The Card Garden

Let's Party

2012-02-01T19:01:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm on a Paper Smooches kick now. Who isn't really?! :) I made this simple card for a bestie whose birthday is tomorrow. I used lots of Lime Twist papers by MME and a sketch I drew out one day while I was listening to a presentation at work (she might have been a boring speaker! LOL). I colored the dog with my Copics and added a bling-y pom pom to his hat. I like how this card turned out.. this is also my effort to start using some of the papers I hoard because I like them too much! :D Thanks for stopping by, friends!

-Suzanne :O )

Let's shell-ebrate!

2012-01-30T18:19:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! How cute is this little turtle friend from Paper Smooches!?? I have to admit I've been neglecting my PS stamps. They keep coming every month and it's hard to keep up! :) I made this card for my cousin who's turning 26 this week. I decided not to try and tone down the cutesy since this is my style and it's what I do best. I think it'll make him smile, don't you?? I used lots of patterned papers from Imaginisce's B-Day Bash line and kraft cardstock. I discovered a little trick, by the way. I had die-cut the kraft cardstock into a scalloped circle but the kraft got washed out behind the green circle, so I colored the scalloped circle with a dark brown Copic marker and voila! A contrasting color in a flash! :D I'll be using that shortcut again, for sure! The sketch is courtesy of Sweet Sunday:

I'm digging this week's sketch so much I think I'm going to use it again tonight to make another birthday card! :D I hope you like my spunky card, thanks SO much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Honey Bear

2012-01-29T14:49:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! Just popping in with a quick Valentine! I have to make about 10 more before the holiday arrives, so I better get moving! :) This card used up some scraps from last year. I can't remember the manufacturer of the "I love You" patterned paper, but I bought it from Target and the paper with Cupid's arrows is DCWV. I stamped PJ onto some X-Press Blend It cardstock and colored him with my Copics. I die-cut the main image with my Nestabilities and added some epoxy corners by Making Memories. I picked up the frilly lace at a yard sale for 10 cents, probably. I love hunting for things like that! :)

I'm going to add this card to The Cat's Pajamas' Valentine's Day blog hop, you should link up too if you have any of their stamps!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're having a lovely weekend!

-Suzanne :O )

2 Cute Ink Blog Hop: Week 3!!

2012-01-28T10:00:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone! Today is the final day of new releases for the 2 Cute Ink Valentine's Day digital stamps! I colored up this cutie called "Bee Mine" with my Copics and added some Prisma glitter to her wings and the edges of the clouds. I used my Nestabilities to cut the focal image and the hand cut the mat. I used up some old patterned paper, paired up with some black and yellow cardstock to mimic the colors of her "outfit." hehe :) The chipboard hearts are from Little Yellow Bicycle (I can't seem to stop using these!) and I stamped "Bee" on the yellow heart to make a punny sentiment. I believe the "Bee" stamp is from The Cat's Pajamas.

Your next stop on our blog hop is Sandy! Go check out her adorable card and make sure you comment along the way for a chance to win some digis! Thanks for hopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

New Items in my Etsy Shop!

2012-01-25T05:55:00.000-05:00

Hi there! I posted some new card packs in my Etsy shop this weekend, so head on over and check them out for more details!

The Card Garden

Hope you're having a great week!

-Suzanne :O )

2 Cute Ink Blog Hop, Week 2!

2012-01-21T10:00:00.001-05:00

Hi, hoppers! Hopefully you've already been to the 2 Cute Ink blog, but if not, head over there now and check out this week's releases! I chose to work with "Patches"- isn't he super sweet??! I have a feeling he's being a little naughty opening that box of chocolates! ;) I colored him with my Copics and matted him with some blue cardstock. The striped paper is some older DCWV and the chipboard hearts are by Little Yellow Bicycle. It's a pretty simple card, but that's why I love when the image takes up most of the space! :)

Your next stop on the hop is the uber-talented Melissa! Have fun hopping and don't forget to comment if you want to win some free digis! :D

-Suzanne :O )

Stuck on You!

2012-01-21T09:00:00.002-05:00

Hi friends! Just popping in with a quick post to share this super cute Inky Antics card! I'm working on a set of 4 Valentine's Day cards to put up in my Etsy shop and this porcupine is the second of punny characters. I colored him with Copics and used my Nestabilities for the circles and banners. The patterned papers are all Doodlebug, matted with black cardstock. The sketch is this week's Sweet Sunday sketch:

I also realized this card fits with this week's TCP Tuesday challenge to use these colors:

I hope you enjoy my card, thanks for stopping by! I'll be posting the other 3 in the set in the next few days and you can check out my Etsy shop when they're up for sale!

-Suzanne :O )

2 Cute Ink Blog Hop!

2012-01-14T10:00:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! Hopefully you've made it here from Melissa's blog, and if not, head on over to the start of our hop at the 2 Cute Ink blog! Heidi is releasing 3 super cute Valentine's Day images today, and I chose to work with this adorable "Owl You Need is Love" image! I think I love cookies as much (or more than!) he does! LOL I colored my little friend with Copics and cut him out with my Nestabilities. I used lots of scraps on this card and the SFYTT for this month. The sentiment is from Studio G- pretty perfect for this image, huh?! :)

Be sure to check out all of the DT blogs, we've got some super cute inspiration for you! Heidi is releasing 3 more images next Saturday. One lucky person will have a chance to win one of the digital stamps, so make sure you check out the 2 Cute Ink blog for more details!

Thanks so much for hopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Woodware Thank You Set

2012-01-06T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I'm taking a break from my craft fair projects to share the set of Christmas thank you cards I made for the Woodware sketch challenge. I used up some lovely DCVW papers I had been hoarding and die cut some circles with my Nestabilities. I combined the penguin from Snow Globe Magic and the sentiment from Wedding Words and colored the penguin with my Copics. I made a set of 12 cards in probably less than an hour- love those quick but fruitful projects! :) Here's a close up of one of the cards:

Hope you enjoyed my project! If you want to join the sketch challenge, link up through the Woodware UK blog here:

Woodware UK

Thanks for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

Craft Fair Merchandise: Tea Sets

2012-01-04T19:08:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! The next installment in the craft fair series is the tea gift set. I found picked up several different tea pots or mug sets throughout the year with the idea that I would package them as a gift set. I wound up with 6 different tea pots/mugs, so I bought several boxes of tea and packaged them in clear 3 x 3" boxes from Denami Design. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the contents before I wrapped them in cellophane, but that's what I get for crafting in a frenzy! :) The baskets needed a little something else, and I had originally wanted to get individually wrapped biscotti so they would stay fresh, but they were hard to find. I did however find individually wrapped packages of vanilla wafters (about half the size of a normal package), so I wrapped some cute patterned paper around each package (you can see them peeking out if you zoom in) to dress them up.

Of course I couldn't stop with just the contents of the basket, I had to make tags for each basket! :) I used various stamp sets and some kraft tags I had in my stash to add to the handmade feel. Surprisingly, the baskets sold pretty well! I sold them for $10 each and only had one left at the end of the season. I gave that "you're tea-riffic" basket to my Secret Santa who is a physics teacher, so it all worked out in the end. :)

I'll be back tomorrow with a few more food gift ideas! Thanks for stopping by today!

-Suzanne :O )

Craft Fair Merchandise: Snowman Soup

2012-01-03T17:48:00.000-05:00

Hey all! I'm back again to share more craft fair goodies with you. Snowman soup has always been a hit for as long as I've been doing shows. I made 60 packets to start with and they sold out in one weekend! :) I charge a dollar a pack, which means people buy in multiples for stocking stuffers and inexpensive "just a little something"s. Here they are all nestled together before the show started:

I packaged 10 or so in mugs and charged $3 each. Those also sold very well.. people don't mind paying only $3 for something that looks all fancy. :)

Each soup comes with a packet of hot cocoa, a mini candy cane, a package of mini marshmallows, and 2 Hershey's kisses. The bag toppers were made with my Nestabilities and these sets from Inky Antics:

Snowman Soup

Sweety Snowman #1

If you're looking for craft fair ideas, I would definitely recommend this. People think they're so cute, and they can't resist for only a dollar. I make a pretty nice profit, too! :) I pay $10-$12 for the cocoa, marshmallows, kisses, candy canes and clear bags, and get $60 in return. Of course I don't charge for my time, but that's because I enjoy doing it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little project, and you can click on my "Snowman Soup" category to see the ones I've made in previous years. Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Craft Fair Merchandise: Bookmarks

2012-01-02T08:48:00.000-05:00

Hi blogland! I'm trying hard to continue this series of posts about my craft fair merchandise. These little guys are bookmarks (or giant paperclips!) that I sold for 50 cents each. They sold okay, but I thought they would do better since I was selling them for such a small price. You can never tell what the crowd wants- that's rule number 1 of craft fairs!! :) These were pretty easy to make.. I had a couple of packages of giant paperclips that I had bought at Walmart a while back and decided to put them to good use. To embellish, I used this set from Inky Antics (Christmas Gift Tags) and a couple of paper punches.

You're supposed to line the images up with the tag's rectangle, but it was just as cute to line them up with the edge of the circles. I added them to the paperclips with some adhesive from my tape gun and a foam square in the middle to stabilize them. This was a pretty quick and easy project, and I'll probably make them again next year with more small Christmas stamps. I hope you enjoyed my little project, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Happy 2012!

2012-01-01T08:58:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, friends! I hope you all had fun celebrating last night and will have a year full of joy and happy times. I don't have many supplies to celebrate this occasion, but I used some patterned paper by DCWV, punch outs from an old page-a-day calendar and some colored cardstock. The gold ribbon is American Crafts and the countdown stamp is by Technique Tuesday. I don't know who made the clear clocks- those were something I got at a yard sale and they didn't come with the original packaging. Anyway, I hope your year is off to a great start, enjoy this picture parade!

