Dapper Birthday

Mornin', y'all!  We're on day #3 of the 4-day week and tomorrow is new catalog day!  Woo!

But for today I have the maiden voyage of a stamp set I got from the Occasions catalog and why didn't I use it before now?

Truly Tailored coordinates with the Tailored Tag punch; the stamp set is retiring, but the punch (that I didn't use on this card) is carrying over to the next catalog.  I finally dusted this stamp set off today because of the What Will You Stamp? challenge to use it:

I've been watching their challenge for weeks and they finally circled back to a stamp set I own :)

This card came together in under 10 minutes thanks to this sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping:

Really, the True Gentleman DSP is doing all the work here.  I only stamped the sentiment, and then inside the card I stamped the "Wishing you a dapper day" sentiment, but I left off the mustache.

It's time to feed the kid his daily dose of Cheerios, and then for the first time in almost four months WE'RE GOING TO THE GYM!  After that wild and crazy move and having the gallbladder surgery, it took me a while to feel like working out again and then I had to find a gym that was a) reasonably priced and b) provides childcare while I work out.  So yesterday Ryan and I joined the Y.  Wish us luck!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Truly Tailored
Ink:  Tranquil Tide
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Very Vanilla, True Gentleman DSP
Accessories:  None

Flamingo Dragon

So the whole time Flirty Flamingo was an In Color, I couldn't really figure out what to do with it, but all of a sudden since we found out it's joining the regular color lineup I keep using it.  And today I have a pink dragon!

I love love love this stamp set.  And happily for me, the Cupcake Inspiration challenge is to make a card with a magical creature on it!  Also, how gorgeous is that silver washi tape?  I almost never buy washi tape because I forget that I have it.  Yep, I've had that tape for months and this is the first time I've used it.

Take a look at the Just Add Ink inspiration photo:

I took the aqua, pink, and yellow tones in this picture and translated them as Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo, and Crushed Curry.

Finally, here's this week's sketch challenge from the Paper Players:

That red bar would be a great place for a sentiment, but I couldn't find one I wanted to use that fit in that space, hence the washi tape.  Inside it says I hope you have a magical day.

Ryan is getting antsy so I'm going to go get him some Cheerios.   Hope you have a magical day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Magical Day, Magical Mermaid
Ink:  Basic Black, Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo, Shimmery White, Color Theory DSP
Accessories:  Magical Mates Framelits, Magical Day washi tape, Dimensionals

Friendly Tulips

Mornin', y'all!  After a four-day weekend we're back to business as usual and Ryan is getting into the DVDs and books every time I turn around.  Good thing he's cute!

Anyway, while Mr. Cute was napping yesterday, I made a quick card.

Tranquil Tulips is a gorgeous stamp set and why didn't I use it more often?!  Well, I broke it out for today at least.  And of course you recognize the sentiment from Orange Blossom because I'm still in denial that it's retiring.

So let's check out the CASE the Designer Challenge at Global Design Project:

Really I kept my card very close to Brian's original concept.  Pink and green (though mine are more saturated shades), flowers on the left, friend sentiment on the right.  I even had a lacy sort of stamp for the bottom, but it just didn't work for my card so I sponged it instead.

I was also thinking of this picture at Inkspirational:

This is why I did darker colors on my card, and I thought the way I sponged it sort of echoed the curve of the tree branch in the picture.  Okay, since I mentioned the colors...hey look it's Flirty Flamingo!  For some reason I've been using that more recently.  Today I paired it with Melon Mambo and two new greens, Shaded Spruce and Granny Apple Green.  I'm looking forward to playing more with those greens!  The glitter enamel dots are retiring (as are all the stamps) and they're actually Old Olive, but the color is light enough that I figured they blended pretty well with the Granny Apple Green sponging.

