Jelly Bean Tubes

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

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

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 )

Fourth of July Parade

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

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 )

Fourth of July, 2010

Hi everyone!  I've been busy working on Fourth of July cards, along with some craft fairs and my new etsy shop.  That all means less time to spend blogging, but here are the cards I made for today.. enjoy!

Have a great holiday!


-Suzanne :O )

Celebrate Freedom

Hi there!  It's been a while since my last post, but for no particular reason other than things have been pretty busy lately.  I've been making cards like crazy; I just haven't had much time to post because of it.  I played along with this week's Taylored Expressions sketch because one of my co-workers and the club he advises is trying to collect items to send care packages to the troops.  One of the things he was asking for was notes and/or letters, so I thought I'd make up a batch of cards for people to fill out.  I used some DCWV paper (oddly enough from a fall collection!), scraps of red cardstock edged with a Martha Stewart punch, Studio G image and sentiment, and some kraft cardstock for the scalloped circle.  I threw on some buttons, too.  Each card didn't take too long to assemble, but multiplying each process by 12 added up to quite a task! :)  It was worth it in the end though, my co-worker was grateful to have these cards.  I hope to post a bit more this weekend- I have quite a few cards I'm excited to share.  Thanks for stopping by!


-Suzanne :O )

Fourth of July Frenzy!

Happy Fourth of July, friends! :D These are the cards I made this year. I used up a TON of my stash so now I'm allowing myself to keep an eye out for end-of-the-season clearance :) Feel free to click on any image to see the details. I don't think I have the energy to list out all of the supplies I used, but if you have any questions, just ask! I hope you enjoy my cards and are having a FABULOUS weekend! :D

-Suzanne :O )

Fourth of July Pretzel Buckets!

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Hi everyone! I am SO excited to share with you this little project! :D Starting tomorrow, I will now work for three guidance counselors (and I will be the only secretary). I like to give little treats for holidays, so when I saw these buckets in the dollar bins at Target, I knew they would make the perfect container for this occasion. I didn't know how I was going to fill them, but I knew I would figure it out ;)

A couple of weeks later I saw these plain milk or dark chocolate covered pretzels at a local farmers market-y kind of grocery store near my house. I thought they would fit perfectly, but I didn't want to buy them then or else they would have been stale by the time I was giving my treats. So tonight, I went back to buy the pretzel bags and the most amazing things happened:

1. They had said pretzels, only now they were WHITE chocolate covered with red and blue swirls! YESSSSS :D
2. All red, white, and blue confections were 20% off! Double YESSSSS! Don't you love when you were already planning on buying something only to find out it's on SALE?! Woohoo!

I made some fun, slightly different tags to go with the buckets, using up some more of my Independence Day supplies. I am thrilled to say that the majority of supplies for this holiday are gone, so that means I can keep my eyes peeled for clearance items to use on next year's cards! Hooray! :D

Anyway, I hope you like my fun pretzel buckets- I can't wait to see how my co-workers react! Yay! :D

-Suzanne :O )