Every now and then a new die that totally blows my mind comes out, and this is one of those times. I am super duper excited to be a part of this special blog hop for Laurie Willison of Soapbox Creations, who designed this awesome Card Hanger Die for use on gift bags. She is so sweet and talented, and I am in awe of her on this day. (I am also mildly impressed with myself for having kept this a secret for as long as I did!)

As card makers, we spend a lot of time and put BOATLOADS of love into our cards, and then we get a gift ready for a party… but what happens to the card? Usually, it gets put in an envelope and hidden away, and if you’re like me and have a tendency to use bulkier items like ribbon and flowers on your cards, they don’t always fit nicely into an envelope. With this new card hanger die, you can proudly display your cards on the outside of your gift bags as a decoration!

I’ve made a few projects for the hop today to highlight several other reasons why I love this die. It gives you the ability to match your wrapping to your card. Do you see how I used Laurie’s die to cut from papers matching the patterned papers that I used in my cards? (I also love that it helps me to reduce my patterned paper stash a little bit more!)

You can also hang your card two ways. Laurie talks about this in the video that is available on her blog today, but I thought it would be fun to show you both ways. Above you can see how I trimmed the gift bag so that the card actually slides into the bag, but below you can see how the entire card is hanging on the outside of the bag.

I also used the die to create the large yellow flower on my card below. The center of the die is shaped like an oval, which is easily put together to make a large bloom:

Of course, all of my gift bags are brightly colored, but a safe bet is keeping a stash of kraft or white gift bags handy and ready to decorate. Adding the die to several bags is SO easy, and you can be ready with a gift in no time.

Please check out Laurie’s blog for more info on how to purchase this die. Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win one of these card hanger dies. One winner will be randomly chosen from the comments on the 4 blogs in this fun hop today! Be sure to leave some love for my Kansas girls here:

Thanks so much!
Suzanne

It was a pretty great feeling escaping the house yesterday after the blizzard ended and after the driving ban had been lifted, but hardly anything can keep me from my craft room on a Sunday night. Last night I made this card for Design It Monday at Precious Remembrance using their fun and versatile Thanks Stamp Set. If you’d like to read more about how I made my card, please head on over the Precious Remembrance blog!

Have an awesome week!
Suzanne

I found Stamping Mecca!

Last week, I wanted to see some of the new Hero Arts stamps (they just released a new catalog and you don’t want to miss it), and I saw that a stamp store in Concord, NH posted on Facebook that they had ALL of the new release. I was excited, very excited! I wasn’t quite sure if they really meant “all” of it, but I was willing to drive up there to see for myself.

It was my very first trip to the store, which is called Art Plus, and they are located 58 miles from my house - kind of “far” for people here in New England, but for stamps, I will almost always do anything. Anyway, it was utterly fantastic, and YES she had ALL of it! I worked up a sweat while I was looking at everything, no joke.

I learned that Karen and her dad have owned the store for about 20 years, and they are one of Hero Arts’ online shippers. That means when folks order online, she may or may not be one of the stores that ships all of your items to you (Hero Arts does not ship from their warehouse to you); lucky for me, this also means that she literally had EVERYTHING Hero Arts carries. Ev.er.y.thing! It was amazing to see everything in person - I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many beautiful stamps in one place, and I will surely be back!

If you’re local, I highly recommend a trip to this store, and even if you are not local, Karen is super sweet and very happy to help you over the phone/e-mail. In fact, there was a die that I was looking for, and she had already sold out of it; however, I was thrilled to hear that she would ship it to me when she was restocked. Not only did she ship it super fast (it arrived yesterday), but she also emailed me to let me know it was coming. I have added the store’s site to my sidebar for safe keeping, so you can easily access her info in the future. She carries other products too, but I was really only there to see Hero Arts and she was ready to close for the day. I almost asked her if she hosts stamping sleepovers, LOL!

This Go Out and Play stamp is one of their new stamps, and I used it to make this card for the Hero Arts contest this month. I am trying out two new things for this challenge: the color combo, and repeat stamping with a stamp-a-ma-jig so that the single image is inked up in 4 different colors, which all were inspired by the American Crafts papers that I used. I am also psyched by how well the image fits into the Lil Inker stitched rectangle die.

Thanks for stopping by!
Suzanne

Hiya! It’s time for this week’s CAS-ual Fridays Challenge, and this week’s theme is to make a winter card using blue!

This is a two week challenge, so you have plenty of time to play.

I had a great time today at Liz’s house, where we had a holiday shoebox swap for 11 people. We could use any products that we wanted, but our card had to be assembled in 10 minutes or less. This was the card that I made and I just wanted to pop in really quickly to share it.

The striped cardstock, gold washi tape, and poinsettia dies are all from A Muse Studio. I paired them with an adorable sentiment from Hero Arts’ Holiday Sayings and the chartreuse strip that was diecut using PTI’s Half and Half die.

Hope you had a fun weekend! It was a busy one for us - besides the swap, we went to the movies for the first time in ages, I had chicken parm two nights in a row (so awesome!) and I went to see my grandma too. Now, off to get some rest!

Hugs,
Suzanne

This week’s sketch challenge at Retrosketches is based on my card, and I would love to see your take on it!

Happy Weekend! I am back with a card for this week’s Retrosketches Challenge, using lots of Hero Arts goodies. I had an awesome time at my classes with Shari Carroll of Hero Arts on Thursday and just had to use my new Holiday Cheer set.

I rotated the sketch and stamped Tiny Flakes onto patterned paper from Basic Grey’s Aspen Frost collection. I stamped and diecut the reindeer and trees, using Copics to color the reindeer and his sweater, and then I stamped the sentiment from Two Birds in a Tree in kraft ink.

The bow was tied using Designer Twine, which I love because it has a very smooth finish. I added some mini pearls to the trees and called it day! I am entering this into the October Hero Arts contest as well - they have some holiday challenges going on and I wanted to join in the fun.

I can’t wait to play with the reindeer some more. Hope you have a crafty weekend planned! I am going to a shoebox swap tomorrow and have to plan my projects.

Hope you’ve all enjoyed the weekend! I’ve seen a lot of Halloween cards in blogland lately and thought I should get started on mine too, so I inked up my Hero Arts spiderweb background stamp and stamped it onto pebble cardstock; after that I added the glittery spider sticker, stamped the sentiment…then called it a day! I am going to enter this into the Moxie Fab World Focal Point Challenge too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps: Hero Arts spider web, A Muse Studio sentiment; Paper: A Muse Studio; Ink: A Muse Studio Seattle and Orange; Other: Jolee’s sticker

For some reason, I have Christmas on the brain. I think it’s all the waiting for the new holiday papers to come out, but it made me want to make a Christmas card today. I used 2011 Holiday Ornaments and a sentiment from Festive Foliage, as well as a snowflake background stamp from Hero Arts on this card. The center panel was embossed using a houndstooth embossing folder, and the patterned paper is from Crate Paper.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your afternoon.