Silent Night!!

Happy Monday morning to you all! We survived the weekend and hopefull you did too, lol! Octoberfest was a blast even though we got a quick rainshower which the kids loved playing in--but it was steamy hot for sure. My Copic class was fun and hopefully the girls came away with some good tips and learned something! And my football team, the Redskins won their game yesterday so all is good!! But as always I'm sending out good thoughts and prayers to those who are suffering from the aftermath of big, bad Hurricane Ike! Hopefully that's the last of those kinda storms for the coast, here here!!

I'm just posting one card for ya today. I have lots to share with you this week though, so stay tuned. I actually colored this image at my Copic class I did on Saturday and knew I had to make another card with her. I love this Willow by Whiff of Joy (illustrated by the fabulous Elisabeth Bell)--she is definitely my favorite, just so beautiful and elegant for the holidays (not to mention that her dress is super fun to color). I wanted to use some colors that aren't always associated with Christmas but are lovely just the same. I chose to use this dp from Memory Box called "Frost"(absolutely love all their holiday paper) and incorporate the lilac colors throughout my card and image. **NOTE--I just found out that Christine from All That Scraps is carrying most of the Whiff of Joy stamps--yippee! So for you in the US this is wonderful!**

After coloring her with my Copics, I added sparkle with my Copic Atyou Spica markers (if you haven't tried them you really should)--a softer, finer sparkle than Stickles. The only problem is they don't photograph as well as the Stickles, so in real life this card really sparkles! The sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms "Christmas Expressions" by Mona Lisa Moments--wonderful for Xmas. I also added pearls to the center of the dp's snowflakes to match the snowflake flowers by K&Company. I wanted her to look as though she was floating thru a snowy night--so whatcha think? BTW, sneak peeks of the new Whiff of Joy stamps will be coming real soon--wait until you see them, omgosh just so fun and beautiful!! Katharina will also be having sneak peeks on her blog too!

If you didn't go to Paper Trey Ink's release party last nite (super fun) then you should definitely check out their new releases. The stamps, paper and ribbon, oh my--I had to have it all :)

See ya tomorrow,

Suzanne

Sleigh Ride!!

Happy Sunday everyone! I'm back in the saddle, as they say--it was great to go away and great to be home again. My dh and I had a wonderful time in Philadelphia and the weather couldn't have been any better, low 80's w/ no humidity and sunny, blue skies--the best!! We saw just about every historical site the city had to offer and walked for miles and miles (my feet will tell u the story)! The 2 pictures above are of the Liberty Bell and Betsey Ross' house (she sewed the 1st American flag ya know). We were able to relax and just enjoy each other w/o any outside distractions--a must every now and again. We always made sure to be back in our suite in time to watch the Olympics every night though--we're obsessed! Loved watching the amazing Michael Phelps swim and the US gymnastics team--we were cheering so loud, I thought the people across the hall were going to complain--LOL! Gotta love the Olympics!!

My card today uses another stamp from the Whiff of Joy line by Katharina Frei. I will tell you that these stamps are great to work with--nice, deeply etched rubber and stamp out fantastic, and fun to color (which is always my fave)! This stamp is called "Charlotte in Sled" and if you check it out on the website, you'll notice that the stamp has only one reindeer attached. Welllll, you know how I love to change everything up--so I stamped an extra reindeer, cut it out and popped it up with dimensionals to look like she has a small team of reindeer--just different & fun! This xmas dp is from Imagnisce's "Snowy Jo" line and the cs is SU's new "riding hood red" cs. All of the images are colored with Copics, stickles added to the jinglebells and snow/snowflakes. The snowflakes and sentiment are from Sweet 'n Sassy's "Snow Friends" stamp set. I added diamond glaze to the sled and some highlights w/ my Inkssentials pen. Hope ya like it and maybe get ya thinking about your Christmas cards (yeah right u say)!!

If I get all my chickies in order, I will be posting my BLOG CANDY on Monday for going over 10,000 blog hits thanks to all of you great blog readers/stampin friends out there!! I've got some great goodies to give away, so be on the lookout for that!

Until then...

Suzanne

A Whiff of Christmas!

Good Sunday morning to you all! As you are reading this, I am on my way to Philadelphia w/ my hubby (no kids, no dogs, & no cats--yeehaw)!! We are really enjoying our downtime and I'm sooo looking forward to walking around the city and eating some great food. We love to eat good food and we love all kinds of food, so its always fun to find great, new restaurants in different places. Last night we went to a fondue restaurant and it was really fun, but I ate wayyy too much...will definitely have to walk all these calories off while we're away :) I will probably only have 1 more post for ya while I'm away, but I'll be back next Sunday with some new stuff and some pics for ya.

