Sleeping Fox

Mornin' y'all!  As I planned, I spent a good chunk of the day yesterday working in my craft room :)  I finished a scrapbook layout that required a lot of fussy cutting, and apparently that wasn't enough for me because I fussy cut an image for today's card too.

I placed a Stampin' Up! order yesterday for the end of Sale-a-Bration and I got yet more of the Penguin Playmates DSP, I love it so :)  I cut the fox out of the DSP, and the Just Jade pattern is the other side of the paper I cut the fox from; the trees were a scrap from a previous project.  The ribbon is from an old My Paper Pumpkin kit.  I finally admitted to myself that I just wasn't ever going to actually *make* the MPP projects, so I did all the stamping on all the kits I had and sent the rest of the supplies to a friend so she could make them with her daughters.  I kept all the stamps ;) and a few of the embellishments though.

Anyway, for today's card, I used the sketch from Just Add Ink:

And I loved the inspiration challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments:

I bet you can guess what inspired me :)  I would love a stamp set of foxes being all adorable like on the Penguin Playmates DSP, how about you? 

Hope you're having a good week, y'all.  I'm still feeling under the weather...hubs heard me coughing last night and had me do a Covid test, but I'm plague-free.  Just a normal cold I suppose.  Stay healthy, folks!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Little Stockings
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Just Jade, Thick Basic White, Penguin Playmates DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals, ribbon from a past My Paper Pumpkin kit

SUO Challenges: Oktoberfest

Happy Tuesday, y'all!  This is my only day off this week so as soon as I get this blog post written, I'm running up to my craft room so I can play with paper until time to pick up my kiddo :)  And it's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

Our theme this time is Oktoberfest!  I've lived in Germany for just over a year now and I haven't gotten to go to any Oktoberfestivities (Germans like to squish words together to make new giant words, I'm getting in the spirit of things).  Last year and this year, Oktoberfest has been canceled due to *waves hand around* you know what I mean.  But that doesn't mean we can't celebrate in our crafting spaces or our own houses!  So here's what I made:

Once again I have reached for a long-retired stamp set!  I bought Cheers to You specifically for a scrapbook layout (see it here) and I've used it a few times since then, which is amusing to me because I don't drink alcohol as a general rule.  I don't have anything against it, I just don't like it ;)  Anyway, when I was working on today's card, I started with Bumblebee cardstock because it's beer-colored, and I thought what color would go well with that?  And I chose Poppy Parade, and then I used black for the stamps and whaddya know, my card is also inspired by the German flag!  I used the chalk marker for the foam on top of the beer glasses.

Your turn!  Celebrate Oktoberfest with your own paper craft and show it off on the SUO Challenges blog.  As they say in Germany, PROST!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cheers to You
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, chalk marker
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Bumblebee, Basic Black, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  square punch, scalloped square punch, Dimensionals

Newborn Pictures #1

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  Quick post today as I need to get going to work!

I did several layouts of Ryan's newborn pictures for his baby book, but I also made several for our chronological albums.  The pictures are so cute I just couldn't resist : )

Ryan has grown a lot in the last few months,  I swear he's several inches taller.  So it's nice to look back at these pictures when he was so tiny!

Today's color palette:  Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, Hello Honey, Shaded Spruce, Crisp Cantaloupe, Night of Navy, and Whisper White.

Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Cuddles & Kisses
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, Night of Navy, Shaded Spruce, Crisp Cantaloupe, Thick Whisper White, Lullaby DSP
Accessories:  Chalk Talk Framelits, Sizzix heart

Sweet Thang

Mornin' folks.  Hope you're feeling better than I am--I was feeling a little under the weather last weekend and by Tuesday afternoon I didn't want to do anything but sleep.  Which is what I did yesterday.  Hope I start feeling better today!

I did make another card on Monday that I can share today at least : )

I was inspired by the Just Add Ink challenge:

I loved the colors in the picture, which I interpreted as Old Olive, Magenta Madness, and Pacific Point.  At first I was going to stamp the flowers from Art Gallery, but the Sweet Strawberry set caught my eye and I thought hey, why NOT have magenta strawberries?  To get the color values on the fill-in stamps vs. the outline stamps, I used sponges to apply ink on the fill-in ones, and for the outlines I just tapped them on my ink pads normal-normal.  That gave me light and dark values of the color with just one ink pad.  Nifty!