-Suzanne :O )

Cake in a Cup

2011-12-31T09:08:00.000-05:00

Happy Saturday, friends! I'm back today to share the cake in a cup mugs I had mentioned in yesterday's post. This was another BIG hit at my craft fairs. It was so popular I had to make another batch! I found the recipe for the mix in a Gooseberry Patch book and it's pretty simple to do. If you're interested in making your own, you can buy the recipes, "Cake in a Cup" labels, and dry mix/glaze recipes from my Etsy shop. You get all 3 PDFs for only $4 and you can print them as many times as you like! Here's the link:

Cake in a Cup Label PDFs

These didn't take long to make and come in handy for teachers, co-workers, Secret Santas, bus drivers, coaches, neighbors, etc. I charged $3 each and people were buying them in multiples (and I think a few people bought just for themselves! lol). I made a little pocket for the recipe with kraft cardstock, similar to the ones I used on the cookie in a jar mixes. I added scraps of patterned paper and used some paper punches for the label. I'll definitely be making these again next year and I'll probably try different flavors of cake (theses are all chocolate with chocolate glaze). Feel free to email or comment with any questions. I hope you enjoy this gift idea!

-Suzanne :O )

Cookie Exchange/Cookies in a Jar

2011-12-30T10:15:00.002-05:00

Hi friends! Popping in with another post today- this one's pretty lengthy, so bear with me!! I have a LOT to catch up on with my craft fair goodies, Christmas cards and gift packaging. I'll start with the packaging I whipped up for my cookie exchange at work. I made oatmeal butterscotch cookies with walnuts and used these bakery bags I had picked up at a yard sale. We were supposed to include our recipe, so I clipped that on with a regular old paper clip and added a fun tag using some stamps by Clear & Simple Stamps. The overall effect is a little busy, a little messy, but I really wanted to use these stamps!! LOL The cookies I stamped on the background are from Cookie Bake:

The sentiments were stamped on some flags I die-cut with my Nestabilities and stapled onto the tags. This was a very quick & easy project since I was in a rush (every year I always think I'm going to *make* time for things like this, but it never seems to happen the way I plan! lol). I also have the Cookie Bake Extras set which came in handy for my cookies in a jar:

I made up 5 different jar recipes and sold them for $7 each at my craft fairs. I made 15 jars all together and had 6 left over at the end of the season. Luckily, Chris had 5 co-workers he wanted to give gifts to, and the last remaining jar went to his mother as a hostess gift on Christmas Eve. I was worried that I would have a ton of food items left over from my craft fairs, but everything that didn't sell eventually found a home (you'll see as I keep posting what else I made). ;) Anyway, onto the jars and their tags!

The pic above shows 4 of the varieties, and the picture below shows the 5th on its own display:

I guess I remembered to put the flash on in the picture below, and you can see a peek of my cake in a cup mixes to the left:

Here's a close up of the tag; you can see how I used the cookie words stamp to make a background. The pocket for the recipe was made out of kraft cardstock, and I believe the dimensions were 4" x 9", scored at 3". I used some staples at the top and printed the recipe and the name of the mix from my computer.

I realized too late that I probably should have taken a side view of the jars so you could see how the layers looked, but you get the idea. :) It was a bit of work to make these, but my customers and Chris's employees really seemed to like them! Thanks so much for sticking through this long post!

-Suzanne :O )

With Sympathy

2011-12-29T18:50:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! Just popping in with a quick post in what I hope is a string of more regular posts! My boss's mother passed away last week so I wanted to make a simple but thoughtful card. I started with that enormous clear sticker by American Crafts. They seem to be my go-to for sympathy cards because they take up most of the space on a card when I get stumped for an image to use. They're a little hard to use when they stick to themselves but I love how quickly I can put cards together with them. The beige background is actually some packaging I recycled and the green satin ribbon was in my scrap stash. I die-cut a ribbon slider and stamped the Impression Obsession sentiment with brown ink. To finish off the card, I punched an indent with the tip of a circle punch, tied the ribbon with some twine and added a vintage button on top. Oh, and I punched out the corners, too. :) I like that the colors are bright but get toned down with the earthy cardstocks. I hope you enjoy my card too, thank you for stopping by!!

-Suzanne :O )

Last PTT challenge!

2011-12-27T19:08:00.000-05:00

Hi there! This post is the last for my PTT term, which is kind of a good thing so I can have a breather and make cards on my own schedule. :) This week was a simple 'anything goes' challenge featuring this adorable giraffe trio by Karen's Doodles. I colored the carolers with my Copics and used my Nestabilities to die-cut the image. This post also wraps up the month-long sponsoring by My Mind's Eye and 3 Girls Jam wrinkle ribbon. I've had a lot of fun with the other 'party planners' and wish the best to the new members! Thanks for a great 4 months!!

-Suzanne :O )

Snowball Fight

2011-12-23T10:34:00.000-05:00

Hi all. I'm a bit behind this week on my PTT card because I was in a car accident last week. My car is still being worked on and I have an appointment with a hand specialist today to see why my left pointer finger is still swollen. Otherwise, I'm okay and my insurance company has been great. It was just not great timing- too much going on at this time of year!! :) Anyway, onto my PTT card. We were asked to make ribbon the focal point, so I wrapped the 3 Girls Jam wrinkle ribbon around the card, similarly to how I wrap presents. The image is by The Greeting Farm, and boy is that an adorable scene!! I used my Copics and Nestabilities for the image and the blue snowflake paper is by My Mind's Eye. To finish off the card I added a lime green button from my stash. I hope you're enjoying these last couple of days before Christmas, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

PTT #46

2011-12-13T05:11:00.000-05:00

Get out your red and green supplies, it's time for this week's PTT challenge! :) I used some more paper from My Mind's Eye and this sweet little image by The Paper Shelter. A little wrinkle ribbon from 3 Girlsl Jam finished off the card- all in all, a pretty simple card! I hope you'll have time to play along this week, we'd love to see your creations!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

PTT #45

2011-12-06T05:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday, friends! It's the start of another challenge over on the PTT blog; this week we were asked to make a holiday card. That was a no-brainer, I am in full Christmas card mode now that my craft fairs are over!! We were super lucky this month to have My Mind's Eye as one of our sponsors- I am totally LOVING this collection of papers! We were also given this lovely wrinkle ribbon from 3 Girls Jam, which matches the papers perfectly! The adorable image is from Paper Makeup Stamps. I colored Penguin Pete with my Copics and die-cut him with my Nestabilities. I wanted the sentiment to match his scarf, so I just colored the white cardstock with my Copic marker and made a coordinating embellishment! I hope you'll have time to link up:

PTT Blog

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Cookies and Milk

2011-12-04T09:19:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! Check out my post on the 2 Cute Rubber Stamps Blog to see the details on my card! Hope you're having a great weekend, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

PTT #44: Blessed

2011-11-29T05:10:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! This week's PTT challenge is anything goes, so we'd love to have you play along! I used this sweet image by Crafts and Me and used my Copics to color it in. I used a bit of Viva Decor Pearl Pen on her wings to give them a subtle shine. Love finding new uses for that pen! :D The image was cut out with my Nestabilities and embellished with some red bakers twine. The patterned paper is DCWV. I hope you'll have time to play along with us this week, we always love seeing your creations! Don't forget we're looking for new DT members as well.

PTT Blog

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T07:17:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! Hope you're all prepping for a wonderful Turkey Day! I just wanted to pop in to share my Thanksgiving cards for this year. I had actually made them last year, knowing that this time of year always gets hectic and I usually run out of time! :) I used some old patterned paper by DCWV and strips of wine bottle wrappers I had found at Marshalls for like, 50 cents. The image is Studio G and was stamped on the corresponding wine bottle labels. The image was colored with my Copics, here's a close up:

I made a set of 12 to use up the wine bottle supplies and to make sure I had enough cards on hand! :) I hope you all have a great day and have many things for which to be thankful!

Chris and I are off to have brunch with his family and a quiet dinner with my family. Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

PTT #43- Snow Us What You Got!

2011-11-22T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hey there! Time for another Party Time Tuesdays challenge! This week I was given an adorable image from Simply Betty and I LOVE the underwater twist on the typical holiday image! I colored my merman with Copics and of course made his snowman into a sandman! :) The sentiment is Starving Artistamps and the patterned papers are various scraps from my stash. The snowflake embellishment is a foam piece decorated with some more lovely Viva Pearl Pen dots! Love this stuff!! I hope you have a chance to play along with our SNOW themed challenge this week! Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Woodware Christmas Tags

2011-11-17T05:58:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! The Woodware blog has been inactive for a little while due to some shuffling in leadership, and though I'm sorry that the former team has parted ways, I am very excited to be working with our UK counterparts!! We're still trying to figure out how this will all work, but for now, there's a month-long sketch challenge on the Woodware USA blog! I made a set of 10 tags using the sketch:

I didn't realize that it's more of an oval than a circle, but I wanted to use my Christmas Rounds stamp set, so I was a little loose with my interpretation of the sketch. ;) These tags were super easy to make! I started off with my beloved tag die from My Favorite Things and then added some patterned paper (from my scrap stash- I don't remember the manufacturer) to the bottom half of the tags. Then I added white ric-rac (although I had to use regular ribbon on a few as I ran out of the ric-rac) and a gold eyelet to each one. The "To/From" sentiment is by Darcie's. Lastly, I stamped the circular sentiment and teeny tiny present from Christmas Rounds and punched it out with my 1 1/4 paper punch. The present was colored with my Copics and the embellishment was popped up with foam tape. You can see a close up of the tag below:

I really had a fun time making these, and they didn't take more than an hour to create! I love seeing my little batch of tags all ready to go! :) I hope you'll have a chance to play along with us, and remember, you have until the end of the month to link up.

Woodware USA

Thanks so much for stopping by, have a GREAT day!
-Suzanne :O )

PTT #42- Give thanks!

