WRITE YOUR OWN STORY

It has been a long, long time since my last post. Have been doing all types of crafts, but just haven't found the time to post them. When Gingersnap Creations challenged us to use a typewriter, I had a few to chose from, but this one is my favorite.

This is an altered notebook which tells its own story. Used papers that I picked up at Joanns and the typewriters are rub ons that were purchased at Michaels, from their $1 bins which have had a price increase to $1.50, inflation is the pits, LOL!

The edges of the book and all the papers were distressed using a sponge and ink. The brown background was solid paper, I used a gold gel pen and started to journal.

The sketch is from a Mojo Monday, from awhile back. For inspiration purposes I make a copy of sketches and have them in a folder so I can go back and pull from these ideas. Twenty different notebooks were completed this way before Christmas and each one was unique.

Thanks for stopping by, and being supportive.

Suzie

BABY BOY BLUES

Maybe a day late, but this is what I was working on for a couple of weeks. Frank and his new bride are expecting a baby boy, oh happy day! This is Marcela's first and she had never had any kind of shower, so her loving husband ask if I would help him with a couples baby shower. Couldn't resist, as it has been along time since my kids were born and over 12 years since my last grandchild made his presence.

The invitations were very simple as it needed to be less frilly since the shower was for couples. Did a very easy easel card and printed the invitations on the computer. Used some pastel paper for the mat and add a couple of baby die cuts. Each invitation was a little different, but Frank was thrilled with them, and couldn't thank me enough.

One of our fellow workers wasn't able to make it to the shower, so he asked me to pick up some diapers. Couldn't just give packages of diapers, so with the help of Billy we made a diaper cake. This was so much fun, it was even more fun with Billy's help, this was definitely a first for him. We sat around the table and rolled diapers and had a great laugh.

Added ribbon and a few other baby items to the cake to finish it off. The favors for the guests were baby booties. I started with pastel blue cardstock and stamped the paper with a stamp that I found at Ben Franklins in Reno, it was only a $1 (love the bargains). Was going to leave it pretty plain, but found myself coloring in the flowers with felt tip markers. Added a bow on top and filled them with mints.

Had a couple of booties that didn't fit on the tray, so I used one for the cake top and added one to the bottom layer of the cake. This was so much fun to do and Frank and Marcela loved everything, they were so impressed which made me feel good.


Am off to work, worked late last night as the computer went down and will be working an extra day next week, am sure I won't be doing much crafting. Hope everyone is having an awesome Holiday weekend.

SUNNY SUNFLOWERS

Where has the time gone, was just comment a few days ago that it was already May, now it is the middle of May and things around my home have been a little on the crazy side. Can't believe that I have been a member of the Gingersnap Creations Group for a year, seems like only yesterday that I started to blog. This is such a wonderful group of creative ladies and they give me inspiration each and every day. The Design Team is so supportive and they share such great and new techniques. Haven't had the chance to really be creative because of everything that has been going on. Some have been good, and others not so good.

Grandson's birthday, spent time with my school buddy Sandy. Car in shop for two days, and spent Mother's Day in hospital, the doctor thought I had a blood clot. Don't know why my leg was black and blue and swollen, but no blood clot, thank goodness. Had to keep my leg up and so couldn't really spend much time doing anything creative.

Wanted to do something for the "kraft" challenge at Gingersnap Creations, and had made this mini photo and souvenir album. It is made from lunch bags, can't get anymore "kraft" than that. Used 4 lunch bags, folded in half, every other bag can be opened so that you can put ticket stubs, or brochures in the bag and they are right there.


The cover is bright and cheerful, sunflowers are one my favorite flowers and couldn't resist using them. The title was printed on designer paper. Base of the cover is bright yellow with some yellow polka dot paper to accent. Cheated on this one, the sunflowers are stickers. Had some buttons and added them to the center of the flowers. Each page is decorated differently so that you can add pictures and a little journaling as you go. Made one for my sister Kay, and our friend Barbara when we went on our vacation in the summer of 2007. Used binder rings to hold the bags together and then added lots of ribbon to the rings to give it a really fun look.

Another one of my favorite blogs is The Pink Elephant. This weeks challenge #TPE66 is from Ella's Kitchen which is a recipe to use yellow, design paper and buttons, thought this vacation album fit right in. They have also started a scrapbook challenge on Thursdays. You can meet the design team this week. Know that I will be participating in these challenges as my scrapbooks have been left behind for awhile. Miss doing it with my girls, the creative juices just don't flow when it is just me.