I also used the Global Design Project sketch:

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Magenta Madness, Old Olive, Pacific Point, Versamark
Paper:  Old Olive, Pacific Point, Thick Basic White, Berry Delightful DSP
Accessories:  Strawberry punch, Tasteful Labels dies, white EP, Dimensionals, In Color Enamel Dots

Getting Into Hot Water

Mornin' y'all.  I got a letter from a friend last week and she's having a really tough time right now (to say the least), and since I can't fly to where she is and give her a hug, I decided to send her some tea and chocolate.  And a card.

I love a nice cuppa tea when I'm not feeling quite the thing (and lots of times when I feel just fine, thankyouverymuch) which is why I decided to send my friend some tea.  And a fancy new teacup too.  I pulled out a lot of retired stuff for this one : )

My starting point was the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

I was looking for some different patterned paper so I could make this card to fit in another challenge too, but I ran across the Tea & Crumpets paper from a looooong time ago and I took a left turn to use it.  I need to get the package all ready to go and mail it off; I hope it makes my friend smile even if I can't do anything to fix her problems.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  A Nice Cuppa, Favorite Thoughts
Ink:  So Saffron, Always Artichoke
Paper:  So Saffron, Thick Basic White, Tea & Crumpets DSP
Accessories:  Cups & Kettle dies, Chalk Talk dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals

Kiddie Hawk

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Hope your week is off to a good start.  I'm starting the week with a super-colorful layout : )

Where we lived in North Carolina, there was an indoor playground called Kiddie Hawk and Ryan *loved* it.  My hubs used to take him on Sunday afternoons to give me some time by myself.  At first Ryan was small enough that he needed help climbing on some of the things, but by the time we moved Ryan could navigate around anything in that play area by himself.

I started with a super-colorful print from the See a Silhouette DSP and chose my colors from there:  neutral Night of Navy for a base to make the other colors pop; Pacific Point, Poppy Parade, Mango Melody, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, and Whisper White for a rainbow of colors.  Makes me happy, how about you?

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Layered Letters Alphabet
Ink:  Poppy Parade, Pacific Point, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Night of Navy, Pacific Point, Poppy Parade, Mango Melody, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Thick Whisper White, See a Silhouette DSP
Accessories:  None

Butterfly Beginning

Mornin' y'all!  Alas, I did not get to sleep in this morning, because I have a 4-year-old who rousted me and the hubs out of bed at 6:45 this morning.  When said 4-year-old is a teenager, I am 100% going to wake him up early every Saturday when he'd rather sleep till noon.

Anyway!  I made another card on my day off on Wednesday that I have to share before challenges expire.

I used the Color Throwdown challenge for my colors:

Misty Moonlight, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, and a mix of dark Pale Papaya/light Pumpkin Pie blends for the butterfly.  That's a gorgeous inspiration pic too.

I had another go at this week's Freshly Made Sketch too:

My squares are much larger than the original sketch because that's the size of the stamps in Watercolor Shapes.  You might have skipped right over that set in the catalog, but I enjoy finding ways to use it for sketches like this :)

Alas, my tea mug is empty, so I must go and replenish it.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Butterfly Brilliance, Watercolor Shapes, In Your Words
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Stampin' Blends in Pale Papaya, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Brilliant Wings dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Inspiring Owl

Mornin' y'all and happy Friday!  Man, I hope I get to sleep in tomorrow, this week has me tired!

In the meantime, I have a new card to share that features two of my favorite things in the holiday catalog...

The Blackberry Beauty DSP was the very top thing on my wish list when I first saw the holiday catalog a couple months ago, and I love the Blackberry Beauty Ephemera Pack too, which is where I got the owl.  Seriously, how cool is that owl?!  The three patterns are from the Blackberry Beauty DSP and the sentiment is from Delicate Dahlias in the SAB catalog.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Paper Players color challenge:

I added Cinnamon Cider, and I'm counting Early Espresso as a neutral :)

Well, I'd better get going...I have a long day at work today making balloon arches.   : p  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Delicate Dahlias
Ink:  Early Espresso
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Blackberry Beauty DSP
Accessories:  Blackberry Beauty Ephemera Pack, Mini Dimensionals

Parisian Freesia

Mornin' y'all, how's it going?  I had yesterday off so I did my usual routine of laundry and working in my craft room :)  I made a super-girly card to share today.

