Friday Flashback: Land That I Love

Welcome to a special patriotic edition of the Friday Flashback!  Usually I pick a stamp set name at random, but since the 4th of July is next week I just had to do a patriotic stamp set for today's Flashback.  And that set is Land that I Love!  Probably my favorite patriotic stamp set to date, so this is gonna be a longer Flashback than normal :)

I got this stamp set relatively early in my stamping career, so my first couple cards aren't necessarily stellar, but hey, now we can see how I've grown as a stamping artiste.  I can always tell which ones are the oldest pictures because a.) they induce the most squirming on my part to look at them and b.) they're scans, not photos.

I didn't like this one much when I made it--in fact, the picture is called "Patriotic Blah"--but I don't think it's so terrible now.  The torn edges are something different.

This one I kinda liked pretty well; the front of the card is torn and the "Thank You" is actually stamped on the inside.

You can't tell in this picture but the eagle is actually stamped on glossy paper and there's a bit of pale, pale blue and purple done with baby wipes so it looks more like sky.

Something quite simple and bordering on CAS...you can just barely see the line of stars to the left of the sentiment.

And this stamp set has even made an appearance in a baby book :)  So how about my brand new card for the day:

I kinda like it, what do you think?  I was very closely following the latest Retro Sketch, but if I were to do this over again I think I'd move the knot to the right side and the sentiment to the left.  But you can see I did stick like glue to the sketch this time:

I think that might be my dad's birthday card next month.  It looks all manly, right?

Thanks for joining me for this week's Friday Flashback!  To all my American friends, have a safe and happy holiday next week.

Supplies, last card only, all SU!
Stamps:  Land That I Love, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Marina Mist, Early Espresso
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, retired Marina Mist DSP
Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler seam binding, Dimensionals

CreativeCrew: Inky Blocks

I'm back with another color blocked CreativeCrew project :)  This one is the last one I did for the June challenges.

I saw "color block" and I thought blocks of cardstock, which I did on another project, but there was a link to this technique of inking up bare acrylic blocks and using them as stamps.  Hey, I'd never done that before so I had to give that a shot too :)

I used four of the five new In Colors on this one, Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana, and Baked Brown Sugar.  The card front is actually Shimmery White cardstock but of course it's nearly impossible to get the shimmer to photograph properly :)

Been having fun with this little Simply Sketched stamp set, it's wonderful!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out the CreativeCrew gallery for more beautiful creations!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Sketched
Ink:  Pistachio Pudding, Baked Brown Sugar, Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana
Paper:  Pistachio Pudding, Shimmery White
Accessories:  none, unless you count the acrylic blocks I used to stamp with :)

Tropical Hello

So I'm loving Stippled Blossoms and I made another card with it this week.  Hope you don't get tired of it because I think it's gonna get a lot of lovin' in my stamp room :)  Now I'm just wondering why it took me so long to buy the stamp set.

I used some now-retired but still totally awesome Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP along with this fun summery color combo from Nacho Average Challenges:

Awesome, right?  And I used this sketch from Create with Connie and Mary:

As per usual, I tweaked the sketch just a teensy bit and I completely forgot to round the corners.  Oh well, too late now since I need to leave for the gym like, right now :)

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms, Four You (also brand new and scrumptious)
Ink:  Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green
Paper:  Pool Party, Whisper White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP (now retired)
Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits, Square Lattice EF, white taffeta

Amazing You

Howdy folks!  Finally got my card done for today :)  I think I need to quit procrastinating!  Or, y'know, quit doing the dishes or something, 'cause that sucks up a lot of time...or maybe it only seems like it sucks up a lot of time because I procrastinate about doing the dishes too.  Hmm.

I combined today's SCS color challenge with the current sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch for a very CAS card.  The Crushed Curry images (whadya call those anyway?) are popped up on Dimensionals and I put rhinestones in the centers for a little bling.  A bit of patterned paper and a sentiment, and this card was finished in record time.  Why did I choose that "amazing you" sentiment?  No idea, I just liked it :)

Here's the sketch:

Lookit that, I actually did pretty much exactly the same as the sketch.  Yay me.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a lovely day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello, Lovely; Express Yourself
Ink:  Crushed Curry
Paper:  Whisper White, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  rhinestones, Dimensionals

Birthday Roses

I survived the baby shower on Saturday!  I think it went really well.  I've got some crafty projects from the shower that I'll share over the next few weeks, but for today I've got a freshly made card with a beautiful stamp set I just got, Stippled Blossoms!

