Get Well, Pumpkin

Hey y'all!  Happy Friday...even happier because it's a long weekend :)  And I always think of Labor Day as the last hurrah of summer/first hint of fall, so today I've got a fall-inspired card to share.

Of course it doesn't show up in the picture, but I painted the pumpkins on the main image panel with Wink of Stella so they sparkle.  Also, since I wanted to pop up the sentiment strip on Dimensionals, I layered the DSP on some white cardstock so it would be a bit more sturdy.  The sentiment and the teal pumpkin are both popped up.

Let's have a big hooray for Freshly Made Sketches' 400th sketch:

I really liked this sketch, it was really more of a question of narrowing down all the ideas in my head to just one card.  In the end, I couldn't resist using that beautiful Come to Gather DSP.  I'm going to be mixing up the names of the DSP and the stamp set and the dies because they all have "gather" in the name.  I think I'll have to get at least one extra pack of the paper before it retires, too.  It's SO pretty!

That's it for this week, folks.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gather Together
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Pretty Peacock, Early Espresso
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Early Espresso, Thick Whisper White, Come to Gather DSP
Accessories:  Gathered Leaves dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Bouquet on Black

Hey, y'all!  I had a zillion things to do yesterday, so naturally, I spent an hour and a half while kiddo was asleep in my craft room making some cards :D

I liked the sketch from the Paper Players so I couldn't let the week end without playing along:

Didn't realize until I was starting to write this blog post that I didn't follow where the sentiment was on the sketch, but I think they'll forgive me.  I paired that with the colors from Color Throwdown:

I used Mango Melody, Flirty Flamingo, Pineapple Punch, and Granny Apple Green for my colors.  I thought the black card base really made the bright colors pop :)

Cheers y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Bouquet
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Flirty Flamingo, Pineapple Punch, Mango Melody, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Basic Black, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Rectangle Stitched dies, Bouquet Bunch dies, Dimensionals

Halloween Birthday Cat

Hey, y'all.  Well, it's official:  I have succumbed to whatever virus my kiddo and my husband have had.  I'm kinda miserable.  But I gotta keep moving forward!

My friend Sarah's daughter was born on Halloween, and Sarah *loves* Halloween. Sometimes they ask me to make birthday party invites for Leora (I'd be invited, but ever since we all left Japan, it seems like we've been living on different continents!).  So Sarah messaged me yesterday and said Leora wants something with spooky cats.  Here's my first try:

You can't tell from the picture, but the cat is embossed with Shimmer Black embossing powder (it looks really cool IRL).  I used this sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

And Sarah sent me a picture of what Leora's cake is going to look like:

I may do some tweaks or go in a different direction depending on what the birthday girl wants (she was already asleep by the time I made my first mock-up for her).  Hopefully I can kick this virus quickly so my creative mojo comes back!

Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wonderfully Wicked, Itty Bitty Birthdays, Birthday Backgrounds
Ink:  Versamark, Granny Apple Green, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Granny Apple Green, Highland Heather, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Shimmer Black EP, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals, black crocheted trim (retired), Word Window punch (also retired)

Fall Leaves

Scrappy Monday, folks!  Okay wow, I need to take some pictures of more layouts I've completed.  I have *lots* of layouts to share, but I'm holding off on showing Ryan's baby book for a while yet (trying to get it finished) and I have a lot of winter and Christmas pages.

Well, we got our first taste of cooler weather this weekend--like, I was ready to throw a party because the high temperature was under 80.  Bring on the fall weather!  I even made pumpkin apple muffins for breakfast yesterday.  So with that in mind, how about a nice autumnal layout...

That's our little Sadie girl playing in a big ol' pile of leaves the first time we lived in North Carolina, I think these pics were from 2006.  She's now 13 years old, has lots of gray hair, and spends most of her time sleeping and I still love her to itty bitty hairy pieces.

