Pulling Teeth

I love stamping, and making cards and scrapbook pages.  Otherwise, why would I have this blog?  But some days, it's just tough to make myself get in the craft room and make something, hence why this post is going up after 5:30 at night.  I just wasn't motivated today :p  But it's the last day of Sale-a-Bration so I finally came up with something.

Something very clean lines and simple, but I think it works.  It's a little difficult to tell in the photo, but I sponged a bit of Sahara Sand ink around the three Very Vanilla flower panels.  Speaking of Sahara Sand, I paired it with Delightful Dijon (which I don't use hardly ever) and Lost Lagoon thanks to the latest color challenge from Create with Connie and Mary:

Congratulations on your 400th challenge, ladies!  Very cool.  I also used the latest sketch from Just Add Ink:

Yesterday's sketch had three panels too, but the eye is attracted to groupings of odd numbers so you see triptych sketches a lot, actually.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Hopefully I'll have better luck tomorrow in getting my Friday Flashback post up before noon!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flowering Fields, One Big Meaning
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Sahara Sand, Delightful Dijon
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Neutrals Candy Dots (and those things are a bugger to get off the backing sheet when you've just chopped off all your fingernails!)

Little Bunny FooFoo

Happy Wednesday, kids.  Apparently I didn't get enough of bunnies before Easter, because lookie what I got today:

D'awwww.  Unfortunately you can't tell in the picture, but I colored in her  nose and inside her ear with a Blushing Bride marker, and then used an Aquapainter and some Pool Party ink to do a teensy bit of shading.  And because I just got it in the mail yesterday and couldn't help myself, I used my brand new clear Wink of Stella pen to highlight the bunny tail.  Because it's adorable.

I used the sketch from The Paper Players:

And I used the Birthday Bouquet DSP because a.) that's what I used for a lot of my sister's baby shower stuff and b.) I still have a lot of it left, including lots of scraps :)  The SUO Challenge this week is to use cute critters, which dovetailed nicely with the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge:

Bunnies:  not just for Easter anymore.

Have a great day, y'all!  And don't forget that Easter candy is now half off.  I've had a severe weakness for Cadbury Creme Eggs this year...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Made with Love
Ink:  Basic Black, Blushing Bride, Pool Party
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Pool Party, Thick Whisper White, Birthday Bouquet DSP
Accessories:  1 3/4" circle punch, Circles Framelits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella clear glitter pen which is awesome you should get one :)

Krakow, Poland

Hey, kids, how's it going today?  I had a busy day yesterday and NO time at all to spend in my craft room, so today is a bonus scrapbook day.  Check it out:

Not the best picture of the layout, but it was raining the day I took it and that makes it more difficult to get good lighting.  Anywha, you can see the original pictures here.  Krakow was the first place I'd ever had pizza with pineapple and black olives on it; the combination sounds so weird but trust me, if you like those ingredients, it's a dang good pizza.  My weirdo hubs doesn't think pineapple belongs on a pizza and he hates black olives, so I had to eat the whole pizza myself :)

I got the Metro Alphabet stamp set (top word) just before it retired and this is its maiden voyage.  I found that the little flowers from the Sale-a-Bration set Botanicals for You match the small flowers in the Botanical Gardens patterned paper I used, happy day.  I got that paper specifically for this layout but I'll enjoy using the other patterns too...it seems like a lot of my photos involve the color Cajun Craze because a lot of times roofs or bricks are kinda that color, so I like having paper that incorporates it.

And there's today's color combo, taken straight from the patterned paper:  Mossy Meadow, Hello Honey, Cajun Craze, Mint Macaron (I wasn't too sure about how Mint Macaron would fit in with the other colors, but I'm okay with it), Basic Black, and Whisper White.

Well, I've got doglets to walk and groceries to buy, so that's it for me today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Metro Alphabet, Empire Alphabet, Botanicals for You
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Hello Honey, Cajun Craze, Mint Macaron, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Cajun Craze, Basic Black, Whisper White, Botanical Gardens DSP
Accessories:  None

Russ' Olympic Visit

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your Easter weekend?  We went out to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.  I think that if I could choose one celebrity to have lunch with, it would be Nia Vardalos.  She just seems like she would be every bit as warm and funny and amazing in person as she is on the big screen.

Anyway, it's time for a scrapbook layout!  And here comes one right now.

