Viva Las Vegas!!

Hi & Happy Saturday! Well as you're reading this I am in Las Vegas kicking off a birthday bonanza with my friends, hee hee!! I'll be back Tuesday evening & taking Wednesday off to recover, LOL! Hope ya have a great weekend too!

Some NewsBitz for Ya:

**BLOG CANDY ALERT--head over to Susana's store blog "Follow Your Heart" to celebrate the blog's 10,000 hits--she's giving away a $25 gift certificate to her store!

**Whiff of Joy--If you haven't pre-ordered your Summer Kit which features 15 stamps by Elisabeth Bell & sentiments, you only have until May 4th! It's a great deal!

So first up today, is my card for this month's Magnolia-licious May sketch by the lovely Sharon Caudle (friend & DT sistah)!! I used a new Magnolia from the "Chasing Butterflies Collection" that will soon be for sale at Magnolia-licious, isn't she just the cutest?! That yummy dp is from and the flowers are new Hydrangeas by Prima (next to tulips, hydrangeas are my next fave flower)! I added some lovely, blingy glitterdots to the flower centers & top of the card. I also paper pieced her lil' dress with some of that fun polky-dot paper! The sentiment is from this year's anniversary set from PTI. I also cuttlebugged the coredinations cs behind her and added some stickles to her wings! If you participate in the sketch challenge, make sure and send Diana of Magnolia-licious your project by email for the gallery!!

Next up, is a card I did using one of H&M Stamps new stamp sets! I ADORE this set called "Seeds of Kindness"-it's just fabulous!! I double-stamped the flowers in black & yellow inks and then added black stickles on top of the flowers. The yummy dp is from Autumn Leaves (daisy) & the dotted dp is from PTI. I cut out the flower layers with my Labels 1 Nestabilities & added some yellow rhinestones to the flower centers!

Close-up shows the double-stamping and glittery black stickles I added to the flowers! I love these colors together & I really love how this card turned out, and hope you do too!

I'll be back posting next week for ya & will have lots of pics to share with you (much to my friend's chagrin!)!! Wish me lots of luck in Vegas--hopefully the birthday gods will look down kindly on me, LOL!!

hugz,

Suzanne

Tuckered' Out Tuesday!!

Hi everyone & Happy Tuesday! Sorry no postie yesterday but this weekend's activities really tuckered me out, LOL! Alexa's bday slumber party kept me up until 4 am on Friday, then we went to Tyson's Corner Mall & shopped till we dropped (literally)! I also finished planting the rest of my garden & helping hubby w/ yardwork in the 95 degree weather we had this weekend! And yesterday was spent at the Washington, DC National Zoo & it was blisterin' hot I tell ya--I had to have sweated & walked off at least 5 lbs, LOL! (at least I hope, hee hee) It was a great weekend but I was in bed by 10 Sunday nite (which is early for me) & didn't wake up until 10 in the morning (ty hubby for getting the kids ready for school)-- so that's why I didn't post. So I think Alexa's 13th bday weekend was a success! She got a laptop (hubby totally caved) & she's loving SKYPEing w/ her BFF's, LOL! My kids are spoiled rotten I tell ya, but they're good kids & we love 'em, hee hee! Anywho, I've got 2 projects for ya today & a slideshow if you're interested!

My first card is for this week's Try It Out Tuesday challenge for Susana's Custom Art & Card Design store blog "Follow Your Heart". This week I challenged (and I mean really hard challenged, lol) the DT to create a card using only half of their stamped image! Even I had a hard time with this one, but I persevered! I used a Serendipity stamp "Violets" from Susana's store & cut it out w/ my circle nesties after coloring w/ Copics--and yes it really was halved (I didn't cheat), the whole bottom portion of it is gone! :o) I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch #84 for the layout which I just loved! The main sentiment is from a Heidi Grace set I've had (got it at AC Moore). The dp is from Chatterbox and the pearls are Kaiser.

I also painted the violets with Iced Lavender Shimmerz and the lovely ribbon is from the Offray outlet! Now make sure & hop over to the store blog to see the rest of the DT's creative projects for today!!

Second card is a fun Magnolia Z-Fold card I made. I think this little Tilda is soooo cute & you can get her, the birdie & stone wall at Magnolia-licious! The dp is "Garden Party" from My Mind's Eye and the sentiment is from PTI's "Around & About Sentiments".
Z-Fold cards are so easy & fun to make--gives your cards an extra POP!