I decided I needed another current 2-step flower stamp set, so I got this in my first new catalog order (because who doesn't need more flower stamps?).  And isn't that Venetian Romance paper just fantastic?!  It looks even better IRL than it does in the catalog, and I thought it looked great in the catalog.

Anyway, this card is based on the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches:

Ok, so I tweaked the sketch just a smidge by adding a layer and scooching the flag over a bit since my sentiment was so long.  But I was pretty close to the sketch I think :)

The colors are from Dynamic Duos:

I think this would have been really pretty with the leaves done in green, but I was a good girl and stuck to the challenge colors plus neutrals.

Gotta run; I need to leave for the gym in 10 minutes.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms, Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Early Espresso
Paper:  Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Venetian Romance DSP
Accessories:  scallop border punch, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Nature's Wonders

It's time for another Friday Flashback!  This week's randomly chosen stamp set is Nature's Wonders, which was kinda like a sequel set to Perfect Petals (in fact, they share a stamp case in my craft room).  Somehow I didn't have *any* photos in my archives (haha, I have archives...somehow that still amuses me) using this stamp set so today I have rectified that situation.

First up, I used all four stamps in the set and all the new In Colors to fit in with the current Fab Friday challenge:

So the spotlight thing was kinda neat, punching out pieces of the images, but really my first idea was to use the same stamp multiple times in different colors.  And because I am an overachiever (and I'm procrastinating about cleaning my house, I'm a procrasti-chiever), I made two more cards this morning for today's Flashback.

This is the first time I've used Soft Sky in quite some time, and I think that my ink pad needs more ink (and also I'm sad because this color is just not even a zillionth bit as cool as Baja Breeze).  I was going to put a sentiment on the Soft Sky panel but then I embossed it instead so all my cards today are all-occasion cards with no words on them.

I love dragonfly stuff, so I had to use that stamp today.  The bottom two images are stamped with the new Firm Foam pads and you can see how they look different than the top two, which are the older style ink pads.  Hmm.  I like the color combo though, Coastal Cabana (ok, so I'd probably like this with just about anything), Wisteria Wonder, Smoky Slate, and Pear Pizzazz.  And I used the pinking edge in the Finishing Touches Edgelits just because I'd never used it before.

So there you have it, thanks for joining me for today's Friday Flashback!  Now I really need to clean up my house since I'm hosting a baby shower here tomorrow.  Eek!

Supplies, first card:
Stamps:  Nature's Wonders
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana
Paper:  Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, Venetian Romance
Accessories:  circle punches

Supplies, second card:
Stamps:  Nature's Wonders
Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Sahara Sand, Soft Sky
Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Sahara Sand, Soft Sky
Accessories:  Fancy Fan EF

Supplies, third card:
Stamps:  Nature's Wonders
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Wisteria Wonder, Smoky Slate, Coastal Cabana
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White, retired Pear Pizzazz DSP
Accessories:  Finishing Touches Edgelits, Circles Collection Framelits


Stop the presses!  I did find an old card in the archives using Nature's Wonders, it was in the Perfect Petals folder.  So here's the flashback part of today's Friday Flashback:

I can't remember if I used Yoyo Yellow or Summer Sun, but in any case both those yellows are retired and I still love Crushed Curry more.  Ok, carry on with your Friday :)

November Scarecrow

More baby book pages!

I've used Happy Fall Y'all on a baby book layout before, but I like this one better.  I am slightly annoyed I don't have any more of that wonderful More Mustard plaid though, so this set will be the only set of pages exactly like this.  I sponged the letters just a touch to make them stand out a little better on the plaid paper.

