Canine Christmas Chaos

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I finally got back in my craft room yesterday, but I spent a lot of time cleaning and reorganizing in there so I haven't made anything yet.  Maybe during naptime today?

For the last Scrappy Monday of 2019, here's one more Christmas layout, but focused on the doggos:

My SIL Adrienne made dog toys for all of our pupsters, but she underestimated the pups' chewing and destructive power so those toys only lasted one day :D  The two black dogs are my Sadie and Vader, my dad's dog Ginger is the Springer spaniel, and the yellow dog is Cleo, my brother and SIL's dog.  My girl Sadie is the only one of those four who's still with us.  I miss my Vader.

Today's color palette:  Crushed Curry, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, and Whisper White.  Since the dogs are pretty much neutral colors I was able to just go with whatever colors I wanted for the papers.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Rough Type, Inkworks alphabet, paw print
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, Be Merry DSP
Accessories:  Circle punches

Very Merry Christmas 2005

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  We've been busy since my parents arrived on Friday afternoon...actually even before that.  Our dog Sadie disappeared for two hours on Friday morning and I was looking for her everywhere and absolutely flipping out and then she just showed up on the front porch like she'd never disappeared.  It was a stressful morning.

So I haven't done anything in my craft room since I finished my future nephew's baby book (WOOO!) but I still have lots of draft posts of scrapbook pages and even lots of Christmas ones!  So here we go.

This was Christmas 2005; I used circle punches to punch out owls from the Snow Festival DSP to make my accents.  We got my brother this Darth Vader voice changing helmet; that thing was SO funny :)

I got the He-Man & She-Ra Christmas Special on DVD and literally no one else in my family has ever been excited about it :D  Three pics on the bottom right are from Christmas at my hubs' parents' house.

Today's color palette:  Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze, Wild Wasabi, and Whisper White.

Cheers, y'all.  Hope you have a good Christmas Adam ;)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Endless Wishes
Ink:  Wild Wasabi, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze, Wild Wasabi, Thick Whisper White, Snow Festival DSP
Accessories:  Snow Festival Tags, circle punches

OSS Christmas Party 2009

Scrappy Monday!  I hope this week goes a little smoother than last week.  Starting a week ago Saturday, the kid, the hubs, and I all got a very nasty stomach virus.  I was the last one to get it (Wednesday) but mine came with a fun bonus head cold afterwards, so it's taken me much longer to recover.  I kinda feel like I've been punched in the nose still but it's an improvement from last week.  So yes, healthy thoughts please.

On to scrapbook pages!  I found this one in the archives of draft posts:

This was the hubs' work Christmas party in 2009 (we had this year's party on Friday night, but didn't take any pictures this time since I was still not feeling well).  I let the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper do most of the work for me on this layout; even the Santa Claus embellishment is cut from one of the patterns in the pack.  Shout out to Scott and Tiana for wearing blue and red and inspiring the color palette.  Real Red is expected for Christmas, but I like the addition of the Pacific Point photo mats.

Speaking of the color palette, here it is:  Real Red, Mossy Meadow, Pacific Point, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla.  I use Whisper White far, far more often than Very Vanilla, but sometimes you just need the slight warmth from Vanilla.  I'm still trucking along on my nephew's baby book and for some reason this time around a greater percentage of the layouts feature Very Vanilla.  I've got two layouts halfway done, and then just two more to do and this whole book is DONE.  It will definitely be my fastest baby book ever.

Have a great week, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Calendar Alphabet & Numbers
Ink:  Early Espresso
Paper:  Real Red, Pacific Point, Very Vanilla, Home for Christmas DSP
Accessories: hexagon punch, Stitched Shapes Framelits

SUO Challenges: Catty CASE

Good morning, y'all!  It's time for another SUO Challenge!

This time, we're CASEing a picture from page 6 of the Holiday catalog:

I chose to CASE the package with the tag, which is interesting because I don't think I have any current ribbon, so to get that wrapped gift feel I used some cardstock strips:

Heyyy a moose!  I think the moose punch is unavailable now, but I bought this bundle on a whim before the punch went on backorder and this is the first time I've used it.  This reminds me of our recent trip to Maine, probably because I bought a sweatshirt with a moose on it while we were there ;) The snowflake in the upper left corner is cut from gold foil paper, and I used gold glitter enamel dots as accents.  It's hard to tell from the photo (I need a new bulb for my Ott Lite, it's usually too dark to get good photos by the time I finish making things), but the sentiment is embossed with gold EP, so there's three different types of gold on here.

