Friday Flashback: Inspired by Nature

Happy Friday and welcome to the Friday Flashback!  This week's randomly chosen stamp set is Inspired by Nature.  Let's take a look back at some previous cards I made with this set, shall we?

Ok, so, I love these giant flowers but I just noticed that I *always* do them in pink!  Had I looked back at these older photos before I did today's card, I woulda picked different colors :)

I suppose you could just stamp them all in one color like a silhouette, but I always want to do different colors with markers.

And here is the only non-flower and non-pink card in today's lineup!  I made this for my sweet hubs for our anniversary one year.  Hey, we're coming up on our tenth this October!

So I thought this look was kind of cool, with the darker shading on the edges done with markers.  So far as I know, I thought of that all by my onesies, I don't recall seeing it anywhere else.  And that's the Flashback, so here's today's card:

Again with the pink, but what can ya do :)  This was a recent SCS color challenge and perhaps I could have done the flowers in Bermuda Bay with just the centers in Regal Rose, but again I didn't realize how pink this Flashback was going to be when I made this.  And this is the first stamping I've done in over a week!  I have a LOT of catching up to do and I'm sad about all the great challenges I missed out on, but there's always new challenges popping up so I shan't be sad for long.

Thanks for joining me for today's Friday Flashback, and have a wonderful weekend!  OH, another thing to make today fun--we can order from the new Stampin' Up! catalog!!  I know I've got my wish list ready...

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Inspired by Nature, Happy Greetings (both retired)
Ink:  Certainly Celery, Bermuda Bay, Regal Rose, Creamy Caramel
Paper:  Certainly Celery, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, retired Regal Rose DSP
Accessories:  none, but I did use sponges on the card :)

Good Feathers

ACK!!!  This day has totally gotten away from me and I almost forgot to post something on here today.  Soooo this is all I've got for now:

Again, another combo SCS sketch/color challenge...though I don't like that one lone fussy cut feather so much.  Oh well.  As Scarlett says, tomorrow is another day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Fine Feathers, French Foliage (retiring, get it fast!), Pursuit of Happiness
Ink:  Certainly Celery (retiring), Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Certainly Celery (retiring), Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Lucky March

After spending Memorial Day weekend hiking all over Bavaria, we're back home!  Honestly I haven't stamped in I think over a week...lucky for me I had a bunch of draft blog posts.  Now that I'm home though I need to really get crackin' on a BUNCH of projects!  For now though, here's another baby book layout:

So aside from using a different set of alphabet dies, this layout is practically identical to the ones I made three years ago.  I figured it worked pretty well then, and as my husband says, why reinvent the wheel?

Making pretty quick progress on these baby books!  I think I only have a half sheet of that patterned paper left now though, I'll be kinda sad when I use that last bit of it as it's been perfect for this layout several times already.  I like that it's kind of like playful abstract suns.  Oh well, I do have quite a few other So Saffron patterns; that must be one of corporate SU's favorite colors as it's featured in DSP quite frequently.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Pinch Proof, Tag Time
Ink:  Garden Green
Paper:  Certainly Celery, Garden Green, Night of Navy, So Saffron, Whisper White, Delicate Dots DSP (was for SAB a few years ago)
Accessories:  Sizzix alphabet, circle & scallop circle punches

Gone Fishin'

Happy Tuesday!  I've got another combination SCS sketch/color challenge card today:

I'd already stamped the main image and was looking for a sentiment to go on this card when I came across the "Happy Retirement" stamp in Teeny Tiny Wishes, and I figured that was perfect for someone who's gone fishin'!  The fish himself is cut out and popped up.  This card came together pretty quick, love it when that happens!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  By the Tide, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  River Rock, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy
Paper:  River Rock, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, Floral District DSP
Accessories:  NQN brads (retired), Dimensionals

CreativeCrew: Blooming Birthday

Time for the last of my May CreativeCrew challenge cards!  I need to get crackin' on the June challenges :)

And here's the pic I used for my inspiration:

I think it's pretty easy to see where I got the colors and the idea for the stripes.  I love Garden Green, I should use it on cards more often.

