This weekend I’ve been embracing my inner minimalist and feeling simple. I am not sure why this happens, but it’s often accompanied by my cleaning the house like a madwoman - the kind of cleaning where I empty drawers and cabinets (which is actually a good thing!), then sit back and wonder how I managed to obtain so much junk in the first place.

I’ve also been “simplifying” my craft room, realizing that I can make things that I’m happy with using roughly a quarter of the stuff that I’ve accumulated over the years, and tonight I felt like making a simple card to go along with my simple mood. This is about as simple as it gets for me: white cardstock, a die, scored lines, and glitter!

Anyway, the highlight of my weekend was eating an almond croissant from Helmut’s Strudel, an Austrian bakery in Rockport, MA. It was the best thing I’ve eaten in a while! Hope your weekend was great too…

Suzanne

Popping in with a fun card that I made for this week’s Tuesday Trigger: Scene in Tangerine. I was drawn to the color scheme and the pieces of rickrack made me think of triangles, so I started playing with my Lawn Fawn patterned papers and Sketched Shapes sentiment by PTI…and this card was born.

I snagged those triangle Nestabilities ages ago on clearance at my LSS, and I am so happy to finally be putting them to use! Heading out now to make some more cards before bed…

XO,
Suzanne

Hi there! Today is the Papertrey Ink June Blog Hop and the theme this month is Touch of Gold. I made two clean and simple cards for it using a sentiment from Mini Blooms and flowers from Bigger Blooms. For my touch of gold, I used a sheet of gold glitter paper from American Crafts - this stuff is so awesome.

On my first card, I had an idea for this funky wrapped look, using a nontraditional color scheme. I trimmed and layered pieces of cardstock until I got the look that I wanted and I think it made for a fun card. It’s in the mail for Kristie!

Using similar colors, I then stamped the Bigger Blooms onto some diecuts and adhered them to a chevron piece from the Chevron Cover Plate to create a more girly card. I used Mega Mat Stack 4 to create the decorative edge along the bottom of the white panel, which reminds me of a mega version of one of the Half & Half dies.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Suzanne

Hey there! I’ve got a fun project to share for this month’s Papertrey Ink blog hop. The theme this month is “tilted designs” and my foxy origami project was inspired by this tutorial that I found on Pinterest, since the backs of these foxes are slanted.

I used lots of PTI goodies on these. The patterned paper is their Dotty Biscotti paper, and the noses were stamped using one of the solid circle stamps in Daydreamer. The sentiment comes from Sketched Shapes.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Suzanne

Hey everyone - I am finally back with a happy little card to share. It felt good to be back in my craft room after a very sad and tense week here in Boston. Thanks to everyone who wrote or called - very much appreciated!

I picked up where I left off last week when I made several bad attempts at a card using these very stamps. The cure? This awesome Trendsetter patterned paper from Fancy Pants that Renee sent to me.

I love how the glitter kicks the happiness factor up a notch on this, and how the Sketched Shapes banners make for such a cute embellishment.

I am heading out soon to run errands and go for a roller blade - have a great afternoon. In the meantime, I am gonna enter this into this week’s CAS-ual Fridays B-day Bash Challenge…it’s CAS for me…and the girls know they can gimme the boot from the gallery if the PP is too much.

xo,
Suzanne

It’s Papertrey Ink’s anniversary month and I am playing along in their first contest, which is to make a card inspired by one of the design team member’s favorite cards. I chose Danielle Flanders because I absolutely love her work - the way she incorporates patterned paper, stitching, and scrappy details into her projects is so amazing to me.

I really love the layout of her Rosie Posie card, and it inspired me to make a similar card using some of my favorite bright colors and Fancy Folk Art. The dotted border image is from Round & Round, and the sentiment is from Giga Guidelines.

Speaking of Giga Guidelines and PTI anniversaries…I will share that Giga Guidelines was one of the first sets I purchased from PTI. I still remember the night I logged into their forum for the first time: I was stamping Christmas cards in the living room for mass production using this set. The coffee table was my stamp table that night, and I realized that some of the ink permeated the finish on my coffee table (“ack!”…though I am from Boston, so you know that I didn’t really say “ack!”…I am just trying to keep it clean here). I retreated to the forum in a panic for advice on how to get it out. Needless to say, I tried everything! Eventually, I think it was buffing mayonnaise into the ink stain that helped to the trick. Ah, stamping memories.

I bet this never happened to Danielle Flanders, that’s for sure!

xoxo,
Suzanne

The Papertrey Ink January Blog Hop is going on today, and this month’s challenge is to use black backgrounds. Knowing that I wanted to use Soft Stone, Aqua Mist and Winter Wisteria together for a thank you card, I couldn’t quite bring myself to use black - it seemed too harsh, but I thought that the Smokey Shadow base was the next best thing, considering the inspiration photos Nichole posted for us.

I started by lightly dabbing some white acrylic paint onto the card front, using the end of a paintbrush and a toothpick - I have never really mastered the “splatter” technique but that’s the look that I was going for. Then I diecut and stamped Lovely Layers using Slate ink from A Muse Studio, and layering it all together with some foam tape. The card base was diecut using a Mat Stack die, and some Soft Stone cardstock was adhered to the inside of the card.

That’s it for today! Thanks so much for hopping by!

Suzanne

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

While I was baking cookies the other night, I tried to think of ideas for a card for today’s blog hop at Papertrey Ink…here’s my take on this month’s white-on-white challenge. I was also inspired by the glittered diecuts challenge in this week’s a la carte Make It Monday. That’s a two-fer!

I used the By the Numbers die collection and I glittered them using a Xyron. Then I glittered a scalloped border and layered some silver washi tape over that strip before tying some white crochet thread over it to finish the card off. All of the cardstock here is Select White.

Nichole said we could add touches of neutrals - is silver neutral? I think so?! Thanks so much stopping by!

Hugs,
Suzanne

This week’s Make It Monday challenge was to use layered glitter shapes on a card, so I broke out PTI’s Peace Be Still dies and Stylish Sentiments: Holiday, as well as some Jillibean Soup papers to make this card. I was loving the idea of green with navy for a holiday card, as well as the idea of layering a diecut heart into the dove’s mouth.

The sentiment was stamped in Enchanted Evening ink and all of the cardstock is the same shade or Vintage Cream. I can’t wait to mail this one out - I sent out a first batch of cards today, but I still have lots more to go.

Hope you’re having a fun weekend. Thanks very much for stopping by!
Suzanne

I fully admit to loving non-traditional colors for holiday cards, and raspberry fizz is my all time favorite color but honestly and truly…Michael’s has been out of red bling for ages! That is making Christmas cards kinda tough to do in regular colors.

I took a break from some late night work to make this card for this week’s Make It Monday: Glitter Detail Technique at Papertrey Ink and Mojo Monday Challenge:

I used Candy Cane Christmas and Stylish Sentiments: Holiday on this card, and I accented the candy candy and raspberry fizz strip with bubble gum glitter from A Muse Studio. The rectangle was diecut using Stitched Mats: Rectangles from Lil’ Inker Designs and the holly was diecut using PTI’s Holly Jolly dies. The patterned paper is from Echo Park’s Holly Jolly Christmas line- one of my favorites of all time.

Now, I’ve gotta get back to business and finish up some work before bed, but at least I’ve got my singing shows to entertain me while I do it.

Thanks for stopping by!
Suzanne