China: Goodbye Shanghai

Mornin', y'all!  My parents are going to be here this afternoon and stay for a week, so I don't know how much stamping/blog posting I'll be doing.  But today it's time for another China layout!

We took a pic with Jessica, our Shanghai tour guide, when she dropped us off at the Shanghai airport.  We had a while to wait before our flight, so we explored the airport a bit and paid an exorbitant amount for ice cream and took these pictures.  Of the four cities we visited, we stayed the shortest time in Shanghai and thus I have the fewest scrapbook pages for there.  And it's taken this long to get through Shanghai...next Sunday we'll start Guilin!

Today's color palette includes Sahara Sand, Garden Green, Wild Wasabi, Ballet Blue, Almost Amethyst, and Basic Gray.  I like it.

The hubs has taken the tiny child to get his hair cut so I'm enjoying the peace and quiet for a little bit.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Rough Type, Circle Circus
Ink:  Basic Gray, Almost Amethyst
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Almost Amethyst, Ballet Blue, Woodland Walk DSP
Accessories:  lettering template, 1 1/2" circle punch

Let's Flamingle

Mornin', y'all.  How's your Thursday going?  Ryan is already up and taking all the books off the bookshelf, but I'm going to allow it until I finish writing this blog post as long as he doesn't destroy anything.

Here is today's card:

I was at Wal-Mart the other day and saw a plastic cup with this written on it, which I thought was funny but now I wonder if this card sounds like a proposition? o.0  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I'm counting the leaves as the smaller rectangle layer on the sketch; I wanted more of the Melon Mambo stripes to show.

Here is this week's theme challenge from the Paper Players:

I think my card counts as clean, but simple might be a bit of a stretch since it does have multiple layers.  Nevertheless I was thinking of this challenge when I made it, and I discovered I have not a single solitary bird stamp that's in the current SU! catalog.  My flamingo retired at the end of may.

Finally, here is this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Petal Pink, which despite its name seems more peachy to me, Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, and Old Olive for my colors.

Okay, time to go rescue the books and feed Ryan his breakfast.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pop of Paradise (retired), Labeler Alphabet, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Petal Pink, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Petal Pink, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Melon Mambo DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Bouquet Thanks

Mornin' y'all!  How's your week going?  I've got a sunny card for your Wednesday.

And this is a triple challenge card!  First up is Inkspirational:

I think each of the four stamps I used is smaller than a quarter.  The flowers are punched out with a 1" square punch, so pretty small :)

Next up is the Cupcake Inspiration color challenge:

I used Melon Mambo, Pineapple Punch, and Granny Apple Green for my colors (though the ribbon is Lemon Lime Twist).

And last up is the Fall-To Layout:

This sketch was made to go with the small stamp challenge, am I right?

Blogger has been doing something weird lately where it won't email me when I have pending comments.  I have to go to the "awaiting moderation" page and then refresh it to see comments, which is weird and slightly annoying.  I figured it out last week when it occurred to me that I hadn't had any comments here in a while, and lo and behold I had like 30 that were waiting for me to figure out they were there!  And one of them was to let me know my card was picked as a fave for a past Inkspirational challenge.  Whee!  That was fun to see!

Anyway, I hope y'all have a great day today.  Ryan and I will be off to the Y later this morning...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Bouquet
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Pineapple Punch, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  1" square punch, Dimensionals, LLT ombre ribbon, retired rhinestones

Missing You

Well, after all three of us being sick over the weekend, the hubs and the babe both seemed like they were feeling much better yesterday.  Now if only I could get rid of this ridiculous cough...whenever I cough, our dog Sadie gets up and looks real concerned and won't leave me alone for several minutes.  Which is cute, I'm glad she cares about me, but it makes it hard to do things when she's all up in my chili.  (I love my girl.)

Anyway, between coughing fits I did make a card yesterday.

This is the first time I've ever tried to pleat a ribbon like that and I'm not 100% sure I like it.  Plus I think maybe the ribbon should be lower and the sentiment higher but there were so many glue dots on the ribbon that there's no way it's moving.  Hmm.

I used the Sunday Stamps color challenge:

Basic Black, Lovely Lipstick, Lemon Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green, and Whisper White was how I interpreted the colors.  Granny Apple Green isn't really a good match, but it was the closest I could get in current SU! colors.

