So Suzy Stamps Friendship Hop

Good morning, everyone! Are you enjoying our So Suzy Friendship Hop?? Hard to believe we've only known each other for a year now...seems like it was just yesterday these ladies were hearing for the first time that I was going to mail them my Jasper cat. LOL

As a special 'thank you' to everyone who has been on the team, followed our blog and made new friends, we are doing a Friendship Blog Hop with some of our past and present Design Team members. Be sure to leave a comment on everyone's blogs for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to So Suzy Stamps! Woohoo!

You should be arriving from sweet Martha's beautiful blog - I just love that gal. One day I'll get to hug her in person!

For my card, I broke out the Distress Inks and water to do some water coloring. The first time I saw that lovely rose hanging in Suzy's shop, I knew what I wanted to do with it!

Distress Inks - Wild Honey, Abandoned Coral, Twisted Citrus

I hear some of you giggling...you know already what stamp I used for the sentiment, don't you? It was just so fitting for my teammate loves!

Stamps - Rose, Open Sketch Heart, Weird Stalker

Hehehehehe, I truly do love them all in a non-stalker way. Ok, off you go to my dear Monica's blog to continue on the hop! You have until December 4th to leave us some love for a chance at that gift certificate to the shop.

Happy Crafting!

Sending Joy

Hey everyone - I'm over on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today stretching my stamps with this glittery 'Joy' card.

I love how it could be anything from a non-traditional Christmas card to simple happy mail on a dreary day. It was so easy to put together, too! Go read all about it. ;)

Be sure to come back here on Sunday for THREE posts. Yeah, three...November is a fun, busy month folks! LOL

Happy Crafting!

Peep...peep...nom!

Wow, I have been seriously MIA...two craft shows in a month will do that I suppose. I come bearing a super-cute card, though! Seeing as Easter is right around the corner, I just had to make up some cards. Around here, nothing says Easter like yummy chocolate Cadbury eggs and loading up my Gram with Peeps! She adores the little sugary things almost as much as I adore coffee. I went looking for a Peeps pattern, digi-stamp, anything I could use to start a card with. What did I find? Nothing. Nada. Zip. So after saying a few nasty things about the industry, I made my own. So there.

Isn't he yummy?? I made a whole flock of these little guys (and some bunnies!) and brought them to my craft show Saturday as well. Several went off to good homes. :)

All of the paper was from my personal horde collection. I love square cards but loathe the extra postage, so I made this one 4.25"x4.25". Yup, still fits in a standard A2 envelope. Yes! I fussy-cut the Peep out after coloring him in with watercolor pencils, then gave him a sugary topping with some extra-fine glitter. The teal twine is the gorgeous new twine from Lawn Fawn. Love. It.

If by some chance you absolutely have to have one (and don't feel like making it yourself), I do have it up in my shop!

So, what are everyone's Easter plans? Please share!

Happy Crafting!

Lawnscaping Challenge #26 Winter Wonderland

Where has the week gotten to?? We finally have snow here which helped with my inspiration for this week's Lawnscaping Challenge. Of course between snowshoeing, helping a friend build a deck (I was the only one he trusted to cut 45 degree angles on the miter saw - go me!), general running around, and spending some quality time in the craft room here it is Saturday already and I'm just sitting down to write!

So this week's challenge was Winter Wonderland, something that has finally happened around here! I was really excited about this one. My Christmas present to myself this year was a Sizzix Big Kick and a bunch of cartridges that were on deep sale on Black Friday. My husband was thrilled because then he had an easy time shopping for me this year...hehehe... I had picked up one of the snowman cartridges (cartridges? punches? someone correct me if my terminology is off, please!) and a snowflake embossing folder. Better still, the Lawn Fawn Ornate Ornaments stamp set that I have includes a snowflake stamp - perfect! Put them all together and see what you get:

Isn't he adorable?? I love how he came out. Here's how it started out:

What I used:

• white linen cardstock (paperandmore.com)
• purple striped scrapbook paper (my stash)
• brown cardstock (stash)
• black cardstock (bazzill)
• purpley/bluey cardstock, cut to 5.25"x4" (bazzill)
• orange metallic cardstock (paperandmore.com)
• white glitter cardstock (Joann's)
• ivory linen cardstock, measures 5.5"x4.25" when closed (paper and more)
• Memento Paris Blue ink
• dark gray rhinestones, two sizes (Michael's)
• clear Stickles
• silver Stickles
• Lawn Fawn Ornate Ornaments stamps
• Spellbinders snowflake embosser
• Sizzix snowman cartridge
• glue
• Zots 3D

Start off by making your card base. Emboss the purpley/bluey cardstock with the snowflake background and attach to the base card. Cut a piece of the white glitter cardstock to fit across the entire width of the card, then freehand cut it to make it look like a snow mound (I had this piece left over from cutting out larger snowmen). Attach it to the front of the card as well. Using the little snowflake in the Ornate Ornaments set and the Paris Blue ink, make some snowflakes floating down from the sky.

Cut out the snowman using the Sizzix cartridge. This is where the rest of the paper is used! You could probably use fabric for the scarf as well, but I loved this pattern for a scarf. To assemble and attach him I used glue on the scarf, carrot nose, and arms to attach them to the snowman. I then used the 3D Zots to attach the snowman to the card, putting him where I thought he looked cute on the snow mound. One last Zot for the hat right onto the card and he was assembled!