Kind of loving this color combo:  Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Baja Breeze.  But only a little Baja Breeze because I've gotta hoard now that they're out of the cardstock.  Stupid retiring colors idea.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Happy Fall Y'all (long retired)
Ink:  Versamark and a whole lot of others for watercoloring with blender pens--Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, So Saffron, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Soft Sky and I think that's it?
Paper:  Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories:  Early Espresso EP, old Sizzix alphabet

Starry Celebration

The bigger the deadline I have coming up, the better I am at procrastinating...and then running around with my hair on fire at the last minute.  I have several things left to do for the baby shower on Saturday, not to mention cleaning my house, and today I made a birthday card for my SIL.

Both my SIL and my mom have birthdays right around the 4th of July, which we will be spending in Normandy.  This card was actually a total pill to put together; I started out with a plain white background mounted on the Crumb Cake cardstock, still with the ribbon and the stars punched out, but all that white space seemed too Stark and not enough Tony (hey, I'm trying out an Iron Man joke).  So I tried to splatter on some Night of Navy ink and it did NOT work (why didn't I ever get that marker spritzer thing?) but I think it took me an entire sheet of Whisper White before I figured that out and went a less CAS route.  CAS cards look all simple and pretty but for me at least they generally take several tries and quite a lot of wasted cardstock.  And I started out with the two large red stars and a little blue star, but that looked like a mommy and daddy star with a baby star and my SIL doesn't have any babies so that just seemed weird to me but maybe I overthink things.

I got today's sketch from Sketch Frenzy Friday and I haven't played over there in a long time so yay:

So I didn't strictly adhere to the sketch, but all the elements are there if you pretend my stars are the same as that circle.  Ish.

The color combo is from the Color Throwdown, I always check out their challenges but for some reason rarely play along, so I'm happy I got the opportunity to do it this time!

And this also counts towards the current challenge at SUO Challenges, to make a patriotic project.  Triple challenge FTW!  So a few things on my card are retired, but it's going to take a while for me to acquire all that new DSP in every color and I can't help it if SU keeps making stamp sets that coordinate with retired punches.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Imma go work on my baby shower projects now...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Stars, Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Real Red, Night of Navy
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Real Red, Whisper White, retired Night of Navy DSP
Accessories:  large star punch (retired), Crumb Cake taffeta, Dimensionals

CreativeCrew: Color Blocking!

Hello hello hello!  Hope you're having a great day today.  I'm back with another CreativeCrew project for June.

I bet you get a bunch of photo cards from friends and family at Christmas, right?  I didn't want those pictures to get lost in a box somewhere, so I decided to put them on a scrapbook layout.  Really, I have enough to do probably two more layouts--why do those photo cards have to be so HUGE?!  This isn't the first time I've done one of these types of layouts though, check out this one from Christmas 2008.  Now I just need to find all my photo cards for all the other years too :D

Thanks to June's CreativeCrew challenges, my scrapbook page tally is now at 12 out of a goal of 100 pages (I'm not counting baby books).  o_O  At least I made some progress!

Thanks for stopping by!  Now you can go check out the CreativeCrew gallery for more goodness :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tall Tales Numbers, Snow Swirled
Ink:  Gumball Green, Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Gumball Green, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Be of Good Cheer DSP (now retired)
Accessories:  a ruler to keep all those margins even!

P.S.  Yes, if you look at that baby card in the upper left, I have friends who gave their son the middle name Leonidas.  Because they are awesome like that.

Watercolor Wash

Happy Monday, folks!  We are officially under a week until the baby shower I'm hosting on Saturday, so I've got to get my rear in gear and finish up a couple projects for that.  The biggest two are done though so yay!

Anyway, I got to try out a new-to-me technique for today's card called watercolor wash.  I found the instructions here on Angie Leach's blog, and here's how mine turned out:

This was a very messy technique...or I'm a very messy stamper...and I was really careful about not getting the wet ink everywhere until the VERY LAST MINUTE and I got a splotch of Elegant Eggplant ink on the left side of the card.  DRAT!  I left it on there because I'm calling it handmade charm (work with me, people!).  The watercolor piece was my first attempt where I didn't stamp off the ink on the block before spritzing and smearing it on the watercolor paper so the colors are extra saturated (my new In Color ink pads are almost ridiculously juicy).  I had another piece that I did stamp off a bit and it was much softer, but then I messed it up when I stamped the image--I hadn't re-inked my Elegant Eggplant ink pad and the image didn't come out dark enough, and then I didn't get it exactly lined up right to stamp over it the second time.  So I inked up the ink pad and then stamped it on this piece instead.

