Happy Memorial Day!

Today we think of all of our fallen heroes and celebrate their memories. I hope you all are having a lovely day off in the U.S. I have been busy doing a lot of nothing this weekend.  Just lazing around and taking kids to and from places. 

I created a new card this morning for a few challenges: Mojo Monday Sketch #239, City Crafter Challenge - A Rose is a Rose and Our Daily Bread Designs - ODBDSLC110 - Color Challenge.

The flower is a Christmas Rose from ODBD, The background stamp is ODBD - Wood,  The rest is just a touch of flourishes, flowers and seam binding.

The lovely layout is from the Mojo Monday sketch. 

Hope your day is wonderful!  We are not planning too much other than swimming and a little cooking.

Suzz

Friends

I created a card today for the City Crafter Challenge which is to use two ribbons and nine words or more.  Perfect for Leap Day!  Happy Leap Day to everyone! Enjoy your extra day. :) I also used the sketch from Mojo Monday #230 as my design.

This card is inspired by the ever so talented Jacqueline and includes a beautiful wine label butterfly. Thank you Jacqueline for sharing wine labels with me.

The papers come from a prize I won from Snazzy's in playing in their first challenge. They are gorgeous papers and I also received some wonderful stamps. (Yet to be inked up and can't wait to use them!). The reason I was playing there was because of another friend Lesley (very talented) who is on their design team.

The card:

The verse from Verses Rubber Stamps - A Friend Strengthens - FS1134-A  is very appropriate. 

I used my much loved Hero Arts Hydrangeas and Butterflies to stamp over the paper.  The diamonds in the background is a new stencil from The Crafters Workshop that I bought to play with. I love the distressed effect and will be playing with it some more.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Music with all my Soul

The Mojo Monday Sketch #229 and City Crafter Challenge to use neutrals inspired my card today:

I started with the sketch and modified it a bit to add the ribbon across the length.  The sentiment and bird are from the Our Daily Bread Designs - You will find Refuge.  The papers were in my scrap pile So I don't remember whose they are?  But it was a lovely music sheet paper.  The doily was a beautiful find at my local antique mall.  Love browsing through looking for little accent pieces. (The buttons are from there as well)

A little stamping, distressing, sponging and done. :) 

Happy Thursday to you!

Suzz

A day full of Joy

This card started from the City Crafter Challenge to use an envelope on your card.  I used a little vellum envelope that worked well with the Mojo Monday sketch.  

Recipe:

1. Cut paper and punch edge with border punch. Attach to white cardstock. Trim with lace and twine. 
2. Cut vellum and score to create envelope. stamp Brocade Background using Stazon ink. 
3. Punch circle in front of envelope.  Add trim and ribbon with flowers. 
4. Stamp flowers along top edge using gray ink. Sponge gray along bottom. 
5. Die Cut tag. Trim to fit in envelope. 
6. Stamp scene on tag using grey ink. Punch hole and add ribbons. 
7. Stamp sentiment on top left using grey ink. 

Products: Our Daily Bread - Brocade Background, Our Daily Bread Easter Blessings, Our Daily Bread - Bird Border and Corners, Websters Pages, EK Success Border Punch, StazOn - Mustard, Stone Gray.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Magnolia Birthday

Happy Wednesday!

Today I mixed in a couple of challenges City Crafter Challenge with a lovely sketch by the talented Linda and colors from ColourQ challenge #121. 

The stamps are all sneak peeks from the latest Stampendous release that will be in the store later this month. I colored the Magnolia with watercolor pencils and added some sponging using the Antique Linen.

Here is the sketch and color inspiration:

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Butterflies and Brocade

City Crafter Challenge this week is to show the inside and outside of your card.  I paired the challenge up with the Fashionable Stamping Challenge #18 - Butterflies or Bugs.

 I took the idea and made a window card.  So the pretty inside can show on the outside. :) 

Here is the front of the card on an angle so you can see the frame is lifted which will hopefully protect the butterflies in transit.

 And the inside:

I didn't put a sentiment or verse inside yet. I will add something when it goes to it's final destination. :)

The background is created using that beautiful Brocade Background stamp from Our Daily Bread and the Butterfly Bush is from the Faith set and the sentiment form the Simple Things Set.

I used Walnut Stain Distress Ink and added a touch of pink watercolor pencil to the butterflies. Blended with a waterbrush.