2011-11-15T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! Time for another Party Time Tuesdays challenge! With Thanksgiving right around the corner, the theme for this week is thank you/giving thanks using this sketch:

I pulled out lots of scraps from my Thanksgiving supplies and used a favorite image from The Cat's Pajamas. My little penguin friend can hold a few different things, but I went with the obvious turkey choice. ;) I colored the image with my Copics and die-cut it with my Nestabilities. The sentiment is also TCP and I used my Viva Decor pearl pen to add a touch of embellishment. This week we have some really AWESOME sponsors, check 'em out:

Our sponsors this week are:

VIVA DECOR

Viva Decor world headquarters and production facilities are located in Bad Salzuflen, which is situated in the eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Here new ideas are born, new products are developed, tried and tested and delivered to the international market. Our wide product range includes colors and modeling materials for home decoration, for product design, and accessories for all types of craft projects. Viva Decor is managed by Ingrid Pott and Andreas Franken. For them creativity and innovation build the basis of the company. They have built Viva's reputation on product quality and reliability, combined with ongoing development and improvement. All viva products are crafted with the customerâ€™s needs in mind. Viva Decor products can be found at craft and art supply retailers throughout the world. All America Supply DBA Viva US is the exclusive US distributor for all Viva products. Viva US provides the Viva Decor product line with domestic US Inventory, shipping, and packaging from our large climate controlled PA warehouse. Viva US provides customer service, support and product education nationwide from our Philadelphia location.
Prize:
2 pearl pens, 2 glitter pens,
and 2 embossing creams

GILLI STAMPS

anaRydesign is a design house of scrapbooking and craft products. It is also the home of the ‘Gilli’ line of deep-etched rubber stamps. ‘Gilli’ is a collection of rubber stamps for you to make your own. Endless creativity is in your hands! Bring Gilli with you on your journey into the imaginative and artistic world of paper crafts and let her join in on the fun!
Prize:
Gilli Goodie Bag

STITCHY THE BEAR

Hi my name is Stitchy and I am Co-Owner of Stitchy Bear Stamps...we started this store April 1st, No Fooling haha..I live in upstate New York with my husband and two TEENAGE adults haha, I do say that loosely as they think they run the show here, NOT...

I been creating stamps for a little less than a year now and I am totally addicted to the craft..I started about 4 years ago making digital scraps and I knew there was much more out there, so a friend of mine introduced me to digital stamps...and the rest they say is history...I look forward to seeing all the beautiful creations come through...good luck everyone..stitchy xoxox"
Prize:

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

Halloween doormats

2011-11-09T17:55:00.000-05:00

Hi there! I didn't get this post up as soon as I'd wanted to, but it's the last of my Halloween entries for this year. I usually get my co-workers a small little something for each major holiday... candy, notepads, candles, you get the idea. Well, this year, I gave them a big something! :) Last December, I had spotted these doormats on clearance at Kohl's. Originally $17.99, I scooped them up for $3 and change. I kept them in my closet all year and when October rolled around, I had some regrets about buying such a large item for a small occasion. I didn't know how I was going to wrap them (or even carry them in to the office, for that matter!). As luck would have it, I had been at a yard sale recently and came across a short roll of Halloween cellophane (I got the brand-new roll and a small basket for 35 cents! :D). I wasn't sure I would have enough wrapping, but for 35 cents, I didn't care if it was a waste! Sure enough, after rolling the mats and securing them with some heavy-duty twine, the cellophane was just long enough to wrap all 3 mats. Plus, I got rid of the whole roll in one shot- LOVE not having to keep clutter like that around! :) I tied the cellophane off with some super wide ribbon I had in my stash and attached a cute little tag to each gift.

I found the tag die when I was shopping at The Ink Pad (SUPER cool store in NYC... it's crammed with so much stamping/scrapbooking stuff you literally have a tough time walking around to shop!). It's made by My Favorite Things, but since I don't have a LSS near me, it's tough to find brands like that unless I shop online, which I don't prefer doing. I was so stoked to find it at The Ink Pad! :D Anyway, I die-cut 3 different tags from scraps of patterned paper and stamped "To:" from the coordinating MFT stamp set. The chipboard pieces are all by Melissa Frances, and I covered them with Doodlebug Sugar Coating. I wish I had colored the chipboard before adding the glitter because you can see the white base through the glitter, but I just wrote that off as a lesson learned. :) You can see each of the tags individually below. I hope you like my little gifts, belated as my post is! Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

PTT #41- Bling!

2011-11-08T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Welcome to another Party Time Tuesdays challenge! This week: BLING! To start my card off, I colored this adorable Sparkle Creations (Caroling Josh) image with my Copics and added a whole bunch of dots to the border with my Viva Decor Pearl Pen in Light Blue. Next, I used up a handful of scraps from my Christmas stash in colors that matched Joshua's outfit. I had originally planned to use a lot more of that vintage piano music paper (it really IS vintage! I got it at a thrift store, and I didn't have to ink it up at all to give it that aged look! yay!), but I ended up using just a bit of it to make a small embellishment to fill that empty space. I punched out a circle, and then, to mimic the holly on his book, I used some leaves found in my stash and added two red gems. I know the leaves aren't exactly holly-like, but it's close enough for me! :) To finish off my card, I added two more gems a little bigger in size to balance out the card.

I hope you'll have a minute to play along with us, using "bling" is so much fun, especially for holiday cards! Link up here:

PTT #41

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

Halloween Cards 2011

2011-11-06T07:41:00.000-05:00

Hi there! I'm a little behind on posting my Halloween cards for this year because of the snow storm that hit last weekend. I had planned to share these cards ON Halloween, but of course my power was out and it always takes me a while to get back into my routine! Anyway, this year, I didn't have much time to devote to making cards as I've been working like a madwoman for the past month or so to get merchandise ready for my upcoming craft fairs. To make things easy on myself, I used this set of papers my co-worker gave me a couple of years ago: each paper had the border frames and images that I had to cut out myself. I used bits and pieces of patterned paper scraps and random embellishments, but mostly these cards are made from the original paper set. I hope you like my fast-and-easy cards! Stay tuned tomorrow to see what gifts I gave to my co-workers!

-Suzanne :O )

PTT #40

2011-11-01T19:54:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! I'm a little late with my PTT card this week because we got hit with a crazy snow storm this weekend that knocked the power out for two days. It was strange enough to have snow in October in NY, but then the snow was really wet and heavy, so tons of trees and branches fell down, and it was just a mess everywhere. I ended up staying in a hotel Sunday night because it was just too cold to stay home! It feels like the weather is getting wackier as time goes by- I don't remember the power going out for more than a day when I was a kid. It seems to be a regular thing now. :/

Anyway, this week, we were given this adorable image by Crafty Sentiments to use, which I colored with my Copics. We were also asked to use this pretty gem for inspiration:

Using those rich browns and golds for my color palette, I chose pretty patterned papers from my scrap pile and coordinating Copics for the girl. To embellish, I used a rub-on sentiment from TLC (Top Line Creations) and brads and paper flowers from my stash. To embellish ever FURTHER, I used my awesome (new to me) Viva Decor Pearl Pen in Light Blue. Since I've never used this product before, I was a little hesitant to apply it, but it's SO easy to use- the liquid comes out so easily and it looks like actual pearls!! I applied little drops to the girl's scarf and then got a little crazy adding pearls to the flowers (which I kid of regret! lol) but it was so much fun to use I couldn't edit myself in the moment! :D

So of course our challenge to you this week is to use the photo above for inspiration. I foresee a lot of Thanksgiving cards, but you can do any occasion you like! Link up here:

PTT #40

Thanks for bearing with me as I get back into my routine, and thanks SO much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

To have and to hold

2011-10-29T07:55:00.000-04:00

Happy Saturday, friends! I've been meaning to post this card for over a month now, but I haven't been as good about blogging lately because I have 2 craft fairs coming up and I've been prepping like crazy. This photo is a little wonky, but it's the card I made for my friend's wedding back in September. She handmade her invitations, so it was a no-brainer to use those same colors for her wedding card. I used some Making Memories patterned papers and cardstock in her wedding colors, along with those beautiful flowers by Prima. The sentiment is Fiskars and I used a sketch by C&S (157):

I only have two of those Prima flowers left, and I'm going to be sorry to see them go! They're the perfect embellishment for wedding cards- I always have a tough time knowing what kind of image to use for weddings, so letting the flowers take center stage has worked perfectly for me. The best part? Getting a package of 6 flowers for ONE DOLLAR (!!!) at a yard sale! :D You know I love my bargains! ;) lol

Anyway, today it is supposed to snow up to a foot here in NY, so I am staying in all day to bake and get more items ready for my craft fairs. Today's agenda includes making gift tags for my soup gift sets (large soup mugs stuffed with Lipton cup-a-soup and cracker packs, packaged in cellophane) and finishing up my 12 Days of Christmas matching games (memory). If I accomplish all I set out to do today, I'll take pictures and share them with you very soon! Have a great start to your weekend, friends!

-Suzanne :O )

Happy Haunting

2011-10-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hi there! Time for another Party Time Tuesdays challenge- this week it's "anything goes" so you have no excuse not to play along! :) For my card, I used up some scraps to display my Paper Shelter image. To that I added an old Queen & Co. brad and some punched circles. The image was colored with Copics and the layout is this month's SFYTT:

I hope you'll link up!

PTT #39

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

from your favorite little pumpkin

2011-10-24T19:32:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Here's a Halloween card I did *not* make for any design teams! :) This one I'm entering in the CAS-ual Fridays challenge (to use any medium to color your image). I discovered this challenge because Clear & Simple Stamps is sponsoring, so I figured it would be a good time to ink up one of my C&SS stamp sets! This set is called "Pumpkin Patch" and comes with a bunch of different jack-o-lantern faces. I chose the face I liked best and colored the pumpkin with my Copics. I cut it out and set it aside. Next, I cut a scrap of (glossy) orange paper with my Nestabilities and outlined the inside of the die with a black Sharpie. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of kraft cardstock and added my jack-o-lantern with foam tape. To keep the card simple, I only added two lime green gems. I usually go cute and colorful, but I like how clean this card turned out. I hope you enjoy my clean and simple card! Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Fall cards

2011-10-20T18:09:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Just wanted to pop in to share these fall-themed thank you notes I made for the birthday gifts I received last month. I'm sorry I don't know much about the materials I used because I dove into my stash and used up a lot of supplies that I received in a fall toss last year. :) It's really been feeling like fall here in NY, though I don't think the foliage is quite as vibrant as it usually is. I do love the cooler temperatures though- it makes me want to stay in, get cozy, and craft!! :D Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy my cards!

-Suzanne :O )

PTT #38

2011-10-18T05:47:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Here we are at Tuesday again, and that means it's time for another PTT challenge! This week, we were given this sketch to use:

I flipped my card to the side and used up a ton of scraps with this layout (LOVE that!!). The super-cute Frankie's Girl image is a Whimsie Doodles creation that I colored with my Copics. I used W1 & W3 to make her skin look pale white, and I think it kind of works since I left her gown stark white. :)

We would love to see you play along with our sketch this week! Remember to keep your card spooky, and be sure to follow the rules over at the PTT Blog in order to win some yummy prizes!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Monster Mash

2011-10-16T05:00:00.002-04:00

Hi friends! I think I mentioned before that I'm a little behind on my Halloween cards, so I'm using any opportunity I can find to "force" myself to get a card or two made. Today's my day to share over on 2 Cute Rubber Stamps, so head on over if you're interested in the supplies I used or in purchasing the Monster Mash image! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Suzanne :O )

PTT #37- Spooky Tags!