I pulled out an old favorite stamp set for this one, Artistic Etchings.  I used the color combination from Global Design Project:

When I saw it, Fresh Freesia was the first color to pop in my head, and then I thought about how everyone did pink + black + white with this stamp set and I just had to try it with purple instead and I lurve it. 

I also used the sketch from Retro Rubber:

My first thought was to use the Basic Borders dies for the scallop on the left side of the sketch, but none of the dies is a straight scallop like that and then my brain was like WAIT, there's a punch for that!  So my punch is retro (haha) as well as my stamp set.  I've had Artistic Etchings since 2011 so it's now 10 years old, and I enjoyed this excuse to pull it out and ink it up again.

Have a great Thursday, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Artistic Etchings (retired)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Fresh Freesia
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Fresh Freesia DSP
Accessories:  Scallop border punch (retired), Layering Circles dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella, In Color Rhinestones

SUO Challenges: People

 Happy Tuesday, y'all, and welcome to a brand new challenge from SUO Challenges!

Our theme this time is people.  As it happens, I don't have any current stamp sets with people...I do have Beauty of Tomorrow, which has the word "people" in one of the sentiments, but no people images.  So I jumped way far back in the time machine for a stamp set that came out in 2004!

I kinda sorta permanently "borrowed" Summer by the Sea (and two other sets) from my mother, but she's never once noticed or mentioned it so I think they're mine now ; )  Still, this is the first time I've used this particular set and I had SO MUCH FUN doing it!  I love taking old stamp sets and using them with new stuff, like Stampin' Blends!  I kept the coloring on this one quick and loose to go with the sketchy style of the artwork and I love how it turned out.

Now it's your turn!  Make something to go with our keyword "People" and share it on the SUO Challenges blog.  Don't forget that retired Stampin' Up! sets are fair game : )  Most important, have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Summer by the Sea, Simply Succulents
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Pale Papaya, Cinnamon Cider, Calypso Coral, Petal Pink, Old Olive & Balmy Blue
Paper:  Cinnamon Cider, Pale Papaya, Thick Basic White, Hand-Penned DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Potted Succulents dies, Dimensionals, retired Glitter Enamel Dots

Castle Acre Priory

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How's your week starting off?

I didn't get to spend time in my craft room this weekend, but I did get some stitching done so at least that's progress.  I do have a layout to share though.

See more pics here.  As the hubs was telling someone last night, I have dragged him to a LOT of castles and churches and ruins and they all blur together in his memory, ha.  Castle Acre Priory was one of the religious institutions that suffered after King Henry VIII started the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  I do still enjoy going to different castles and churches and ruins and trying to take interesting pictures : p

Today's color palette:  Certainly Celery, Calypso Coral, Cajun Craze, Gray Granite, Basic Black, and Very Vanilla.  I like how the green and the coral/deep orange balance each other.

A'ight kids.  New week, so...go forth and conquer!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rough Type, Angelic, Timeworn Trim
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Gray Granite, Basic Black Marker
Paper:  Certainly Celery textured, Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, Very Vanilla, Epic Day This & That DSP
Accessories:  None

Shades of Green

Hey y'all!  I got my full day off yesterday :) and I made some nice progress in my craft room.  I work today, but if it's slow I can sometimes stitch while I'm working so that's no bad thing.

I do have a card to share today!

I've owned Tasteful Touches for over a year I think and this is the first time I've used it to make a card.  Oops.  I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And paired it with the color challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

It's been a bit since I played over there but I couldn't resist a challenge revolving around my favorite color!  I used Soft Sea Foam, Just Jade, and Shaded Spruce for my three shades of green.  I even found some retired sequins to match!  And the DSP strip was a little scrap from something else, all I did was flag the end.  Gotta love using up the little scraps, am I right?

Hope you're having an excellent Friday, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tasteful Touches
Ink:  Soft Sea Foam, Just Jade, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Soft Sea Foam, Shaded Spruce, Thick Basic White, Just Jade DSP
Accessories:  retired sequins

Autumn Greeting

Mornin' y'all!  My day off got cut short yesterday when the daycare called me to pick up Ryan because their AC went out.  I call shenanigans because most places here don't even *have* air conditioning.  I was getting frustrated with projects in my craft room though so maybe it's a good thing that I had to leave to get the kiddo.

Here's the card that was giving me issues:

I used the Color Throwdown palette:

I used Real Red, Rich Razzleberry, and Pumpkin Pie, with a lot of Cinnamon Cider and some Early Espresso.  I like the colors but I was having SUCH a hard time getting a good balance on this card, hence the Cinnamon Cider card base and DSP.  I love the leaves though, I inked them with Pumpkin Pie and then used a sponge dauber to add Real Red, choosing a different part of the leaf for each one so they all look different even though it's the same stamp.

I also used the Try Stamping on Tuesday sketch:

I love this sketch and I think I'll be using it again soon.  In the meantime, I'm going to get upstairs and get to work and hope to accomplish some things in my craft room today--I'm motivated to get started ASAP just in case I have to pick Ryan up early again :)  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Timeless Tropical
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Rich Razzleberry, Early Espresso
Paper:  Cinnamon Cider, Rich Razzleberry, Early Espresso, Thick Very Vanilla, Cinnamon Cider DSP
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Dimensionals

The Changing of Leaves

Hey hey, y'all, how's it going?  I'm excited I got to play with a couple of my new stamp sets for today's card!

The sentiment is from Beauty of Tomorrow, and the rest of the stamps are from Gorgeous Leaves--no joke, the leaf stamps are definitely gorgeous!  So are the Intricate Leaves dies that coordinate.  Just when I think I have enough leaf stamp sets they come up with something new and different that I just *have* to have ;)

I made this card for three different challenges.  First up is the Festive Friday challenge:

I used pearls (happily for me I found some retired ones in a yellow that I thought jived well with the rest of my card), leaves, and two die cuts.  The splat stamps kinda look like spritzing too.

Next up is the Inkspirational challenge:

Yes please.  I love making things with autumn leaves and all the gorgeous autumn colors!  Speaking of which, here's the color palette from Sunday Stamps:

In SU parlance, I read the palette as Terracotta Tile (retired), Mango Melody, Bumblebee, Mellow Moss (long retired), and Very Vanilla; the only color I didn't use was the green.  I worried a bit that the Mango Melody was going to be way too bright to play well with the Terracotta Tile and Bumblebee, but to my surprise the Bumblebee toned it down quite a lot.  The splats behind the leaf die cut are in both colors, and on the card base the splatters are in Bumblebee while the small leaves are in Mango Melody.  And like I said above, the pearls are actually pale yellow, I think they were supposed to be So Saffron?  But they worked with the rest of the colors too.  Love it when that happens.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  We enjoyed our holiday yesterday!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Beauty of Tomorrow
Ink:  Bumblebee, Mango Melody, Early Espresso
Paper:  Bumblebee, Terracotta Tile, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Rectangles Stitched dies, linen thread, retired yellow pearls

September 2018

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How's it going?  It's supposed to be HOT here today so I think we'll spend some time on the playground with Ryan and try not to melt while he plays.  In the meantime, I have a layout to share.

September three years ago!  Aww, he was so tiny.  I'm glad I have a picture of Ryan pushing that lion thing around backwards (top right), that's exactly how he loved to do it!

Today's color palette:  Barely Banana, Grapefruit Grove, Call Me Clover, Poppy Parade, and Whisper White.  I made this when I was going through a Barely Banana phase and wanted to use it everywhere :)  I do that sometimes, but at least since I don't usually scrap my photos chronologically it doesn't matter if I want to use one color over and over.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Full Calendar, Painted  Seasons
Ink:  Poppy Parade, Grapefruit Grove, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Barely Banana, Call Me Clover, Poppy Parade, Thick Whisper White, Painted Seasons DSP
Accessories:  Four Seasons Dies

Friday Flashback: All Dressed Up

Happy Friday, y'all!  And what is this, I'm back for the third week in a row with a Friday Flashback on a Friday?!  Well, it took me so long to unmount those stamp sets yesterday and then in the afternoon I decided to work on a new scrapbook layout, so no card for today.  But that's okay because I've got a fun Flashback post to share instead!

