Perfectly Wonderful Nachos!

Happy New Year, peeps!  Can't believe it's already time for my last blog post of the year.  Well, we're ending on a high note with a wonderful color combination courtesy of Nacho Average Challenges!

Who doesn't love pink and green together, amirite?  So here's what I came up with:

 I kinda feel like I threw the kitchen sink at this card, but the sketch I chose was pretty involved.  Still, three sets of Framelits, two stamp sets and two different packs of patterned paper, ribbon and Candy Dots...there's lots going on here.  I don't have any Strawberry Slush ribbon, so I rooted through my stash and found some kind of pink grosgrain...not even sure if it's SU, but probably.  It's not an exact match for the Strawberry Slush cardstock but I thought it worked okay.

Anyway, when my family was out here in July, we went to Paris and I saw a sign taped in a shop window that had that same sentiment on it.  I loved it so much that I wrote it down so I'd remember it, and then when I saw Perfect Pennants I was so excited to have it in stampy form :)  So now you know why I paired it with an Eiffel Tower.  And how cute is that hearty Eiffel Tower?!

Check the Nachos blog for more beautiful projects, and then let's see what you've got!  Have fun and Happy New Year!

Supplies, probably all SU!
Stamps:  Follow My Heart, Perfect Pennants
Ink:  Basic Black, Strawberry Slush, Old Olive
Paper:  Basic Black, Strawberry Slush, Whisper White, Kaleidoscope DSP (coming up in the Occasions catty!), Season of Style DSP (get it fast, it retires on January 2!)
Accessories:  Ovals, Decorative Labels, & Perfect Pennants Framelits, retired pink grosgrain, Neutrals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Favorites Showcase 2013, Part 2

2013 is almost over, so here we are with the second half of the 2013 favorites showcase.  Let's go!

Here's one of my picks for July, I love this card.  Always good to have some masculine cards on hand.

My second July pick; July is when I really started to get back into scrapbooking and had loads of fun with it.  I can't wait to dive back in once my exam is over on January 13th!

Here's another scrappy pick for August, from when hubs' truck got squished almost 10 years ago.  It wasn't fun at the time, but I get a kick out of looking at this layout now.  The title makes me giggle every time.

My choice for September was this awesome leafy card, I love those colors together!

Another scrappy layout for October with lots of blues for my mama!

Another great color combo for November's card, love the aquas and purple together.

And we'll finish it up with my favorite December card, this Wedgwood-inspired poinsettia creation.  Once again, I've linked up the original posts for each card or scrapbook layout if you want to see more.  Tomorrow is Nacho Average Challenges day and then we're in to 2014!  Seems like I just got used to writing 2013...

Favorites Showcase 2013, Part 1

Last year around this time, I noticed lots of stampy bloggers doing a retrospective of their favorite projects of the year, so I thought instead of doing a regular Friday Flashback on the last Friday of the year that I would post the first half of the 2013 retrospective.  So it's kind of a different type of flashback :)  So let's take a look at January through June!

This lovely peacock was my pick for January--I love that bold stamp and the blue/orange high-energy color combo, not to mention the fun layout.

February's pick is this seashell card.  I think Perfect Plum is underused, and of course I love everything with Baja Breeze.

How could I not pick this larger-than-life butterfly for March?  And I'm noticing a trend when it comes to sentiment stamps...

I love the color combo on my pick for April--Marina Mist, Wisteria Wonder and Wild Wasabi.

And here's a sunny happy card for May, I love that Daffodil Delight print on the sundress.

And we'll wrap it up for today with some June roses.  I've linked up all the original blog posts if you want to see more about a specific card.  I'll be back on Monday with the second half of the 2013 retrospective, so until then, have a great weekend!

Holly Jolly Let It Snowflakes

Happy Boxing Day!  If you've always wondered what that meant, no, it's not related to the annual Airing of Grievances as part of Festivus.  In Britain, families would have a big Christmas celebration and dinner, and then the day after Christmas they'd box up all the leftovers and take them to their servants and others who were less fortunate.  I think mostly anymore it's just a bank holiday, so bonus day off after Christmas.  So now you know : )

I made this for a combo SCS sketch/color challenge a while back, and while I wanted to use the Bracket Tag punch, at the time the only festive stamp I had to fit in there was this Holly Jolly Christmas one.  Call me weird, but I always thought that I should have used that one with some holly stamps, maybe my brain is too literal.  But then Best of Snow came out and I fixed it!

