happy home

Hi friends!  I am not one to scrapbook (mostly because I don't take many pictures) but I think I did alright with this layout!  In the picture are Chris's sister and her fiance, Victor.  They had a get together over the summer at their new apartment, so Chris and I gave them this framed layout as a housewarming present.  All supplies are by Echo Park from their Life is Good line.  I chose that collection because of all the house stickers ;)  

This picture is actually one that Brittany took and shared on facebook because she liked her gift so much!  She's very much into photographs, and I think she was really touched that I made something so personal for her.  :)

The paper supplies didn't cost very much, and the frame I got from Michaels for $6 (with my 40% off coupon, of course).  I would definitely make one of these again for a housewarming gift... it was really simple to make and a "wow" kind of gift.  I hope you like it too, thanks so much for stopping in!

-Suzanne :O )

Sweetheart

Hi friends!  Just popping in with another of my use-it-up Valentine's Day cards.  This one uses old patterned paper from Doodlebug, a sentiment from Joann's and some ribbon from American Crafts.  The gray heart was die-cut with my Nestabilities and the pink heart and rosebud embellishment were both from swaps.  

How are you coming with your Valentines?  I've done all of the cards for my friends and family- I just have to make a few more for my mom to send.  I also have to come up with gift packaging for my dad's class.  I bought graham crackers and granola bars for him to give out- I just want to come up with a cute way to package them.  :)

Hope you like today's card, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

A Gift for Grandpa

Hi friends!  Tomorrow at work we're having a grandpa shower for our school social worker who just had his first grandchild a couple of weeks ago.  I got him a picture frame and a book, so I thought it would be cute to package them in a handmade bag.  (I had a little trouble getting the bag in my light box, so please excuse the picture!)  I used an 8" x 10" bag and adhered a piece of DCWV patterned paper.  I added an old chipboard giraffe from Basic Grey and thought about adding more embellishments, but decided to make a tag to fill the space instead.

I die-cut the larger tag from Clear and Simple Stamps (Tags 1) and stamped a tag outline from Trendy Tags.  The wagon, stack of presents and sentiment were stamped from Cart Pals: Baby.  I wanted to keep everything from getting too frilly because I'm giving it to an adult male (but this was tricky because the baby is a girl!  LOL).

Of course I needed to make a card to go with the gift, so I used a scrap from the same DCWV paper and used a focal piece I had made for a previous card, but ended up not using.  To finish off the card I added some old chipboard from Colorbok.  I hope you like my little gift ensemble, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Romantic Valentine

Hi everyone!  Today was a fun day because we had an early dismissal at 11am due to the  impending snow.  It turned out to be not that bad, but I was able to get a lot of stuff done that I had been avoiding (cooking, wrapping a gift, etc).  Love unexpected surprises on days like this where you can just enjoy the gift of time!  :)

This year I got into making some vintage-y Valentines.  My style is normally cute and colorful, but I had received many vintage supplies from the swaps I did years ago.  I gathered everything together and set out to make a few cards outside of my normal style and actually liked the results!

I centered this card around the sticker quote (which has been in my stash for years) by Rusty Pickle.  I don't even think that company is still around.  Everything else is from my swap stash, except for the red flowers, which are by Recollections.  I love the more-is-more look to this card.. I just kept piling embellishments on and it was great to use up a ton of supplies on one card!  :D

I hope you all like it, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

PS-  I'll be back tomorrow to share the gift packaging I worked on today.  ;)

Money Holder

Hi there!  The pictures above are of a money holder I made last summer for my boyfriend's brother.  There was a last-minute scramble to come up with a gift, so I told my boyfriend he could just give cash and I would make it look pretty.  :)  Because we were in a rush, I don't think this is my best work, but I still wanted to share the idea.  

