Holiday Blog Hop!

Happy Monday folks!  Have you started decorating for Christmas yet?  I have, slowly but surely a little bit each day so that by Thanksgiving we can get our real 12+ ft tree for our family room.  But I LOVE this time of year so much...it just makes me happy..and keeps me busy LOL.  I won't chitter chatter much because I have lots of project photos, details and hop details to share with you!

But if you missed any of my posts on my other blog...hop on over to see some holiday crafts I've been working on over there.

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HOLIDAY BLOG HOP

My Winter Wonderland Holiday Box

Today both the 

Magnolia-licious & Scor-Pal DTs are having a super fabulous holiday hop

for you all!

We want to inspire you to get crafty with some holiday, wintry projects!!

And as always there are a FEW WAYS TO PLAY along as you hop along, so don't miss a thing!

For all the details and blog hop order in one place hop to the Challenge Blog when you are done!

PLAY ALONG 2 WAYS

The 1st way to play is to collect the letters and clues on each blog as you hop along...then when you have them all--have fun unscrambling a holiday expression and email to Suzanne (me) at sjdean0574@yahoo.com by Dec 30th.  Each blog has either letters or a clue in RED at the bottom of their post.

The 2nd way to play (and you can do both to get 2 entries) is to submit a Holiday/Winter Themed project at the Challenge Blog by Dec 31st.  See Challenge Blog for the prizes and other details.

(winners will be announced by Jan 4th)

Now let's have some fun ok?

If you have been hopping then you would have come to me from Patti Jo's Blog, if not make sure to hit all the blogs and continue on the hop at the bottom of my blog.

I made a Winter Wonderland Holiday Box for my hop project and it was so much fun to make!  For my project I decided to use one of those fab 3D Kit boxes by LaLa Land that Magnolia-licious sells. They are super easy to put together and sooo much fun to decorate.  I used the Best Glue Ever to glue mine and then put a book on top once it was all done (except the easel back piece) to make sure all the seams dried evenly.  Then I painted it white with acrylic paint and added my fave MS Glitter Snow to the decorative designs on the front.

My trees were cut out with my Silhouette Cameo in different heights (if you don't have a Cameo, use a die like this one) and then they got a 3-step process...inked with dark navy ink, then I used a Liquid Applique Pen in white to add puffy snow to the branches, then finished off with some Snow Glitter and Tinsel products applied with Tacky Glue.

TIP: Cut your background paper to size FIRST, BEFORE you put your box together to make it easier on yourself...trust me. My paper is by BoBunny.

I handcut some snowy hills out of white cardstock and added them in the background after coating them with some snow glitter & tinsel.

Here's a side view...the boxes come with an easel back piece so they stand up nicely.

I painted all sides and back of my box with the white paint.

The lamp post is a LaLa Land die that Magnolia-licious sells as well. Its such a fun accent to use.  I added vellum behind the glass areas of the lamp and colored them light yellow with a TouchTwin marker.  I also smudged white ink and added some Stickles & Snow Glitter onto the lamp post so it looked like it was coated in snow too.

At the bottom of the box I added a banner that I stamped with snowflakes and then hand-numbered with the year 2013.  The banner is from a PTI die that cuts the banner so it bends and pops up for dimension...and some Stickles along the edges for more sparkle.

I used an oldie but goodie stamp "Edwin & Tilda Skating" that is STILL my fave holiday stamp of all time from Magnolia-licious! They're just adorable!  It comes in both regular size & mini size, if its out of stock send a note that you are interested in it to Diana as she may be getting more in if they're all gone.  To make the stamped image and lamp post pop out more I just cut white cardstock the width I needed and glued it to the image in 3 places--lamp in 2 places, bent it twice and then glued to the backside of box.

I had fun coloring them with my TouchTwin Markers and then adding some extras.  The fur trim on their coats got white Doodlebug Flock, Stickles on her skates and pockets and a cute mini pom-pom added to Edwin's cap.  I love adding details like that!

On the top of my box I added some Memory Box "Frostyville" diecuts and centered it with a snowflake coated in MS Snow Glitter.

The frosty coated lamp post shining some light down on Edwin & Tilda. I love the chunky look of the MS Snow Glitter.

Hope you enjoyed my frosty project today & keep hopping along to see 

the DT's amazing projects and collect your LETTERS & CLUES!

MY LETTERS ARE:

H, i, f
And the Clue is:
A "twist" on a popular holiday expression

Now you need to hop onto

 Dena Concienne's Blog

to see what holiday fun she's created!

Wheeeee!!