Today's color palette is straight from the Autumn Traditions DSP, which may have been the *only* DSP to feature Elegant Eggplant (other than the ones where it was every color in the family).  So it's Soft Suede, Ruby Red, More Mustard, Elegant Eggplant, Always Artichoke, and Whisper White.  All of those colors are now retired except for Soft Suede and Whisper White.

I'm hoping the weather stays cool for a while.  We went out for a walk last night and I didn't feel like I was melting into a puddle the whole time!  The mosquitoes were still out, but I guess you can't have everything.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Notable Alphabet, Falling Leaves
Ink:  Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red, Early Espresso Marker
Paper:  Soft Suede textured, Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Whisper White, Autumn Traditions DSP
Accessories:  lettering template

Stardust

Hey kids, who else is glad it's Friday today?  I'm going to finish out the week strong by sharing a card that fits in four different challenges.  So here it is:

I, uh, more or less permanently "borrowed" the long-retired stamp set Stardust from my mom some years ago, but I think this is the first time I've inked it up.  (She can have it back along with the other two stamp sets I liberated from her collection if she wants them, but she hasn't done any paper-crafting in several years so I don't think I need to worry about sending these back any time soon.)  I was inspired to dust off this set (seriously, the stamps--still on wood blocks--say 2004 on them!) due to the Global Design Project theme challenge:

In related news, my happy fox card was one of the winners for last week's challenge, wahoo!   Anyway, I do have some current SU! stamps that feature the celestial objects making up this week's theme, but I was just feelin' retro so I went with it.  The Color Throwdown this week seemed like an appropriate match:

I used Highland Heather, Pacific Point, Coastal Cabana, and Daffodil Delight for my colors.  And I used the sketch from Inspire. Create.:

Classic sketch, I love it.  And finally, the Retro Rubber Challenge is anything goes:

I honestly don't know how long I've had Stardust in my collection, so let's say it's more than five years (I'm pretty sure that is the case), and Background Basics (the background stars) is over 10 years old in my collection, so lots of senior rubber on this card.

Well, y'all have a great weekend.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stardust, Background Basics
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Daffodil Delight, Highland Heather, Coastal Cabana, Pacific Point
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Highland Heather, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Hawaiian Thanks

Hey y'all!  Do you ever have days when you sit down to stamp and you just don't know what to do?  I had that stamper's paralysis for a while yesterday.  Then I started one card, but after smearing some ink on the main image, I decided it needs to sit overnight before I watercolor, so that card will be on here tomorrow.  Then I had to start on another card, and eventually this is what I came up with:

Tropical Chic to the rescue!  I love that stamp set :)  I used two sets of dies, but not the one that's actually made to coordinate with this stamp set, go figure.  I was inspired to go tropical by the color challenge from Fab Friday:

The blue on my card looks much darker than it really is; I promise it's Blueberry Bushel rather than Night of Navy.  I was going to just do the white oval for the sentiment, but I decided I needed a little more of the blue on the card because it looked unbalanced to me, so I picked out one of the Ornate Frames dies to set off the oval.  I use the Stitched Shapes dies so often that they just live on the desktop next to my Big Shot.

Here's the retro 300th sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

I actually did pretty well about following the sketch exactly this time ;)  I looked back through the archives and I did a mermaid card with this sketch the first time around. 

Have a great day, y'all.  I'm off to stitch at the Y today...Thursdays I don't work out, I either read for two hours or bring a stitching project while someone else watches Ryan.  Gotta get some "me time" on the regular!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tropical Chic
Ink:  Petal Pink, Grapefruit Grove, Call Me Clover, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Petal Pink, Grapefruit Grove, Call Me Clover, Blueberry Bushel, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Ornate Frames dies, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges Goes CAS

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

This time around, the challenge is to make a Clean and Simple (CAS) card, which means limiting layers and embellishments and leaving white space.  A lot of times, CAS cards start with a white card base, but since I like to be different, I wanted to make a card with a different color for the base that's still CAS.  So here is my CAS mermaid:

I sponged Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, and Night of Navy ink on the card base, stamped some of the splatter dots in Night of Navy, then heat embossed the mermaid with Shimmer White embossing powder (that stuff is SO COOL!).  After I embossed, I decided the background needed to be a little darker, so I sponged on more Night of Navy ink...yeah, I'd recommend you do that *before* you emboss with the shimmer powder because now I've got a bunch of glitter stuck to my ink pad.  Learn from my mistakes, y'all!