I started off with a bunch of supplies by Clear and Simple Stamps and some papers by K & Co.  The tri-fold card was made from this die:

As you can see, the die comes with that swirly shape, so I cut out some orange cardstock, stamped the robot from the set below in orange ink, and trimmed it out:

I stapled a scrap of ribbon and stamped a sentiment from the same set on the orange cardstock; the banner sentiment is from this set:

On the inside, I used another scrap of the blue polka dot paper that was used on the banner and stamped the sentiment from a retired set called Celebrate.  I glued the strip of paper down on the sides and bottom so I could stick in the money in on top.  I used a lot of different sets to pull this together, but this could easily be mass-produced or used for gift cards!  I hope you like my project, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Sweet 16

 
Hi everyone!  Just a super quick post today- I've been very busy the last few days working on filling an order for 200 (yes, two HUNDRED!) Thanksgiving cards someone ordered through my Etsy shop.  I still have a long way to go, so most of my free time has been devoted to getting those cards made.

Today's card is one I made a while back for my cousin's sweet 16.  I knew I wanted to use this die-cut by K & Co, but it was so large and busy that I had to keep the background small, so I just ran some cardstock through my Cuttlebug and let that be enough.

 

On the inside, I used another die-cut and created my own sentiment with some Paper Smooches alphabet stamps.  Pretty simple, but I really wanted the focus to be on that fun cake!  Hope you like it, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Congratulations (New Principal)

Hi there!  Today's card is a simple one- you can see I didn't even color the image!  I made this for my mom's goddaughter, who became a principal last summer.  I thought it would be cute to use a school-themed image, so I used this one by Stampin' Up! and just stamped it in brown to keep it looking vintage-y.  I think I got the apple paper in a swap, so I'm not sure who manufactured it, but the green hexagons are K & Co.  The sentiment is Clear and Simple Stamps.

I hope you like my creation, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Hang in There!

Hi everyone!  Unfortunately this is a card with not such a happy background story- a good friend of my brother's just found out her three year old son has leukemia.  She was asking for donations of diapers, gift cards for food, and toys so she could make do while at the hospital.  My mom and I sent a package and I thought it would be nice to send a handmade card as well.  I tried to use lots of bright, happy colors (all papers are from My Mind's Eye Lime Twist collection).  The sticker is another one from my dollar sticker book- I thought this monkey would be good for a boy card.  Everything else was all pinks and purples!  :P  For a finishing touch, I added some old clips by Making Memories.

 I hope you like my card, and if you're the praying kind, please send prayers to Louise and her family.  Christian is supposed to be coming home on Saturday and will continue chemo treatments, but any well wishes sent their way would be much appreciated!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Wild About You

Hi friends!  Here's a set of Valentines listed in my Etsy shop that I wanted to share.  I made these last year with the intention of making a variety pack of different animal puns, but I only got as far as these zebra cards, so I decided to just sell them as their own set.  :) 

The stamps are Paper Smooches and the zebra tag/patterned paper are both KI Memories.

I added a heart with foam tape for some dimension.  The colors are really vivid, but I think it fits with the zebra theme.  I hope you like this set, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Paint the Town

Hi there!  I hope everyone is having a good week so far!  Today's card is the one I made for my dad's birthday, back in August (I told you I was way behind in my posts!).  I kept the layout simple, using up some old scraps (I think the striped paper is K & Co) and stamps by Penny Black.  I think I did a pretty good job coloring this piece, but I remember not being thrilled with how the flower pot turned out.  I suppose there's always room for improvement, right?  :)  

That's it for today, I'll be back tomorrow to share some zebra-themed valentines!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Doodlebug Cherries

Hi friends!  Just popping in real quick to share a set of cards I made for my Etsy shop!  I really like how these cuties turned out!  The inspiration came to me when I was straightening out some of the embellishments in my stash yesterday, and I came across these cherry brads from Doodlebug.  This morning, I saw the Clean and Simple sketch, and the cherry brads popped right back into my brain and I knew I had to make a set of cards based off the sketch:

I went through my 6x6 pads and pulled out some papers from different Lime Twist collections by My Mind's Eye.  I combined some sentiments from Paper Smooches stamps and die-cut the banner with a Clear and Simple Stamps die.  I think the pink cardstock is from Michaels but the brown is Dark Chocolate from Papertrey Ink.