Hello Everyone & Welcome to the middle of the week!!  Is January over yet?  I swear I'm ready for April aleady--I need more sun, more green & more warmth, it's driving me crazy!!  The South is just calling my name, can you hear it shout "Suzanne, move here it's warm!", LOL!  Well ok, if you can hear that than you're just as crazy as me and we're in good company together, hee hee!  But unfortunately there are a few more months of cold weather ahead so I just gotta bear down & deal with it.

Below I have a few answers to a BUNCH of questions about the "Belly Fat Cure" (see book HERE)--I am officially down 9 lbs today & I am soooo psyched!  Last nite we had cheeseburgers, skillet fried potatoes & some blackberries & a pickle--low sugar ketchup included (and that stuff is pretty darn good)!  I love being able to eat real food, just watching my carbs & sugars--I'm not good with the willpower stuff, I lack that gene, lmbo!  You can access Jorge Cruise's site & blog right HERE!

-You do get to eat sugar, but only 15 grams or 5 grams per meal!  You will be AMAZED to see how much sugar is in stuff--I was eating a week's worth of sugar in 1 day people!  CRAZY--no wonder the weight around my hips & stomach wasn't budging!

-Carbs are limited to 120 grams a day which is easy peasy!  You can still eat butter & bread--yay for me!  When you eat too many carbs & sugars it creates insulin excess in your body which tells your body to HOLD onto all the fat not get rid of it!  I'm proof and I'm a born natural skeptic, but I've lost almost 10 lbs just by following this! 

-I use Stevia now and it's really good--it's a natural sugar!  Any fake sugars like Splenda or Aspartame is really bad (I did know this for a long time)--they cause cancer in lab animals, so think what it does to your body!

-I was able to give up my soda by taking caffeine pills once a day so I didn't have withdrawal, but coffee & tea are allowed on the plan. But not milk (wahh), only almond milk which is ok but not great--guess I'll get used to it--who knew milk had so much sugar in it!

-Don't laugh but I'm making this delicious chocolate cake with chocolate icing with Stevia, soy flour, cocoa & black beans--yes, black beans, but I'm told it's YUMM-i-LICIOUS!  I'll let ya know :o)

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NewsBitz:

-Make sure and stop by Susana's Custom Art & Card Design store blog HERE to enter for the Yummy Blog Candy for Victoria Case's new fabulous release!

-Next Monday, the Magnolia-licious DT will be having a fun "Pretty In Pink" Blog Hop for ya--so get your pink stuff out & ready to go!!

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Wheeeee!

Today I have a card for you that represents all things winter, cuz' yeah it's still winter whether I like it or not, lol!  Poor little "Edwin on Sled" was feeling neglected so I had to pull him out & use him before Spring comes--you can find him HERE at Magnolia-licious!  I knew as soon as I pulled him out that he'd be perfect for a stair-step card (you can find directions for this kind of card HERE).  The tree is a Spellbinder's die--I cut 2 of them, bent the 2nd one & attached it with scor-tape so it was 3-D!  I added some DecoArt SnowWriter and MS Snow Glitter for the frosty accents.

The dp I used on this card is from Magnolia--love the colors, it matches my SU soft sky (hoarded paper) perfectly and I paired it with some chocolate brown cs to ground all the light colors a bit.  The sentiment is from the PTI set "Rustic Snowflakes"--love this set!  The snowflakes were done with Marvy & MS punches & then I added some MS snow glitter.  I cut the snowy hills free-hand :o)

Little Edwin was colored with Copics (BG75,BG72,BG11,BG10/E25,E44,E43,E42,E41) and then I cut him out & popped him up with dimensionals!  He reminds me of my son who loves to ski, sled & snowboard outside till his nose freezes, lol!  Hope you liked my frosty winter card as well!

I'll see ya back here tomorrow!!

Friday Fun!!

Hello everyone & Yay--Happy Friday too!! Dontcha' just love the weekends? I leave tomorrow for NY for a week but will be posting everyday so please make sure & visit--got alot of projects to share with ya while I'm gone!! I'll keep this monologue short for ya today since I've got alot going on here in craft land & at home. My mom comes today and then we all leave for NY tomorow so I've got lots to finish up including projects, laundry & packing. Riley is doing okay but still struggling so that is taking up alot of my time just making sure he's okay & resting--thanks for your sweet thoughts, it means alot to us!! (Make sure and scroll down to see both projects today including for the Magnolia-licious Blog Hop today!!)

So today is the big day--yay---you can now purchase the NEW Elisabeth Bell for SCACD today at Susana's Custom Art & Card Design & they are ALL gorgeous--right HERE! Today I'm featuring "Susan" and isn't she just a sweetheart & named after our sweetie DT sistah' Susan Dube (lovee her so much)!! I paired her up with this yummy dp from K&Co. for a vintage look--love all these colors together! The corner punch is from Stampin' Up and I added some goldilocks "Bella Baubles" too-her shirt also got diamond stickles & some gold Smooch paint on her buttons. I think she's fabulously beautiful--perfect for any occasion which is why I left off a sentiment so this card can be sent for any sweet reason! So if ya love them, head over to SCACD to order yours now!!

Next up is a fun project for the Magnolia-licious Blog Hop by the DT today!! If you're headed here from Suzy's blog make sure & start at the beginning at Jacque's blog to see everyone's fun projects! The DT decided to create only "Edwin" (boy) cards/projects for you today since most of us struggle to create manly/boy cards most of the time. I apologize for not finishing my entire project--I had wanted to create a gift box to go along with this card but due to my son being ill I just wasn't able to finish in time (sorry, sorry--I feel awful about it)!

But I really love this "Loving Edwin" from Magnolia-licious because he is so very versatile for so many celebrations! I decided to create a friend birthday card for my son's friend that would be appropriate but not baby-ish! My dp is from my very favorite Basic Grey "Cupcake" stack paired with SU cs. I actually cut the balloon out of his hand then re-attached with embroidery floss for a more realistic look. I added diamond glaze to the balloon & his buttons for shine and then buttons with glitterdots on top to embellish. I didn't want to gussy up the card too much since it's for a young boy & wanted the dp to really shine. I embossed the red panel with a Cuttlebug folder & then spritzed the entire card with Shimmerz Spritz in "baby's breath"! The sentiment is from PTI's "Mega Mixed Messages".

So to continue on the blog hop, now head to JACQUE's BLOG to see her fabulous Edwin card!! Now if you'd like to play along with us there are 2 fabulous gift certificates up for grabs on the Magnolia-licious Highlites blog--go HERE for details!!

I'll see you back here on Monday--until then I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

hugz,
Suzanne

Boo-Boo Edwin!

Good Tuesday Morning! I'm posting early today, because I'm planning on spending a good portion of our day at the pool with the kids. I need to work on my tan (he he) some more and actually finish the book I started 3 weeks ago!! I'd like to say I actually finished a book this summer-lol! Usually I read alot, but I've been spending tons of time in my craft room so I don't read as much as I used to. The great thing about having kids that are 10 & 12 is that they don't need me in the pool hovering over them, so I'm free to read and chat with friends. Love that! We're also going out for girl's nite again tomorrow nite, so I'm looking forward to some more laughs and just chilling out! Don't we all need that every now & then?


Ok, I made my first Edwin card yesterday--yeah!!! I have quite a few Edwin stamps but had yet to ink any up for a card (gasp)...I love these Magnolia stamps so much. They are so fun to color and cut out or paper piece. Remember if you're looking to order some of these adorable stamps for yourself, you can contact Diana Crick at magnolia.us@shaw.ca and place an order. You can also join the Yahoo Magnolia-licious group (located on my sidebar)--it's a great group for ideas, inspiration and support! She's also taking pre-orders for the new fall Magnolia stamps--omg, I think I pre-ordered them all...LOL...you might be laughin', but my checkbook sure isn't!!! :)


I call this image Boo-Boo Edwin--he's so cute with his lil' band-aids--reminds me of my son so I'm calling this card "Ode to Riley" (my ds)!! He's always getting into scrapes and banged up; we should buy stock in bandages I think-lol! This sketch is from the Tilda & Co. challenge blog for this week. Pretty simple sketch that you can interpret in many ways--very versatile. I stamped both Edwin and the stone wall and then colored them with Copics and cut out (these are 2 separate stamps). The dp is from Basic Grey's "Cupcake" 6x6 paper pad. I paired it w/ some SU cs and just layered away. I stamped the 3 clouds (also from Magnolia) and popped them up with dimensionals--I also added stickles to the edges. The little caterpillar is from PTI's "pond life" stamp set--I stamped it and then added shadow to it with my Copics and then cut it out. I glued this lil' guy to the wall and added stickles to him for sparkle (gotta love those stickles). I had to add a buggy creature because my son is obsessed with all those creepy crawly things--yuck!! The stone wall and Edwin are popped up with dimensionals for a 3-D look--I hate flat images on my cards, dimension is so much fun.

The sentiment is from Verve Stamps "Feeling Groovy" which has song lyrics for sentiments--so fun!! I stamped it onto the yellow cs w/ SU's bashful blue ink. For a final touch I added Basic Grey brads to the corners--I didn't want this card fussy since it features a boy. My son gave it his stamp of approval--which is saying something-lol!!


Hope ya like it! Enjoy your day & I'll see ya tomorrow--
Suzanne

PS--I will start adding what size my cards are to the end of each post from now on. A few people have asked for a Copic list too--I will try and do that on some of my posts--I always use so many, that it's sometime a pain to list, but I'll try!! This card is 5.5 x 5.5 btw!!