Well, it's time to feed the kiddo his morning Cheerios (not to mention get breakfast for me, too!).  Cheers, y'all, and have a great week.  New SU! catalog goes live on Friday!  Until then, it's likely I'll still be revisiting some retiring favorites.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tranquil Tulips, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo, Melon Mambo, Shaded Spruce, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Glitter enamel dots

Pearl Harbor

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  We thought our Memorial Day weekend was going to be nothing but thunderstorms for days, but actually it's been pretty nice weather-wise.  Lots of clouds, yes, but we haven't been getting pouring down rain so we've been taking the kiddo outside to play in his wading pool while we sit on the deck.  Quite nice.

Anyway, since it is Memorial Day, I thought it would be appropriate to share my layout from our trip to Pearl Harbor.

Always Artichoke seemed like a good military green color, and I'm always surprised in a pleasant way when Summer Starfruit works on anything ;) The focal point picture shows the sheen on the water from oil that is still leaking from the sunken USS Arizona.

I have been loving Letters for You lately (I made this layout last year not long after I got the letter stamps, but I've been using them on several scrapbook layouts that I've made recently and which will appear on the blog at some point in the future).  I like the weathered effect on the letters, and then I used the long-retired Empire Alphabet for the second word.

Today's color palette includes Always Artichoke, Summer Starfruit, Night of Navy, and just a teeny bit of Whisper White.  With the SU! color revamp, Night of Navy has moved to the Neutrals family along with deep, saturated red and green shades, and I like that move because I tend to use the darkest shades of every color as neutrals.

Sounds like Ryan is awake, so I'm going to go get him dressed and start feeding my little Hobbit.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Letters for You, Empire Alphabet
Ink:  Always Artichoke, Night of Navy
Paper:  Always Artichoke, Night of Navy, High Tide DSP, Night of Navy DSP
Accessories:  Medium star punch

Yuyuan Gardens

Sunday means it's time for more China pages!  I have a couple of layouts I've shared before and then two never-before-seen ones today.

I shared this Giant Pandas layout about a year and a half ago.  I thought that bamboo pattern from the Ginger Blossom DSP was just perfect for this layout (and Baja Breeze is always a good idea!).

This was the very very first China layout I did FOUR YEARS ago!  I think I made it a little too busy with the shapes on the left page but done is better than perfect.

So here's the new pages!

Our next Shanghai stop was the Yuyuan Gardens, which are in the big fat middle of the city but through some sorcery once you step inside you can't even tell you're near the city.  And this layout once again uses my favoritest sketch which I've used I can't even remember how many times now.

We took a LOT of pictures here so this is just the first 2/3, tune back in next Sunday for the third layout.

Today's color palette:  Pear Pizzazz, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Brilliant Blue, and a bit of Basic Gray for journaling (also featured a lot in the pictures).  I don't have much Brilliant Blue cardstock left because I love to use it in my scrapbooks, so here's hoping that Blueberry Bushel will be a good alternative for me :) Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Rough Type
Ink:  Basic Gray
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White, Bella Rose DSP
Accessories:  Lettering Template

Baby Bear

Bonus card this week because I'm an overachiever! :) And guess what?  It's not flowers.

I love bears (my college mascot!) but I haven't used this stamp set very much.  I've had more luck with it since I started using my piercing mat as a pad when using photopolymer stamps, but even then I had some ink coverage issues this time around.  But Baby Bear ended up looking okay.  And he fits in with this week's SUO Challenge:

I also used the color combination from Inkspire Me:

I really like Wild Wasabi, I'll miss it.  For the additional color, I added Soft Suede...used that on the bear with Early Espresso to get some nice shading on it.  You can't see much white on my card, but I did stamp the bear on white ;)

Finally, here's this week's sketch from Retro Rubber:

Baby Bear is almost two years old because I got him one October when SU! did a sale on select stamp sets, but then I didn't use him for months afterwards.  The speckles on the background are from Magical Mermaid, but she's not quite a year old yet so she doesn't count as retro.  I did leave off the small circular element from the sketch because I couldn't think of anything to put there.  Alternatively you could say I moved that element to the bear and it's his gold bow.