I also used the current sketch from Fab Friday:

And that's it for me today.  Ryan and I didn't go to the Y yesterday since he still had a bit of a runny nose, but I think we'll try to go today.  Which means I need to get him up and dressed and fed.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Oh So Eclectic
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Lovely Lipstick, Lemon Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, Up & Away Thinlits, LLT ombre ribbon, Dimensionals, glue dots

Stoke-on-Trent

Mornin', y'all.  I am dragging today...all three of us were sick this weekend.  I took some cold medicine last night to help me sleep and apparently it's not done "helping" yet :p But I need to get Ryan up because he's making noise.

So real fast:  pages!

See the original pictures here.  And surprise, I used Grapefruit Grove as my page base!  I didn't think I'd particularly care for that color (I despise grapefruit, it's Satan's citrus) but I really like it here, especially paired with Poppy Parade.  I used a bit of Lost Lagoon and Pear Pizzazz to tone down the warm colors just a little bit, too.

Oh, I'm proud of how I did the title too.  Of course my alphabet stamps typically don't come with a dash, so I used the Empire Alphabet for the letters and I turned a capital I sideways from the slightly smaller Back to Basics Alphabet and voila!  Dash.  I is smart.

There's the color palette for today, which I already talked about.  I'm going to go get Ryan up and hope he doesn't run me too ragged today...can't go to the Y because he's still coughing a bit.  Wish us luck.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet, Back to Basics Alphabet, Array of Sunshine
Ink:  Grapefruit Grove, Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Grapefruit Grove, Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz, Thick Whisper White, All is Calm DSP
Accessories:  None

China: Bright Lights, Big City

Happy Sunday y'all!  It's time for some more China pages!

Pictures at the bottom of this blog post.  This layout looks nicer in person than in the picture so you'll just have to imagine.  I kinda wish I'd had an 8x10 done of that top left picture...love it!  Click the photo to see it larger and you'll see the green pattern is kind of like feathers...I chose it because it reminds me of a crowd when all you can see is a sea of heads.  And China has lots of people ;)

Today's color palette includes Concord Crush, Lavender Lace, Pear Pizzazz, Marigold Morning, and Whisper White.  Marigold Morning was part of the very first set of In Colors Stampin' Up did, and it was only around for a year.  I've been reaching back to several long-retired colors lately!  Need to take pictures of a whole slew of layouts, too.  Last night I hit 100 pages done for this year!  Pretty happy about that.

Well, I'm off to make muffins for my hubs for Father's Day.  Okay so we make something like muffins or waffles or coffee cake every Sunday morning, but that's all he wants for his Father's Day breakfast, so I'd better deliver.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Rough Type
Ink:  Concord Crush
Paper:  Concord Crush, Lavender Lace, Marigold Morning, Whisper White, Nursery Nest DSP
Accessories:  Lettering Template

Main Squeeze

Happy Friday, y'all!

Guess what.

Today's card does NOT have an octopus on it.

But it has just occurred to me that an octopus with that sentiment would be pretty funny :D. Watch this space, I'm sure that's coming soon now that I've thought of it.

Meet this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Just Add Ink color challenge:

Greens and blues are my jam so I had to make something with these colors.  The limes are inked with Lemon Lime Twist (appropriate) and then I used a sponge dauber to sponge some Granny Apple Green around the edges, and then I painted the segments with Wink of Stella.  The background is just the wee splatter stamp from Magical Mermaid (sooo the mermaid is gorgeous but I think that splat is my favorite?) in Bermuda Bay, Granny Apple Green, and Pacific Point.  Lots of colors but it's not overwhelming because it's teeny splats, I like it.

That's it for me today.  As soon as I feed Ryan his breakfast, we're off to the Y...I've been every day this week, woo!  It's nice because I'm doing fitness classes again, and I can have Ryan in the daycare for up to two hours, so sometimes I'll do an hour-long class and then just read for a half hour while he plays and has fun and interacts with other kids (and adults, for that matter).  We've got him signed up for swim lessons next month too.

