Suite Sweet

Well, today did not go like I had planned.  I left the house at 11:30, thinking I'd go pick up a prescription real quick, head to the gym for a bit, and come home to grab lunch and then work in the craft room this afternoon.  It took almost TWO HOURS to get the prescription, I ended up at Pizza Hut for lunch, but I did still make it to the gym (only to be depressed that walking on the treadmill now makes me out of breath because of the beach ball belly thing).  But I didn't get cleaned up until after 4:00, it gets dark here at 4:30 and hey here it is 5:30 and I'm doing my blog post!  I got into an argument with the computer when it downloaded a picture from my camera and then acted like it didn't know where it was.

Yep, it's been a day.  And I still have to make dinner.

What's nice is that today's card came together in under ten minutes and I think it's still perfectly cute.

Behold the power of a good sketch and some lovely DSP!  Thanks to Paper Players for the sketch:

I think the main reason I got Suite Seasons was for that sugar & spice stamp, so I was happy to use it along with some cute patterned paper.  I'm ignoring that it's November 30 and I don't like to start Christmas anything until December first.  At least I waited till after Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I'm off to work on uploading pictures to Winkflash while they're still doing their 60% off Cyber Monday sale, and then start dinner.  And at least tomorrow I don't have to go to the pharmacy.

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Suite Seasons
Ink:  Real Red
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Real Red, Emerald Envy, Candy Cane Lane DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals, Rhinestones

Moroccan Birthday

A rainy Tuesday morning to ya, stampy friends!  I have to admit, I'm a little relieved to have an excuse not to take my doglets for a walk today.  What can I say, I'm lazy.

Anyway, I have a super-fast card to share!

Yes, you saw that same medallion on yesterday's scrapbook layout.  What can I say, I'm lazy and it was on my craft table still ;)  Plus I just really like it.  If you look closely at the colors on the medallion, you might be wondering what I used...well, I used sponges and sponged Tempting Turquoise over most of the medallion but not the edges, and then Pacific Point around the edges.  I thought it would look kind of like the rock 'n' roll technique but a little softer...well, the colors kind of blended on the stamp so it's kind of a cross between Tempting Turquoise and Pacific Point and I like it :D 

Today's inspiration was provided by the Global Design Project CASE the Designer challenge:

I used similar colors, and I kept the yellow polka dots but my patterned paper is retired (because I don't have any left of the current Daffodil Delight polka dots).  I used Night of Navy rather than black as my neutral just because I liked it with the blues I already had on there.  And I kept my card a birthday card as well.

I also used last week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Their challenge closed yesterday, but I liked the sketch so much that I had to use it.  Plus it worked so well with that Moroccan medallion, ha.

Well, I'm going to see what I can get done before I have to leave for another doctor's appointment.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Moroccan Nights, Rose Wonder
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, Night of Navy
Paper:  Night of Navy, Thick Whisper White, Daffodil Delight DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Metallic Enamel Shapes

British Museum

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Are you still eating Thanksgiving leftovers?  We are.

Anywha, it's time to share another scrapbook layout!

See the original pics up close and personal here.  It might be the British Museum, but I was most excited to see their Greco-Roman collections.  So almost all my pictures were of the Greek and Roman stuff.

Title block, I do love that Empire Alphabet.  And it seemed appropriate for this layout because British Empire.  Anyway, on a lot of these scrapbook pages from around the world I really like to use some kind of abstract design or architectural-inspired kind of thing, and this time it was the stamp set Moroccan Nights.  I used some of the smaller designs from the set on the journaling block.

Today's color palette includes Dapper Denim (and I'm now out of DD 12x12 cardstock, oops), Mint Macaron (which goes so well with Dapper Denim!), Cajun Craze (which I can't seem to stop using on scrapbook pages), Very Vanilla (which I've actually used a lot lately), and River Rock (which was a main color in the photos).

Well, I've got a busy day ahead with an eye exam and another ultrasound in the mix, so cheers y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet, Moroccan Nights
Ink:  Mint Macaron, Dapper Denim
Paper:  Dapper Denim, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Blooms & Bliss DSP
Accessories:  Stamp-a-ma-jig

Bear Book: April

Happy Saturday!  Y'all, I totally had sweet potato casserole for breakfast for the second day in a row and it's still awesome.  Might not be awesome by next Friday, but we'll see.