That's it for me today.  I'm going to go see Solo!!!!  Can't get a babysitter, so I'm going to see it solo.  And I will make that pun all day long.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Baby Bear, Magical Mermaid
Ink:  Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Wild Wasabi, Versamark
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Thick Whisper White, gold foil
Accessories:  Gold EP, Dimensionals

Just Breathe

Y'all, I think it's time to face facts:  I've had blooms on the brain this week.  I've also got two black thumbs, so all my flowers have been the ink-and-paper kind :) So here's one more CAS flower card for this week.

I am a military spouse, and I know sometimes you need someone to tell you to just breathe and you'll get through it.  Because it never fails, your spouse deploys and the dog gets lost and everybody gets the flu and your kid breaks her leg on the slide at the park (I do actually know someone whose kid broke her leg while her dad was deployed, and someone else whose kid got food poisoning on a trip to Croatia and ended up in the hospital).  So yeah.  Just breathe.

Let's start with the Color Throwdown:

I used Poppy Parade (because it's a poppy and sometimes I'm on the nose like that), Marina Mist (it looks more gray in the picture, trust me it's blue), white card base, and the sentiment is in Early Espresso.  Doesn't show up in the picture but the center of each flower has some Wink of Stella on it for shine.  When I pulled out my Poppy Parade ink pad for this card, I discovered that it has succumbed to the Dreaded Gold Sheen that afflicts some red ink pads.  This disease is terminal, so now I have to buy a new Poppy Parade ink pad when the new catalog goes live.  Seems like I used it not that long ago and it was fine...

Anyway, here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Which I turned into a one-layer card.  What is with me and the CAS cards lately?  Oh yeah, it's the challenge at the Paper Players:

...that I've played with three days in a row.  But it's fun!

Well, the hubs has off work today so I think we're driving to Wilmington for the day to hang out with the little one.  He's never seen the ocean before, so here's hoping this is fun and not just hot and miserable ;) Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Touches of Texture, Colorful Seasons
Ink:  Poppy Parade, Marina Mist, Early Espresso
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Wink of Stella

An Experiment in Navy

Hey y'all!  Do you ever sit down to make something and then you just can't think what to do?  I had that happen yesterday.  I'd put Ryan down for a nap after we got back from Target, but he was refusing to go back to sleep (curse you car naps!) and there I was, trying to steal like 15 minutes to make a card and my mind was a blank.

Then I thought about this card that I saw yesterday morning (someone had posted a question about it on the demo-only forums on Splitcoast) and finally (finally!) an idea struck me.  So here's what I made.

So on her card linked above, Elizabeth stamped on colored cardstock with Whisper White ink, then stamped over it with a color (same stamp).  So I thought I'd try it.  I stamped the base of the flowers in white, then over-stamped with Flirty Flamingo; the flower petal detail was done in white and then Berry Burst so it's got a bit of colorful dimension to it (this card was hard to photograph).  The centers are done with white and then Blackberry Bliss.  The ferns are Night of Navy, stamped off once, and a few little white dots just for interest.

The color combination came from Sunday Stamps: 

The closest I could get that palette to SU! colors was Blackberry Bliss, Berry Burst, Flirty Flamingo, Island Indigo (didn't use that one), and Night of Navy.  The colors on my card came across a lot more muted but I don't know, I kind of like it?  I used the sympathy stamp from Rose Wonder just because you can never have too many sympathy cards in your stash, and it fit well in the space I'd left next to the flowers.  I lined the inside of the card with Whisper White so if/when this gets sent out, the recipient will be able to read the message inside.

I'm also entering this in the Paper Players challenge again:

For some reason the card doesn't look really CAS to me, maybe because the flowers take up the majority of the space on the card front, but really it's a one-layer card except for the sentiment.  Maybe it would look more CAS to me if I'd done it on a white card base, but I wanted to experiment!

That's it for me today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Harvest, Rose Wonder
Ink:  Whisper White, Blackberry Bliss, Berry Burst, Flirty Flamingo, Night of Navy
Paper:  Whisper White, Night of Navy
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals

A Note to Say Hey

Mornin', y'all!  How's your week going so far?

I am still in denial that my fave Orange Blossom is retiring, so here's another Orange Blossom card and I won't even promise it'll be the last one because I love this stamp set.