The layout is one of those gonzo old SCS sketch challenges that I think is overly complicated, but the color inspiration came from this gorgeous picture at Just Add Ink:

I used Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, and Elegant Eggplant as my colors based on the picture, though perhaps the darker Bermuda Bay would have been a closer match to the photo.  But I love Coastal Cabana so I had to play with that and did you SEE that scrumptious pattern from the Eastern Elegance DSP?  Love that!!

Ok, enough rambling from me today, I've got work to do.  Have a fantabulous day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Serene Silhouettes, Express Yourself (new hostess set!)
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Elegant Eggplant, Versamark
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Elegant Eggplant, Watercolor paper, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  White EP, tiny pearls, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback Redux: Bugs & Kisses

Here's a Snapdragon Stamps first:  I'm continuing with last week's Friday Flashback for an extra week.  Because it's my blog and I make the rules and I did a layout for Karyn's baby books using Bugs & Kisses and I think it's cute!

Since I no longer have to hoard Bermuda Bay cardstock, I used that as my page base color and I borrowed the other colors from the Sunny Garden DSP which I then didn't use because I wanted a pattern heavy on the Pear Pizzazz, so I used one from the Nursery Suite Specialty pack (all those DSPs are retired, by the way, and this turned into a really long sentence...no more caffeine for Christy).  The Daffodil Delight photo mats look darker in the pic but I promise IRL this is bright and fun!

And then since I finally got my brand new In Color DSP I had to make another Bugs & Kisses card, which will go to Karyn with her new completely finished baby books!  SO HAPPY those are done!!

I am kinda totally loving these colors together:  Garden Green (we need more Garden Green color challenges!), Crisp Cantaloupe (which is a perfect worm color!) and Coastal Cabana (which is just awesome for, like, everything!).  I've got a bit of Pear Pizzazz, Real Red, Smoky Slate, and Crumb Cake in there too to complete the buggy menagerie.  My new In Color ink pads are SO juicy that a few of the bug images kinda bled a little bit, but it wasn't bad enough to make me try to redo the whole thing.

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

Of course I made my card the normal A2 size instead of square but it said on the challenge that we could do that.  Plus I wanted more of the Crisp Cantaloupe polka dots to show up.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!  Hubs and I are going to see Man of Steel this afternoon.

Supplies for scrapbook pages:
Stamps:  Bugs & Kisses
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz, Midnight Muse, Smoky Slate, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Poppy Parade, Whisper White, Nursery Suite Specialty DSP
Accessories:  old Sizzix alphabet, square punch, scallop square dies

Supplies for card:
Stamps:  Bugs & Kisses
Ink:  Garden Green, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pear Pizzazz, Real Red, Smoky Slate, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Garden Green, Coastal Cabana, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, new In Color DSP stack
Accessories:  white button (retired style, of course they retired all the buttons just when I'd gotten them all), linen thread

Dad Mosaic

As usual, I am super-late with making and sending Father's Day cards.  Yeeeahhh, this is gonna be late.

So I wanted to try making a pattern with one of the long skinny stamps in Mosaic Madness and even with the SAMJ, I couldn't get it lined up exactly perfect which kinda offends my OCD but I have *got* to get this stuff out in the mail.  Lots of punches on this one too--I used four different punches.  Oh, five if you count the 1/16" hole punch to put the Glimmer Brad in the center of the mosaic piece.

The sketch is from Fab Friday:

Fun, right?  SO many ways to use it if only I had the time!

Ta-ta for now, peeps!  Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogosphere.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Mosaic Madness, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Pool Party, Island Indigo
Paper:  Pool Party, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Quatrefancy DSP
Accessories:  lots of punches--Word Window, Modern Label, Mosaic, 2 1/2" circle; Brights Glimmer Brads, Dimensionals

CreativeCrew: Battle of Okinawa Tour

Howdy, folks!  Time for me to share another CreativeCrew project for June!