Time to get ready for work. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day.

ONEIES

Ton of things to accomplish today, so just going to put this card out there. You guessed it, is it a challenge for Crafty Creations. Thought this would be super simple today, but not the case. We were challenged to use only one designer paper, one image and one embellishment. Have gotten so used to jazzing cards up with all kinds of embellishments, it was hard to use just one of everything.

The stamp is from my stash, Hero Arts, and had an inch of dust on it. Colored pencils were used for the coloring. The paper was also in my stash, a few years old. Added the bow to the handle of the basket for the one embellishment.

That's it for today, am going to work on my grandson's quilt, ran out of thread yesterday and ran to Joann's. They had some new products from Provo Craft that I couldn't resist, can't wait to put them to use. Also found that they have added Spellbinder die cuts in the stores, now I won't have to wait until going to Utah to purchase them, or getting them on line, will now have instant gratification.

Hope everyone is having a great week, talk with you soon.

COME FLY WITH ME!

Was really anxious to take this challenge to use only black and white on a tag. I have always loved black and white, think it is so striking. Took the time to check out all of the cards that have been submitted for the Tuesday Tag Challenge #44 and the tags are all amazing, think my tag maybe a little lame, oh, well, I really had fun trying to put this one together.




Found some great little stamps at Michaels and you can see that stamp it at the top of the tag. Used the stamp and put them together to make my own designer paper. The base if the card was a black and white print. Then a solid white with solid black on top of the print. Added my own designer paper that was stamped using colorbox ink. Grossgrain ribbon was attached to one side, paper lace design on the opposite side. Little hearts were made with a heart punch in both black and white. The sentiment was a sticker, as was the couple in black and white.



Wanted to make this into an actual luggage tag, as we are going to Reno next week. Will be spending a few days with my daughter, Jamie, grandsons, Mason and Kyle, and possibly a few quality minutes with Tim, my son-in-law, he works so hard and has extremely long days and nights.Decided to use Modpodge and put a couple of coats on the tag.

If you would like to see some of the other creative tags you can click here. The next challenge to for myself is to do another tag and add a vintage picture of my father and add the reasons that we loved him so.

Hope everyone has a great week and take a few minutes a day to do something that your enjoy.

Ahh!! It's Spring

Spring is the air here in Las Vegas, the tree are in bloom and the weeds they are a growin'. It seems good to see all the beautiful colors and think about spring cleaning. It is suppose to be in the 80's next week, that might be a good time to address the weeds in my desert landscaping.






Don't want to do that so, here is a card that met a few challenges for this week. Spring is at Rosie Dees Challenge, and that brings to mind bright colored Easter eggs, that is the basis of this card. Added wavy strips with solid and plaid papers and then using versa ink added a little texture to the solid colors. Crazy 4 Challenges wanted to see some paper piercing, and that is what was done as a border of the wavy strips.




The flower was made with a Sizzix die cut flower. double layered in two shades of pink. The leaves are also a Sizzix die cut that is available at Stampin Up. Finished the card off with a little tag and blue 1/8" satin ribbon on the stem of the flower. To make your own flowers was the challenge at Crafty Creations, only made one flower, but am sure this still meets the criteria of the challenge. Added the butterfly just for fun. Hope this brightens up your day.


Thanks for coming by, please leave a comment, love hearing what everyone has to say.

IT'S A CELEBRATION "OOH LA LA"

Gingersnap Creations have given me the honor of being a Gingersnap Gem, this is such an honor. This group is so wonderful and they offer so many tutorials on a wide variety of techniques. That is how this particular tag came to be. Ink on Your Fingers by Hels has a wonderful tutorial on "faux flowers" and this really intrigued me. Didn't have any of the supplies but went out immediately and found UTEE and a melting pot.


Hels suggested stamping the flowers, but I didn't have a flower stamp that would work so I used my flower die cuts by Spellbinder and used patterned papers. It was really amazing how the paper kept its shape, was a little afraid that it would tear, but that wasn't the case, did learn that you do have to shape your flowers before dipping the paper in the UTEE. Once a couple of flowers were completed it was now necessary to decide how they would be used. Think they would be wonderful on gift boxes, photo boxes, or as a pin just to mention a few.