I wish that Wrapped in Plaid DSP stack was available in 12x12 instead of 6x6, I love it.  I don't buy a lot of the paper stacks because I prefer the larger size for scrapbooking, but I've used this one several times.  Doesn't hurt that I puffy heart love Shaded Spruce, one of the colors featured on that DSP.

So!  Now it's your turn.  Take a look at the inspiration photo and make your own card or other paper crafty object for us to see.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Merry Moose
Ink:  Versmaark, Early Espresso, Shaded Spruce, Soft Suede
Paper:  Soft Suede, Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White, Wrapped in Plaid DSP, gold foil
Accessories:  Moose Punch, Stitched Nested Labels dies, Seasonal Layers dies, Gold Glitter Enamel Dots, Clear EP, Gold EP, Mini Dimensionals

2015 Season's Greetings Colorblock

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  These layouts have been languishing in my draft posts folder for a very long time, so I'm finally posting them today!  Every year, I do a collage layout (or multiple layouts) with the photo Christmas cards we receive.  I say "every year", but I haven't done the last two years yet (oops).  So I'm reminding myself to get with it and catch up!

I just pick a pack of DSP and cut down pieces to fit around the Christmas card photos until it looks like a patchwork quilt.  They really don't take too long to do and it's a great way to use up scraps of patterned paper.

Most of the time there's minimal stamping on these layouts, but I do some kind of title.

So for this particular year I had quite a few cards to fit in!  It took two full layouts and one extra single page.

And that's it!  Easy peasy.  So as soon as I finish the baby book, I'm going to knock out a few of these.

Today's color palette is straight out of the Season of Cheer DSP (which I totally love):  Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky, and Whisper White.  It's not possible to coordinate with every single photo card, so I just pick whatever patterned paper I like that year and go with it.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Larger Than Life Alphabet & Numbers, Many Merry Messages
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Real Red, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Thick Whisper White, Season of Cheer DSP
Accessories:  Curly Label Punch

Punny Deer

Hey y'all!  I am officially more than half done with my nephew's baby book--9 layouts out of 17, so whoop!  Still bustin' a move to get the other ones done before Christmas but I'm feeling pretty good.

So I took some time out and made a card yesterday and it made me giggle because I love puns.

Do you see it?  "Hold most dear" with a DEER?!  I crack myself up, and that's what matters ;) I had started out with a different sentiment there, but I needed something narrower to accommodate the sketch I was using, and then the deer thing made me snort-giggle so I had to do it.  Also, the colors are off in the picture because it was dark when I took the photo and my Ott Lite is dying after many years of service.  So I'll retake this in daylight and edit.  (ETA:  Slightly better picture uploaded.)

Anyway!  The sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

The deer is standing in (literally and figuratively, haha) for the teal strip on the sketch.

I also used this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Coastal Cabana (sponged sky behind the trees), Shaded Spruce (a bit darker than the photo here, but I think still acceptable), gold, and white.  Plus some Early Espresso for my deer.

Have a great weekend, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Beauty, Rooted in Nature, Greatest Part of Christmas
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Coastal Cabana, Early Espresso, Versamark
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White, Wrapped in Plaid DSP
Accessories:  Gold EP, Dimensionals, corner rounder punch

Cozy Snowmen

Mornin', y'all!  I am still working hard on my nephew's baby book, so that's taking time away from making cards.  I have six layouts (out of 17) completely finished, and four more in various stages of completion; all the others have been planned out in my sketchbook.  Really this book is coming together really, really fast, but I'm kinda hoping to send it back to Texas with my parents when they come out here for Christmas, so I've gotta keep bustin' a move here.

Buuuut I had to take time out yesterday to make a card.

It doesn't quite show up in the photo, but the sentiment is embossed with the Shimmery White embossing powder, so it's got a bit of glitter to go with the trees in the right square.  This is for three challenges.  First up is the sketch from Global Design Project:

And the theme challenge from the Paper Players:

I don't have the Snowman Season stamp set that coordinates with this paper (Who *does* that?!  I just ordered it yesterday, along with some fun stuff from the upcoming mini and Sale-a-Bration catalogs) so I just used my trusty Stitched Shapes dies to cut out a couple of squares from the Let It Snow Specialty DSP.  Speaking of which, the Sunday Stamps color challenge was made for that paper!

