More Medallion Cards

Hello Blogging Friends!
I thought I'd share some more medallion cards.   I'm finding these medallions kind of addicting!   It's a bit of a challenge limiting the design to a 2-1/2 inch circle, but as I start adding layers I begin to see something evolving.   I'm not really planning them before I start - just cutting circles and squares, digging in my stash of accessories and seeing what happens.   On the card above I used DCWV Green Stack paper.   The circles were cut on my Cricut, and the leaves and the label were cut on my Cuttlebug.   The label is a Nestabilities die and the leaves are Sizzix.   I also added some texture to the white circle on the medallion with the Birds and Vines embossing folder.

Here's another one!   Again, the circles were cut on the Cricut.   I used a Nestabilities scalloped circles (2 layers) to make the flower, cutting the petals by hand.   The leaves are a Martha Stewart punch, and I added paper flowers (the little red ones) and a chunky sticky-backed pearl for the center of the flower.

Here's a close-up of another one that has a bit more detail.   After cutting the circles I added a die-cut heart, punched flower, stickers (the Wisteria seed packet and the word Adore), and then I cut out a sparkly pink bird from a scrap of background paper and adhered it to the medallion with foam tape.   Ooh I also addes some pink rhinestones too.

I'm planning on heading back to the craft room tomorrow - after I run errands.   I'm working on lots and lots of pumpkins for fall cards and I'm thinking about making some as scrapbooking embellishments to put in my Etsy store too.   I can hardly believe it's almost fall!   The pool is getting cold now and my garden is starting to wind down, which is kind of sad, but it's okay.   Usually by the end of September I'm ready for a break from working in the yard anyway.   I do have a new flowerbed to plant with spring bulbs though.   I was thinking of planting a huge mass of white tulips there, but my hubby says he'd rather have red, so I'm thinking we'll have a huge mass of red and white tulips instead.   Marriage is all about compromise, right?  :o)

I'll leave you with another shot of something that's been taking up a lot of my time this summer.   Mind you, this was all harvested this last weekend, so you can see the vegetable garden is still going strong...

Yes, I'm still picking veggies pretty much every day - tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green beans, jalepenos, banana peppers, green peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and lots of herbs too.   This is the first veggie garden I've planted at this house so I'm quite happy with how much we got!

I hope you're all having a great week!   Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs!
Sue :o)

Long Time No Blog!

Hi Everyone!  Long time no see, huh?   I feel like I haven't been here for ages, so I'll get down to sharing what I've been working on.   I've been addicted to making these little inchie cards lately, and on this one I used some of those quilled flowers I wrote about a few posts back.    I learned to quill back when I was in junior high and I've been getting back into it lately.   It's relaxing to sit and cut and twirl paper while I'm watching tv with my family - and then I get to use the flowers on cool cards like this one.   This card is in my Etsy shop right now.

Here's another card I did a few weeks back.   This baby sold right away, so I'm thinking about making a few more for myself.   I just love the colors!    I've also been making sets of notecards with a similar design.   Like these....

I used all sorts of goodies on these cards - buttons, punches, dew drops, rhinestones, sticky backed pearls, epoxy stickers, etc.   They're really easy to make too.   I cut the little square out on the Cricut, tape them down to a piece of card stock, and then decorate each little square with something different. 

So what else has Mousemom been up to?   Oh lots!   My son started high school this year so now we have a new schedule (that starts quite a bit earlier than our old one - grrrrr) and I've been getting used to that.   I've also been out in the garden quite a bit.   We started a vegetable garden this year so I've been busy freezing green beans and tomatoes, and making refrigerator pickles and pico de gallo.   I've also been trying to get out and visit my grandmother more often.   She's 92 and has a lot of health problems and can't get out of bed anymore, so I try to visit a few times a week.   I've also been busy with card orders too - which is good because that's my favorite thing to do next to spending time with family and friends. :o)  

Well I hope you are all doing well!   I'm off to catch up on blogs!  Thanks for stopping by - see you soon!
Hugs!
Sue :o)

Bloom!

Hey there!  I wanted to share this cute little project I made a few weeks ago.   I bought this wood shadow box/barn at the dollar store several years ago and it's been sitting in my craft closet waiting patiently all this time.  :o)   Just goes to show that sometimes hoarding is a good thing.  Before decorating I gave it a light sanding and then lightly washed it with white acrylic paint.  I wanted it to look whitewashed so I left some areas of wood showing through the paint.

Then I went to town with lots and lots of paper flowers.   Some were cut on the Cricut, some were cut on the Cuttlebug, some were punched and some were quilled.   It's amzing how many flowers you can make with paper, huh?

After filling all the little boxes with flowers, I added embellishments like quilled circles, buttons, and rhinestone dragonflies --- oh and dew drops too. (Can't get enough of those dewdrops).

I had a lot of fun making this bloom box and honestly it wasn't hard at all.   The quilling took the longest to do but I love doing it so it wasn't like work.

I hope you're all having a great spring/summer so far!   I'm excited because my son only has a week and a half left of school and then SUMMER VACATION!   I can't wait to sleep in and enjoy a little more relaxed routine.  Thankfully he decided against taking summer school this year so we don't have to be out the door by 7:15.   Yeesh!

I'm hoping to post some more projects this week.   I've been having some technical difficulties with my computer - or as my husband puts it "operator error" but it seems to be working now.   :o)   Have a happy Monday!

Hugs!
Sue :o)

Valentine Inspirations

Hi everyone!
I'm back with a few more Valentine cards today. I've got a bunch of them really, but I haven't had time to photograph them yet. I found the inspiration for these two cards in the greeting card section at our local drug store. Imagine that! LOL. I hardly ever pass up a card display because I find they are awesome when it comes to finding inspiration for colors and layouts.

Both of the cards were made using the Cricut for the big hearts. On the pink, red and black card I used a bunch of my flower punches to fill in the heart, and then I added different "centers" to the flowers with brads, eyelets, dew drops and rhinestones. The embossed background on that card was made with the Cuttlebug and the circles and flowers embossing folder. I'm not sure if that's what it's really called, but that's what I call it. :o) The red card was made using a bunch of scraps from my red scrap paper stash, and the flowers were made with punches. I also used a few Primas in addition to the punched flowers.

Well, I'm off to get back to housework. I hope to be back with weekend with some more cards I finished up! Have a blessed day!
Sue :o)

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone!
Well, Christmas break is drawing to a close and tomorrow morning we'll get back into the school routine. Sigh. I might be a little strange, but I honestly love it when my son is at home with me during the day. The house is too quiet when everyone is gone! Oh well - there's no getting around it, I suppose. I'm not qualified to teach him honors algebra, so he has to go to school. LOL!

Here's a card I did over vacation. The stamp is from Penny Black (my favorite). I used my new Cricut to make the layered frames for the little hedgie, and the flowers were made with good ol' punches.

I'm hoping to get back to card making tomorrow and to blogging on a regular basis again. I was blessed with a lot of new goodies over the holidays, so I should be ready to go! I also had a major organizing epiphany (LOL) over the last week so now my crafting area is better organized and easier to work in!

I hope you're all having a great day!

Sue :o)

Sparkling Angel

Hi everyone!
I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted! Christmas really got the better of me this year! Maybe next year I'll get wise and get started on everything in October instead of November. Yeah right LOL! I'm one of those people who work better under pressure.

Despite my lack of posting I have been stamping a lot. I just put around 30 new cards in my Etsy shop today, and this is one of them. I just think this angel is the cutest little thing! She's from Stampin' Up! and I stamped her once on white card stock and then I embossed her on the patterned paper, cut out the dress and paper pieced it onto the stamped image. I also colored the little flowers on her dress and added sticky blue rhinestones to the centers. I LOVE this paper from K&Co. too. I felt like I'd been neglecting my punches for awhile too, so I made the little flowers in the corners, punched some leaves and then added baby blue sticky back pearls to the centers of the flowers. I swear these little sticky back pearls are so addicting - which reminds me I need to make a trip to Michael's this week for more. Hee Hee!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We're actually not done celebrating yet because my sister and her family were in FL over the holiday so we're celebrating with them this weekend. And wow is it going to be another busy weekend at that! We're getting together with friends on New Years Eve, then we get together with my husband's family on New Years Day, and then my whole family is coming here the day after that. Yikes! I'm going to need a vacation soon. LOL.

Take Care & God bless!
Sue :o)

A Holly Jolly Christmas

I finally got around to making some Christmas cards! Isn't this little snowman the cutest? He's from Penny Black (got him at 7 Kids College Fund) and I embossed and colored him on watercolor paper. I used an old speckle stamp and turquoise ink to add some "snow", and then beneath him I added crystal Stickles for some sparkle. That reminds me - I need to buy a new bottle of crystal Stickles. When I went to use it this time the tip was clogged. I tried routing it out with a stick pin and when that didn't work I got the bright idea to cut "just a little bit" of the tip off the bottle. Well, I cut a little too much of the tip off and when I went to use it I ended up with a sparkly desk and fingers. LOL. Oh well. These things happen. The big snowflake is chipboard, the medium ones are from Martha Stewart, and the little ones came from a punch I bought a long time ago. The blue background paper is Basic Grey and the rest is just card stock. I think he turned out pretty cute!

Well I'm off and back to my craft room to work on some orders! I hope you're all having a great day! Blessings!

Sue :o)

Fall Flowers

Whew! What a week it's been. I'd like to thank everyone for their kind words over the last 5 days. Losing my little furry shadow has not been easy but the Lord has been true to His word and has not left me alone in my sorrow. What an awesome and wonderful God we have - that He cares about our tiniest little hurts and sees us through them. It occurred to me yesterday in church that nothing here on earth really belongs to us and that what we have (pets included) belongs to Him. He gave Cleo to me for 17 years - to take care of her and to love her - and then it was time to give her back to Him. I didn't want to. She was my first cat and has been with me through so much. It hurt to let go, but instead of being sad that she's gone, I'm chosing to thank Him for letting me have her for so long.

With that said, I'm happy to say I was able to get back in the saddle (so to speak) this weekend. Here's the one of the cards that will be going in the shop this morning. This card was made almost entirely with punches. The bushel basket is a clay pot punch that I sponged, cut and layered on foam tape, and the flowers were all made from punches I bought at an estate sale the week before last. I had a few more felt leaves left over from another project so I tossed those in just for fun. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!.

I've got a busy week of stamping planned so check back often!

Have a blessed day!

Sue :o)

Getting Ready For Fall Fun

It dawned on me yesterday that Autumn is right around the corner, and when I had this realization I promptly gasped and ran to my stamp drawers to see what I have that could prove useful for this time of year. Apparently I'm more of a Spring girl because the pickings were slim. I promptly went to my computer, ordered some new Autumn/Halloween stamps - and while I was at it - a few Christmas ones too - and then I promptly went back to my craft room to play. I figured while I'm waiting for my new stamps to arrive I could at least get started on some embellishments and here's what I came up with.

The large pumpkins were traced from a template and cut by hand. After gluing the stems onto the pumpkin part, I ran the entire gourd through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder. I used the swirls on one pumpkin and the circles on the other. I then moved on to the little pumpkins which are so simple to make. All you need is an oval punch, paper, and a pair of scissors. Punch 3 orange ovals and glue them together. The first two ovals go side by side, and the third goes in the middle - slightly lower than the other two. Then you just cut the stems by hand and glue it onto the back.

After making the pumpkins I was really getting in the Autmn mood. I grabbed some die cut leaves from my stash and sponged them up in fall colors. I pulled out my flower punches and my bag of orange designer paper scraps and I went to work on some flower embellishments. Then I found a chipboard tag and covered it with background paper, added some punched leaves and the word FALL.

Finally, I got out my watercolors and my aqua painter and played around with some other designs. The stamped leaves are from Stampin' Up and the pumpkin and the pear are my own designs. Obviously I'm not an artist but hey - I had fun while I was doing them and that's what's important, right? :o)

I hope you got some inspiration from my ideas and that you're having a great week so far! Don't forget - there's a sale going on on my shop right now. Everything is either marked down or has free shipping! The sale will run through the end of this month and then starting in September I'll be adding LOTS of new creations!

Hugs!

Sue :o)