I found these chipboard tags at Michaels in their $1 bins and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to challenge myself (Scrappy Frog Challenge) by doing a collage on the tag. It's a celebration (Gingersnap Creations) and used one color and shades of that color (Crafty Creations) and these wonderful papers from Lasting Impressions was yelling to be used. The color gold is really different from the bright colors that I usually use. Added different textures 3 dimensional flower, button, pearls, chipboard sentiments, ribbon and even some gold glitter on the leaves. Crazy 4 Challenges was requesting 3 textures, think that I may have gone a little overboard on this one, but love the results.

Hope you can see some of the detail, the mix of papers and all the different textures. Will be making doing some more of these wonderful flower very soon, want to try and use leaves and different shapes not just flowers. A special thanks to Hels for this wonderful tutorial, you have opened up a new technique for me and my mind going a mile a minute to try and come up with ways to use the technique.

Time to head off to work, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

PRETTY IN PURPLE

It is my granddaughter, Katie's, birthday this month, 18 is the magic number this year. She is such a sweet girl and enjoys school, she plays the harp, is in the Debate Club, and wants to be an actress. Her favorite color is purple, so everything she gets is that color. Last year she received a paper purse and a purple shoe, for her birthday.

I had made this card in pink and wanted to make sure that this year Katie got one that is purple. The base of the dress is cardstock and then I have added strips of purple sheer ribbon to create the designer dress. I also added picot bows at the top and across the bottom. The corners were also rounded with a corner rounder and Spellbinder scalloped oval die cut for the sentiment on the front.

Ribbon happens to be the challenge at The Pink Elephant, there are some wonderful project featuring ribbon on the blog, and this is my finished project. Know that Katie will really love this card and wish I could see her face when she opens it, she is such a "drama queen."
The above picture was taken at Christmas, this was the reaction she had about all of her gifts.
Happy Birthday, Katie!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a crafty day.

LOVE LETTERS

These little mailboxes have been around for years, but I have never decorated one. It was a little harder than I thought it would be. Found this mailbox at Michaels, it was a Christmas mailbox, but changed it to hold love letters for Valentine's Day, this was a challenge at Scrappy Frog.

Used X's and O's paper from my stash, added ribbon around the middle. It was necessary to take off the arm, used brads to put it back on. The background for the letters was embossed using a Big Shot. The folder is from Provo Craft. Also used ribbon around the edge of the lid, also covered the front with a different heart paper.

The sentiment on the arm was stamped with red ink, and then colored in with colored pencils, the scalloped circles were made with Spellbinder die cuts. The flower on the corner of the sentiment is sheer ribbon, that are loops that are glued together and then added a heart stud in the center.


Maybe if I leave this out in the family room, Billy, will leave me a love note, for Valentine's Day, that would be a wonderful surprise.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a crafty one.

MORE AND MORE CIRCLES

Just love to do circle cards, even though, they are few and far between. This one was just crying to be done. I had made a similar card last year that was for a gift card, but this one it a folded card, that looks like a flower. Mojo Monday is where the inspiration came from, and then I looked to The Pink Elephant, and Crazy 4 Challenges to put everything together.


The Pink Elephant challenge was Polka Dots, Bow, and Pink. Crazy 4 Challenges was Pretty in Pink.
The sketch at Mojo Monday could be done either as a circle or square.

For the center circle my scalloped circles from Spellbinder was used, then using a 1" circle punch the other two layers were added. Brown polka dot grosgrain ribbon for texture and hearts that were found at Michaels. The stamped sentiment was from a discontinued wedding set that I found at Joann's over 6 months ago, never know when you will be able to use some of those stamps, but just need to look at them from different points of view.

The first card I did was red, and then it dawned on me that the challenge was to use pink, oh well, it just made the pink one easier to complete. The paper was from Lasting Impressions, my sister found it at a huge discount. Love all those bargains!!

Have a list of cards and projects that I want to finish in the next couple of days, so am off to complete some Valentines. Please leave a comment, it is great to hear from all my blogging friends.

Have a crafty day.

BLOOMING TULIPS

I must love presure, saw this sketch last week at Our Creative Corner and wanted to create a card, but as usual waited to the last minute. Picked out the paper last week, and had a stamp ready to go, only problem was that the stamped image was too large for the card, back to the drawing board.




Was determined to finish the card yesterday, and found this tulip stamp in my stash, it is from Hero Arts and have had it for more than a decade, always loved it. Didn't stamp for alot of years and all my stamps used to be in a shadow box on the wall, they became art and just looked pretty. Since moving back to Vegas they are now in a drawer and I can't see them all, forget what I have they aren't where I can enjoy them all the time, need to do something about that little issue.