I got my new stamps from Katharina today for A Whiff of Joy (a great perk of getting to be a Guest Designer for her)--I just had to ink them up and share one project with you before my vacay. They are sooooo cute--I love them all---go check them out when you get a chance!!! I also love that she included some cute boy images in her stamps (his name is Charlie and hers is Charlotte). This particular image I used is called "Winter Charlotte w/ Cat"--ya know I'm always partial to stamp images w/ animal friends on them!! I used traditional holiday colors for this card--you can never go wrong with green & red, ya know!! I love this new dp from Imagnisce's "Snowy Jo" line, the colors are softer and the patterns are really nice.

This card is 5.5x5.x5" and I used SU always artichoke cs for the card base. I wanted to give Charlotte a scene to stand in front of, but I didn't want it to overpower her--so I stamped a Christmas tree from the SU set "Tis the Season" onto PTI's spring moss cs, then added liquid applique (heated to puff up) to the tree and ground. I also drew small snowflakes with an SU marker and then added diamond stickles to the snowflakes and on top of the liquid applique. Charlotte was colored with Copics and then diamond stickles were added to her hat trim and muff (I love my sparkles)! I cut her out and added to layers of dimensionals (one on top of the other) to really pop her up from the "scene".

The skinny piece of red cs was embossed with one of my CB embossing folders and then I wrapped some sheer white ribbon around it and tied off. The sentiment is from SU's set "Circle of Friendship" and layered onto cs that was punched out with my circle punches and scalloped nestabilities. I placed the sentiment on top of a red Prima flower and then layered with the scalloped circles and placed on top of the bow's knot. For a final touch I added 3 red dew drops to the top of the card--ta da!!!

I hope you like it and hope it gets ya in the Xmas spirit (at least for a few minutes, right)! Make sure and check out Katharina's stamps when ya get a chance. I will share more projects with these stamps when I return. Have a great week and see ya soon!!

Suzanne

Snow in July!!!

Hello everyone! Hope your Wednesday is going well. I have to say a big "YIPEE"--know why? Cuz' I FINISHED all of the 20 Dirty Girl Challenges today on SCS---yeah me!! I did it and can't believe I did it, it was fun, tiring and challenging that's for sure. I'll share some of the challenge cards with you over the next week or so.

So today I got some happy mail from my blogger friend Heidi. We swapped images--she sent me some oh so adorable Precious Moments images and I sent her Sarah Kay images. I want all of these Precious Moments stamps--LOVE them! I have alot of Precious Moments figurines, my mom started buying them for me when I was little and I have a ton!! Of course they're going for a small fortune over on Ebay, but I have my lil' eye on a couple that I want (don't ask me what I'm willing to pay cuz' you might faint away-lol)!! So, I'm sssssooooo thankful to Heidi for sending me a bunch, especially the Xmas ones--just darling.

Since I was so excited to get these PM images I just had to use one today. I decided to do the challenge over on Our Creative Corner this week--it's to make a Christmas card in July. Now I am definitely not one to get going on my holiday stuff early especially when it feels like 100 degrees outside--ya know what I mean? I love Christmas (I am a xmas addict and will have 9 trees in my house this year--yes I am a fanatic--I will post pics in December) but I just can't into the mood until fall when the kids go back to school--I want to enjoy the summer, not worry about how many days I have to make my xmas cards-lol!!

Ok, onto the deets of this card. I watercolored the image with my SU inkpads and Twinkling H2O's. I added some stickles to some of the Xmas decorations and put on liquid applique and puffed it w/ my heat gun for the snow. The yummy Xmas dp is from Basic Grey's "fruitcake" line that I got last year. I paired it w/ some Bazzill cs that I had. I used my nestabilities to cut out all of the circles (gosh, how I {heart} those things). The ribbon is from Michaels and those cutie-patootie white glitter dots I got from Gina K (love em--want them all)--don't they look like snowballs? The silver snowflake I got in a pack from AC Moore last year and I added a glitter dot to the middle and attached it to the ribbon center. For the final touch I used my Inkssentials pen to highlight the image some and add dots to the scalloped circle.

So there ya go--Merry Xmas in July!! It was fun to make, but I think I'll save my Xmas creations for the fall--I'm still on summer TIME people!! Until tomorrow...

Suzanne