Candy and a Card

The very talented Debbi is giving away some lovely goodies over at her blog.  If you use promarkers (or would like to give them a go) Debbi has some excellent tutorials.

And here is a card I made for a competition being held by The Papeterie, a local craft store in Aberdeen. It had to be made with products currently sold at the store, so I've gone for a Simply Sassy image, coloured with promarkers and mounted onto card & DP sold at the shop. Cards entered are then donated to charity.

Have a great holiday weekend and hope you all manage to fit in some crafty time.

Suze x

How Lucky Am I?

How lucky am I to have made such a wonderful new friend in Valerie-Jael Tups.  This morning Mr Postman dropped a beautiful mail art envelope through my door which had winged it's way from Valerie in Germany.

Not only did it contain an origami japanese bookmark but a beautiful card and tag too.

Beautiful gifts from a wonderfully talented lady.

Thank you so much Valerie.

'Hugs' Suze x

"Less is More" Challenge

Week 12 over at the Less is More Challenge and this week the recipe is 'off centre'. Well, all I can say is how come I can easily create an 'off centre' card when I don't have to think about it but when I 'have' to do it, it's a struggle.

Finally decided to do something with my faithful old 'inchies' ...

Inkadinkado Inchies stamped with Kaleidacolor ink and clear embossed.  Mounted onto Stampin Up  and Bo Bunny Papers.  Sentiment from Hero Arts.

Have a great Easter Sunday and eats lots of chocolate.

Happy Crafting

Suze x

GC99 Gingersnap Creations - Fans

The new Random Redhead Challenge over at Gingersnap Creations is "Fans".

I decided to use my favourite die of the moment - Tim Holtz' mannequin.  I used the die to make both the mannequin and the cheongsam but trimmed them down to a more slender oriental frame!

The fans are an inkadinkado stamp which I coloured with promarkers and sakura pens and mounted onto a 'panel'.

Maybe a bit 'clean & simple' for this challenge, what do you think!?

Happy Crafting
Suze x

"Less is More" Challenge

Week 11 over at the "Less is More" Challenge and this week those cheeky LIMettes Mandi & Chrissie set us the challenge of using acetate in our cards. Well, it hasn't been easy, but you have to give it a go, don't you! So here's my creation:

I had originally die cut the mannequin in acetate and stamped onto it but it looked a bit 'wishy washy', so after a bit of trial and error, I diecut the mannequin in textured black card (sorry, texture doesn't show up in photo). I then die cut the flowers in acetate and coloured them with promarkers. The colours appeared quite pale so I added a white die cut behind the acetate.  All layers of the flower were also dry embossed.

A bit more trial and error and I managed to print the sentiment in the correct place.  I have used "Chrissie's" scriptina font.

Tim Holtz Dies - Sewing Room & Tattered Florals
Victorian Fleur embossing folder
Black textured card
Acetate from the packaging of my mother's day orchid
Glossy Accents to adhere the acetate
Promarkers and bling

Thanks for visiting and I'll try and get round you all this week.

Happy Crafting
Suze x

Gingersnap Gem

I'm so excited this morning, I have been awarded the title of "Ginger Gem" for my entry into the Gingersnap Creations Typewriter challenge.  This is a new challenge for me and this award has really given me a boost.

They run several challenges at once and I think they all run for about a month. Why not pop on over there  and see if you fancy trying something different.

Happy Crafting

Suze x

GC95 Gingersnap Creations - Typewriters

As I have a typewriter stamp, I thought I'd put in a last minute entry for the typewriter challenge over at Gingersnap Creations.

I've made a little altered notebook.

I just printed out photos of my desk and added an appropriate message on the typewriter.

Hero Arts Cling - My Type using Black Versafine & Black EP
K & Co Madeline round stamp using Gold EP
Red Raffia
Distressed a little with Vintage Photo

Happy Crafting

Suze x

"Less is More" Challenge

A bit of a late entry for me this week, as we've been away to the Isle of Skye for a few days and I decided that I wasn't going to do any blogging whilst away (family time & R&R!). Anyway it's week 10 over at the "Simply Less is More Challenge" and Chrissie & Mandi have set us a real tricky challenge this week - one layer card with the sentiment as the focus of your creation!

Well I don't have any large sentiment stamps so I thought I'd print directly onto the card but I just can't get the hang of it, I'll need to have a bit more of a practice when I've more time.