2011-10-11T05:00:00.002-04:00

Hi there! I hope you all had a nice long weekend! It's time for another Party Time Tuesdays challenge- this week we were asked to make spooky tags. I'm a little behind on my Halloween cards, so it was fun to pull out my Halloween stash and play around a bit! I started off with the image by Stamp Insanity and colored him with my Copics. I'm still trying to get better with coloring hair, but hopefully it looks like his hair is black and shiny! :) I printed the quote out on some red cardstock and added it to a piece of chipboard that I ordered at Circle B Enterprises. I like the dark gray/black floral accent, especially with the rose theme. All of these elements were added to some contrasting orange patterned paper found in my stash, and I added a purple satin ribbon to finish off the tag. Since I didn't leave any room for the To/From, I'll probably just use this tag as a card focal point.

I hope you'll have some time this week to play along with our challenge! Check out the PTT blog here:

PTT #37

Thanks for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

Here are our fabulous sponsors for this week:

One (1) Winner will receive a $20 Gift Credit To Circle B!

One (1) Winner will receive 2 digis from Stamp Insanity!

One (1) Winner will receive a $15 Gift Certificate to Mo's Digital Pencil!

Snow Globe Rudolf

2011-10-10T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Happy Columbus Day! It's time for our Woodware challenge and this week is another "anything goes" theme. For this card, I pulled out my Snow Globe Magic set and got to stamping. This is a *super* cute set and I love that you can interchange the figures in the snow globe! I chose the reindeer and colored the image with my Copics. The focal piece was die-cut with my Nesties and added to the card with foam tape.

Earlier this week I complained that I had lost my 'knack' for cardmaking, but I think I forgot how much I rely on sketches! So now I'm happy with my cards again because I used this week's Sweet Stop sketch:

I went through my Christmas scraps and pulled out some by Provo Craft (green and white) and DCWV (red circles) and layered them on kraft cardstock. I also added some American Crafts ribbon and twine (thanks, Nancy!!), topped off with a button from my stash. I have a TON of Christmas scraps, so it felt good to use some of them up. Plus, I'm really happy with how my card turned out, mostly because of the layout! :)

I hope you'll have time to link up with our challenge this week, we'd love to see your creations!

Woodware Challenge #47

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great week!

-Suzanne :O )

Have an ice day!

2011-10-09T08:14:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! I'm posting today over at 2 Cute Rubber Stamps- click on the link for more details about the card! Hope you're all enjoying the long weekend!

-Suzanne :O )

Spooky Tot!

2011-10-06T18:47:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! I'm behind with my Woodware challenge, but I still wanted to share it, even if it's late! I used the brand new Spooky Tots set and chose the witch. (I've been listening to the Wicked score non-stop for the past week.. I *may* have used it for inspiration on this card! lol) After I colored old girl with my Copics, I cut her out and added her to some Halloween scraps that were in my stash. The sentiment was stamped on a scrap of orange cardstock and punched out with my Fiskars oval punch. I added some Making Memories brads to finish off the card.

I've been feeling a little rusty with my cardmaking lately- because September was such a weird month with the hurricane and then getting sick, I haven't been making cards very much. I'm trying to get back into it, but I feel frustrated that I've lost the knack.. has that happened to any of you before?? Hopefully I'll get back in my groove soon, but for now I'll just have to keep trying! :)

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

-Suzanne :O )

PTT #36 Shaped Cards!

2011-10-04T05:00:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! I'm struggling to get back on track with all of my design team commitments, and I'm happy to say that I got my Party Time Tuesdays card in just under the wire! We were asked to make shaped cards- here's my take on the challenge:

I used my Grand Nestabilities to make the shaped card and colored the Stamp Insanity image with my Copics. I didn't think I needed too many embellishments since the shape of the card added quite a bit of interest, so I just tied a piece of ribbon into a simple knot and added it to the blank space. I hope you'll have time to play along with us this week! Here's a bit more about our sponsors:

The month of October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Here at Party Time Tuesdays we want to reconize the 2.5 million women who survived breast cancer!! You all deserve a standing ovation!!

Please take the time to get a mamogram....

About 1 in 8 women in the United States (12%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.

The most significant risk factors for breast cancer are gender (being a woman) and age (growing older).

These statistics came from www.breastcancer.org

Thank you to our 2 fabulous sponsors!

Here is a little bit about Crafty Sentiments designs. We are a small online based company selling both digital, clear and exclusive rubber stamps to cardmarkers and scrapbookers, started in October 2009 by me (Suzette), we offer a wide range of exclusive images as well as some lovely sentiments, with some essential crafting products including punches & soon to be released exclusive die-cuts!

Winner will receive 4 digis

Winner will receive:

We would like to see what kind of shaped cards are out there these days! So this weeks challenge will be show us your shaped cards AND/OR any Breast Cancer Awareness card regardless of the shape!

Thanks for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

Woodware Fall Theme Card and Where I've Been!

2011-09-29T07:25:00.000-04:00

Hi there, friends! It sure has been a long time since my last post; September has been a crazy month! Hurricane Irene came through at the end of August and while we didn't have much damage (just a few inches of water in the garage, which drained out once the sump pump was able to catch up with the water flow) our phone/internet was knocked out for a couple of weeks. Once we had our internet back, I was getting myself ready to start participating in my design team challenges and then I got the flu last week! I was out of work for an entire week (I can't remember the last time I was out sick for that long!) and didn't feel like doing anything. I'm FINALLY feeling back to normal, but I still have a lot of catching up to do.

Above is my Woodware card, several days late. We were asked to make a fall card, which actually stumped me, because I didn't have any obvious fall stamps from Woodware. I did see some leaves in the Woodland Mushrooms set, so I pulled those out, along with the acorn, stamped them in various Colorbox inks, and created a pretty background. The vellum sentiment is an old piece from a DCWV scrapbook kit, but I thought it was perfect for this card, so I layered it on a scrap of paper and made it the centerpiece. To finish off the card, I added a felt pumpkin sticker (Target) and a shrinky dink sentiment I found in my stash.

It doesn't really feel like fall here in New York, but I am SO ready for it! Fall is probably my favorite season and I am eagerly anticipating the change in weather- I've had enough of the high temps and humidity that have been plaguing us this week! :)

I hope you'll forgive me for my absence and bear with me as I get my act together and catch up with my design team work, and get my mojo back for non-design team projects! I can't wait to get back to posting regularly again, I've missed this! :)

-Suzanne :O )

Time for fall!

2011-08-30T05:00:00.000-04:00

I am SOOO ready for fall- the change in temperature, the turning of the leaves, long sleeve shirts, football games and hot apple cider! Fall has always been my favorite season so I thought I'd see what I could do to incorporate it with this week's Woodware Challenge! We were asked to use 3 PAPERS, 2 EMBELLISHMENTS and 1 IMAGE.

I wanted to see if I could use Mary & Friends for a fall theme, rather than the spring-y colors I would normally gravitate towards. I figured paper piecing her outfit would be a good way to incorporate some fun patterned papers and warmer colors. I started off with some pretty new papers by DCWV (Harvest Gathering Matstack) and used those same papers to paper piece Mary's dress, hat and kitty. (Who doesn't love an argyle cat?!) I colored the rest of Mary with my Copics and cut her out with my Nestabilities.

Next, I die-cut a leaf with my Cuttlebug die, roughed it up a bit and inked it around the edges with some Chestnut Colorbox ink. I added a red button for a not-so-obvious embellishment. For my second embellishment, I pulled out some dark sage ribbon from my stash. It was all wrinkled but I kind of liked that- it reminds me of fallen leaves. Instead of stopping at 2 EMBELLISHMENTS like we were supposed to, I got out of control and couldn't resist adding two brads by Basic Grey. That turquoise panel looked lonely without them! <> ;)

To finish off the card, I stamped the stampingscrapping.com sentiment with more Chestnut ink. There's a lot going on here, but hopefully this card isn't TOO busy. I hope it inspires you to start making fall cards! If you get a chance to play along, we'd love to see your creation! Link up here:

Woodware Challenge #41

Thanks for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

Just buzzin' by...

2011-08-25T15:31:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share the card I made for the Anything Goes challenge over at 2 Cute Rubber Stamps' Design Team blog! I used this adorable bee digital stamp and colored her with my Copics. I meant to add glitter to her wings, but forgot to do that before I took the picture and then decided to let it be. Well, let it "bee", I should say. ;) I die-cut the image with my Nestabilities and matted it with black cardstock. I pulled out some old Basic Grey papers and stamped the Hampton Arts sentiment next to the image. It's pretty small, but it says "just buzzin' by to say hello..." I had a tough time finding a coordinating sentiment, but with all the stamps I have, it would have been really disappointing not to have a bee-themed sentiment! :)

I hope you'll play along with us over at 2 Cute Rubber Stamps! You have another week to link up your card and a chance at winning free stamps! See the challenge here:

2 Cute Rubber Stamps Anything Goes Challenge

Thanks for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

PTT #30: Back to School!

2011-08-23T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Today is the start of PTT #30- Back to School! Here's some info about the challenge:

The Party Planners want to challenge you to make your kiddos, grandkids, favorite teacher or that special teacher in your life a card. We want to see those school themed stamps and embellishments put to work! Please click HERE and you will be taken straight to the PTT blog where you can enter your card via Mister Linky. Hope to see you there!
Our sponsors this week are:

Chi Chi Memories is the labor of love of talented artist and illustrator Natalie Tong. Natalie's background in graphic design has helped her create the very happy world of Chi Chi Memories. Her line of digi images centers around kids Jordy and Candace and their world of animal friends such as Freddie the elephant and Teddy the bear, among others. Natalie's designs are meant to spread happiness and cheer around blogland. You can visit Chi Chi Memories at http://chichimemories.com where you will find the shop (where you can find FREEBIES), the blog and challenges. There is also a Papercraft Planet group for you come share your work with Chi Chi Memories images and chat. Chi Chi Memories is thrilled to be able to sponsor Party Time Tuesdays!

