Too Cute to Spook

Can't hardly believe it's almost October already!  Today I've got another baby book layout...after this, there's just one more to share from the last set of baby books that I finished in June.

I admit, I bought Jack of All Trades just before it retired specifically for this set of baby books.  I thought those cute lil jack-o-lanterns would be just perfect for Karyn's baby books : )  I like the Halloween stuff that's cute rather than scary. 

Thanks for stopping by today!  I think I might have to go watch Ghostbusters...

Supplies:
Stamps:  Jack of All Trades, Spooky Bingo Bits
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Basic Black
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Basic Black, Whisper White, retired Frightful Sight DSP
Accessories:  retired bat punch, square punch, scallop square punch, old Sizzix alphabet

Friday Flashback: So Happy For You

Happy Friday everyone!  Today's Friday Flashback stamp set is So Happy For You, and I admit when I pulled that stamp set name I thought "uhh...what?"  Obviously not one that has gotten a lot of use at my house, but it was a Sale-a-Bration stamp set in 2011 so at least it was free?  Today's Flashback actually has no flashback part as this is its maiden voyage...

Sorry the colors in my photos are a bit off today; not sure what the deal is but I took a pic of another project using Pumpkin Pie cardstock and it came off looking like Real Red on crack.  So on this one, the stripey pattern is Melon Mambo, not some eye-searing shocking pink monstrosity.  It looked better IRL than it does in that picture, and I still wasn't thrilled with it; I thought I should have switched out the Crumb Cake and Basic Black layers.

So I did some card surgery.

Well, it's a little better, but I still think this Flashback is a bit of a dud.  It happens sometimes, and not every card can be as awesome as yesterday's (I really like yesterday's card, so anything else was bound to pale in comparison).  I think the *idea* for today's card was okay, but my execution is off.  To change the card, I peeled off the black polka dots and stamped the chevron pattern on Whisper White and stuck it on there, though the proportion of the black piece was a little better.  Instead of trying to peel apart the layers under my main image, I colored the Crumb Cake cardstock with a black marker.

At any rate, I'm gonna shake this one off and go try to work on something else.  Have a great weekend, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  So Happy For You, Bodacious Bouquet, My Paper Pumpkin (the chevron stamp was from a couple kits ago, forget which month)
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Crumb Cake, Basic Black
Paper:  Whisper White, Crumb Cake, retired Melon Mambo & Basic Black DSP
Accessories:  Deco Label Framelits, Circles Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, Rhinestone

Retro Birthday Leaves

Every morning, I have the best intentions of hitting the craft room early and spending the day creating in my stamp cave.  But first I have to check email, walk the dogs, do the dishes, and whatever other chores need doing and then it's almost always after noon before I even get into my craft room at all, and I only have two or three hours before I have to get ready to go to the gym.  One of these days, I actually *will* spend my entire day in my craft room...well, today I did spend quite a bit of time in there but I was organizing photos, not creating.  Unless you count creating a mess ;)  But then I finally got my stamps out and made something!

Obviously I cannot get enough of fall cards.  As soon as I saw the color challenge on Create with Connie and Mary this morning, I knew exactly what I was going to do.   I love it when that happens; it's even better when a card takes like 15 minutes to make, start to finish, and I like it when I'm done : )  Here's the challenge logo:

I added Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla as neutrals, and then paired the colors with this lovely sketch from Retro Sketches:

Aside from making my card rectangular instead of square, I think I stuck pretty close to the challenge this time around.

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

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gently Falling, Label Love
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Chocolate Chip, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Sweater Weather DSP
Accessories:  Brights & Regals Candy Dots, Corner Rounder, Artisan Label & Bracket Label punches, Dimensionals

Like Clockwork...

Birthdays just keep on coming, like clockwork, don't they? ; )  I like clock/watch images for birthday cards, is that weird?  Oh well, I like my card today anyway.  I bought Clockworks as soon as it came out, and then kinda couldn't figure out much what to do with it, but today I had a bright idea and this is my favorite thing I've made with this set yet.

Hey, I made a CAS card!  The colors (from an SCS color challenge from a couple months back) make me think of Sherlock Holmes and men smoking in Victorian drawing rooms.  Also, pocket watches need to become fashionable again, because they're cool.  I also stamped some gears inside the card.

The shadow makes it look like I put the Very Vanilla layer in there all crooked, but I didn't.