The colors are Flirty Flamingo, Real Red, Coastal Cabana, Blueberry Bushel, and Shaded Spruce; if you look closely at the snowman print all of those colors are in there somewhere.  Since I don't have the snowman stamp set, I used a sentiment from Merry Moose instead.  Uh, I need to use the moose soon too!

Okay, back to work.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Merry Moose
Ink:  Craft Whisper White
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Shaded Spruce, Real Red, Let It Snow Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes & Stitched Nested Labels Dies, Shimmery White EP, Mini Dimensionals

Santa's Elves

Wow, I can't believe it's December already!  And that means it's time to bust out the Christmas scrapbook pages :D  I have quite a few draft posts all ready to go.

I put headbands on Sadie and Vader and hubs says this is why dogs bite people.  Ah, I miss my little Vader man so much.  I miss Sadie right now too, but that's because she's been in a kennel since last Tuesday when we left for a Thanksgiving trip to Alabama, and I'll be picking her up today (we got home on Saturday night, but this kennel doesn't do pickups/dropoffs on Sundays so we had to wait).  Anywha, I used last year's supercute Signs of Santa stamp set and the coordinating Santa's Workshop DSP for this.  Poppy Parade is the page base but you can only see it along the top border and around the journaling.

Today's color palette includes the aforementioned Poppy Parade along with Garden Green, Pool Party, Pistachio Pudding that I forgot to put in the palette, and Whisper White.  The photo mats are alternating Pool Party and Pistachio Pudding.

Hope your December is off to a great start!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Notable Alphabet, Signs of Santa
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Basic Black marker,  Crushed Curry marker Stampin' Blends in Poppy Parade, Pool Party, Petal Pink
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Pistachio Pudding, Pool Party, Thick Whisper White, Santa's Workshop DSP
Accessories:  Santa's Signpost Framelits

SUO Challenges: Dealing With Dies

Hey y'all!  It is time once more for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time around, we want you to use your dies!  I use dies all the time so my first challenge was narrowing down which ones I wanted to use :)  I thumbed through all my current dies and chose Wild Rose.  At first I was going to do something all sweet and pastel, and then...this happened instead:

How about a Christmas rose instead?  I used the colors from the Wrapped in Plaid DSP and I used five different dies from the set.  I'd never used two of them, the gold border one and the navy blue sprigs behind the rose.  So yeah, I think this card counts as die-riffic.

Now it's your turn!  Make a card using dies and share it on the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To A Wild Rose, Greatest Part of Christmas
Ink:  Versamark, Night of Navy
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy, Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White, gold foil, Wrapped in Plaid DSP
Accessories:  Wild Rose dies, gold EP, Dimensionals

Happy Thanksgiving 2017

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your weekend?  I've made more progress on my future nephew's baby book, so that makes me happy.  I haven't heard Ryan make any noise yet this morning, so maybe I can sneak in my craft room for a few minutes and work on the next layout!

But for now, how about a couple of Thanksgiving layouts?

These pictures are from Thanksgiving in 2017, Ryan's first.  We were living in Virginia at the time; Bennet and Missy lived about 1 1/2 miles away, and Scott and Tiana drove down from New York to spend the holiday with us.  I think this was the first year we instituted the pajamas rule for Thanksgiving.  I don't know if we get to do that this time since we're going elsewhere for Turkey Day, but anytime Thanksgiving is at my house, pajama pants are the dress code.

That apple pie was hands down the PRETTIEST pie I've ever made.  I used a little cookie cutter thing (actually I think it was specifically made for pie crust but works the same as a cookie cutter) to cut out leaf shapes and then piled them on top of the pie.  It was a cranberry apple almond pie and sooooo delicious.

So here is today's color palette:  Peekaboo Peach, Cherry Cobbler, Granny Apple Green, Bermuda Bay, Gray Granite, Basic Black, and Whisper White.