Must dash, so that's it for me today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blooming with Kindness, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Garden Green, Primrose Petals
Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Primrose Petals, Whisper White, Regals DSP Stack
Accessories:  Oval punch, Whisper White baker's twine, Windows Collection Framelits

Friday Flashback: Bird on a Branch

Salutations and greetings, welcome to this week's edition of the Friday Flashback!  Today's retired stamp set of choice is the elegant Bird on a Branch.  So let's see what I've got:

I sent this one to my mom a couple years ago (duh, it's a Mother's Day card!).  It was a combo SCS color/sketch card and dang I still miss that swirly floral paper I used in the background.  So that was today's short little flashback, and here's the new project:

More pages for Karyn's baby books!  I figured I could get away with doing these layouts ever-so-slightly girly since Mother's Day is the big day in May.  Well, that and Memorial Day, but I go all stars-and-stripes for July.  Actually this layout was kind of a surprise to me; when I went through all my DSP just to refresh my memory as to what all I have, I found that feather paper and thought hey, I can work with that.  Karyn likes to do things like putter around the garden so I went with a very green color combo here because it seemed to "fit" her personality:  Garden Green, Certainly Celery in the DSP, Tempting Turquoise, and Crisp Cantaloupe which I'm surprised I like so much :)

Thanks for joining me for today's Friday Flashback, have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies, scrapbook layout only:
Stamps:  Bird on a Branch, Fine Feathers
Ink:  Soft Suede, Crisp Cantaloupe, Tempting Turquoise
Paper:  Garden Green, Tempting Turquoise, Crisp Cantaloupe, Whisper White, Flock Together DSP
Accessories:  old Sizzix alphabet

CreativeCrew: Up Up & Away

I think it's time to post another card I made for May's CreativeCrew challenges, so here it is!

The color is totally off in that photo, I really should have taken another one but oh well.  The card base is actually white, not that slightly pinkish weird color.  And here's the pic I used for inspiration:

Fun, right?  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Up, Up & Away; Happiest Birthday Wishes (retired)
Ink:  Real Red, Pacific Point
Paper:  Whisper White, Pacific Point, Pool Party
Accessories:  Brights Glimmer Brads, Chevron EF, Dimensionals

Bridal Bouquet

Howdy, folks!  Hope you're having a wonderful day today.  Hubs and I are about to start getting ready for a big fancy-dancy dinner at Parliament in London :)

But first, here's a card!

This was for a recent SCS color challenge to use Basic Gray, Blushing Bride (ugh) and Pink Pirouette, with the option of adding a green.  To my surprise, I kinda liked the result, and I really don't like Blushing Bride :)  My green of choice is the brand new Pistachio Pudding, whaddya think?

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ciao, Baby!, Field Flowers
Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Basic Gray, Pistachio Pudding
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Basic Gray, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White, In Color DSP Stack
Accessories:  Petite Curly Label punch, Fancy Fan EF

Boyish Valentine

I'm making progress on the twin boy baby books!!  The picture might not be the best, but you get the idea.

In the past I've been a bit disappointed with several of my February layouts, but this one I'm quite chuffed with (ooh, British slang, ha!).  Periodically when working on baby books (or, more rarely, my personal scrapbooks), I like to go through all my patterned paper and just refresh my memory as to what all I have ('cause it's a lot).  And every once in a while I make a serendipitous discovery!  The heart paper on the sides of the layout is actually from Sweet Shop Specialty DSP, which mostly has a bunch of ice cream and cupcake patterns.  When I found the heart paper I almost shouted EUREKA but then I thought they only do that in movies, so I refrained.

But I digress.  I thought the paper would be perfect for these two books as the mom likes bright colors (hence, the Calypso Coral page base) and the hearts say "Valentine" without it being all pink and girly.  And the Hearts a Flutter stamp with the bitty hearts in a heart shape (does that description even make any sense?!) coordinated with the paper beautifully.  I managed to make two of these layouts in fairly short order and was quite pleased with them at the end.

A word about the alphabet...when I graduated from college, my parents offered to get me a college class ring but as I was already engaged to hubs at the time I didn't figure I would wear one.  So instead I got the old red Sizzix machine with the lever, and this alphabet (upper, lower, and numbers).  So I've had this alphabet for like 10 years and it still gets pretty frequent use.  I like it for scrapbooks (not just baby books) because it's fun and informal and very forgiving with lining the letters up, which makes life easier with my OCD about having things lined up properly.

Thanks for stopping by today, now go forth and stamp happy!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Hearts a Flutter
Ink:  Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Sweet Shop Specialty DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Hearts a Flutter Framelits, old Sizzix alphabet

Daffodil Madness

Howdy, folks!  It's an overcast and rather dreary day today in my corner of England, so I made a bright and cheery card to counteract the gray skies.