Anyway, I stamped the sentiment on a scrap piece of Coastal Cabana, die cut it and added some rhinestones before adhering it to the card with some Dimensionals.  Voila!  A CAS card with a Coastal Cabana base and just two layers.  Three stamps, three colors of ink, and some embossing powder.

Your turn now!  Share your CAS creation on the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Magical Mermaid
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy, Versamark
Paper:  Coastal Cabana
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Shimmer White embossing powder, rhinestones, Dimensionals

Germany, Part 5: Neuschwanstein

Heyyy, we made it to Germany Part 5!

See the pictures here.  Is it weird that I bought the Swan Lake stamp set specifically for this layout?  The swan motif is very strong in this castle and Hohenschwangau.  I also used the stamp set for my Bruges layout.

Today's color palette includes Gray Granite, Mossy Meadow, Soft Sea Foam, Night of Navy, and Whisper White.

We're running late this morning so I'm not going to make it to my gym class, but I can still go running on the track.  Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Swan Lake, Tim Holtz Christmas Alphabet
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Balmy Blue, Gray Granite, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Memento Tuxedo Black, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Gray Granite, Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Thick Whisper White, Garden Lane DSP
Accessories:  None

Dino Baby

Happy Friday, y'all!  We had some excitement of the bad sort last night--Ryan was running and fell down, hitting his face on the way, and split his lip pretty good.  Apparently he's been taking lessons from his mama; I split my lip last Friday!  Mine is pretty much healed, so I hope his heals up even faster.

Anyway, I do have a card to share today.

I made this for the Just Add Ink challenge:

I used both sides of a single sheet of patterned paper, die cut the word and the oval, and then added some rhinestones for fun.  I have a friend who unexpectedly got pregnant at the age of 43, so I think I'll send this to her.  She's made jokes on Facebook about mistakenly thinking her body had expired, so I think she'll have a good sense of humor about me implying that she's a dinosaur.

I also used this week's sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

And I had this card done in under 10 minutes.  Whee!

Have a good weekend, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  None
Ink:  None
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Pretty Peacock, Thick Whisper White, Dinoroar DSP
Accessories:  Well Written Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies, Dimensionals, Noble Peacock Rhinestones

Hydrangeas for a Friend

Hey kids!  How's your day going?  I managed to injure my left wrist yesterday and you'll never believe how--I was swatting a mosquito!  I mean, that's pretty silly, and yet here I sit, typing with a wrist brace on.

At least I'm right-handed so it didn't stop me from stamping!

If you don't have it yet, run and buy Beautiful Friendship right now!  I love this stamp set, it's so pretty.  This is a real KISS card--Keep It Simple, Stamper ;)  I stamped the flowers, added in a few leaves and some yellow sprigs, and then added a bit of sponging--Balmy Blue to fill in the flowers a little, and So Saffron around the outside to give the little bouquet a warm glow.  The sentiment is stamped in Night of Navy, even though it looks black in the picture.  Then a bit of linen thread, some sequins, and boom!  DONE.

Love this retro sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

Just for funsies, I looked up the card I made with this sketch the first time around and you can see it here :)

This time around, I paired the sketch with the Color Throwdown palette of the week and planned the card out in my head while I was at the gym yesterday.

I used Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron, Balmy Blue, and Crumb Cake for my colors.  Rather a springy palette in my opinion, but so pretty.

That's it for now, peeps.  Have a great Thursday!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Friendship
Ink:  Balmy Blue, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Night of Navy
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Balmy Blue, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  linen thread, Iridescent Sequin Assortment, Dimensionals

Happy Fox

Hey y'all!  Once again I've been playing with new stamps :D  Apparently I was in a rustic mood the last time I ordered, because I got Rustic Retreat from the main catty and Nature's Beauty, which is in the holiday catalog and has some beautiful animal images in it.  Of course I had to ink up the fox first!