Just a close-up of the image--I added stickles to her wings, hairbands & lil' birdie friend. I made my stone wall in brown tones this time, although I usually do it in grays--but I like it in this color family too! This card is up for sale in my Etsy shop if you're interested (link on sidebar)!

2009 Washington, DC National Zoo pics!

Hope you have a fabulous day! I'm off to get my hair colored & cut before I leave for Vegas this weekend for my birthday & then I have tons of projects to finish up!

hugz,

Suzanne

Tropical Paradise!!

Good morning everyone! Hope you've had a good weekend so far. I'm feeling somewhat better today, just a little tired I guess. We have a funeral to go to later today, so I'm taking it easy until then. I'm feeling a little sad that summer is coming to an end too. Back to school routines for kids, evening activities and cold weather to look forward to---I just love the slower pace of summer and of course the warm weather. Me and winter do not get along--lol!

This card reminds me where I will be "wishing" I am come wintertime for sure! I have yet to get to Hawaii, but Maui is in the top 3 vacation places I'd like to go (Italy first, Maui second, Australia third). I might get there one day, but you know how I have a severe fear of flying--and all of these places are a long ways away from VA--I will definitely need meds for those flights :) Anywhoo, onto the card--

This Tilda goes by many names I think, "Hawaiian Tilda" and "Hula Tilda", but whatever, I just love her! The palm tree/beach stamp is from Magnolia too (I made the "sea" myself) cuz' I love the ocean. If you'd like to get some of these Magnolias you can contact Diana Crick directly for ordering info at magnolia.us@shaw.ca . BTW, I got a sneak peek at her new online shop that's coming called Magnolia-licious and it is PRETTY COOL--cannot wait, it will be finished soon, so stay tuned!!!

Ok, I stamped the images, colored them with Copics and cut lil' Tilda out. I colored Tilda a little darker than usual because I wanted her to look sun-kissed. And this sounds gross, but I actually cut her legs off (believe it or not, I actually felt bad--lol--me crazy I know) so that I could cut her grass skirt and fray it for texture. Then I "reattached" her legs with tape--all done by Dr. Suzanne (hee, hee). The tropical flowers are from Inque Boutique's "Cabana" stamp set that I stamped w/ SU inks and cut out, added Doodlebug glitter brads to the center and popped up w/ dimensionals. I stamped an extra palm tree so that I could cut out the top leaves to layer with the flowers. WARNING--LOTSA STICKLES AHEAD!! (I am in a crazy mood--me thinks I had too much rest)!! I loaded everything up with diamond stickles for lotsa sparkle. The dp is from SEI "dill blossom" line. I cocked the "scene" to the side, because I wanted it to look kinda like a vintage, travel postcard behind her. I also liked the dimension of having Tilda standing outside of the scene. The sentiment is from PTI's "Mailbox Greetings", and I used my oval nesties to cut the oval layers out. The last picture gives you an idea of the layering and dimension on this card--sometimes its hard to tell in a picture, so I took this from the side to show you.

Well, I hope you liked my lil' "Hula" Girl today. Have a great Sunday! Till then...

Suzanne

PS--If you like me, love me or just wanna vote for me (lol)--head on over to the JustRite Stampers blog thru Tuesday evening. I made it to the top 6 for my teacher notecards & box (see a few posts below) and you can vote for me on their blog. I appreciate it so much if you do!!

Flower Friends!

Good Tuesday afternoon everyone! It is HOT here today, no kiddin'--you will wilt if you go outside today :)!! At least it's sunny tho! I'm excited because I only have one more challenge to finish up today for the Dirty Girl Challenges on SCS--yippee!! There were 20 challenges total and boy did some of them take me out of my comfort zone for sure, but it was fun, now we'll see if I win (ha ha)! I am excited that I won a new stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy the other night randomly, so my luck must be turning (thanks Korin)! I also get to have a girl's nite out tonight--it's been awhile that I've gone out at nite w/ friends cuz' we're always so busy. I'm looking forward to a nice glass of wine and some "girl" talk!