I was totally inspired by Queen Elizabeth's outfit for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding this past weekend.

Great outfit, Your Highness.  I love the colors!  Speaking of colors, I spy two new shades of purple!  Highland Heather (lighter shade) will be in the Subtles family, and Gorgeous Grape will be in the Brights.  They go pretty well with Lemon Lime Twist, don't you think?  But I like LLT with *lots* of different colors.  Who knew a wild green color like that would play along so well with all the other colors of the rainbow?

I'm entering this in the theme challenge at Global Design Project:

And the CAS challenge at Paper Players:

It was fun building a bit of a bouquet with the stamps this time around.  The largest bloom in the center is popped up on mini Dimensionals.

It is time once again to go running after my tiny spawn.  Ryan is getting into absolutely everything these days, and I swear he's getting taller every night as he sleeps because he can reach more and more stuff.  Gotta make sure he doesn't turn on any of the burners on the stove...Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Orange Blossom
Ink:  Lemon Lime Twist, Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Gorgeous Grape, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals

ETA:  I just found out my Tea-Riffic card from a little while back won the Inkspire Me challenge!  Yay!

Lots of Happy Card Kit, Part 3

Hey y'all.  I was working on scrapbook pages yesterday and never made a card, so here at last is the third part of the Lots of Happy card kit!

This was the fifth design that I made multiples of from the parts and pieces of the cards in the kit.

And this is the card I made for the gal I gave the whole card set to, so just one of this.  I still have a few of those lavender stalks left to play with too.

Ryan is getting into the apothecary cabinet so I'm gonna run.  Byeee!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lots of Happy, Work of Art
Ink:  Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Old Olive, pieces in the Lots of Happy card kit
Accessories:  Dimensionals, pieces from the card kit

Kitty Hawk

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  I didn't get much sleep this weekend...on Friday afternoon I drove up to DC to see my friend Sarah, who was in town for 36 hours from Italy to see her grandfather.  She was on European time so we woke up at 4:45 on Saturday morning :p We watched the lead-up to the royal wedding but as soon as we saw Meghan's dress Sarah said FEED ME so we went to get breakfast.  It was a lot of driving in a short period of time but I'm glad I went up there.

Anyway!  Let's move on to today's scrapbook layout, one I finished quite some time ago but today seems like a good day to share it.

This layout came together pretty fast; I think it's very simple.  A couple borders of patterned paper, mat the photos and do a little stamping and then it's done.

I thought the biplane from Sky is the Limit was a great accent for a Kitty Hawk layout :)

Today's color palette is Soft Sky (because flying!), Always Artichoke (pretty much the color of flight suits), Night of Navy (the Navy has planes too), and Basic Gray (yeah...planes are gray).

I put Ryan in his playard so I could reorganize the books on the bookshelves--he keeps getting into this one particular shelf and I don't want him damaging my Chronicles of Prydain and Anne of Green Gables books any more than he already has.  But I figured I'd type up this post real fast while he's contained.  And now it's time to go feed him Cheerios...so, cheerio peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Well-Worn Alphabet, Sky is the Limit
Ink:  Night of Navy, Basic Gray
Paper:  Soft Sky, Basic Gray, Always Artichoke DSP
Accessories:  None

China: Silk

Happy Sunday, y'all!  I'm back with new China pages.  Well, they're not really new...I made these about a year ago, but they're new to the blog :)

This layout goes along with the Jade layout from last week, so I used the same colors but flipped them around a bit.

This came out a little more subtle than I thought it would, but I stamped the flower from Artistically Asian on the Peekaboo Peach strips and it reminds me of the designs we saw on the silk.

Color palette is the same as last week, just in different concentrations:  Peekaboo Peach, Dusty Durango, Brocade Blue, and a little bit of Mint Melody.

Have a great Sunday, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Artistically Asian
Ink:  Peekaboo Peach, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Brocade Blue, Peekaboo Peach, Dusty Durango, Mint Melody
Accessories:  1/2" circle punch

Lemon Pineapple Punch

As Smee would say on the movie Hook, I had an apostrophe this week.  When I saw the challenge on Freshly Made Sketches, an idea popped into my head immediately.  Here's the sketch:

 And here's what I did:

And if you're wondering why I'm so excited about this, look what it does... 