The scrapbook challenge is to do a page (or in my case, pages--I almost never do single pages other than the first and last in each album) featuring your dad.  That worked out for me since I've been trying to finish up this album from my parents' visit to see us in Okinawa in 2008...holy cow it's been nearly 5 years now and I'm still working on it.  Well, I'm almost done!  Another challenge was to use color blocking, and it didn't occur to me that this layout looks kinda color blocked until one of the other Crew members commented on it.  Mostly I was trying to figure out a way to include all those pictures without cropping them much :)

Looks like I never blogged these pics over on Snapdragon, so I'll tell you about them here.  During my parents' visit, we went on the Battle of Okinawa tour, which took us to several sites on the island connected to the 1945 American invasion, including the Japanese Naval Underground headquarters, Hacksaw Ridge, and Peace Prayer Park.  It's unreal to think of how many people died during the battle--you can see bloodstains on the wall at the Japanese Naval Underground from where some Japanese officers committed suicide rather than concede defeat.  And Peace Prayer Park encompasses the cliffs on the southern tip of the island, where more Japanese officers jumped off the cliffs rather than surrender.  Today, the park is beautiful and serene and dedicated to peace while remembering the horrors of war.

Our tour guide, Setsuko, is this tiny little Japanese lady who speaks rapid-fire English with a heavy accent, but she usually repeats herself three or four times so you have a better chance of getting everything she's saying (my favorite thing she said:  every tour--hubs and I did several with her--she'd ask if any one needed to visit the "powdah loom"--powder room).  She was just a few months old when the Battle of Okinawa happened, and she hid in caves on the island with her family.  She's very passionate about sharing the island's history, especially since Japanese accounts generally gloss over their role--the Japanese military encouraged Okinawans to commit suicide rather than allow themselves to be captured by Americans, for one thing.  (Okinawans aren't exactly the same as mainland Japanese--they only became part of Japan in the 19th century.  Before that, the Ryukyu Islands were an independent kingdom and while they were somewhat related to the Japanese, they also had a lot more Chinese influence and they were a major trading hub in the Pacific in their own right.)

It's not all doom and gloom with Setsuko, however.  In the top left picture, in front of the Buddha statue, she'd started to say something about the statue and then had a thought that cracked herself up so much that she couldn't hardly talk :)  Mom especially liked her...she was our favorite tour guide on Okinawa.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out the CreativeCrew gallery here!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Symbols of Solicitude (peace kanji on the left hand page)
Ink:  Versamark, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Dusty Durango (retired), Gumball Green, Whisper White, retired Pacific Point DSP
Accessories:  old Sizzix alphabet

Orange Flowers for Tanya!

New goodies in da houuuuuuuuse!  Yep, I got my first new catty order yesterday.  I am officially in love with the Venetian Romance and the Eastern Elegance DSP.  And I got some fun new stamps too!

Too Kind was one of the first new stamp sets to catch my eye--I just love the easy breezy beautiful style of it, and who doesn't need more flower stamps, am I right?  And remember when I did the Inspired by Nature Friday Flashback and I did the flowers in pink over and over?  Tanya commented that she always did orange, so today's Pumpkin Pie flowers are for Tanya! *waving madly* HI TANYA!

Oh, must add the Quatrefancy Specialty DSP to my list of paper I'm in love with.  And it's not just for mosaic cards either :)  At first the right side of the card felt a little too bare with the DSP and flowers both on the left, so I added the cut-out sketchy bug from Best of Butterflies on the right to help balance it out.  Today's superfun sketch is from Retro Sketches:

I simplified it ever-so-slightly by doing a plain mat and leaving off the little embellishments at the top left.

Also making me happy today?  I finally reorganized my punches and ribbon for the new catalog.  All my current punches and ribbon are separated from the retired stuff, which doesn't mean I don't use the retired stuff--it just means I know for sure what's current ;)  Organization makes me happy!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Too Kind, Best of Butterflies
Ink:  Wild Wasabi, Island Indigo, Pumpkin Pie, Versamark
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Quatrefancy DSP
Accessories:  white EP, Island Indigo baker's twine, Dimensionals

Blushing Friend

I keep saying I don't much care for Blushing Bride, but then I see color challenges that make it look pretty good and that makes me just a little bit grumpy 'cause I don't really want to like Blushing Bride but on today's card I do:

I had no real intention of doing this week's Dynamic Duos challenge but then I saw the challenge on Still Addinktive to use Summer Silhouettes and I still hadn't done a card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge and then this card kinda just happened.  What's really surprising (besides the Blushing Bride thing) is that this card capped off a pretty long stamping session as I worked on baby books, and usually after a couple hours I'm feeling kind of drained creatively speaking, so yay me.  (And also, I'm really close to finishing up those baby books and the shower isn't for another 12 days, so double yay me!)

Here's the Dynamic Duos graphic:

And the sketch too:

Ok seriously, when I sat down I had all the best intentions of actually doing the little flaggy bits on the bottom of the main image but then I remembered I had that Finishing Touches Edgelit and it just kinda happened.  And also I have no baker's twine that matches the challenge colors so I went with some classy Very Vanilla taffeta instead (and seriously, taffeta is my favorite ribbon...they should make it in every color ever invented, I'm just sayin').

Thanks for stopping by today and have a stellar week!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blessings from Heaven, Summer Silhouettes
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Soft Suede, Early Espresso
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Finishing Touches Edgelits, Very Vanilla taffeta, pearl, Dimensional

Friday Flashback: Bugs & Kisses

Happy Friday and welcome to the Friday Flashback!  Today's randomly-chosen stamp set is Bugs & Kisses, which I got right before it retired with the thought that it would be good to use for baby boy books.  Which brings me to this pic from the not-that-long-ago archives:

And up until today that was the only time I'd ever used the set, though it is super-cute and perfect for little boy stuff.  And here's my new card:

So I'd drawn the name of the stamp set and I was doing a quick surf of current challenges when I found the new Create with Connie and Mary sketch and this idea plopped in my head.  It took me three tries to get the buggy panel to look how I wanted it to though!  I kept smearing the ink and I had two SAMJ sheets going and stamps on both sides of a couple blocks so maybe I *do* need a second set of acrylic blocks (and my hubs is going oh no you don't!).  I really wanted to use a Crisp Cantaloupe DSP for the background layer but wouldn't you know, my first catty order hasn't arrived yet so I subbed in a retired Real Red pattern instead.  This will go to my friend Karyn with her two baby books when I host her shower in about two weeks--EEK I need to finish those books!!

Anyhoo, here's the awesome sketch:

Hope you've enjoyed this Friday Flashback, even if it is a bit short!  Have a wonderful weekend...the weather is gorgeous here!!

Supplies for the card:
Stamps:  Bugs & Kisses (retired, hence its presence on the Friday Flashback)
Ink:  Gumball Green (I really love this color), Real Red, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pacific Point, Smoky Slate, Baked Brown Sugar
Paper:  Gumball Green, Pacific Point, Whisper White, retired Real Red DSP
Accessories:  square & scallop square punches, Dimensionals

CreativeCrew: Rosette Gift Box

Howdy, folks!  I managed to get all my June CreativeCrew projects done just barely on time :)  No minute like the last minute, am I right?

One of June's challenges is to make a project with an accordion fold.  Well, the first thing that came to my mind was a rosette, and since I'd never made one before now seemed like a great time to start.

Wanna know how to make one?  Follow these steps:

1.  Cut a piece of DSP to 1 1/2 by 12 inches.
2.  Score it across the short way every 1/2 inch, then fold mountain-valley-mountain etc.
3.  Adhere the two ends together with Sticky Strip and argue with it till you get it to fan out how you want.  (May take lots of arguing, and I think I ended up cutting off an inch or two of the paper because it just would NOT fan like I wanted).
4.  Embellish as desired and sit back and admire your handiwork!

I just did some simple ribbon loops for "leaves" around my rosette flower, and put a button threaded with linen thread in the middle of it.  The "for you" is from a Petite Pairs stamp that says "I'm here for you"; I just used a marker to ink up the part I wanted.