Dangit, Ryan is awake now so no stamping time until he goes down for a nap this afternoon.  Oh well, time to get with it!  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Well Said, Wonderfall, My Paper Pumpkin (the pie sentiment, love it!)
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Granny Apple Green, Cherry Cobbler, Peach Parfait, Memento Tuxedo Black, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Peach Parfait, Cherry Cobbler, Bermuda Bay, Granny Apple Green, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Festive Farmhouse DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits

Mount Fuji New Year

Hey y'all!  I didn't mean to disappear this week, it just happened that way.  After I finished putting together Ryan's baby book on Sunday, I immediately started work on one for my future nephew.  I need to get through it pretty quickly (he's expected early to mid February) so I may be a little sparse with posting here for a bit.

In the meantime, how about a card with a limited edition stamp set?

The set is called New Year Celebrations and it's in the Japanese catalog, available here just until the end of the year.  Since I avidly collect Oriental stamp sets I had to get it :)  I'm a little surprised I haven't seen anyone else use it.  Or if I do, I don't remember...I've been pretty tired lately so it's possible.

My card was inspired by this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I turned the sketch on its side, and added the Poppy Parade banner under my circular sentiment (it says Happy New Year in kanji) to mimic having a sentiment that would be vertical on my card.

I also used this week's Color Throwdown colors:

I used Bermuda Bay, Poppy Parade, and Smoky Slate.  Tempting Turquoise would have been a better match for the blue color, but I was just using current stuff so there you go.

Well, I've got three layouts done for nephew's baby book, and 14 more to go!  I'd better get crackin'.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  New Year Celebrations
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Poppy Parade, Smoky Slate, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Poppy Parade, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  circle punch, Stitched Rectangles dies, Dimensionals

Thanksgiving in Texas 2010

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Big news this weekend:  I totally finished Ryan's baby book!  As in, I put the album together and everything.  That thing is MASSIVE!  I ended up with 72 pages in it.  It weighs a ton ;)  And yesterday I started the *next* baby book too, for my future nephew.  Never a dull moment here.

I've done a lot of scrapbooking lately, and since Thanksgiving is next week (how did that happen?!) I thought I'd share a Thanksgiving layout from 2010.

Yeah, that little girl in the pictures is now 10 years old.  I love that pattern from the Color Me Autumn DSP, so I used it as the basis for my color palette:

Mossy Meadow, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, and Whisper White.  I even remembered the coordinating stamp set for the DSP, For All Things.  This layout came together pretty fast, which is nice.  I still won't make my page goal for 2019, but I'm over 150 pages and that's nothing to sneer at.

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, For All Things, Texas by Deadbeat Designs
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Thick Whisper White, Color Me Autumn DSP
Accessories:  None

Maiden Voyage: Inspiring Iris

Ooh look, a Saturday post!  Since I missed a couple of days this week, I thought I'd post today because I didn't want to miss a couple of challenges.  While I was running yesterday, I came up with the idea that turned into this card:

Inspiring Iris is one of the stamp sets I got on the one-day sale in October, and this is its first time to get inked up in my house.  Here's the Freshly Made Sketch I started with:

So my panel with the irises turned out a LOT bigger than I imagined while I was running ;)  My colors today are courtesy of Color Throwdown:

I used Gorgeous Grape (the outline stamp and the greeting), Highland Heather, and Old Olive.  The DSP is from Sale-a-Bration, can't remember if it was this year or last year, but I thought it coordinated with the main image really well.  Fun fact:  the first flowers my husband ever bought for me were irises.  And my phone is named Iris.

Hope you have a great weekend, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspiring Iris
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, Old Olive
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Highland Heather, Thick Whisper White, Botanical Butterfly DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Nested Labels dies, Noble Peacock Rhinestones, Dimensionals

Rawr-Some

Hey y'all!  This week I've been more focused on scrapbook pages than cards, but I finally did get a card made yesterday so I could share it today!

This is a triple challenge card, too.  First up is the theme from Global Design Project:

I figured the "rawr-some" sentiment fit the bill here.  Next is the sketch from Inspire. Create.:

The three background panels were super easy to do with my trusty Stitched Rectangle dies and retired Tropical Escape DSP.  Yay for using up some scraps!