Ok, my newest Sugar Nellie stamps by Elisabeth Bell came yesterday from Funky Kits and I had to ink one up today. This one is called "Planting Some Love" and I think its darling--it actually comes with a kitty chasing a butterfly stamp too, but I didn't add that on today. I colored her with my Copics and added a few stickles to the flowers on her hat. I added a few highlights w/ my Inkssentials pen too. The delicious dp is from Chatterbox's "Violet Dahlias" and I love the color combo--thought it worked perfectly with this image. I used the sketch challenge from the Dirty Girl challenges on SCS by Holly for this one (although she used a oval & I made mine a circle to fit the image in). The sentiment is from Gina K's "friendship blooms" set and I stamped it w/ SU's lavender lace inkpad directly onto the dp. For a final touch I layered a bazillion Prima flowers and leaves (lol) and adhered them w/ glue dots (the centers are Doodlebug brads). I'm pretty pleased w/ the turnout, whatcha' think?

Ok, onto my last challenge card and I will finally be done w/ all these challenges-hurrah!!! I'll see ya tomorrow--

Suzanne

PS--Jacqui over at Cats Wiskers is giving away some wonderful blog candy. Check it and all her fab creations out here.

Good Mistakes!

Hi again everyone! Yes, it's a double-posting day I guess (doesn't happen often) but I was really pleased with how this creation turned out and wanted to share, since I have something else planned for tomorrow.

This card started off as a triangular-fold card from Beate that you can see here. I wanted mine to be much larger but after cutting & scoring I realized that my measurements were off--not surprising. But I liked the look of having my triangles not reaching the end of the paper so that you can see more of whats behind it. In case you want to try it, my measurements were 5 3/4 x 12 ", after scoring and folding you will have to trim the sides of the triangles a bit. I'm calling mine the "off center triangle fold" card--lol! I make lotsa "good mistakes" that turn into something different from what I planned but sometimes I like it even better!

I used one of my new Sarah Kay stamps called "Rose's Garden" that you can get from Sweet 'n Sassy. I based all my colors off of this yummy paper from K&Co. (Marcella) and used my Copics to color her. I colored the background w/ a soft cream to mimic fabric which is why you can see some lines, it supposed to be that way--everything else is blended. I used my oval nesties to cut and emboss the image. I added some new flowers I bought by Prima which I love--I just layered 2 together and added a jewel to the center (from Doodlebug Designs)--I also colored/blended the edges of the flowers w/ my Copics for some contrast. I pretty much change up most of my embellishments with ink, like brads and flowers--makes what you have go farther. I've had these great metal sentiments hanging around in my embellies drawer for awhile and forgot about them and came across them while digging for my jewels (obviously I need to organize this drawer-lol). These sentiments are from Making Memories and I believe I had bought them at Michaels, the ribbon is from them too. I just shabbed the metal tag up with some ink so it wasn't such a bright white.

I also added a lacelike trim to the edges and inside with my Fiskars border punch (don't know the name of it) but I got most of these Fiskar punches at Target. To finish the inside off, I stamped the side panels with Verve Stamp's "filigree fantasy" set w/ SU's river rock ink. I made my card so it uses the ribbon as a belly band but instead of tying the ribbon I added Scotch's velcro circles to the ribbon to make it easier to get off. I made this card for the Limited Supply Challenge #177 on SCS (although I didn't limit my supplies, ha ha) but I did do a folding card. I also made this for Ismaki's Challenge #28 that you can find here.

All right, I'm outta here. I'm taking a field trip to AC Moore's and Borders tonight, so hopefully I'll come home w/ some goodies. My PTI package should be here tomorrow--yippee!! Until then...

Suzanne

Flower Power!

Good Thursday to everyone! One more day to the weekend-yippee! We have a few things planned for this weekend but not anything major. My dd, Alexa, is taking a 5 hour babysitting/cpr course on Saturday and then we have a pool party to go to. On Sunday my dh and son are playing in a parent/child golf tournament at our Golf Club--my son is so excited about it. Afterwards they give out the prizes and have an ice cream sundae bar set up (hmm..I might have to go that part-lol)! Speaking of ice cream, I don't know if any of you like chocolate brownies & cheesecake (my two faves), but Ben & Jerry's has put the two together and it is fantabulous!! I buy 3 pints at a time---my butt is showing it, so more walking/jogging for me :) If you happen to want some it's called "One Cheesecake Brownie"--hope you can find it cuz' I might have bought them all out--LOL!! Hmmm....maybe I should have done "dessert" cards today---maybe tomorrow :)

