With Deepest Sympathy

Happy Sunday, friends!  We just got 2-3" of snow last night and lots of gusty wind this morning means I'm probably going to have a cozy crafty day indoors.  :)  I'm going to try and catch up on the hundreds of cards I've made during my blog absence starting with the most recent and going backwards.  I made this card a couple of weeks ago for one of my husband's co-workers whose husband committed suicide.  :(  

I used some Spring Moss card stock by Papertrey Ink for the card base and then layered scraps from My Mind's Eye (plaid kraft) and Stampin' Up! (yellow floral) on top.  I inked up an office tag for a distressed look and added some SUPER OLD stickers from K & Co.  (Hooray for finishing that sheet of stickers!)  The greeting is from Impression Obsession's Sympathy Sentiments clear stamp set.

I always find sympathy cards to be a challenge, but I thought this turned out ok with soft colors and images from nature.  I hope you like my card and have a great second half of your weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

Suzanne :O )

TCP Tuesday #310

Hi friends!  It's been such a long while but I'm going to jump right back in to blogging with both feet.  The other day I had a burst of creative energy and was looking for a challenge to get my juices flowing... enter the bunny challenge over at The Cat's Pajama's.  I pulled out an older stamp set called "A Girl and Her Cake" and my Distress markers and got to work watercoloing.  On my desk I had twelve strips of leftover patterned papers from Heidi Swapp's September Skies collection.  I didn't quite know how to get ALL of the scraps off my desk, and then the lightbulb went off!  I used an old technique of punching circles to make a textured background.  Wouldn't you know that I used every single circle with just minor scraps going in the garbage?!  I LOVE when that happens.  I hate to waste anything!  lol  So here's my card:  

I matted the image on some old Bazzill polka dot navy cardstock cut out with a Spellbinders die.  The card measures 5.5 x 5.5 and I pulled out an old coral envelope I had in my stash that coordinated quite well with the patterned papers.  A match made in heaven:

I hope you like my card and that I can get back to posting regularly.  I have SO many cards over the past few years that I haven't posted, but I'm not going to pressure myself to "catch up."  I do enjoy having a log of my work though, it's so fun to look back and see how far I've come on this creative journey!  Thanks for stopping by, friends!

-Suzanne :O )

Thoughts of You

Hi friends!  I know I still haven't done my "what happened in 2013" post, but I'm back today to share a quick card I made for my friend Lauren whose mother just passed away last week.  I think things are going to be tough for her for a while, so I wanted to send a card to let her know I'm still thinking of her.  I used this week's Poppy Sketches challenge to get me started:

I don't have any Cas-ual Friday stamps, but I didn't do a ton of stamping on my card anyway.  I pulled out all of my mint and peach scraps and started the card off by cutting varying widths of peach cardstock.  I used two shades for interest and made stripes on one end of the card.  Then I cut a long strip of Navajo Bazzill cardstock and cut it into a flag shape.  It seemed a bit too plain for me so I added some washi tape from Target and a bit of twine from We R Memory Keepers.  I clear embossed the sentiment and butterflies, all from Paper Smooches.  I added the Thickers to my banner and popped the butterflies up with foam tape.  For me this is a pretty simple card since I didn't use any patterned paper, but I wanted it to appear soothing.  :)

I hope you enjoy, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O ) 

Woo-hoo!

Hi friends!  I'm back to share another card for the Poppy Sketches challenge!  Here's the most current sketch:

The sponsor for this challenge is Lawn Fawn, so I pulled out of my four stamps sets and puzzled for a while over the X in the middle of the sketch.  Then it occurred to me that I could overlap some logs and I went to work creating a scene with my Critters in the Forrest stamp set.  

I did a lot of paper piecing with scraps and then stamped the "woo-hoo"s in Versamark and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  I did the same thing with the bottom sentiment and added a couple of brown gems over the book plate die-cut.  I also decided to get crazy and stamp the envelope, too.  :)

I hope you guys enjoy my card, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

I'm back!