Side view of the polka-dotted Gumball Green paper.  At first I was going to do the whole box with that Daffodil Delight pattern from Quatrefancy, but I'm kinda wanting to hoard it so I did the green instead.  I could have gone a lot more gonzo decorating the box but I kinda like it more simplified anyway.  I got those kraft gift boxes months ago and never did anything with them...3D objects are not my crafting forte.  Who knows, maybe I'll give 'em a try more often now :)

Thanks for stopping by today and go check out all the June Creative Crew pretties here!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Petite Pairs
Ink:  Gumball Green
Paper:  Quatrefancy DSP, retired Gumball Green DSP
Accessories:  Kraft gift box, neutral button (retired style), linen thread, Gumball Green stitched satin ribbon

Beautiful Friend

If I go up and down the stairs between every batch of cookies I make, that counts as exercise, right?  And also, grabbing a cookie sheet fresh out of the oven bare-handed = not the best idea I've had all day.  Luckily my fingers don't seem to be burned too badly...but if they were, they'd match my sunburn from yesterday.  Yep, I managed to get sunburned in ENGLAND!  Only on my left arm and then around where the neckline of my shirt was yesterday, but it is pretty pink.

But let's talk about something more fun than sunburns, shall we?  Like butterflies!

Oh Swallowtail, you are so pretty.  This time, the gigundor butterfly is stamped in Wisteria Wonder ink that I stamped off once first to make it softer.  And then I stamped the sentiment and covered the entire panel with Iridescent Ice EP (just barely managing not to burn my fingers...again) and I'm so excited the sparkle kinda shows up in the picture!

Today's color combo is courtesy of Dynamic Duos, I totally loved these colors together:

I wanted to use Smoky Slate as my neutral, but it just didn't contrast enough with Wisteria Wonder.  Baked Brown Sugar looked good but didn't quite work with the way my card turned out, so I ended up using the trusty Basic Gray instead.  Smoky Slate and Baked Brown Sugar shall have their day in the sun sooner or later, though.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope your day is sparkly!  Mine is, I think I got Iridescent Ice all over my shirt...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Swallowtail, Fabulous Phrases
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Raspberry Ripple, Versamark
Paper:  Wisteria Wonder, Basic Gray, Whisper White, retired In Color DSP (what? I need to use up more of that stuff before I buy all the new stuff or my craft room floor is gonna cave in and dump all my crafty goodness into the kitchen!  That might be more convenient for when I'm stamping and making cookies at the same time, but how on earth would I organize it all...)
Accessories:  Iridescent Ice EP, Dimensionals

Cuteness Overload!

I had hoped to stamp something new today, but the day got away from me and it's now past 6 and I'm tired and I'm still making cookies.  So instead I have a layout for the baby books that I finished not too long ago--not too many more left to do which is great since these books have to be done by the 22nd ;)  Love this layout though, and I'm on cuteness overload!

Ok, so, this looks better IRL where the letters show up properly and you can tell that the Island Indigo DSP has planes on it (click the picture to see it larger).  The daddy-to-be is a pilot and that Sent With Love stamp set and DSP that was on special in April was just PERFECT for this!  Weirdly, there are some Calypso Coral hearts on the DSP and none of them showed up on one layout but you can see three or four on the other one, just how the spacing worked out when I cut the DSP I suppose.  And also Calypso Coral seems to be my new go-to not-girly pinkish color for baby books.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Sent with Love
Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Island Indigo
Paper:  Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Whisper White, Sent with Love DSP
Accessories:  Sizzix alphabet

Mosaic Birthday

Howdy, folks!  I'm finally getting back in my craft room after the craziness of the last couple weeks, which is a good thing since I have less than three weeks to finish those two baby books and I've got a bunch of other projects I need to work on too.  No rest for the wicked!

Once again, playing with the super-cool Mosaic Madness stamp set and thanks to Connie and Mary I used a different color combination!  And can I say I just *love* the font and sentiments in Simply Sketched?  It's available now since the new catty went live on Friday!

Here's the CCMC color challenge, innit purdy:

And the sketch is from CAS(E) This Sketch:

I took a bit of liberty with the sketch but I think you can tell for sure that my card is based on this sketch.  And I finally used the Modern Mosaic embossing folder too :)  This card came together in a snap, I'm gonna have to use this same idea in the future...super-easy Christmas cards, perhaps?

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Mosaic Madness, Simply Sketched
Ink:  Island Indigo, Pool Party
Paper:  Island Indigo, Pool Party, So Saffron, Whisper White
Accessories:  Mosaic punch, Modern Mosaic EF, Dimensionals