***BLOG CANDY ALERT--If you haven't already entered to win my blog candy, you can do so here until this Friday at 11 pm (EST)***

Ok, onto my stamping projects for today. My first card I made was using this week's "new technique" spotlight over at SCS which was making a grid on your cs (they have a tutorial too). Now, I have seen it on others creations & just loved it, but had never tried it for myself--how dumb is that? It's super easy and if you have a scor-pal it will only take a minute to do (if you don't you can use a ruler & bone folder too). This stamp set was the "free with three" over on Gina K's this past month and I just loved this vase of flowers. My mom always had fresh cut flowers in the house in a milk vase similar to this, so I had to get it since it brings good memories. I used this yummo-licious paper (which I'm hoarding cuz' I love it so much) from Daisy D's called "Autumn Collection-Fall in Love" and paired it with SU's really rust cs. I scored a grid onto the cs and then added the dp to the card. The image is colored w/ Copics and I then added 2 coats of diamond glaze to the vase for a nice, glassy shine (ya know I love that stuff--wish I could buy it by the gallon). I used my square nestabilities to layer it and popped it and the sentiment up w/ dimensionals. The ribbon is some that I had gotten from Michael's $1 bin (don't ya love those $1 bins) and it paired well with all the colors. I love this color combo and I definitely will be using it again (kinda fall like which I'm not ready for yet-lol). I inked the edges of everything & the grid pattern with my cream chalk ink from ColorBox to shab it up a bit and ta-da it's done!

The second card is using my Stamping Bella "Gardenia Greenthumb" stamp that my bella Sistah Cathy sent me (thanks again). This is the first time I've inked her up, I haven't used any of my bellas in awhile, they must be lonely. Have you seen some of their new stamps--I really want that bella on a bike w/ her dog, eventually I guess I'll get it. I used dp from Basic Grey's "Sultry" pad and the cs is SU's pixie pink & purely pomegranate. She's colored with Copics and I added stickles to some of the flowers and her lil' fairy wings. The sentiment is from PTI's "flower garden sentiments" and stamped w/ SU's coordinating ink. I added a faux bow with the matching SU ribbon and placed the sentiment (which is glazed with diamond glaze for a glass pebble look) on top. All of the edges were punched with my SU ticket corner punch, which I love to use. Lastly I added 3 rhinestone flowers from Imaginisce and she's done--all pretty in pink and dressed up to garden--ha ha, like any of us evah' look like that gardening!

Hope you have a great afternoon--if the weather stays nice we are headed to the pool for awhile!

Until tomorrow...

Suzanne

Lovely Lavender!

Good Friday Morning everyone! As you're reading this, I am hopefully getting ready to get out the door with my large brood (1 dh, 2 kids, 2 dogs & various luggage) to go to Snowshoe, WV. I'm looking forward to a long weekend of "nothing"--just visiting and chilling. Any activities will be of the slow kind (not like in Disney where you run around from morn' till nite) like fishing, hiking and sitting-lol!! I might actually finish a book--omg! I love to read, but I'm always otherwise occupied or just too tired and I end up reading the same paragraph over & over (dontcha' hate that)! I hope everyone has a great weekend wherever you are & whatever you do! I will have one more post for ya before I get back, otherwise it will be late Tuesday before I'm able to get back on my blog--so don't miss me too much :)

This was a fun little notecard to make--didn't take much time at all and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I used some of my new, yummy dp from Basic Grey's "Euphoria" pad--it has the best patterns & colors in it! I paired it with SU's gable green cs to really make it pop. **Enabler Alert--if you're looking for these great paper pads by Basic Grey, Gina K is now selling them along with all the matching accessories--yippee)** I know I used my Cuttlebug "swiss dots" embossing folder again--I have all of the embossing folders but this is the one I seem to pull out again & again (love it)--and I really love how it looks on white cs, just bright & clean! The stamp is from MFT's "lavender by Annie Lapointe"--I really like these stamps, they're quick & fun to color and just good all-around. I colored it w/ my Copics in under 5 mins (that's a record for me) and added some stickles to the polka dots on the pot. I just layered it up, used some dimensionals and finished it off with some ribbon from American Crafts--ta da! I will definitely be making more of these, I think they would make a lovely notecard gift set (can u say "xmas presents"--heehee). Hope you likee!

We're off so have a great relaxing weekend!

Suzanne