Pumpkin Thanks

Salutations and greetings, friends!  Ryan yodels a greeting from his bouncer, too.  He gets very vocal if anyone is eating and he's not.  Piggy baby :)

Oh yeah, happy Halloween!

Had to do pumpkins for Halloween, even if they're not jack-o-lanterns.  Although looking at this card on the screen, I kinda wish I'd done some more Lemon Lime Twist sprigs or something behind the pumpkins and gourd.  Ah, well.  Check out this week's Cupcake Inspirations color challenge:

And the Fall-To Layout from Clean & Simple Stamping:

Looks like Ryan and I won't make it to the gym in time for the class today; we got a bit of a late start this morning.  That's okay, I can work out on my own, and he'll still enjoy being in the day care with the other kiddos.  Better finish up my oatmeal and get a move on.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pick a Pumpkin, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Lemon Lime Twist, Quilted Christmas DSP
Accessories:  Patterned Pumpkin Thinlits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Mini Dimensionals

Tiananmen Square

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Well, I got my wish for fall weather...it's much cooler today than it was last week, and it rained most of the night.  But I was happy to dress Ryan and me in long sleeves this morning!  We're going to Home Depot and the grocery store this morning.

But before that, scrapbook pages!

More China pages (I'm over halfway done with my China pages!), and the photos are here. We had a terrible tour guide in Beijing, and he told us NOTHING about Tiananmen Square.  Even leaving out the student demonstrations and subsequent massacre in 1989, he didn't tell us any of the history of the square...someone did ask him about the massacre but he refused to respond.  Can't blame him for that one though because the square is obviously under heavy surveillance and all mention of that incident is still heavily censored by the Chinese government.

My Bravo Burgundy ink pad has succumbed to The Dreaded Gold Sheen, so I really wondered how I would be able to stamp the peonies for this layout (so I looked it up, and peonies are actually a traditional floral symbol of China, so they're appropriate for here), but I was blog surfing and someone had posted stuff about using baby wipes as an ink pad and I was like DUH, I HAVE A BABY WHICH MEANS I HAVE BABY WIPES!!!  Luckily I also have a Bravo Burgundy ink refill.  Next time I do an SU! order I might get some of the uninked spots so I can make my own little Bravo Burgundy ink pad, and toss the infected pad.  I don't use this color a whole lot, but enough that I do still want an ink pad that works.

Second Tiananmen Square layout!  I'm experimenting with a bit of "white" space here--that's why I left the blank bit on the right page.  Trying to remind myself that I don't have to fill every available square inch with stuff.

Today's rather autumnal color palette:  Bravo Burgundy, Marigold Morning, Sahara Sand, Bordering Blue, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla.  And on that note, I think it's time to get Ryan out the door to run errands before it starts raining again.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Rough Type, Pretty Peony
Ink:  Bravo Burgundy, Marigold Morning, Sahara Sand, Mellow Moss, Early Espresso
Paper:  Bravo Burgundy, Bordering Blue, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Four Seasons DSP
Accessories: lettering template

Hey, Friend: Fall Edition

Howdy, folks!  How's your Friday morning going?  After my complaining earlier this week, it's *finally* starting to feel a little like fall here.  Color me thrilled!

I think I've said before that fall cards might be my very favorite thing to make.  The inspiration for this one came from the new challenge at Fusion:

I loved those fall leaves on the blue background, so I tried to kinda recreate that on my card.  I also dyed half my fingers blue in the process--it got all around one of my fingernails too so that ain't coming out for a day or two.  I spritzed water on glossy white cardstock and dripped some ink refill on it, then spritzed some more to make the background.  Messy, but fun.

I also used the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

I didn't have a recipient in mind when I made this, but I was talking to my friend Tiana last night and our friend Sarah's husband just deployed, so she'll be the one getting this in the mail.  And probably cookies, because I just got the Sally's Cookie Addiction cookbook and I need an excuse to try out a recipe or three.  (I already tried the giant M&Ms cookies.  Uhhh....they're gone.  And I need to be spending more time at the gym.)

That's it for me today, folks.  Have a fantabulous day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Colorful Seasons, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango
Paper:  Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Cajun Craze, Glossy White, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Seasonal Layers Framelits, Dimensionals, White baker's twine

Hot Chocolate Hug

Hmm, on second thought, a hot chocolate hug sounds kinda drippy.

Happily, today's card is drip-free.  I used the latest Freshly Made Sketch:

Fun sketch.  It was fun to see the design team's takes on the sketch, they all had the sentiment in a different place and different ideas for how to use this sketch.  I like it.

I'm also going to enter this at SUO Challenges, because this week's challenge is anything to do with treats.  I think hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows on top would qualify as a treat.  Particularly if there's a cookie or scone to go with.  I like a good cuppa hot chocolate, though honestly I drink hot tea much more often.  And if the weather STILL isn't cool enough to warrant hot beverages, the AC in my house can (and sometimes does) make up for that.  Heh.

Well, today is yoga class, which I'm liking a whole lot more than I thought I would.  I have to try to limit the time I spend doing things like downward dog because it's still so hard on my wrist, but even so I've noticed that I've already started improving flexibility.  One day I might be able to touch my toes without trying too hard :p

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hug in a Mug
Ink:  Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Soft Sky, Garden Green
Paper:  Soft Sky, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, Coffee Break DSP
Accessories:  Iridescent Sequins, Dimensionals

Grateful Pumpkins

Mornin', y'all!  How's your Wednesday?  Still doesn't really feel like fall here even though some of the leaves are turning...yeah I could still be running around in capris and be comfortable, which is just Not Acceptable for October in my opinion.  But at least it's perfectly fall-ish in my craft room!

I love these pumpkins.  And the Painted Autumn DSP.  I have fun in my craft room :)  Anyway, for today's card, I started out with the photo inspiration at Inkspirational:

And then I paired that with the sketch from Global Design Project:

This is actually card #2 I made for this sketch; the first one was....okay, but it just didn't feel balanced right, so I made this one and I like it much better.  And I finally got a pack of thick Very Vanilla cardstock and I'm loving that too.  I may never buy the thinner versions of it and Whisper White again...

Last up (alphabetically, anyway), is the What Will You Stamp? challenge:

I think I have enough Halloween cards for this year...now I just need to mail them all out!  So that's why I picked a Thanksgiving pumpkin this time instead of a jack-o-lantern.

Well, Ryan is sharing his cereal puffs with the dogs...at least he shares?  But we've got to get ready for the gym.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pick a Pumpkin, Painted Harvest
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Early Espresso, Thick Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, Patterned Pumpkin Framelits, Mini Dimensionals, linen thread

You're Sweet, Jack

Hey y'all, how's it going?  I stayed up too late last night.  Oops.  But we're up and at 'em today and ready to go to the gym as soon as I finish my pumpkin baked oatmeal.

Speaking of pumpkin...

Isn't that a CUTE jack-o-lantern?  He's from the Seasonal Chums stamp set; this is only half the stamp.  The other half is the back of the pumpkin and you can cut it with the matching Framelit to make a tag.  I only stamped the front piece, then die cut it and trimmed off a bit from the top.  Then I watercolored him and you can't tell but I did clear Wink of Stella in his eyes and mouth to give 'em a little extra sparkle and shine.

I used this week's sketch from the Paper Players:

And that's all she wrote.  Ryan and I need to head out of here in the next ten minutes so I'd better eat this oatmeal.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Seasonal Chums
Ink:  Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Peekaboo Peach, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede, Emerald Envy
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Thick Very Vanilla, Spooky Night DSP
Accessories:  Seasonal Tags Framelits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Pistyll Waterfall

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your weekend?  We've been pretty busy...little munchkin man has started pulling himself up to standing with whatever piece of furniture happens to be handy...he's grabbed my pants leg a time or two but I think that's got too much give for him to pull himself up.  But yep, now we have to move everything up out of his newly-extended reach and keep a sharp eye on him.  He already likes climbing all over the coffee table and end tables.  Busy busy busy little baby.  Wish we didn't have so many stairs in this house.

Anyway, it's Scrappy Monday and that means a scrapbook layout!

This is another layout from Wales (pictures here).  And do you see that??? I used Flirty Flamingo for my page base!  I probably wouldn't have thought to do that but the shirt I'm wearing in the pictures is a pink paisley print, and pink + green is always a color combination winner.  And there's a lot of green in the photos.

At first I wanted to try stamping my own paisley pattern for an accent but then I went with the stripey paper from the Painted Autumn DSP instead.  And then I wanted a leafy accent and I started to get out my giant binder stamp catalog but then I thought why make this harder than it has to be? And I used the leaf and matching punch from Painted Harvest, so I was done in a flash.  Don't ask me why I decided to stamp "waterfall" in two colors, I just thought it would be fun.

Today's colors:  Flirty Flamingo, Gumball Green, Lemon Lime Twist, Dapper Denim, and Very Vanilla.  The DSP is actually a watercolor wash between Garden Green and Lemon Lime Twist, but I discovered that pattern goes really well with Gumball Green, which is kinda like the midpoint between the other two colors.

Ooh, I finished this post just in time--kiddo just woke up!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Jayne's Type Alphabet, Rough Type, Painted Harvest
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo, Cucumber Crush, Lemon Lime Twist, Dapper Denim
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Dapper Denim, Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  leaf punch

One Giant Gold Snowflake

Seems like I haven't been able to manage my naptime usage very well this week, but I finally managed to squeak out one more card today.  (Kiddo only slept for an hour this morning, and then this afternoon I *knew* he was tired, but he rolled around in his crib like a one-man circus for over 20 minutes before sleep finally won him over!)  Anyway, I hate it when I only have a teeny tiny window to stamp, and I get down to my craft table and....nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  Zero.  No idea what to do.  Which is what happened on this card yesterday, so I worked a little bit on some scrapbook pages but didn't get very far before I had to go back upstairs.  I had the sketch and color challenges for this picked out already, and then I went downstairs today and this took ten minutes.

Figures.

Not my favoritest card ever, but it's okay.  I do like those metallic snowflakes.  I've been having so much fun of late revisiting Agnes, Frankie and Vlad that I hadn't played with my brand new toys since I got them a week ago.  A whole WEEK ago!  Anyway, the first attempt for this card was going to be with Merry Patterns but I couldn't get that deer to agree with a circle so I traded him for the aforementioned gold snowflake.

Here's the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

And the color challenge from Global Design Project:

Like 90% of the time there's nothing stamped on the inside of my cards except lately I have been stamping the insides.  My husband *always* looks even when I tell him there's nothing on the inside, ha.

We've got some bright late afternoon sun here that's making the Old Olive card base look a little radioactive but what can ya do.

Well, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do--I'm going back downstairs while the baby is still asleep!  Maybe I'll actually finish up one of the four scrapbook layouts I've been working on for what seems like forever...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Snowflake Sentiments
Ink:  Old Olive, Basic Black
Paper:  Old Olive, Thick Whisper White, Merry Little Christmas DSP
Accessories:  Metallic Snowflakes, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals, Metallic Enamel Shapes

Vlad Brings Flowers

Okay, y'all.  Frankie and Agnes have both shown up for this Halloween season, so you knew Vlad would be joining the party didn't you?  He even brought a boo-quet.

And doesn't he just look dapper in purple!  I used the layout from Clean & Simple Stamping:

I tried to use a bat from the same stamp set for the button element, but it just didn't look right (you'll see what I did with the bat in a minute).

Check out this week's Color Throwdown:

The colors don't *have* to be Halloween-y, but they can work for a Halloween card just the same.  I ended up using both Elegant Eggplant and Lavender Lace ink refills to make my background; I saturated a piece of watercolor paper with water, then dripped the ink on and kinda just messed with it until I liked it.  I ended up with a puddle of purple water, so I made a few more backgrounds while I was at it, which you may see sometime soon. And my little bat migrated to the inside of the card:

And of course since Vlad is the last of the main trio from Best Fiends, I have to enter this over at Retro Rubber too:

Best Fiends is still ten years old and I think Teeny Tiny Wishes is pretty close to that age, too.  Very retro stamps.

Little baby is kinda making some noise so I'm going to rescue him from his crib and feed him more vanilla maple crunchy things.  They make him smell like a syrup factory, but I ain't complaining ;)  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Basic Black, Elegant Eggplant, Lavender Lace
Paper:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Thick Whisper White, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Dimensionals, oval & scalloped oval punches, watercolor crayons, watercolor pencils

Agnes Flies Again

Frankie came out to play again last week, so of course Agnes couldn't be far behind, could she?

Yep, there's Agnes!  I used the Fab Friday sketch:

And once again the Retro Rubber Halloween challenge:

Agnes is also 10 years old since she's part of Best Fiends with Frankie (and Vlad, who hasn't appeared yet this year but he will).  This time I did the inside of the card too:

Spiders are definitely scary, but this one I can handle.

Time to go get the kiddo up and feed him so we can be off to the gym.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends (retired)
Ink:  Basic Black, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Berry Burst, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Basic Gray
Paper:  Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Old Olive, Color Theory DSP, Pumpkin Pie DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Banners Framelits (retired), Glitter Enamel Dots, Vintage Crochet Trim

Happy 1st Anniversary

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  The hubs and I will have our fourteenth wedding anniversary this Wednesday, so today seems like a great time to share this layout from our very first anniversary!

We went out with our friend Liz and she took these pictures for us; that one on the top right is what went out with our Christmas cards that year.

I just absolutely HAD to buy Number of Years and Letters for You for this layout; I still need the matching Framelits for both but those letter ones are $100!  (So many stamps I could buy for $100...but I do really want those Framelits too!)

I used acorns for accents because they're seasonally appropriate and also hubs and I are a little bit nuts.  The patterned paper is from a very old set called Outlaw and I love it.

Today's fall color palette includes Really Rust, Sage Shadow, Handsome Hunter, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, and Very Vanilla, all of which are retired except for Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla.  I'm down to just a teeny bit of Handsome Hunter cardstock...well, at least I think I'm down to just two pieces of 12x12 so I'm hoarding those.  Don't think I have a lot of the 8.5x11 either.  Unfortunately, I have discovered that one can buy more retired SU! cardstock on eBay, so if I do run out I know where to look ;)

Okay, y'all.  I think the wee babe wants out of his bouncer so he can go wander all over the house and I'm going to put the dogs' water bowl up before I release him from bouncy jail.  Ha!  TTFN, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Number of Years, Letters for You, Acorny Thank You
Ink:  Sage Shadow, Handsome Hunter, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel
Paper:  Really Rust, Handsome Hunter, Very Vanilla, Outlaw DSP
Accessories:  Acorn builder punch, Lots of Labels Framelits

Frankie Says Boo

Since I missed several days of posting this week, I just had to make a card for today (plus kiddo was a pretty good napper yesterday, so I had the time to make one).  Behold, Frankie!

Retro Rubber Challenge:

As soon as I saw the challenge, I knew I would dust off my all-time FAVORITE Halloween stamp set, Best Fiends, which I've now had for TEN YEARS.  I paired that with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I moved down the strip across the card front because my Polaroid die is so large that you couldn't hardly see that strip behind it at all.  The colors come from a new-to-me challenge at House of Cards:

I did So Saffron, Peekaboo Peach, Basic Black, Basic Gray, and Always Artichoke for the colors.  I used Prismacolor pencils to color in Frankie; unfortunately my camera flash kind of reflected off his face and I can't take the photo without flash because it was so overcast here when I took the photo yesterday afternoon that you wouldn't be able to see anything :p  Oh well, he looks a little better in real life and maybe I'll take another picture later today.

Saturday means step aerobics day!!  And Ryan gets to stay home with his dada while I work out.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Best Fiends
Ink:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Peekaboo Peach, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Always Artichoke DSP
Accessories:  On Film Framelits, bat punch, Dimensionals, Prismacolor Pencils

Moon Baby Love

Happy Friday, y'all!  I had a bit of an unplanned vacation this week--after hosting book club on Monday I was feeling a little punky for a couple of days and didn't get down to my craft room at all this week until yesterday afternoon.  But I finally made a card!

This week's challenge at Global Design Project is to CASE the Designer, Brian King:

Brian is king of the layers, so I picked a sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch and added lots and lots of mats and layers:

I used the same patterned paper on my card as Brian did, and I added a heart accent too.  The images on the baby panel are all stamped with Early Espresso + Versamark, then embossed with clear powder so I could color them without the ink running.  I used a variety of methods to color it in; old Blendabilities for the baby's skin, Aquapainter and ink pad lids for the baby's hair, umbrella, and onesie, blender pen for shadows on the baby's onesie, watercolor pencils for the stars, and finally I sponged a light layer of Soft Sky ink over the panel.

This is a bit of a spite card....my cousin sent us an Amazon gift card for the baby, and she wrote a note that NO ONE makes their own thank you cards and I should just send her a message on Facebook when I get it.  So of course I'm like YEAH HUH PEOPLE MAKE CARDS LOOK AT THIS I MADE YOU A CARD.  I even still had one of the baby thank you cards I made months ago that I could have sent, but nope, I made one special.  (It says thank you on the inside.)

Well, I've got ten minutes before kiddo and I head out the door to the gym.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Moon Baby, Lift Me Up, One Big Meaning
Ink:  Soft Sky, Early Espresso, Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, Versamark
Paper:  Soft Sky, Early Espresso, Thick Whisper White, Coffee Break DSP
Accessories:  Clear EP, watercolor pencils, Blendabilities, Up & Away Framelits, Dimensionals

Castell Coch

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I've got a busy day ahead:  have to clean up the house and bake a few things because I'm hosting book club tonight.  So why did the hubs and I choose to take apart the couch yesterday, clean the cushions and restuff them?  Whoops.

So anyway, today's scrapbook layout is one that took like two weeks to finish for no particular reason.  It just took forever for me to get from the start to the end, but I like how it turned out.

Photos here.  Castell Coch means "Red Castle" in Welsh; we heard it was because a former owner of said castle had red hair, though Wikipedia thinks that it's because the sandstone used to build it is kind of reddish.  Either way, I had to use Ruby Red for my page base because reasons.

I've been using Jayne's Type Alphabet (usually along with Rough Type) for the titles on all my Welsh pages.  I've done ten Wales layouts and I still have five to go.  We saw a lot of castles in Wales.  Anyway, my Ruby Red pad is pretty old (obviously, since the color retired quite a long time ago) so I hit it with some ink refill before I stamped the title and it worked like a champ.  Oh, part of the reason why it took so long to finish this layout:  I stamped the square embellishments and punched them out with a 5/8" square punch.  Did I have a 3/4" square punch to mat with?  Noooooo.  I tried cutting 3/4" squares with my paper trimmer, but I always got them a little lopsided and my crafty OCD was not okay with that.  This is why Amazon Prime is a really, really dangerous thing for me.  Got the punch two days later and voila!  Finally finished.

Today's color combo:  Ruby Red, Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi, Basic Gray, and Whisper White.  Sometimes I get stuck on one color and use it on several layouts in a row; this time it was Ruby Red and I did SIX layouts with it over three different places/events.  I also used the Ginger Blossom DSP on all of them too.  The other five layouts are going in my China albums though.

That's it for me today.  I'm off to bake an apple cake because happily the hubs has the day off work so HE can watch the baby while I bake.  Then we have to put the couch back together.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Jayne's Type Alphabet, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Ruby Red, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Ruby Red, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Ginger Blossom DSP
Accessories:  Square punches

Cool Snowflake

Friday again already, y'all!  And it might only be October (YAY OCTOBER I LOVE YOU) but for today's card I'm channeling snow.

I had the color combo thanks to Cupcake Inspirations, and snowflakes were a no-brainer to go with navy, white and silver, but then I needed a sentiment.  I wanted some kind of "hello" type sentiment rather than Christmas, so I started looking through my stamps and the "You're Cool" from Cool Treats made me laugh so that's why I picked it.  Here's the Cupcake Inspirations challenge graphic:

I stole the sketch from Dawn Olchefske's blog, but it looks like that was a challenge for her team of demonstrators and not a general challenge.  Either way, I liked the sketch (and I'm totally an orphan demo, out here all by my onesies, and I am by far and away my own best customer).

Well, I'm going to get Ryan and me ready to go to the gym today.  Friday's class is a boot camp, which I didn't go to last week--we got out of the house too late for me to make the class so I did elliptical.  Anyway, hoping that class is good.  Tomorrow's class is my favorite--step!  I did it for the first time with this teacher last Saturday and she totally kicked my butt.  It was awesome.  So yep, breakfast and then we're out the door.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flurry of Wishes, Cool Treats
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Shimmery White, Night of Navy, Silver foil, Naturally Eclectic DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Rhinestone