Anyway, here's the next layout in the bear book I made for Missy!

Missy loooooooooooooves Haribo gummi bears, and swears that the ones made in Europe are way better than the ones made in the States, so when we lived in England I would occasionally ship her a giant box of gummi bears.  So imagine my joy when I found gummi bear stamps!

I ended up stamping each one with Versamark + colored ink and heat embossing, then coloring in with colored pencils.  I tried watercoloring and it seems like one other method and this just worked the best to get good-lookin' bears.  Generally I think Real Red and Calypso Coral are clashy, but they're pretty much the colors that real gummi bears come in so I went with that.

And the accent on the journaling block, just so ya know it's Easter.

Today's gummi bear-inspired colors:  Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Crushed Curry, Real Red, and Whisper White.

Despite the fact that I have 3/4 of a pumpkin pie and an entire pecan pie in the fridge, I'm off to make an apple pie for my hubs.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Gummy Bears by Avery Elle, Tag Time, Forest Friends, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Versamark, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Crushed Curry, Real Red, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Thick Whisper White, Best Year Ever DSP
Accessories:  dies from Avery Elle, Sizzix alphabet, clear EP

Friday Flashback: Harvest of Thanks

Happy Friday, folks!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving feast yesterday.  It ain't over here...we're having ham (that we didn't take over last night) and lots and lots and lots of leftover desserts.  I really should get some mashed potatoes here too.  But anyway!  Since I'm not quite done with Thanksgiving yet, today's Friday Flashback stamp set is Harvest of Thanks!

Aaaand this is the only card I'd ever made with it prior to today.  Sometimes that happens.

Also features Teeny Tiny Wishes

Inside of the card...and next up is today's new creation:

I decided to make a thank you card for the hubs' cousins who had us over yesterday for Thanksgiving (Tara and I have the same problem of going overboard for Thanksgiving food, so even though there were 13 of us there was SO. MUCH. left over!)  Since I was pulling out a retired stamp set, I grabbed the also-retired Festival of Prints stack for my background panels.

There's the inside of the card with another Harvest of Thanks stamp inside.  I used this week's Retro Rubber Challenge sketch:

ETA:  Forgot to say this stamp set is three years old :)

And here's the latest Create with Connie and Mary color challenge:

I added Early Espresso to "ground" the other colors since they're kinda more mid-toned, plus I think a dark card base is richer looking.  It was lovely to spend some time in my craft cave today after the last few days of baking...though I will be making an apple pie this afternoon.  Think I might finish up a scrapbook layout first :)  Have a great holiday weekend, y'all!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Harvest of Thanks
Ink:  Delightful Dijon, Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Festival of Prints DSP
Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits, Dimensionals

Ohio Amish Country #2

Happy Thanksgiving!  I haven't been able to do anything in my craft room since Sunday night, which is a little sadface, but I've made cranberry white chocolate oatmeal cookies, macadamia nut white chip pumpkin cookies, buttermilk pecan pie, praline pumpkin pie, Mississippi mud, corn casserole, sweet potato casserole, cherry fluff, and homemade rolls in between Tuesday and right now (well, the rolls haven't gone in the oven yet).  I may have gone overboard considering we're going to the hubs' cousins' house and she said we didn't have to bring anything.  I'm saving the apple pie until Friday because the hubs doesn't want to share ;)

Anyway, here's some more Ohio scrapbook pages while I wait for the bread to rise.

This is layout #2 (yesterday was #1, and Charming Sunrise is #3); these pictures just didn't fit with the ones I used on either of the other layouts so they got their own.  It's a very rare thing that I work with only four photos on a layout!  Lots of room for journaling, patterned paper, and stamped accents.

Speaking of stamped accents, it just didn't seem quite balanced so I had to add a third one on the right page.

I decided to keep this super simple, just stamping the images from Always Thankful in Hello Honey ink on Hello Honey cardstock.

That little dude in the photo on the right is part of the world's biggest cuckoo clock :)

And there was my last-minute add, the basket of pears.  Things feel better balanced now.

Today's colors are Hello Honey, Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy (albeit a very lightened-up version on the patterned paper), Soft Suede, and Whisper White.

Hoping to spend some time in the ol' craft cave tomorrow so I can post something new.  I'm much happier skipping the Black Friday craziness :)

Hope you have a lovely holiday today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Always Thankful
Ink:  Hello Honey, Soft Suede
Paper: Hello Honey, Mossy Meadow, English Garden DSP
Accessories:  None

Ohio Amish Country #1

Well, I thought I'd have time yesterday to make a card to share today, but then I spent an hour and a half in line at the honeybaked ham store and made two batches of cookies.  And I didn't sleep much last night so here it is noon and I'm still in my jammies and don't feel like doing anything but I need to make pies and my little girl dog desperately wants to go for a walk (she might have to get used to disappointment).

So here's one of the layouts from our trip to Ohio's Amish country last October (see the original pics here).  I've never been a giant fan of Blushing Bride, but I just love that picture just to the right of my title that has all the pinky-purply flowers in it and then the pattern from Blooms & Bliss DSP seemed to go so well with it and next thing you know I've got a Blushing Bride scrapbook layout.

Okay so the title took quite a while to stamp because even with photopolymer stamps I have to use a Stamp-a-Ma-Jig to get them straight, but I do really like this alphabet.  And the flower is from All About Everything, which was a surprise gift in the March Paper Pumpkin kit as a celebration for SU! selling a million MPP kits.  Do love that stamp set.

Today's colors:  Blushing Bride, Sweet Sugarplum, Wild Wasabi, and Soft Suede.  Turns out I used Soft Suede for the journaling on all three Ohio layouts I made.  : )

I'm going to go get myself cleaned up while I contemplate pie.  At least pies are less labor-intensive than cookies, only one trip to the oven.  And I'm only making two pies today.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Brushwork Alphabet, All About Everything
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Sweet Sugarplum, Soft Suede
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Wild Wasabi, Blooms & Bliss DSP
Accessories:  Stamp-a-Ma-Jig

Nachos: Just Keep Swimming

Happy Tuesday, Nacho fans!  Are you ready for a sketch?  Hope you can fit us in between all the Turkey Day preparations :)

Don't be scared!  Yeah, the sketch is different than a lot I see on the interwebs, but I actually had several ideas for this one.  But here's what I went with for today:

I know I already said how much I love the By the Seashore DSP when I posted these layouts,  and I got the idea for punching out bits of the paper from those same layouts.  This would be a fabulous way to use up little scraps of paper, and of course you don't have to mat the patterns if you don't want to which would make this even faster to do.  I scattered some rhinestones around the sentiment and you know what a bugger it is to photograph those.

So let's see what you've got!  Post your circle-tastic card on the Nacho blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Seaside Shore
Ink:  Dapper Denim
Paper:  Soft Sky, Calypso Coral, Dapper Denim, By the Seashore DSP
Accessories:  circle punches (1" and 1 1/4"), rhinestones

Happy Thanksgiving (2011)

Scrappy Monday!  I swear I haven't forgotten I was going to post my Ohio pages, but Thanksgiving is this week (already?!) and I had a Thanksgiving layout all ready to go!  I actually made this one a while ago (I forget when) but I have quite a few layouts in the pipeline to blog.

You can see the original photos here if you like.  I lovelovelove fall colors, but I used Not Quite Navy to balance out all the warm tones in the patterned paper and the photos to make them pop a bit more.

There's my title/journaling/main stamped accent block all in one.  I still love Day of Gratitude, that leaf is one of my all-time favorite leaf stamps.  I even made wedding invites with it once!

So there's the color palette:  Not Quite Navy, Cajun Craze (I seem to be using that A LOT lately), Old Olive, More Mustard, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla.  Nice fall colors.  I'm enjoying this fall in Northern Virginia--it's nice that the weather has cooled off some (ignore my husband's whining) and we've got some nice colors right now so yep, my favorite time of year.

I'm off to finalize what I'm making for the big day....we're going over to the hubs' cousins' house.  Hope you have fun plans too!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Day of Gratitude, Holidays & Wishes
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Old Olive, More Mustard, Early Espresso
Paper:  Not Quite Navy, Cajun Craze, Old Olive, More Mustard, Very Vanilla, Autumn Spice Specialty DSP
Accessories:  None

Bear Book: March

Happy Saturday, y'all!  I'm back with more bear book pages.  This was actually the first layout I made for the book, and it was a no-brainer because...

It's green and gold and bears for St. Patrick's Day.  What will I do when I run out of that most excellent patterned paper?

I love O'Leary :)  Stampin' Up! doesn't do much in the way of St. Patrick's Day stamps, but I have a few good ones from *coughcough* other sources.

And there's the journaling block.  I have a claddagh ring (the design in the upper left corner here) that I'm wearing as a wedding ring right now because my wedding ring doesn't fit due to the pregnancy.  I usually wear the claddagh ring on my right hand, which is slightly larger since I'm right hand dominant, so though the ring is tight on that hand it fits perfectly on my left hand right now.  But enough about my puffy hands :p

The color palette today includes Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Night of Navy, So Saffron, and Whisper White.

Alright, I'm off to figure out how to sell things on eBay.  Wish me luck!

Supplies:
Stamps:  O'Leary from Whipper Snapper, other stamps from Flourishes
Ink:  Basic Black, Night of Navy, Garden Green
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Night of Navy, Thick Whisper White, Country Club SSK
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, oval & scalloped oval punch, Sizzix alphabet, Prismacolor Pencils

Friday Flashback: Faith in Nature

Hey kids!  I didn't get to stamp while my in-laws were here, so I only just finished making cards for today's blog post.  Today's retired stamp set is Faith in Nature, which was a hostess set from 2011-2012 and even though I like the images in it, I had never used it before today.

There are three images and two sentiments in the set; the only stamp I didn't use was a wee bitty thank you.

Thought I'd make three very simple cards all with the same basic layout and colors.

Oh sorry, I think that pic is slightly blurry, I still have that crib sitting in the way of where I take pictures so it's hard for me to get a good one.  You get the idea though.  I think I know who I'll send them to...just a 3-card gift set for a friend because they remind me of her.  Anyway, my colors are courtesy of the 100th challenge at Fab Friday:

Most excellent fall colors; I'll miss Delightful Dijon and Mint Macaron when they retire next summer.

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

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Faith in Nature
Ink:  Delightful Dijon, Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaron
Paper:  Delightful Dijon, Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaron, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  sponges

Whisk It Good!

I now have a song stuck in my head (guess which one).  So I feel like today's card requires a bit of explanation...there's a guy who works in my husband's office and he and his wife are expecting their first baby any day now.  Whenever they get back from the hopsickle with their new baby, I'm going to make dinner for them and take it over, and I just happened to buy the set Yummy Little Christmas from the holiday catalog so...

Voila!  Okay really my favorite stamp in the set is the big Kitchenaid mixer, but I thought these cooking implement snowflakes were pretty funny and now I have a card where I can write in reheating instructions for whatever I make them for dinner (I'm thinking THIS).  Sorry my picture's not the best, but we currently have a disassembled crib sitting in front of the place where I take my pictures and it's kinda crazy in there right now.

So anyway, today's colors are from Cupcake Inspirations:

I used Tempting Turquoise and Night of Navy for the two blues, I thought they worked great for a pseudo-snowflake design.  I pulled out the long-retired stamp set Snowflakes for the Night of Navy panel because I just needed a little snowflake background stamp and don't have anything like that that's current.

And here's this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I have to say it kinda threw me for a loop at first so I hope I did the sketch justice with my culinary snowflakes.  Anyway, I should get back downstairs to my in-laws so cheers, y'all!  Hope to be back tomorrow with a Friday Flashback, we'll see how it works.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Yummy Little Christmas, Snowflakes (retired)
Ink:  Versamark, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise
Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, Night of Navy, Shimmery White
Accessories:  Gold EP, circle punches, Layering Circles Framelits (for the largest snowflake), Dimensionals

Ladybug Love

Mornin', y'all!  I was wondering if I'd get to blog today even though I already had a card made.  Since hubs and I got a new camera a couple weeks ago, we had to download new software to transfer the photos to the computer, and it took me a while this morning to figure out where it was putting the pictures.  But happily, I found it, and here's my card!

I had started off with a completely different idea involving a different color combo and stamps, and somehow I ended up with this.  I got the Love You Lots hostess set a while ago but this is the first time it's been inked up at all.  So anyway, I started with the sketch from Global Design Project:

My interior panels ended up being smaller due to the scale of the image I used, and I'm also kind of experimenting with white space.  But I had to go with the ladybugs because of the Paper Players color challenge:

Because like Mary Mary I am quite contrary and I just have to do something non-Christmasy with a red and green color combo :D

Anyway, I've got to run.  I must finish singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody that is playing on my computer right now and then I've got to get the house ready for my in-laws to be here this afternoon.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Love You Lots, No Bones About It
Ink:  Emerald Envy, Basic Black, Real Red
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensionals

More Nacho Gratitude

Hey kids!  It's week two of the Nachos gratitude theme challenge:

Isn't that a beautiful picture?  I love Thanksgiving, I really do, and it makes me sad that every year it gets forgotten thanks to the Christmas juggernaut that now starts rolling even before Halloween.  Ugh.  Is it weird that I like Thanksgiving better than Christmas?  The colors are better, for one thing.

Okay so I got the idea for this color combination when I was out and about somewhere and I made a note of it in my phone, does anyone else do that?  It might look black in the picture, but the darkest color is actually Elegant Eggplant, and I paired it with Always Artichoke (just a smidge), lots of Delightful Dijon, and then a bit of Soft Suede for the tree trunk and a wee bit of sponging around the main image panel.  Eggplant, Dijon, and Artichoke...sounds like a weird veggie side dish for Thanksgiving, dunnit?

Anyway, I just got Suite Seasons last Friday because it's ON SALE this month (always a good thing!) and one thing I've learned from Brian King is that you can make beautiful cards where the focal point is a sentiment instead of an image.  On this card the image and sentiment kinda get equal billing, but Brian was a big reason why I got that stamp set since it was on sale.  I do like his style.

One last thing:  I used now-retired Candy Dots on this because I still have a bunch of those and I haven't invested in all the packs of the enamel shapes.  Actually I only have the metallics so far.  I still kinda miss the Candy Dots though.

Enough chatter from me!  Don't forget to upload your gratitude-themed creation at the Nacho blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree, Suite Seasons
Ink:  Delightful Dijon, Elegant Eggplant, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede
Paper:  Delightful Dijon, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Regals Candy Dots (retired)

Tokyo Disney Sea

Scrappy Monday!  I had been planning to post another Ohio Amish country layout today, but late last week I finished up two layouts from Tokyo Disney Sea and I just couldn't wait to share them.

Squee!  I originally had some slightly different colors in mind for this layout, but I got the By the Shore DSP last month as part of the patterned paper promo, and when I opened up that pack I just loved it.  Seriously, it didn't look like much to me in the catalog and I only got it because I needed four for the promo, but in person I looooooved it.  Anyway, these photos are from 2010, and you can see 'em all here.

Sorry, bit crooked here.  The alphabet is the now-retired Back to Basics Alphabet, which I got when it hit the retirement list but this is its maiden voyage on a scrapbook page.  And I can't remember the last time I cut letters out of patterned paper but I just had to try it for this one.

Since I got the patterned paper, I did an impulse buy and got the coordinating Seaside Shore stamps too.  I really meant to get out some Disney stickers from my stash but I just was having so much fun with the paper and stamps that I ended up with all fishies and no mermaids :)

And I did two layouts!  I had trouble deciding which patterned paper to use for my borders on both sets of pages, so I cut circles out of five different patterns to accent this page.  Seriously, this DSP pack is so much better in person than it is in the catalog.

Closeup of my journaling block fish and his bubbles.

Today's color palette was taken directly from the By the Shore DSP:  Soft Sky, Calypso Coral, Dapper Denim, Mint Macaron, and Very Vanilla.  I probably wouldn't have put those colors all together on my own but have I mentioned that I looooove it? ;)  Thank you SU!

Okay, peeps.  Check you later and have a great week!  Back tomorrow with a Nacho card that I also love :)  Isn't it nice when you make things that make you happy?

Supplies, almost all SU!
Stamps:  Seaside Shore, Back to Basics Alphabet
Ink:  Soft Sky, Calypso Coral, Dapper Denim, Mint Macaron
Paper:  Soft Sky, Calypso Coral, Dapper Denim, Mint Macaron, Very Vanilla, By the Shore DSP
Accessories:  Circle punches, lettering template