Today's card is based (a little bit loosely) on this awesome sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

I figure it's still close enough to count for the challenge, right?

Thanks for taking the time (teehee) to stop by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Clockworks, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Midnight Muse, Primrose Petals (but even that kinda looks masculine on here, right?)
Paper:  Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Absolutely none!  Just adhesive.

Nachos: Autumn Swallowtail

Happy Tuesday everyone, and welcome to a new Nachos challenge!  This week it's a gorgeous autumnal palette:

I don't think I'm going to get tired of fall colors anytime soon, but because I am me and I like a certain degree of unpredictability, I didn't want to do fall leaves this time (though of course it was my first thought).  So after much hemming and hawing, I ended up with this:

An autumn butterfly!  Sorry the colors are a bit off in my photo; it's been overcast the last several days (hello, England) and I think that made the colors in the photo come out slightly wonky.  Anyway, to do my multicolored butterfly, I adhered the three pieces of cardstock to my work surface with a bit of temporary adhesive and then stamped all three at the same time with Versamark, then peeled them up and used Pool Party EP on the two outside edges and Early Espresso EP on the center one.  I didn't get enough EP in the bottom left corner of the Vanilla panel, so I covered that bit up with my sentiment : )  For some reason, I can't seem to get enough "thinking of you" cards lately.

So go check out what the rest of the Nachos have made with this beautiful color combo, and then join in the challenge!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Swallowtail, Best of Greetings
Ink:  Versamark, Pool Party, Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Pool Party, Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze
Accessories:  Oval & Apothecary Accents Framelits, Subtles Candy Dots, Dimensionals, Early Espressy & Pool Party EP

Quatrefancy Treat

Monday again already!  How 'bout we start off the week with a little Halloween card:

Lemme tell ya, it's all treats at my house right now.  I found a recipe for iced pumpkin coffee cake this morning and pretty much made it immediately; you can thank me later for posting that link.  IS YUM.  Here I sit with my first piece of it plus a giant Marauder's Map mug o' tea and the Bangles playing on my iPod and life is GOOD.

Anyway, my card for today is based on the latest most awesome challenge from Freshly Made Sketches:

Not sure why the pic shows up gray here?  I had a lot of ideas going on in my brain for this sketch too, it's a good 'un.  Eventually I went with Best of Halloween just because I wanted to make a Halloween card and I wanted to use all current stuff.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Halloween
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Basic Black, Old Olive, Whisper White, Quatrefancy DSP
Accessories:  White & Black EP, Chevron EF, corner rounder punch, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Natural Beauty

Time for another Friday Flashback!  This week's featured stamp set is Natural Beauty, and it is a beauty.  It was fun for me to play with this set again : )  So let's take a look back in the archives:

My first two Flashback cards were inspired by some yellow freckled orchids I had when we lived in Okinawa.  The above card also features Floral (background), Full of Life (sentiment), and Itty Bitty Backgrounds (freckles on the flower).

This one is mostly the same as above, but trade out the Full of Life sentiment for one from All Holidays.

Here's something a little different; only the sentiment on this one is from Natural Beauty.  The stamp is kind of a word cloud thing so I just inked up the "Imagine" bit that I wanted.  The dragons are from Ancient Asia, and I also used Bamboo II and Itty Bitty Backgrounds (again).

This one is more CAS; the sentiment is from that perennial favorite, Sincere Salutations.  So that's it for the Flashback part, let's check out the brand new creation:

I used this week's SCS sketch and an old color challenge (I have about 20 sketches and 15 color combos to go to complete my challenge to myself to complete them all).  The flower image was stamped with Chocolate Chip craft ink (sadly retired) and embossed with clear EP before I colored the image using both a blender pen (need some new ones) and an Aquapainter.  The card is pretty straightforward, the only thing that took some time was coloring the image.

Thanks for joining me for this week's Friday Flashback, and have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Natural Beauty, Warmest Regards
Ink:  Chocolate Chip (craft and classic), Crumb Cake, Barely Banana, Real Red, Mellow Moss
Paper:  Barely Banana, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, retired Real Red & Mellow Moss DSP
Accessories:  clear EP, Dimensionals

Thankful for You

Ya know, if I spent as much time actually stamping as I do *thinking* about stamping, I'd need a whole 'nother room to store my cards and scrapbook pages.  As it is, I haven't stamped a whole lot the last couple days--I've been having trouble focusing, and I've kinda had a low-grade headache since Tuesday.  But after staring at my stamp shelves and a variety of challenges, I finally got a card made today.

