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!!

Sunglasses People!!

Good TGIF everyone!! Yeahhhhhh, its the weekend!! We have absolutely no plans this weekend & ya know what that means? Stampin' time for me, oh yeah!! We are going to dinner tonight with friends w/o the kids which is a rare treat for us, so that will be fun. But other than that, we have no plans...how often does that happen--nevah!!

Ok, today is a 2 card day for ya, but ya bettah put your sunglasses on cuz' they're BRIGHT!! My first card I made using some of my new goodies from All That Scraps that came the other day (remember my happy mail). This stamp set is by CC Designs & is called "Sweet Treats"--too stinkin' cute I think!! I used the weekly sketch #186 over on SCS for this card. This dp by Doodlebug Designs (birthday girl party time) I adore and it fits right in w/ this stamp, dontcha' think? The limey green cs is by Coredinations, the hot pink by SU. I colored my lil' bear w/ Copics and then added some diamond stickles to the edges of the ice cream. I also paper pierced around her for some added detail. The strip of hot pink cs w/ embossed buttons was made with one of the new CB embossing folders (Just My Type borders)--it comes with 5 cute edge borders that I got from CutatHome but you can also get it here. I used one of the sentiments and added stickles to the "SWEET" and layered it. For final touches I added some pink pearls from Ellen Hutson and the cute lil' library clip (thanks to my bella sistah Cathy for these) is by MM.

The second card I made actually won me a prize this week. I had made this last week and added it to the Inque Boutique gallery--they pick a card from the gallery every week to win $50 worth of their stamps. This was the first time I had entered and I actually won--can ya' believe it!! I had my list of stamps I wanted all ready for them--ha ha!! Anyhow, this card was made with one of their mini sets called "Memoirs" that you can get here. If you haven't tried out their stamps, they are really great & stamp beautifully (not to mention easy on the wallet)! I used 3 of the stamps together to make a mini scene (the tree is 2 stamps). I added diamond glaze to the tree foliage for shine and outlined the house w/ black marker to make it pop. This dp is from Cosmo Cricket's "Hello Sunshine" paper pad--pretty mod I think. I used my largest scalloped circle nestie to make the card base--I like these round cards and this is my first time making one. I used some more nesties to cut out the rest of the layers including the sentiment. I added some ribbon from the Michaels $1 bin and made a loop at the top and tied it. I thought this would make a great housewarming gift card to attach to a bottle of wine or a goodie basket and it was quick & easy to make. It's a winner (ha ha)!!

Ok, I hope you all have a great Friday evening and I will post at least once this weekend for ya!! Until then...

Suzanne

PS--I've won a couple of awards from some sweet blogging friends--I will upload them this weekend (I haven't forgotten) & thanks!!!

Alone Time

I'm back ladies, better late than never I guess! I've been working on a few projects that I hope to share in the next couple of days and in between had to run the kids to activities. I'm so happy to see that people are entering for my blog candy! I'm so glad that the winner will be picked randomly, because I wouldn't want to pick a favorite out of all the responses:-) I'd have to be totally selfish and say I'd want to be deserted on an island for a few days by myself just to read a great book & eat some good food (hopefully my island would have a resort just a hop, skip & away-lol). I like my alone time too much. Don't get me wrong though I love my dh & kids dearly and love to be around people. I'm a very social person and I love to have get togethers and all that, but I also like "me time" when the kids are at school and the house is all quiet. I love that time--I can get so much done and I love to pop open the windows and just have the outside sounds as my music--its very calming. Anyway, I'm having such good fun reading everyone's responses that I might have to ask a random question once a week just to see the answers--LOL!!

Ok, onto my cards for the day. I have a mountain of thank-you cards to make for all the kindness sent my way last week while I was sick and I thought I'd get a good jump on them. Both of these are thank-you gate fold cards that I will be sending out. They are so easy to make and so much fun for the recipient to open. The dimensions for these cards can be found on the Scor-Pal website (under the April/May edition, Mothers Day gatefold). You of course can change the sizes of these to fit your needs. The red card's dp is from Me&MyBig Ideas and the polkadots are from PTI's "Polka Dot Basics" set which I adore almost as much as my "swiss dots" cuttlebug folder--lots of uses for this stamp set! The flower is from Verve Visual's "petal & stems" collection which is one of four of their new stamp sets (I of course had to had all four)--I love that this set has plain images and then the same image but with polkadots (love em).

The second card is with Crate Paper dp which I've been hoarding (do you hoard supplies too?--more on that tomorrow). I love the colors and designs of all their papers. I paired it up with PTI's "spring moss" cardstock. The stamps on the front and the inside are from Inque Boutique's Savoir Faire collection--this is the "Nightingale set "(mine are from A Cherry On Top, one of my favorite online stores). I have a few of their stamp sets here that I haven't opened, so this was my first time inking one up. I'm really impressed with the quality of stamp and their beautiful designs--I will definitely be using these some more. I colored the stamps with SU markers and the inside sentiment is SU too. The front flower has a dewdrop in the middle and just a little bling on the leaves (stickles ya know, come on you know that's my favorite kind) & its popped up w/ dimensionals.

Well, hope you liked everything! Remember if you haven't entered for the blog candy-please do so before 11 pm on Thursday nite so we can get a winner on Friday. See ya tomorrow!

Suzanne

**CC Designs** new stamp sets are being released at midnite tonight on All That Scraps -- I will be first in line to order both sets!! Make sure to check them out--really,really cute!