The winner will receive 3 digis of his/her choice from Chi Chi Memories!

Creations By AR
I'm Adela and I live in sunny Southern California with my
husband and our two teenage girls! Crafting has been a passion
of mine since I was a little girl. I love to sew, crochet, knit,
draw, paper craft, stamp... I love anything related to crafting!
With encouragement from many people, my love of paper crafting
in 3D has led me to open a website which allows me to share some
of my template designs. I feel so blessed and I truly believe that
God has given everyone their own special talents and it is our
privilege to share it with others.

The winner will receive 2 templates of his/her choice from Creations by AR!

I have to tell you I was a little intimidated by the caddy template when I first saw the directions, but it was really easy to put together once I got started! I embellished the caddy with some paper by DCWV, a scalloped circle (to cover where the 12x12 paper left a gap) and some chipboard apples from Target's Dollar Spot. I didn't have anyone in mind for this caddy so I left it empty, but it would be SO cute filled with crayons, pencils, erasers, etc. :)

For the tag, I used an image by CCM which was cut out and colored with my Copics and added to a chipboard branch from Colorbok. I embellished with a sentiment sticker from Joann's and some gingham ribbon found in my stash.

I'm so happy with how simple but cute this caddy project was- I'll probably use this template again for Halloween treats or Christmas gifts! I hope you enjoyed my project, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Thank You/Sticker Resist

2011-08-22T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! This week's Woodware challenge is to use a new (to you) technique. I thought it would be fun to use some of my peel off stickers for a resist technique. It's not often that I get my hands messy, but for this card I did and I love the results! This card was SO easy to make since it was only one layer. First, I laid the sticker down where I wanted it and made sure each detail was stuck down. Then I pulled out my Colorbox inks and gently swirled them around in rainbow order, blending colors as I went along. To my surprise, I found this rainbow ric rac in my stash, and the colors aligned almost perfectly with my card, so I stuck that down on top and stamped the sentiment from Wedding Words. To complete my card, I pulled off the sticker and voila! A perfectly white chain of daisies! :D

I hope that you'll have a chance to play with us this week- I always love learning about new techniques, even if I don't have time to try them! :)

Woodware USA Challenge #40

Thanks for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

Mr. Crabby

2011-08-21T09:50:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Just popping in to share the card I created for the Sunday Inspiration over on the 2 Cute Rubber Stamps Design Team Blog. Head over there for more deets!

-Suzanne :O )

Doodlebug Giveaway

2011-08-17T15:39:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Just wanted to share with you that Doodlebug is giving away one of their Summertime Essentials Kits:

Check out their blog for a chance to win!

-Suzanne :O )

Party Time Tuesdays sketch challenge

2011-08-16T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! This week's Party Time Tuesdays challenge is to use this sketch:

I flipped the sketch since the image I was given to work with was more vertical than horizontal, but sketches are always open for interpretation! This super adorable image is by Paper Shelter and that little girl totally reminds me of me! lol I used to stay up all night (seriously, 'til 5 or 6 am!) during the summer reading The Babysitters Club series. I loved devouring books then and still do, though I can't pull all-nighters reading for pleasure anymore! :)

I colored the image with my Copics and matted it with some blue cardstock. The DCWV purple paper was cut into banner shapes and layered on top of yellow cardstock. The sun was in my miscellaneous drawer (we all have one, right??) so I pulled it out and added a swirl from a deeper orange sun. I wanted it to sparkle, so I dumped some Doodlebug Sugar Coating on top and added it to my card with foam tape. Here's a closer image:

To finish off my sketch, I stamped the Studio G sentiment.. ahhh, what a perfect summery card. :) I hope you enjoy my card and have time to link up!

PTT #29

Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Merry

2011-08-15T09:09:00.000-04:00

Hi all! Are you ready for another Woodware USA challenge? This week, we're using another fabulous sketch made by Kerry:

I've been gearing up for Christmas lately, and I interpreted the sketch as an ornament, so I pulled out my Traditional Christmas Greetings set and started off with the wreath. I colored that with my Copics and then stamped the "merry" sentiment with Cranberry Colorbox ink in a circle. I layered that on some scraps from my Christmas stash- love using them up! :) For the bunched up ribbon, I ran some adhesive from the circle to the top of the card, and then kept bunching up the ribbon in a messy pleat. It was easy to do but adds a whimsical touch. To finish off the card I added a bow instead of a star. I'm not sure if it wound up looking like an ornament, but I love the way this card turned out! We'd love to see your interpretation of Kerry's sketch- link up here:

Woodware Challenge #39

Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

2 Cute Rubber Stamps Lace & Pearls Challenge

2011-08-10T06:11:00.000-04:00

Hey there! This is my first 2 Cute Rubber Stamps challenge as a DT member and I'm still SO excited to be a part of this team! For this challenge, we were asked to incorporate lace and pearls so I started with this super cute butterfly-bear image and colored her with my Copics. I die-cut the image with my Nestabilities and traced around the shape for the mat. I used some coordinating scraps from my stash and matted them with kraft cardstock. The crochet lace is from my Etsy shop and I added some pearls from Queen & Co. to finish off my card. We'd love to see what you create, so head on over to the DT blog and enter your card!

Lace & Pearls Challenge

Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Party Time Tuesdays photo inspiration challenge

2011-08-09T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Party Time Tuesdays is challenging everyone to use this photo as inspiration:

I was given this really gorgeous mermaid image by Crafts and Me to use, and I have to say, I was a little intimidated by all of the detail! :) I used my Copics for the mermaid and watercolor pencils for the water. Mermaids make think of pearls, so I dug through my stash and found this little strand that I curled into swirls and adhered with glossy accents. The glossiness was a bit apparent, so I sprinkled some Prisma glitter on top to cover it up! ;) I die-cut the image and mat with my Grand Nestabilities ovals and added that to some MME patterned paper and blue cardstock. I wanted to keep this card simple so the image would take center stage.

If you feel inspired, link up! Check out the other DT cards here:

PTT #28

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Noel

2011-08-08T05:00:00.002-04:00

Happy Monday! It's time for yet another Woodware USA challenge, this week we're using Kraft, Red and another color of your choice! I chose green so I could start making Christmas cards!! These little penguins from Penguin Fun are a favorite of mine.. I've had a thing for penguins ever since the movie Madagascar came out. :)

I colored these cuties with my Copics and added a little glitter for the snow. I cut them out with my Nestabilities and matted them on kraft cardstock. Next, I embossed some deep red cardstock with a Sizzix embossing folder and sanded it so the sentiment would show up (not sure if I succeeded there, but it says "merry christmas" repeatedly). I matted that with white and kraft cardstock and added some green DCWV patterned paper on top of that. To finish off the card I added my focal piece, stamped the sentiment from Traditional Christmas Greetings and added 2 brads from Making Memories.

I hope you'll have time to play along with us this week.. you can choose any color you like to go with Kraft and Red.. can't wait to see what you pick!

Woodware challenge #38

Thanks for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

Friends make life a little sweeter

2011-08-07T16:30:00.000-04:00

Hi all! I'm back again to share some more exciting news- I made the design team for 2 Cute Rubber Stamps!! Heidi's images are adorable, and I am so honored that she chose me to be a part of her team! This little cutie above is called "Penguin Fun" and you can purchase him as a digital image in her Etsy shop. I have him in rubber but I don't know if there are any left. I wanted to play along with the most recent challenge at 2 Cute Rubber Stamps, to use this picture as inspiration:

I really loved the purples, blues and greens, so I used lots of scraps with those colors, and a pop of yellow (seen in the light fixture). I colored Mr. Penguin with my Copics and used a sentiment by Clear & Simple Stamps. The rectangle, scalloped rectangle and grommet tag are all Nestabilities/Shapeabilities. The sketch is this month's SFYTT:

I added a couple of glitter brads by Making Memories but otherwise let the patterns in the papers provide interest. I hope you like this card and you'll be seeing lots of other super cute images when I post on Sundays. :D Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Love binds...

2011-08-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Hope you're all having a great weekend so far! Last week one of my best friends got married so I wanted to make her an extra special card. Her colors were navy blue and white, so I used navy blue cardstock and patterned papers by Making Memories for the backdrop. The sentiment is by Fiskars.. I usually have a tough time with wedding cards, so to ease my difficulty, I just used a sentiment as the focal point. To embellish, I used two flowers by Prima that I had just picked up at a yard sale. (I got six of these flowers for $1... I'm guessing they were at least $3.99 at Michaels, but I'll have to check the next time I'm there.) I took a close-up of the flowers- hopefully you can see some of the chunky glitter:

This card came together very quickly, but I think the flowers really made it stand out. Chris and I had a great time at the wedding! We took some pictures outside of the restaurant, which was right on the Hudson River. Apologies for my normally straight hair- it was really humid that night! :)

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Suzanne :O )

Celebrate!

2011-08-04T06:04:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Today is my dad's birthday, so I'm sharing with you the card I made for him! I went to CKC Valley Forge on Saturday and picked up some Simple Stories papers I had been eyeing online for a while. This card was SO easy to make since their papers include 4x6 pieces that only need a touch of embellishing to look finished. I matted some Imaginisce patterned paper (green) on kraft cardstock and layered the Simple Stories block on top of that (it includes the red polka dot part!). Then I colored in a super cute image by Pink Cat Studios with my Copics and cut those little guys out. (Don't they look like the just got caught doing something naughty, like eating the entire birthday cake?! LOL) I layered the dinosaurs with foam tape and added some orange brads by Making Memories and that was IT! Aside from the coloring, this card probably took me 10 minutes to make, but it looks so much more complicated than it is! I have another scrapbook show at the end of this month, so if I see more SS papers, I'm going to snatch them up- I LOVE them! :D

I hope you enjoy my cute little card, thanks for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

PS- The inside was stamped with a starving artistamps sentiment- "have a DINO-mite day!" hehe :)

Party Time Tuesdays Blog Hop!

