Butterfly on Black

Happy Friday y'all!  Got any fun weekend plans?  I'll be trying to make some more progress on my scrapbook pages :D

But for now, a card!

The theme challenge from Global Design Project was the perfect excuse to bust out the Beautiful Day butterfly again (as if I need an excuse, haha!)

I paired that with the sketch from Inspire. Create.

Then I just picked some fun, bright colors of Blends and went to town.  And then I discovered that alcohol ink will kinda stain clear embossing powder. *shrug*

Have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Day
Ink:  Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Bermuda Bay, Mango Melody, Blackberry Bliss, and Basic Black
Paper:  Basic Black, Bermuda Bay, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  white baker's twine, Dimensionals

Timeless Country Greetings

Hey y'all!  Happy Thursday.  I lucked out yesterday:  I was super tired so I took a nap when my kiddo went down for his nap, but he stayed asleep long enough that after I woke up, I got this card made before he started making noise.  Yay naptime crafting!

I wouldn't want to mass produce this card just because of the fussy cutting, much less the coloring, but I do like how it turned out.

Challenge time!  Let's start with Freshly Made Sketches:

Hey, I stayed pretty close to the sketch this time!  Next up is the color challenge from Color Throwdown:

I used Berry Burst (just a teensy bit), Highland Heather, Mint Macaron (Old Olive was my first choice, but I don't have the Old Olive Blends yet so I went with Mint Macaron instead), and Crumb Cake.

Finally, check out the What Will You Stamp? challenge:

I used two stamps from Timeless Textures for the horizontal strips under the main image; I thought they really helped with the rustic look on this card.  I had a scrap of Mint Macaron patterned paper so I just snipped off a 1/2" strip for the left side of the card.  Easy peasy!

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

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Country Home, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Berry Burst, Mint Macaron, Crumb Cake; Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Mint Macaron, & Highland Heather
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Thick Whisper White, Tranquil Textures DSP
Accessories:  None

Mermaid in a Bottle

Hey y'all!  How's your week going?

I decided to pull out some retired stamps for today's card.  Check out the challenge from Cupcake Inspiration:

Both my stamp sets, Message in a Bottle and Seaside Shore, retired last summer but I just couldn't resist pulling them out for this challenge.

I also used the sketch from the Paper Players:

And I know who this card should go to, so I'm going to try to get it in the mail by the end of the week.  I need to actually MAIL more of the cards I make :)

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Message in a Bottle, Seaside Shore
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Call Me Clover, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Petal Pink, Basic Black, Real Red, & Call Me Clover
Paper:  Real Red, Thick Whisper White, Fresh Prints Stack
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Geared Up for Father's Day

Mornin' y'all!  It's time once more for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time around we're making masculine cards, so ya know, a REAL challenge ;) But I have Geared Up Garage and the coordinating DSP stack, so for once making a man card was easy!

This is a card I planned out in my head while I was doing something else and then when I got in my craft room it only took about 15 minutes to make, and really what made it take that long was going through all the patterned papers and choosing which ones I wanted to use.  The three background strips are each 1.25" wide by 5" tall, and if you line them up so they touch, you get a 1/4" border around them on your card front.  The Tranquil Tide strip was a scrap so I don't know offhand how wide it was, it just looked right on the card.  At first I stamped the "Happy Father's Day" stamp in plain Tranquil Tide on Whisper White, but it seemed *too* plain so I did it again in Memento Tuxedo Black and added a bit of Tranquil Tide (letters) and Smoky Slate (background).  Last of all, I added three silver sequins.  You will never convince me that men don't like shiny things as much as women...after all, CARS are shiny.  If you get them washed regularly, at least.  I need to get my car washed this week...

Anyway, check out the SUO Challenges blog and make a masculine card for us to ooh and ahh over.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Tranquil Tide, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Tranquil Tide, Thick Whisper White, Classic Garage DSP Stack
Accessories:  Garage Gears Thinlits, Dimensionals, metallic sequins

Hey Batter Batter

Mornin', y'all!  How's your Memorial Day going?  I've been sitting here eating blueberry streusel coffee cake and transferring pictures from my phone to the computer so I can have them printed for future scrapbook pages.  But right now I'm sharing a layout I made a couple months ago.

