canvas and canvas board

Hi all ...
A few of you probably know I'm kind of obsessed with backgrounds. Obsessed, because I don't seem to get them done to my satisfaction, no matter how many tutorials I'm watching.
This time I dabbled with a canvas and a canvas board. The board was a gift for my son who really loves it - or so he says :-) the canvas is just for practising. I have to say the backgrounds surprisingly turned out better than I hoped for - although, to my greatest astonishment, a bit of ... ahem ... *shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht* pink-ish showed up ...

the canvas board

and the canvas

Thanks so much for stopping by and having a look.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Art Journal spread 'time' - de stempelwinkel

Hi and good morning all ...
Today I'm sharing an Art Journal spread over on the de stempelwinkel designteam blog.

I wanted to use my new gorgeous art doll 'time' stamp and loooked for a quote on the web.
I love this one:
The time you enjoy wasting is no wasted time. It's by Bertrand Russell and I feel it fits especially us crafty people as well as introverts and/or HSP :-) So three birds with one stone.
I hope you'll pay a visit to de stempelwinkel designteam blog and will enjoy it a bit. Please stop by there any other day to see what my awesome fellow DT members are up to.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great weekend everyone
hugs, Suzanne xxx

still alive

and kicking, I am.
I have to sincerely apologize for not being around more frequently - and for not commenting on my favorite- and other blogs.
I'm okay so far, it's 'only' that life is very, very busy and stressful at the moment - once more :-( In addition to that the children have Summer holidays and there are quite some logistics to do and things to organize ... oh well, I don't want to get too private here :-)
I'm going to share some pieces I made inbetween, just cards

a birthday card on commission for an acquaintance, she wants to go to the USA this year and got a voucher for a visit at the EmpireState Building

 

a birthday card for a coworker, the first double sided card I made for one of them :-)

another birthday card for a collegue

a card for another coworker who left our department

three TAGs - just for fun and with leftovers

and a good bye for one more coworker who left for another employer

So, just you can see I didn't quit crafting, although I didn't do anything for myself ... 

Oh yes, I did - this one:

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and having a look.

Have a great week everyone - 

hugs, Suzanne xxx

drawers - de stempelwinkel

Hello and good morning to all of you.
It's my turn again over at de stempelwinkel blog and this time I'm sharing a card. Admitted, it may seem a bit strange to some of you but it's straight from the gut LOL

I'd love to see you stopping by there if you have the time to. Thanks a lot for having a look and have a great Sunday everyone.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

another bookmark

For the swap mentioned in the post below I made another 'unusual' bookmark.

(sorry for the bad pics, it is not that dark irl.)

My very talented friend Anne once sent me a few of those die cuts from Tim Holtz' picture wheel die. Until now I had no idea how I could use them appropriately. When the idea to swap unusual bookmarks came up in a forum I knew what to do with one of them ;-)
I used the 'wrinkle free distress' technique on it with different shades of brown distress ink and sponged the edges with walnut stain DI. Then I cut a T.H. filmstrip in pieces and glued them to the open areas with glossy accents (uh, you have to be really patient wit this :-D). At last I glued a piece of design paper behind the wheel and added some twine.
Since it's supposed to be a bookmark you can really use there aren't any additional embellishments.

I'm linking this up to the very first challenge of a Vintage Journey where the theme is 'anything Tim'.

Thank you so very much for stopping by and I wish you a great weekend.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Mail Art?

Posted off one of my gelli envelopes today after stencilling cornflowers onto it :-)

And I forgot to share this card I made for a coworker's birthday last week:

The background is made with T.H. kraft paper/distress stains spiced marmelade and paper from the 'engraver' series by prima marketing. I used the T.H. die 'torn notebook'. Stamps are by crafty individuals (CI-323), indigo blu, paper artsy/hot picks, can't remember who the ballon is from ... in the right corner at the bottom is a button cut from the T.H. sewing room die and embossed with thick embossing powder. At last I stamped a script stamp into it.