And open one more time... 

I probably have not invented something totally new here but I just love how it turned out.  The Blueberry Bushel piece is just flat, a 4.25" by 5.5" rectangle (standard card size).  Then the Call Me Clover piece is 4.5" by 7.5", folded in half and adhered to the right side of the card base.  The thick Whisper White piece is 3.5" by 7.5", folded in half and adhered to the left side of the card base.  I left the inside plain so I can write a message when I send this out.

So let's talk new schtuff!  First, new colors.  Blueberry Bushel is pretty close to the old Brilliant Blue, which is great news for me because I use Brilliant Blue on my scrapbook pages A LOT and I only have a few sheets of it left.  I love Call Me Clover too, though I can't remember offhand how close it is to Emerald Envy or any of the other past greens we've had.  And Pineapple Punch is even brighter than the old Yoyo Yellow.  But anywah, these three colors would be right at home in an 8-pack of basic Crayola colors and they're fun.  I decided to get the Lemon Zest bundle now before it un-bundles with the new catalog and costs 10% more.  I should pair up Lemon Zest with Mango Melody and make mango-colored oranges!

Anyway, I should go rescue Ryan.  He's getting into EVERYTHING today so I put him in his playard just so I could eat breakfast and type this up real fast.  But now I'm fueled up with my morning tea, so I'm ready to chase him around.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lemon Zest
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Call Me Clover, Pineapple Punch
Paper:  Blueberry Bushel, Call Me Clover, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals

Adventurous Octopus

Howdy, y'all!  Question:  how many octopus stamps does one stamper need?  Apparently at least two...Message in a Bottle is retiring so here's a new octopus!

New stamps, new patterned paper, new colors...yay!  I never thought Mint Macaron would actually look like a *dark* green, but Soft Sea Foam is SO pale that it makes everything else look dark ;). Also say hello to Balmy Blue, which to me looks like it's just a shade darker than the old Bashful Blue that I miss so much, so that's good.  The Balmy Blue pattern and the dots are the two sides of a single sheet of paper, I love that paper pack.  Well, the cool colors are where my heart is at anyway, but they've got neat patterns in Tranquil Textures.

Take a look at the current Fusion challenge:

I have a very, very old stamp set of lighthouses called Coast to Coast, and I was going to bust it out for this but then that octopus just refused to leave my stamp table until he got inked up.  So I used the Fusion sketch only.

Okay, I hear the kiddo talking...better go feed him breakfast.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea of Textures
Ink:  Fresh Fig, Night of Navy
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Soft Sea Foam, Thick Whisper White, Tranquil Textures DSP
Accessories:  Under the Sea Framelits, Dimensionals, corner rounder punch

Mango Melody

It's shaping up to be a very gray week here--we're supposed to get rain and maybe thunderstorms every day this week.  So how about a very bright orange card to offset that...

When I got my preorder stuff earlier this week, as soon as I saw the Mango Melody cardstock I thought what am I going to do with THAT so of course I had to attempt using it first.  SU! has released some color combo charts to go along with the color revamp, so I took this combo from them.  Actually I used Powder Pink in place of the new Petal Pink, which is more peachy, because I don't have any form of Petal Pink ink yet.  So Powder Pink and Tranquil Tide (my favorite) with Mango Melody.

Here's the sketch from Fab Friday that I used:

The sequins were a last-minute add to the card because I got some stray Tranquil Tide ink on the card that I didn't want--it's hard to get a good crisp image on watercolor paper and I pressed down the stamp hard enough that some stray ink from the edge of the stamp and the blank spot in the top of the wing got on the card.  There are no mistakes, just opportunities for embellishment, right?

Well, I hear the kiddo talking to himself so let's get this day started.  Have a great one, kids!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Day
Ink:  Mango Melody, Powder Pink, Tranquil Tide
Paper:  Mango Melody, Powder Pink, Tranquil Tide, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Tutti Frutti adhesive sequins