Perhaps my focus problems are partially due to just how MANY fun challenges there are out there.  You can see by my sidebar that I follow quite a few of them and I play when I can or when one particularly strikes my fancy, and then there's my ongoing quest to finish ALL the SCS sketch and color challenges.  Today's card is an SCS combo--this week's color challenge and an old, old sketch from January of 2010 that I've been dreading.  This actually turned out much better than I thought it would; I was just aiming for getting that dreaded sketch in my "done" pile : )

My next problem is going to be deciding who to send this to...there are so many people in my life that I'm thankful for : )  And that includes you, reading this blog!  Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gently Falling, Banner Greetings
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Sweater Weather DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Vintage Vehicle

As I mentioned yesterday, I'd made a card for this week's Nacho sketch that just kinda didn't do anything for me, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

For some reason, I think this looked much better in my head than it did on paper, hence me making the Stippled Blossoms card.  Here's the sketch:

So hey, not every card can be your favorite, but if you don't like what you make at first then try, try again!  I was much happier with my rose card than this one.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Postage Collection (hostess set)
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Pistachio Pudding
Paper:  Pistachio Pudding, Very Vanilla, Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, In Color DSP Stack, Venetian Romance DSP
Accessories:  Labels Collection Framelits, Postage Stamp punch, Dimensionals

A Purple Rose for the Nachos

It's Tuesday and that means another great challenge from the Nachos!  This week it's a sketch:

I admit, this sketch kinda stumped me at first.  I made one card and wasn't really happy with it, so here's my second take on the sketch:

When in doubt, use Stippled Blossoms :)  I hadn't done any deep purple roses yet so I figured why not (I have, however, done a Wisteria Wonder rose).  That's one of the fun things about stamping; whether or not roses really come in dark purple, I can make dark purple roses anytime I want.  Or hot pink, or deep orange, or any other color.

Go check out what the other Nachos have dreamt up for this sketch, and then join in the fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive
Paper:  Old Olive, Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, retired DSP in Old Olive & Elegant Eggplant
Accessories:  Labels Collection Framelits, Very Vanilla seam binding, Dimensionals, Fancy Fan EF

Ready for Fall

I know a lot of people in the States are still pretty firmly in summertime, at least according to the thermometer, but it's a brisk 55 degrees where I am, and I'm kinda totally loving it.  Fall is my favorite season so I'm thrilled to live someplace that actually *has* a fall...where I grew up in Texas, there's summer and winter, with a very brief transition between the two.

Trying to decide if I like the extra large photos for cards, or if I should just keep it a size smaller.  Hmm.  It's not Friday, but I used all retired stamps for today's creation.  French Script is finger-walked in Sage Shadow over the entire panel, though I wished I'd gotten a bit more of an impression with it as I somehow didn't fill up the spaces I meant to fill up with it and most of it ended up behind the sentiment.  So I added some of the script from French Foliage to help fill in the blanks a little more, and it needed more Chocolate Chip in the mix.

I also used the latest from CAS(E) This Sketch:

And I used the beautiful autumnal palette from Color Throwdown:

The leaves aren't changing colors here quite yet, but it won't be long.  And when that happens, I'll be ready to bake apple bread and pumpkin cookies.  Or pumpkin bread and apple cookies.  Or all four : )

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a lovely day.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  All-Year Cheer I, French Foliage, French Script (all retired)
Ink:  Sage Shadow, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  None, except sponges : )

Friday Flashback: Tag Time

Welcome to another edition of the Friday Flashback!  Today's randomly-chosen retired stamp set is Tag Time, which has lots of images in a variety of styles.  Ready to flash back?

Let's be honest:  I totally got this stamp set for that tiny 4-leaf clover.  I mean, really.  It said "good luck" under it in teeny-tiny letters, but I cut them apart so I could use the clover by itself.  And this card is one I made pre-SAMJ!  I can tell because I'm too OCD to have crooked clovers post-SAMJ.  The cute pupster is from Ruff Day, harlequin background is Print Pattern, and the sentiment is from Tiny Talk.

I've used that tiny clover over and over (teehee, that sounds funny) on baby book layouts, but I'll just share this one 'cause they're all pretty similar to this.  The larger clovers are from Pinch Proof.