I'm linking this up to the Crafty Individuals Challenge which is 'anything goes' (with at least one CI product)this month.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Live, Laugh .... greeting card

Just a quick greeting card from pieces from my stash:

The background is made with a Alcohol Ink technique Andy Skinner shows here. The bird is by T.H., stamped on a piece of gelli plate print and cut out. The Live, Laugh ... stamp is a freebie from craft stamper.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

thank you ...

Firstly I want to apologise to my friends in blogland for not commenting much lately. We've had a rather tough week ...

I made a small plain and 'simple' notebook as a little thank you for a coworker who gave me much support ungrudgingly recently :-)

front outside and inside:

back inside and outside

The paper is from Tim Holtz and prima marketing (engraver series).

I hope he will like it :-D

Thanks a lot for looking.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

she gets a new skirt ...

another TAG I made these days

Background is another gelli plate print on a black TAG. I cut the dressform from corrugated cardboard, coated it with gesso and crackle paint, rubbed some DI gathered twigs over it.
The woman is a stamp by Marianne Design and her skirt is paper pieced with another gelli print, on vellum this time.

It's also another entry into Carolyn Dube's magnificent Gelli Print Party.

Thanks for having a look and have a good week everyone.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

canvas

and two not-so-matching cards :-D
Here in Germany mother's day is tomorrow. I made two cards and a canvas - with the gelli plate, of course.
Since we have only my mother left of her genaration I only will send one of them but don't know yet which one it will be.
My Mom loves blue/green/turqoise.

The stamp and the die cut heart are by Tim Holtz. I used the die cut hearts as a stencil resp. stamp on all backgrounds.

The backgrounds are gelli prints. For this one I added an arrow with a screw brad. The heart is stamped on a piece of vellum, coloured with panpastel (on the back) and attached with staples.

This heart is stamped on tissue paper, coloured with pan pastels and covered with glossy accents. It's a bit uneven because I crumpled the tissue paper. You can't really see it: I also pulled a print with the tissue paper. Then I tore it into a strip and adhered it onto the background.
The nut is a pun/kind of teapot-thing :-D it's also called 'Mutter'/mother in German.

Thank you so much for stopping by and happy Mother's day to all of you - to whom it may concern ;o)
Have a wonderful Sunday anyway.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

up and away ...

another card I just made ...

The background is a piece of cardstock that I embossed to use it for patterns on the gelli plate. I sprayed the white spaces with two different shades of green. Stamps are by artistic outpost.*
My English friends may please forgive me for the unconventional coloration of their flag :-D

And these are two ATCs I made from gelli scraps and stamps by Tim Holtz

Thanks for looking, have a nice day.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

*Oh, and note to self: don't heat emboss when you adhered dymo strips beforehand ... *haha*

gelli print scraps

Today I've been able to make a few little pieces just so I won't get rusty completely.
I wanted to try how you can use scraps of gelli prints as additional elements on cards and such.

Firstly a small TAG using a scrap with a T.H. border stamp and a piece of paper I die cut with the washer die and used as a template on a gelli print. The image is T.H. too, thanks to my blogfriend Mark. I cut it out and dipped it into some water with AAI, you can hardly recognise the colors, though.

Hintergrund: Distress Ink vintage photo und victorian velvet mit Wasser auf craft sheet durchgewischt und mit vintage photo ein T.H. Hintergrundstempel aufgestempelt, unten und rechts Reste von Drucken mit der Gelli Plate aufgeklebt.


Then two cards - I heat embossed T.H. background stamps on a piece of cardstock and sprayed them over with dylusion sprays. The dragonfly is stamped onto a background sprayed with dye by Lindy's stamp gang and cut out. Unfortunately the pics don't catch the gorgeous shimmer ...
The get well stamp is by darkroomdoor.

Hintergrund: HG Stempel von T.H. klar embosst und mit Dylusion Sprays übersprüht. Seitlich auch wieder Reste von Gelli-Drucken. Die Libelle (auch T.H.) ist  extra gestempelt auf einen HG mit Schimmerspray, ausgeschnitten und teilweise mit Abstandsklebern aufgeklebt.

I'm also entering those into Carolin Dube's gelli print party. She has decided to go on with her party and start a new round each month.


