Good morning, all! Let’s begin today with a big welcome to my pick for a day on the blog, Susanne Nilsson. She lives in Sweden, a place I have never been, but would love to travel to. She is a frequent participant in our challenges and it certainly has paid off! Her style is colorful, clean, and upbeat — a lot of fun to look at!

First let’s get to know Susanne a little better. We asked her our five famous questions:

Q1: What is your favorite stamping technique? (Simple stamping, embossing, collage, etc.)

Susanne: It’s a tie between simple stamping where I colour the stamped images with pencils and embossing. I really like the embossed look, especially on backgrounds using DesignBlocks. I also like to cut out/around my stamped images and put them on distance tape to get depth.

Q2: What is your “go-to” color combination?

Susanne: Anything bright! I often use hot pink, lime green and orange in different combinations.

Q3: What are your favorite Hero Arts embellishments? (Gems, pearls, buttons, etc.)

Susanne: Definitely gems. I can’t get too much sparkle on a card. And the Hero Arts wonderful Felt Flowers. Just love them!

Q4: What inspires you?

Susanne: The Hero Arts Group Pool, various blogs, ads or fabric. Anything that is colourful really.

Q5: What is your favorite dessert?

Susanne: Anything with chocolate. My sister makes the most fabulous chocolate & cheesecake muffins.

Now it’s time to take a look at what Susanne created with the Hero Arts stamps and accessories we sent.  Susanne’s first card uses the clouds and trees. She added depth by cutting and mounting some leaves and adding a felt flower. Some of  them got jazzed up with  glitter and Glossy Acents…great touches!  A simple thanks was added for the greeting.

Card by Susanne Nilsson
Supplies:

• Clouds
• Dots and Flowers
• Sparkle Clear: Messages
• Creative Trees
• Lagoon & Lime Notecards
• Summer Felt Flowers
• Pink Gemstones
• Diamond Stickles
• Other: pink and white cardstock, ink (Adirondack Pitch Black, Adirondack Aqua, Adirondack Citrus, VersaFine Onyx Black), Threading Water border punch (Fiskars), colored pencils (Faber Castell Polychromos), pens (ProMarker), Glossy Accents (Ranger Inkssentials)

I was glad she selected the clouds, because I had never even stamped with them yet! I selected one tree and stamped “thank you” inside the clouds. My sparkle came from gems. I loved that cloud so much, I wanted to use it on all three cards!!!

Card by Sally Traidman
Supplies:

• Clouds
• Creative Trees
• Thank You Sayings
• Soft Pool Shadow Ink
• Memories ArtPrint Brown Ink
• Teal Gemstones
• Neutral Mixed Notecards
• Other: scrap of Pool notecard, scallop punch, ribbon

Susanne did a great job here with the flower background. Coloring it with pale pink and green gives it a dainty look. The gems again add that perfect little “something extra”.

Card by Susanne Nilsson
Supplies:

• Wallpaper Flowers
• Birthday Messages
• Wisteria & Lime Notecards
• Citron Gemstones
• Diamond Stickles
• Other: white cardstock, ink (Adirondack Pitch Black, VersaFine Onyx Black), colored pencils (Faber Castell Polychromos)

I decided to emboss MY background (since Susanne LOVES embossing) in white for a completely different look. I punched a big white flower and added a stem and leaves. I thought it was perfect how the birthday wishes circle fit in the center of the flower.

Card by Sally Traidman
Supplies:

• Wallpaper Flowers
• Scattered Leaves
• Birthday Messages
• Peeled Paint & Shabby Shutters Distress Ink
• VersaMark
• White Embossing Powder
• White, Blossom & Lime Notecards
• Other: pink gem

Susanne’s use of the little critters from the Whoo Love You set is adorable. And the embossed Modern Lines make a perfect background for the base card.

Card by Susanne Nilsson
Supplies:

• Modern Lines
• Whoo Loves You?
• Garden Mix Notecards (Key Lime)
• Orange Gemstones
• Diamond Stickles
• VersaMark
• Other: white cardstock, ink (Adirondack Pitch Black, Adirondack Aqua for shading, VersFine Onyx Black), colored pencils (Faber Castell Polychromos), Nestabilities Labels One die (Spellbinders), Glossy Accents (Ranger Inkssentials), green satin ribbon, Crimson Red embossing powder

Since I fell in love with the clouds, I thought they were a perfect fit with the swirly heart tree. I chose to use the two birds since my backyard is filled with baby birds chirping. There’s a nest right above my patio door and they have the loudest parents! (Must be proud!)

Card by Sally Traidman
Supplies:

• Whoo Loves You?
• Kraft, White & Pool Notecards
• Pale Pink & Teal Gemstones
• Memories ArtPrint Brown Ink
• Soft Pool Shadow Ink
• Other: pink and hot pink cardstock scraps

Susanne was awesome to work with. She had her cards done in a flash…and she had many good ones, so it was hard to choose which ones to use. She has reminded me that embossing is a really cool thing and I should use it more often.

A note from Susanne:

“Winning a day on the Hero Arts blog has been a wonderful experience for me. I had such a great time putting together these cards for this day. It has truly been so much fun to work together with Sally and I’m a great fan of her work. Thank you Hero Arts for making a dream come true.”

Even more of Susanne’s work can be seen on her blog or in the Hero Arts Flickr Group.

Come back tomorrow for another great day on the HERO blog!

Filed under: beinspired

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 4:30 am and is filed under Take Two Tuesdays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.