This was such a fun card to do, stamped the design on patterned paper, think this is a first, always think you need to stamp on plain paper. I used colored pencils to add the coloring of the flowers and the leaves. Used the lace border punch from Martha Stewart, my cutting system for the circles, and a butterfly punch from Creative Memories. Double faced satin ribbon was used for extra texture to the paper lace border.

Time for me to take on a few household duties, and then I want to work on a Resolution challenge that Gingersnap Creations is offering, as usual know what I want to do, just need to get it done. Am off to have some fun. Have a crafty day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLENE!

It has been a long time since my last post. Have been on vacation, and gotten back to work, and work has been crazy with New Years and one of the biggest conventions in Las Vegas, working overtime, so no time to have any fun with my blog.



Did manage to make a birthday card for my daughter and take a couple of challenges. Of course it will be late, as I won't get to the Post Office until Monday or Tuesday and her birthday is Tuesday, January 12th. Know that she understands that her mother is always a few days late, since we live so far apart now days. My birthday wish for her in 2010 is health, wealth and happiness. She had a rough year in 2009, but is getting back into the swing of things. Driving in snow to and from work, and trying to deal with the cold weather, she was raised in Las Vegas where the sun always shines.



Kaylene is adjusting well to the single digits, and loves her new family, home and career, know this will be a great year for her and her family.




This is the card that will be sent to her. Crafty Creations has a challenge to use black and white with a touch of color. Sherrod Studios' challenge was to use the gate fold technique.


Kept the card pretty simple, that seems to be my preference. Add a white bow, and some red rhinestones on the oval. The ovals were made with my cutting system from Creative Memories.

The sentiment is to the point, Happy Birthday!

Time for me to head off to work, it may be Sunday for the majority of the country, but it is my Friday. Have some plans for my days off to create a few projects, hopefully that will come about.

Have a great weekend and a crafty day.

"Jackson"

This adorable little boy angel, reminds of my niece's little boy Jackson, who has blonde hair that is naturally curly. Haven't seen him in awhile, just in pictures that Rachel's posts on her Facebook page.


Gingersnap has a challenge to use a frame on your card, my frame is a little unconventional. Wanted the frame to be on the soft side, therefore, using ribbon around the image seemed to be the perfect touch that I was shoting towards.

Jackson's wings are 3-dimensional, so is the basket. Printed the picture twice and cut out the wings and basket, you can find the picture at The Graphics Fairy. Found these great snowflake shaped rhinestones at Michaels and they are the perfect finishing touch to my card. Used my corner rounder to soften the edges of the card and also the image.

This card also met the requirements for two other challenges:

The Pink Elephant #45---Winter or Christmas

Our Creative Corner -- Holiday or Christmas

We are getting ready to go on vacation for Christmas, leaving this weekend, am so excited to spead time with all of my family. This is the first Christmas that we will all be together for several years. The kids are older now, but know that this will be a special year, the first year we will spend with Kaylene and her new family, Kevin will be with us for the whole day (he is usually with his father part of the day). Jamie, Tim and the boys are coming from Reno, it will be our first Christmas at Kaylene's.

Won't have computer in Utah, so this is it until next year. Want to wish everyone out there in Blogland, Happy Holidays!! Thank you for sharing all of your talents and being so supportive. Look forward to the New Year, and know that it will have plenty to offer.

See you in 2010.

Harvest Time

As I have mentioned in previous posts, autumn is my favorite time of year, no wonder there was another autumn card in my future. There are some new challenges out there and that is where the inspiration came from.

Sherrod Studio has a wonderful sketch and this is the layout that was used for the card, love the idea of patterned paper, but even more using a diagonal cut on the card.

Used sheer ribbon and also grosgrain polka dot ribbon, this was such a fun card. The stamp is from Stampin Up "Harvest Time", used the sentiment that came with the stamp set for the inside.

Other challenges were as follows:

The Pink Elephant---Fall

Crafty Calendar Challenge ---Autumn, Optional Vegetation

Gingersnap Creations --- Harvest

I really do depend on the challenges for my inspiration, they make you think and then the real challenge is to use what is around the house. This is my way was harvesting, LOL.

Hope everyone has a great day, it's my Monday at work. Made another card for GC that will be posted in the next couple of days. Once again thanks to all the sites that offer challenges, have a crafty day.

An Untraditional Christmas

Decided that it was time to take on a couple of challenges on my days off. The new challenge at CCC is pale, interesting. Gingersnap Creations has had the challenge of stars and will be closing soon , so I really wanted to participate. Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog (just happen on this one while checking out some work from the DT from GC) is to use a tree, any kind of tree.