And that's pretty much it for past projects, so here's the new card, hot off the stampin' table:

It's September, so I think we can officially start with the Halloween projects.  This card still seems a bit on the plain side to me but what can ya do.  I thought about adding some Midnight Muse ribbon, but I wanted to keep this easily mailable.  The Old Olive pattern is from a retired Halloween DSP pack (don't ask me which, I don't know), and then I stamped the pumpkin from Tag Time all over More Mustard CS in More Mustard and Whisper White ink.  I lined the inside with Whisper White CS and stamped a pumpkin on that too for good measure.  Think I'll send this to my friend Sarah because Halloween is her favorite holiday.  She even had her daughter on Halloween :)

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

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Tag Time
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Old Olive, More Mustard, Baked Brown Sugar, Blushing Bride
Paper:  Midnight Muse, Old Olive, More Mustard, Whisper White, retired Halloween DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Wisteria Thoughts

Howdy, folks!  I'm still getting my stampin' groove back, but I'm taking it kinda slow for now.  I hope to get to work on some scrapping this weekend, but for today I have a clean-lines card to share:

I almost said CAS, but I think it's not quite *that* clean and simple.  I used the inspiration photo at Inkspirational:

Thought about putting a butterfly on my card, but I decided to let the Crushed Curry pattern from the Sweater Weather DSP suffice for my bit of yellow/orange.  I also used this week's challenge from Freshly Made Sketches:

I put the Wild Wasabi Candy Dots at the top rather than the bottom because I thought it balanced better that way with the sentiment already in the lower right of the image panel.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Too Kind
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Wild Wasabi, Concord Crush (for some reason I like this better than Elegant Eggplant to layer with Wisteria Wonder)
Paper:  Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush, Whisper White, Sweater Weather DSP
Accessories:  Corner rounder punch, Lacy Brocade embossing folder, Subtles Candy Dots

Greek Flower

Howdy, folks!  On Monday, hubs and I returned home from a 12-day Mediterranean cruise :)  So for the past two weeks, all my blog posts were pre-scheduled.  Today I finally got back in the craft room to make something new!

Just something uncomplicated to get back in the groove.  I used this sketch from Sketch Frenzy Friday:

Though I did the rounded corner and brad instead of baker's twine like in the sketch.  The colors are courtesy of Dynamic Duos:

They remind me of some of the Greek islands we visited; lots of crisp white buildings with blue domes, and of course lush green vegetation.

Well, if I don't leave the house in the next two minutes I'll be late meeting up with my sweet hubs for an appointment.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blooming with Kindness
Ink:  Pacific Point, Old Olive, StazOn Black (though it looks kinda washed out to me)
Paper:  Old Olive, Basic Black, Whisper White, retired Pacific Point DSP
Accessories:  Corner rounder punch, gold brad, Dimensionals

Nachos: Fall Leaves

It's time for another challenge from Nacho Average Challenges!  This time it's a beautiful color combo:

Isn't that awesome?  I thought they'd make for a good masculine card, so this will probably go to my brother for his birthday:

I think it's still masculine even with the Glimmer Paper on there.  Perhaps fall leaves aren't the obvious choice for this color combination, but I liked it and I was inspired by a card by Mary Brown, so there you have it.  I kept my layout very simple to let the colors shine.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gently Falling, Banner Greetings
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Island Indigo, Soft Suede
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Island Indigo, Very Vanilla, Champagne Glimmer paper
Accessories:  Autumn Accents Bigz die, Dimensionals

Kyoto's Buddhist Temples

For today's post we are once again working through Japan scrapbook pages.  I just ordered about 1,700 pictures from Winkflash too...I will never be bored when it comes to scrappin'!

These pictures are from the trip hubs and I took to Kyoto in 2009; you can see my original blog posts about these pictures here and here.  The pics are from two different sites in Kyoto, so I made the pages different colors but used the same DSP on them both to make them still coordinate, though I'm not sure how successful that idea was.  Well, not every page can be your favorite, right?

Have a scrappy day!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Four Frames
Ink:  Basic Gray marker, Garden Green
Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Urban Garden DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Decorative Label & oval punches

Friday Flashback: Falling Leaves

Happy Friday, ready to Flashback?  This week's stamp set is Falling Leaves, which I love :)  So let's get to it!