Thank you ever so much for looking.
Have a great weekend all of you ...
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

there's no self to be discovered ...

only a self to be created.
Read this in a book recently: 'This Side of Brightness' by Colum McCann (which I'd highly recommend) and used it on this birthday card. I made this card some time ago and can share it now that it has arrived safely.

Background is a Gelli Plate Print with stamps by Art Journey, the face is by T.H., a leftover from a former project.
Sorry for being short, I'm back to my faithful chest bug(s) again ...

No hugs today, don't want to infectuate anyone *halfsmile*
Suzanne

Craft Barn Alpha Challenge #2 - C

Over at the craft barn they have a great challenge - the alpha challenge.
This time it's the letter C and I chose the word 'camera':

I began with a journal page so this has to be one, too.
I used another one of my gelli plate backgrounds, die cut a filmstrip by T.H., put some pictures behind and glued it down. Then I die cut the letters for the word camera (another T.H. die) and adhered them onto the circle pattern of the page. On the bottom left there's some tissue tape. The definition of the word was torn out of my dictionary and I highlighted the word with rusty hinge. There have been some pictures of different kinds of cameras, too, so I tore out the one on the top left. The camera next to the filmstrip is an indigo blu stamp as well as the small male head.

I'm also entering this into Carolin Dube's gelli print party. She has decided to go on with her party and start a new round each month.



The background of the page originally looked like this:

Thank you so much for looking.

Hugs,
Suzanne xxx

flourishes for the Fun with ATCs challenge #80

Another fortnight went by and it's time for a new challenge over at Fun with ATCs - this time it's flourishes.
This is what I made:

I pondered on that for a very long time since I usually don't use flourishes and I only have a little plate with clearstamps which nearly had slipped my memory, at the very bottom of a box.
The background was made with distress stains broken china, brushed pewter and salty ocean, then the flourish was embossed with frantage embossing enamel aged silver and a few crumbs of aged black were strewn around it. The flower was die cut with the T.H. tattered florals die and a chipboard button was added. Finally I glued down a little wooden butterfly, colored with ds spiced marmelade and fired brick, the edges were swiped a little with black soot.

So, now it's your turn. We are looking forward to the wonderful little artworks you'll come up with. Please hop over to FwATCs and have a look at the beautiful ATCs my fellow DT members made and get inspired to create your own.

Thanks for looking.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

TAG - was supposed to be my entry for Artful Times ...

... but I got a visitor that day (don't know why I'm always doing things at the last moment ...) which I hardly could throw out LOL and so I didn't make it in time :-(

The wonderful and adorable Ladies over at the artful times challenge asked for blue, a female image, sparkle and a ribbon.
I adhered several masking tapes, torn dictionary pages and some muslin on a TAG and swiped it through some DI salty ocean and brushed pewter (which I sprinkled with glimmer mist pearl - sadly it isn't recognisable on the pic - and spritzed with water) on my craft mat. The girl (zettiology) was stamped seperately and colored with DI. Then I cut out a sentiment (Tim Holtz stamp) and adhered everything onto the TAG.


Those other two, much simpler TAGs developped along the way, there was plenty of ink on my craft sheet ... LOL and we don't want to waste anything, do we? ;o)

(stamps: zettiology, Dina Wakley, Acapella, Tim Holtz, cherry pie. All the main images are black embossed.)

I'll take pics of the last two later again, when there's hopefully some daylight out there ...

Thanks for having a look.
Hugs, Suzanne xx

we don't stop playing ...

and I played a little with my newest TH stamps :-)

Background by katzelkraft.

Thanks for having a peek ...
Hugs, Suzanne xx

I got him, finally ...

wanted this gorgeous monkey for such a long time ...
Now finally he's moved in with me :-D

Stamps: Katzelkraft, Tim Holtz

And a scrap of the same background :-) stamps: see above.

Thanks for having a peek
(((  ))) Suzanne xxx

tag

... just to keep my fingers flexible and my stamps free of cobwebs :-))

stamps by Dina Wakley and Tim Holtz.

Thanks for stopping by
Suzanne xx

a little bit of this, a little bit of that ...

a few new toys that are all begging: play with me ... play with me ...!
Unfortunately I couldn't answer all of them ... too little time just now (backgrounds were from my stash).

Thanks for stopping by
Suzanne xx