I'm planning to sneak this into my husband's truck one morning before he goes to work :)  Isn't that a GORGEOUS fox?!  I stamped him in Versamark + Early Espresso on watercolor paper and heat embossed him so I could watercolor.  I also did a light wash of Mint Macaron on the whole panel, but it didn't show up too well in the picture.

I used the sketch challenge from the Global Design Project:

I just picked my own combo of colors and I need to play with Shaded Spruce more often, it's beautiful.

Time to get moving, y'all.  Have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Beauty, Rustic Retreat, Country Home
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Mint Macaron, Versamark
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Mint Macaron, Soft Suede, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Clear EP, linen thread, Dimensionals

First Halloween Card of the Year

Mornin', y'all!  If I made the first autumn card of the year, you know the year's first Halloween card can't be far behind :D  I got a SUPER cute Halloween stamp set and I have to show it off today!

The "wicked" is a die cut that coordinates with the Wonderfully Wicked stamp set, which has more words (I stamped "Happy Halloween" on the inside) and a spider in it.  I cut out three of the "wicked", adhered one to the card front and stamped around it, and then I embossed one with Shimmery Black embossing powder (which looks really cool IRL, the picture doesn't show the sparkle) and adhered the other two die cut words directly on top of the first one so it's dimensional.  I added some Old Olive rhinestones from the Noble Peacock Rhinestones pack.

Check out the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

I had to make my card landscape since the "wicked" die is juuuust over 4 1/4" wide, so portrait orientation wouldn't work quite right.  Looking forward to making lots more wicked creations with this stuff, and I got another Halloween stamp set too!  And Halloween paper :)  I love me some Halloween stuff!

Hope your week is off to a great start.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wonderfully Wicked
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Gorgeous Grape, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Basic Black
Accessories:  Wicked dies, Noble Peacock Rhinestones, Shimmery Black EP

Germany, Part 4: Hohenschwangau

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  We're up to Germany layout #4, which was our tour of Hohenschwangau.

See the pics here.  I have to say, I would never ever put Mossy Meadow and Mint Macaron together on my own, but somehow the Garden Lane paper makes it work.  There's tiny little dots of Pear Pizzazz on the patterned paper as well, but they're so small and Pear Pizzazz has enough yellow in it that they read more yellow with the addition of Delightful Dijon photo mats.

As discussed above, today's color palette includes Mossy Meadow, Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron, Night of Navy, and Whisper White.  Next Monday will be the final Germany layout...for now ;)  Auf wiedersehen, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Hello Lovely, Tim Holtz Christmas Alphabet
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Delightful Dijon, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Garden Lane DSP
Accessories:  7/8" square punch

First Autumn Card of the Year

Happy Sunday!  My box o' brand new Stampin' Up! goodies didn't arrive until after 5:30 on Friday afternoon, so I didn't get to ink up my new stamps until yesterday.  This was my holiday catalog preorder, so I had to make the first fall card of the year!  Lookie:

I used the new Gather Together stamp set and Come to Gather DSP for this.  You see the green pattern on the sentiment piece?  That was an accident.  For the leaf, I did a light watercolor wash, dried it with my heat tool, and then stamped the leaf outline in Mossy Meadow ink.  Well, the ink on that part wasn't dry when I ran it through my die cut machine, and it got ink on the plates, but I didn't know that until I die cut the sentiment part.  I thought it looked kinda neat, so I left it.  Oh yeah, the sentiment is cut out with the Ornate Frames dies which coordinate with a cute Halloween set (which I also bought).  Those frame dies are going to be useful for SO MUCH more than just Halloween though!

Anyway, I had to play along with the 400th sketch celebration at Freshly Made Sketches:

I forgot the trio of embellishments in the corner, oops.  I combined that with the color challenge from Global Design Project:

I love the new Come to Gather DSP, and it has Merry Merlot and Pretty Peacock in it.