It's a bit gloomy here today so the colors in this pic aren't as good, and the rhinestone kind of photographed funny, but at least "Let it Snow" makes much more sense to my brain than "Holly Jolly Christmas" and the snowflakes.

Have a wonderful day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Festive Flurry, Tags 4 You, Best of Snow
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Pacific Point, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer
Accessories:  Bracket Tag punch, Dimensionals, Rhinestone

Cardinal Noel

Merry Christmas!  I hope you're having a wonderful holiday.

I made this recently for a sketch at Splitcoast, but it's one of those sketches that I think is just too complicated.  Hmm.

Regardless, this one went out in a package two weeks ago.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Warmth & Wonder
Ink:  Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Baked Brown Sugar, Always Artichoke
Paper:  Always Artichoke, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, Season of Style DSP
Accessories:  Oval punch, Windows Collection Framelits, border punch whose name escapes me, Dimensionals

I Love the Nachos!

Merry Christmas!  "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" just started playing on my iPod : )  I only started listening to Christmas music last week.

Soooo are you ready for a new Nacho Average Challenges sketch?  Ready or not, here it comes!

And since I'm Christmas-ed out (at least as far as cards are concerned), here's my Valentine:

I kept this card pretty CAS, partially because it kinda seemed to work for this sketch and partially because I just started studying for a massive comprehensive exam I have to take in three weeks to finish my master's degree.  So until then, my craft room time will be limited to sporadic short bursts!

Go see the beautiful creations from the other Nacho DT members and then give the sketch a whirl, can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Love
Ink:  Midnight Muse
Paper:  Whisper White, Midnight Muse, Quatrefancy & Strawberry Slush DSP, retired Pear Pizzazz DSP
Accessories:  Full Heart Punch, Dimensionals (only on the bottom heart)

Boscastle

I've got more scrapbook pages to share today!

The pics are from our first trip to Cornwall in 2011; see more pics here.

The thing that took me the longest in making this layout was picking the patterned paper.  I'd already picked the colors, but it took forever to find some DSP that I thought would go well with my pictures...the pattern I eventually went with is from Tea & Crumpets (retired).  I used some of my precious hoard of Baja Breeze cardstock for the page base, and it's textured so the stamped title kind of mimics the look of the patterned paper.  I wish I could say I'd planned it that way but it was a happy accident : )  At first I kinda wanted to get a 5x7 of the pic on the bottom left, but then I ended up just giving it a bigger mat instead.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Broadsheet Alphabet, Best of Shelli
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Always Artichoke
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla, Elegant Eggplant DSP, Tea & Crumpets DSP
Accessories:  7/8" scallop circle and 3/4" circle punches

Friday Flashback: Watercolor Winter

Happy Friday!  Are you ready for another festive Friday Flashback?  Today's featured stamp set is last year's Watercolor Winter, which I wish had carried over to this year because I really like it.  I suppose that doesn't matter though since I can still use it : )  So let's flash back!

The fun part about stamps is you can make things any color you want, so in my world, there are blue poinsettias.  This was a birthday card for a friend of mine last year, the same one who got the hedgehog snowman card from earlier this week.

I think this one might be my favorite of the flashback cards for today; I like the CAS layout and the little pops of pink.

And this is probably my least favorite one...it was a combination SCS sketch/color challenge card and I think I was just trying too hard.  Bleah.

I kinda like the layout on this one, which was another sketch I'm sure.  I almost always do sketch challenges for my cards, but I branch out a fair amount on my color combos.

This was my attempt to make a Watercolor Winter card *without* using the poinsettia stamp : )  So that's it for the cards from the vault, here's my brand new creation:

The layout is courtesy of Retro Sketches and the color combo was from an SCS challenge a few weeks ago.  I was prepared to hate Cameo Coral paired with Real Red, but when I stamped off the coral once and then layered the Real Red over it, I kinda liked how it turned out.  But I think if I'd used any more coral on here then I wouldn't like it as much; I kept the traditional red for my card base and then balanced it with lots of neutrals.

Here's the sketch, which for once I think I followed it pretty closely!

So that's it for me today.  I haven't decided yet if I'll do another Christmas-themed Friday Flashback next week since Christmas Day will be in the middle of the week, hmm.  I don't need any more Christmas cards this year, but I will need some post-Christmas thank you cards...

Have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Watercolor Winter, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Real Red, Cameo Coral, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White Craft
Paper:  Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, retired Old Olive & Chocolate Chip DSP
Accessories:  Dazzling Details (on the flower center, though somehow I ended up with clear glue and not much glitter), Apothecary Accents Framelits (probably my favorite set of Framelits ever), corner rounder punch, Dimensionals

I Got Sunshine....

...on a cloudy day!

We're mixing some Holiday mini paper with some Occasions mini stamps and paper today.  And Sale-a-Bration too actually, since See Ya Later is a SAB stamp set.  The only thing I wish I'd done differently on this card is I kinda want to put some white baker's twine around the stripey layer, but it was already stuck to the card front so I'm not going to pull it up now.

Today's card is brought to you by the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge:

I figured the stripes on my patterned paper were easier than cutting a bunch of different layers while still staying true to the spirit of the sketch.

Anyway, I just printed out a seriously long study guide for an exam I have to take next month, so I suppose I'd better start studying.  Urgh.  Thanks for stopping by and have a sunshiney day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  See Ya Later, Petite Petals
Ink:  Basic Gray, Bermuda Bay, So Saffron
Paper:  So Saffron, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Winter Frost & Kaleidoscope DSP
Accessories:  Deco Labels & Circles Framelits, Petite Petals punch, corner rounder punch, Brights Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Happy Heart Day

 I know that Christmas is next week, but let's just skip on ahead to Valentine's Day, shall we?  At least for today's card.

A while back, I did a card with this layout but the Thanksgiving stamp and a leaf die-cut, and today I'm making good on my idea to do the same thing with a heart.  What do you think?

I thought at first I'd do the smaller heart, but then I decided that in this case bigger is better : )  I was kind of surprise how well the Cherry Cobbler seam binding worked with the red Glimmer Paper.

Thanks for stopping by today!  And if you're still working on your Christmas shopping, then best of luck to you.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Tags 4 You
Ink:  Pool Party
Paper:  Pool Party, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Red Glimmer Paper, I Am Me DSP
Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler seam binding, Bracket Tag punch, Hearts Collection Framelits, Dimensionals

Nachos: Good Thoughts

Get out your sunglasses and flip flops, 'cause the Nachos have got a fun summery color combo for you today!

Ya know, in case you're suffering from Christmas card overload like me.  So here's my card with more new stuff from the Occasions mini!

The only thing I'm not sure I love on here is the different color Candy Dots on the flower centers.  I kinda like that one little pop of Bermuda Bay but I think the Basic Black ones are too much.  Hmm.  Anyway, the watercolor wash background was not done by yours truly, it's from the Watercolor Wonder DSP which is truly fabulous and looks even better in person than it does in the mini catalog, and this piece is the least wow-y of them but I needed a good yellow background for my card.  You'll be seeing lots more Watercolor Wonder stuff from me, I'm sure.  The flip side of that pattern is totally specfabulous and I kinda want to marry this paper.  Ok, maybe not marry it, but maybe wallpaper my craft room with it.  Yeah.

The stamps are brand spankin' new as well, two new sets called Petite Petals (all flowers that fit in a coordinating punch) and Perfect Pennants (almost all sentiments and matching Framelits, thought I didn't use those).

So now it's your turn!  Head on over to the Nacho Average Challenges blog to see what your other favorite Nachos have done with this color combo, then give it a shot yourself!  Have fun with it!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Petite Petals, Perfect Pennants (coming to a craft room near you in January!)
Ink:  Basic Black, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Watercolor Wonder DSP
Accessories:  Petite Petals Punch (say that three times fast), Brights & Neutrals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Hedgehog Snowman...Snowhog?