2011-08-02T05:00:00.023-04:00

Well hello there! I finally get to announce that I have joined the Party Time Tuesdays design team!!! It's such an honor to be among such a talented group of card makers and I'm so exciting to delve into the world of digital stamps! To get the party started, PTT is doing a blog hop with some fun prizes:

Welcome to the Party Time Tuesdays Blog Hop

If you love birthdays this hop is for you! It is also the inspiration of
our challenge. So in order to see the inspiration, you have to HOP!
Plus, you will have a chance to win one of 2 prizes- a $25 gift
certificate to The Robin's Nest or a $10 gift certificate to Paper Make-up
Stamps.

In order to be eligible, you have to leave a comment on ALL DT members' PTT
posts for today. We will then randomly "draw" 2 winners!

Here is the hop order:

http://www.partytimetuesdays.blogspot.com Party Time Tuesdays

Blog

http://www.renlymatsworld.blogspot.com Renee

http://d-dazzled.blogspot.com Danie

http://shewhomuststamp.blogspot.com Paige

http://www.southernyankeecrafter.blogspot.com Nancy

http://justcoffeepleasestampsribbonspaper.blogspot.com Jen S.
http://papermoments.blogspot.com Jackie
http://www.cardgarden.blogspot.com Suzanne <--- YOU ARE HERE!
http://www.mystampinhide-away.blogspot.com Mary
http://thenuttycardmaker.blogspot.com Peggy

I was given these ADORABLE images by Chi Chi Memories to work with, and now I can see why digital images are addictive! I have to work on coloring hair a little better, but I love that card making always poses new challenges to conquer. I used lots of cardstock scraps, my Grand Nestabilities Labels 4 and my polka dot embossing folder. The stamp is Hero Arts and the scalloped circle is a Stampin' Up! punch.

Thank you so much for welcoming me and the rest of the new DT.

Here is this weeks challenge...

This week it's all about birthdays!

Our DT was lucky enough to get some fun images from

Pink Cat Studios

and Chi Chi Memories

So show us your best birthday creations!!

We can't wait to see what you come up with!
Remember, to see the DT inspiration and be eligible to win any of the wonderful prizes...you must go forth and HOP! Good luck!

Your next stop is Mary's blog. I hope you have fun checking out the DT inspiration and we hope you'll have time to "party" with us this week!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Thinking of you

2011-08-01T05:00:00.001-04:00

Hi friends! It's time for another Woodware USA challenge- I can't believe how fast July went by! This week it's anything goes, so make sure you link up:

Woodware USA Challenge #37

I dug out some super old Basic Grey paper for this card. I think this paper was actually from the first Basic Grey pad I ever bought back in 2006- I really need to work on finishing up my old(er) papers! The image is from Mary & Friends and was colored with my Copics. The sentiment is from stampingscrapping.com and my sketch was based loosely on this week's Sweet Sunday sketch:

I had a super busy weekend- wedding on Friday night, a scrapbook convention on Saturday and a bridal shower yesterday... I love seeing friends and of course, the shopping for more supplies, but I'm exhausted!! :) I got some new papers by Simple Stories- the kind I love so much I'll probably never use! LOL I also got quite a few stamp sets, so I'll be breaking those out soon. I hope you all have a great week and will have some time to enter one of your creations over at Woodware USA!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

hopin' for carrots!

2011-07-25T20:38:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! I'm just popping in to share a silly card with you today! This bunny and carrot are from a brand spankin' new Paper Smooches set called "a little lovin" and the present is from "santa paws." The thought bubble was created with a little masking from the "sugar rush" set (I used the foam on the ice cream soda) and the bubbles from "birthday buddies." This bunny cracks me up alone, but when I had the idea to make him look like he's REALLY hoping there's a carrot in at least ONE of those presents, he made me giggle even more!! :D

The sentiment is from "sentiment sampler"- I guess I ended up using quite a few Paper Smooches sets for this one little card, but it's proof that all the sets are so interchangeable. :) The papers are MME Lime Twist and I used a scrap of lime green K&Co paper for the matting.

I hope you get a kick out of this card; it's going to my boyfriend's 17 year old brother- teenage boys are like the toughest of the tough for me when it comes to making cards, but hopefully CJ will smile when he opens his card. :) Hope you have a great day, thanks for stopping by!!

-Suzanne :O )

Snowball fight!

2011-07-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hi there! Time for another Woodware USA challenge! This week we were asked to do some background stamping, which I haven't done in a while. I went through my Woodware sets and decided it was time to start bringing out the Christmas stamps! The mischievous boy from Winter Tots caught my eye, so I thought it would be fun to stamp him on the focal piece and stamp lots of snowball splatters to make my own patterned paper. I colored Master Tot with my Copics and gave him a pile of snowball arsenal to complete the scene. I used my Nestabilities for the square/scalloped square and some dark blue cardstock from my stash. I came across some old (one of the first supplies I bought, actually!) holographic paper by Crayola that I actually picked up at the dollar store. I wanted to see what it would look like embossed, and it came out pretty neat! You can't see too well from the picture, but it's embossed with snowflakes and it has a rainbow sheen when you move the angle of light. It's a little busy though, so I covered it with a strip of red cardstock and added a green gingham ribbon on top of that. To the bow, I added two blue buttons tied off with some twine. The bow looks better at this angle:

The snowballs were stamped with Colorbox ink on white cardstock and I like that it's a subtle background, but hopefully it makes you chuckle when you look closer. :) If you have time to do some background stamping this week, we'd love to see your creation! Be sure to link up here:

Woodware Challenge #36

Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

thanks for your business

2011-07-20T09:20:00.001-04:00

Hi friends! Just a quick post today.. with all of my Etsy orders, I send a handmade mini card to express my thanks. A while back, I made a batch of 12 mini cards (all the same) and though they've lasted me a while, I just had a repeat customer, so I wanted to make a new card for her. I used two sets by Clear & Simple stamps- Crop Night Darling and the limited edition Thank You set.

I stamped the scrappy items in different Colorbox inks and stamped the sentiment in black. The focal piece was layered on aqua cardstock and a pink mini card base by K&Co. I used a bottle of Stickles so you could see just how mini it is! :)

Hope you like it, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

have a magical day!

2011-07-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hi there! This card was made for my friend who is into all things cute! He collects lots of little toy figures, so I thought this patterned paper from Sassafras Lass's Nerdy Bird line would be perfect for him. When my oldest brother moved out, he gave me a pad of graph paper he found in his room, so I pulled that out and matted it onto some green cardstock. The patterned paper went on top and I wrapped some Target ribbon around the bottom. I stamped the Hero Arts sentiment with some pink Colorbox ink right on the graph paper- it was so easy to line up the stamp! :) For the 30 embellishment, I used my circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities to layer scraps of cardstock and stamped the Stampendous numbers with some aqua ink for a tone-on-tone look. I heard that my friend was having a hard time with turning 30, so hopefully this card cheered him up! I hope it makes you smile too, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Clowning Around Card & Tag

2011-07-18T05:00:00.002-04:00

Hi there! Welcome to another Monday challenge over at Woodware USA! This week the DT is using another one of Kerry's fabulous sketches, but this one is particularly great because it's interactive! Here's the sketch:

My thought process with this card started off with figuring out what to stamp on the tag. I wanted it to be something fairly long, to match the shape of the tag, so I pulled out my Clowning Around set (even though I just used it for my 4th of July card!) and chose the tall clown. I colored him with my Copics and gave him a bright, cheerful outfit to wear. You can see in the photo below that I added the sentiment beneath him to balance out the white space.

Next, I created the pocket with a scrap of green cardstock, which was run through my Cuttlebug with an old embossing folder. I added some orange gingham ribbon to the pocket before gluing the sides and bottom to my card. I deviated a little from the sketch here, but I thought a star would be a cute little touch, and I used a portion of the sentiment "fun at the" to jazz it up. The patterned paper is DCWV- doesn't it make you feel festive?!, and the blue cardstock was in my stash. :) To finish off the card, I added more gingham ribbon to the hole in the tag and tucked it into the pocket at an angle.

I hope this card makes you smile, I'm really loving these clowns lately! If you have time this week, we'd love to see your take on the sketch! Don't forget you can be considered for a guest designer spot if you put an asterisk next to your name when you link up:

Woodware USA Challenge #35

Thanks for stopping by!
-Suzanne :O )

Way to go

2011-07-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

Hi there! I'm back again to share this card I made for my oldest brother. He has spent the last four years taking classes to become a journeyman and he recently passed his certification test (he's a welder) so my family took him out for a celebratory dinner and gave him this card. I made it when I still had my 4th of July supplies handy, so I thought it would be fun to group some stars together for the focal point. The stamps are from Hobby Lobby and I used different Colorbox inks to coordinate with the MME patterned papers (Lime Twist- Fly a Kite). I popped them up on different thicknesses of foam tape- hopefully you can see that in the photo below:

The sketch is based off of June's SFYTT, which I'm a little bitter about because I was too late to submit my card- rats! I had the card made but I hadn't taken the picture and posted it in time, so now I'm out of the running for the grand prize in December, but that's my own fault. I can always play again next year. :) Anyway, onto the sketch!

For that bottom strip, I stamped the Paper Smooches sentiment a few times to punctuate the card's purpose. My brother is a pretty humble and modest guy, so I wanted to get really festive with this card- it has been FOUR years, after all! :)

I hope you enjoy this bright and cheerful card, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Etsy Update

2011-07-16T13:54:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Just wanted to let you know I posted lots of trims (remember my recent score during the 4th of July?) in my Etsy shop. I'm passing along my bargain with you. I'll have more trims posted soon (it's a time consuming to edit pictures and post on Etsy!) :) Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks!

-Suzanne :O )

Eat something cute!

2011-07-16T06:49:00.001-04:00

Happy Saturday, friends! I'm excited to share this card with you today because I've found a new stamp company that has images right up my alley! I stumbled across 2 Cute Rubber Stamps in my blog travels and I don't usually order on a whim, but Heidi's stamps are SO cute (2 cute, even! lol) that I had to place an order right away. :)

I can't tell you HOW I got this little turtle (not for a few weeks, anyway) but he's a digital image and you can pick him up in her etsy shop. I strongly encourage you to check out her shop if you like cartoonish images like I do. :) I colored my turtle friend with Copics (and you can tell when you zoom in that I used the wrong kind of cardstock, so some of the green ink spilled outside of the lines) and decided to go with a happy rainbow of sauces on vanilla ice cream. :) The sentiment is Darcie's and it just seemed to go really well with the image.

