Monday, November 30, 2015

8th Station

Hey, peeps!  How was your Thanksgiving?  Ours was pretty good--somehow all the food was ready at just about the same time with only minor mishaps (the apple pie was more like apple soup, which still has me very confused) and I think everyone had a good time (there were 8 of us {plus two dogs} for Thanksgiving dinner).  And I'm still working on getting the house back to normal, but my hubs did a lot of the dishes last week for which I will love him forever.

In other fantastic news, guess what?


I won the Global Design Project challenge last week with my Baylor bear card!  Squee!  Seriously, very excited about that.

And it just so happens that today's scrapbook layout is also bear-tastic.


This is the second layout (of four) for our Mount Fuji pictures, and the higher we got on the mountain the more disgruntled I look in the pictures.  If we'd actually made it to the top, I probably would have been shooting fire from my eyeballs, so maybe it's a good thing we didn't go higher than the 8th station.  So now the only Fuji layout you haven't seen is the one of us descending, since I shared the fourth layout on Friday.  I used different colors than on the first Fuji layout, but I kept the Garden Green and that Haiku pattern so you can kinda tell the layouts go together.


How much do I love that Thankful Forest Friends bear.  Seriously, y'all.  And as much as I hated climbing Mount Fuji (and I did, a LOT), this picture of me, the hubs, and our friends all tucked in our little cubby to sleep is one of my favoritest pictures ever.  (If you can't read over the polka dots, it says "Four Baylor bears in a cave".)


Today's color palette includes Brilliant Blue (I'm almost out of 8.5x11 in that color, but I still have quite a stash of 12x12), So Saffron, Garden Green, Wild Wasabi, Bashful Blue, and Early Espresso.

Well, I need to go get ready to hit up the grocery store and do some laundry.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends
Ink:  Early Espresso
Paper:  Brilliant Blue, Garden Green, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi DSP, Haiku DSP
Accessories:  Oval Framelits, Sizzix alphabet

Friday, November 27, 2015

Friday Flashback: Big Deal Alphabet

Heyyy it's Black Friday.  Are you getting your shop on?  I'm not really planning to.  I think we have too much stuff already, unless we're talking about craft supplies, in which case I do need some more ;)  But it's time for the Friday Flashback!  This week's stamp set is Big Deal Alphabet, and you know that if it's an alphabet that means scrapbook pages :)

Also features Up, Up & Away

But first up a name frame.  Kinda cute, right?  The paper I used is called Big Top Birthday, and half of it is really, really fabulous and the other half I don't know what you'd use it for, but happily that half is all on the flip side of the half I really like and I need about a zillion more sheets of that red star pattern.

Also features Retro Alphabet Upper & non-SU stamp

Love this layout.  I don't seem to do a lot of pink for page bases, but I love how this one turned out.  and the title.  Love the rainbow-licious title.

Also features Rough Type, Gorgeous Grunge

The thing I love about alphabet stamps is that you can use them as much as you want, unlike stickers where you always run out of E's and have a zillion X stickers and nothing to use them on.  And I can make the letters any color I want, that's pretty fabulous too.


When you read this page title, you're supposed to sing it to yourself and do jazz hands.

Also features Ocean Commotion
Another favorite page, although the day we took these pictures I was really busy being seasick the whole time.  But the pages look pretty great.  What's not to love about a blue and orange color combo!

So that's the Flashback, and here's today's new project, another scrapbook layout:


And it's another blue and orange color combo.


It's been so overcast and rainy here lately that the colors aren't coming out true to life, that's not gray it's Marina Mist.  As you can tell from the title, these pics are also from our Fuji trip, but I had pictures of us at several different restaurants so I just grouped them all together.  And "Fuji Food" just sounded funny in my head, thus my title was born.  Plus it amuses me to post a food-related layout the day after the biggest meal of the year.


Today's color palette:  Marina Mist, Garden Green, So Saffron, Tangerine Tango, Basic Black, and Whisper White.  I'm still doing green and gold for Fuji pages, although I used a different pattern from the Haiku pack than I did on the three layouts where we're actually on the dread mountain.

Have a great weekend, peeps!  And if you're out shopping, be careful out there.  People be crazy!

Supplies, Fuji Food only:
Stamps:  Big Deal Alphabet
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso
Paper:  Marina Mist, Garden Green, Whisper White, Garden Green DSP, Haiku DSP
Accessories:  Circles Framelits

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Thankful Fox

Happy Thanksgiving, peeps!  I had to share just one more Thanksgiving card this year.


How much do I love Thankful Forest Friends.  Hope you're having a wonderful holiday!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends
Ink:  Tangelo Twist, Mossy Meadow, Soft Suede
Paper:  Tangelo Twist, Daffodil Delight, Thick Whisper White, Into the Woods DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, Neutrals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Happy Bearthday

Ya know, sometimes the stamping gods are just smiling down upon you, and that happened this week.  It started with the Global Design Project CASE the Designer challenge:

And I thought, hey cool, but I don't have penguins.  Enter the Cupcake Inspirations challenge for this week:


I can definitely do something with bears.  And then, the icing on the cake was the What Will You Stamp? challenge to use Lovely As a Tree:


Add those three together, and you get...


A Baylor bear birthday card.  This is going to my friend Missy's husband, who is also a rah-rah Baylor bear...I added the flower so Missy would know that one is her :)

That's it for me today, peeps.  Off to start making pies for Thanksgiving.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends, Lovely As a Tree, Ray of Sunshine, Petite Petals
Ink:  Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Garden Green, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, Crushed Curry, Soft Sky, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Nachos: Lighthearted Thanksgiving

Happy Tuesday, y'all!  We're getting ready to go pick my family up from the airport, but I do have a Nacho Average Sketch challenge card for you today.  So here's the sketch:


This card would be great with those window frame Framelits in the holiday mini catalog, but I don't have them and I'm just not ready to give up on the fall cards yet, so...


I went with Lighthearted Leaves.  I rotated the sketch 90 degrees just because I couldn't get the sentiment to fit otherwise.

Your turn now!  Don't forget to upload your creation at the Nacho blog.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lighthearted Leaves
Ink:  Tangelo Twist, Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Tangelo Twist, Mossy Meadow DSP
Accessories:  Leaflets Framelits, Dimensionals

Monday, November 23, 2015

Be Thankful

Scrappy Monday, peeps!  Wow, I can't believe that Thanksgiving is this week.  And Christmas is right around the corner too, and then it's a whole new year.  Again.  But anyway!  I have a couple of special scrapbook layouts to share today.

First off, some background info:  when I was in college, I worked part-time at a local scrapbook store with the improbable name of Heart Tugs and Doodlebugs.  They did classes sometimes where you could sign up to come hang out in the evening and make a layout designed by the class teacher, and I used to get the class packets for free if I helped out with the classes (because there are always those ladies who insist they can't tie bows in raffia or draw cute faces or what have you, which maybe I'd never done those things either but they still insisted I do it for them, so okay, I got practice and they didn't and if one of the faces came out wonky I wasn't going home with it anyway).  One of those classes was for a layout with a little pilgrim boy and pilgrim girl, and that class was 13 years ago last week.  Because no kidding, I had instructions for the class with the date on them.  And guess what else I had!


Oh yeah, I had already put together the pilgrim pair and stuck 'em on the cardstock and everything.  The title was part of the kit too but I hadn't put it together or stuck it down, so I modified it from the original kit--it used to be tags (I cut off the tops to make them rectangles) and involved buttons and some knotted fabric strips.  However, I am pretty much a flat scrapper so I didn't want ten buttons denting everything else in my 2005 scrapbook.  Because oh yeah, that photo is from Thanksgiving of 2005, which is the first year that the hubs and I hosted a big hooferah on Thanksgiving, and also the year my dad's dog ruined the homemade apple pie and the hubs still has PTSD.  My parents and my brother and his wife are coming out here *tomorrow* for a big Thanksgiving hooferah, but this time Dad's dog is being left at home so I think the pies will be safe :D


And there's a closeup of Mr. Pilgrim.  His head is a circle punch, and his hands are smaller circles, and then the garland he's holding is done with a couple different leaf punches and an apple punch, plus the aforementioned raffia bows.  The rest of it was a hand-drawn pattern; you had to cut it out of the different colors of cardstock and then add some black pen lines to define the edges.


There's Mrs. Pilgrim, except she has sunflowers instead of apples.  And she looks like a little Amish girl, so I sent the pattern (I still had all the pieces of the pattern!) to my friend Missy since she's the one who convinced me and the hubs to spend our anniversary in Amish country this year.

So when I pulled out my Thanksgiving 2005 pictures, I was very excited to finally use this class kit that's been in my stash for no kidding THIRTEEN YEARS.  But the pilgrims take up a lot of the square footage of the pages, and I had some more pictures to scrap.  Well, I remembered back in the day thinking that we needed a Native American couple to go with the pilgrims.  What I didn't remember is that I'd already made them too!


They were already completed and stuck down on the pages and everything.  I kinda wish I'd made the girl's dress a little more detailed, but she does have some fringe happening on her hemline.


Mr. Native American has some fringe on his sleeves.  And apparently I dispensed with the apples or sunflowers in the hands.


So not only did I have these four pages most of the way put together for more than a decade, I also had all of the matching cardstock scraps too so I was able to use those to make the photo mats and everything matched what I'd already done.  JACKPOT.

That's it for me today,  peeps.  Hope your holiday preparations are going swimmingly!  I'm off to finish cleaning up the house :p

Supplies, not at all SU!
class kit from 2002

Friday, November 20, 2015

Friday Flashback: Secret Garden

Hey y'all, happy Friday.  This week's Friday Flashback stamp set is Secret Garden.  So let's hop to it!

Also features Perfectly Penned, Positively Chevron
 Let's start off with some shiny gold chevrons, shall we?  I think the Strawberry Slush flowers really pop against the lighter colors and the gold.

Also features Simple Stems, Blessings from Heaven, Gorgeous Grunge
And here's a less successful card; there are matching Secret Garden Framelits and the stamp set Simple Stems works with them too.

Also features Sweet Serendipity

And for the last part of the Flashback, I made this one for the Sweet Serendipity flashback a little while back.  So that's it for digging around the archives, and here is today's brand new card:


This time I hand-cut the flowers instead of using the Framelits because my little girl dog parked herself right behind my chair and I couldn't get up (I'm absolutely certain she does that on purpose).  I need a birthday card for my MIL, so I turned to this week's Create with Connie and Mary color challenge:


I did only use SU! products, though the stamps are retired; they don't specifically say that's against their rules but if it is then they can throw paper scraps at me.  I love it when Elegant Eggplant shows up in color challenges, which happens next to never so I had to play along.

I also really liked this week's CAS(E) This Sketch:


So that's it for me today, folks.  I need to go vacuum the house (hopefully the vacuum won't try to knock me down the stairs this time) and get my Thanksgiving shopping list ready.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Secret Garden, Happy Everything
Ink:  Island Indigo, Versamark
Paper:  Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Gold EP, Dimensionals

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Congratulations, It's Twins

My friend finally had her twin boys this past weekend--at 41 weeks and 4 days.  Who is LATE delivering twins?!  And she's so tiny, I really don't know how she held out that long.  Or the twins did.  Anyway, this is the one I made the two baby books for, but I thought it would be nice to send her a little card now that they've finally arrived:


She told me they're doing the nursery in gray, yellow, orange, and a little aqua, so I worked with those colors (except not the gray) to make this.  I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:


It came together pretty quickly, which is nice.  Now my only problem is that I've run out of postage stamps...well, I need to mail off a package today anyway so I might as well get some more while I'm there.

Hope you have a great day, peeps.  It's raining but I can't let that stop me doing my errands :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Something for Baby, past My Paper Pumpkin kit
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Tangelo Twist, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Tangelo Twist DSP
Accessories:  Baby's First Framelits, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Dimensionals

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Stamping on Auto-Pilot

Usually I don't really post Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving.  Call me old-fashioned, but I like to concentrate on one holiday at a time, and I don't like it that Thanksgiving seems to be getting ignored more and more each year as Christmas turns into this six-month juggernaut of tinsel and lights.


But I broke the rule today because the Global Design Project theme this week is Christmas.  And I do love my Christmas Cuties set, so expect to see it in action a lot more after next week.  Anyway, I was working on this card and the whole time I was thinking I wanted to put "It's the most wonderful time of the year" as the sentiment but apparently I was on auto-pilot and then all of a sudden "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" instead.  I do have one cousin who puts her tree up on November first.  My mom (HI MOM) is a total Christmas junkie, but she does at least usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving to go wild.  (Thanks, Mom.)  But for the whole month of December, she looks pretty much just like this elf.


I kept my card pretty simple so I could also enter it in the Paper Players' CAS Christmas challenge:


This card is the maiden voyage of the Season of Cheer DSP in my craft cave.  Love the watercolor look and there are some gorgeous patterns in there.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Christmas Cuties
Ink:  Basic Black, markers in Hello Honey, Smoky Slate, Real Red, Pear Pizzazz, Basic Gray; Skintone Blendabilities
Paper:  Real Red, Thick Whisper White, Season of Cheer DSP
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, Dimensionals

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Nachos: Beary Thankful

Happy Tuesday once again, peeps!  It's Nacho Average Challenge day and this week it's a perfectly fabulous color challenge:


Oh yeah, I love it.  This color challenge is tailor-made for use with the Into the Woods DSP but if you don't have that, fear not!  You can still play along.  However, I just had to use that paper and here's what I made:


I've been kind of hoarding the Into the Woods paper, which is silly because I could always buy another pack at least until the holiday catalog expires (I can hear my husband saying "for the love of pete woman, don't buy any more paper!" but I'm ignoring him).  Anyway, I knew that pattern would be perfect with my bear and sentiment so I cut into a sheet of it.  I managed not to hyperventilate, too ;)

So now it's your turn to play along!  Don't forget to link up on the Nacho blog.  Cheers, peeps, and happy stampin'!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends
Ink:  Early Espresso, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede
Paper:  Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Thick Whisper White, Into the Woods DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, Brights Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Monday, November 16, 2015

Climbing Fuji

Mornin' y'all!  I'm a little late with my blog post but that's because I was talking to Missy this morning on Skype.  (HI MISSY!)  I'd been teasing her for a couple of days that she'd really really like the layout I planned to post today.  I gave her a sneak peek on Skype but here it is for everyone else:


Missy loves it because a.) she and her husband are on it, b.) it's Mount Fuji and c.) it's green and gold.  Because she thinks everything should be Baylor colors.  This is actually the first layout of FOUR that I made for all our Fuji pics, which you can see here.


There's my title; I love the Lots of Labels Framelits but haven't used them a whole lot yet.  Actually I've made a couple of cards with them that will be posted in the next couple weeks.  It's a nice shape.


And here's today's Baylor-iffic color palette:  Garden Green, So Saffron, Marina Mist, Early Espresso, and Whisper White.  I carried over the Garden Green and that So Saffron patterned paper on the other Fuji layouts too so all of them are Baylor-iffic.  See Missy, I love you.

Anyway, I've got lots of things to do this afternoon.  Not as many as Missy does, but still things to do, so I'd better go get started.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Well-Worn Alphabet, Rough Type, Circle Circus
Ink:  Marina Mist, Early Espresso
Paper:  Garden Green, Marina Mist, Thick Whisper White, Haiku DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits

Friday, November 13, 2015

Friday Flashback: Perfectly Preserved

Hey, kids!  How's your Friday the 13th going?  No bad luck, I hope.  Today's retired stamp set is Perfectly Preserved, which I totally love, so without further ado let's get to the Flashback!

Also features Sweet Essentials
I love the Orchard Harvest DSP, such fun colors.  Anyway, before I got this set, I was talking to my friend Missy and she mentioned some really old stamp set that was like the first one she ever got and it had a jar, and she *never* used it.  And then we said we wouldn't buy Perfectly Preserved because we'd never use the jar.  And then a week later I bowed to the power of Stampin' Up! psychic resonance and I bought it.  So I made Missy this card.  With the jar, obviously.

Also features Perfectly Penned

I do love these apples :)

Also features Pursuit of Happiness

You've seen this one recently, the only time I've used the corn stamp.  But you never know when you might need a corn stamp, so it's a good thing I held onto it ;)

Also features One Smart Cookie

The Friday Flashback for One Smart Cookie wasn't that long ago so you've seen this recently too.


Yay more apples.  I haven't checked back on my Raspberry Ripple ink pad to see how it's doing now after I tried to wash all the gold sheen off.  But I now know that my Bravo Burgundy ink pad has it even worse.  I should take a picture of it so you can see what I mean.

Also features A Word For You

I love a good pun:  you're a perfect pear.

Also features Fall Fest, My Paper Pumpkin

I love that "there's no such thing as too much pie" stamp from one of last year's My Paper Pumpkin kits, I just kinda wish it was in a more easily readable font.  Picky picky.

So there's the Flashback, wasn't that fun?  I have to tell you I'm a little late getting this post up because I've been doing a lot of work on scrapbook pages, and for some reason I find it difficult sometimes to move from scrapbooking to card making.  It's like they're parallel tracks in my brain but it's hard to cross from one to the other.  But then I did and I got TWO cards done for today, plus another one you'll see next week.  So here's the new creations:


I had to use the jar, just to prove I *can* use the jar, and I really wanted to use the flowers since I'd never done that before.  And it took forever for me to find a sentiment for this card, but in the end I went with Perfectly Penned because a.) it's awesome and b.) it's right next to Perfectly Preserved in my stamp cabinet.

The sketch is courtesy of TGIF Challenges:


And since I had the other half of that piece of thick Whisper White cardstock on my table, I figured I might as well make another card with it:


Same sketch, just horizontal.  And I pulled out One Smart Cookie again because it's cute with these apples.  The colors are from Colour Me...!


Red and green might say "Christmas" to you, but like Mary I am quite contrary so I like my red and green apples.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, peeps!  I'm back to working on those scrapbook pages if I can get my train of thought onto the other track.  Cheers!

Supplies, flower thank you card:
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Marina Mist, Smoky Slate, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Berry Blossoms DSP
Accessories:  white baker's twine

Supplies, sweeter than pie card:
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, One Smart Cookie
Ink:  Real Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Old Olive DSP
Accessories:  Real Red taffeta