Finally, here's the color challenge from the Paper Players:

I think the whimsical style of the dinosaur stamps lends itself well to just about any bold, bright color combination, so this card came together lickety-split.  Which means I got more work done on a scrapbook layout after I made this :)

Happy Friday y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Dino Days
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Bermuda Bay, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Thick Whisper White, Tropical Escape DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangle dies, Dino dies, Stitched Nested Labels dies, Dimensionals, Glitter Enamel Dots

SUO Challenges: Embellishments

Good morning stampy friends!  It is time once more for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time we're asking you to focus on embellishments.  I've finally made my first Christmas card of the year because I decided to use those snowflake sequins from the holiday catalog.  Check it out:

New stamps alert!  I got Buffalo Check (the background) when it was on the one-day sale in October, and this is the maiden voyage for Perfectly Plaid (the sentiment) as well.  I won't lie, those snowflake sequins are smaller than I thought they would be, and it took a while to adhere them all, but I like how they look!  What do you think?

Go check out the design team's work at SUO Challenges, then make your own embellished card and post it for us to see!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Buffalo Check, Perfectly Plaid
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Blueberry Bushel
Accessories:  Snowflake Sequins, Stitched Nested Labels dies, white baker's twine, Dimensionals

Snow Day

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Well, I am a week in to my new fitness and diet regime, and I can proudly say I'm down five pounds.  Probably because I'm drinking an ocean of water every day and then of course I have to keep visiting the loo ;)  As I type this, it's 6:30 and I've finished my early morning workout.  Woo!

It *finally* cooled down here and in honor of our new low temperatures, I present this snowy layout:

Aww, Sadie as a wee pupster enjoying the snow!  And then, because she had all the energy then, she got in a wrestling match with the hubs.  Sadie is now a senior lady and spends most of her time sleeping, she has arthritis, and I love her and wish I could make her not hurt when she gets up or lays down.  My girl.

How about a fun PURPLE color palette!  Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, and Baja Breeze snowflakes and Whisper White accents.  Nice wintry palette.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Endless Wishes
Ink:  Whisper White, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, Whisper White, Candy Cane Christmas DSP
Accessories:  lettering template

Rustic Cabin

Friday at last!  Hope y'all have had a good week.

I'm still resisting Christmas cards, but I did bust open a pack of Christmasy plaid paper for today's card:

I'm so happy to have more patterned paper with Shaded Spruce, it's such a gorgeous green.  I made my cabin in the woods for the Paper Players theme challenge:

Usually I don't work in my craft room at all if my kid is awake, because he's two and trails chaos everywhere he goes.  But I didn't get this card done during naptime yesterday, so after dinner I wanted to finish it and of course he followed me into the craft room...he spent 10 to 15 minutes chopping up scraps of paper with my guillotine-style paper trimmer.  (Fear not:  he did a really good job of keeping his hands away from the blade even before I said anything.)  He'd whack the handle down and then happily announced "I chop it!"  And now I have some white confetti in my trash can.  (I even convinced him to put it in the trash when he was done chopping.)  Maybe in a couple of years he'll be doing paper crafts with his mama, eh?

Anyway, here's the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

I like that sketch, it's really fun and different.  And finally, here's the color challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments:

Those are the three main colors from the Let It Snow specialty DSP in the holiday catalog, but my brain is a rebel so I didn't want to use that paper even though I have it.  So I put the focus mainly on Shaded Spruce, and used the other two colors for details--Real Red roof and Coastal Cabana sky.

Anyway, hope you have a great day y'all.  Hubby's job has their Thanksgiving potluck today (I guess they're doing it early so no one who's traveling for Thanksgiving would have to miss it) so I was a busy little bee baking all the things yesterday.  Which I'm not supposed to eat :p  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rustic Retreat
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Shaded Spruce, Real Red, Coastal Cabana, Gray Granite, Soft Suede
Paper:  Gray Granite, Thick Whisper White, Wrapped in Plaid DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, Gold Glitter Enamel Dots

Riding Off Into the Sunset

Day #4 of 5 a.m. wakeups and I only used my alarm on the first day.  So far, so good!  I did have to take a short nap yesterday though.

After my nap, I just barely had time to make a card for my brother's birthday this weekend.  Here it is:

My brother and our dad both went to Oklahoma State, and their mascot is a cowboy and their colors are orange and black.  I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

That die cut "happy" was sitting on my table in a pile of stuff I'd die cut and then not used, so I don't even remember what it was originally intended for.  It was Pumpkin Pie cardstock and that was good enough for me!

I added lots of black to the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge colors:

I used Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, and Daffodil Delight to make my sunset.

Okay, time for me to do my morning workout.  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  Out West, Well Said
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Monster Bash Enamel Shapes, Happy Expressions Thinlits (I think?)