The background is stamped multiple times using the walnut stain dye ink and smeared with white acrylic paint.

I punched the border and added a strip of the background to the inside to highlight the punched border. 

The sketch is from Wee Memories Challenge.  This is Jenny's last challenge and I was happy to play along one more time.

Hope your day is fabulous! 

Suzz

B Mine

I rolled up three challenges into one: Mojo Monday Sketch #223, Simon Says Stamp and Show a Red Letter Day and City Crafters Challenge - Back to Black.

I started from the idea of the scarlet letter and used the red B in the B Mine to put together my card. 

All kinds of inspiration here... I was inspired by Linda's valentine card,  Tracy provided a beautiful card and the meaning behind red letter day. The back is black challenge is to use a silhouette and the pussy willows on the panel is my silhouette.


The stamps are from the Cornish Heritage Farms and the papers are from My Minds Eye.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Suzz

A Touch of Pink

A combination of three challenges today: City Crafter a Cut Above, Mojo Monday #221 and ColourQ #117 to create my card.  I have a nasty cold and it is slowing me down this week.

I used some of my favorite Memory Box stamps to create this and pink as my pop of color for the ColourQ challenge.  (Birch Branch Print - G1720, Flower Bundle - E1321, Alpha Background E996, Happy Birthday Candle - C1373)

The background was created by stamping the alphabet multiple times using black ink and not re-inking to allow variations in the hues of the letters.  I added a layer of white acrylic paint to soften the background.  The edges were sponged with black dye ink. 

A layer of tree branches and flowers were added over the background using black ink.  

A simple card for me. :) 

The color palette:

 The sketch:

Have a wonderful day!

Suzz

Music of Life

The City Crafter Challenge this week is Winter White and I paired that up with the Mojo Monday #220 Sketch.

I love all white cards... They are always beautiful.  Of course I started with an all white card which ended up with a little shading of gray.

Recipe:
1. Stamp background using Memento London fog and one of my favorite Verses Rubber stamps which is the poem by Elizabeth Barret Browning - How do I love thee - QQ0809-G.  The stamp actually is the full poem in a little script and makes the perfect background.
2. Stamp Verses Rubber Stamps Life is the Music on white cardstock using Versafine Smokey Gray.
3. Stamp over sentiment using Cornish Heritage Farms Music background with Memento London Fog.
4. Stamp Music over tissue paper using Versafine Smokey Gray. Die Cut flowers and assemble. Dab glue over flowers and sprinkle with Stampendous Ultra-Fine glitter.
5. Punch Butterflies from leftover music background. Add glitter and gems.
6. Emboss white cardstock with embossing folder. Sponge with gray dye ink.
7. Distress all edges with distressing tool and sponge on gray dye ink.

The sketch:

Have a wonderful day!

Suzz

Starry Santa

Today I am sharing a recycled star from a birthday decoration.  The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge is stars and the City Crafter Blog Challenge is Santa Claus is coming to town. The ColourQ colors worked beautifully too!  I combined the challenges to create a vintage star decoration.

The background paper is a combination of Stella and October Afternoon paper for the layers of the star. Then a rim of Melissa Frances Crushed Glitter around the edges.  The edge of the circle is made from crepe paper glimmer misted with Patina blue. 

The center of the circle is stamped using Artistic Outpost - Route 66 and Snowy Woods.  A little distressing, crushed glass and embellishments and done.

Here are the colors:

Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

Suzz

Joy

I combined the Mojo Monday Sketch #216, the Moxie Fab World Championing Awards & City Crafter Blog Challenge for Think Pink to create this holiday card.

 I started with the lovely sketch and knew I wanted to use the Memory Box Rosette die to create my medallions.  The papers are all memory box and the Joy and music background are Memory Box stamps.

A simple card that took forever with lots of mistakes. (Hate when you spend so much time fiddling with things that don't even make it on the card!)

The background is embossed using the embossing folder. Pink and White acrylic paint were smeared over the surface.  Then brown dye ink was sponged around the edges and the music sheet stamped over the embossing.

The medallions were die cut with the same die but I trimmed off some of the straight edge to make two smaller medallions.

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Suzz

Veterans Day

I combined a few challenges together to honor our Veterans.  I am a little late for our Veteran's day.  The City Crafter Challenge is Thanksgiving, Card Patterns Sketch # 141 and Simon Says Stamp and Show Some Women. 