The sketch is the most recent one from Clean & Simple Stamping:

The papers are all DCWV except for the pink cardstock and orange gingham which were in my scrap pile. I added a few gem brads not only to balance out my card, but because the DT for 2 Cute Rubber Stamps has a challenge going on to use bling. Here's another shot of the card- I was trying to get the gems to look lit up (that's always so hard for me!).

I hope your weekend is off to a great start this morning! This afternoon I'm teaching a card class at the nursing home by request. I went 2 weeks ago and couldn't get any participants because the activity that was concurrent with mine was to go outside and I couldn't compete with that, so I headed home thinking I would just go back to the nursing home in the fall- my card making class would be better for the cooler months since it's a good indoor activity. I wasn't upset, I just wanted to offer this class if people were interested. So anyway, I had resigned myself to coming back in October when my mother spoke to a woman who said she only had one card left and wanted to know when I was coming back. LOL!! I'm glad to hear she's been using her cards and she's a really sweet lady, so of course I agreed to go back- I just hope she doesn't have other plans when I get there! hah! Anyway, thanks for bearing with my babble, and thanks for stopping in!

-Suzanne :O )

Peek-a-boo!

2011-07-14T18:40:00.000-04:00

Hi there! I guess it's been a few days since my last post so I have some catching up to do! One of my co-workers just had a baby girl, so I made a cute little card based on this month's SFYTT (sketch for you to try):

I used some older products here but I think they're cute no matter how "old" they are. :) The patterned paper is a dollar store pack (Miss Elizabeth's) and I used some pastel scraps for the other parts of the sketch. The first piece of this card I knew I wanted to use were the chipboard stars by Colorbok. I've had them in my stash forever, so when I saw the sketch I had planned to swap the circles for stars. I wanted an image to correspond with the "peek-a-boo" sentiment so I went through my baby supplies and found this old vellum bear from Hot off the Press. I cut my little friend out and added him to white cardstock so the pink glitter paper wouldn't show through. To finish off the card I added some purple (w/ yellow polka dots!) ribbon by American Crafts and tied it in a simple knot.

I don't think you can tell that the products on this card are dated- cute is cute, I hope! :) Thanks for stopping by, I always appreciate your support!

-Suzanne :O )

Cute Fluffy!

2011-07-11T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! We're back this Monday with another Woodware challenge! Can you guess what it might be..? If you happened to guess paper piecing then you're right! :) I really went to town on Fluffy here- you can see below that I paper pieced his body, scales, wings, and even his teeny tiny eyes, teeth and fingernails!

I cut Fluffy out, popped him up on foam tape and set him aside. I layered the orange patterned paper that resembled fire to me (I believe it's by K&Co) on top of some green cardstock. To that, I added some white cardstock and a strip of green patterned paper. To make the sentiment embellishment, I stamped the sentiment with some green ink onto white cardstock and then cut it out with my Nestabilities. I then traced that same die onto a deep red cardstock so it would mat the sentiment. He IS cute, isn't he?! :)

After adhering all of my layers, I was ready to add Fluffy and a couple of orange buttons. It took me a little while to get Fluffy all assembled, but I think it was worth it- I love his green stripes. :) I hope you'll have some time to play along with our challenge this week! Link up here:

Woodware USA Challenge #33

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a great day!

-Suzanne :O )

Birthday Turtle

2011-07-08T18:54:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Just a quick post tonight.. I made this card back in May for Chris's birthday (the card my parents gave him). I started out with that cutie pie turtle from Sweet 'n' Sassy stamps. I colored him with my Copics and cut him out with my Nestabilities. The patterned paper is MME- the blue paper is actually the reverse side of the star pattern, I just flipped the die cut around so it would mat the image. The green patterned paper is K&Co and I punched some stars out of cardstock scraps. (I've been using my star punch a lot lately!) I added some buttons and twine in the same colors for a monochromatic embellishment.

I hope you enjoy my festive card, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Clean and Simple: Enjoy

2011-07-05T19:54:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! My mom requested a birthday card for her cousin John who's in his 60's, so I went over to the clean & simple challenge to keep my card from getting too frou-frou. :) Their sketch this week used circles, but I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit and add some punched stars:

I used only scraps on this card, starting with the lighter turquoise background from K&Co and then I added pieces of cardstocks and patterned papers from there. My only embellishment was some ribbon by Anna Griffin and the sentiment is a Clear & Simple stamp. It was hard for me to find an appropriate sentiment small enough to fit inside the star, but I made it work. ;) Again, I promise you this card is more of a green turquoise than the blue it looks like here, but I still can't get my camera to cooperate! Anyway, I hope you like my clean and simple card, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Jelly Bean Tubes

2011-07-04T21:00:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Hope you're enjoying your Independence Day! My day took an unexpected turn when I woke up this morning to a fried computer. :( It just wouldn't turn on, so I guess after 6 years it went kaput. Luckily Chris had off today, so we went down to our nearest Apple store and I finally switched over to a Mac.. an iMac to be exact. I couldn't get over how huge the screen was and how tiny the computer was overall.. no more tower, hooray! I'm still getting used to the differences between this and my old PC, but I think it was a good change. Chris is going to work on getting all of my old files back (tons of pictures and music, in addition to college papers and such) so hopefully I won't lose everything.

Speaking of, I thought I would have to postpone or forget completely my post on these jelly bean tubes, but luckily the pictures hadn't been deleted from my camera card yet, so I'm able to share them with you now! I picked up the clear tubes at a scrapbook convention a couple of months ago with the intention of using them for my Fourth of July treats. I like to give my co-workers a little something on each holiday, so I bought the tubes and figured I'd find something to fill them with eventually. We have a local grocery store that's more like a farmer's market and they usually have festive candy treats every holiday, but all they had was hard candy in the shape of stars and Tootsie Rolls with flags on the wrappers. I didn't really feel excited about giving hard candies and the Tootsie Rolls probably wouldn't have fit well in the tubes. I was about to give up my search when I saw their display of Jelly Bellys---- ding! ding! Of course the answer was to pick out only red, white, and blue colors, so I narrowed down my choices and settled on french vanilla, strawberry, and blueberry (neutral flavors, I hope).

After filling up my tubes I set to work decorating some plain white tags. I embossed a scrap of navy cardstock with polka dots and added some stars- the red one is a Hobby Lobby stamp that I cut out and the blue one was punched out with a Fiskars punch. I layered them with different thicknesses of foam tape for added interest. To tie them to the tubes, I used a bit of craft floss which was dyed with different shades of blue.

To finish off the tubes, I stamped a Studio G image on a white circle and layered it onto a navy blue scalloped circle and adhered it to the top of the tube. I stuck some patterned ribbon around the edge of the top to jazz it up, but in hindsight it looks a little busy to me, like it's competing with the jelly beans and it's not the same exact colors as the jelly beans either. Ah, well, there's always room for improvement, right? :)

Here's another "group shot" of the tubes.. my co-workers were really impressed, though this project didn't take me very long at all to complete, nor was it hard to do. It was a lot of fun to put together though, so if I see more tubes at another scrapbook show, I'll probably pick them up for Halloween!!

It was hot and humid here in NY today, so Chris and I decided to stay in rather than get eaten alive by mosquitos during the fireworks show. :) I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Freedom

2011-07-03T21:50:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Happy Fourth of July! Above is a set of cards I made using those vintage image books that come with a CD so you can print the images as many times as you like (hopefully you know what I'm talking about! lol). I set up the printing so I would get 4 images on a sheet of 8.5 x 11" cream cardstock and cut the girl out with my circle Nestabilties, careful to leave the flag outside of the circle.

Next up I punched some stars out of a vintage book, some kraft cardstock and the red DCWV patterned paper (you can't see where I punched the star because I covered it with the blue cardstock ;).. sneaky huh?? lol Then I die-cut the banner with my Nestabilities and stamped it with a Clear & Simple sentiment in Cranberry Colorbox ink. I distressed the edges with Creamy Brown Colorbox ink.

The middle layer has Stampin' Up! ribbon, navy cardstock and lighter blue cardstock punched with a Fiskars border. I really like how these different supplies came together, from the swirly sentiment to the patterned paper and the text stars, to complement the vintage image. I hope you enjoy this card set and have a safe and happy Fourth of July! I'll be back tomorrow with some patriotic jelly bean tubes!

-Suzanne :O )

Land of the Free

2011-07-02T11:48:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Hope you're all gearing up for a fun Fourth of July weekend! I don't have any travel plans, but this morning, Chris, my mother and I went out to the "Great American Weekend" which is basically just an outdoor festival a couple of towns away. I've scored some really great ribbon (those giant 50 yard rolls for $2!!) before in their antiques section and I made out like a bandit again this year. The same vendor had giant spools of crochet trim- I got an inch wide trim in black and a 1/4 inch trim in white- both were probably 100 yards (maybe a little less) for $3 each! I also picked up 5 yards of a tan trim similar to the black one for $1 and I looked at a couple of other 5 yard trims but decided against it. Then the lady was like, no, I'll just throw them in there, along with an inch wide white trim, so I spend a total of $7 and got a TON of different crocheted trims! I'll probably be sharing them on etsy very soon. LOVE bargains like that!! :D

This afternoon I have another card class at the nursing home (I'm using leftover kits from last month since I had a very small turnout in June) so it should be a busy day today! I have plans to go to dinner with my family tomorrow and I'll see about fireworks Monday. I love these long weekends! :)

The card above is the one I gave to Chris since it's so bulky that I didn't want to mail it. It started out with those three star buttons that I picked up at my thrift store for 75 cents. Kind of pricey for me, especially coming from a thrift store, but I knew they would be perfect on a vintage card. I had actually asked Chris to pry the shanks off for me (they were metal pieces glued on, not just a shank I could trim off with my shank cutter) so he helped me make his own card! hehe Anyway, I diecut a piece of kraft cardstock with my Nestabilities and embossed it with polka dots. I added that to a piece of DCWV patterned paper and punched out the corners with my Stampin' Up! ticket punch. I matted the patterned paper on navy blue and kraft cardstocks and added some brads from Michaels Recollections line. The banner was diecut with off-white cardstock and stamped with a sentiment from Clear & Simple stamps. I inked around the edges for a distressed look. My last step was to adhere down the buttons. This card is a different look for me, but I love the rustic Americana feel to it- perfect for a masculine card!

