Dinos Know How To Party

Mornin' y'all and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  I'm excited to dress up with Ryan this evening to pass out candy.  He's still too little to contemplate giving him a gigundor pile of sugar, so we won't be trick-or-treating; I do have a really, REALLY gigundor pile of sugar for the kids who come to our house (I've heard there are lots of trick-or-treaters in this neighborhood).

Anyway, my honorary niece Leora has her birthday today, isn't that fun?  Back in September Leora and her mama called me and asked if I could make invitations for Leora's birthday party.  Leora wanted something with DINOSAURS and BATS and THE MOOOOOOON!!!  I asked what her favorite colors are and she said RAINBOOOOWWWWWW!!!

So what would you do with those guidelines?  I can show you what I did...

Dinosaurs?  Check.  Bats?  Check.  The MOOOOOON?  Check.  And even dinosaur bones because Halloween.  And also lots of colors and even some glitter because what 7-year-old girl doesn't love glitter.  It took a while to heat emboss the dinosaurs and the moon after I stamped the dino bones and the bats, but then the backgrounds were done super-quick by inking up a baby wipe with drops of ink refill and swiping across the glossy white cardstock.  Navy blue and teal for the sky, dark green for the ground.  I made 20 of these during naptime over the course of a few days.  Hope Leora liked them!

Ryan and I will shortly be heading to the gym as a way to keep my paws off the Halloween candy.  Ryan is too young to read the bags so he doesn't know what he's missing yet, hahahahahaaaa!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  No Bones About It, Tiny Talk, Simply Circles, Wicked Cool
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Granny Apple Green, Mango Melody, Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy, Garden Green, Basic Black, Versamark
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, retired glimmer paper
Accessories:  circle punch, Decorative Label punch, clear EP, Dimensionals

Candy for a Canine

I still want to make ALL THE HALLOWEEN CARDS and it turns out that Halloween is tomorrow.  It's been sneaking up on me.  But at least I did get ONE card made with the last of the Halloween stamp sets that I hadn't used yet...

This cute lil doggy witch is from Trick or Tweet, which I tried to resist and obviously I failed miserably and I'm okay with that.  Really you don't see a lot of doggos on Halloween stuff, unless they're of the werewolf variety...Halloween seems more like a catty holiday?  But I love this pupper and I used him to practice with my Blends again.  I just got a couple new colors yesterday, including Highland Heather.  Slowly working on completing my set!  Anyway, you always hear about the old dog who won't learn new tricks, so I thought this little pup would go great with the "No Tricks, Just Treats" sentiment.

I used the sketch from the Paper Players:

It was fun picking papers for each layer and playing with Halloween colors one more time.  But pretty soon here it's on to all things FALL and THANKSGIVING!  And maybe a few early Christmas things too, we'll see.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Trick or Tweet, Spooky Sweets
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Mango Melody, Highland Heather, Smoky Slate, Basic Black, and Crumb Cake
Paper:  Mango Melody, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Toil & Trouble DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Darth Sadie

Salutations and greetings, friends!  Since Halloween is just a couple of days away, I have to share this layout from Sadie's first Halloween with us back in 2006.  Introducing...

Darth Sadie!  Ahhhh I loved that costume, it was hilarious.  We didn't get our dog Vader until the next year, and he was a bit older when we got him so I never tried to put him in the Darth Vader costume.  The hubs staunchly refuses to help put costumes on the dogs; he says "This is why dogs bite people!" But he does take pictures for me.  Sadie did the toddler thing where she suddenly turns to a puddle of mush while I was trying to get the costume on her, but eventually I wrestled her into it and then she was a Very Good Girl and didn't try to eat her costume for an entire hour.  She did, however, flatly refuse to wear the helmet, but that's okay.  All the trick-or-treaters thought she looked amazing anyway.

Today's color palette is Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White, and Smoky Slate.  And Sadie is very relieved that since Ryan got here, I'm more interested in dressing *him* up and she doesn't have to participate.  Ha!!  Vader would be happy to dress up as long as we tell him he's a good boy and give him treats.  Vader is such a Hufflepuff.  Sadie, though, she's a Slytherin.  I don't know which house Ryan would be in yet...

Supplies:
Stamps:  Headline Alphabet
Ink:  Real Red, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Basic Black, Real Red, Smoky Slate, Summer Smooches DSP, Smoky Slate DSP
Accessories:  Circle punch, hexagon punch, epoxy stickers from Creative Imaginations

China: Terracotta Shop

It's China Sunday again!  After we finished the 8-mile bike ride around the city walls of Xi'an, we hopped in our van and made our way to the tomb of Qin Shi Huang Di, but of course we had to go to the shop first.  Our Chinese tour guides are mandated to take tourists to as many shops as possible to get us to spend lots of money!  And actually we did buy some things here.

And we had some fun with the life-size models of the terra cotta warriors.

There's a closeup of the journaling should you wish to read it.

I made the layouts for our visit to the tomb itself before I did this one, but I used the same colors:  Bordering Blue, Summer Starfruit, Night of Navy, and Whisper White.

Kiddo just made a mess, so I'd better sign off for now.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Rough Type
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Bordering Blue, Summer Starfruit, Night of Navy DSP
Accessories:  lettering template

Spooky Bats

Happy Friday y'all!  I wish we had a few more days in October...like maybe an extra week or two...because I love to make Halloween cards!  I'm going to try really hard to actually SEND some out this year too, ha!

I'm in love with Spooky Sweets.

My first idea was to put a stamped-off Cajun Craze moon punch on the circle with the bats, but the circle by itself was reading like the moon so I left it off.  And take a look at that picture, I got the Wink of Stella sparkle to SHOW UP on the bats when I took the picture!!!  I also made my own Candy Dots on the bottom, they're Cajun Craze like the sentiment, with Wink of Stella on them too.  The black stripes were a scrap of DSP I had in my stash, part of a retired stack.

Check out the Fusion challenge:

I used the sketch and the photo inspired me as well.  I paired those with the Color Throwdown challenge:

I read those colors as Lost Lagoon (sadly retired, I love this color), Cajun Craze, and Very Vanilla.  The Fusion photo inspired me to add black to these colors for my spooky bats, but I love that if you swapped the black for some Early Espresso then these would be most excellent fall colors as well.  (I love fall cards too.  Really, October and November are my favorite part of the year.)

I still have one brand new Halloween stamp set that I haven't even inked up yet.  I'd better get on that soon or Halloween will have passed me by!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spooky Sweets, Labels to Love
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Basic Black DSP
Accessories:  Spooky Bats punch, Everyday Label Punch, Layering Circles Framelits, hole punch, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Thanksgiving Apple...Pie

I love to bake, but most of the time I make cookies and muffins.  Generally I only make pies about twice a year, one of those times being Thanksgiving and I *always* make an apple pie for my husband.  And a pumpkin pie for me ;) So today I bring you...Thanksgiving apples.

Up to now, I've tried to mostly stick to current Stampin' Up! stamps and papers for the cards I share (though my scrapbook pages frequently feature retired items).  Since my customer base has pretty much dried up altogether, and there's absolutely no one policing what I put on my blog, I've decided that if I want to make something with retired stamps, then by golly I'm gonna make it.  So for today's card I pulled out two retired stamp sets that are nice and retro for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

Perfectly Preserved (from whence the apples came) is six years old, and Lighthearted Leaves (source of the sentiment) is three years old.  I looked at this picture yesterday morning and then didn't take another peek before I made my card so I didn't realize there are no apples on it.  But I did remember seeing a whole lot of yellow, so that influenced my choice of patterned paper.  And I had to use apples because of the Paper Players challenge:

Okay, so my card is a bit on the slightly busy side of CAS, but the design is uncluttered and it's the gingham patterned paper that makes it look busier than it really is.  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

So there's today's retro apple card.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, Lighthearted Leaves
Ink:  Early Espresso, Raspberry Ripple, Lucky Limeade
Paper:  Thick Very Vanilla, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Cannery Framelits, Dimensionals

Frosty Roses

And how are you this fine Wednesday morning?  Ryan and I will soon be on our way to the gym so I can do pilates and run two miles while he plays in the nursery and eats snacks.  I actually do enjoy going to the gym six days a week.

But first, a card!  A shimmery card.

 I love that the Frosted Floral DSP has a shimmer to it, and of course that means I have to pair it with Shimmery White cardstock.  You can see some of the shimmer where the camera flash caught it just under the roses.  I used the latest sketch from Palmtrees and Pogo Sticks:

And the color combination from Just Us Girls:

Technically I used two greens for my combination, Mint Macaron and Tranquil Tide; the other colors are Night of Navy and Fresh Fig.  Blackberry Bliss is the purple that's featured in the Frosted Floral DSP, but I feel like I haven't used Fresh Fig very much so I went with that instead.  I was going for a rich regal take on the colors.  I made the mottled Fresh Fig background by grabbing the "cloud" stamp from Spooky Sweets and stamping it off twice before stamping on my card base.  Love how that turned out!  And it shows you that a Halloween set is more than a one-trick pony.

Dangit, I just realized I had meant to add some glitter epoxy shapes to my card and I forgot to do it before I took the photo.  Oh well, next time!

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  First Frost, Spooky Sweets
Ink:  Fresh Fig, Night of Navy, Tranquil Tide
Paper:  Shimmery White, Night of Navy, Frosted Floral DSP
Accessories:  Frosted Bouquet Framelits, Layering Circles Framelits, Dimensionals

Kind Sunflowers

Mornin', y'all!  Okay, I said it was cold yesterday morning, but it turned out to be a GORGEOUS day, I loved it.  I love being able to wear long sleeves and drink a morning cuppa tea without sweating.

And I have a very fall card for today!

This card is NOT easy to photograph, however.  I did a vellum overlay on the main image panel, and the sentiment is stamped on the vellum and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  That means IRL you can read the sentiment easily and still have super rich, saturated colors lurking under the vellum...

Just like that.  This is probably my favorite way to use vellum, and thus I'm entering this at Inkspirational:

I got my color combination from Global Design Project:

I added copious amounts of Early Espresso but otherwise stuck strictly to the challenge colors.

Last up is the Sketch Saturday sketch:

I hope the challenge gods will forgive me for changing the twine from going across the bottom of the main panel to anchoring the vellum in place.

Hope you have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Harvest
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Early Espresso
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Thick Very Vanilla, Country Lane DSP
Accessories:  clear EP, linen thread, Dimensionals

Snow & Ice 2017

Mornin', y'all!  I woke up this morning and it was 34 degrees, and we had frost on the ground.  We had like two days of fall weather and all of a sudden it feels like winter!  Okay, it's going to be in the 60s later today but still, awfully chilly this morning.  Which definitely influenced my choice of scrapbook layout to share today...

These pics are from late January 2017, when we got some winter weather just before Ryan's due date (although he didn't arrive until a good two weeks after I took these pictures).  I walked down to a little wooded area down the block from our townhouse to take some pictures of the snow on the trees, and took a few more of the doggos out in the common area.  Sadie loves her some snow.

Okay wow it must have been really overcast the day I took pictures of this layout and color palette, those colors look all wonky.  I used Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo, Smoky Slate, and Whisper White for my wintry layout.

I don't hear Ryan moving around yet, so I'm going to go drink my morning cuppa before I get him up.  Cheers y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Snowflakes, Empire Alphabet Upper, Big Deal Alphabet
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo, Winter Frost DSP
Accessories:  None

China: UDO

Mornin' y'all!  It's time for another China Sunday.  I just finished my orange cranberry muffins and a nice hot cuppa tea so I'm ready to go for the day :)

So, when I left off, we were doing our 8-mile bike ride on the city walls of Xi'an.  When we got to the fourth side, we discovered these:

None of us knew what to call them, so I jokingly said they were Unidentified Decorative Objects (UDOs) and it kinda stuck as a name.  I thought that floral pattern went pretty well with the colors in the UDOs, but that floral pattern is so busy it's best to use it in smaller quantities so I went with one thick strip of it for each layout.

And here is the second layout for you.  I kept these pretty simple since the pictures (and the floral paper) are pretty busy.

Today's very bright color palette is comprised of Summer Sun, Ruby Red, and Basic Black.

And that's all she wrote today.  I'm going to enjoy a few more hours with the hubs before he drives back to Virginia Beach for school.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rough Type, Love & Affection, Bodacious Bouquet
Ink:  Basic Black, Groovy Guava, Ruby Red
Paper:  Summer Sun, Basic Black, Ginger Blossom & Botanical Gardens DSP
Accessories:  none

Celestina Warbeck

I've been re-watching the Harry Potter movies for the past few days...I watched Prisoner of Azkaban last night while I stitched, and I underestimated how long that movie is.  If I had a Time Turner I would definitely use it every single night because then I could stay up late, turn it a few times and go to bed early!  Wouldn't THAT be awesome.

Anyway, in the later books, Mrs. Weasley likes to spend Christmas listening to Celestina Warbeck on the radio, and one of her songs is "A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love" and I'm pretty sure that's what my little pastel witchy-poo has brewed up today.

This cute little witch and all the rest of the stamps I used today are part of Cauldron Bubble, so I'll enter this over at What Will You Stamp:

I decided to go the pastel route for Celestina due to the latest challenge from Fusion: 

I was a bit limited by what Stampin' Blends I have so far, so I used Petal Pink (the light one is a good skin tone color), Mint Macaron, and the light Rich Razzleberry.  I probably wouldn't have put those three shades together on my own but I think I made them work?  I would have used Pool Party if I had that color in the Blends but I don't.  And I would have used Highland Heather but I only have Rich Razzleberry and Blackberry Bliss for purples.  Clearly I need to get all the rest of the Blends ;)  And I should probably look up some videos to learn how to make them, y'know, BLEND.

Last up is the Just Add Ink sketch:

Cute, I like it.

The hubs is coming home for the weekend this afternoon, can't wait to see him again!  And this weekend, since it finally feels like fall, I shall be making a cauldron full of...taco soup.  Yum!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cauldron Bubble
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Mint Macaron, Petal Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Stampin' Blends in Mint Macaron, Petal Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Petal Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Cauldron Thinlits, Wink of Stella, mini Dimensionals

Happy Anniversary to My One and Only

Mornin' y'all!  On this day 15 years ago I married my sweet husband, so of course today I'm sharing an anniversary card.

I did my best to edit the photo but the colors look terrible, sorry.  I used Blueberry Bushel and Call Me Clover for the hearts and sentiment; the card base is Whisper White and the background is done with Balmy Blue and a baby wipe and I might be doing this same technique for a while because it's fun and I just got a huuuuuuge box of wipes for Ryan so at least some of them will go toward something fun.

Anywha, I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch and my card came together lickety-split:

We only have a very few of our wedding pictures in digital format on our computer, but I found this one so here's me and the hubs 15 years ago:

#suchbabies #stillgoingstrong #lovemyhubs

D'awwwwwwwww.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Takeout Treats, Beautiful Bouquet
Ink:  Call Me Clover, Blueberry Bushel, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Takeout Thinlits, retired epoxy shapes

Gather Together

Mornin', kids!  This week is going by pretty fast but I'm glad because my husband will be home this weekend and I miss him.  In the meantime I've been getting my fingers inky!

Also I think I'm just going to steal a pack of Ryan's wipes to stay in my craft room.  I bunched up a wipe and dabbed it on my Crushed Curry ink pad for part of the background on here, and even before I stamped the leaves and the green splats it looked pretty cool.  I never did baby wipe techniques back in the day because I didn't have baby wipes...well, I do now!  Everything old is new again, right?

Anyway, just three challenges today.  First up is the Global Design Project challenge:

I used different images from the same stamp set (Rooted in Nature) and I used linen thread on mine, similar to the baker's twine the Krista used on her card.  My colors are courtesy of the Paper Players:

I love me a good fall palette.  And also I love the new Thick Very Vanilla cardstock, and the Thick Whisper White that's been around for a bit longer.  Other than occasionally using the thinner stuff to line the inside of a dark card, I use the thick stuff for like errythang.  It's great.

Last up is the Fall-To Layout from Palmtrees and Pogo Sticks:

That one's a classic.  I used the twine instead of buttons because a.) I had twine and not buttons, and b.) the card will go through the mail just fine with twine while buttons are problematic.  Cute, but post office problematic.

Okay kids, today we're off to the gym so I can take pilates and hope that my hamstrings will stretch out and quit yelling at me.  I did dead lifts on Monday and now my legs wish they were dead.  Ta-ta for now, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rooted in Nature, Painted Harvest, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Mossy Meadow, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Mossy Meadow, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Linen thread, Dimensionals

The Witch Is In

Well, I had to dust off everything in my craft room, but I did get a card made yesterday so yay me!  (And thank you to Ryan, who took a nice long nap!)  Right before my unplanned hiatus, I ordered pretty much all of the Halloween stuff from the SU! holiday catalog, so I had to play with that first.  Here's what I did:

New stamp set, new paper, even new markers!  I used the Basic Black Blends to color in the witch's hat.  I'm working on my Blends collection but I think this is only the first or second time I've used them.  Anyway, this card is a first for me:  a QUINTUPLE CHALLENGE CARD.  And I didn't pick three Halloween theme challenges either...actually none of them is a Halloween theme challenge.

First up is the SUO Challenge to use something from the holiday catalog.  I am not at all ready for Christmas cards, so I went with Halloween instead and that Toil & Trouble DSP kinda feels like retro DSP because it reminds me of a lot of stuff I had when I first started scrapbooking (which is --gulp-- over 20 years ago).

Next up is the What Will You Stamp? challenge:

I kept telling myself I wasn't going to get this stamp set and then oops, it came to my house anyway.  Um, I bought all the Halloween stuff this year (stamps and paper anyway, not ribbon and embellishments because I tend not to use that stuff although the black glitter ribbon would have been awesome on this card).  I'm a little bummed I missed when they did the Takeout Treats challenge because I own that stamp set and it hasn't been inked up yet.

Moving right along!  Here's the color challenge courtesy of Fab Friday:

I reeeeeallllly wanted to add some Granny Apple Green or Lemon Lime Twist in there but I was a good girl and stuck strictly to the challenge colors.  Great Halloween colors.

Next up is the Sketch Saturday sketch:

I only recently started following this challenge and this is my first time to play along over there.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Just Us Girls trend week challenge:

Because there are stars on my witch's hat.  :D. There's a really great starry pattern in the Toil & Trouble DSP but I think I may hoard it for future use.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Fingers crossed I can pick up some momentum this week and stamp some more schtuff!  Gotta at least get some ink on the Halloween goodies before the end of the month, right?  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cauldron Bubble, Spooky Sweets
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pumpkin Pie, Gorgeous Grape, Basic Black Blends
Paper:  Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Toil & Trouble DSP
Accessories:  Frosted Bouquet Framelits, Cauldron Framelits, white baker's twine, hole punch, glitter enamel shape, mini Dimensionals

 P.S.  Thought you might like to see one of the projects I recently finished stitching as I think it fits in with today's card:

The pattern is by Satsuma Street; I've also done her owls pattern and these are both with my mom to be framed.  I've recently become a fan of dyed fabric for cross stitch pieces; I got this purple from a lady who sells hand-dyed fabrics through Facebook and we won't even talk about how big my stash is already.  I love alllllll the pretty colors!

OBX

Soooo apparently I was kidding about that whole "same bat time, same bat channel" thing ;)  The day after I posted that card, I got a bad headache and didn't do anything and then...well, I got a teensy bit completely obsessed with a cross stitch project.  I had set it aside for almost a year while I worked on some other smaller projects and I just picked it back up maybe a month ago.  So that's what I've been doing.

But today I plan to get back in my craft room and do some stamping!  So let's start the week out with a scrapbook layout from, uh....2005? 2006? I don't remember.  But it's the beach!

This was the year my parents came out to North Carolina for Thanksgiving, and then we drove to the Outer Banks and then up to Washington DC (my first-ever trip to DC).  That stupid B in the title is totally crooked--I had the most trouble with it.  I actually DROPPED the inked-up stamp on the paper the first time I was trying to do the title, so I had to peel everything up and flip the paper over because it was all messed up but I didn't want to just trash a sheet of 12x12 cardstock.  So I may have muttered imprecations at it but the B is staying crooked.

Today's color palette includes Mint Macaron, Midnight Muse, the long-retired Cranberry Crisp, and my first-ever use of Gray Granite on a scrapbook page, where it is the journaling block.

Okay, kiddo is making noise so it's time to do breakfast.  Cheers, y'all!  Hope to be back tomorrow with a card.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  By The Seashore, Larger Than Life Alphabet
Ink:  Mint Macaron, Midnight Muse, Cranberry Crisp, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Midnight Muse, Cranberry Crisp, Gray Granite, Midnight Muse DSP
Accessories:  None