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 )

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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)

On Your Shower

 

Hi everyone!  Just popping in before Hurricane Sandy hits to share my SFYTT for this month.  Here's the sketch:

I made this card for my friend Jen who is expecting in December.  I used some Lawn Fawn stamps and some super old paper that was given to me.  The image was colored with my Copics and the sentiment is stamped on little flags I die-cut with my Spellbinders.

I hope everyone on the East Coast stays safe and that we're not without power for too long.  School has already been canceled for tomorrow, so if things aren't too bad outside, I'll be crafting the day away!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Birthday Wishes

Hey there!  I wasn't kidding when I said October was a month full of birthdays- my co-worker has one on Sunday, but we're celebrating at work tomorrow.  This is the card I made for everyone to sign; I loved the Sweet Stop sketch so much, I used it again!  :)

I'm assuming the image is Penny Black, but I can't say which one because I got it from a swap years ago.  I had fun using my Copics here- I really like how the basket turned out.  I'm not crazy about the apples, but I'll keep practicing!  :D  I used some DCWV patterned papers and Papertrey Ink cardstocks.  The border is a Fiskars punch and the sentiment is Hero Arts.  I also added some orange brads from Making Memories (a little hard to see over an orange flower.. doh!)

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

-Suzanne :O )

Falling For You

Hi friends!  October is a pretty busy birthday month for me, so I thought I'd share the card I just made for one of my good friends!  I've had this Dustin Pike image for a while and decided to make her an autumn themed card.  Isn't that monkey super cute?!  He looks super excited to rake!  I wish he'd come to my house!  LOL  Anyway, I used the Sweet Spot's sketch for help with the layout:

The papers were found in my scrap stash and I believe the orange gingham ribbon is from Michaels.  Of course I used my Copics to color my little friend, and the heart brads are Making Memories.  The sentiment and cardstocks are Papertrey Ink.  I hope you like my happy little card, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Birthday Panda

Hi friends!  I'm not SO last minute with this month's SFYTT, can you believe it?!  LOL  Life has been so busy lately that it seems I'm always juuuuust squeaking in before the deadline.

Anyway, I'm here to share the card I made for my mom's best friend's granddaughter's birthday last weekend.  I used some paper by Sassafras to give the allusion of hearing "Happy Birthday" as the cake is being brought out.  :)  The panda is an old sticker by Suzy's Zoo and the confetti pieces are K & Co.

I don't know that I *love* this card, but I really feel like I've lost my knack for creating single cards.  I've been spending the last 4 months or so stocking my shop with mass-produced Christmas cards, where my focus is using up sets of multiples in my embellishment stash.  Because my choice of supplies has been so limited, I feel like when I go to make a single card where I can use any image or embellishment that I want, I get overwhelmed!  LOL  Anyway, here's a copy of this week's sketch:

On a completely different note, Friday was my birthday, and I have to show you what I walked in on that night:

Chris had grabbed some of my stamps and markers and went to work on making my birthday card!  LOL  Here's the final result:

Pretty good for a first-timer, no?  :D  I hope you're all having a great weekend and enjoying the first days of fall!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Batty for You

Hi everyone!  Just popping in to stay active with the SFYTT- don't want to miss out on the big year-end prize!  :)  Here's the sketch for this month:

Aaaand here's my interpretation!  Time to start making Halloween cards- LOVE this time of year!  :D  Orange paper is by Target, spider web paper is DCWV, and the bat tag is something I received years ago in a swap- love those googlie eyes!  :)  The sentiment is by Clear and Simple Stamps.

I'm still working like crazy to get ready for a craft fair on the 8th, so my blog posts will probably just be once a month for a while.  Thanks for stopping by, hope you like this card!

-Suzanne :O )

Be Merry!

Hi everyone!  Sorry for the sparse posting- I've been making Christmas card packs for my Etsy shop like a madwoman this month!  I just wanted to pop in with this month's SFYTT:

I used some older K&Co paper and a matching die-cut to make this super simple card.  It feels weird to make only a single card- I feel like I'm out of shape, so to speak!  I hope you enjoy, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Nautical Wedding Card

Hi everyone!  Just a quick post to share today.  My friend Lauren just had a beautiful wedding last weekend with a nautical theme, so of course I had to carry that over into the wedding card I made:

I used this month's SFYTT to get me started, though I flipped the sketch around a bit:

I embossed the navy cardstock to give it some dimension, the patterned paper is by Making Memories, the stamp is Doodlebug, and the flowers (with rhinestones!) are by an older scrapbooking company whose name I'm totally blanking on right now.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy my card, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Birthday Balloons!

 

Hi everyone!  Just popping in to play along with this month's SFYTT:

I have a LOT of birthdays to celebrate from the end of April through June, so I thought I'd just make a batch of four cards, all the same.  I started with some old patterned paper by American Traditional Designs and added some coordinating cardstock.  To make the focal piece, I pulled out a rubber stamp I found at Goodwill a few years ago but hadn't ever used.  It's a Stampendous stamp from 1993 (!), inked with several different Memento colors.  I've been neglecting my rubber stamps for years, but I've been trying to dust them off- they can still be cute!  :)  The sentiment is Stampin' Up! (I'm not sure of the set though, as someone gave it to me).  I hand drew the balloon strings, and that's pretty much it!  You can see a close up below:

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you enjoyed your Memorial Day and are getting ready for a fabulous summer!  

-Suzanne :O )

2 Cute Release Day

Hi everyone!  It's time for another digital release, this week, it's this adorable little raccoon!  I colored my guy in purple, reminiscent of the Care Bear Cousins!  :D  Head on over to the 2 Cute Design Team Blog to see what the other girls did!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Happy Birthday Pardner!

Hi everyone!  It's been a hundred years since my last post, but I've been focusing most of my energy on my Etsy shop.  I just saw the sketch challenge at The Cat's Pajamas blog, and I thought I'd use it to make my brother's birthday card.  Here's the sketch:

I used some papers from the Birthday Bash collection by Imaginisce and the adorable outlaw penguins from TCP's "It's a Western Thing."  I colored my friends with Copics and added a little gray shadow to ground them:

My cousin's birthday is right around the corner, so I made a similar card with the same stamp and papers:

The inside sentiment reads "happy birthday, pardner!"  LOVE that!  :D  It's so hard (for me) to make masculine cards, but I think I did okay here.  I hope you get a kick out of these guys and thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

2 Cute Ink Release Day!

Hi everyone!  It's time for another 2 Cute Ink release!  This little cutie's called Little Owl and is available for purchase here:  http://shop.2cuteink.com/Little-Owl-Digital-Stamp-011.htm  


I used my Copics, some older Basic Grey paper and super old chipboard from Colorbok.  Please check out the other DT members and their adorable creations!


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

Ruff Day?

 


Hi friends!  Just popping in quickly with my take on this month's SFYTT:

I flipped my version to accomodate the orientation of the patterned paper scraps I had.  The image/sentiment are The Cat's Pajamas and I used my Copics to color the dog and his crutch.  The papers are all DCWV Pet Stack.  

I've been focusing my energy on my etsy shop and an upcoming craft fair, so my blog has been neglected lately.  Hopefully when things calm down I can post more regularly.  Thanks for bearing with me!

-Suzanne :O )