In my quest to get my older pictures scrapbooked, I've done a LOT of dog pages!  So here, once again, is Sadie the Teeny Pupster, this time playing with a baseball bat that my father-in-law mailed to her.  (As in, he wrote out a mailing label with SADIE's name on it, taped it to the bat, and they actually let him mail it like that!). Sadie had the bat for all of two minutes before she managed to sling it around and hit the hubs pretty hard in the shin, upon which it was immediately taken away forever more.  So it's a good thing I took pictures when I did!

Today's very bright Superman color palette includes Pacific Point, Poppy Parade, Yoyo Yellow, and Whisper White.  I always think of red-yellow-blue triadic color schemes as Superman colors, whether or not they're bright primary shades of the colors.

Sadly, now I have to get up and clean house.  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Tall Tales Alphabet
Ink:  Poppy Parade, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Pacific Point, Yoyo Yellow, Poppy Parade, Thick Whisper White, Pacific Point & Poppy Parade DSP
Accessories:  stickers

Tropical Chic Thanks

Hey y'all.  Well, I thought we were finally free and clear of whatever virus hit Ryan last week...nope.  Poor kiddo threw up again yesterday afternoon, and unfortunately he was in his car seat when it happened.  Do you KNOW how many nooks and crannies are in a car seat?

Ugh.

But after his nap he seemed like he'd bounced back to his normal cheerful little self, so here's hoping he's okay today.  In the meantime, I snuck into my craft room last night after he went to bed and made a quick card:

I just got some workout pants at Target that have tropical leaves on them (though they're more like Pacific Point and Call Me Clover than what I used on this card).  Can't wait to wear those for the first time :)  For this card, I used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

I figure my leaves and flowers qualify this card for the Paper Players challenge:

And I looooove the colors in this week's Color Throwdown:

I almost used Poppy Parade for the red color, but instead I pulled out my retired Watermelon Wonder ink pad because I love it and I haven't used it in a long time.  I used Coastal Cabana and Night of Navy for the other two colors.

Hope you have a great weekend y'all.  Stay cool.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tropical Chic
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Night of Navy, Watermelon Wonder
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Glitter Enamel Dots

Japanese Maple Thanks

Mornin', y'all!  I am happy to report that my paper trimmer did not bite me yesterday, though I admit I was a bit trepidatious when I used it (and hello stupid computer, trepidatious is actually a word!).

I made a very fast card yesterday and only used the paper trimmer to cut my card base, though.

The Basic Gray strip was already cut to 1/2" wide ;)  This very simple and kinda masculine card is the result of the Sunday Stamps color challenge:

Skipping the first color, I used Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler (applied with a sponge to lessen the intensity), Basic Black, and Basic Gray.

And here's the Freshly Made Sketch:

The leaf stamp I used has always made me think of Japanese maples, so that's what I'm calling it--I have no idea exactly what Japanese maple leaves actually look like.

That's it for me today, folks.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rooted in Nature
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black
Paper:  Thick Very Vanilla, Basic Gray
Accessories:  Nature's Roots Framelits, Mini Dimensionals

Ambivalent Cheers

Hey y'all!  After my paper trimmer bit me on Monday, I decided to take yesterday off from my craft room...luckily before I hurt myself on Monday I actually made two cards.  So here's the second one:

I bought Bloom By Bloom even though it's not carrying over to the new catalog because I just really liked the bold flowers.  The Tropical Escape DSP stack is one of my favorites.  And still...I'm not sure I really like this card much.  I don't know why, but it's not jiving with me.  Oh well, not every card can be your favorite.

I loosely based my card on the Global Design Project sketch:

I don't really care for square cards, so I made mine A2 size.  I also used the colors from the Just Us Girls inspiration photo:

I used Granny Apple Green, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, and a smidge of Shaded Spruce.  I was going to use some Highland Heather to bring in the purple but it didn't work on my card.

That's it for me today, y'all.  I'll have to get back in my craft room this afternoon and hope my paper trimmer hasn't developed a taste for my fingers ;)  At least I made some really great progress on my giant stitching project yesterday!  Yeah, I skipped the paper trimmer in my craft room in favor of hanging out with dozens of needles and some sharp scissors.  But I didn't get injured with my stitching...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bloom By Bloom, Itty Bitty Birthdays
Ink:  Granny Apple Green, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Thick Whisper White, Tropical Escape DSP Stack
Accessories:  Rectangle Stitched Framelits, Mini Dimensionals

Geared Up

Hi y'all!  Okay, how many of you have cut yourself with a paper trimmer?  'Cause I was working on a scrapbook layout yesterday after I finished this card, and I tried to chop off the end of my left index finger because I am a dum-dum.  Just wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing.  At least I have fun Star Wars Band-Aids?

Crafting can be perilous, y'all.  But I did make this card before I injured myself:

I "colored" the car with the oil stain stamp from the same stamp set (Geared Up Garage) and that might be my new favorite way to color in line art images.  I looove it.  Also, the die cut rectangle wasn't quite long enough for what I wanted, so I chopped off the end, and the strip of paper with the street signs covers the gap.  I used the CAS(E) This Sketch from last week:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees since the car image is too wide to work with a vertical orientation of the sketch.  I chose the car image because of the What Will You Stamp? challenge:

I have a son, a brother, and a dad who are all obsessed with cars, so buying this stamp set was a no-brainer for me.  Maybe next time I'll make a card without using the car image...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Tranquil Tide, Crushed Curry, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Thick Whisper White, Classic Garage DSP
Accessories:  Rectangle Stitched Shapes Framelits

Hadrian's Wall

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I did get a bit of scrapping done over the weekend, I finished three layouts :) I've got a stack of layouts I need to take pictures of, but in the meantime here's one that I recently finished:

These pictures are from our first trip to Scotland, see them here.  I once won a game of Trivial Pursuit because I knew the name of the Roman emperor who build the wall between Roman Britannia and Scotland, and then years later I got to visit the wall in question!  How cool is THAT.

I admit I had some trouble coming up with a color palette for this layout, and I'm not at all sure I ended up with the "right" one.  I added the plaid pattern because Scotland but...I don't know?  Anyway, today's color palette includes Bordering Blue, Really Rust, Garden Green, Night of Navy, Basic Gray, River Rock, and Very Vanilla.

Kiddo has been barf-free since Friday morning (YAYYYYY!) so we're going to the Y!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Well-Worn Alphabet, Rough Type, My Paper Pumpkin (apostrophe)
Ink:  Night of Navy, Garden Green, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Bordering Blue textured, Basic Gray, Garden Green, Very Vanilla, Apple Cider & Prestwick DSPs
Accessories:  None

Soaring Congratulations

Mornin' y'all!  Ryan is still sick, so we're calling the doctor today.  I thought he was getting better yesterday, other than being tired...both of us fell asleep on the couch yesterday morning watching Cars 3.  I think I'm going to have those movies memorized before long.

Anyway!  During his afternoon nap, I got a card made!  Here it is:

Lift Me Up and the coordinating Up & Away Framelits are both retiring (though of course that doesn't mean they're leaving my craft room).  I love this die cut balloon, and I thought it would be great for the Global Design Project color challenge:

My first thought was butterflies, but I feel like I've done a lot of butterflies lately, so instead I went with the hot air balloon.  I also used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

The balloon and clouds on my card are what I used for the three circles on the sketch, I did a bit of a looser interpretation but I think you can still see it.  Oh, I took Ryan for a walk the other day and he kept saying "I see cows!" and I was like, "But there aren't any cows around here, kid" and finally he pointed up and said "I see C'OUDS!!" (because he doesn't really say L) and I was like "OOOHHHH CLOUDS!"  And he looked at me like yeah, I've been saying that for the past five minutes.  I love that kid.

Hope you have a great weekend, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Night of Navy, Coastal Cabana, Gorgeous Grape, Pineapple Punch, Smoky Slate, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Up & Away Framelits, Dimensionals

Watercolor Wildflowers

Hey y'all.  Yesterday was a looooooooooooooong day because Ryan woke up at 3:00 throwing up, and then didn't want to go back to sleep until about 9 a.m. and then was only down for about an hour.  He seems like he's feeling better now, so here's hoping there are no further relapses into last weekend's stomach bug.  I went and bought a new bottle of laundry detergent yesterday because we're going through it so fast :p

Ryan DID take a nap yesterday afternoon, so I got to make this:

And yes, watercoloring that panel took FOR.EV.ER!!!  I thought to myself why didn't I decide to make a 3x3 card??  But I liked how it turned out.  I stamped the big flower from Beautiful Day (I bought that set on a whim and I freakin' LOVE IT) in Sahara Sand ink (stamped off once) and then just went to town watercoloring around it.  Does this count as no-line watercolor if I watercolored the lines back on?  The ribbon is retired, but it's what I have on hand and no one is policing that on my blog anyway so I can do whatever I want. :p

I was inspired by the challenge graphic from Retro Rubber:

I love that green bottle; kinda wish my card idea had ended up with a much more saturated green but my stamping muse said watercolor so I watercolored.  Obviously I used the main colors from the picture on my card.  Beautiful Day is just one year old, but Touches of Texture I've had for at least two and a half years...and the word die is brand spankin' new because like I said before, Imma be using that set of dies a lot.  They're fun.  But do be careful to grab the dots for your "I"s...I had to dig through the trash to find the one for my bridal shower card earlier this week.  Oops.

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

Very simple sketch, I like it a lot.  Lots of scope for imagination, as Anne Shirley would say.

Cheers, y'all!  Stay healthy.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Day, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Tranquil Tide, Mint Macaron, Garden Green, Flirty Flamingo, Berry Burst, Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Tranquil Tide, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Well Written Framelits, retired ribbon

Bridal Rose

Hey y'all!  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

Today we're sharing spring cards, including Mother's Day if you're late (like me).  I *almost* made a Mother's Day card, but then the card insisted it was a bridal shower card instead.  Lookie:

I got my new catalog preorder late on Thursday but last week was so hectic that I didn't get to play with the new schtuff until the weekend.  Well Said and the coordinating dies are in the Occasions catalog but I just now got them because I didn't want to miss out on the 10% discount bundle pricing.  I can tell those are going to be favorites for me. 

Brand new stuff alert!  To A Wild Rose is a new stamp set with coordinating dies, and I stamped my rose with the new In Color Rococo Rose.  The DSP is new too, it's called Garden Lane and it's my favorite new DSP even though there are LOTS of great new DSPs.  This reminds me of the old, old set Wintergreen, which I've used on my scrapbook layouts a lot.  I was actually thinking maybe I should try to find some more on eBay or something because I don't have much of it left, and then Garden Lane came along.  It's all in shades of green (my favorite color) and I LOVES IT.

So now it's your turn to show us some spring on your papercrafting project!  Add your linky at the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To A Wild Rose, Well Said
Ink:  Rococo Rose, Merry Merlot, Mint Macaron, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Merry Merlot, Thick Whisper White, Garden Lane DSP
Accessories:  Wild Rose Dies, Well Written Framelits, Dimensionals

Whale Watching

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Hope you had a good Mother's Day weekend.  Ours was exhausting and barfy on Ryan's part, unfortunately.  He woke up at 11:00 on Saturday night throwing up and hollering for Mama, and then we all spent the next hour and a half trying to comfort Ryan while he was sick, cleaning up everything he was sick on, and changing clothes.  Ryan, the hubs and I all went through at least two outfits each.  Then poor Ryan alternated between saying he wanted to go to bed or watch Cars, so in the end we took his mattress out to the living room and he laid on that and watched Cars 2.  Twice.  The whole movie.  When it ended again a bit after 2 a.m., Ryan asked to put it on again and I was like nooooo we're going to sleep.  So Ryan slept on his mattress in the living room, and I tried to sleep on the couch next to him, and at 6:30 yesterday morning, Ryan woke up all chipper, poked me and said, "Cars on TV?"  So I started the movie again, and at 7 I tagged out with the hubs and tried to go to sleep for a bit in my own bed.  Meanwhile, hubs took Ryan to the store to get stuff for breakfast, and Ryan insisted on buying flowers for Mama, so when I woke up again I got cherry turnovers and a dozen red roses.  Awwwww.

Anywha, all that barfiness made me think of this layout so I have to re-share it today:

Hubs and I went on a whale watching tour in 2007 when we lived in Okinawa, and I didn't see not ONE STINKING WHALE because I got seasick for almost the entire time we were on the boat.  Actually, although I was the first to succumb, by the end of it there were only three people on the boat who had NOT gotten sick, including my hubs and the captain of the boat.  All the rest of us were miserable.  Don't know that I'll ever voluntarily go on a whale watching expedition again.

Hope your weekend involved much less barf and laundry than ours did.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!

Stamps:  Ocean Commotion, Big Deal Alphabet

Ink:  Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White

Paper:  Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Haiku DSP

Accessories:  None

Hello, Beautiful Butterflies

Mornin' y'all!  Ready for a bright springy card?

I've had a lot of fun playing with Butterfly Gala since I bought it, so when I saw this week's What Will You Stamp? challenge of course I had to join in.

I combined that with the CASE the Designer challenge from Global Design Project:

I kept the same layout with the rectangles and the pattern behind the main image panel (though I stamped mine rather than using DSP), and I kept my card springy but with different colors.  Speaking of colors, check out the fun palette from As You See It:

I added a bit of black and white but otherwise only used those three colors.  I stamped off every other butterfly so there are light and dark pink ones, but they're all Lovely Lipstick.

Well, I've got a very busy day ahead so I'm going to hop to it.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Butterfly Gala, Post Script
Ink:  Pineapple Punch, Lovely Lipstick, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Pineapple Punch, Powder Pink, Basic Black
Accessories:  Rectangle Stitched Framelits, Butterfly Duet Punch

Hot Wheels Birthday

Mornin' folks!  Hope you're having a good week.

I inked up another new stamp set!

I needed a birthday card for a 4-year-old boy who's obsessed with Matchbox cars, so Geared Up Garage to the rescue!  Love the coordinating Classic Garage DSP too; I used three prints for this card.

And here's the inside, with a simple greeting from Itty Bitty Birthdays.

I used the sketch from Fusion:

I love the inspiration picture too, but butterflies wouldn't work so well for the card I needed :)  I'm also entering this at Just Us Girls:

Cars move, and little boys never stop moving, so I think I'm covered on this one :)

Have a great day y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage, Itty Bitty Birthdays
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Stampin' Blends in Real Red, Smoky Slate, and Pool Party
Paper:  Real Red, Thick Whisper White, Classic Garage DSP
Accessories:  Garage Gears Thinlits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals

Sympathy for Cleo

I was talking to my dad this weekend and he said this has not been a good year for dogs.  First my Vader died in February, my friend Amber's senior dog died a few weeks ago, and a week ago my almost-sister and her husband had to put down their dog because of kidney or liver problems.  Then on Friday my sister-in-law got home to discover that their dog Cleo had been attacked by another dog--no idea how the other dog got in their backyard, but she rushed Cleo to the animal hospital immediately. Sadly, the damage was too extensive and she died on Friday night.  Poor Cleo was a 13-year-old dog with just 3 legs.  I feel so badly for my SIL and brother.  And of course Cleo.

Hey, I used the dog stamp instead of just the punch.  I watercolored the dog in about the same color that Cleo was (though paper Cleo has four legs instead of three).  I know she frequently wore a purple color because that's SIL's favorite color, so that's how I chose Highland Heather.  Smoky Slate just seemed to go with the other two colors.

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

The elements in the corner of the sketch reminded me of All Adorned, which was a later Sale-a-Bration offiering this year.

I'm also entering this at Just Add Ink:

I hate making sympathy cards, and I'd much rather do it when I don't need one rather than having to make one for a specific thing.

Poor little Cleo.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Happy Tails, All Adorned
Ink:  Basic Gray, So Saffron, Highland Heather
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Highland Heather, Thick Whisper White, Watercolor paper
Accessories:  Dog punch, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Labels Collection Framelits (retired)

Mother's Day Pictures (2005)

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your weekend?

We're going waaaayyyyy back to 2004 (I think?) for today's layout:

And also some non-SU paper *shocked face* I used to put photos in the page protectors of a scrapbook album along with whatever paper I wanted to use, so when I finally made these pages I just pulled out the paper I'd stuck in there years ago.  I did use some Stampin' Up! colors for the mats.  We had these pictures taken for my mom for Mother's Day that year, so I thought this week would be a good time to share them.

Today's color palette includes a color that looks sorta like Pink Pirouette, along with actual Strawberry Slush, Lavender Lace, and Whisper White.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  None
Ink:  Lavender Lace marker
Paper:  non-SU pink, Strawberry Slush, Lavender Lace, Whisper White, patterned paper by Sonburn
Accessories:  Corner rounder punch