I hope you're all enjoying the start of your weekend and I'm so thankful that you stopped by!

-Suzanne :O )

Your birthday popped up!

2011-06-28T18:05:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! Just a quick and simple card to share with you today. A while back I had hosted a swap for making focal pieces and this popcorn image was my submission (with the black mat). I used a stamp set by Clear & Simple Stamps called Bucket-o-Popcorn fun which I love because you can fill in the oval with whatever sentiment fits the theme of your card! :) There's also a coordinating set called Popcorn Extras:

Fun, right?? :) I colored the image with my Copics and used ColorBox mint ink for the sentiments.

Since my focal piece had been made already, all I had to do to make this card was emboss some red cardstock and mat it on a piece of black cardstock. It was so fast and easy- this card took less than five minutes! Now I just need to find time to make more focal pieces! ;) I used this card for my cousin, who just turned 21. It's hard for me to make cards for men around that age- I try to stay from anything too cutesy, but I can't help using puns! :) I hope you enjoy my calorie-free card, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Fourth of July Parade

2011-06-27T05:59:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! Here's my take on the Woodware USA Red, White, and Blue challenge! I think I'm actually on time with my Fourth of July cards this year and this one is the last of 'em! I just got my Clowning Around set in the mail last week and I couldn't wait to get it inky! I knew I wanted to use a clown wearing patriotic colors, but when I went through my Hobby Lobby chipboard and saw the "Fourth of July parade" sentiment, the card just came together! Don't you love when that happens?! :) I used lots of scraps and this sketch for my layout:

Of course I colored my clown friend with my Copics and then I added a punched star and a chipboard star to finish the layout. I really hope you'll have some time to play along with our challenge, and if not, just to take a look at the DT samples! There's a lot you can do with Red, White and Blue! :D

Woodware USA Challenge #33

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Suzanne :O )

Land of the Free

2011-06-25T09:54:00.001-04:00

Hi there! Sorry it's been a while since my last post- we had graduation at school so it's been a very hectic week! Glad that's over- I hate those days where I have to leave work, go home with just enough time to change, grab something to eat, and then head back to work (graduation, open house, scholarship ceremony, etc)! Anyway, onto my card for today... I made this last week but didn't have time to post it for the Sweet Sunday sketch:

I turned the sketch on its side so I could use my new admission tickets! I've sold a few but still have plenty left in my Etsy shop if you're interested!

I matted the tickets with some glittered polka dot red patterned paper from Target and cut it into a banner shape. The chipboard sentiment piece is from Hobby Lobby- love that subtle design with the polka dots and stars! I cut out the red patterned paper (K & Co.) and white cardstock with my Nestabilities and added some sparkly gem brads from my stash. Here's a different angle of the card where you can see the different colored blue gems and a better view of the glitter on the polka dots behind the tickets:

The light blue cardstock was embossed and sanded, and matted on dark blue cardstock. I like how this card turned out, although it doesn't have any images. I love using up my stash too, like those gem brads! :D I hope you're having a fabulous weekend! Not sure what I'm doing with myself yet, but I hope to enjoy the sun after several crummy, gloomy, rainy days! Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Enjoy the little things

2011-06-20T05:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday, friends! Our Woodware assignment this week was to use the following sketch designed by our very talented Kerry!:

My card is pretty simple- I used lots of cardstock and patterned paper scraps and my Fiskars border punch to match Kerry's layout. I stamped the flower pot from Garden Greetings three times and stamped the sentiment right below them. I added the bee to keep things from being too symmetrical (plus he's cute!). I colored the image with my Copics and added a shadow to ground the flower pots. I wish I had used my normal white cardstock instead of a scrap because my colors bled a little bit (you can see it in the bee, especially) but I don't think it's too noticeable.

I hope you'll have some time to play along with Kerry's sketch, we'd love to see your interpretation! Link up here:

Woodware Challenge #32

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

-Suzanne :O )

You are too kind

2011-06-19T15:28:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! I hope you're all having a great weekend! The weather has been sunny and mid-80's- just really summery the past couple of days! Yesterday I chaperoned a class trip for the freshmen and sophomores to Six Flags Great Adventure and we had a really fun time! It was so nice to walk around the park, go on a couple of (water) rides, hang out with the other chaperones and eat lots of junk food! :) Today starts the first day I'm cat-sitting for my friend (I brought Napoleon back to my house) and he has been such a hoot! He's a very entertaining little guy, so I'm sure I'll enjoy having him here this week. Needless to say it's been a busy weekend, but I wanted to share this card with you before my family and I take my dad out for Father's Day dinner!

Clear and Simple Stamps is hosting a challenge this month based on this collage:

I was inspired by the color combination in the bottom middle photo, so I pulled out various inks and my C&SS "Best Bunnies" set and got down to stamping. I used the sketch from last week's Clean and Simple blog:

I used my Fiskars border punch, some red and kraft cardstock and a few gems to finish off my card. There's a white border around the kraft, but it's hard to tell in the photo. This card was so much fun to make- I don't usually stamp my own patterned paper, but I love the clean and bold look of this card. I hope you do too, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Love Always

2011-06-16T17:18:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! I made this card for my aunt & uncle's anniversary and to get myself started I thought I'd try my hand at Embellish Magazine's Color Trends Challenge. Background stamping was also part of the challenge:

I knew I wanted to use that cute little image from Crafty Secrets, and since the image itself is vintage-y, I let that lead the rest of my card. I used a Glitz background image on some taupe cardstock and stamped the script several times with Versamark ink. I heat embossed it with clear powder for a tone-on-tone look. I layered that piece on some blue cardstock (not exactly the shade in the challenge, but it was the closest I could come). Next up I cut some green cardstock and actual vintage piano music for the next panel. I roughed up the edges of the paper which started to look worn with hardly any effort! :) My image was colored with Copics and cut out with my Nestabilities; I traced the Nestie shape on orange cardstock and cut it out with my scissors. I'm really loving the matting with this technique. I've always been using the next size shape to mat my images, but they're too big and not always proportional. The tracing technique makes me very happy. :)

Speaking of, I did the same thing for my sentiment treatment. I threaded some vintage lace through my ribbon slider and stamped it with a Hero Arts sentiment. Blue cardstock was added behind the slider to pull the card together and differentiate the slider from the similar tones in the image and sheet music. To finish off my card, I added some orange buttons by Basic Grey. I should mention that the layout is courtesy of this week's Sweet Stop Sketch:

This card isn't my usual "cutesy" style, but I'm pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. :) Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

You take the cake!

2011-06-14T11:09:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! Just a quick post today.. here's another card using MME's Quite Contrary papers. I paired them up with some turquoise (trust me it's not the blue it looks like!) cardstock and an image by Sweet n Sassy stamps. I colored Cocoa and the piece of cake he's just "guarding" with my copics and cut him out with my Nesties. The sentiment is also Sweet n Sassy and the sketch was from an old sketch challenge:

I hope you enjoy this card, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Ted's Pretty Present

2011-06-13T05:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday everyone! It's time for another Woodware challenge; this week we are sharing our birthday cards! We'd love to have you join along, so make sure you link up at the end of my post. For my card, I used this week's Card Patterns Sketch:

I haven't played along with CP in a loooong time, but as soon as I saw this sketch I knew it would fit my little buddy Ted perfectly. I grabbed my MME Quite Contrary 6x6 pad (it came free in one of those British mags- LOVE that!) and some white and kraft cardstock and got down to cutting. I know I used that Labels 18 die on my last Woodware card, but when I was playing around with it, I realized it would make for a great background too, not just a focal piece. I stamped Teddy several times on scraps to make his gift extra snazzy. Martha Stewart has nothing on Ted. ;) After coloring Ted with my copics and paper piecing the present, I added a brad to the flower to make a dimensional bud. To finish off the card, I ran a strip of kraft cardstock through my Cuttlebug and added two large Denami Design buttons to complete the sketch. I wanted to add a sentiment but it just didn't look right no matter where I placed it, so I left it blank. I think the pretty patterned papers hold their own without a sentiment. :)

Again, I hope you'll have some birthday cards to share with us. Play along here:

Woodware Challenge #31

Have a great week, friends!

-Suzanne :O )

there's no tie

2011-06-12T07:13:00.001-04:00

Hi friends! I can't believe I'm actually ahead of the game with my father's day card, but here it is! I used this week's Mojo Monday Sketch, which was quite a challenge will all those pieces, but I'm glad I took it on.

I started out with lots of scraps from MME's Lime Twist (Out of the Blue) collection. I cut the scraps into strips and then die-cut circles from the end of the strips to make the scallops. The image is by Penny Black, and as soon as I saw that little guy in the set, I knew he would make for a cute father's day card. I didn't have the sentiment I wanted, so I picked up an alphabet set by Studio G for $1 and made my own. I don't usually like to do that because it's time consuming, but I figured it might be a good idea to have an alphabet stamp on hand for times like this. :)

I added some warm brown gems to balance out the card since I realized afterwards I probably should have put the sentiment to the right side of the card. The inside of the card has more scraps which I die-cut with my Nesties and added a sentiment by Studio G.

I hope my dad likes this card... he's always been into dog shows even though we haven't had a dog in our house for almost 30 years, so I think this card will be up his alley. It's a little cutesy, but that's my style- I think masculine cards will always be tough for me that way!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Suzanne :O )

new in my etsy shop...

2011-06-11T11:09:00.000-04:00

Hi friends! I bought a roll of admission tickets and I'll never be able to use them all, so I'm putting some up for sale! Check out my etsy store if you're interested. You'll be seeing lots of these tickets on my Fourth of July cards; stay tuned for some inspiration! :D

-Suzanne :O )

Stack of Chubby Chums!

2011-06-10T14:50:00.000-04:00

Hi there! Just poppin' in to share the birthday card I made for Chris a couple of weeks ago. I used Paper Smooches' Chubby Chums set and colored the chums with my copics. Then I cut them out and stacked them on top of each other in order of weight. The festive papers are DCWV's The Celebration Stack and the sentiment was pieced together from Chubby Chums and Sentiment Samples. I also added some brads from my stash, but all together, it was a pretty simple card! The stamps are so darn cute that I wanted them to take center stage. :) I hope you're having a great Friday, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )