Merry Christmas and Two Cards

Hello my friends,

I apologize for the long silence on my blog but I was a bit overwhelmed with all the preparation for the holidays. I REALLY have to change a few things next year and have already started a list...

With these two cards I would like to wish you Happy Holidays and an even Happier New Year with lots of time to craft!

Let me know if you have any questions about the products, etc...

Challenge:

Simon Says Stamp "National Christmas Card Day"

I finally finished mailing all my cards! How about you?

Looking very much forward to getting back to crafting soon!

Be well,

Bright and Flowery Birthday Card

Hello everyone,

Popping in to let you know that I am still around. Just in the middle of the end-of-year/holiday madness. Although I don't have a holiday card for you but a birthday card with bright flowers to cheer you up if the weather is grey wherever you are. We had our first snow yesterday after a super mild and sunny Saturday.

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp (flowers), Happy Little Stamper (sentiment)
Die: Memory Box (birdie)
Other: Faber Castell Polychromos pencils


Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration from the DTs and the galleries):

CAS Mix Up November "Masking"
The flowers are masked, stamped, plus there is fussy cutting, and die cutting

Seize the Birthday - no topping







Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating!

Be well,

Happy Halloween and a Christmas Card

Popping in to wish you a Happy Halloween and "scare" you with my card!

Stamps: Impression Obsession (background), others are from Hero Arts and Martha Stewart?
Dies: Impression Obsession (ghosts)


This weekend I spent a good chunk of time working on Christmas cards. A while ago I was the lucky winner of the monthly prize over at papierelle (have you checked out Gundi's fun blog yet?) and I finally played with the embossing folder and one of the cute images. Aren't that dragon baby and his friend, the mouse, adorable?

Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration from the DTs and the galleries):

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #305 "Anything Goes"







52 Christmas Card Throwdown"Pick a Previous Sketch"
I picked sketch # 32 from September 2014










Weekly Christmas Card Challenges "Anything Goes"

That's all from me for today! Hope your week will be full of fun moments!

Be well,

Sending You Hugs, Flowers, and some Foliage...

Another card with the ghosting technique?? Hope your are not getting tired of it... This is the last one for now but some day I do want to try this technique using a stamp. I made this background at Stamp Camp (see last post) but finished the card at home.  

Stamps: Hero Arts (sentiment)
Die: Winnie & Walter
Other: Stencil (Memory Box), Distress Inks, Glitterpaper (Recollection)


Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration):

CAS Mix Up October Challenge "Ghosting"
This card might not be CAS enough since it has very little white space and even some sequins. Dear DT feel free to delete it...






Also at Stamp Camp we made this kind of fancy fold card (don't know the exact name) that was pretty easy to do. If you want instructions or a link, let me know, I'll try to find out.
We all used the same flower die cuts in white but look how different our cards came out. And not just because we all used different colored cardstock.

This is my card:

Stamps: Stampin' Up (foliage)
Dies: Stampin' Up (flowers and leaves)


Sending this to a new challenge in town - check it out:

The Flower Challenge #1 "Anything Goes"






and to

Happy Little Stampers "Anything Goes with Dies"






As a thank you for scrolling down this far I'll show you some of the foliage in our neighborhood:

It's rare to see bright green with blood red together!


You made it to the end of this post! Congratulations and thank you! Have a wonderful day!

Be well,

More ghosting and some Watercoloring

Check out my new signature at the end of the post that the amazing Loll created for me! The one that I made a few months ago caused a warning to pop up every time I wrote a new post, so sweet Loll offered to design a new one for me! I love it and hope you do, too!

Today I have two cards for you!

This past weekend I spent with my 7Cardologists friends (although one was missing) in the mountains at our annual Stamp Camp. I taught them the Ghosting technique which is the current theme at the CAS Mix Up Challenge. We all used different stencils and colors and had so much fun. I made this card from my background.

Stamps: Happy Little Stampers (sentiment)
Dies: Impression Obsession (tree)
Other: Tree stencil (TCW), Distress Inks


Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration):

CAS Mix Up October Challenge "Ghosting"
plus Stamping and Die cutting
*This card was a runner up!*







On my second card I did some watercoloring with Distress Inks. I don't own Copics and use a lot of colored pencils when I am stamping with my friends but what I really love is the look of watercoloring.

Stamps: Winnie & Walter (sentiment)

Dies: Impression Obsession

Other: Distress Inks, copper embossing powder from PSX (that I've had for more than 20 years!!!)

The word "autumn" is embossed in copper. Hard to see in the picture but very pretty in real life. Will take a picture tomorrow and post it on instagram (button on the right sidebar).

Sending this card to the following challenges:


CAS Watercolor October Challenge "Fall"

Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesdays September "Yellow, Orange, Red, and Brown"





The Gossip Column with Taheera Atchia on the W&W blog #5 "Precious Metals"








Both CAS Mix Up and CAS Watercolor Challenges are having an Design Team call and since I really like that style and enjoy playing in these challenges I am being brave and throwing my hat into the ring. Wish me luck...