In honor our Vets who serve for our country this is a thank you.  My brother who is serving overseas right now and for all our soldiers.

The stamps are from Artistic Outpost She-Roes plate. The background is from the AO Ephemeral Backgrounds.  The inks are Ranger Archival Coffee, Crimson Red, Ranger Distress Inks Vintage Photo and Versafine Blue. The cardstock base is actually blue.  (Photographs black)

The sketch:

Hope your weekend is off to a good start!

Suzz

Postcard Fun

City Crafter Challenge this week is postcards.  I made about six versions of this... I spent more time on this than I did my spooky house. :) six versions later.....

The images are from the following Artistic Outpost plates: London Underground, Loverly London, Ephemeral Backgrounds.

I layered the images using black, grey and red inks.  Then smeared a touch of colors over the surface to add a little distressing.

Hope you are having a fabulous week! I will leave you with a picture of our sunrise on Halloween. I couldn't believe the gorgeous colors when I let the dogs out so I had to run in and get the camera.

Suzz

Time

I had a couple of challenges to share today.  I was playing around with the cream and black from the City Crafters Challenge this past weekend and finished this card a little bit after  my other CCCB card.

The background is from this really cool stencil from The Crafters Worksop that is made up of large distressed clocks.  I loved it and wanted to create a card around the stencil.  The background was sponged onto cream cardstock.  Then the telegram stamp from Artistic Outpost Ephemeral Backgrounds was stamped randomly in the background.  The other images are from Artistic Outpost Wonderland Collage and Whimsical Melange.
I hope the card applies as the challenge said primarily cream and black. :)

My second card is for the My Minds Eye - Sketch Challenge and Embellish Magazine Buttons Colors Trend Challenge.

The paper is from My Minds Eye - Lost & Found collections. The stamps a combination of Nina B. Crafts Meow and B Line Design Secret Garden.

Hope your week is off to a good start!  We had ton of wind this past weekend but lovely sunny days.  Very crisp and fall like. 

Suzz

Cream and Black

The City Crafter Challenge this week is Cream and Black and the Mojo Monday had another fun sketch. I combined the two challenges together to create my card. 

I really struggled with this one for some reason. But finished it off and tried a new effect with the black glitter. 

I started with a few scraps (Yeah) the embossed panel and the die cuts were in my scraps from another project. I wanted a mostly cream card with touches of black but ended up using glimmer mist on my lace to turn it black.

The image was stamped using black ink and I wanted to add texture so I added a line of glue with Stampendous Ultra-Fine glitter around the edges.  I love how it looks like lace.

The rest was just layering and assembling.

Products: Stampendous - Ultra-fine Black glitter, Stampendous - Rose, Stampendous - Cherub, Hero Arts Antique Engravings

Here is the sketch:

Hope your day is going well!

Suzz

Tricks & Treats

Today's project start with the color palette from the ColourQ challenge #105 and the City Crafter Challenge to create something 3D.

I recently purchased at a garage sale a set of take out boxes which I thought would be great treat boxes. I started with that and created a Halloween Treat box.

This is the treat box with a candy treat wrapped in tulle in the box. 

I took a second photo to showcase the treat box without anything in it.

Recipe:

1. Trace sides of box onto white cardstock. Cut out and repeat to get all four pieces. 
2. Remove top flaps from the box. 
3. Stamp background using an Impression Obsession Cover A Card with  Adirondack Cool Peri -  and Memento Pear Tart.
4. Stamp Hero Arts tree and spider using black ink on purple background. Draw line using black gel pen. 
5. Sponge edges on all pieces using brown dye ink. 
6. Stamp Artistic Outpost bats onto green background using black ink. 
7. Trim out with brown pom poms. 
8. Stain seam binding using glimmer mists. Tie on handle. 
9. Stamp tag with Hero Arts Spider Web and Trick or Treat sentiment. Sponge edges of tag. Add ribbon. 

I also used a sketch from Our Daily Bread Scrapbooking Challenge to create a layout with the colors. 

The background was glimmer misted with a variety of the colors. Then the edges were heat embossed using golden sand - Stampendous.  The stamps are all Our Daily Bread.

The image was colored with a combination of dye inks and glimmer mists.

Here is the color inspiration:

 Here is the layout from ODBD

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Music & Years

 

This card was designed with the Card Patterns Sketch # 133, the Color Throwdown #160 colors and the music is for the City Crafter Challenge of Music. 

