I'm Back!

Yes, I took a break from blogging - not a good thing, I know, if I want people to keep coming back! I changed jobs so I "should" have more time for stamping and blogging. My commute is much longer so I might have to cram all my stamping into the weekends and make enough projects to post all week. We'll have to see.

Due to technical difficulties, I am unable to post the promised project - I'll try again tonight.

I DO have a special for bloggers! Check out my website at www.susanstamps.stampinup.net and the on-line order system. Send me an email at swhokanson@aol.com (this is not my normal stamping email) and I'll send you die cuts made with my Big Shot using an exclusive die from Stampin' UP! Offer ends Sunday, September 14.

Thank you for your continued interest!

Treat Container

These are great little treat containers that can hang on a bottle of wine, water, or with a larger hole, a door knob. It is a 3-d item so the background is a little blurry. The Hershey chocolate sticks fit well in these. You can make the holder a little shorter and the single drink tubes you pour into water fit in these. I love the saying on this container!

Unity Butterfly

I received a box of stamps from Unity Stamps today and had to do something with this butterfly! You can't see the glitter on the wings; this butterfly is perfect for glitter! I'll have to play some more with the glitter to see if I can make something that will show up better. The daisy and butterfly are from the Buzzin' Around set. The daisies and butterfly were colored with SU watercolor crayons.

Crimping Cards

I love to read Jan Tink's posts (see the link to Stamps, Paper, Scissors)! She is hilarious in addition to being a fantastic stamper! She recently posted crimped cards that, of course, I thought were wonderful, so I decided to pull out my crimper, dust it off and start using it. This card uses my old favorite "Watercolor Garden" using Yoyo Yellow, Garden Green, Only Orange and Basic Black. The cardstock is Whisper White, Garden Green and Kraft. I sponged Garde Green ink around the edges.

Graduation Cards

May was a pretty hectic month. I was out of town almost every weekend and worked long hours during the week. My mother had surgery on her leg again; this time they had to remove her artificial knee. They replaced it with a ceramic holder filled with antibiotics. In September, if the infection is completely gone, they'll put a new knee in. (Sounds worse than it is, she assures me!)

Fallon has not returned yet and KC was driving me crazy! She would be good for Noel all day but once I came home, she would pick up all kinds of things (mostly stamping stuff) to get my attention. I couldn't get anything done at home! Last week, we adopted a 4 month old black lab. I'll try to upload a picture of the two of them. Molly is a mini-KC who minds better! KC is doing much better with Molly here and doesn't bug me quite so much. I even took them with me to my mom's house for the weekend (Mom was released from the hospital on Saturday.) Both dogs did very well and behaved themselves. A bonus: Molly has not gone to the bathroom in the house once! I guess she follows KC outside and goes there. No potty training!

I finally figured out how to scan in pictures on our new computer. These turn out much better than when I take pictures and upload them! I made these cards for the graduating students at church. I love the background which is "Sanded". I used a discontinued graduation set for the "congratulations" and the dipoloma.

April Hostess Club Swaps

These are the cards from my Hostess Club Swap. I have one more but the picture needs to be cropped before I can add it to this blog.

This card was made by Robin Rusmiselle.
This card was made by Cathy Clauer.

This card was made by Linda Schroeder.

April Workshops - Tile & Crackle

I absolutely love, love, love this tile technique! I have seen lots of samples of it and just had to feature it, along with crackled embossing, in my April workshops. The set is from the Spring Mini Catalog. Finally, a masculine card I really like!

My hostess, Robin Rusmiselle, was kind enough to scan the cards from our workshop Friday night. Here is the card she made:

This is the second card we made at the workshop on Friday. The image was triple embossed with ultra-thick clear embossing powder, then cracked.
Robin also scanned in the cards we swapped on Friday. I'll post them tomorrow.

Fallon

I haven't been stamping much lately because two of our dogs escaped from the house. One came home but Fallon has been missing for 2 1/2 weeks. She was last seen near the Mission Inn.

From the Garden

I love this hostess set. It is a nice big flower that can be used in so many ways. I'm having a love affair with ribbons, too. I try to add a spool of ribbon to every one of my orders. The ribbon here is Caramel Plaid.

It's been awhile!

I was working all kinds of crazy hours in preparation of my vacation and then the vacation was cancelled at the last minute. I am finally stamping again (though I admit I made this card last month). This was one of my workshop projects for March. I just love the Summer Picnic Designer Paper and it goes so well with the Tart & Tangy set. You can' t read the words, but it says "Sweeter than Apple Pie" from the One Smart Cookie set.

Easter cards

I can't believe how quickly time flies by. I kept telling myself to take pictures of my projects and update my blog and I kept answering "I'll do it tomorrow." Those tomorrows sure add up!

Here is the Easter card Noel and I made for our church. We made 90 cards last night so they could go out in the mail today along with the pastor's Easter letter. Noel was wonderful about helping out but he didn't put the words on correctly and I didn't notice until I took this picture! The words should have been lower, covering the bottom right corner of the Old Olve card stock. It still looks nice, though. The cross was stamped with Old Olve ink. The vine and flowers were stamped with Handsome Hunter. The flowers were colored with a Rose Red marker. The stamps were all from Stampin' UP! except the words. I bought that stamp at a stamping convention in Riverside - I saw it and knew I would be using it for the church's cards.

I am taking pictures of my Simply Scrappin' Extravaganza and working on the instructions for the cards. When they are complete, I'll post them here so you can make them, too.

Crayons and Dogs

These are two of our "babies." The doberman is under my arm and belongs to Stephanie. Her name is Fallon. She sits very well for pictures. The lab in front is KC, our new puppy. You can just see the edge of our third baby's butt in the bottom left of the screen; Rascal does not like KC so he stays away from her as much as possible.

You can make some great backgrounds with crayons:

Cover your iron with foil and heat on low. Scribble two or three different colors of crayons onto the foil and then iron Whisper White cardstock. You'll have all sorts of backgrounds. Be careful not to use too many colors or scribble too much or you'll end up with a muddy card.

Doodle This

Saturday we had our first meeting at church to begin making items for the Craft Fair in the fall. We decoupaged tissue paper onto glass bowls for candle holders (not sure how I feel about this one. It looked really good in the pictures but a bit amateurish in reality. I'll have to add the candles and see what it looks like.) We made several miniature Chinese lanterns. I'll post pictures and instructions later in the week. We also started on tile magnets and punched flower magnets.

On Friday night, I received a preview of a WONDERFUL book filled with projects that will be great for the Craft Fair. Unfortunately, not one is a paper craft project! I lent the book to another woman at church but when I get it back, I'll post the book's name and describe some of the projects.

I just fell in love with this card when I saw it on another website. This sample was made with a square card. I made mine a standard card size (of course, I can't find a picture of mine!) This is a great use of punches, the paper piercing tool and decorative papers.

Sassy Stamps & a Special

I was waiting to post until Noel uploaded pictures from our camera. I didn't realize he had done so several days ago!

Wow, this card is fuzzy! This is my swap card for the Anaheim Regional last week. You can still see the details, though. I punched the 5 petal flower from Whisper White c/s, turned the punch slightly and punched it again. The flower was put aside and used the outline of the flower, mounted on Blue Bayou c/s with dimensionals. I stamped stars on the whisper white. I was supposed to stamp flowers, but KC ate the stamp! I caught her chewing the wood but the stamp was nowhere to be found! The bottom of the card is Designer Paper and stitched ribbon finished the card.



We saw a lot of great demonstations, including a double pocket bag that I will be trying to duplicate soon.

Here are my sister Sharyl and my friend Cathy working hard on projects at the seminar. We were at the back of the room.
It was great spending the day with my daughter Genevieve. You can see people swapping behind her.
This is my friend Robin, diligently working away.I sent out my first new Constant Contact email. There are some specials in the newsletter that are not available anywhere else. If you haven't received a copy and would like to be on my mailing list, please send me an email.

I am also putting a special available only to readers of my blog. Order a Daily Carry All ($26.95 plus shipping and tax) and receive an assortment of flowers from the Flower Fusion set (pg 177) for FREE. Offer ends February 29.

Daily Window Totes, Bags, & Bible Covers

I spent the day at the Riverside Convention center working at the Daily Window booth. I just LOVE these bags! I made a few cards to put in the windows. One bag I use for a purse and the other for catalogs, order forms, etc.

Here is the bag I am using as a purse. It is called the Eight Days a Week Tote:It has a lot of room on the inside and has a lime-green lining. Things don't get lost in a "black hole"! It has two small side pouches with magnetic snaps and on the inside, one zippered pocket and two small open pockets.

Here is a close up of the insert:I used the retired Simply Summer set with watercolor crayons. The words are from the retired Inspirational Greetings. The insert is 5 3/8" x 7 7/8".

This is the bag I use for business literature. It is called Daily Carry All. I am using this tote in my Daily Window class next month:Here is a close-up of the insert:
I used the Doodle This stamp set with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The words are from a retired set. The printed paper is not from Stampin' UP!

Let me know if you are interested in attending a Daily Window class. The cost of the class includes this tote.

In the Spotlight

I am pretty bummed that In the Spotlight is a hostess set. It has become one of my favorite sets because it works so well with the flower punches.

Ingredients:
In the Spotlight stamps (retired hostess set - consider using Big Pieces)
Bashful Blue c/s: 8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Blue Bayou c/s: 3 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Groovy Guava c/s: 2 5-Petal Flower punches
Summer Sun c/s: Scallop punch
Purely Pomegranate c/s: Snowflake punch and 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Blue Bayou Classic ink
Groovy Guava Classic ink
Summer Sun Classic ink
Ice Circle brads

Hostess Club Card Swap

My Hostess Club swaps cards each month. In the past, we've made cards for occassions (birthday, thank you, etc.) Last year, we made cards for techniques (brayer, punches, background papers, etc.) This year, I decided to do card challenges. I've given members a different layout each month. Here are the cards we exchanged in January:

Created by Cathy Duran.

Created by Robin Rusmiselle.Created by Cathy Clauer.

Created by Robin Rusmiselle.

Created by Susan Hokanson.

Time Well Spent

This card uses one of the new hostess sets.

Ingredients:
Time Well Spent (3rd Level Hostess Set)
Itty Bitty Backgrounds
River Rock cardstock:
8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
3" x 2"
1 1/4" circle punch
Handsome Hunger cardstock:
5" x 3 3/4"
Purely Pomegranate carstock:
3 3/4" x 2 1/2"
Scallop Punch
Purely Pomegranate stitched ribbon
Basic Black classic ink

Simply Summer Card

This week's 20 Card Project was made with Simply Summer. I wanted something bright and cheery this week. This is the project I'm working on in the picture of me on this blog.

Ingredients:
Simply Summer stamps(retired - consider using Just Like You)
Inspirational Greetings stamps (retired - consider using Curvey Verses)
Basic Black Classic Ink
Summer Sun c/s: 8 1/2" x 5 1/4"
Only Orange c/s: 4 3/4" x 3 1/2"
Whisper White c/s: 2 1/2" x 2"
Chocolate Chip c/s: 2 3/4" x 2 1/4"

I used an Aqua Painter with the Bold Bright Watercolor Crayons to paint the flowers and sailboat.

Zoo Fun

I love this film strip technique!
Ingredients:
Zoo Fun stamp set (retired - try using Zoofari)
Unknown retired word stamp
Garden Green c/s:
8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Basic Black c/s:
5 1/2" x 2 1/4"
Gable Green c/s"
1 1/2" x 2"
Glossy White c/s (punch 3 times with square punch)
Many Marvelous Markers: Basic Black, Creamy Caramel, Going Gray, Pink Passion, Yoyo Yellow, Garden Green
Basic Black classic ink
Spiral Punch
1 1/4" Square Punch
Ticket Corner Punch

Welcome to my new blog!

I recently changed my email address and website to simpler names. Although I loved the "Stamp with Susan" names, they were just too long. I was able to obtain SusanStamps@hotmail.com for my email address and SusanStamps.stampinup.net for my website. I couldn't obtain the same name for my blog but this is close! Please feel free to comment on any projects, especially if you like them!