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

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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 )

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 )

Paint the Town

Hi there!  I hope everyone is having a good week so far!  Today's card is the one I made for my dad's birthday, back in August (I told you I was way behind in my posts!).  I kept the layout simple, using up some old scraps (I think the striped paper is K & Co) and stamps by Penny Black.  I think I did a pretty good job coloring this piece, but I remember not being thrilled with how the flower pot turned out.  I suppose there's always room for improvement, right?  :)  

That's it for today, I'll be back tomorrow to share some zebra-themed valentines!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Happy Graduation

Happy Thursday, friends!  Just wanted to share a quick graduation card I made for my neighbor when she graduated from high school last summer (I babysat for her when she was in diapers, so needless to say, I feel OLD!).  I used papers from DCWV and an old dollar stamp that I colored with my Copics.  A very simple card, but I think it turned out cute since I used our high school colors.  :)

 

Hope you enjoy, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Peacock Wedding Card

Hi friends!  Today was a snow day for me, but I really haven't gotten much accomplished today- one of those "just hanging out" kind of days.  I did go to Target and get some washi tape, though.  :)

Today's post is the card I made for my friend Andrea's wedding.  She asked me to make all of her invitations, save the dates, thank you notes, etc., so I'll try to post those items very soon.  She has a thing for peacocks, so I knew I wanted to incorporate that into her wedding card.  Her wedding colors were cobalt, black and silver, and her favorite color is lime green.  Hopefully you can see how I pulled all of those things into her card.  :)

I used lots of different Paper Smooches stamp sets and colored everything with my Copic markers.  The My Peeps stamp set came with only one feather so I had to stamp it several times- the bird is actually "bald" so you can make him a turkey, a peacock, a flamingo, etc.

The main panel was cut out with my Nestabilities and then I traced the shape onto silver paper and hand-cut it for a mat.  Here's a picture of me and all of my high school friends at the wedding (last July):

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

-Suzanne :O )

Boxed Cards

Good morning, friends!  I mentioned yesterday that my co-workers and I exchange small gifts with each other for Christmas.  I work with so many delightful people, and they all help me do my job in different ways, so I like to give them something from the heart as a way to show my appreciation.  I made 18 sets of cards this year and packaged them in clear boxes so they could see right away what was inside.  I get my boxes from Denami Designs whenever I go to scrapbook shows.  (The cards are 4" x 5.5".)

I used lots of stamps from Paper Smooches and on the sympathy card, a two-step flower from Basic Grey and a sentiment from Impression Obsession.  That card and the birthday card use papers from DCWV and the other two cards feature patterned papers from My Mind's Eye.  All of the cardstock is Papertrey Ink.

I kept the cards simple (because I was in a time-crunch, of course); the only notable technique is the one I used on the birthday card- I stamped the butterflies in a dark ink and then flipped the stamp over and used a lighter ink to color the images.

I tried to keep the colors limited to blues, greens and yellows to give the set a somewhat cohesive look and I'm pretty happy with the results, considering I made 72 cards in two days!  My co-workers really loved the cards, too, and I think they enjoy getting something practical to use!  :)

I hope you enjoy my card sets too, and have a great Saturday!  Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Make Merry

Hi friends!  Just popping in to share the batch of New Year cards I made last week.  For each holiday, I have a clear pouch that holds all of my supplies.   My New Year pouch is small (just big enough to hold 4 x 6 photos) while all of my other pouches hold 8.5 x 11 papers and expand to 1".  That being said, because my New Year supplies are so limited, I have to get creative.  The patterned paper I used is by K & Co and is actually from a pad of graduation-themed papers.  I figured it could work okay here, too... confetti is celebratory no matter the occasion, right?!  :)

The penguin stamp is TCP, of course.  I really love those naughty characters, they always make me chuckle!  I colored my friend with Copics and added some gold Stickles to his glass of champagne.  The sentiment was stamped on some more K & Co paper and the drink tickets can be found in my Etsy shop HERE.  I mostly sell them to people looking to use them at their weddings, but I thought it would be cute to use them here, too.

I made a batch of eight of these cards and now my pouch is even skinnier!  I wish all my pouches were that small, though- then I wouldn't feel like I'm never going to be able to finish everything up!  hah!  :)

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you like my set of cards!  I'll be back tomorrow to share my Christmas thank you notes.

-Suzanne :O )

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 )

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

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 )

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 )

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 )

You're My Honey!

Hi everyone!  I hope you had a nice weekend!  I ate way too much food last night, but I'm happy that the Giants won!  I didn't win the football pool, but I enjoyed the anticipation each quarter of finding out who won the pot!  Anyway, onto my TCP card, which is based on this sketch:

I used some papers by K&Co, my Shapeabilities banner dies, and some twine by MME.  I colored PJ with Copics and popped the honey pot on foam tape.  The heart punches are by Martha Stewart.  This card is pretty darned cute, if I do say so myself!  :)  I hope you enjoy it, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Seacret Admirer

Hi everyone!  Today's my day to post over at 2 Cute Ink, make sure you check out my post for more details!  I'm showing a side view of the card below so you can tell that the brads are silver, not black!  :)

Have a great Sunday, friends!  Go Giants!  :D


-Suzanne :O )