That about sums up this set... it's still available for sale if you're interested!  :)  Hope you enjoy it, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Last Year's Valentines

Hi everyone!  Just popping in to share some of the Valentines I made from last year that I never shared.  The bunny, bee and owl are stickers from We R Memory Keepers, but everything else is pretty much just bits and pieces of my stash that I was trying to use up.  The last card features an image from 2 Cute Ink (I think I may have shared it on the DT blog, but not here).  I hope you enjoy, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

PS- The Mystery of Edwin Drood was okay... funny and silly, but I missed a lot of what was being said because of the English accents- hah!  :)  My mom and I had a good time in the city yesterday- we need to do that more often.  <3 font="font">

Congrats on Your New Job

Happy Saturday, friends!  Today I'm off to the city to see The Mystery of Edwin Drood with my mother.  We haven't spent a day in the city since the summer, so I'm really looking forward to it!  I'll let you know tomorrow how the show is!  :)

Today's card is one I made a while back for my aunt when she got a new job.  I used some papers given to me in a swap and an image by Inkadinkado.  The flower brad is from my stash- can't remember the manufacturer (it's pretty old!).  I love the loud, bright colors on this card because they match my aunt's vibrant personality.  :)

I hope you like my card too, and enjoy the start of your weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

It's Your Day

Hi everyone!  I made this card a while back for my brother (who's a welder) when my mom found out there was a national tradesman's day.  I found the image online, printed it out, and added the sentiment by Clear and Simple Stamps.  The papers are all A Boy's Life by Echo Park.

It's a pretty simple, but I think my brother appreciated it.  :)  I hope you like it too, despite my "cheating" by using an online image!  heh  :)  Thanks for stopping by, friends!

-Suzanne :O )

Happy Graduation

Happy Thursday, friends!  Just wanted to share a quick graduation card I made for my neighbor when she graduated from high school last summer (I babysat for her when she was in diapers, so needless to say, I feel OLD!).  I used papers from DCWV and an old dollar stamp that I colored with my Copics.  A very simple card, but I think it turned out cute since I used our high school colors.  :)

 

Hope you enjoy, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Peacock Wedding Card

Hi friends!  Today was a snow day for me, but I really haven't gotten much accomplished today- one of those "just hanging out" kind of days.  I did go to Target and get some washi tape, though.  :)

Today's post is the card I made for my friend Andrea's wedding.  She asked me to make all of her invitations, save the dates, thank you notes, etc., so I'll try to post those items very soon.  She has a thing for peacocks, so I knew I wanted to incorporate that into her wedding card.  Her wedding colors were cobalt, black and silver, and her favorite color is lime green.  Hopefully you can see how I pulled all of those things into her card.  :)

I used lots of different Paper Smooches stamp sets and colored everything with my Copic markers.  The My Peeps stamp set came with only one feather so I had to stamp it several times- the bird is actually "bald" so you can make him a turkey, a peacock, a flamingo, etc.

The main panel was cut out with my Nestabilities and then I traced the shape onto silver paper and hand-cut it for a mat.  Here's a picture of me and all of my high school friends at the wedding (last July):

Hope you like my card, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Fall Thank You Notes

Hi friends!  Just wanted to do another catch-up day with some thank you notes I made for my birthday, back in September.  I used lots of scraps here and the Do Me a Favor stamp set from Papertrey Ink.  I'm not sure what I was thinking on the yellow card, but the others make me happy.  I hope you enjoy, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Bundle of Joy

Hi there!  Today I'm excited to share this super cute baby card I made for my friend Jen, who just had her son a few weeks ago!  I have to give a little side story first- on Saturday I got the mail and there was a package addressed to me from Clear and Simple Stamps.  I was totally perplexed because I hadn't ordered anything.  When I opened the package, there was a note saying the contents were a thank you for buying their products throughout the year- what an unexpected surprise that was!!!  Enclosed was this limited edition stamp set and coordinating die:

As soon as I saw how versatile the set was, I knew I had to put that die and "bundle of joy" sentiment to work.  I used this week's Sweet Stop sketch for the layout:

I used lots of Papertrey Ink dark chocolate cardstock and super cute papers from Doodlebug's Snips and Snails 6x6 paper pad.  I LOVE Doodlebug, they've remained one of my favorite companies since I first discovered them years ago!  :)

I stamped the sentiment on a hand-cut banner and layered it over the die-cut.  A couple of buttons draw the eye upwards and some Doodlebug twine finishes off the card.

I hope you like this card and a special thank you to Nicki and Reenee at Clear and Simple Stamps- you really made my day!!  :D

Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )