Christmas Quilt

Hey y'all!  Three red-and-green Christmas cards in a ROW here.  (Well, yesterday's was Christmas colors and had a Christmas tree on it, but it was really coffee-related...)  But let's just go with it.

This is the card I talked about yesterday that I was making with the Fab Friday color challenge in mind until I realized it was Emerald Envy in that color challenge and I used Garden Green on here (which is the dark green color in the Quilted Christmas DSP stack).

At least I got the Paper Players' sketch challenge right:

I'm also entering this at SUO Challenges, which is all about the winter holidays right now.

Well, I'm outta time this morning so that's it for me.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Christmas Quilt
Ink:  Real Red, Lemon Lime Twist, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, Quilted Christmas DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes & Quilt Builder Framelits, Dimensionals, Garden Green Stitched Satin Ribbon

Triple Pump Half-Caf Nonfat Peppermint Latte with Extra Cream

Okay so I don't drink coffee.  Hot tea any day of the week (I'm having a morning cuppa as I type this).  But I do love Hug in a Mug and I've got lots of coffee-drinking friends.

Those gold metallic accents always photograph weird, they look better IRL.  Don't ask me where that card layout came from because I have no idea.  Not something I would usually come up with on my own, but I DID.  Still, I like it!  I think it works.  I also love the color challenge from Fab Friday:

Actually this is my second attempt at these colors.  I made another card (which you'll see tomorrow) and realized at the last minute that I'd used Garden Green rather than Emerald Envy on that card, so I had to make another one.  Because I love Emerald Envy and it's going to retire next summer.  Sadface!  So anyway, I also continue my love affair with the Stitched Shapes Framelits.  If you don't have those already, you should buy them now because they are awesome.

That's it for today, kids.  Check ya later!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hug in a Mug
Ink:  Emerald Envy, Real Red, Lemon Lime Twist, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Emerald Envy, Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Whisper White, Quilted Christmas DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals

Joyful Reindeer

Mornin', y'all!  Well, Ryan took some really good naps yesterday so I have cards for the next few days already.  Let's start with a darling little reindeer.

At first I wasn't going to get Seasonal Chums, but I'm glad I decided to do it.  This reindeer is adorable, and I like the snowman and jack o' lantern in the set too.  Plus the matching Framelits have some great shapes like that snowflake accent.  Can't argue with that.

Check out the new challenge at Fusion:

I used the sketch, and I used similar colors as the photo too.  I was hoping for a plaid but that particular pack of DSP is plaidless (what the heck, SU?  Needs more plaid!).

Here's the Global Design Project theme challenge:

The word "Joy" is in the sentiment I used on the front of the card, and I stamped "Merry Christmas" on the inside of the card.

And last up is the color challenge at Just Add Ink:

I thought those colors jived really well with the inspiration photo in the Fusion challenge.

Well, it's gym time for me and the tiny tyke.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Seasonal Chums, Snowflake Sentiments
Ink:  Versamark, Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Garden Green, Be Merry DSP, Silver Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Seasonal Tags & Stitched Shapes Framelits, White EP, Dimensionals, Watercolor pencils, Wink of Stella (on his bell)

Holly Jolly Bouquet Colorblock

It's officially after Thanksgiving, so even a Grinch like me says "Fine, put out the Christmas stuff if you have to." :p  I hate it when Thanksgiving gets bogarted by the Christmas juggernaut.  But I just looked through my draft posts and I have a half a dozen Christmas-related layouts in the queue so we might as well get started!

I made this one probably at least two years ago now.  Every year I take all the photo Christmas cards we get and make them into color-blocked layouts like this...seems like more people are going for the giant cards so it's not unusual for it to take several layouts to fit them all now.  Generally I choose a Christmas DSP stack from that year and just piece it all together.  Might not use the same background color for all the layouts, but they all coordinate with the same patterned paper.

Yep, see, first one was a Wild Wasabi page base and this one is Chocolate Chip.  I figure if I ever get my pages into albums then the Christmas cards have a pretty good shot at being the last pages, so having a single page on the end is okay.

Sounds like the kiddo is waking up.  Y'all have a great Monday!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  None
Ink:  Chocolate Chip marker
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Holly Jolly Bouquet DSP
Accessories:  Ornament punch

Just One More

Okay y'all, I think this is at least the third time I've made "one last fall card".  But I love fall cards!

I also love Lighthearted Leaves, which was in the Holiday catalog two years ago and sadly didn't carry over but I still love it and it has a permanent home in my stamp collection.  I discovered while working on this card that I have only a teeny tiny bit of clear embossing powder left, oops, but I had just enough to emboss both of the leaves so that I could watercolor them without the outlines running.

So check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Which I paired with the Color Throwdown:

I used So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, and Chocolate Chip for my colors, plus Very Vanilla as the neutral.  At first I started out with a Very Vanilla card base, but that didn't look quite right and So Saffron wasn't doing it for me either, so in the end I went with Chocolate Chip and I think that was the right answer.

The current Retro Rubber Challenge is easy peasy for the holidays:

As I said above, my stamps are two years old.  We had friends drive down from upstate New York for Thanksgiving, and they left yesterday morning so I plan to send this card to them to say thank you for driving down here to spend the holiday with us.  We had a FABULOUS time and made way too much food (and ATE way too much food) and it was just awesome.

So maybe this really IS the last fall card for this year, but I won't make any promises ;)  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lighthearted Leaves
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie
Cardstock:  Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie DSP
Accessories:  Leaflets Framelits, Dimensionals, Clear EP

Star Wars Disneyland

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday.  (Watch out for those crazy shoppers on the roads this afternoon and early early tomorrow!)

And today is Scrappy Thursday since I didn't do Monday.  I thought maybe I had another Thanksgiving layout somewhere in my draft posts but nope!  So instead, how about more pictures from Disneyland!

Okay the photos of the layout kinda stink but it was super overcast the day I took them and what can ya do.  The 5x7 on the left is when Lee and I met Chewbacca and I can now say I'VE HUGGED A WOOKIEE.  When we met Kylo Ren, he rudely told the girls to leave after their picture, and as she was walking away, Emma indignantly exclaimed, "He didn't even say please!"  The rest of us about died laughing.

Oh, those orangey circles on the right page?  They're epoxy stickers.  The largest one is Chewbacca and the two smaller ones are the Rebel Alliance insignia.

The epoxy sticker on this one says "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" which I admit wouldn't have been my first choice but I looked all over and apparently no one sells Star Wars scrapbook supplies anymore.  What the heck, people.  Anyway, on the left is Space Mountain in its new guise as Hyperspace Mountain (it's pretty cool, you go through a space battle and Admiral Ackbar says "It's a trap!") and on the right is the lightsaber fight we had in the hotel room one evening before watching The Force Awakens.

Today's color combo:  Sweet Sugarplum, Coastal Cabana, Tangelo Twist, Basic Black and Whisper White.  Kiddo just woke up so I'm going to go grab him, then we're on like Donkey Kong for all the food food foooooooood!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge
Ink:  Whisper White, Basic Black
Paper:  Sweet Sugarplum, Coastal Cabana, Tangelo Twist, Basic Black, Whisper White, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  Star Wars paper & epoxy stickers by Creative Imaginations

Monochrome Snowflakes

Mornin', y'all.  Got a busy day ahead prepping for Thanksgiving...yesterday's prep didn't go exactly to plan as I managed to set off the smoke detector four times.  At least no one called the fire department on me?  The sweet potato casserole dripped a bit on the bottom of the oven and the smoke detector took exception to that.  Over and over. :p

I imagine after this week it's all winter/Christmas cards all the time so we'll just start with some snowflakes.  Well, I guess we started with a reindeer but whatever.

I do love that ombre pattern in the Color Theory paper stack.  Meet this week's Global Design Project sketch:

To get my two-tone snowflakes, I stamped half of them normal-normal and then stamped off once for the other half to make them lighter.  I kept looking for somewhere to put the glitter enamel dots that go with the Color Theory paper but just couldn't think of a placement that added to the card, so I left them off.

Well, Ryan has managed to pull off both his socks and looks proud of himself.  We're off to the gym for one last workout before tomorrow.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Colorful Seasons
Ink:  Dapper Denim
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Dapper Denim, Color Theory DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, white baker's twine, Dimensionals

Falling for Brights

Mornin', y'all!  How's it going?  I've got a cranky kid today.  At least, he was cranky until he started shoving cereal puffs in his mouth and if he's cranky now at least he's quiet about it :p  He was really cranky last night too.

But anyway, since this week is Thanksgiving, I just had to make at least one more fall card.  And oddly enough, I picked three colors in the Brights family to make it.

I cut out the leaves with the Seasonal Layers Thinlits, then stamped each with a stamp from Timeless Textures to give them...a little texture ;)  And how much am I addicted to the Stitched Shapes Framelits lately?  Like, a lot.

Check out this sketch from Sunday Stamps:

I didn't want to cover up my leaves, so I kinda combined the sentiment strip and the three round embellishments into one row.  Rhinestones FTW!

And here's the latest challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

In other Cupcake Inspirations news, they chose my monochrome fall card from last week as one of their challenge winners, woohoo!

Okay, kiddo is getting all talkative so it's time to take Mr. Cranky McCrankyPants to the gym so he can burn off some energy in the daycare while I work out.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Timeless Textures, One Big Meaning
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Seasonal Layers Thinlits, Rhinestones

Cozy Reindeer

Mornin', y'all!  Last week totally got away from me and I have a feeling it's going to be a sprint for the next couple of months.  We're going to be moving to North Carolina in January or February, so we're looking at houses online right now and have a trip planned down there to see some in person, then we'll be taking Ryan on his first plane ride all the way to Texas and both of those things are happening after Thanksgiving and well before Christmas!  (We're doing Ryan's first Christmas at home.)  So anyway, I'll sneak off to my craft room as much as I can, but I might be a little spotty on posting stuff here.

But I do have a card for today!

I usually do scrapbook pages on Mondays but I didn't want to let this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches go by without making something:

Scrapbook layout will come later this week.  Anyway, I think this also works for the Paper Players' CAS challenge:

I think that reindeer looks very warm and cozy in his sweater.  And check out the Just Add Ink challenge:

R is for reindeer!  And this is the maiden voyage for my Merry Patterns stamp set; it was a special from SU! in September and October.

Considering all the pies I plan to make this week, Ryan and I really need to get to the gym today.  Happy Thanksgiving week everyone, and cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Merry Patterns
Ink:  Old Olive, Basic Black
Paper:  Old Olive, Whisper White, Merry Little Christmas DSP
Accessories:  Pearls

Fear Not

So yesterday afternoon I had an idea what I wanted to do for today's card, and I was cruising through my stamps looking for a sentiment that would fit in the big maple leaf Framelit when I came across this Bible verse from Rose Wonder and all of a sudden my card turned out very different from what I had planned.

I have never made anything with this stamp before but I was compelled to ink it up yesterday.  And here is the maiden voyage of Tree Rings, which I stamped off once before stamping on the watercolor paper so it's more like the suggestion of tree rings which isn't exactly what I had planned but I think it looks okay.  And I still added a leaf from Vintage leaves, just a small one.

I was inspired by the photo at Fusion:

In general I don't like making cards with only neutrals and this one is made with ONLY Soft Suede ink on Very Vanilla and watercolor paper.

I used the Fab Friday sketch:

Just turned it on its side to accommodate the verse.

And the Cupcake Inspirations challenge is perhaps my favorite:

Though I think I need to make another card for this challenge and do LOTS of very COLORFUL leaves ;)

Looks like Ryan is waking up so I'm going to go get his bottle ready.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rose Wonder, Tree Rings, Vintage Leaves
Ink:  Soft Suede
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Watercolor Paper
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes & Leaflets Framelits, Dimensionals, pearls

We're Going to Disneyland!

Scrappy Tuesday!  Thought we'd do scrapbook pages today since yesterday was Guest Designer Day :D  And here are some of the most recent pages to come out of my craft cave!

Pics are from when we went to Disneyland with friends in April of last year.  These same friends are driving down for Thanksgiving next week!  Very excited about that.

Also excited about my title and patterned paper here.  That pattern is one of my VERY FAVORITEST EVER by Stampin' Up!, I just love it.  So for the title, I used the same colors and added Pacific Point.  I sponged ink on the background rectangle rather than inking up straight from the ink pad, which made the colors light enough that you could still tell the letters are BLUE and they look good.

Second layout!  I matted all the photos with different colors from the patterned paper too.  Pacific Point isn't anywhere in the pattern, but I thought it went well with the other colors.

And there's the colors:  Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Tangelo Twist, Mossy Meadow, and smidge of Basic Black and Whisper White.  Wish my photos of the pages were a little better today but we've been socked in with clouds for what seems like forever so it's hard to get good pics.  Ah well.  The trip was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to seeing those friends again next week!

Cheers, y'all!  Ryan and I are heading to the gym for the first time in a week since we both had colds last week.  Wish me luck.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Layered Letters Alphabet, Back to Basics Alphabet
Ink:  Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Tangelo Twist, Mossy Meadow, Basic Black
Paper:  Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Tangelo Twist, Mossy Meadow, Basic Black, Whisper White, Birthday Bash DSP
Accessories:  Mickey punch by All Night Media, circle punches from SU!

Guest Designer: Painted Harvest

Happy Monday, y'all!  And it IS a happy Monday for me because guess what?  My Pick a Pumpkin card from a while back was picked as the challenge winner at What Will You Stamp!

*does a little happy dance*

Even better, I have the stamp set for this week's challenge so I get to be a guest designer!  Woot!

I do love this stamp set, too.  So here's what I made for the challenge:

I used a simple layout to let the stamped images shine.  And they do shine a little bit because I used Shimmery White cardstock.  I thought I'd go a little outside the sunflower box on this card with my color combination, so what do you think of Blushing Bride, Tranquil Tide and Fresh Fig together?  I hardly ever reach for Blushing Bride unless it's a color challenge but I liked it with the other two colors.  I used a sponge to ink up the stamps for the Tranquil Tide and Fresh Fig bits to keep them from overwhelming the soft pink, and that meant I could stamp the sentiment at full strength and have it be easy to read even on top of the flower.

Thanks again to the What Will You Stamp? DT for letting me play along this week!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Harvest
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Tranquil Tide, Fresh Fig
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Tranquil Tide, Shimmery White
Accessories:  Tranquil Tide ribbon

Retro Rose

Happy Friday, y'all.  My cold seems to be getting better, must be all the sleeping I've been doing the last couple days.  I've been napping every time Ryan does.

But for now, a card!

This is actually the first card I made for the Retro Rubber Challenge, but I just didn't like it as much on paper as I did in my head so I made the butterfly card.

Roses in Winter is really retro, I've had it since at last 2006.  Lots of Thoughts is almost as old, it's from Sale-a-Bration in 2008.  I also used the Freshly Made Sketch from a couple of weeks ago just because I liked it:

Time for me to go do dishes.  Ryan is unhappy that we picked up the dogs' water bowl so he can't go splash in it, but he'll just have to get over it.  He's a little grumpy this morning.

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Roses in Winter, Lots of Thoughts
Ink:  Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Peekaboo Peach, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Garden Green, Perfect Plum, Very Vanilla, Woodland Walk DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Give Thanks

Mornin', y'all.  How's your day going?  Ryan's not up yet so I'm taking advantage of the time to write this blog post.  And take cold medicine.  Hope I don't pass this along to the wee babe.  He had a good time last night playing peekaboo over the coffee table with his dada.  Very cute.

Anyway, even with a cold I managed to make a very quick card yesterday.  Not only is it quick, it's a quadruple challenge card.

So, one stamp, one piece of Color Theory DSP, and a couple of Framelits.  At first I was going to stamp something texture-y on that bottom left corner, but looking at it I thought this card needs ribbon!  So I had to raid my retired ribbon stash (I have a very limited selection of current ribbon and a very large selection of retired ribbon) to find that Chocolate Chip taffeta.  I loved the taffeta ribbon.

Anyway, on to the challenges!  First up is the What Will You Stamp? challenge to use Labels to Love:

I didn't ink it up in time to use the Halloween stamp but I love that this one has stamps for multiple holidays on up to Valentine's Day.  I got the matching punch too, but I picked one of the stamps that doesn't coordinate with that punch ;)

Next up is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I made my card the standard A2 size instead of square just because I like A2 better.

Here's this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, and Crumb Cake.

Last up is the SUO Challenge to make a project that features thankfulness.  My dad has had some health challenges lately, but he got some good news from the doctor yesterday so we're definitely thankful for that, and this card will be going out to my dad later today.

Have a great day, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Labels to Love
Ink:  Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Thick Whisper White, Color Theory DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes & Layering Circles Framelits, Dimensionals, retired Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon

Colorful Seasons Leaves

Hey y'all, how's it going?  I'm getting a cold.  I have a feeling the next few days will NOT be fun.  At least the hubs has Friday off of work so if I need to I can spend most of Friday sleeping? Just got to make it to Friday....

At least it's already Wednesday.  I thought for a minute it was only Tuesday.

My brother's birthday is tomorrow so I need to get this card out in the mail today.  It won't get to Texas in time, but he's been in our family long enough not to expect birthday cards and presents on time ;)  Anyway, as an Oklahoma State alum, he lurves him some orange so I started with the color challenge from Fab Friday:

I'll be honest:  I like Tangerine Tango and Pumpkin Pie separately, but I'm not a fan of them together.  I sponged the ink on the leaf stamp to make it less concentrated, so it's more subtle that the three leaves are two different colors.  And then I stamped the fancy outline leaf stamp on the card front in stamped-off Tangerine Tango on Pumpkin Pie cardstock, which turned out okay.

I also used the latest sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping:

And then I combined those two challenges with the Global Design Project CASE the Designer challenge:

I kept the orange from this card, and the linen thread (I need to order more linen thread...), and I stamped a large image on my card front though mine is a lot more subtle than the pumpkins here.  I like challenges like this because there's a lot of "scope for imagination" as Anne Shirley would say.  Though I am extremely color-driven so a lot of my CASEd cards incorporate similar colors.

Sounds like kiddo is ready to get out of his bouncer for a bit.  Hope naptime comes quickly, 'cause I want a nap too...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Colorful Seasons, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Pumpkin Pie, Fresh Fig
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Fresh Fig, Whisper White
Accessories:  Petals embossing folder, linen thread, Dimensionals

Guest Designer: Retro Butterflies

Good morning y'all!  Today I have the honor of being the guest designer at Retro Rubber!  And this week's challenge is all about color.

Isn't that pretty?  The color that struck me first when I saw this picture was lots of GREEN, and I love green so I decided to make most of my card front Garden Green.  Then I pulled the plummy and peachy colors out of the photo and this is what I made:

You can see it just a little bit, but I added Wink of Stella to both butterflies so they sparkle.  That's also why the sentiment is smudged--I didn't allow sufficient time for it to dry before I started with the Wink of Stella so I got my fingers in it.  Dangit!  I didn't have time to redo the card so I'm chalking it up to the charm of a handmade item.  All my supplies today are still current, but Watercolor Wings is two years old and Work of Art (the sentiment) is three years old.

Hope you play along with the Retro Rubber challenge!  I had fun with it :)  And dyed my fingers green for a little bit.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, Work of Art
Ink:  Garden Green, Sweet Sugarplum, Fresh Fig, Peekaboo Peach
Paper:  Sweet Sugarplum, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, Glossy White
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Framelits, Beautiful Butterfly Thinlits, Rose Garden Thinlits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella