Somethiing Beautiful

Mornin' y'all!  It is a snow day here in Colorado and I think that Winter has been saving up all the snow for this snowstorm because we'd had almost nothing all winter and them BAM.  For reals, we had absolutely nothing on the ground when it started snowing yesterday morning, and when Ryan, Daphne, and I went out this morning, there were some places with drifts up to my KNEES!!

They were having the time of their lives, they both love it.  I should have taken pictures once we got to the big open green space, they both had so much fun running around.

I took this pic yesterday afternoon and we have far more snow today than we did then.  I think I shall be content to stay indoors with a lovely giant cuppa tea (more likely several in succession), the kids can enjoy the snow without me!

Anyway, I do have a card to share today:

Okay I told you I love that new Nature Walk DSP, I already ordered a second pack of it so I can have one pack to hoard and one pack to make pretty things with.  The deer and the trees are from the new Outdoor Adventure (I haven't seen other stampers do much with this yet, but I love it), and I chose a greeting from the long-retired Beautiful Thistle because it seemed right on this card.  The deer and trees are both stamped directly on DSP, the deer is on a different piece that has a bit a grid pattern on it in a more Crumb Cake color, and then I did the greeting on Very Vanilla sponged with Pecan Pie.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Lots of wide-open space for creativity with that sketch, love it.

Okay, now I really need that cuppa tea.  The hubs is out shoveling the driveway (I did it yesterday before he got home, but this morning it looked like I never even touched it), or at least that's what he was doing when Ryan, Daphne, and I came back from our walk through the snowdrifts.  I think Ryan is trying to sled down one side of the driveway.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Outdoor Adventure, Beautiful Thistle
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Pecan Pie, Very Vanilla, Nature Walk DSP
Accessories:  Outdoor Adventure dies, Deckled Rectangles dies, Faux Glass Dots

The Cozy Llama

That's my new pub name, I called it.  Y'know, if I ever expand from my first fictional pub, The Laughing Moose.  Anyway, it is SNOWING right now but school starts in 20 minutes and so far they haven't said anything about canceling it so I'm going to hustle Ryan out the door as fast as I can ; )  My guys might go skiing this weekend if we get some good snow.

I also have snow on my card today, and my titular cozy llama:

I adore the llama and the dachshund in this stamp set, which is no longer available so I'm sorry if you didn't grab it.  Seems like SU! is retiring things far too quickly now if you ask me.  Anyway, I started with the color combination from TGIF Challenges:

I added just a teensy bit of Petal Pink for the llama's nose and ears, does that count as a skin tone?  The sparkle gems are technically Balmy Blue and Bubble Bath, but I thought they coordinated with my card pretty well and so I kept adding more of them.

And then went for the Hand-Stamped Sentiments sketch:

I was a bit puzzled by the skinny tall piece but I think my llama works pretty well!  What brought everything together is the AAA Birthday challenge:

I had this in mind when I went looking through my stamps for something that worked for a winter birthday.  I know who this is going to, too--one of my friends has a birthday two days after mine (and they're both coming up later this month!) so I'll send this cozy llama card to her : )  Everybody else in my house has February birthdays, Ryan wanted to vote me off the island for having a January one.  Silly.  If he votes me off the island, who's going to keep him stocked up with goldfish crackers?

Anyway, it's time to get Ryan out the door and then Daphne and I can enjoy a quiet morning together, though I imagine she's still going to make me take her out for a walk in the snow.  But I have lots of tea to help me thaw out after.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Long Time No See, Bitty Birthday
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Highland Heather, Petal Pink
Paper:  Highland Heather, Smoky Slate, Thick Basic White, Highland Heather & Balmy Blue DSP, Silver Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  So Many Snowflakes dies, Two-Tone Sparkle Gems, Mini Dimensionals

Tulip Time

Mornin' y'all!  I am happy to report that I have been working on my goal to spend less time staring mindlessly at social media and more time on the things I really want to accomplish.  When I sat down at my craft table yesterday, I was having trouble focusing and figuring out what I wanted to make, how to combine challenges, what stamps to use, etc. and instead of hopping on Facebook for a while and hoping my brain would eventually cooperate, I listened to a short meditation on focus.  Then instead of turning on a podcast, I put on some instrumental music and began to concentrate on what I wanted to make and guess what?  It worked!

I felt like at first my brain was trying to go in several directions at once to figure out how to combine two challenges, but when I was finally able to get it to focus I really liked where I ended up.  And once I got started I was able to turn the podcast back on without losing my focus, which was nice.  I'm a little bit addicted to The Soundtrack Show with David W. Collins right now and yesterday I was listening to a deep dive on the music of Jurassic Park, highly recommend the podcast if you're interested in movie soundtracks.

Anyway, my first challenge of today is the Festive Friday Challenge:

Thanks to my super colorful DSP, I have red (...debatable, it might be classified as dark pink), yellow, orange, and tulips, and I added a stamped windmill.  I thought about making it a birthday card but I send a lot more hello/friendship/thinking of you type cards so I went with that.