I then went back and decorated the hat with the silver Stickles and the snowman with the clear Stickles, just to give his snow some sparkle. Rhinestones for his eyes and buttons and we have a snowman!

On the inside I simple wrote "Thanks 'snow' much!" for a sentiment and the card was done! It was nice to build a snowman inside where it's nice and warm.

Have you built any real or paper snowmen lately? I'd love to see them!

Happy Crafting!

Coffee Note Cards...with Fabric!

Well, it had to happen eventually - a post about coffee! It has finally snowed here for the first time since October (yes, you did read that correctly...don't ask) which means my favorite caffeinated beverage now needs to warm my hands while it keeps me going.

This summer I came across some awesome coffee fabric. I was drawn to it because 1) its coffee and 2) the pattern is rectangular. Usually for fabric crafts this is a deterrent (I really cannot see a skirt out of this) but for paper crafting it's perfect!

I simply had to have it and make cards out of it. To prep the fabric I (shudder!) ironed it out and then cut out some of the blocks. I then went back around them with pinking shears (the funny scissors that cut triangles) so that the fabric wouldn't unravel once on the card.

That's it! Now it's time to make some note cards!

What I used:

• fabric cut with pinking shears
• white card base, final size 4.25"x5.5" when folded
• patterned paper cut to fit card front, 4.25"x5.5" (found at Joann's)
• chocolate grosgrain ribbon, 1/2" wide x 4.25" long
• blue cardstock (from stash)
• sentiment stamp, "how've you bean?" (Fiskars)
• StazOn Timber Brown ink pad
• 1.5" square paper punch
• adhesive
• Xyron machine
• ruler
• paper cutter
• scissors

Start by cutting the patterned paper to fit the front of your card. Ink up the edges, then attach to the card base using your adhesive. Ink up your sentiment stamp and stamp out a few onto your blue cardstock. Here's a good tip - stamp first, punch out second! That way you can line up your punch and make sure the sentiment is centered:

Stamp, stamp, stamp...

Punch, punch, punch!

Ink up the edges and then set aside to dry a little. Cut out your ribbon so that it fits the front of the card. I used my little Xyron sticker maker to apply the adhesive.

Nice and sticky!

Once everything is cut & dry, I ran the fabric squares and sentiment squares through my Xyron machine. They stacked nicely so that I didn't waste adhesive!

In they go...

All done!

Now, time to assemble. Attach your squares to where you want them on the card. Be careful, the fabric will try to stretch out of shape! Now stick your ribbon down, pop the sentiment square on top, and you've got a unique note card!

Have you ever combined paper with fabric? What was the result? Post your creations here, I'd love to see them!

Happy Crafting!

Happy 2012

Another New Year is here! I generally do not make resolutions (you won't find me buying gym memberships or exercise equipment) but I did promise myself to make time for blogging this year. Hopefully I can get a good pile of posts going to help me keep that promise!

Today I'm sharing with you one of the Christmas cards I sent out this year. (Note to self: this year, start making Christmas cards in July!)  I really wound up in a time crunch with my personal cards this year, so I was looking for elegant but quick & easy!

I had found a card idea I really liked over on Pinterest (which if you're not a member of, join! It's a great place for ideas.) so I looked through my board and found it again. 

I really liked the snowflake, the layers, the stitching, and the simplicity of the card. Beautiful but rustic, natural but with a 'wow' factor.

Sadly when I first think about a card design based on a sample card, I try to recreate as much of the original as possible. Some day I'll learn! I just wind up driving myself crazy when I do that and then the card isn't me. So after some storming around the craft room, I came up with my own design that is me and that I was proud to send out to our friends and family.

The layered effect I liked is still there with the black cardstock, ivory parchment, and the green plaid all placed on top of a deep red base card. The snowflake is there (my favorite part) and the stamped sentiment of Merry Christmas. Perfect!

So, what did I use?

• brick red paper from my stash, cut to 11"x4.25" and folded in half to 5.5"x4.25"
• black Bazzill cardstock from my stash, cut to 5"x4"
• ivory parchment paper from my stash, cut to 4.75"x3.75"
• green plaid paper from my stash (seeing a trend?), cut to 2"x2"
• EK Success Large Snowflake paper punch
• StazOn ink in Timber Brown
• sentiment stamp
• We R Memory Keepers Sweetheart Inkers in green & white
• adhesive

Yup, this card was made entirely of things I already owned! How cool is that? The Sweetheart Inkers are brand new and are AWESOME. I actually won them over on the Captured Moments blog (they're my local scrapbooking store and I adore them). This was the first project I used them on and they were so easy to use.

Back to the card - start by cutting all of your paper to size. I wound up making 16 of these (I ran out of the plaid paper!) and doing them assembly-line style was the way to go. After cutting, fold up your base cards (if you're using pre-made ones you can obviously skip this step, but I like making my own). Punch out all of your snowflakes from the ivory parchment paper. (I kept the punches for some future project, of course!) Ink all of your edges to allow them time to dry before assembly! I used the white Sweetheart Inker on the black paper and the green on the parchment paper.

Now for assembly! The green plaid paper was attached to the back of the ivory parchment. Ivory parchment goes on the black cardstock, then the whole stack onto the brick red base card. Stamp the sentiment of 'Merry Christmas' and it's done!

This design can easily be used for any punch, any holiday. If you use it as an idea card, be sure to come back and tell me what you made!

Happy Crafting!