So, one of my friends lurves hedgehogs and her birthday is in December, so I whipped up this quick little card for her:

So what do you call that, is it a hedgehog snowman or is it a snowhog?  Snow hedgehog?  Maybe I'm over-thinking this.  It's cute, whatever it is, and I think my friend will like it.  She occasionally gets real live hedgehogs in her garden, but we never see any at my house.  Maybe my dogs scare them away, 'cause I'm closer to fields and stuff than she is, but whatever.  That heart patterned paper was a surprise find from a little 6x6 stack of DSP from several Sale-a-Brations ago.  Yay for using up more patterned paper!  Because I keep buying new stuff like a total crazy person.  I should never ever ever look at the clearance rack (but I'm so excited I got to get more Orchard Harvest DSP last week!).

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Snow, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Warmth & Wonder
Ink:  Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi, Melon Mambo, Baked Brown Sugar, Pink Pirouette, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Sky, Sahara Sand, Whisper White Craft
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, Welcome Neighbor 6x6 DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Deco Labels & Circle Framelits, Brights Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: No Peeking

Happy Friday and welcome to another festive Friday Flashback!  Today's randomly selected retired Christmas stamp set (wow, say that three times fast) is No Peeking, which I got right before it retired because my friend Tiana liked it so much and suddenly it looked all extra-cute after listening to her talk about it and I'm a lemming.  Short Flashback aside, it is a cute little stamp set!

I bought it too late to make Christmas cards or anything last year, but I did use it on this baby book layout for my friend Karyn's twin boys.  And that's the only time I've used up until today.  Coincidentally, I used a stamp on today's card that didn't make it onto this baby book layout, so yay!

My snowman is ever-so-slightly crooked, but that's okay because so am I.  This is for my friend Tiana because a.) she talked me into buying these stamps in the first place and b.) she's been dealing with some tough stuff lately following a death in her family.  I have been thinking of her a lot so I need to say it postally.  Which is a word I just made up.

The sketch is from Create with Connie and Mary:

Aww dang, I just realized I put the sentiment layer slightly off--it should have overlapped the orchid snowflake.  Drat!  Oh yeah, I used Orchid Opulence!  There's been lots of hatin' happening since Pantone announced Radiant Orchid as the color of the year for 2014, but I like it.  And my color combo was courtesy of Color Throwdown:

I love those colors together.  I used Basic Gray as well for my snowman's top hat, face, and buttons, but otherwise I stuck strictly to the color challenge parameters.

Hope you have a lovely Friday, and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies for card:
Stamps:  No Peeking, Four You
Ink:  Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, Orchid Opulence
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Orchid Opulence, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Candy Cane Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Festive Flurry & Circles Framelits, Dimensionals

New Stuff! New Stuff!!!

Dude, I love it when Stampin' Up! comes out with new stuff, whether it's a new catalog or mini or new photopolymer stamps or whatnot.  And this week I got my preorder stuff for the Occasions not-so-mini and Sale-a-Bration so YAY FOR NEW STUFF!

Sorry, I'm shouting.  But I'm excited about new stuff.

*dancing around the room* WHEEEEEE NEW STUFF! *jazz hands*

Okay, I'm done now.  (Not really.)

The stamp set is See Ya Later and will be one of the SAB options to get for freeeeeeee starting in late January (but I have it now because I'm a demonstrator and we get to see things early which is awesome, you should join up too if you haven't drunk the Kool-Aid yet).  There are three other cute stamps in this set to go along with Mr. Alligator here, but I chose him because of this fab color combo from Fab Friday:

I love those colors together.  They *could* be Christmasy but obviously I'm taking a break from Christmas stuff for today.  Oh and didja notice the fun new patterned paper?  It's a little 4.5x6.5 stack called Fresh Prints (of Bel Air!) from the Occasions mini.  Lemme tell ya, the patterned paper in that mini is to die for!  Not literally, but it's really awesome!!  I got one of everything to start with.  The paper I mean; if I got one of everything in the whole catalog I'm sure even my super-patient and understanding husband would schedule an intervention.

The sketch is hot off the press from Freshly Made Sketches:

Though I modified it just a teensy bit by making a square card, which is unusual for me.  I like the normal rectangle, but my lil gator wanted a square card.  Oh, I also modified the Apothecary Accents Framelit shape--it was too wide for the image, so I ran it through the Big Shot with the image towards the left of the shape, then positioned it again toward the right and ran it through a second time to make the shape a bit narrower.  It was pretty easy since the top and bottom of that shape are both straight lines; I wouldn't try this with one of the curvy shapes.

That's it for me today!  Hope you have a lovely day and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  See Ya Later
Ink:  Gumball Green, Coastal Cabana
Paper:  Gumball Green, Real Red, Whisper White, Fresh Prints (of Bel Air...I can't help it!  I think that every single time!)
Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits, Brights Candy Dots, Dimensionals, and an extra dose of crazy

Joyful Pink Poinsettias

I forgot something.

I made six of these yesterday, and I meant to do something on the center of the poinsettia to jazz it up a bit--like some glitter glue or something.  But I forgot to do that yesterday.  Oops.  I did decorate the inside of the cards, though.

The Pink Pirouette poinsettia turned out darker on the edges and lighter in the center, and I'm gonna pretend I planned it that way to stamp the sentiment in the flower.

The color combo is courtesy of the Paper Players:

And the card sketch is from Mojo Monday:

Though my card is more "inspired by" than a strict use of the sketch.

We've got a bit of low-lying fog here today, so it looks all wintry outside and I'm about to take my two little doglets for a walk.  Unfortunately I just checked the temperature--34 degrees--so it's gonna feel pretty wintry out there too.  But then I can make myself a nice hot cuppa tea when I get home...have a wonderful day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Joyful Christmas
Ink:  Raspberry Ripple, Old Olive, Pink Pirouette
Paper:  Raspberry Ripple, Pink Pirouette, Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White, Season of Style DSP
Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits, Dimensionals

A Giant Nacho Christmas Star

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Are you ready for another sketch from Nacho Average Challenges?  'Cause here it is:

I had to put my thinking cap on for this one, but here's what I came up with:

I had the idea for the giant Christmas star on the right, but then I was looking in my paper scraps for a different project and came across several of those stripey rectangles that were leftover from something else.  So I thought hey, let's use those!  And voila.  This card took like five minutes to make!  The star is stamped on Shimmery White cardstock so it looks a little fancier IRL, and that's a giant rhinestone in the center which also looks better in person.

Anyway, stop by the Nacho blog to see what the other Nachos have come up with and then get out your stamps and play along!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Christmas Star, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Coastal Cabana
Paper:  Shimmery White, Island Indigo, Winter Frost DSP scraps
Accessories:  Large rhinestone, Modern Label & Word Window punches, Dimensionals

Joyful Christmas Wedgwood

I'm finally back in my craft room again making some new projects so yay!  I'm pretty excited about how today's card turned out.  Take a looksie:

In October when the hubs and I went to Liverpool for the weekend, we stopped by the Wedgwood factory on the way there.  Now, when I think Wedgwood, I think of the blue ceramic with white designs on it, so I was surprised (and I won't lie, more than a little disappointed) to find out that the factory nowadays does mostly china and very little jasperware (which is what that style is actually called).  Oh sure, the museum was pretty interesting, and they had lots of china and jasperware on display (and the jasper comes in green, purple, and black too), but not much of the jasper was available to buy.  Wahh.

So anyway, that jasperware is where I got the idea for today's card.  I embossed the Joyful Christmas poinsettia with white EP and then watercolored it with watered-down Whisper White ink refill.  It was hard to get the right consistency, and the ink kept sinking to the bottom so I had to stir it up frequently with my Aquapainter, but I do like how it turned out in the end.  Actually it's still wet; I painted the flowers after I already had it adhered to the card base.  Painting the flowers was a bit time-consuming so I wouldn't do this for mass production, but I will totally keep this idea in mind for some scrapbook pages in the future.

I got the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

And that's it!  I hope this card dries pretty soon here because I've got a package ready to go and I want to send this card along with the Christmas present.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!

Stamps:  Joyful Christmas, En Francais

Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Versamark, Whisper White Craft ink refill

Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Marina Mist, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White

Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits, White EP, Dimensionals