Shabby Thanks

Hey y'all, I'm finally here with today's card.  Ever since our AC went out, even though it was replaced on Tuesday, I'm just having a hard time finding the motivation to get down in the craft cave and do some stamping.  But I'm going to keep trying.

I kicked around ideas for today's card while I was at the grocery store (anyone else love Wegmans as much as I do?) and this is what I made when I got home.  After I put up groceries and ate an entire container of watermelon chunks, because that's how I roll.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown color challenge:

Ya know what, a frozen banana split skewer like that sounds pretty darn good right now.  Anyway, for my SU! colors I used Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Real Red, and Crumb Cake.

When I first stamped the flower (the one on the far right was the first one) I figured out pretty quick that my Real Red ink pad was way too juicy, so I squished it with a plastic spoon to work the ink in a bit more and tried it again (middle flower).  Still not quite where I wanted it, but instead of going back at the ink pad with the spoon, I just inked up the stamp again but this time I made sure to only tap it lightly on the ink pad (far left).  Just what I wanted!  I needed that shabby texture to show up on the flower so it would go with the center panel that I hit up with Timeless Textures.

That's it for me today, y'all.  See you back here tomorrow for the Friday Flashback!  Oh wait, one more thing:  if you look really closely at the stamps in Flower Shop, one of the petals has an extra little divot in it (look at the bottom petal, towards the right side).  That's the only one with two divots on the stamp and the matching punch, so today I finally gave my stamps a close examination and put a mark with a Sharpie on the bottom of the stamp that coordinates with that petal, which also happens to be the bottom one on the punch (and I marked my punch too).  Definitely makes it easier to tell which way to punch out the flowers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Shop, One Big Meaning, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Real Red, So Saffron, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Pansy punch, Dimensionals

Moroccan Lanterns

Greetings, friends!  I am very, very, VERY pleased to report that we once again have air conditioning.  It was miserable for days here, lemme tell ya.  It was still 80 degrees in the house when we went to bed last night, but now it's down to a very lovely 75 and I want a cupcake to celebrate.

Instead, I made a card.

Moroccan Nights was one of the very first stamp sets I wanted to get my grubby little paws on when the new catalog was released (and at least one of my paws looks grubby right now, as I managed to cover half my pinkie with Dapper Denim ink while making this) and then it sat in my collection for what seemed like forever (but was really a couple of weeks) and I'm glad it's having its maiden voyage now.  And once again there's the beautiful Moroccan DSP, which I puffy heart love and the only reason I can bear to cut into it is because I know I have 11 months left to buy more :D  Don't tell my hubs I said that.

Anyway, I used this week's Paper Players sketch:

I kept the circle because I love the new Layering Circles Framelits and they're just sitting out right next to my Big Shot because why put them away if I'm just going to use them again almost immediately?  This card will be going out in the mail tomorrow because it's already past my friend Sarah's birthday but I want to send this to her anyway because it feels like a Sarah card.  Except maybe I'll add some Wink of Stella to the lanterns because Sarah likes her bling.

See you here tomorrow, folks.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Moroccan Nights, Rose Wonder
Ink:  Emerald Envy, Dapper Denim, Delightful Dijon
Paper:  Emerald Envy, Delightful Dijon, Very Vanilla, Moroccan DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, Dimensionals

Stay Frosty

So the AC guys should be here to start work in the next hour or so, and I can't wait because it hasn't been cooler than 80 degrees in the house since last Thursday afternoon.  And today I thought I'd make a card with snowflakes on it to try to think cool thoughts.

Didn't really work.  Paper snowflakes can't do much when the actual temperature is 85 degrees :p  But I tried.  And I used this week's Global Design Project sketch:

That's it for me today, y'all.  Stay frosty.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flurry of Wishes
Ink:  Island Indigo, Sweet Sugarplum
Paper:  Pool Party, Island Indigo, Thick Whisper White, Blooms & Bliss DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, Snowflake duo punch, rhinestones, Dimensionals

Castle Rising Castle

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  I hope that YOUR air conditioner is working, 'cause ours has been out since last Thursday!  It was, no kidding, 84 degrees in the house yesterday.  But we're getting a brand new one installed tomorrow and I'm gonna crank that baby down to like FIFTY and dress like an Eskimo.  Or maybe not.  I'd settle for being reasonably comfortable.  Thank goodness the hubs got a fan for us, even if it is really loud.

Anyway, enough whining, let's get to the scrapbook layout today.

I made this last week while I had the Moroccan DSP out for my hummingbird card :)  I love the patterns in that DSP pack, and now that I've cut into into it twice you'll probably be seeing it a lot more often.  Anyway, this is I think the second castle we ever went to see in England...see my original blog post here.

The "Rising" part is stamped with the old SU! alphabet Letterpress, and the smaller letters are non-SU.  That's the only stamping on the layout; just a bit of pretty patterned paper and a bunch of photos and it's done.

Today's color combo:  Delightful Dijon, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla, straight from the Moroccan DSP and surprisingly perfect with my castle pics.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Letterpress Alphabet, smaller alphabet from Unity
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Early Espresso
Paper:  Delightful Dijon,Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Moroccan DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles & Deco Labels Framelits

A-Team Baby Book: December

Hey y'all, how's it going.  We found out this morning that our AC unit in the house is officially kaput, and having no AC in a Virginia summer is not my favorite thing ever.  It was 85 degrees in the house yesterday.

So let's think cool thoughts and check out a December baby book layout.

Aww, I think it's cute.

My SIL has a thing for gingerbread houses, so I bought this old SU! stamp set Sweet Holidays off Ebay specifically for this project.

And some candy for the journaling block.

I took the color combination from the Candy Cane Christmas DSP:  Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze, and Whisper White.

I think I'm gonna go buy some ice cream.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Sweet Holidays
Ink:  Basic Black
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Blushing Bride, Real Red, Candy Cane Christmas DSP
Accessories:  Circles & Lots of Labels Framelits, Prismacolor Pencils, Sizzix alphabet

Friday Flashback: Star-Spangled Banner

Happy Friday, y'all!  I hope you're staying cooler than we are...the AC in our house went out.  The pipes on the AC unit have been freezing over and then it doesn't actually cool the house down at all, so someone is coming to check it out in about an hour and a half.  I might be a paper-crafting puddle by then.  But anyway, let's get to today's Friday Flashback, which is Star-Spangled Banner!  Very appropriate this time of year, no?

Also features Stars & Swirls

This, my friends, is a layout from the very first baby book I ever made in 2005.

Also features Confetti

And this is from probably the third one I ever made, in 2009.  The three stamps on the left on this one are from today's retired stamp set, and here is my brand-new creation:

Both of my parents and my SIL have July birthdays (Mom and SIL are both within two days of July fourth) so they all love stars and stripes stuff.  Well, I was born in January and I love stars and stripes stuff too, but I figured a star-spangled birthday card was just the ticket.  And it goes along with the theme for the Paper Players' 300th challenge:

I also used the Pals Paper Arts sketch:

And the Retro Rubber color challenge:

Okay, so mine is red, white, and blues since I used both Dapper Denim and a teensy bit of Soft Sky :)  To authenticate my stamps' retro-ness, I've had Star-Spangled banner since 2005 (when I started stamping!) and I'm pretty sure I've had Teeny Tiny Wishes since it came out in 2009, so my stamps are 11 and 7 years old respectively.  Yep, definitely retro in the stamp world.

I'm going to go do nothing until the AC dude comes to save me.  It's too hot in the house to do anything else :p  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Star-Spangled Banner, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Real Red, Dapper Denim
Paper:  Dapper Denim, Thick Whisper White, Soft Sky
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Cheshire Cat

Greetings from Wonderland!  I've finally started bustin' out my new stamps and I'm pretty chuffed about today's creation.

I doubt I'm the first person to think of this, but I haven't seen anyone else do it--it's the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.  I lovelovelove the new Foxy Friends bundle!  Make all kinds of lil animals with the stamp set and matching punch.  It was a little fiddly to get all the purple accents on my cat; I stamped the main parts with Flirty Flamingo and then just stamped over it with Sweet Sugarplum, which came out pretty close to the colors on the Cheshire Cat in the Disney cartoon.  I thought about putting his head on upside-down or having it floating above his body but decided not to do that.  The circular stamp is from the latest Paper Pumpkin kit.

Anyway, I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I think the sketch is kind of unusual, but I think my Cheshire Cat scene works with it.  And I got to scrap yesterday, too!  You'll see a brand-new layout on Monday :)  For the last two months or so I've mainly been sharing things I made earlier this year on Scrappy Mondays because I was working on another baby book.  But I'm back to scrappin' now, y'all.  Very exciting.

In fact, I think I'm going to go bust out my next set of pictures and have some fun.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Foxy Friends, Teeny Tiny Wishes, My Paper Pumpkin June 2016 kit
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo, Sweet Sugarplum, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Basic Black
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Pear Pizzazz, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Fox Builder Punch, Dimensionals

Dapper Hummingbird

Howdy, kids!  As predicted yesterday, we had a series of pretty good thunderstorms roll through which was awesome because I didn't have to be out in the rain so I could just enjoy the thunder from home.  It cleared up while the hubs was on his way home and then rained again after he got here, so that was good timing :)  I do love a good thunderstorm.

Anyway, the current challenge at SUO Challenges is to use your favorite new paper, so today I took a deep breath and cut into my new Moroccan DSP:

I let the patterned paper inspire the colors for my hummingbird:  Emerald Envy, Dapper Denim, and a bit of Cajun Craze (though the pattern I used doesn't have any Cajun Craze in it, I still liked the accent of dark orange with all the blue and green).  I chose to do a hummingbird today because of the challenge from What Will You Stamp:

I have been enjoying the new Layering Circles Framelits, which so far are the only ones of the four new layering collections that I've gotten.  I'm a little bummed that the circles are smaller than the retired circles Framelits, but having the scalloped circles and better sizes for matting is nice.

Well, I need to skedaddle to the post office to pick up a box to mail a birthday present to a friend whose birthday was yesterday.  Oops.  Catch you later, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Picture Perfect
Ink:  Emerald Envy, Dapper Denim, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Dapper Denim, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Moroccan DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, Dimensionals, Emerald Envy ruched ribbon

Asian Watercolor

Hey kids, how's your Tuesday going?  I took my kiddos out for a walk this morning and the weather was nice (though too hot for my liking), but this afternoon we're supposed to get thunderstorms.  I love me a good thunderstorm.  It's days and days on end of rain with no thunder that I don't like :)

Anyway, yesterday I finally broke open one of my new stamp sets!

I didn't do anything fancy though.  I finished a big project last week, and it always seems like I have creativity fatigue when I get to the end of a big project.  So yesterday I spent a little time reorganizing some things--moving retired cardstock colors and patterned paper out of my "current" drawers, that kind of thing.  I'll need to do my stamp sets today, that's probably the biggest job.  Anyway, I did that before making this card, and then I was in a hurry because it was already 5:30 and I hadn't started lasagna yet so I didn't wait for the background to dry before I stamped the flower on top and I'm going to pretend the blur on the left side of the image is an artistic choice.

Anyway, I used the colors from Global Design Project:

I have a feeling that Sweet Sugarplum might be like Orchid Opulence was for me--I liked the color, but I found it difficult to work with.  Guess I'll just have to work with it some more.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Gotta go get those stamp sets organized :)  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Artistically Asian
Ink:  Sweet Sugarplum, Night of Navy
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  None

Spanish Steps and Boca de Veritas

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your weekend?  Ours was very low-key.  I think I spent at least 75% of it on the couch watching movies and Pushing Daisies.  Which makes me want pie.  Lots and lots of pie.

So today's scrapbook layout takes us back to Rome, which is one place I'd love to be right now because it's amazing.  I only had two pictures each from the Spanish Steps and the Mouth of Truth (remember that from Roman Holiday?) so I combined them on one layout.  I used Island Indigo as the accent color on the left, and Elegant Eggplant on the right.

Hand-stamped titles on patterned paper.

Yeah, they took a while to do, but I liked how it turned out.

Today's hot color combo:  More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla.  And that's it for me today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU! but a bunch retired:
Stamps:  Well-Worn Alphabet, Rough Type, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Early Espresso, Cajun Craze
Paper:  More Mustard, Early Espresso, Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories: a sponge :)

A-Team Baby Book: November

It's Saturday once again and that means time for some baby book pages!  Welcome to November.

I don't typically use a whole lot of Crumb Cake on my scrapbook layouts (both my own and for baby books) but it just seemed to work here.  And I still love and adore Thankful Forest Friends; even though it didn't make the big catalog this year and is now retired I shall keep it in my stash forever and ever.

Because it's just so CUTE.  I did refrain from using the bear on this layout though since my brother and his wife are very rah-rah with their respective schools and give me the side-eye when I put bears (my mascot) on stuff for them.

So bunnies and foxes it is.  Speaking of bunnies and foxes, we got Zootopia the other night and that's a cute movie.

And there's some fall leaves for the journaling block.

Today's perfectly fall-ish color scheme includes Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow, and Whisper White.  And the Cajun Craze and Blackberry Bliss are kinda like darker versions of baby girl's parents' school colors (Oklahoma State orange and Texas Christian purple).  See, I am nice to them.  Well, I did sneak some Baylor green on there...

Supplies:
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends, Fall Fest
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Mossy Meadow, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow, Color Me Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Sizzix alphabet, circles & scalloped circles Nestabilities

Friday Flashback: Hello Again

Happy Friday!  This week's retired stamp set is Hello Again, which is a cute little set from the 2009-2010 SU! catalog and the flashback is really short because I don't have anything in the archives for it.  I don't know why, it's perfectly cute--there's a flower, a butterfly, a heart, a little asterisk-kinda-looking thing (snowflake? splat? jack? whatever) and the little hello greeting.  I thought this set called out for something very simple, so this is what I made:

I kinda think maybe this would have even been better as a 3x3 card.  The Daffodil Delight flower is cut out and popped up, which is the only thing that took a couple minutes on this card.  It's just simple, bright and cheery.

That's it for me this week, kids.  Hubs and I are going out for pizza tonight and maybe we'll go see Finding Dory this weekend...hope you have fun plans!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello Again
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensional, rhinestone

I'll Be Your Candle on the Water

Hey, kids!  It's been one wild and ca-razy day here but I finally got a card made to share, and I really like it!

I've been wanting to pair the lighthouse stamp with that sentiment (and the corresponding "...and brightening the rest" on the inside) for a while now and today I finally found the perfect combination of challenges for it.  First up is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And then the Paper Players' color challenge:

With those two challenges, it didn't take me long to put my card together.  And I think it turned out quite nicely :)

Well, I have a haircut appointment in 20 minutes so I'd better skedaddle.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  From Land to Sea, Me = Grateful
Ink:  Versamark, Dapper Denim, Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Dapper Denim DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, Dimensionals, Clear EP

p.s.  Do you recognize the song from my post title?  I think it's from Pete's Dragon (the original one).  I have several CDs of Disney songs from various movies so I'm not sure, but that one is a really sweet song and that's what this lighthouse made me think of.

Nacho Blog Hop: All Cards Masculine

Guess what, y'all?  It's time for another Nacho Average Blog Hop!  This month the Nachos are all about the dude cards.  Yep, masculine cards!  You might have come here from Anne's blog, but if not, don't worry--I've got all the links you need at the bottom of the post.  But first up, here's my cards.

So, when thinking about this theme, I decided to think about the guys in my life and specifically what they'd like, and naturally I started with my hubs.  He loves scuba diving, so for him I made this:

Teehee, it's punny, which will only make him roll his eyes.  I figured that fish looked more masculine than the sea turtle or the jellyfish :)  I stamped the sentiment with the now-retired Alphabet Rotary, but if I'd been smart enough to put the new Labeler Alphabet on my first order then that would work too.  Anyway, if you saw my hubs' wardrobe, you'd think the only colors he can see are dark blue, gray, khaki, and black, so I used Dapper Denim and Smoky Slate for my main colors on this one.

Next up, funny story!  Last week I was in a tizzy trying to get Father's Day cards made, and I was thinking we were sending stuff off all horrendously late (last Saturday) and on Sunday I even reminded my hubs to call his dad for Father's Day.  Which he did, and my FIL was like, you do know that's next week, right?  Oops.  Well, anyway, since I was in such a (needless) rush, I used last month's Paper Pumpkin kit to make a card for my dad:

My dad (and my brother, for that matter) graduated from Oklahoma State so he loves all things orange and black.  If you looked at *his* wardrobe, pretty much all you'd see is orange, black, and blue jeans. :p  Lucky for me the Paper Pumpkin kit came with corrugated orange cardstock (corrugated = manly, I guess), and the "happy" sticker was Pool Party so I was able to brayer black ink over it for this orange and black card.  And I added the Pool Party star from the kit just for funsies.

Thinking I was pretty much out of time for Father's Day cards, I made this one for my FIL:

So far as I know, he's not overly partial to orange, but I was in a hurry.

Last up, since I finally figured out I still had some time before everything for Father's Day is late (this next one is still going to be late unless I mail it today), I thought about my brother who's been a dad for two months now.  And he (like me) loves Star Wars...

Please please pretty please tell me you know what that is!!!  Not a lot of detail, sure, but I started by looking at this gorgeous print online and kinda working it into paper art.  The only stamping on this one is the hyperspace trail and the starry background, both courtesy of Gorgeous Grunge, and then I used stamps from Crazy About You to add Happy Father's Day to the inside.  And now I need to order a Chewbacca mask for my brother for Father's Day.

So there you have my four masculine cards (although I admit, #3 feels like a cheat).  I highly encourage you to follow along with the rest of the hop for more manly paper crafting goodness!



Supplies, card #1:
Stamps:  From Land To Sea, Alphabet Rotary
Ink:  Versamark, Dapper Denim, Smoky Slate, Soft Sky
Paper:  Dapper Denim, Smoky Slate, Watercolor paper, Whisper White
Accessories:  Clear EP, Dimensionals

Supplies, card #2:
Stamps:  My Paper Pumpkin May 2016 kit
Ink:  Basic Black
Paper:  came with the kit
Accessories:  came with the kit

Supplies, card #3:
Stamps:  My Paper Pumpkin May 2016 kit
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  came with the kit
Accessories:  came with the kit

Supplies, card #4:
Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge, Crazy About You
Ink:  Whisper White, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Marina Mist
Paper:  Basic Black, Whisper White, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, Word Window Punch (retired), hole punches

Baylor Smiles

Mornin', y'all!  Hope your day is off to a sunny start.  If not, maybe this will help:

Yep, definitely sunny.  :)  I started with this week's Global Design Project challenge:

I used a similar layout with the vertical sentiment and kept the floral idea, but instead of doing a watercolor look I went with bold and graphic.  I also used this week's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge color combo:

I interpreted the colors as Cucumber Crush, Basic Black, and Daffodil Delight.  Which means green and gold and kinda Baylor-y so I know who's going to get this card in the mail :D  The sentiment is from Greatest Greetings, which I chose for the What Will You Stamp? challenge:

Maybe later today I can actually break out some of the new stamps I got last week!  Here's hoping.

I designed the card with the sentiment going up the side but I think I might like it better this way.  Guess it works either direction since the flower panel doesn't have an up or down orientation.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Have a fabulous day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Love & Affection, Greatest Greetings
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Cucumber Crush, Basic Black, Whisper White
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories:  White EP

Guilin: Mountain Ascent

Hey y'all, welcome to another Scrappy Monday.  Today we're going back to China!

I think most of today's pictures are from this blog post.  I kept the layout pretty simple to keep the focus on the photos.

Didn't realize until I saw this picture that I had some errant glue around the E, oops.

So this stamp set (Asian Artistry) is similar to a new one we just got in the catalog which is called Artistically Asian.  I got that stamp set in my first new catalog order but I haven't gotten to play with it yet...or anything else I just got for that matter :(  After I hit up the gym today, I'm going to get to craftin'.

Today's color palette:  Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral, Island Indigo, Garden Green (mostly in the photos), and Whisper White.  I was surprised and delighted how well it came together to showcase my photos, if I can toot my own horn just a bit :)

Well, I'd better finish my breakfast and then head off to the gym so I can break in all my new stampy goodies this afternoon.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Rough Type, Asian Artistry
Ink:  Garden Green, Island Indigo, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo, Calypso Coral, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Lettering template