I used the sneak peek set Mosaic Madness along with the new In Colors Coastal Cabana and Strawberry Slush--I must really like that combo as it's the *exact same one* used on my first Mosaic Madness card.  I think this mosaic stamp set is designed to make OCD people like me twitch when the designs aren't lined up properly ;)  Good thing I am close friends with my Stamp-a-ma-jig.  I also had to combine a cool new set with one of my favorite outgoing sets, Curly Cute.  I didn't buy that set for the longest time but once I did, I used it quite a bit and I'll miss it when it's retired!  Not that I can't (or won't) still use it anyway.

Today's card is based on the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches:

I think the FMS crew routinely publishes sketches that I just absolutely love :)  My Whisper White panel is all one piece, and I just masked off the bottom bit when stamping the mosaic pieces and then covered the join with ribbon, though that ribbon is a bit sheer to really hide the split.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Mosaic Madness, Curly Cute
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Whisper White, Quatrefancy DSP
Accessories:  Daffodil Delight seam binding

Friday Flashback: Cheers to You

Happy Friday and welcome to this week's Friday Flashback!  Today's randomly chosen stamp set is Cheers to You, and it's kinda funny that I own this set because in general, I don't drink alcohol.  But they have festivals for everything in Japan, and I just had to get Cheers to You to finish off my scrapbook layout for the Orion Beer Festival:

When I was working on this, I called my friend Amber (this was when we both lived on Okinawa) and asked, "Do you have any beer stamps?" and she was like, "Um, noooo, what do you want that for?!"  It was so wonderful having a local stampy friend because we did trade stamps back and forth from time to time.

So while I got the stamp set specifically for that scrapbook layout, I did use it again!  And for Saint Patrick's Day.  Go green beer!  (Only not for me, 'cause I hate beer.)

This one was a birthday card for a friend of mine, and another combo SCS sketch/color challenge card, but one I think was a bit less successful.  Bleargh.  I like today's brand new card better:

Sorry the pic is a teensy bit blurry, I took two and this was the better of the two.  So I know I just recently used that same awesome floral DSP for a recent Flashback, but it was on top of my scraps and it just worked with these stamps.  Sometimes you just gotta go with your first idea, know what I mean?  The layout is courtesy of Retro Sketches:

Ooh dang, once again I'm a little bit off from the original sketch.  Oh well, too late now.  And that's all she wrote!  Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by for today's Friday Flashback!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Cheers to You (retired)
Ink:  Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise, Cool Caribbean, Peach Parfait, Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose, Rose Red
Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Whisper White, Island Oasis DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Paper daisy (soon to retire), Triple Flower punch (retired), rhinestone, Dimensionals

CreativeCrew: Happy Cupcake

Here's another project I did for May's CreativeCrew challenges, take a look!

It's kind of CAS but still shows off three different patterned papers, and I think that cupcake stamp is totes adorbs :)  And here's the party pic that inspired my card:

Fun colors, right?  For some reason the whole pennant thing hasn't really tripped my trigger, so I don't have the pennant punch or the birthday stamp sets with all the pennants.  Someone tell my husband that I do not in fact own everything SU! has ever made ;)

Have a wonderful day and don't forget to check out all the CreativeCrew beauties here!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Birthdays
Ink:  Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango
Paper:  Whisper White, Summer Smooches DSP (I'll miss this stuff, so many fun bright colors!)
Accessories:  Daffodil Delight seam binding, corner rounder punch

Punchtastic

Have you ever seen a color challenge online and just thought oh my word, those colors do NOT belong together?  Well, I have.  I've said this before, there are certain pairs I don't like--Baja Breeze and Bashful Blue or Marina Mist; Basic Black and Night of Navy (blame my mom for that one); Elegant Eggplant and Concord Crush, Calypso Coral and any of the real pinky-red shades.

So then this Splitcoast color challenge comes along to use Calypso Coral, Primrose Petals, and Whisper White.  And even though I shudder at the thought of Calypso Coral with Primrose Petals, I gave it a shot.

But I didn't stick the butterfly down too firmly because YIKES.  Instead, I did this:

OH MY GOODNESS THAT'S SO MUCH BETTER.  The butterfly pops out so much better against all the coral and hey, Bermuda Bay lookes *awesome* with Calypso Coral.  I thought about adding a sentiment, but the butterfly is on Dimensionals and this time I *did* stick it down good, so I'll just wait till I want to use this card and then put a sentiment on the inside.

Color crisis averted.  I saved the Primrose Petals butterfly and stuck it on my ink pad caddy.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Mixed Bunch, Best of Butterflies (is that butterfly not totally gorgeous?!)
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Primrose Petals, Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Whisper White, Calypso Coral, In Color DSP Stack
Accessories:  Decorative Label, Blossom, and Elegant Butterfly punches, Dimensionals

French Foliage Birthday

Happy Tuesday!  Hope you're having a fabulous day.

For today's card, I turned to the latest Inkspirational challenge:

I really liked the colors, which I read as Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, and Daffodil Delight.  And then I just really wanted to see how those colors would look with some French Foliage:

We've got lots of fall birthdays in our family so I'm sure this will get sent off in a few months.  The leaves are all rock 'n' rolled--even the Razzleberry ones are stamped off once, then rolled in more Razzleberry ink to make them darker on the edges.  Then I sponged the image panel a bit on the edges because that seems to be de rigueur for this stamp set (oooh, I threw in some French on this French Foliage card!).  I kinda wished I'd embossed the sentiment in Early Espresso EP to make it stand out a little better, but oh well.  The card is based on an old SCS sketch;  I ended up liking it more than I thought I would.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  French Foliage (get it now, it's retiring!), Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede, Early Espresso
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Brights DSP Stack
Accessories:  Neutrals brads (also retiring!)

In Color Butterflies

I love getting new colors in my hot little hands.

That, my friends, is a card front featuring not only the five brand spankin' new In Colors, but also the new neutral, Smoky Slate.  I had to include that one as I have at least one lady who can't wait to get a look at the new gray :)  And it is awesome!  I haven't put the cardstock next to Going Gray but I think this one is a bit softer and will work better with other colors.

So I had the idea to use the postage stamp punch and that really cool butterfly from the Best of Butterflies set to showcase all the new colors, but when I saw this card by Mary Fish, that's when I decided to CASE her layout.  I quite like the new colors all together, what do you think?  Can't wait to get some more new DSP and really play with them!  I've already been studying the new In Color cards for the Color Coach and can't wait to get the new Coach when the new catty goes live.

Did I mention I love colors?  And playing with colors?  And putting them in fun and different combinations?  Ok, so generally I don't think that gray and brown should go together, but just this once it doesn't bother me so much.  I just really wanted to get all six brand new colors on one card front, both the ink and cardstock.  Mission:  accomplished.

Pretty sure this card also qualifies for the challenge over at SUO Challenges to use butterflies, doncha think?

Have a fantastic start to your week and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Butterflies, My Paper Pumpkin welcome kit (oh how I love that "hey there friend" stamp!)
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Smoky Slate, Whisper White
Accessories:  Elegant Butterfly & Postage Stamp punches, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Fifth Avenue Floral

It's time for another Friday Flashback!  Today's randomly-chosen stamp set is Fifth Avenue Floral, and yet again I'm surprised I don't have more stuff in my archives because this is a really pretty stamp set.  Let's take a look at what I've got, shall we?

I made this for a swap, probably right when Fifth Avenue Floral made its debut in the SU catalog.  Not hard to make a pretty card with this stamp set, amirite?  My only problem was I thought the DSP I used coordinated with Sahara Sand and then after I'd stamped all my floral pieces, I realized the DSP was actually Crumb Cake, so I had to re-stamp the whole set because my OCD wouldn't let me not be all matchy-matchy.  Oops.

But it all worked out because I used the Sahara Sand pieces to make cards to send out to my SU customers.  I just couldn't toss all those perfectly good stamped bits!

Some while later, I made this one for my friend Connie for her birthday.  I was in a hurry so I CASE'd those two earlier cards to make this one.  So that's it for the archives, but it's longer than last week's Friday Flashback ;)  I could have sworn I had used that one stripey flower for a scrapbook layout, but I went through my scrapbook pages three times and I couldn't find it on any of my pages.  At this point, given my week-long battle with insomnia, I may be delusional about that scrapbook page.

Anywhoo, how about a brand-new card!

Dang, that photo is slightly out of focus on the bottom.  Shoulda taken an extra shot for insurance but oh well, you get the gist.  I realized in looking at the archives that I'd never actually colored the flowers in (unless it was on that mythical scrapbook layout, snort) so today I pulled out an oldie from the technique files:  polished stone.  I'm sad that the glossy white cardstock is retiring because you have to have that to do polished stone, which is a technique I love.  The flower is done with Summer Starfruit and Primrose Petals ink refills, and then stamped with Raspberry Ripple for the outline and cut out.  Really fast way to color the flower and get a unique result every time!

Let's hear it for last week's Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch:

It's pretty layer-licious for my tastes but I just had to give it a go with that giant rose.  And the two strips behind the flower were a great way to use some more Print Poetry DSP, because I need to either a.) buy less DSP (yeah like that's gonna happen) or b.) use more of what I've got (I think I could actually do that one).

The color combo is from the hot-off-the-presses Fab Friday color challenge:

My challenge was working in the Soft Suede; if left to my own devices, I would have stamped the sentiment in Primrose Petals.  But I managed to hit all five colors on this challenge and didn't add any extras, can I get a whoop whoop!  :D  So given the stamp sent name and the challenges, this card is a Fab Frenzy Floral Flashback, bwahahahaa!

Thanks for joining me on today's Friday Flashback, have a fabby-dabby weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Fifth Avenue Floral, Elementary Elegance
Ink:  Raspberry Ripple & Soft Suede ink pads, Primrose Petals & Summer Starfruit ink refills
Paper:  Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit, Glossy White, Print Poetry DSP, Neutrals DSP Stack (the vanilla piece is actually DSP with subtle stripes on it)
Accessories:  Modern Label punch

Print Poetry Peacock Feather

Howdy, folks!  I finally have a card done for today's blog post.

I suppose the card is okay, but for some reason it's just not quite doing it for me today.  Probably a result of not sleeping well last night...I woke up at 3:45 and didn't really get any restful sleep after that.  Insomnia sucks.

Anyway, today's card was based on the current Retro Sketch, though I'm afraid I failed to do it justice.  I had all these ideas for this sketch earlier this week but those ideas seem to have fled for the moment.

Well, as Scarlett O'Hara says, tomorrow is another day.  Have a good one, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fine Feathers, Fabulous Phrases
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Wisteria Wonder (hard to see on the feather, but it is in there, and on the sentiment too), Gumball Green
Paper:  Gumball Green, Whisper White, Print Poetry DSP
Accessories:  Wisteria Wonder baker's twine

April Showers

Last time I was making baby books, I had just done some "April showers" layouts when I saw the Occasions mini catalog with Rain or Shine in it, and of course the matching DSP.  Since it was too late to use that stuff last time, I made sure to use it for this set of pages!

Karyn (the mommy who will get these books for her twin boys) loves bright colors, and I think I delivered that on these layouts.  Since they're for boys, I tried doing the title and accent color with Lucky Limeade, but it just didn't pop enough, so I did Melon Mambo instead.  And I left open some areas on the layout to showcase that oh-so-cute umbrella DSP.  I suppose it would look more boyish if I'd done the photo mats in Lucky Limeade and used Pacific Point as the accent color, but I like this the way it is (and I'd already cut all the photo mats for both layouts anyway).

I think this might be my favorite-ever April layout.  Hope you like it too!  I'm happy to report that I am very nearly halfway done with this batch of baby books.  I've been going at warp speed--want to make sure they're done in time for the baby shower near the end of June :)

Supplies:
Stamps:  Rain or Shine, Weather or Not (the small umbrellas on the journaling block)
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP
Accessories:  old Sizzix alphabet

Cantaloupe Poppies

So here's the second sneak peek in as many days.  I was planning to do something else today but my Feel Goods stamp set seems to have gone AWOL, not sure what happened with that.  But let's look at some new SU goodies!

The card base is Crisp Cantaloupe, one of the hot-off-the-presses new In Colors.  The flower image is stamped with Basic Gray stamped off once, then watercolored with Cantaloupe and Pear Pizzazz.  I was really pleased with how it turned out, it looks nice and soft and the sentiment still stands out.  It was a nice surprise :)

The color combo is thanks to Inkspirational:

Ok, so it's kind of a liberal interpretation.  When I first saw this swatch card, I was thinking Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, and the retired (but still missed) Peach Parfait, but I ended up with Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz, and Crisp Cantaloupe.  I thought the colors I went with were really interesting together.

The sketch is from CAS(E) this Sketch:

Again, kind of a liberal interpretation of the sketch but this time it was accidental.  I copied the sketch down on a piece of scratch paper and kind of got the placement a bit off with the image panel more to the right, *and* somehow I got the rounded corner on the wrong side.  Well, I tried, anyway!

Hope you have a fantastic day, and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Sketched (new hostess set!)
Ink:  Basic Gray, Crisp Cantaloupe, Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Crisp Cantaloupe, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Twitterpated DSP
Accessories:  corner rounder punch, Dimensionals

Mad for Mosaics!

I said on Friday that I'd probably have some new goodies to showcase today and look at this!

I've got new stamps and new colors and new DSP to play with :D  And a punch that coordinates with the stamp set--be still my heart!  I think I'm in love.   I think this Mosaic Madness stamp set will quickly become a favorite, at least at my house--it's the kind of stamp set that you can do in just about any color combo and use for just about any occasion, so you gotta love that.

So I used two of the new In Colors on this card--Strawberry Slush and Coastal Cabana.  Can't wait to get my hot little hands on more DSP in the In Colors :D  I think a nice subtle pattern on the Coastal Cabana strip would take this card over the top.  The sentiment stamp is from the first My Paper Pumpkin kit...with the way our mail runs, I think I'll be getting my packages about a month after everyone in the States but at least they get here eventually.  Love that sentiment stamp.

Today's card is based on the latest wonderful Freshly Made Sketch:

Only of course I rotated it 90 degrees for my card.  I suppose I could have made this horizontal, but I liked it vertical with the mosaic pattern.

I've also been making some really excellent progress on the twin boy baby books so I'll be posting pics of those scrapbook pages here and there.  At least I'm working on those fast enough that I don't feel too guilty taking some time out to play with new goodies just for funsies :)

Hope your week is off to a fantastic start, thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Mosaic Madness, My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana
Paper:  Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Quatrefancy Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Mosaic punch!!, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Just Beakause

It's Friday, and that means it's time for another Friday Flashback!  Today's stamp set is Just Beakause, and the funky birds in this set always remind me of the Tiki Room at Disneyland.  I haven't used this stamp set a whole lot since I got it (wow, back in 2006 from the dates on Splitcoast?) but at least today's Flashback will be longer than last week's ;)

My first card with the set, done for a Virtual Stamp Night (VSN) challenge on Splitcoast.  The sentiment is punched out with the key tag punch (I think that was what it was called?).  I kinda miss that punch.

Hey look, I used the funky birds on a baby book layout for my friend Sarah's daughter.  Sarah likes bright colors so that's how this one came about.  I also used the retired set Tropical Party on this layout, and the fun Island Oasis DSP.

Ok, so a whopping two previous projects, but still longer than last week's ;)  And here's today's brand new card!

Ok, so it might seem an odd choice for a Mother's Day card, but hubs' parents both grew up in the Canal Zone in Panama and my MIL likes the bright tropical birds, so that's the reasoning behind the card.  Makes sense to me.

And this card came together in a flash thanks to the Fab Friday sketch:

Heyyy, this time I stayed pretty close to the original sketch, aside from putting my flag on the wrong side on the sentiment.  After I stuck everything down I kinda wished I'd done paper piercing around the bird image but too late now.  And have I been using those Glimmer Brads a lot lately?  Can't mail 'em from here (postmaster is super picky about anything dimensional) so luckily this will go in a package.

Ooh, tip for the day!  If you've got a Glimmer Brad with the legs stuck together, the paper piercing tool can help unstick them, just use the point to pry the legs apart.  I kind of had to work at it on both brads for today's card--I think that's the part that took me the longest in making this, to be honest--but it does work!

Thanks for stopping by for today's Friday Flashback, and I'll see you again in Monday.  And maybe some sneak peek goodiez from the new catalog!!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Just Beakause, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Pacific Point
Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Whisper White, Island Oasis DSP
Accessories:  Labels Collection Framelits, Brights Glimmer Brads

Hello, Baby

Another week almost done!  Here's my card for today.

To be honest, this is not my favorite card ever, but I think it's because I dislike Blushing Bride.  That and I think this card looked better in my head than it does on paper?  The layout is this week's Splitcoast sketch and the colors are from Dynamic Duos:

So I should get points for attempting a card with a color I don't like.  I figured this would be an okay card for a baby shower, or failing that, next time my hubs is gone for a bit I can send this to him because that thought kinda made me giggle.  I'm not the only one who calls her husband "baby", am I?  Is that weird?

Who am I kidding, I don't care if it's weird.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Mixed Bunch, Sweet Essentials
Ink:  Calypso Coral
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Everyday Enchantment DSP (retired, but I have GOT to use up some of my stash!)
Accessories: mini silver brad