Friday Flashback: In the Sky

Good morning, peeps!  Are you ready for a Friday Flashback?  This week's Flashback is pretty short...we're taking a look back at In the Sky.

I like celestial things okay, but I never really could figure out how to use this stamp set much, hence the super short flashback.  But I did finally make a scrapbook layout with it that I like, take a look at today's new creation:

Pictures are from our Mediterranean cruise; when we docked at Mykonos, the hubs and I took the ferry across to the tiny island of Delos, where Apollo and Artemis were born.  And of course the mythological twins are associated with the moon (Artemis) and sun (Apollo), so using In the Sky for these pages was a natural fit.

So there you go, sun and moon for Apollo and Artemis.

I had trouble coming up with a color combination for this layout, and I'm not 100% sold on what I used but I think it's okay.  I ended up with Hello Honey, Baked Brown Sugar, Wisteria Wonder, and Early Espresso.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, scrapbook pages only:
Stamps:  In the Sky, Empire Alphabet Upper
Ink:  Hello Honey, Wisteria Wonder, Early Espresso
Paper:  Hello Honey, Baked Brown Sugar, Wisteria Wonder, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Baked Brown Sugar DSP

Vienna

Well, I finally ran out of time to do the daily card...so today is a bonus Scrappy Monday.  On a Thursday.  Because that makes sense.

This is the last of my three Vienna layouts, pretty much my favorite pics that weren't inside the Spanish Riding School or having to do with the horses :)

And there's my color palette:  Mint Macaron, Bravo Burgundy, Midnight Muse, and just a smidge of Creamy Caramel because it was on all the other pages.

Flying out to Texas today but I already have tomorrow's Friday Flashback done.  Yeah, that one I got done ahead of time...cheers, peeps!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet Upper, Artistic Etchings, non-SU alphabet
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Creamy Caramel
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Midnight Muse, Bravo Burgundy DSP
Accessories:  None

Blushing Gold Butterfly

So I said yesterday that Blushing Bride isn't my favorite color, and then the stamping gods laughed at me and I made this:

What the WHAT, y'all.  Why is Blushing Bride taking over my crafty life?  Although color issues aside, I'm fairly pleased with how this turned out.  It all started with the Global Design Project CASE the Designer challenge:

So, obviously I kept the gold and the stripes, but I was thinking of the diagonal striped patterns that SU! has now and the diagonal stuck in my head.  Of course, that paper is all white plus color, and the Cupcake Inspirations color challenge calls for vanilla:

Now I want frosting, y'all.  Anyway, in my crafty brain white and vanilla do not go together, so I had to make my own patterned paper.  I kinda flipped through the SU! catalog a little bit, because that helps get me un-stuck when I have muse problems, and that's when I found the really long skinny stamp in Butterfly Basics that I used to make my stripes.  I stuck my card front down on grid paper with some repositionable adhesive and kinda eyeballed the stripes.  It's a photopolymer stamp set, so that very long skinny stamp kinda curves a little bit when you stick it on the block, but I decided that the imperfections were what made this a fun background so I went with it.  Actually what took the longest was deciding what color to use for the sentiment; eventually I settled on Soft Suede, and I sponged a bit of it around the Very Vanilla card front for good measure.  I thought about adding some more stamping to the card front, and really grunge it up, but I decided less is more.

Wow, y'all, I chatted a lot about this card.  Anyway, it's time to get my rear in gear and get ready to leave tomorrow for baby shower weekend in Texas!  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Butterfly Basics, Greatest Greetings
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Soft Suede
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Very Vanilla, Gold Foil
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Framelits, Butterflies Thinlits, Dimensionals

Cherry Tree in Bloom

Hey y'all.  It's Day 5 of Snowmageddon, but I think we'll *gasp* leave the house tomorrow.  In the meantime though, I need to get some stamping done!

I made this cherry tree (it's a cherry tree now, don't argue) for a friend whom I met in Japan.  And also I've never liked Blushing Bride much but for some reason now that the Love Blossoms stack is here I like it.  And also Birthday Bouquet, I've been up to my eyeballs in Blushing Bride for the baby shower.  But anyway, I used last week's CAS(E) This Sketch for my card:

My card would have worked for The Colour Tree #2, but that challenge is already over and #3 is here and even though I tried 4 times I couldn't get the challenge graphic to load.  But if you hit that link for the Colour Tree you can see it there.

Got a couple more things to do today, so cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree, Curly Cute (I know it's retired, but I needed a pretty Happy Birthday that was all horizontal and none of my current stamps fit the bill which means I need more stamps right?)
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Crumb Cake, Garden Green, Rose Red
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Love Blossoms DSP Stack
Accessories:  Neutrals Candy Dots

Spanish Riding School

It's Day 4 of Snowmageddon, y'all.  Hubs and I made a snowbear yesterday :)  Today though I think it's time we cleaned up the house.

Anywha, it's also time for this week's Scrappy Monday.  So to go along with last week's Dancing Horses layout, I bring you the Spanish Riding School:

I did a lot of journaling on the other layout, so I didn't feel like I had to add much to this one.  We did a tour of the Spanish Riding School, the tack room, and the stables, but we weren't allowed to take pictures in the stables even though I was thisclose to one of the beautiful horses.

Today's color palette:  Creamy Caramel, Baja Breeze, Cranberry Crisp, and Basic Black.  Three retired colors, though I think it's safe to say that black will never retire ;)

Cheers, peeps!  Stay warm out there.  I'm about to go make us a pumpkin coffee cake for brekkie...

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet Upper, non-SU alphabet
Ink:  Basic Black
Paper:  Creamy Caramel, Cranberry Crisp, Pocketful of Posies DSP
Accessories:  none

Friday Flashback: It's Your Birthday

Happy Friday, y'all!  We are currently prepping for Snowmageddon, which is slated to start this afternoon.  But in the meantime, I have a Friday Flashback for you!  Today's stamp set is It's Your Birthday, and who doesn't need a great set of birthday greetings?  In fact, I'd used this set so much that I only picked about half of what I had in my archives to share otherwise we'd still be doing this flashback *next* Friday.  So let's giddyup!

Also features Bronc Buster, Paisley

First is a birthday card I made for my brother a few years ago.

Also features Floral, Roses in Winter

And here's one for my mother's great aunt...

Also features Baroque Motifs, Embrace Life

Honestly I don't know who I sent this to, it's a rare square card.

Also features Bloomin' Beautiful

This "someone like you should be celebrated every day" stamp is done in the same font as the "happy birthday" above so you could use them together.  Or just use this one for a card and it doesn't have to be birthday-specific.

Also features Dream Gardens

 I do love my Oriental stamps :)

Also features Pun Fun

Here's a cute little one I did for my mom, who loves hippos.

Also features Mixed Bouquet

I made this one for one of my favorite people in the world, who has sadly passed away.  Miss you, Neelu!

Also features Petal Prints

Let's be honest, this is one of my favorite cards.

Also features Wing It, Flannel Plaid

And one more kinda masculine card to round out the group.  Are you ready for today's new creation?  Here it is:

My friend Tiana (who doesn't read this blog, so I'm not giving away any birthday secrets) came out to visit at the beginning of the month and mentioned when we were out shopping that she wanted some super-soft comfy pajama pants.  And since her birthday is next week, I found her some ridiculously cute ones at Kohl's, they're black and have foxes on them and look kinda like this card :D  The jammies are more of a raspberry color than coral, but I only have Calypso Coral embossing powder so I went with that.  I loved these so much I ordered some for myself, and I also got her a set of Star Wars jammies because awesome.  The Star Wars ones have purple in them so this card kinda matches both.

Anyway, I used a sketch from the Retro Rubber challenge site, my very first time to play along over there!

If I got both It's Your Birthday and Fox & Friends when they first came out, then I've had It's Your Birthday for TEN years and Fox & Friends for 6.  And I still love them both :)

Ok, I'd better get moving before Snowmageddon starts.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  It's Your Birthday, Fox & Friends
Ink:  Basic Black, Versamark
Paper:  Basic Black, Lavender Lace, Lucky Limeade & Calypso Coral DSP
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, retired heart punch, Calypso Coral EP, Dimensionals

Pink Ladybug

Smee:  I've just had an apostrophe.

Captain Hook:  I think you mean "epiphany".

Smee:  Lightning...has come into my brain.

Captain Hook:  That must have hurt.


I heart the movie Hook :)  And this brain lightning didn't hurt, it turned out pretty cute!

So, as you saw yesterday, we're doing a Cinderella baby shower for my sister, and Blushing Bride and Pool Party are the main colors of decorations and stuff I've been making.  She's planning to do the baby's room in a ladybug theme and that's when I got the brilliant idea to combine this week's Color Throwdown:

With the sketch from Fusion:

Et voila!  A pink ladybug.  I think it's pretty cute.  So now I have a card to go with my baby shower gift...which I need to finish :p  Anyway, I mainly used the sketch from the Fusion challenge, though there's a bit of polka dots and some black on my card too.  I tried it with a woodgrain background first and that just looked uuuugghhhh so I went pretty CAS.

Okay, I'm going to get back to work.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Petite Pairs
Ink:  Soft Suede
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Basic Black, Love Blossoms & Birthday Bouquet DSP
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, 1 3/4" circle punch (I think that was the size I used?), Itty Bitty Punch Pack heart

Cinderella's Baby Shower Invitation

Hey, y'all.  How's it going?  I got up with a headache today and I don't have time for that nonsense.  I'm kinda starting to get into last-minute panic mode with the baby shower, considering I have several projects left to do and I leave next Thursday.

At least the invitations were done and sent out weeks ago.

So I'm one of the hostesses for my sister's baby shower, and we're doing a Cinderella theme.  I thought the Birthday Bouquet paper in the Occasions catalog would be perfect for that, and when I was looking for something in my tub o' non-SU stamps I found a Disney castle.  So I put some glitter on it.

After making more than two dozen of these, I also had glitter all over my floor, my craft table, and my dogs, not to mention myself (I'm not even joking, I had to take a shower to get it all out of my hair, how did it even get up there?!).  The entire castle panel is embossed with Iridescent Ice and I would swear off the stuff entirely if it wasn't so darned pretty.  The "It's a shower" is from the long-retired set Something to Celebrate, so we're mixing old and new with non-SU.

The invitations are folded along the top, so on the inside I stamped Cinderella at the top and all the shower details went on the bottom.

Well, I have to get some packages ready to mail at the post office (seems like I was just there yesterday...oh wait, I was!) and I have all those other projects that I need to get to work on.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Something to Celebrate, Disney stamps
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Pool Party, Mossy Meadow, Versamark
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Watermelon Wonder, Thick Whisper White, Birthday Bouquet DSP
Accessories:  Ovals & Labels Framelits, Iridescent Ice EP, large heart punch, Dimensionals

Send Me Soaring

Up through the atmosphere, up where the air is clear...okay, so the original song was about kites, but that's what the sentiment that I used on today's card reminds me of.  Take a looksie!

That, my friends, is a super-cool biplane stamp that's in the limited-time-only Sale-a-Bration section, so get it by February 15.  Isn't it fantastic?  At first I had a heart in the lower right corner but the compass rose seemed like a better idea.  I'm a bit less thrilled with the splats in the corners, but I was kinda trying to follow the sketch which you'll see as you scroll down.

Hold on to your hats, folks, because I managed to make this card work for no fewer than FIVE challenges.

First up is the color challenge at In{k}spire Me:

I've been following their challenges for quite some time but I think this is the first time I've played along.

Next up is the Around the World challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

I used the World Map stamp in the background of my card, plus of course you could use a biplane to travel lots of places.  Wouldn't be as much fun right now since it's colder than Hoth today, but you could.

And then there's the Global Design Project Love challenge:

I made this little non-traditional Valentine for my hubba-hubba-hubby, who wanted to be a pilot starting when he was five and who has actually flown a biplane before.

You know what just popped into my head?  This song:  "People all over the world, join hands!  Form a love train, love train!" Only mine is a love PLANE.  Bahaha.

Moving right along to the sketch from Mojo Monday:

And finally, the What Will You Stamp? challenge to use Sky is the Limit:

I was really happy to have this little nudge to break out the biplane stamp.  And now I'm back to slaving away on baby shower stuff...cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sky is the Limit, The Open Sea, Timeless Textures, World Map
Ink:  Night of Navy, Tip Top Taupe, Tangelo Twist, Soft Sky
Paper:  Night of Navy, Tip Top Taupe, Soft Sky, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, circle punch, Dimensionals, Brights Candy Dot

Dancing Horses

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I've been so busy working on baby shower stuff that I've only made one new scrapbook layout for my personal books so far this year.  But I still have lots and lots to share that I did in the last few months of 2015, including this one:

These pictures are from our February 2014 trip to Vienna, where we spent most of our time in and around the Spanish Riding School.  These horses are some of the famous Lipizzaner stallions who perform high-level dressage at the school, so basically they're dancing horses.  Their stables are set up so there's a big window to the street and I stayed there taking pictures of these beauties for as long as the hubs would let me :)

When I looked through my scrapbook sketch book for a layout idea, I came across this one that has lots and lots of white space with the photos all grouped in the center.  It's different from what I normally do but I thought I'd give it a shot, so I balanced the title on the left page with all my journaling on the right page.  The title stamping took a while but other than that, this was a very CAS layout.

My color palette:  Garden Green (my favorite green!), Creamy Caramel, Baja Breeze, and Basic Black.  That's it for me today, peeps, so I'm off to keep working on baby shower stuff.  Which I'm sure you'll see here probably starting in February.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet Upper, Best of Shelli, non-SU alphabet
Ink:  Garden Green, Basic Black, Baja Breeze
Paper:  Garden Green, Creamy Caramel, Baja Breeze
Accessories:  none...except a Stamp-a-ma-jig

Nacho Average Blog Hop: Sale-a-Bration

Heyyy Nacho fans!  Welcome to the first ever Nacho Average Blog Hop, which is preempting this week's Friday Flashback.  Today the Nachos are sharing projects made with Sale-a-Bration items, and my stamp set is What I Love.  Let's check it out shall we?

I'm starting off with a one-layer CAS card.  The flowers are stamped in Pool Party and Island Indigo, and the leaves are Pear Pizzazz (I mentioned earlier this week that I was having a Pear Pizzazz-y week).  I was going to do the sentiment in Island Indigo but that just seemed like too much blue, so I used Calypso Coral instead.  I like the little pop of warm coral.

Next up is something a little more involved, but again with the Pear Pizzazz :)  How do you like Pear Pizzazz paired with Rose Red and Blackberry Bliss?  I so just tried to write "peared with".  The greeting is from another SAB set called Perfect Pairings.

And my last card for today is also purple but I used Mint Macaron instead of Pear Pizzazz.  Oops.  How do you like that Perfectly Artistic DSP?  Also a Sale-a-Bration freebie :)  Actually the greeting stamp set was a freebie too, I got in some stuff on Wednesday and that stamp set was put in my box by accident (I hadn't ordered it).  So I called SU! and they told me to keep it, which is awesome because I was thinking about ordering it anyway.  SU! is psychic!

You might recognize this as an old Nacho sketch challenge, it was one of my favorites.  I also used this week's Cupcake Inspirations color challenge for the last card:

SU! retired so many of the purples a few years ago that I had to bring Orchid Opulence out of retirement to make my card, none of the current purples look anything like the lilac in the challenge graphic.



Supplies, first card:
Stamps:  What I Love
Ink:  Pool Party, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  None

Supplies, second card:
Stamps:  What I Love, Perfect Pairings
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss, Pear Pizzazz, Rose Red
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Pear Pizzazz,  Thick Whisper White, Rose Red DSP
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, Dimensionals

Supplies, third card:
Stamps:  What I Love, Greatest Greetings
Ink:  Orchid Opulence, Basic Gray
Paper:  Orchid Opulence, Thick Whisper White, Perfectly Artistic DSP
Accessories:  Corner rounder punch, Dimensionals

Hello, My Friend

I'm up early this Thursday morning to take my car into the dealership, so it's still dark as I type this.  However, it's supposed to be sunny today, just colder than...something...really cold.  I had no idea where that sentence was going when I started it.  Oh, I've got it:  it's supposed to be colder than Hoth!  Actually no wait, I asked my phone and the high today is 48.  On *Monday* it will be colder than Hoth because the temperature isn't supposed to get above freezing, which was how it happened yesterday.

You know what?  I'm bored of talking about weather.  Let's go for a nice sunshiney card.

Yeah, I got some new stuff yesterday :D  The advantage of ordering a bunch of cardstock and stuff for this baby shower is that since it's Sale-a-Bration, I'm getting lots freebies.  The patterned paper and the sentiment stamp set on this card?  Both free, which is pretty awesome.

Even with new goodies to play with, I was feeling a little stumped until I remembered this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I just loved the Color Throwdown:

I used Garden Green, Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, and Smoky Slate for my interpretation of the colors here.  And my card turned out kind of Baylor-y so I think I know who's going to get it ;)

Anyway, it's just about time for me to leave for the car dealership.  Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello, Picture Perfect
Ink:  Garden Green, Cucumber Crush, Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Garden Green, Tangerine Tango, Thick Whisper White, Perfectly Artistic DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Timeless Dragonfly

Well, I'm running a little late today...usually I try to have my card made the day before so I can set up the blog post but I was working on the baby book yesterday and the card for today just didn't happen.  But I did manage to get it done this morning!

When I was looking back through all my 2015 posts for the showcase, I noticed that it had been far too long since I played with the Awesomely Artistic dragonfly.  I paired it with the new set Timeless Textures, and srsly, those two sets are a match made in stampy heaven.  It's hard to tell in the photo above, but there's a rhinestone on the dragonfly's body for a bit of extra sparkle and to go with all the silver.  If I had Wink of Stella glitter pens, I probably would have used that...I had planned to emboss the dragonfly with Iridescent Ice, but my girl dog Sadie was giving me serious goo-goo eyes because she wants to go for a walk.  So I went with the faster rhinestone option.

These fabulous colors are courtesy of the Create with Connie and Mary color challenge:

When I saw that, I was like sign me UP because Bermuda Bay and Blackberry Bliss are some of my favorites, and I've been using Pear Pizzazz a lot lately (wait till you see Friday's post, which I already have done because apparently I have problems with working chronologically).  Anyway, I also used this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

Very layery, but I refused to be intimidated and I do like how my card turned out.

So now I have two doglets giving  me the googoo eyes.  Guess I'd better put on my Eskimo outfit to take them for a walk...baby it's cold outside!  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Awesomely Artistic, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss, Bermuda Bay, Pear Pizzazz, Versamark
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Bermuda Bay, Pear Pizzazz, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  1" circle punch, rhinestone, silver EP, Dimensionals, silver doily