Peace and Joy to You and Yours!

Wishing you all a

Merry Christmas

and

a New Year full of

Happiness, Health, and Love!

Stamps: Hero Arts (ornament, sentiment), DRS Designs (star background)

Other: shimmery cardstock (Recollection)

Thank you for all your visits and comments!

Looking forward to another year on this blog with you!

Cheers!

Susanne

Wish-granting fairy and a less transparent snowman

What would you wish for if you would meet this sweet fairy? 

This cute stamp as well as the label die belong to my friend Dora.  She brought them a long time ago for us to play with. I stamped, colored,  and cut out the panel but didn't finish it that Thursday night. So it sat on my desk. Then I discovered that a panel that was left over from a play with Gelatos had the same colors as her wings. Eventually this card came together. Too bad that you can't see well all the sparkle from the Stickles on the wings, stars, and flowers in her hair!

Stamps: Penny Black (fairy), Hero Arts (starry background), Inkadinkado? (sentiment)
Die: Spellbinders Label twenty-two
Other: Fancy corner scissors (Fiskars)


Challenges (please click on the links for rules and inspiration):


Butterlfly Challenge #44 "Fairies"
(because the butterflies are sleeping)






Virginia's View #21 "All About Glitter"








Simon Says Wednesday "Die Crazy"






Freshly Made Sketches #217








Remember that transparent looking snowman from my last post? I couldn't rest until I dabbed him with some pearlescent white chalk. I find he looks better now. What do you think?

I will take a couple of weeks off from blogging and commenting to enjoy the holidays with my family.

Have a wonderful the holiday season!

Hugs,
Susanne

Two Wintery Cards

Just popping in quickly to show you two more wintery cards that I made. They are both 5x7.

White embossed the trees, matted the panel with matte silver cardstock. Popped up the sentiment. Added stickles to the trees, snowflakes, and around the sentiment panel.

Stamps: Penny Black (trees), Stampin' Up (sentiment)


Challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge "December" - Christmas/Holidays


Simon Says Monday Challenge - Just a Pinch
Added just a pinch of stickles...







White embossed the snowman on kraft. Colored with sharpies. Added a red layer, the sentiment, and a glittery snowflake. Seeing it on screen reminds me that I wanted to color the snowman with a bit of white chalk or something. Shucks!

Stamps: snowman unmounted and unknown, Savy stamps (sentiment)
Die: MFT (snow flake)


Challenge:


Inkspirational #97 - Flake
(Second entry)







Thanks for stopping by during this busy time! I appreciate your visits and comments very much!

Hugs,
Susanne

Two big glittery snowflakes

My apologies for the sparse posting here at the moment! I am so behind with everything this year and am now officially in panic! As I am sure you are all busy as well I will keep this short but I wanted to share two glittery snowflakes cards I made.

and a close up to see the glittery card stock better (although the gray weather didn't make the glitter sparkle very much)

And since I didn't want to waste the negative die cut I made this card

Stamps: Stampin' Up (both sentiments)
Die: Hero Arts (snowflake)
Other: Glitter paper (Recollection), snowflake paper from my stash


Lots of snowflake themed challenges in blogland at the moment. As always click on the links to find out details or browse for inspiration:


Virginia's View #21 "All About Glitter"
Sadly, Virginia's View is taking a brake after this one. Since Virginia did everything by herself it is understandable that she is in need of of a brake! I hope she will be back because she always had cool themes!








Time Out #45 "Snowflake are Winter's Butterflies"







Inkspirational #97 "Flake"




   



Cupcake Inspirations #339 "Let It Snow"







Simon Says Work It Wednesday "Holiday"







Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Let It Snow"







Hope your holiday preparations are going well! Don't forget to take deep breaths once in a while (note to myself)!

Hugs,
Susanne

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am here to wish all who celebrate a very happy Thanksgiving with delicious food, family and friends that get along, and lots of reasons to be thankful!

This year I only was able to make a few cards for the Cardologists. We have been exchanging cards for every holiday for years!

I CASEd a card that Debby Hughes made a couple of years ago. The cardbase is Petal Paper from Marco's. Embossed the wheat in gold, the sentiment in a glittery, fall colored ep that I've had forever. The acorn is covered with Glossy Accents.

Stamps: Hero Arts (wheat), Inkadinkado (sentiment), acorn unknown

On another note: I just finished reading the latest book by Cristina from My Paper Secret and I absolutely loved it! I always admired Cristina's cards. Unfortunately she doesn't blog them anymore to focus more on the writing. Now I am also a fan of her author side!  If you are looking for a good read I can highly recommend it! It's called
"The Book of Unknown Americans".

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by!

Hugs,
Susanne

50th Wedding Anniversary in White and Gold

Hi there!

Today's card I made for friends who just celebrated their 50th Anniversary! What an accomplishment, huh?

I stamped the background with Delicata gold ink and cut the big heart out of a patterned vellum snippet (from a chocolate box). The numbers are also cut from a snippet of gold card stock and then hammered with a Tim Holtz distress tool. Little hearts are also cut from snippets. This is a 5x7 card because I didn't want to cut off any of that background...

A new to me challenge "Use Your Stuff" celebrates their 200th post this week and the theme is "Celebrate". So, I am sending my card over there! And, of course, with all those snippets used it has to play in the Playground!

Stamps: Stampin' Up (background swallows and swirls), SSS (sentiment)
Dies: W9Plus (big heart), SSS (banner, tiny hearts), not sure where the numbers are from...


Challenges (please click on the links to get inspired by the DT's and gallery entries, and to find out about the rules):


Use Your Stuff #200 "Celebrate"
(ETA: This card was one of the Top 3! Woohoo!)

Pixie's Snippets Playground #203


And if you are still here I just wanted to say that my heart is breaking with what happened in Paris! I have once lived in this magical city for 18 months and I will always have a very soft spot for it! My heart goes out to all the victims, their families and friends!

Hugs,
Susanne

Holiday Greetings in Pink and Silver

Popping in today to show you a starry Holiday card I made! And look at all the challenges it wants to play in! I don't know about you but I love silver/grey with pink!

For the background I used the falling stars stencil from SSS (love it) with silver embossing paste. The big star is cut out from gorgeous glitter paper from Michaels. The sentiment is white embossed on matte silver card stock from Marco's.

Stamps: Inkadinkado (sentiment), Penny Black (script background)
Die: PTI (star)
Other: Star stencil (SSS), silver embossing paste (Viva), star punch (Fiskars), glitter paper (Recollections)


Challenges (please click on the links to get inspired by the Design Teams and galleries and find out about the rules):

Time Out #43 "Christmas with optional twist of pink or purple"






Inkspirational #95 "Anything goes with silver"








Virginia's View #20 "All about textures"







CAS(E) This Sketch #148







CAS-ual Fridays #145 "Precious Metals"
Hope it is CAS enough... If not, please let me know!






So glad you stopped by and hope you will come back!

Hugs,
Susanne

Happy Halloween!

These cute ghost and Jack 'o' Lantern stamps from Hero Arts have been in my stash for a long time and they are extremely happy that I finally used them. Just look at their grins if you don't believe me!

Stamps: Hero Arts (ghost and Jack 'o' Lantern), Martha Stewart (sentiment banner), Inkadinkao (spider, flourish), unknown (spider web)


Challenges (please click on the links to see what the fabulous DTs made, look at the galleries, and find out about rules):

Inkspirational #94 "Cute Halloween"







Shopping Our Stash #225 "Go Paperless"
I had fun stamping, sponging, and splattering the background myself!








Simon Says Monday Challenge "Throwback" 
I picked "Spooky" from October 2013







Btw, the friend who received my unsigned card (see my last post) was very gracious about it! Phew!

If you celebrate Halloween or not I wish you a fabulous day and thank you for stopping by!

BOO,
Susanne

Cute Halloween Kitty

It was sweet Carol's turn over at Inkspirational to pick a theme and her choice was "Cute Halloween or pumpkin/owl". And thanks to generous Dora B. I have a very cute card for you today because she brought this adorable little cat from Purple Onions for us to play with. We also got this cool SU spiderweb doily from her! Thank you, Dora!
Just look at that sweet face of the kitty and the pumpkin!

Stamps: Purple Onion (cat)
Die: spider (belongs to our friend Melba and I am not sure which company it was)
Other: spiderweb doily (Stampin' Up), patterned paper (from my stash)

Jules gave us the tip that when you use Stickles to attach a (transluscent) dewdrop it will sparkle beautifully. I tried it out here (see center of the spiderweb) and love the sparkle!

Funny story (or maybe not so funny...): Because of the fat dewdrop I brought this card to the post office today to mail it since it's not machinable. Only now looking at it on the screen I realized that I mailed it without writing or stamping ANYTHING in it!!!! NOTHING!!!! I was so intent on finishing it, taking a picture, and then putting it carefully in an envelope that I totally forgot that I hadn't written anything on the inside! Arghhhh! Will have to call the friend and apologize...


Challenge (please click on the link to see what the fabulous DT made, look at the gallery, and find out about rules) :

Inkspirational #94 "Cute Halloween or pumpkin/owl"







Take care and always make sure to write something in and sign your cards before mailing them!

Hugs,
Susanne

I think you are amazing...

Last month I was the lucky winner of a blog appreciation giveaway over at the sweet, creative, generous, and famous Virginia of "Yes, Virginia..." !  (I had a lucky streak there, I know!)

Look what I found in my mailbox! So many fun goodies!

This is the card I made with some of the gifts to thank her for her generosity (Virginia, I hope you have received it. I mailed it almost 2 weeks ago and couldn't wait any longer to post it because I wanted to enter it in your challenge!)
Isn't that hedgehog bringing mail full of love the cutest? That's how I felt when I got my mail from Virginia - that it was full of love!

Stamps: Penny Black (hedgehog), CAS-ual Friday (sentiment), Hero Arts (friends background)
Dies: Nestabilities (circle), Die-namics (scallops)
Other: Faber Castell Polychromos


Challenges (click on the links to find out about rules, prizes, etc. and to find inspiration in the awesome galleries)


Virginia's View #19 "All Things Colored"







Pixie's Snippets Playground - week 198
Every paper of the border was a snippet!







Btw, I think you are all amazing for stopping by and leaving me comments!

Wishing you a great weekend,
Susanne

Autumn Hello

On a recent Thursday night Dora brought her new stamp from Purple Onion to the 7Cardologists get-together. We all stamped the cute raccoon with the pumpkin designed by Stacy Yacula on watercolor paper but then went off in different directions. I watercolored mine, fussy cut it, and made this card.

Stamp: Purple Onion Design (raccoon)
Die: Top Dog Dies (hello)


Our cards all ended up looking very different, so for more ideas on how to use this adorable stamp please click over to Dora's blog (here and here) where she has posted what the other girls made!


Challenges:

Virginia's View #19 "All Things Colored"







Simon Says Monday Challenge "Wonderful Watercolor"






Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Mood Board"







Simon Says Work It Wednesday "Stamp"







Time Out #42 
(Pumpkin and striped scarf)








Hope you are all well!
Hugs,
Susanne

Purple card for Domestic Violence Awareness

Hi there,

Maybe you have noticed lots of cards featuring purple in the blogosphere lately. I know that some of you have even made purple cards for the blog hop to raise awareness for domestic violence organized by the fabulous Becca Cruger aka "Damsel of Distressed"! Please click on the link to read her very moving post! Did you know that 1 in 3 women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime? That is a lot! And it's not only women. Nobody deserves this!

If you are experiencing domestic violence, reach out for help! 

Call the 24/7 confidential National Domestic Violence Helpline at 

1-800-799-7233

(Sorry, I only have the number for the States)

Please help raise awareness, post a purple card, and link it to Becca's blog, where you will find the rules and more info. And look at all the sponsors that she has lined up! You have until 10/14.

I recently placed an order at Winnie & Walter and used one of the sets to make a card for this hop.

Stamps: Winnie & Walter (circles), Altenew ("rock")

Die: SSS ("you")

Challenges (please click on links to find out about rules and to admire the galleries):

The Hop to Stop

Winnie & Walter "WCMD 2015 - Watercolor with Vanessa"

Winnie & Walter "WCMD 2015 - Gold/Metallic with Lydia"

Virginia's View Challenge #19 "All Things Colored"

Simon Says Work It Wednesday "Stamp"

Simon Says Stamp "World Cardmaking Day"

I have to say that you all ROCK for stopping by here and leaving me sweet comments! Thank you!

Wishing you all a fun filled weekend,

Susanne