Today's stamp set is All Dressed Up, and I'll be honest:  I had never used it before.  I bought it because of the super cute Dress Up dies that went with it!  So for today's cards I finally inked up the stamp set *and* used the dies.

Not gonna lie, if I saw a dress with that butterfly pattern from the Butterfly Bijou DSP, I would totally buy it.

Stamps:  All Dressed Up
Ink:  Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Butterfly Bijou DSP Stack
Accessories:  Dress Up dies, Hydrangea dies, mini Dimensionals

Here I used the actual dress stamp in the stamp set.  And this one got sent out to my friend Missy!

Stamps:  All Dressed Up
Ink:  Magenta Madness, Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Magenta Madness, Coastal Cabana
Accessories:  Ornate Frames dies, mini Dimensionals

More dresses (you see there are a couple of different dress dies) cut from Butterfly Bijou scraps and the birthday sentiment stamp.  All three cards came together quick and it was fun to play with the dies again, not to mention actually using the coordinating stamp set :)

Stamps:  All Dressed Up
Ink:  Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Magenta Madness, Thick Basic White, Butterfly Bijou DSP Stack
Accessories:  Dress Up dies, hexagon punch, Dimensionals

The hubs has today off work and Ryan is home from daycare, so I think we're going to take a day trip to Heidelberg because the weather is gorgeous!  Have a fantastic Friday, y'all.

Sympathy in Blues

Hey y'all!  I'm happy to report that I did *everything* on yesterday's to-do list.  I don't have a written list for today, but I'm still trucking along.  This morning I worked on unmounting about a dozen stamp sets; have to do that when the kiddo is in daycare since it involves a hot knife.  It took me THREE HOURS!!!  I've got nine more sets to do in the next batch (or I will have them to do whenever they arrive in my mailbox) and three of those are alphabet sets, so yeah that's going to take a while.

In the meantime, I have a card to share today.  I hate making sympathy cards.

My friend's dog died earlier this week (not entirely unexpected, as she was quite aged for a canine) so I made this for my friend.  I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch, rotated 90 degrees to the right:

As luck would have it, Color Throwdown had this excellent muted palette this week, which I think is perfect for a sympathy card:

I used Misty Moonlight, Smoky Slate, and Seaside Spray and I just realized I left off white! Oops.  Coincidentally I used this same color combination on another sympathy card a couple of years ago.

Okay, looking at that inspo picture makes me realize I need another cuppa tea :)  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pampered Pets
Ink:  Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Seaside Spray, Smoky Slate, Pattern Party DSP, Smoky Slate DSP
Accessories:  dog punch, Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals

More Polar Pals

Mornin', y'all!  I have the day off of work, the hubs just took Ryan to daycare, and I have a list of things to do today.  Other than laundry, it's all crafty stuff! : )  I'm working on another scrapbook layout, I have stamps to unmount (I really need to quit looking at eBay...), it's time for an update on my giant cross stitch project, the list goes on!

But first, a card for today!

Have I mentioned that I'm obsessed with the Penguin Playmates DSP???  Because I *totally* am.  I think I'm going to need more ; )  I did some simple stamping for the sentiment, and then fussy cut the polar bear and penguin out and glued them down on the tree pattern.  Since polar bears live in the Arctic and penguins are Antarctic, does that make this duo bipolar pals?

Check out the fun sketch from Inspire. Create.:

I liked the idea of using those thicker edges around the horizontal strip for the smaller words in the Ornate Thanks stamp set and I'm still wishing the polar bears and foxes were stamp sets too.  Don't get me wrong, the penguin stamps are adorable, but I'm in LOOOOOOOOVE with the polar bears and foxes on this DSP!

Anyway, I'm also entering this at the Global Design Project:

I always need thank you cards, don't you?

Hey, writing this blog post means I get to mark one thing off my list of things to do.  I'm off to conquer a mountain of laundry and do crafty things.  Cheers, polar peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ornate Thanks
Ink:  Balmy Blue, Just Jade
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Just Jade, Thick Basic White, Penguin Playmates DSP
Accessories:  None