This was when my uncle came out to England for two weeks during the London Olympics; see the original pics here.  I knew I kinda wanted to do red, white, and blue for colors, and then I thought of the Fresh Prints (of Bel Air, that will never not be a thing with my brain) and that's how I got to here.  Kinda digging the Coastal Cabana page base with these pictures.

The Crumb Cake pattern is cut with the Party Pennants Bigz die, which is still on the clearance rack on the SU! site.  It wasn't until after I cut out the letters that I realized it was going to have US on the pennant and the other two letters hanging off, but let's just say it's a subtle nod to the US Olympic team shall we?  And be happy that my uncle's name worked out that way.  I'm a dork.

These stamps are *cough cough* not SU!, but after living in England for 3 1/2 years I *had* to get them.  Because SU! hasn't ever had British stamps like these, otherwise I would own them.  Anyway, the Fresh Prints (of Bel Air) paper is a mini stack, so I couldn't do borders with it or anything, which is why I ended up just using small pieces of it punched out in circles.

Today's color palette:  Coastal Cabana (and lots of it!), Real Red (I just had to buy more Real Red cardstock, I was running low), Crumb Cake, Pacific Point, Basic Black, and Whisper White.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Tall Tales Alphabet, Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, non-SU British stamps
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Pacific Point, Basic Black
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Pacific Point, Whisper White, Fresh Prints (of Bel Air!) DSP Stack
Accessories:  Party Pennants Bigz Die, Circles Framelits, 1 3/8" and 1 1/2" circle punches

Baby Books: First & Last Pages

This is it, y'all, the last of the twin baby books pages.  Just in time too, my niece is making her world debut next month so it's time to start sharing her book next.  But anyway, let's take a look at these last couple of pages.

I asked my friend Jen what colors she was using in the nursery for her boys, and she said mostly yellow and gray with some aqua and orange, so that's what I used for the album colors and the first/last pages.  I just happened to have some patterned paper with yellow and gray stripes on it :)  The letters are cut out of Basic Gray, it looks kinda black in the picture but it's dark gray.

There's the last page; the little tag says "world traveler" on it because their parents have been to more countries than anyone else I know, and those boys are going to be little travelers too.

The color palette for today:  Whisper White, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, and Tangelo Twist.  Didja miss the Tangelo Twist? It's on the beak of the rubber ducky on the first pages.

So next Saturday, we'll switch gears a little bit and go all GIRLY for a while!  Ta-ta for now!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Something for Baby, non-SU stamp
Ink:  Basic Gray, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Tangelo Twist
Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Gray, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Watercolor Wonder DSP
Accessories:  Baby's First Framelits, Banners Framelits, scalloped circle punch, small star punch from a retired punch pack, Sizzix alphabet

Friday Flashback: Sassy Stems

Happy Friday, y'all!  Welcome to the Friday Flashback.  This week's featured stamp set is one of my favorites, Sassy Stems.  There are just three stamps in the set but it's pretty awesome.  Let's take a trip back in time, shall we?

Also features Short & Sweet, Kindness jumbo wheel

I still miss Barely Banana sometimes.  It was a little brighter than So Saffron.

Also features Paisley, Warmest Regards

I used the old, old Color Coach (when it was an actual color wheel) for this color combination--Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, and Cameo Coral.  And I put Iridescent Ice EP all over the main image panel so it sparkled.

Here's a more fall-ish take on Sassy Stems, and lots o' layers.

Also features Paisley

I made this one for a swap not long after they introduced Watercolor Wonder Crayons.  I shoulda made more of the watercolored background visible but oh well.  And also eyelets!  So glad I got rid of most of my eyelets, I never use them anymore.

Also features All-Year Cheer II

Huh, looks like this is the only time I used markers to color the stamp rather than stamping in black.  Anyway, it's time now to unveil the new card on the block:

Ta-daaaah!  The card base and the main image panel are Shimmery White cardstock, so the whole card has a bit of sparkle to it.  I am looking forward to getting my backordered Wink of Stella glitter pen, lemme tell you.  Anyway, I pulled out two retired In Colors, Coastal Cabana and Strawberry Slush, and paired them with the current In Color Cucumber Crush.  I like them as a combination.  I also used this week's Retro Sketch:

Obviously I used stamping for the long thin panel in the background, but I just really liked the idea of butterflies to go with my sassy flowers.

Well kids, that's all she wrote today.  We're going out to dinner tonight for Mexican food, woohoo!  See you back here tomorrow for a baby book layout.  Cheers, peeps, and happy Easter!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Sassy Stems, Beyond the Basics, Really Retro
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Cucumber Crush
Paper:  Shimmery White, Strawberry Slush, Cucumber Crush DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, rhinestones, hexagon punch to flag the ends of the banner

Golden Slumbers

Does anyone else ever wake up with a song stuck in their head?  I listen to music for most of the day on a regular basis, but even when I don't have any music on I have an internal soundtrack going.  This morning I woke up with "Golden Slumbers" by the Beatles stuck in my head, only I'm hearing the version sung by Phil Collins.  No really, there was an album that came out like 20 years ago where other people covered Beatles songs.

Anyway, internal soundtrack aside, today's card is also golden.

Sale-a-bration is almost over, kids, so I thought I'd get out What I Love and give it a spin.  This card was surprisingly difficult to photograph.

Half the pictures ended up like this, where the flash reflected off the gold embossing powder.  And also, am I the only one who can't tie a bow in baker's twine to save her life?  I tried and tried for this card but finally ended up just tying a knot and calling it a day.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

LOVE LOVE LOVE that one!  I used Bermuda Bay, Pool Party (Coastal Cabana would have been better, the Pool Party kinda looked a little bit green next to the Bermuda Bay but that's okay since I was using it for leaves anyway) and gold.  I like that mug too, it's like mermaid scales.

Wow, tomorrow it's already time for the Friday Flashback again!  See you then, kids.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  What I Love
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Pool Party, Versamark
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Pool Party, Thick Whisper White, Perfectly Artistic DSP
Accessories:  Gold EP, gold satin ribbon, gold baker's twine, Dimensionals

Spring Trio

Happy Wednesday, y'all.  Does it look like spring in your neighborhood?  The trees behind my house are all blooming, though when we went out last Saturday the cherry blossoms in DC weren't in full bloom yet.  But anyway, that brings me to the Paper Players challenge:

One of the things I loved most about living in England was the flowers.  I think gardening is England's national pastime, so in January I would see some snowdrops, February brought crocuses (croci), March was all about the daffodils, April was for tulips, May was purple with lilacs, and June brought out all the roses for June weddings.  And those are just the flowers I saw in my daily walks around our tiny village.  So I decided to make a trio of CAS spring cards for today:

I really liked how my shamrock card turned out for the Nacho blog hop, so I did the same kind of thing on these three.  I don't have current SU! stamps that look like the specific flowers I was going for, so I just used the colors of each to inspire my Flower Patch flowers.

This one is inspired by a crocus, all beautiful deep purple with a bright yellow or orange center.  I love that Bonjour, Beautiful stamp from Happy Happenings...originally I was going to do different sentiments on each card but I liked that one so much I just stuck with it :)

This one is my daffodil card, bright yellow with an orange center.  In March, daffs would spring up all over the village, even a few in my yard--and I can't keep plants alive for anything so you know they're pretty hardy if they survived being in my yard.

And last up is my tulip.  We went to Amsterdam one year to see the tulips, and let me tell you they come in an absolute rainbow of colors and they're all gorgeous.  But I decided to go with a pink and rosy red tulip for this card.

There you have it, my spring flower cards.  Hope you enjoyed them :)  I'm off once again to walk my doglets.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, Happy Happenings, Work of Art
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Blackberry Bliss, Tangelo Twist, Pool Party, Daffodil Delight, Mint Macaron, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, So Saffron
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Flower Fair Framelits, Dimensionals

Best Wishes Butterflies

Mornin' y'all, how's it going?  My little girl dog is desperate to go on a walk this morning so I'd better type fast :)  This past Sunday was the first day of spring, so I have an appropriately springy card for today:

Orange and green were my parents' high school colors :)  But the inspiration for today's color combo comes from Cupcake Inspirations:

I used Pumpkin Pie, Cucumber Crush, and Pear Pizzazz for my SU! colors, which would be the world's weirdest salad:  pumpkin, cucumber, and pear.  I hate eating cucumbers but I like the SU! color.

Anywha, I also used the latest sketch from Fab Friday:

And the latest CASE the Designer challenge from Global Design Project:

I kept the neutral card base and black mat (though the inspiration card used patterned washi tape and I just used plain ol' black cardstock), and my colors are kinda similar.  I thought the asymmetric mat on the Fab Friday sketch would correlate nicely with the ribbon placement, and since I don't have any wreath stamps I thought that sentiment from All Boxed Up (which I just got recently) would work well because it has a circle around it.

Okay, I must succumb to puppy dog eyes and take my lil' girl and her brother out for a walk in the nice spring weather.  Wait, it's in the 40s and windy.  Well, it's not raining so we're going anyway...cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, All Boxed Up
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Cucumber Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie & Cucumber Crush DSP
Accessories:  Linen thread, Dimensionals

Vasa Museum

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today's scrapbook layout is one I did a few months ago and I just didn't want to forget to post it here :)  Here it is:

These pics are from the day we spent in Stockholm, Sweden (see them here).  A friend of ours recommended we check out the Vasa Museum, which houses the raised shipwreck of a nearly 400-year-old Swedish navy ship.  The conditions of the Baltic Sea make it so the water preserves shipwrecks much better than in other places.

There's my title.  Uh, I think mixed-font titles are like my "thing" on scrapbook pages.

I love that lion shield stamp from Wing It, and it really fit here since the figurehead on the ship is a lion too.

Today's color palette is brought to you by Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist, Soft Suede and Whisper White.  Thanks for stopping by today, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Jayne's Type Alphabet, Rough Type, Friendly Words (unmounted wheel), Wing It
Ink:  Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist, Soft Suede
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, circle punch

Baby Books: August

Guess what, y'all?  This is the last month layout from the twins' baby books that I have to share.  There are a couple other layouts but this is the last of the monthly ones, and it's DINOSAURS.

Kinda fun, right?  The big leafy pattern is from an old pack called Island Oasis, and even though it's just monochromatic Old Olive, I used that pack for color inspiration for the rest of the layout.  I figured the Rose Red was something a little different but not pink enough to be really girly.

I did half of the dinosaurs with the silhouette and the other half bones just for funsies.

Can't have a dinosaur layout without a T-Rex.

And the journaling block accent is dino tracks.  Ha!!

Today's color palette:  Pumpkin Pie, Island Indigo, Rose Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, and Whisper White.  I think next time I might switch out the Saffron for a more saturated yellow, it seemed a teensy bit lost to me with all those other strong colors on there.

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

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  No Bones About It
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Island Indigo, Rose Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Island Indigo, Rose Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Whisper White, Island Oasis DSP
Accessories:  circle punch, Sizzix Alphabet

Friday Flashback: Watercolor Garden

Happy Friday, y'all!  Looks like it's going to be a nice day where we are today, and the trees are starting to bloom so it looks like spring.  And so does today's Friday Flashback!  Today's featured stamp set is Watercolor Garden.  Let's check it out!

Also features Fancy Flexible Phrases

I made this card for my stamp club way, way back in 2007 and I still love those rock'n'rolled flowers.

Also features Background Basics, Warm Words

Ya know what, looking back at some of my very old cards (this one is from 2006), for a long time there I wasn't using *any* patterned paper.  And now I've got a ton of it!  But sometimes it's nice to go back to the basics of nothing but ink and paper and stamps.

Also features Terrific Tulips, Season by Season

The flowers on this one aren't from Watercolor Garden, just the stems and leaves.  And it's sad that this set has apparently been collecting dust since I made this card in 2008!  Well, I broke it out for today's new card:

Apparently I was feeling old skool so no patterned paper...I got this idea to use only Whisper White (well, Thick WW) cardstock and stamp each panel with something different, but I wanted soft pastel colors.  The Filigree background I did by sponging the ink on the stamp so it came out lighter, and pretty much everything else but the sentiment was stamped off once.  There are some Pink Pirouette butterflies on the bee panel but they're really, really light.

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

And the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I figured that the spring flowers counted as Easter-y, after all isn't there a flower called an Easter lily? ;)  Anyway, I've had Watercolor Garden for at least 10 years (whoa!), same for Filigree, and Fancy Flexible Phrases for 9 years.  Hadn't really thought about it but I suppose I have been a stamper for over a decade now.  Craziness!

The challenge over at Just Add Ink is to Just Add E--I think my Easter card qualifies.

Hope you have a good weekend, stampy folks.  I'm off to the gym (again!) and then I've got some spring cleaning to do.  Bleargh.  But then it's date night with the hubs tonight so that makes it better.  Cheers!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Watercolor Garden, Filigree, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Ink:  Perfect Plum, Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Soft Suede
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, Dimensionals