Cheers, y'all!  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lemon Zest, Magical Mermaid
Ink:  Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay, Granny Apple Green, Lemon Lime Twist
Paper:  Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Tailored Tag punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Hello Again

Mornin', y'all!

I must confess.  I cannot resist the octopus in Sea of Textures.  He needs a name!

And he's gradually branching out into more colors!  So this card is the maiden voyage for my Grapefruit Grove ink pad, as well as my new Poppy Parade (RIP, gold sheen pad from however many years ago).  I inked up the octopus in Grapefruit Grove, then used a sponge dauber to add in some Poppy Parade on his tentacles and then on his head.  I wasn't exactly sure what it would look like, but I was really pleased with the effect.  The three hellos are all Poppy Parade too, but the middle one is stamped off once, just to add some interest.  Though maybe I should have put eight hellos on there, one for each tentacle?

Here is the current sketch from Global Design Project:

And I'm entering this at Retro Rubber too:

Sea of Textures is new of course, but the greeting comes from Sunshine Sayings which is two years old.  And maybe Poppy Parade counts as retro too because it retired for a while and then came back ;)

Hope y'all have a great day.  Kiddo and I are off to the gym again.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea of Textures, Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Grapefruit Grove, Poppy Parade
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Thick Whisper White, Tranquil Textures DSP
Accessories:  white baker's twine, Under the Sea Framelits, Dimensionals

A Bouquet of Tulips

Hey y'all!  I got a little bitty Stampin' Up order yesterday, just cardstock and two stamp pads (a replacement Poppy Parade and a Petal Pink one; the only two colors I haven't bought the ink pads for yet are Gray Granite and Merry Merlot).  I got the Subtles 12x12 and I've already started working on a scrapbook layout with the Balmy Blue sheets...yeah I'm gonna need SU! to release a pack of just that so I can stock up :)

But before Mr. Brown showed up at my house, I made a card to share today!

Today's Beautiful Bouquet card is all about tulips.  I had originally planned to combine the two flower stamps to make a tulip, but I changed my mind halfway through...if I had it to do over again, I'd make the "open" tulips the darker shade of Calypso Coral and let the buds be lighter.  But the kid woke up, as he likes to do when I'm mid-project ;)

I used this week's Fall-To Layout from Clean & Simple Stamping:

And the color combination from the Paper Players:

I may take another hack at this one, maybe with Lemon Lime Twist as the star of the show.  I swear I am going to be SO sad when that color retires next summer!

That's it for me today.  Y'all have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Bouquet
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Lemon Lime Twist, Crumb Cake
Accessories:  Bouquet Bunch Framelits, Mini Dimensionals

Last Call at Cocok's

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I actually got some pretty good progress made on multiple layouts this weekend.  So far I'm at 84 pages (or 42 layouts) for the year, which is not too shabby :D

So here's one of those 42 layouts:

Pics are from my very last trip to Cocok's with the Silent K in 2010.  I happened to do three Cocok's layouts pretty much in a row so after that I was all footed out for a while ;)  And now all the foot pics are scrapped.  But anyway, I love the bright colors for today's layout, they feel summery so that's why I chose this one to share today.  And yes that's a picture of toilet paper...Missy, Amber and I had lunch at Mike's Tex Mex after we had our toes done and that's the only time I'd ever visited their bathroom and I discovered they have Hello Kitty toilet paper!  I miss Japan.

The color palette:  Melon Mambo (because I was wearing a hot pink tank top), Tempting Turquoise, Lavender Lace, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, and Whisper White.  I probably wouldn't put those two greens together on my own, but they were both in that Botanical Garden patterned paper and I like it so I'll have to file that idea away for later use.

Kiddo is awake, so I'm going to get him up and feed his little face, and then we're going to the gym.  Ta-ta for now, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Tropical Party
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Lavender Lace, Mossy Meadow marker
Paper:  Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Lavender Lace, Old Olive, Thick Whisper White, Botanical Garden DSP
Accessories:  None

China: JC Mandarin (Shanghai)

It's China Sunday again!  So after we finished up at the gardens, it was teatime.

I've shared this layout before, and I still love it.  I should bust out the Pale Plum more often.  And everything I used on this layout is now retired.  (Doesn't mean I can't still use it for my scrapbooks, obviously!)

So here is today's new layout:

This is the only time I've ever used Rose Red as a page base, I'm not sure why.  I do really like the color but I think it was more fun to work with before they retired Regal Rose because those two paired so nicely.  And now they're both retired and can hang out by the pool together.  Anyway, this was our hotel in Shanghai and that foyer is pretty grand.  Missy always takes pictures of her hotel rooms so every China hotel layout is her pictures :). Of course usually there's only a couple of pictures, so it's kind of fun to do a layout every once in a while where I'm not trying to cram in as many pictures as I can possibly fit on two 12x12 sheets of cardstock.

Today's color palette is Rose Red, Bermuda Bay, Sahara Sand, So Saffron, Basic Gray, and Whisper White.  It's a LOT of color but I think I made it work?  And I should definitely try some Rose Red page bases again in the future.

Breakfast should be coming out of the oven in a few minutes, so cheers, y'all!  Have a great Sunday.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Hello Lovely
Ink:  So Saffron, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Rose Red, So Saffron, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Thoroughly Modern DSP
Accessories:  lettering template, square punch

Spring Bouquet

Happy Friday, y'all!  I've got to type fast because I can hear Ryan talking to himself in his crib, so he's ready to get up :)

Because I'm seasonally challenged, let's have a spring card today!

Playing around with the new-to-me Beautiful Bouquet stamp set and a couple of the new colors:  Soft Sea Foam is the green, and Highland Heather is the purple.  I paired those with Powder Pink and So Saffron for a spring bouquet.

And I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Originally I was going to do a summer bouquet with lots of bright, saturated colors, but then I saw this Fusion challenge:

And that's why I decided to go with pastels instead of brights for my card today.  Oh, I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the card, but the sentiment continues with "It's in the staying there" and then "Happy Anniversary".  And my pearls are retired, but I thought this card needed pearls and I don't have any of the new ones yet.

Okay, off to grab the kiddo and do breakfast.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Bouquet
Ink:  Soft Sea Foam, Powder Pink, Highland Heather, So Saffron
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Soft Sea Foam, Powder Pink
Accessories:  Bouquet Bunch Framelits, Dimensionals, retired pearls

*Waving Madly*

Hellooooooooo!

Something about an octopus waving hello at you makes me giggle.  So Sea of Textures is the only brand new never-seen-before stamp set I have from the new catalog, but before the last one ended I did buy Lemon Zest, Beautiful Day, and at the last minute Beautiful Bouquet (which is where I got the "hello" from).  I won't be doing another new catty order until July so Sea of Textures is this year's featured set for me.  (Last year it was Orange Blossom, which I still can't believe it retired after one year!)  Anyway, I've inked up this octopus three times and two of those times he was purple.  Today he's black, and you can't tell but he's covered in Wink of Stella for some sparkle.

Octopi are animals, right?  Because the Paper Players challenge is all about the animals:

I used the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

To be honest I wish I'd used the Marbled background on my card front or something else and then left the oval behind the octopus plain, but my kiddo was waking up from his nap so I had to finish fast and I couldn't change it around.

Check out the Color Throwdown for this week:

I used Coastal Cabana for the aqua color; I've been mildly obsessed with it since it was announced that Coastal Cabana was returning to the SU! color lineup.  (I've done a couple of scrapbook layouts that haven't been shared here yet, plus a few cards that have been shared here.)

Hope you have a great day, y'all.  I've been fighting a cold all week and it is no fun, though Ryan thinks the noise I make when I blow my nose is super funny.  At least he's amused?

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea of Textures, Beautiful Bouquet
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Memento Tuxedo Black, Whisper White
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Under the Sea Framelits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, linen twine, Tailored Tag punch (to flag the end of the black banner), metallic sequins, Dimensionals

Let's Skip Summer

And go straight to fall!  I think that's what the folks at Global Design Project did.

Not that I'm complaining, I love making fall cards and scrapbook pages, but doesn't this color combination look like fall to you?  So I made a fall card even though it's June.

I'm so glad that SU! brought back glossy white cardstock, because it means I can do polished stone again!  You put a bit of isopropyl alcohol on a cotton ball, then a few drops of ink refill in whatever colors you want, then pounce it on the cardstock and it all blends together.  You just have to be careful with the color balance:  I used Real Red and Pumpkin Pie, and with two drops of red and three of orange it came out looking ALL red.  So I did two drops of red and five of orange, and that was a better balance.  Then I just cropped some leaves with the Seasonal Layers Thinlits.

I used this week's sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping:

You can just see the Rich Razzleberry circles peeking out beneath my leaves.  I'd wanted to use the Stitched Shapes Framelits, but even the smallest circle was a little too large to use on a regular A2 card front, so I switched it out for a 1" circle punch.

I hear my kiddo talking so I'm going to get him up, feed us both, and head for the gym.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Colorful Seasons, Tree Rings
Ink:  Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede
Paper:  Thick Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry, Glossy White
Accessories:  Seasonal Layers Thinlits, 1" circle punch, Dimensionals

Cocok's Toes 2009

Scrappy Monday!  Well, now that it's June I thought it was going to be really sunny and warm...nope, lots of clouds and it's actually pretty cool outside right now.  As someone who hates the heat and humidity that come with summer in the South, I'll take this :D  But I do have a summery layout to share today, and it's all about TOES!

When we lived in (on?) Okinawa, about every six weeks or so I'd go to a place called Cocok's (the K is silent, I know it's weird) for a pedicure.  For about $40, you could get an hour long massage and then whatever intricate design you could think up painted on your toes.  It was pretty awesome.  So of course I always took pictures of my toes, and this is the kind of thing you do with friends so I took pictures of my friends' toes too and here are all the Cocok's toes for 2009.

Ya know I love my mixed font titles.

If you click the picture of the whole layout to see it bigger, you'll see I modeled my scrapbook pages after my favorite toe design with the green stripes and bright yellow flowers.

We've got three long-retired colors as part of the palette today.  The page base is Green Galore, the stripes are Glorious Green, and Pink Passion for the flowers.  The other three colors are Daffodil Delight, Basic Gray, and Whisper White.

Time to feed the kiddo and then get going to the gym.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Back to Basics Alphabet, Broadsheet Alphabet, Flower Patch, Island Blossoms
Ink:  Gable Green, Glorious Green, Daffodil Delight, Pink Passion, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Green Galore, Glorious Green, Pink Passion, Whisper White, Beyond the Garden DSP
Accessories: none

China: Mythic Guardians

It's Sunday, so once again it's time for China pages!  Today's layout is the same color combination as the Yuyuan Gardens ones from last week because we were still in the gardens.

I thought I'd group together all of the pictures of the fantastical animal guardians for one layout.  Initially I wanted my title to go up the left side of the layout, but it wouldn't fit how I wanted it, so then I layered it over the photos which I almost never do but I think it worked out okay in this case.

The photos of the layout aren't the best, darn that glare, but you get the idea.

Same color combo as last time:  Pear Pizzazz, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Brilliant Blue, and a bit of Basic Gray for journaling and part of the title.

I found out there's a black bear festival this weekend so I think we're going to check that out today.  Our college mascot is a black bear so yep!  Gotta do it.  Hope to get some good pictures of our bear cub today for future scrappin'.  (Not that he has to go to Baylor when he grows up, but I did put him in a Baylor shirt this morning because bears.) Cheers, y'all!

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

Thankful Octopus

New catalog launch day!!  And I ordered just one stamp set from the preorder sooooo....

Okay I know I did a purple octopus last time, and sooner or later this octopus will appear in every color under the sea, but I saw an ad for something (I don't even remember what) that was Coastal Cabana and Gorgeous Grape so I had to use those colors.  I added Lemon Lime Twist because when is Lemon Lime Twist *not* a good idea :p There's actually a bit of subtle texture stamping on the LLT panel though it's hard to see in the photo.

I used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

Should have made the rectangle smaller to more strictly adhere to the sketch but oh well.  This card will be going out in the mail very soon; my in-laws gave Ryan a little wading pool and he LOVES that thing, so Ryan is going to send them a thank you card for it.  He likes to hop in the pool and then go put his cold wet hands on Dada's leg, haha!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea of Textures
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Lemon Lime Twist, Gorgeous Grape, Night of Navy
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  corner rounder punch, Under the Sea Thinlits, Dimensionals