Hello Honey

Hi friends!  I surprised myself with this card AND this blog post!  I was feeling kind of tired after having to get up at 5am again, so I didn't think I would get any cards made tonight, hence the surprises.  :)  Perhaps I'll try a month-long personal challenge to blog every day...?  

Anywho, this card was inspired by a challenge blog I stumbled across several weeks ago called Young Crafters Unite.  Now that the holidays have passed, I thought I'd go back and see what the current challenge was so I could give it a try:

Since I've been feeling kind of "blah" about going back to making single cards again, I thought I should just dive in and get completely stampy.  I think the card turned out a little busy, but I'm okay with that because it's one of my first cards back and I have to cut myself some slack.  :)  

All of the stamps are by Paper Smooches (heart from Needle Little Love, bee hive, sentiments and bee from Bee Mine, honey comb pattern from Geo-Graphic).  In retrospect, I would have either stamped the background in lighter colors or left the stamped panel alone and not added the bee or flag sentiment.  In any event, the bee was colored with my old, dusty Copics- felt good to break those out again!  I didn't have any cardstock in a color close to the magenta ink, so I took a piece of white cardstock and rubbed my ink pad all over it to get a match.  I'm pretty crafty, huh?  (Pun intended!)  ;)  I cut the scrap into a flag shape and stamped the sentiment on top.  The cardstock is PTI Aqua Mist.

You can see the bee a bit better in the photo above.  Okay, so one Valentine's Day card down, many, many more to go!  :)  I hope you like this card, even with all the don't-know-where-to-look-first stamping going on!  Thanks so much for buzzing by!  heh.  I can't stop with the puns!

-Suzanne :O )

Christmas Cards, 2012

Hi friends!  Hope you're willing to bear with me through this super long post as I share all of the individual Christmas cards I made for all of my family and friends.  I'll share little pieces of information on supplies used as we go through.  Let's get started!

First up is this set of cards, made with similar layouts so I could use up those Santa Claus rub-ons.  I threw out the packaging, so I can't remember the manufacturer, but I know it was a an old product, probably sitting in my stash for 3-4 years!  The paper is scraps of Provo Craft paper (I'm happy to say those papers are all used up now!).

 

The cards above were all made just so I could use up those papers by My Mind's Eye.  I had gotten a sampling of their 12 Days of Christmas line when I was on a design team last year and wanted to use up the leftover scraps.  As you can see, I got quite a few cards made from just a few sheets of 6 x 6 paper!  That little polar bear guy is my favorite; he's from a set of stickers I got at Target many years ago, and just kept hoarding because he's so cute.  This card is proof that I'm trying not to hoard anymore!  You can see his little penguin friend in this card here:

That card uses a combination of chipboard from Hobby Lobby (Don't Peek tag) and these journaling cards/frames I received from my co-worker a couple of years ago.  You'll see many more of these items used in the next several cards:

You can see I was also working on using up some more rub-on sentiments and vellum pieces, too.  :)  Next up are a couple of cards that were made with leftover pieces from a set of cards I made for my Etsy shop.

I can't remember why I had those two extra cards leftover, but I used some pieces of card candy from swaps I did years ago, and a stamped sentiment from Stampin' Up!.  The next two cards were simply cut from a sheet of 12 x 12 paper and embellished with a couple of ribbons, a sticker and a ribbon-slider.  Couldn't have been faster to put together!  :D

Last up, I have several cards made from paper I bought at Joann's, I think the designer is Debbie Mumm.  These were some of my very favorite cards this year because they're so warm and cozy looking.  I think that country look is so inviting on Christmas cards.  :)

The penguin and snowman were punch-outs from an old daily scrapbooking calendar and the snowman tag is an actual Christmas tag that was mixed in with other Christmas supplies I bought at a yard sale.  The "merry & bright" is a Hero Arts sentiment that I embossed with white powder (haven't embossed like that in ages!) and the buttons were given to me by the same co-worker I mentioned earlier.  

So!  That wraps up all of my Christmas cards for this year.  I have my Christmas thank you notes and a set of New Year cards to share, hopefully by the end of the week.  I've had off since the 22nd, so going back to work tomorrow is going to be a struggle!  :)  I hope you all have a wonderful start to your 2013, and I hope to be back to blogging more regularly this year, I've really missed it!

Happy New Year!

-Suzanne :O )

Warm Holiday Wishes

Hi friends!  As you know, this year was not a great blogging year for me; I don't even feel like I made that many single cards this year because I was so focused on making card sets!  Hopefully 2013 will be more about getting back to working on single cards.  I'm always looking to improve my coloring, layouts, color choices and using up my ever-growing stash!

I did make many, many single Christmas cards this year, in an attempt to tackle all those bits and pieces in my Christmas supplies, but after I thought I had made enough cards, my dad asked me to make some for him.  Needless to say, I went back to my mass-produced safety net to save on time and creative energy!  I used some papers by Cloud 9 and the Photo Finishers die by Papertrey Ink.  The stamp is from Holiday Photo Finishers (I'm not sure if you can read the tiny banner, but the whole sentiment reads "warm holiday wishes").  I love how simple the design is; I let the patterned paper do all the work!  :)  Here are a couple of close-ups:

I should probably mention that this was the year I finally caved and bought some PTI supplies.  For so long, I didn't see what all the fuss was about, but a few months ago, someone contacted me for a custom order and wanted the inside greeting to mention Christmas AND the New Year, so I purchased the Holiday Wishes stamp set.  It's been downhill from there!  I've purchased a bunch of their thick cardstock, but the stamp sets are still kind of pricey for me, so I only buy when I have enough in my paypal account.  That motivated me to stock my shop, which I am in dire need of doing again now that the holidays are over!  

I hope to post the single Christmas cards I made over the next couple of days, but they're not my best work.  I do enjoy going back over my blog every now and then to see the progress I've made, or to inspire myself to do better than my "eh" efforts.  I hope you've all had a wonderful holiday and wish you health and happiness in the new year.  Thanks for stopping by and sharing this journey with me!

-Suzanne :O )

Let it Snow!

Hi friends!  Here I am with my last SFYTT for the year (and forever, as it turns out!).  I made a set of four Christmas cards using some old scraps from DCWV and this sketch:

The snowman is actually from a set of vellum stickers that I've had for a while now- part of my use it up frenzy.  :)  Here's a close-up:

The snowflakes and sentiment were also part of the sticker sheet.  I have about 10 more cards to make and then I should be all set for this year.  I hope you like my card set, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

January

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November

Creamsicle Cupcake

Hi everyone!  Tomorrow is my mom's birthday, so I thought I'd pop in to share the birthday card I made for her.

I have to say I'm making progress on my hoarding tendencies with this card- I finally broke into one of my Echo Park paper pack collections (Life is Good)!!!  I have a whole bunch of paper packs by all different companies, and all I ever do is look at the papers and stickers and drool over them.  LOL  Anyone else with me there?!?  hah!

Anyway, I based my card off of the current Sweet Sunday sketch:

I know a lot of people are using this sketch for holiday cards, but I swapped out the snowflake for a heart sticker from the collection pack and added a brown button threaded with some Cupcake Doodlebug twine.  The image is Sweet 'n' Sassy Stamps and I blew the dust off my Copics to color Cocoa and his orange creamsicle cupcake in.  My mom loooooves anything creamsicle flavored, so I thought it would be fun to color the cupcake that way.

The aqua cardstock is Papertrey Ink, and of course all of the patterned papers are Echo Park.  I have to say, it does feel good using some of those hoarded supplies- I really like how this card turned out!  :)  I hope you do too, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Birthday Wishes

Hi friends!  I'm surprising myself with this post, but I had to make a quick birthday card for one of my co-workers and decided I might as well play along with this week's Sweet Stop sketch:

A while back, when I was still involved with swaps, I hosted one where everyone had to create birthday focal points.  The entire yellow piece (including the sentiment and cupcake) was created by one of the swappers- the whole idea behind the swap was to make pieces that would be really easy to add to a couple of pieces of patterned paper, or even just a piece of cardstock, and call the card done.  I wanted to swap really intricate pieces that would make creating cards super easy whenever you found yourself pressed for time.  

Needless to say, one of those focal pieces sure did come in handy tonight!  After I had picked out my patterned papers, this card came together in about ten minutes.  In case you're interested, the maroon piece is Stampin' Up! and the green and blue are DCWV.  

I hope you enjoy this card and are having a happy Monday!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Recycled Santa Tag

 

Hi friends!  My blog has been seriously neglected this year, but thankfully the SFYTT grand prize has kept me going!  I'm squeaking in just under the wire to post a Christmas card I made based on this sketch:

I've finished all of my craft fair merchandise for this year, so I've switched back over from mass-producing cards to making single cards, and I'm really happy to say that all of the pieces used on the card above were scraps!  I have a fair small pile of scraps that I try to attack every year when I make my Christmas thank you notes, but I thought it would be a good idea this year to try and use mostly scraps for my personal Christmas cards.

In addition to my scraps, I've been trying to use up all the "bits and pieces" of embellishments I have- things I don't have multiples of to make card packs from, like the ends of ribbon, buttons, rub-ons, chipboard, die-cuts, etc.  

The green paper was embellished with an entire sheet (!) of rub-ons, but I think the glue was a little dried out, because not everything transferred directly.  I shrugged it off- let's pretend it's supposed to look "distressed," mmkay??  :)  The white cardstock was a scrap of Sizzix embossed snowflakes and the red polka dot is Provo Craft.  The green patterned paper circle is Me & My Big Ideas and the Santa die-cut is actually a cute gift tag I had saved from a present a few years ago!  :)

I hope you like my card, and thanks for bearing with me on my long-winded post!

-Suzanne : O)