The tree that was stamped is from Inkadinkado, which was purchased at Michaels, the set has ll clear stamps in the set. Garden Green ink from Stampin Up! was my choice of color. Had an idea for the layout, by changing the colors of the background and patterned paper two challenges would be acheived. Pale paper from "heidi grace designs" collection was used for the first card. This paper is available at Joann's, open stock. These are definitely not your standard Christmas colors, but then again neither is my Christmas tree decorations, it is all pink and crystals. This paper was a must just didn't know what project it would be used for or when.





That was the hard challenge, now onto challenge #2, stars for GC, that was easy, changed the background paper that had stars and add a rhinestone star on top of the tree. The ovals for the tree stamp were made with my cutting system from Creative Memories, and a bow completed the card. Base of the card is 5"x 5", the papers are from my stash, am sure that everyone that has been doing scrapbooking or making cards will recognize the paper from eons ago.

Enjoyed taking on these challenges and am very pleased with the outcome. Challenges have become my inspiration for cardmaking and love all the different avenues that are available to us.

I have been given a new challenges at work to put out a weekly newsletter. Am very excited about the opportunity, hope that I am upto this new "challenge."

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty day.

Rainbow Travel Journal

Not just one challenge, not two, or three, but four challenges in one. This was a challenge in it's self, but really fun.



Challenge #l was a rainbow and Gingersnap Creations. Wanted to make some journals for an upcoming reunion, had some paper in my stash and covered the composition notebook. Added some other colors on the cover and stamped "Memories" on the green. and "Enjoy" on the yellow.






Added pocket in red to hold the chipboard luggage tag. Chipboard was also one of the challenges at GC. Using chipboard is new for me, have purchased some and had also been given coasters from the local restaurant. Made a die cut of a tag from Sizzix, the tag was the challenge at Crafty Creations. The chipboard used had advertising on it, so it was necessary to cover the tag, used travel paper, then stamped it with "Our Journey" added ribbon, the tag can be used as a luggage tag for easy identification when locating your luggage at the airport.




The red pocket also has our "Our Journey" stamped on it (sorry the picture doesn't show the stamp.)




The last challenge was for Cinema Saturday Challenge, using red stitching, representing the movie "Field of Dreams." The red stitching was added to each white mat and also around the edge of the entire journal. (Once again I need to work on my photography.)




This is one of my favorite projects, in the past I have done notebooks for bridal showers, Christmas gifts for fellow employees, recipes books, and now a travel journal.

Just a quick note, I used a MOJO MONDAY sketch for the layout, it really works great, only required one full sheet of 12 x 12 printed paper, am ready to product a few more journals. There are all kinds of sketches out there the layouts are prefect for doing the notebooks.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty day.

GC Ribbon Challenge

Really quick today, wanted to post the card for Gingersnap Creations Ribbon Challenge. The card was made while in Utah. My daughter Kaylene cut out the ornaments using a Cricut and putting the ornament together, all I had to do was put them on a card add the ribbon and the sentiment.

The hard part of this card was taking the photo, sorry it isn't that great, the hologram paper on the background made it pretty hard to photograph.

Gingersnap Creations is looking for new members, it is such a fun group, and they offer great ideas and challenge to motivate it's members. Check it out, think you will really enjoy all of there contributions.

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great crafting day.

Pink Ribbon Dress

While browsing SCS yesterday, I happen to find a beautiful card by "Jakester" it was so pretty that it motivated me to try one for myself, this is what came out of her idea. The card is 5" x 7", the dress measures 5 1/2" tall by 3 1/4" wide at the widest point. You could make this any size you would like. I used #3 sheer ribbon for the dress, you will use 3 yards to complete the dress. The mat behind the dress was embossed with white pearl embossing powder, the stamp used was from Inkadinkado. the ink was a VersaMark.

Flower rhinestones from Michaels were used for the finishing touches, you can embellish the dress with flowers or other accessories whatever you prefer. My granddaughter, Katie, will be going to Prom soon and she loves the color purple, obviously that will be my next project.

When attaching the ribbon to the cardstock pattern I used a taperunner, but when I got up this morning all the ribbon had come off the form, I then used a spot of Tacky glue to re-attach the ribbon, this works much better.

Would love to see everyones take on this dress. Tomorrow have a card to go with this one, check back to see what I'm working on. Have a great day of crafting.