So I thought I'd just do something simple. Ha, famous last words! It smudged, I stamped it upside down, black was too dark, didn't line up properly! However, got there in the end, it's not perfect and it's not the most exciting card but I couldn't not enter!

I gold embossed the focal sentiment then the others are stamped in black (although I thought the black was too harsh so I stamped it off once). Then added embossed lines above and below. Thought it looked a bit boring so added the bling.

'Happy Birthday Ticket' stamp - Dimensions Crafts
Versamark & Gold EP
Versafine Onyx Black

I'm off now to have a peek at the other entries.  Apologies if I don't get round to visiting you this week.

Happy Crafting

Suze x

GC97 Gingersnap Creations - Geishas

I have decided to step out of my comfort  zone and enter this month's challenge over at  Gingersnap Creations.  One of their guest designers this month is  Valerie-Jael Tups, who does some fabulous altered art and it's she who has inspired me to enter this challenge.

I'm really only being brave because the theme this month  is 'Geishas'.  I love all things oriental and I have quite a few oriental stamps, so here is my entry:

Geisha stamp  is embossed in black and coloured with Sakura pens. The Mount Fuji stamp is embossed in copper and matted onto black cardstock.  I've used a couple of oriental patterned papers and embellished with origami 'lucky' stars.  The card is placed onto a felt placemat which I bought in Asia.

Just for fun, here are the other geishas I have in my home ...

the last one's an appliqued wall hanging which I started at a class a few months ago but which hasn't seen the light of day since (really must get my sewing machine out again!)

Thanks for visiting and Happy Crafting

Suze x

"Less is More" Challenge

Week 9 over at the Less is More Challenge is "A Touch of Red".

Well, just when I thought I was going to have a relaxing Mother's Day, crafting all day, I've been tearing my hair out - and here are the culprits - a trio of CAS cards!

The first card was NOT meant to be a christmas card.  I know many people make christmas cards throughout the year but I'm not one of them.  Anyway, once I'd teamed up the red and silver, it started to look very Christmassy so I just went the whole way with it.  Enough said!

Hero Arts Poinsettia Cling Stamp
Silver embossing powder
Xmas Border Embossing Folder
Berry Red Promarker
Silver Miri and Red SU card

Next I went red and gold.  This was my fourth attempt at trying to emboss red and gold together.  I'm sure there's a proper way to do it but I inked the whole stamp with Versamark first, then added red ink to the flower heads.  Once stamped, I covered the red bits with clear embossing powder, then covered the rest with gold EP.  Think the black band is a bit flat, maybe should have embossed it??

Inkadinkado Flower Sentiments
Versamark and Dew Drop Rocket Red Inks
Clear and Gold EP
Gold Miri

The final one was more fun to do. Again I embossed the poinsettia stamp in silver, then popped up the embossed girl image. I added the sentiment into a flattened bottle cap (thought it would go with the teenage theme).  I inked the cap with versamark then silver embossed it (caution - cap gets quite hot when heated).

Hero Arts Poinsettia Cling Stamp

Silver embossing powder

Inkadinkado 'In the Groove' stamp

Dew Drop Rocket Red ink with clear EP

Bottlecap - sentiment is Papermania - coated in glossy accents

Apologoies for the long post this week.  Will probably be a last minute entrant (and not able to do much commenting) next week as we're off next Saturday to the Isle of Skye for a few days.

Happy Crafting Everyone

Suze x

Mother's Day

Here are the two cards I've made (at the last minute!) for Mother's Day this year.  The first one is for my mother-in-law:

Sentiment - computer generated
Flower stamp - Craft Stamper magazine
Victorian Fleur embossing folder
Patterned paper & Stampin Up green card
Stickles & bling

The next one is very CAS and is for my own mother who is a sewer.

Tim Holtz Sewing Room Die
Papermania Oriental paper and Stampin Up textured Kraft card
Ribbon and embellishment (which  is a Primark earring).

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there (and I'm including myself there!)

Happy Crafting

Suze x

Craft Stamper Magazine - Free E-zine

Got this link from Joanne's blog.  Craft Stamper magazine have issued their first free online e-zine to download.  Full of great techniques and inspiration (and Joanne has a fabulous article on masking)

Download it via this link.

Happy Crafting

Suze x