My first *video*! and mini-tutorial :)

Hi everyone! Welcome to my first (lame) video and mini-tutorial! You will see my embellishments used on this week's Use It! challenge, where we were asked to use a new-to-us technique. I don't know if this technique has a name, but I'm calling it "the white ink effect". :) I'd never tried it before, so I thought I'd document my progress to show you how easy it turned out to be! :)

STEP 1: Stamp your image on white cardstock with Versamark ink. This ink dries slowly and is a bit sticky.

STEP 2: Sprinkle clear embossing powder on top of the stamped image. I used Super Fine Detail powder by Ranger, but any clear powder will do.


STEP 3: Cover the white cardstock with ink. I used Tangerine chalk ink by ColorBox. Swirl it around for even coverage- you want the end result to look like a piece of colored cardstock.


STEP 4: Use a baby wipe to clean off the embossed area. This will remove any excess ink to brighten up the white area.


That's it! Now it looks like you stamped the image with white ink on colored cardstock! Stay tuned to see how I used the "celebrate" pieces on my interpretation of the Use It! challenge.

Check out my very first video- it's super short and poor quality, but I'm thinking about buying a video camera to take my blog to the next level! :) Enjoy, and have a fabulous weekend!

-Suzanne :O )

Card Patterns #26

Hi friends! I used Card Patterns sketch #26 to help me make this bold & bright set of "thinking of you" cards for my craft fair merchandise.

The yellow cardstock is atd, the orange is WorldWin, the kraft cardstock is DMD, the lime green cardstock is Darice and the red flocked patterned paper is Paper Bouquet.

The purple flowers are Prima, the yellow and green flowers came in a swap, but they might be Imaginisce, and the blue chipboard pieces are by American Crafts. I stamped a Hero Arts sentiment on top of them. I also used my Cuttlebug on the kraft cardstock and an EK Success embossing punch on the yellow cardstock.

Hope you enjoy this set, thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Use It! #21/Mojo #98

Hi friends! I have another set of cards to share with you today. I used the Mojo Monday #98 sketch:
Then I gathered up my supplies to fit the Use It! challenge, hosted by Melisa. She asked us to use this picture for inspiration:
She also asked us to a tool we hadn't used in at least 6 months and some alphabet letters. My first thought was "ugh." I wasn't a huge fan of the colors used in the ad, I didn't know which tool to use and I really have no use for alphabet letters. Putting my negative energy aside, I figured I should just suck it up and accept that this is in fact a challenge.

I used the Mojo Sketch to help me settle on some papers and embellishments. I used some sunny yellow paper by Colorbok, blue patterned paper by Stampin' Up!, and yellow patterned paper by K&Co. I also knew I wanted to use that smoky blue ribbon by Offray (one of my yard sale scores!).

I decided to use my heat gun for my "old tool." I rarely use anything that takes too much effort, and for me, plugging in my heat gun, doing all that goes with stamping/using embossing powder, and waiting for my heat gun to cool off is too much. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to making cards. :) So anyway, I had decided to endure all the effort, and use some blue Pearlustre embossing powder by Stampendous to make some coordinating flower embellishments. I originally planned to have them in the center of the circle, but then I ran into the problem of where to place my alphabet letters. Darn those letters! :)

I figured I should go LOOK at my stickers to see which sentiment to use, and I ran into another brick wall. The reason I don't use alphabet stickers in the first place is because whenever I need to spell something out, I never have enough letters. Spelling "hello" on four cards is nearly impossible. Soooo, plan B was to just spell "Hi". I grabbed some old Making Memories rub-ons and realized the sentiment would have to be my focal point since the letters were so big.

I knew I still had to use the flowers (to incorporate my usage of an old tool) so I decided to set them off to the side of my circle and balance out my knotted ribbon. Once I was done assembling all of my layers, I was embarrased at my poor attitude, because the cards came out really neat! In a million years, I wouldn't have come up with the color combo, metallic embossed flowers or use of the rub-ons, but I'm really glad I went outside of my comfort zone! :D I guess that's what the crafting community is all about, right?

So, thank you, Melisa, you sincerely gave me a challenge this week! Thanks also to Rae, who maintains a fabulous website where fellow cardmakers inspire and challenge each other to USE what we have! :D Hope you like this set of cards as much as I do. Thanks for popping in and bearing with my lengthy post!