WHOWWWWWW!  That's me blowing the dust off my blog!  lol  I haven't been around for over a year, with good reason.  A LOT of good things happened last year, but I'll save that for another post because there are tons of pictures I want to share.  :)

I was looking around at some blogs the other day and spent some time looking at Lori Tecler's blog.  She always has a TON of cards to share and I love how simple her style is.  While looking at her posts, I came across one for Poppy Sketches, which appears to be a new sketch/color combo blog.  I thought I'd ease back into blogging by participating with their second sketch:

I have quite a few cards to make for May/June birthdays, so I used the sketch to make my brother's birthday card.  I pulled out my Stampendous stamps since they're sponsoring this time.  Here's my take, with the Changito Bday stamp set:

I started off by die-cutting the red polaroid frame with my Papertrey Ink die.  I stamped the image on my X-Press It cardstock and colored it with my Copics.  I haven't used my Copics in quite a while, so hopefully this doesn't look too awful!  :)  I cut the cardstock to fit behind the frame and then turned my attention to the gray cardstock from Bazzill.  It looked too plain but I didn't want to add patterned paper, so I took some of the small images from the stamp set and used my Versamark ink pad to clear emboss a pattern on the background.  I think it's the perfect solution to adding interest but not color.  :)

Instead of a literal circular element, I chose to tie a knot with some teal ribbon and add a cupcake charm (which I've had for ages!) with some baker's twine.  Any time my mom gets a bakery box, she saves the twine for me.  Isn't she cute?  :)

Here's a close-up of the image.  That wraps up this card for me.  I hope you like it and I will be back very soon to share all the things that happened in 2013 since I last blogged.  I stopped blogging partly because I was busy and partly because I thought no one was even reading my posts, but I realized that this blog is for ME.  It's amazing to look back on my old posts and have a record not only of the cards I've made, but of my creative progress and the things that were happening in my life at the time.  Yes, this blog is mostly just crafty, but it is also part diary, so I need to keep it going for myself.  I can't wait to catch up and keep my blog current!  :D

-Suzanne :O )

TCP Tuesday Challenge

Good morning, crafty friends!  Today I woke up and just felt like playing with my supplies.  I wanted to play along with this month's TCP Tuesday challenge to use one of their cut-ups or stamps in a new way.  I pulled out all of my stamps and my one cut-up die and thought and thought about what I could do.  I haven't used my rosette cut-up die much (mostly because I'm lazy) and then the lightbulb went off that I could just cut it as a scalloped circle and use it as a tree topper!  Off to work I went gathering the rest of my supplies and finally came up with this scene:

I used lots of paper scraps from My Mind's Eye Lime Twist (Life of the Party collection) and colored PJ and the clouds (from What a Blast) with my copics.  The pinwheel was paper pieced, but my only regret is using that blue houndstooth- it blends in with the background too much.  Anyway, the tree trunk is from Happy Camper and the sentiment is from Birthday Bunny

.

To finish off the card I added a red gem to the center of the pinwheel.  I'm not one to create scenes like this, but I *really* love it!  I wish I could live in a world with chevron grass and polka dot trees.  Sigh.  :)

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

-Suzanne :O )

Spread the Love!

Hi friends!  This week, Clear and Simple Stamps is hosting a fun linky party and I wanted to make sure I submitted a project!  The idea behind their challenge is to make a card or project inspired by your "blog crush."  

My crush is easily Kerry from www.kerryspapercrafts.com.  I stumbled across her blog a couple of years ago when I did a search for craft fair projects, and her blog was just chock full of them!  She has a really cute and fun style and had so many different items to sell.  She also makes video tutorials, which makes it really easy to borrow her ideas!  The thing I really admire about Kerry is that she doesn't seem to hoard product like I do.  LOL!  Her craft fair tables are always so attractive and enticing, and that makes me push myself to try and create items that people can't say no to.  LOVE her stuff!  :D

The other half of the C&SS challenge was to use one of their fun color schemes.   I chose to work with this one:

With the color scheme and Kerry's blog as inspiration, I decided to make a few fun sets of colorful clips:

They were really easy to make and came together pretty quickly!  I started off by covering some clothespins with patterned paper from My Mind's Eye (Lime Twist: Happy Go Lucky).  The part that takes the longest is sanding the paper to the clothespin, but that process really makes the clips look polished.  

Next I started working on the toppers, which is where my C&SS supplies came in really handy!  I used the largest die from Toppers and stamped it with the polka dots in Toppers Fillers.  The chocolate bunny outline and filler are from (retired) Easter Basket and Best Bunnies.  For the finishing touch, I die-cut some banners from Favor Flags and stamped the sentiment from Easter Basket.

Because I didn't have to do any coloring, all three toppers probably only took about 15 minutes to create.  LOVE when mass-producing goes quickly!  :D  I think the clear plastic bags I used are 3" x 4" and topper measures 1.5" x 3".  I also want to note how cheap the clothespins are- I get mine at the dollar store (36 in a pack)!  :)

I hope you enjoyed my craft-fair inspired project today!  If you're interested in linking up, you have until 9 a.m. tomorrow.  Visit Amber's blog for more details (and inspiration!).

Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Kiddie Valentines!

Hi friends!  I'm starting to get a little behind on my blogging again- ack!  Today I want to catch up a little and finish posting my Valentine's Day cards.  These are the valentines I made for my dad to give to his 3rd grade class.  A few years ago I had bought a package of SUPER cute die-cuts by K&Co, and of course hoarded them because they were too cute to use.  However, this is my dad's last year of teaching, so I figured it was now or never if I wanted to use them up.  You'll see later in the post that my dad has 24 students, but I had used one of the 24 die-cuts for Chris's valentine a few years ago, so I had to make my own die-cut.  ;)

I made 2 of each card; you can see all 12 designs below.  The die-cuts were rather large, so I cut my paper (single panel) to 5 1/2" x 6" and made my own envelopes with my new We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board (LOVE this tool!).  

You can see that I scattered a lot of hearts and flowers and things all over the cards.  The die-cuts came with a ton of those small pieces and I wanted to finish them up, so they result is a very sprinkle-y card, but I think it's actually pretty cute.  And!- you know I love my puns!  LOL  So these cards were very simple to put together, but I'm totally in love with them.  :)

Okay, so I mentioned before that I had to make my own die-cut, because I only had one of the robots.  I scanned and printed the robot I had and added glitter to the knock-off version.  It didn't come out exaaactly the same, but I'm hoping the 9 year-old who got that card didn't notice.  ;)

Lastly, I want to show you what I did with the envelopes.  The envelope maker I just bought is super awesome.  It was only $20 and you can make up to 60 different-sized envelopes.  It's great for making wacky-sized cards like these.  It also helps you use up tons of patterned paper!  LOVE that!  :D  I tried to use 24 patterned papers that had an all-over design, so you wouldn't think one side of the envelope was upside-down.  

On the front of the envelope, I die-cut a circle and added a treat cup from Stampin' Up! filled with tiny erasers!  (I also wanted to finish up the treat cups!  LOL  I had had them for a few years and never knew what to do with them, so they went into my use-it-up pile.)  

I bought some pencils to go along with the erasers, and a tiny granola bar and some graham cracker Goldfish to finish off their treat bags.  I'm really sad that my dad is retiring; I've really loved making little crafty projects for his students.  It's always helped me use up a lot of product, and I love crafting with kids in mind.  I guess I'll just have to wait until I have kids and start crafting for their classmates!  ;)

Thanks so much for bearing with me through this long post today!  I hope you enjoyed my kiddie valentines and inspire you to use your treat cups for something other than candy!  :D

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Valentine's Day 2013 Card Parade

Hi friends!  I'm a few days behind, but I wanted to share the rest of the Valentine's Day cards I made.  I'm still desperately trying to finish up all the bits and pieces I have in my stash- SO many images and embellishments are from swaps I did years ago, so I don't know the manufacturers.  I still have a TON of stuff left in my Valentine's Day pouch- it's amazing how much I've accumulated!  Anyway, I hope you enjoy my picture parade, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Love isn't Purrrrfect

Hi friends!  Just popping in quickly before work to share these scrappy cards I made over the weekend.  I used lots of older products- images and heart banners were from swaps, the paper is DCWV and the heart border sticker is We R Memory Keepers.  I matted everything on Hawaiian Shores card stock (PTI) and dark grey card stock a friend gave to me (not sure who made it).  I hope you like these valentines, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Celebrating 30

Hi friends!  Today is my good friend Tamara's birthday!  She's the first of my high school friends to turn 30- luckily I don't have to think about that until September.  ;)  I just got some new goodies from Papertrey Ink, so I used my By the Numbers dies on some Vintage Cream card stock and taped some fun patterned paper from SEI behind the negative space.  I stamped "Celebrating" from Big Birthday Wishes around the border and adhered the whole piece to some Hawaiian Shores card stock with some foam tape.  Inside it says "amazing years."  

This is a more clean and simple look for me, but I really like how colorful the numbers are and that the "30" is the star of the show.  I hope you like it, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

PS-  I successfully made it through my new year's resolution to post every day in January!  That really made me feel good, and I'm excited to continue posting MUCH more frequently this year than I did last.  Thanks for continuing on this journey with me!

happy home

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

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

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

-Suzanne :O )

Sweetheart

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

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

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

-Suzanne :O )

A Gift for Grandpa

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

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

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

-Suzanne :O )

Romantic Valentine

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

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

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

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

-Suzanne :O )

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