Next up is the Atlantic Hearts Sketch:

The sketch clicked into place for me when I decided to add the windmill on top of the square piece instead of behind and above it, a small adjustment that made the design work for my card I think but you can still see the sketch I started with.

After I finished this, I even started on unmounting a bunch of stamp sets that have been languishing in my craft room for MONTHS, so after I take Daphne for our daily walk, I will be finishing that up and then I probably will have to buy a few more stamp cases.  But hooray for getting started on projects that I've been putting off for far too long : )  And hooray for figuring out how to work through temporary creative blocks to make something when my time is limited, love that.

Have a great day, peeps!  Daphne is ready to go for our walk.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tulip Fields, All-Year Cheer I
Ink:  Early Espresso, Mango Melody, Petal Pink, Stampin' Blends in Pecan Pie, Mossy Meadow, Petal Pink
Paper:  Mango Melody, Mossy Meadow, Thick Basic White, Flowering Fields DSP
Accessories:  Windmill Fields dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Milky Dots

A Lovely Sketch for SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all!  Man, Ryan was in a MOOD this morning but he's off at school now and hopefully he'll be happier when I pick him up.  Daphne and I are enjoying the quiet...or we would be, if the wind wasn't kicking up so much.  I'm going to have hair styled by tornado when we go out for our walk in a bit.

Anyway, today is the day for the first SUO Challenge of the year!

We're starting off with a sketch:

Okay, I had to think long and hard about this sketch, but I ended up with two cards:

I made the darker card on the left first, and then I wanted to play around with the colors a bit so I made the lighter card on the right.  Okay I had a piece of that beautiful DSP I used in the background that was big enough for a second card front and I just had to, isn't that pattern gorgeous?  Here's a closer look at the dark card:

Instead of cutting smaller pieces for the elements behind the circle, I cut a striped pattern the "wrong" way (usually I like to cut where the stripes go the long way of the piece of paper if that makes sense) so it kind of gives the feel of those breaks in the pattern but it's still one piece.  Except one of those strips is two pieces because I am a thrifty soul and I knew the join would be hidden by the circle so I could use up a smaller scrap.

Here's the lighter version:

I had cut the white "lovely" for the first card and didn't use it, so I figured I would work it in here.  I remembered there are stripes in the color family DSP packs so I got some Summer Splash stripes from that, and then used the Summer Splash splatty pattern for the circle since I knew the Secret Sea ink would show up well on it.  So which one do you like better, the darker version or the lighter one?  Either way I love that floral DSP : )

We hope you'll play along with us at upload your card at the SUO Challenges blog.  Don't forget to use only Stampin' Up! products and most important, have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Secret Sea
Paper:  Garden Green, Cloud Cover, Secret Sea, Petunia Pop, Basic White, Flowers in Bloom DSP, Summer Splash DSP
Accessories:  Sweet Blooms dies, In Color Flat Pearls

Sympathy Doves

Mornin' y'all!  Ryan was over here trying to convince me that he was late for school this morning, as if I didn't check the school calendar three times to make sure his first day back is TOMORROW.  I'm going to let him enjoy his last day of break and maybe I can get him to watch Hook with me this afternoon.  We discovered over the weekend that Ryan has no idea what that is so of course we need to fix that oversight.

Anyway.  When it comes to making cards, there are a few things that I just don't like to make:  white on white (ugh!), all neutrals (again, give me color!!!), "fun" folds (stressful and frequently use up a lot of paper), slimline cards (again, you can't get two cards out of a sheet of cardstock so it feels wasteful to me and also I don't have envelopes for that).  But my least favorite?  Sympathy cards.  I much prefer to make them when I *don't* need them, but the hubs asked for one and I didn't have anything he thought would be appropriate in my stash, so I had to make one.  Here's my card:

I frequently gravitate towards blues and greens for sympathy cards (on the rare occasion that I make them) because I find those colors soothing and tranquil, which I think is good for a sympathy card.  Usually I try to make them pretty CAS but for some reason I was feeling the layers this time, so I finally cut into several patterns from the beautiful Peaceful Garden DSP, added a whole lot of skinny Secret Sea mats and a simple stamped and die cut greeting.  I put it all on a Soft Succulent card base before I wondered why I didn't use Cloud Cover, but that watercolor wash pattern does lean a bit green rather than blue so I think it works.

So this card is going to a former coworker of my husband's who recently lost his wife to complications from breast cancer.  Ladies, get your annual mammograms!  One of my favorite people in the world fought stage 4 breast cancer tooth and nail for four years and I miss her every day.  Another friend successfully completed treatment for breast cancer after her mother passed away from it.  My mom had it a few years ago, not the hereditary kind but I still get my checks every year.  It's everywhere and early detection is key.

Okay, enough of that.  I promise to have a more cheery card tomorrow because it's the first challenge of the new year for SUO Challenges, so stay tuned for that!  For right now, I'm going to get myself a second cuppa because I can, and leave a few comments on some blogs before I take Daphne for her daily tour of the neighborhood.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Sketched
Ink:  Secret Sea
Paper:  Soft Succulent, Cloud Cover, Secret Sea, Peaceful Garden dsp
Accessories:  Layering Ovals Framelits, Dimensionals

Winter Fox

Mornin' y'all!  It was Ryan's turn to pick Sunday breakfast so of course it was pumpkin coffee cake : ) Guess the kid knows what he likes.

Anyway, I have a card to share today:

And I started out with the Inspired By... Challenge:

I had planned to do Balmy Blue for my main color, but then I thought if the Let It Snow Specialty DSP that has all the blues with bright pops of red and pink so I took a little bit of a detour from the inspo pic, but hey it's supposed to be a starting point anyway.  I added some Wink of Stella to the fox's scarf to mimic the glitter that's on the trees in the DSP, and added a few rhinestones for more sparkle.

Daphne is more than ready for her walk today so I will have to go take care of that.  It's been very mild so far this winter so we're going to enjoy our nice days with temps in the 50s and 60s.  Ryan is too, he's out playing street hockey with his friends--guess he's enjoying the rollerblades he got for Christmas.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Winter Fox by Lawn Fawn
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Real Red, Coastal Cabana, Pecan Pie, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Thick Basic White, Let It Snow Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, Rhinestones

The Ringmaster's Secret

Happy Saturday and that means it's time for a new Nancy Drew Challenge!  We are now at #31, The Ringmaster's Secret:

Both covers are by Rudy Nappi, and on the left we have a scene from the book.  That is NOT George in the tutu (George would never), it's Nancy's new friend Lolita who is an aerialist in the circus.  I think this cover is very busy, with so many different colors going on.

The revised text cover is simpler and actually reminds me of the revised cover for #8, Nancy's Mysterious Letter, with the main colors being dark reds and pinks.  This one is redder than the Mysterious Letter and for once Nancy is much smaller on the cover than the main antagonist, who is certainly creepy.

I think I have to give it to the revised text cover for this one.  Plus, since it has a lot to do with horses, this was one of my favorite Nancy Drews as a kiddo : )  Let's take a look:

Case file:  Nancy's Aunt Eloise gives her a golden bracelet with horse charms that has a mysterious past tied to a circus performer, so Nancy immediately joins the circus that just came to town as a trick rider (she has suddenly taken up trick riding and this is Never Mentioned Again).  She becomes friends with teenaged aerialist Lolita, who wants to elope with her clown boyfriend but her controlling foster father the mercurial ringmaster won't allow it.  Nancy discovers what really happened to Lolita's mother, gets the ringmaster and his accomplices arrested, and performs several times with the circus in between getting kidnapped with George, temporarily blinded by toxic fumes, and taking a quick trip to the UK.  She's very busy.

Here's my card:

I chose Boho Blue for my main color to match Nancy's dress, and I went with the lion image because a.) it's circusy and b.) there is a lion in the book--at the climax of the novel, the ringmaster opens the lion's cage and tries to push Nancy inside, but it's Ned who gets scratched saving Nancy.  Again, it is dangerous to be friends with Nancy.

I worked in the Pear Pizzazz and Real Red from the background on the book cover as colors for my balloons, but couldn't work in any pink for Lolita's outfit.  Still, I liked this plaid pattern I used because it felt kind of circusy to me?  Cannot explain that one, it just is.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bonanza Buddies
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Darling Duckling, Cinnamon Cider, Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz, Real Red
Paper:  Boho Blue, Calypso Coral, Thick Basic White, Timeless Plaid DSP Stack
Accessories:  Bonanza dies, Stitched Rectangles dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Fine Sparkle Gems

Next up is the revised text:

No major plot changes and let me just say that this book is ever so much better than the previous circus-themed Nancy Drew, the hot mess that is The Mystery of the Ivory Charm, which is still the low point of the series as far as I'm concerned.  Here's my card:

I wanted to do something with a horse image since that's what's on the cover of this book, and the golden horse bracelet is the catalyst for the mystery this time...though they never explain why a European queen would give a dainty horse bracelet to Lolita's mother, who was an aerialist and not a trick rider.

As I said before, this cover reminds me of the RT cover for Nancy's Mysterious Letter, and once again I did a monochromatic card in pinks and reds, this time with some gold for the gold bracelet in the book.  I did use Tip Top Taupe for the shading on the horse and this is the first card I've made with Let It Ride since I acquired it on eBay last year.  I also used the Fan Fair DSP pack that I used when I made my card for the OT Clue of the Black Keys.  I decided to tear the edge of the panel with the horse to mimic the edges of the painting on the book cover, and I chose a ticket shape for the greeting to go with the circus theme.  I think about these things, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Let It Ride
Ink:  Versamark, Merry Merlot, Primrose Petals
Paper:  Primrose Petals, Merry Merlot, Thick Basic White, Fan Fair DSP
Accessories:  Tags & Labels dies, Clear EP, Gold EP, Dimensionals, Gold Brushed Metallic Dots

I still love The Ringmaster's Secret, it's so much fun I give it five stars.  If you're inspired to make a card, please leave me a comment here with a link so I can see!  And don't forget to check back next Saturday, when Nancy will investigate The Scarlet Slipper Mystery.  Cheers!