-Suzanne :O )

TECC #76 Christmas Cupcakes!

Hi everyone! This is a picture-heavy post, but that's because I just made a pack of 12 Christmas cards, and the stickers I used were so darn cute I wanted to showcase each one individually! :D

I bought the stickers at a dollar store a year or two ago, and since I've started to de-hoard, I figured I better USE them! As soon as I saw that the Cupcake Challenges were back, I knew I had to use the stickers in Taylor's sketch. :D

The cards are actually pretty simple... all of the papers are Provo Craft (Rob & Bob Studio Holiday Slab). I used my 3" Marvy Uchida scalloped circle punch to make the background for the cupcakes, and then I added a dot of DecoArt Glistening Snow Writer (dimensional glitter glue) to each scallop.

I didn't have the right sentiment, so I pieced one together from two different stamps. They're both by Inkadinkado... the first one originally said "Wishing you a merry christmas" and the second one originally said "you're so... sweet". I masked part of each to make my own sweet greeting :)

That's pretty much it! It was a lot of gluing because I had so many cards, but all in all, these cards were pretty easy to make. I hope you enjoy my yummy creations! :D

-Suzanne :O )

Use It! #20/CPS 126

Hi friends! I haven't had much time to craft at all this week (and I do NOT like this!) but tonight I squeezed in time to do this week's Use It! challenge, and to catch up on my neglected craft fair merchandise. I also paired the Use It! challenge with a sketch by CPS.

I've been trying to use up my older Christmas patterned papers, so I knew I wanted to use this snowflake paper by... actually I don't know who made it. I remember finding that odd when I bought the paper. It just says "The glittered Christmas Stack", but it doesn't have a company name. I don't think it's DCWV, but it's on that order. Anyway, I knew I wanted to use that paper, so that was my starting point. I paired it with some deep purple cardstock by DCWV. What else goes with snowflakes besides a jolly snowman? Nothing. So that's what I used! :) The snowman and hat stamps are by Hero Arts, and I colored him in with my water color pencils. My trusty StazOn ink pad is starting to dry out, so tonight I used black chalk ink instead. I found out that coloring over chalk ink isn't the greatest idea- anywhere I colored started to pick up the black ink. :( A trip to Michael's for more ink is definitely in my immediate future! :) To the snowman image, I added a bit of silvery blue ribbon to fill in the space at the bottom :)

Denise's Use It! challenge asked us to use an unusual item, so I figured now was a great time to use some old sheet music my mom was going to throw out. I used my 2" scalloped circle punch for the background. Next I took the back of a clear circular sentiment stamp and stamped it with Versamark on top of the sheet music. Then I added purple, blue, and green chalk to the ink for a bit of see-through color. To that I added these snowflake "sequins" that I bought on clearance last year. I got about 200 for 99 cents :) I glued those on top of the sheet music (which is why I had to add the chalk... the snowflakes didn't show up on just the sheet music) and added a coordinating gem. I just bought a one-pound variety bag of gems- there are a TON in the bag! YUM! :D The only downfall is they don't come with adhesive, but I fixed that with a glue dot. Okay, so that sums up my handmade snowflake embellishments.

Here's a recap of Denise's challenge:
1. An unusual item
check! sheet music

2. One stamp
check! Hero Arts

3. One die cut or embellishment
check! my handmade snowflake embellishments :)

Thanks for bearing through such a ramble-y post... hope you like my card set! :D

-Suzanne :O )

the little things

Super quick post:

Hero arts image, colored with my water color pencils
Patterned papers and ribbon by Heidi Grace
Cardstock by WorldWin
Vellum sentiment by Joann's

I made this card for my dad to send to my grandmother's best friend (since age 7!!!). He wanted to send her some photos he found, so I thought this was a nice way to capture the sentiment. Hope you like, thanks for stopping by! :)

-Suzanne :O )

Turning Two

Hi everyone! Just a quick post tonight- I made this little card for my cousin's son, who will be turning two next week :) I used papers by ATD, chipboard alligators (or are they crocodiles?) by Making Memories, some orange polka dot by Michael's and a chipboard 2 by Colorbok. The yellow dot paper came from a swap, so I don't know the manufacturer. I should also mention that I ran the red cardstock through my Cuttlebug. :) It's a busy card, but I tend to pick bright, colorful papers/embellishments when I'm making card for kids! Anyway, I hope you enjoy- thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )