It's A Circus!

Good afternoon everyone! Hope you all are enjoying summer so far--can you believe its July already? Sadly, the summer always seems to fly by--it's my favorite time of year! We're spending the day at the pool so I'm posting this early--I figured out how to delay my posts so that I can type them the day before and have them posted when I'm not here--yippee--it only took me like 4 months to figure that out--lol! Little by little I'm getting the hang of it!

Just a quick post today--I made this cute circus card for 2 challenges. One of the challenges is hosted by Melanie Muenchinger who is a stamp designer for Gina K. Her challenge was to make a card using her stamps but also you had to make it for another challenge too--dual challenges--I like it! I like nothing better than a good challenge to get the ole' mojo flowing! So the second challenge is for Julee's Mojo Monday Madness Contest in which you have to use her sketch to participate.

The stamp set I picked to use is called "Jumping For Joy" and I love the way you can use all the stamps together in different ways--remember this card--I used the same set. The dp and ribbon are from American Crafts and I loved the bright, circus like colors of it. I always pick out my dp first and then go from there as far as my creative process goes--everything is laid out from there. Everything was stamped, colored w/ Copics and then cut out. I put Diamond Glaze on the seal to make him wet & shiny and there are lots of stickles everywhere, & of course they're all popped up w/ dimensionals!! One thing I'd like to say about the diamond glaze--after it's dried on your cut-out image, you can bend it and it will stay, really cool to do with your stamped images (I bent the seals flippers out). To get the scalloped border I used my Fiskar's "threading water" border punch which I really like alot. (Enabler Alert--SU is coming out with a scallop border punch in their new catalog if you're interested) I added red brads to where the holes would be in the scalloped edge and the sentiment was cut out with my tag nestabilities. (You should see all the new nesties coming out--oh boy am I in trouble cuz' I love them all)!! I also used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder on the bg cs to match the polka dots in the dp. I also cut out an extra star from the dp and popped it up on dimensionals & added some stickles--I thought that area of the card needed a lil' somethin' extra!

The little treat/favor box I made to match was done with my Cricut (Tags, Bags,Boxes & More cartridge). I just added some of the dp to it and punched some stars out w/ my SU star punches. I added some curly ribbon and stickles and tadaaaaaaa it was done. Just a fun, easy project for a kids party or treat before the circus perhaps. Hope you likee!

Ok I'm outta here--have a great day!!

Suzanne

Friday Surprise!!

Happy TGIF! Ahh, it's almost weekend time and only 2 more days of school left. No more getting up at 6 am--yippee--we get to sleep in (we are a family of sleepers here)!! Two dance recitals this weekend and then we are officially done,well, except for camps. My daughter has to take 4 weeks of ballet camp (required at her level) and my son is taking 1 week of golf camp and 1 week of tennis camp. We'll probably go to Rehoboth Beach for a few days, and then my dh and I are taking an 8 day trip by ourselves this summer (so looking forward to that)!! The rest of the time we will chill--so need that--just doing whatever we want! Love Summer :)

Today's project is actually the one I was working on the other day -- you know the day the extreme heat here fried my brain-lol! This was the New Technique Challenge on SCS for this week and you can find the tutorial for it here. I just love doing challenging cards and this one was a little bit challenging--once you get one done, I'm sure it gets easier the second time around. I think I was overly challenged because I changed some of the dimensions and it was kind of trial and error the first go-around. The pop-up element was just calling for a cut-out popper and I was just dying to use my new stamp set "Jumping for Joy" by Gina K. I just love this little bear--looks like he's cannonballing into the pool (my son's fave activity). When I saw this tutorial I just knew it would make a fantastic invitation--and what better than a summer invite to a pool party, really fun to recieve! I've had this Frances Meyer pool paper forevah and dug it out of my stash to use for the background dp. The yellow cs is PTI's summer sunrise. I printed the words out on my computer on PTI's white cs and then colored them in w/ my Copics. I added some pool waves and drew some "splash water" onto the dp and then cut it out and pasted it behind the bear. Lots of stardust stickles on this card--love the sparkle! Hope you likee it--go see the tutorial and try one for yourself. I know I'll be making more of these in the future.

I will try and post at least one project this weekend. We will be running around to recitals and trying to celebrate Dad's Day somewhere in between-lol. Until then...

Suzanne

Pool Party Invite--Gina K stamps "Jumping for Joy" (invite words, bear, beach ball), computer font, PTI white & summer sunrise cs, Frances Meyer pool dp, Doodlebug Designs polka-dot dp, Copics, American Crafts ribbon, stardust stickles, dimensionals