Phew, that was a longish post! Thanks for sticking with me 'til the end!

Be well,

Celebrate with a Big Flower

Yesterday was World Cardmaking Day. Hope you took time to play. I made a card, but I practically had to force myself.  Sad, huh? There were so many other things I should/could have done... (Aren't there always?) Even sitting in my craft space I was tempted to work on things that were "on my list". But I decided to just play. Then, as is often the case, I was overwhelmed and didn't know where to start. Eventually I tried the Ghosting/Monoprinting Technique that the fabulous Loll used here for the new CAS Mix Up October Challenge.

Stamps: Altenew (sentiment), Stampin' Up (border)
Other: Stencil (Folk Art), gold splatters (LuminArte)


I applied several different Distress Inks on a panel of Bristol paper. Then I got worried that it might not even work for that technique but as you can see it did just fine. I spritzed a NBUS stencil from Folk Art with water and laid it on the panel. After lifting it off I dabbed it with a paper towel. There was no need to wait, the ink reacted immediately with the water. I cut around the blossom, spritzed it with gold. The border is from a very, very old Stampin' Up set (it says 1995 on it) and is gold embossed. The label sentiment is from Altenew. Didn't add anything else to keep it CAS.
Love this technique and want to try it with other stencils!


Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration):


CAS Mix Up October Challenge
My choice is heat embossing and/or splattering







Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"







Inkspirational #118 "Glamour"
Isn't this big rose with the gold splatters glamorous?








Thanks for stopping by and be well,

Marbling with Shaving Cream

I LOVE making backgrounds. Almost more than making cards. There, I said it. There are so many decisions involved when you make a card...
Anyway, the marbling technique with shaving cream is quite easy and tons of fun. A couple of weeks ago I made a card to enter at the current CAS Mix Up but when it was all finished I realized there was no stamping on it! Might not have been CAS enough anyway. I'll show it to you some other time. A couple of days ago I made another card with stamping.

Stamp: Sentiment (Verses Rubber Stamps)
Die: Avery Elle (stitched scalloped border)

Just used a strip of marbled paper to keep it CAS. The yellow dots are made with nail polish. Read about this months ago somewhere on this world wide web. You make them on a craft sheet and after they are completely dry you adhere them to the card with a drop of glue.
By the way, the colors of the background piece and the border are a little different in real life (nicer) but no amount of editing would change them.


Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration):


CAS Mix Up Challenge - September 2016
So excited that this card won "Outstanding Design"!






Addicted to CAS #97 "Stitched"






Be well,

Susanne

Wild Hibiscus with Ferns

Today's card was made with leftover pieces of this card and that card.  I am a little proud of myself for not adding the pieces to the huge pile of stuff I will use "later" but actually made something with them.
ETA: I should probably mention that this is a 5x7 inch card.

A close up so you can see the shimmer:

Stamps: Altenew (Wild Hibiscus), Hero Arts (sentiment)
Other: Fern stencil (TCW)


Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration):

Virginia's View Challenge #23 "Spray, Mist, Splatter"
The background was sprayed and splattered, and even the butterfly was stamped on a piece of sprayed in blue.
ETA: This card won Honorable Mention!






The Ultimate Challenge Blog Hop with Altenew
For some reason I cannot copy the image to this post. Please click on the link to see all the different challenge blogs that are participating!


Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a great week and

be well,

Susanne

Sailboat

The latest NBUS (Never-Before-Used-Schtuff) challenge over at Darnell's blog is almost over but I really wanted to play because I am so grateful that she is regularly nudging us towards using the things we buy. My NBUS box is bursting at the seams and given the time I could have made hundreds of cards... Alas, time to create is still very scarce right now but I sat down yesterday and made a card. I really wanted to use this MFT sailboat die (that I have had for way too long) while real sailboats are still on the lake.

Stamps: None!
Dies: My Favorite Things (sailboat), Memory Box (waves), SSS (stitched rectangle), cloud unknown


I cut out the different parts of the sailboat from various PP, the waves from a recent play with spritz bottles and adhered everything to a stitched rectangle that I thought was a very light blue but looks grey on the photo.

Speaking of photo, I am suddenly unable to download photos from my camera to my computer. I have no idea why. Plus I also can't do a backup on my external hard drive. I just hope my laptop doesn't break down before get a new one... So this blog post almost didn't happen! But I took a photo of the card with my phone and managed to get it on the post (not hard but I had never done it before). Phew!

Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration):


NBUS #7







Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge #30 - "Anything Goes"







Virginia's View Challenge #23 - "Spray, Mist, Splatter"






Uniko Challenge #35 - "Inspired by a Song Title"
(In my case it's "Sail Away" by David Gray - one of my favorite songs, check it out if you don't know it!)





Thanks for stopping by despite my infrequent postings of late! Your visits and comments still make my day so please don't give up on me!

Be well,