Hope y'all are having a good weekend.  I'm off to the grocery store to get food for dinner tonight...cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gather Together, Butterfly Wishes
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Early Espresso
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Thick Very Vanilla, Watercolor Paper, Come to Gather DSP
Accessories:  Gathered Leaves dies, Ornate Frames dies, Dimensionals

Wee Fox Kit

Hey y'all!  Happy Friday!  I haven't been able to get in my craft room as much as I've wanted to this week, I've missed getting inky.  But I finally got in there yesterday to make a card to share today, and I got to ink up a brand new stamp set!  Lookie:

This mama and baby fox are from the stamp set Wildly Happy, which also features mama & baby elephants, bunnies, and pandas.  It's SO adorable.  And when Ryan was a teeny tiny babe, I loved *everything* foxy I could get my hands on, so yep, of course I had to buy this set.  As it happens, a friend of mine who lives down the street just recently had a baby girl, so I know who's getting this card.  The flower paper is retired, but it was just SO perfect for this so I used it anyway.  No one is going to arrest me ;p

Check out the sketch from Fab Friday:

And the color combo from Just Add Ink:

A member of their design team used the same fox stamp (uh, because it was MADE for this color combo!) but I didn't let that deter me from foxy cuteness today.  I love these colors together.

Here's to hoping that I get some craft room time this afternoon too.  I've got a box of Stampin' Up! goodies due to arrive today....

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wildly Happy
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Grapefruit Grove, Terracotta Tile, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Terracotta Tile, Watercolor paper, Share What You Love DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Summer

Mornin' y'all!  It's time for another challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time around we've got a theme challenge:  SUMMER!  Here's my card:

I pondered the theme for quite a while before I decided to go with dog days of summer :D I picked the fun stripey paper from the Bird Ballad DSP pack and built my card colors around that.  I tried to do a little shading on my doggo, so she's lighter on the belly and darker on her back because that's how my real-life doggo girl looks (except she's black with a lot of gray hair).

Don't forget to whip up your own summer-themed creation and share it with us at the SUO Challenges blog.  Can't wait to see!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Happy Tails
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends
Paper:  Petal Pink, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Thick Whisper White, Bird Ballad DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dog Punch, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Germany, Part 3: Eibsee

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I'm back with layout #3 from when hubs and I visited Germany in 2013.

Again, see the pics up close here.  I went really old skool and used Lovely as a Tree for my accent on the right-hand page; I still can't hardly believe that set finally retired.  It was already in the catalog when I first started stamping!  This is my least favorite of the five Germany layouts; I just feel like it's missing something but I don't know what.  But done is better than perfect, and not every layout can be my favorite, so it's okay.

Today's color palette includes Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, Mossy Meadow, Gray Granite, and Whisper White.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Tim Holtz Christmas Alphabet
Ink:  Night of Navy, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Night of Navy, Gray Granite, Mossy Meadow, Thick Whisper White, Garden Lane DSP
Accessories:  None

Hello Rose

Mornin' y'all and happy Friday!  I have been SO tired this week but hoping that I can get back on track this weekend with sleep and everything.  Wish me luck.

While my kiddo was asleep yesterday, I made up a real quick card:

Something a little different, eh?  The only stamp I used is the "hello" from To A Wild Rose; the other pieces are die cut from the coordinating Wild Rose dies.

I was inspired by this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the colors from Color Throwdown:

I especially loved the colors on the black background, so that's why I decided to make my card the way I did.  I used Basic Black, Lovely Lipstick, Granny Apple Green, and Crumb Cake for my colors, and the Happiness Blooms enamel dots added a bit of interest to the flower center and some visual weight to the sentiment, since it's so much smaller than the other three elements.  I puffy heart love me some enamel dots, y'all.

Hope your Friday is off to a great start!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To a Wild Rose
Ink:  Whisper White
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Lovely Lipstick, Granny Apple Green
Accessories:  White EP, Wild Rose dies, Happiness Blooms enamel dots