blue crabs from this area are actually a bluish-gray and don't get red until ya cook em' (just some local tidbits for those not in the know) and I wanted mine to be "alive" not cooked--lol!! The dp is from Fiskars (Kimberly Poloson) that I've had for awhile, but hadn't used yet & cs is from SU (blue bayou & river rock). I stamped my crab twice and colored him w/ Copics. I cut out both claws and popped them w/ dimensionals (see, told ya I like to cut & pop) on top of the second colored image. Crabs are always wet and shiny, so I had to apply Diamond Glaze to him (he was askin' for it, I swear)!! I used my circle & scalloped circle nestabilities and just layered. I wrapped 2 pieces of raffia around the bottom of the card and attached the circle w/ sentiment on it w/ glue dots. I love it but I might have to keep it for myself & find something else for my brother, cuz' he'll probably just toss it--OH NO, a crafter's worst nightmare--the HORRORS!!!! Maybe I'll just pick him up a card from Target instead--lol!!

Alright, scrappers--hope you all have a wonderful, sunny weekend! I'll be back on Monday with some new stuff!!

Suzanne

One of Those Days...

Happy Monday (I guess)! Another Monday, another week--I'm not a fan of Mondays I must say! Mondays always start with an impossibly, long to-do list for the week & seems overwhelming at times, ya know. And its been one of "those" mornings, if ya know what I mean--the kind where you probably should never have gotten outta bed! I woke up to kitty puke on my floors (yuck) and then went outside with the dogs and stepped in doggy doo with my new slippers (not a good start). Then I dropped an egg on my kitchen floor which proceeded to splat all under the fridge and then burned myself on the pan--this is when I should've just sat my bottom down-lol! After all that, I decided I'd go in my craft room and get some things done. I had finished my beach card yesterday so I wanted to take a picture of it to post. Somehow it got lost--yep that's right, I lost my new card in my craft room. You know how Jeff Foxworthy says "you know you might be...", well mine would be "you know you might need to clean & organize your craft room" and then you wouldn't lose things--lol! After a wasted 20 mins of looking, my son found it out on our kitchen desk--go figure! Guess I need to organize some tonight!

Ok, the first card is with the new Pink Cat Studio stamps called QT Hooty Owl--they are so cute, all of them. I stamped my owl twice and his ballons 2 more times because I knew I wanted him to hold a bunch of balloons (he only holds one on the stamp) and I wanted to pop up his wings and one of the balloons. He's colored with Copics and the balloons have stickles on them. I tried paper piercing for the 1st time--can ya believe it? I had bought my paper piercer and some templates awhile ago, because I like seeing what everyone does with it on their cards, but had yet to try it. My templates I bought at Michaels and they are just the plastic canvas grids found in the needlepoint section (square & circle shapes for $0.49)--I read about this tip from someone's blog (can't remember who)--definitely makes it easier to line up! The cutie patootie dp is from DCWV "Nana's Kids-glitter" and cs is from PTI (lavender moon, plum pudding & lemon tart) and those wonderfully sparkly, glitter brads are from Making Memories--lovey them.

The second card (this is the one I lost-lol) is my beachy keen card as I call it. So wish I was there! This stamp set (You Are My Sunshine) was the "free w/ three" set at Gina K's last month (buy 3 stamp sets get this one free--although this month's free set is different)--now you can buy this set at her site. I like the stamps that came in this set & the sentiments are great too. I really wanted to use soft, beachy colors for this card. I used my Copics again to color and then went over everything with my C1 copic (cool gray) to tone everything down evenly. I put Diamond Glaze on the water (2 coats) to make it glassy and then added a little bit of diamond stickles to it with my finger when it had dried for some extra shimmer. The dp is from Cosmo Cricket (I think--I only had some scraps of it left) but I thought it looked like cabana stripes, so I colored the beach umbrella to match. The cs is from PTI (aqua mist,berry sorbet & lemon tart). The berry sorbet cs I embossed w/ my cuttlebug folder and then rubbed over it w/ a cream ink from Colorbox chalk ink (Cats Eye). I added a little shell to the beach and a starfish to the sentiment (both I got in a pack of shells from AC Moore). The beads I thought looked like sea glass and just add a little "somethin" to finish it off. Hope you likee them all!

Hopefully the rest of my day will go smoother & hopefully you all are having a great day! I'm off to craft some more...

Suzanne