You'll see that I love to line up the leaves in this stamp set.  This was for my brother's birthday a few years ago (he was born in November).  I also used French Filigree and the sentiment is from All Holidays.

Here's a card that matches one of the kokeshi dolls in my collection :)  Sentiment is from the eponymous Grateful Greetings.

Here's a baby book layout which also features Wonderfall.

And another baby book layout.  I do believe that Autumn Traditions DSP is the *only* DSP that Stampin' Up! has ever had with Elegant Eggplant in it (aside from the monochromatic stuff that comes in every color).  It's a shame too because I love Elegant Eggplant.  I think I (and lots of other people too probably) would use it more often if it was in more DSP.

Here's a little CAS card; sentiment is from the Bright Blessings wheel that I cut up into a bunch of little stamps.

So that's it for the past projects, here's the new card:

Yep, I lined up those leaves again!  Though this time I think they're a little crooked, I was kinda in a hurry.  This is based on some old SCS sketch and color challenges; the sketch turned out much better than I thought it would (though it's still a bit overcomplicated for my taste) and I love the colors together.  Again, I used the Autumn Traditions DSP though even in that there's not a print that features Elegant Eggplant as the dominant color.  That Riding Hood Red print and the acorn print are two sides of a single sheet of paper.

That's it for today, hope you enjoyed this Friday Flashback!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Falling Leaves, Express Yourself
Ink:  Riding Hood Red, Elegant Eggplant, Soft Suede
Paper:  Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla, Autumn Traditions DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Corner rounder punch, Elegant Eggplant brad (I'm using up some old brads instead of using the new Candy Dots)
Stamps:  Falling Leaves

Baby Makes Three

Howdy, peeps!  I've got a cute little baby card to share today.

This has already been sent off in the mail to our friends who are expecting their first little one.  I really intended for this card to be much more gender-neutral but somehow it ended up being very BOY...but it seems like most everyone I know is having boys right now so maybe I'm psychic?

Have a great day!!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Baby Tees, Cuddles & Kisses
Ink:  Early Espresso, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Calypso Coral, Soft Suede
Paper:  Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Whisper White, Sweet Shoppe Specialty DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Marina Mist buttons (old style, retired), linen thread, Marina Mist ribbon from the Occasions catalog (retired)

Have Fun Storming the Castle!

I have F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. finished the scrapbook album from my parents' trip to Okinawa in 2008.  Yay!!  Here's the last page:

So, when hubs and I first moved to Japan, we were getting on the plane to leave Texas and the last thing my dad said to us was "Have fun storming the castle!" which is like, one of a zillion awesome quotable lines from The Princess Bride (I'm sure I don't have to tell you that, right?) and has since become our traditional parting line.  So it seemed natural to use that for the last page of the album, plus I had that picture of the awesome shisa at the Ryukyu glass factory that just didn't fit in with any of the other pages and I think it's perfect here.  So this page makes me happy.

Here's the first page:

The album itself is the DCWV Far East one and Mom got me the matching paper pad, so I used it for the first page with some Midnight Muse letters.  I wanted to really highlight Okinawa, so that's why it's in all caps and its own box.

And then here's the first two-page layout in the book:

The letter on the left was one my mom sent out to a bunch of her friends as they were preparing to go on the trip; my parents lived in Okinawa in the '70s and are still friends with several families they met there.  The right-hand page is a brief summary of what we did each day during their visit; I was 3/4 done with it and had things stuck down when I realized somehow I'd missed a day and I had to redo that whole last column.  But I got it done.  And now the entire album is finished, so again, YAY!

I won't bother with doing full recipes for the pages here, no stamps or anything, but if you really wanna know you can check out my Splitcoast gallery for all the deets.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Hey Nachos!!

Guess what?  Today is my first official post as part of the Nacho Average Challenges design team!  WOOHOO!!  After a little summer hiatus, the Nachos are back with an awesome new sketch:

I stuck pretty close to the sketch to make my card:

It took me three tries to get the sentiment stamped straight, even with the SAMJ!  But I got there eventually.  I really like this sketch, I may have to try it out again but maybe do something not quite so literal with it :D

Come play along with the Nachos!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!

Stamps:  Field Flowers, Sweet Essentials

Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Garden Green, Rich Razzleberry

Paper:  Strawberry Slush, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Venetian Romance DSP

Accessories:  Dimensionals