The main circle was glimmer misted with pink chalkboard mist over a music mask.  I cut a circle from the background and mounted it on a brown circle. Sponged the edges with a hint of brown dye ink. 

The flowers, ribbon and sheet of music also received a coat of the same chalkboard mist. 

The bird is from Artistic Outpost - Birds of a Feather plate and the sentiment is from Verses Rubber Stamps - Music & Years - BB0412-F

Thanks for stopping by!  

Suzz

Scraps, Scraps and more Scraps

My scrap box is quite large and it doesn't contain pattern paper scraps... It actually contains backgrounds, images and other failed projects.  When I saw the challenges for Simon Says Stamp and Show an ATC and the City Crafter Challenge was music, I knew I was going into that large box of scraps and finding the pieces for my projects.

I am happy to say that I cleaned up the large box and sized it down to 4 large envelopes full of shapes and backgrounds.  I either used or discarded the rest. (Yeah!) and I ended up with around 15 ATC's.... Now I won't bore or torture you with all of the ATC's I created but I will share the ones that were amongst my favorites. :)

A few of them have the music incorporated to qualify for City Crafter. (I had at least 4 big scraps of music backgrounds.... Hmmm..... Maybe I should stop using those stamps so much!) I will share the music ones first:

I love this image (Artistic Outpost - Bluebird) and  it never got used. So I added the cracked glass effect and a leftover doily piece to create my ATC. The joy is from Authentique stickers.  

This Santa image was an extra from a project last fall.  I layered it over an embossed background of snowflakes (another Scrap) stamped the sentiment (Inkadinkado) and found the fun deer button which I glittered up for an accent.

An extra peacock image with the music in the background. Clear resist with dye ink sponged into the feathers and leaves. The sentiment is from Artistic Outpost - Think and Wonder and I think a great quote for a peacock! :)

Onto my other non music ATCs:

Love these girls and they are from the Birds of  Feather plate from Artistic Outpost.  They were for another project which they were bumped off from. So here they are with a remnant from an ATC project gone bad.

This image is from Lovely Day plate from Artistic Outpost. I tend to tilt at windmills quite a bit... and thought it would be a fun sentiment for the image, so I typed it up on the computer and printed it out. 

My western themed ATC.  Using two parts of two different cards that never made it to the blog.

You knew there had to be some butterflies and damask backgrounds lurking out there in my stash!!!  Hero Arts - Damask background and Wood Grain Background. The flowers are Memory Box and Hero Arts.

Last but not least the Santa from the Snowy Woods plate from Artistic Outpost.  I love the Santas on this plate and had stamped him quite awhile ago and never used him. 

This took me quite awhile to whittle through the pile of scraps but it felt really good to clean out my scrap box and sort it.  I still had about twenty more backgrounds I could have created but got tired of the little ATC and all the details!

I hope you enjoyed your ATC journey!  Thanks for stopping by...

Suzz

A Pair of Hearts

I have been wanting to create a playing card for awhile and when I saw the Moxie Fab World Challenge - Card Play and City Crafters Challenge - I Heart You I knew I had a perfect pair.

The Verses Rubber Stamps - Oh the Dances seemed to be the perfect verse to go with my pair of hearts. 

The cards were created by cutting out  2 1/2" x 3 1/2" rectangles of white cardstock. Stamp the number using black ink in both corners.  (Artistic Outpost Whimsical Melange) Sponge hearts using red dye ink.  The masks were created from Marvy Uchida Heart Punch and the heart cut out of a playing card. The edges were distressed with the distressing tool and with a sponging over the background.  I love the fact that the playing cards look a little worn and distressed but yet still a pair. I think this would be a cute anniversary card.

The background is Hero Arts Music Background stamped using black ink on white cardstock. Distressed to coordinate with the cards.  

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

 

Dahlia

Happy Wednesday!  I am loving my new Dahlia and created a second card for the City Crafter Challenge 1..2..3.. challenge (1 ribbon, 2 words, 3 butterflies) and Color Throwdown. The design started from the Moxie Fab World Square sketch challenge.

 The stamps are Stampendous: Jumbo Cling Dahlia, Sentiment. Paper is from Authentique. The butterflies are Marvy Uchida Punches.  The flower is watercolor pencils and waterbrush. The edges are sponged with Broken China.
 
The beautiful colors from Color Throwdown: 

Have a wonderful day!

Suzz