Checking In: New Year Goals

Hey y'all, I haven't gotten to spend too much time in my craft room with the holidays and all, and when I *do* get some stampy time I've been working on design team commitments :)  But for the last couple of years around this time, I've done a reflection post about the previous year and set some goals/intentions for the year to come.  So that's what I'm doing today!

If you so desire, you can see my 2021 goals here; I had to go back and reread them myself.

1.  Scrapbook layouts:  given that I started a new job this year, I never set a specific goal for scrapbook layouts, and in the end I only did 46 pages.  But hey, that's better than a sharp stick in the eye, and slow progress is better than no progress, right?  I got distracted with doing other projects and I need to work on focusing when I DO have a day off so I can actually get things done (besides laundry).  So for 2022, I'm going to set my goal at 50 pages (or 25 two-page layouts) and hopefully I can catch the scrappin' bug again and make some progress.

2.  Organize and pare down pictures:  at long last, I made some good progress on this goal!  I did what I said I was going to, every Sunday (when we weren't traveling), I'd make a fun breakfast and then lock myself in the computer room for a bit to work on photos.  I got through all of China and nearly a year and a half of our Britain photos, which believe me was a LOT.  Plus I've at least got our 2021 photos in the appropriate folders with dates, even if I haven't gone through all of the pictures yet to weed out duplicates.  Unfortunately I fell off the wagon in November with all the holiday craziness and having my parents visit so I haven't done any organizing in nearly two months, but at least I finally made progress on this goal after years of saying I was going to.  Definitely going to work on this more in 2022, making it a Sunday thing.

3.  Reading:  Once again, I'm not doing a specific goal because I am absolute rubbish and shrinking my to-be-read pile (currently at 390 unread books on my Kindle) but I did read 90 books this year.  As it turned out, I did a lot of re-reads of some favorite series (Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson and Alpha & Omega, Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's, Kristen Britain's Green Rider, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson), and it was so lovely to just dive back in to some books I already know and love.  I did read a lot of new-to-me books, the standout being A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell.  So amazing.  As it happens, I am currently reading a book about another of the SOE's agents during WWII, The Spy Who Loved by Clare Mulley.  For 2022, I'll just be tracking what books I read and trying not to worry about how big my TBR pile is.  At least it can't fall on me and crush me to death since it's digital ;)

4.  Stitching:  I have been working all year on finishing The Quarry.  At the end of 2020, I was at 50%, and as of yesterday I just passed 90%!  So excited that I'm nearing the end on this one as it has been a fight (I started it in April of 2011).  I just have one skinny little column of partial pages to go!

I'll finish this sometime this spring I think, and then I'm going to work on a variety of smaller projects before I dive into another huge one like this.  I have the patterns and floss for another NINE Scarlet Quince patterns, so clearly I am still insane for wanting to take on these giant projects.

So yep, that's where I'm at right now.  I'm ready to start creating new things for the New Year.  Cheers!

December 2018

Scrappy Monday!  How was your holiday?  I think Ryan's Christmas was sponsored by Lego this year ;) He got at least a half-dozen different sets and has been working on those in between playing with his other toys.

So here we are at the last Monday of 2021!  I was hoping I'd get some crafty time this week but circumstances keep conspiring against me :p  Well, I do have a layout to share today anyway.

Here's my monthly layout from December of 2018, when Ryan was not quite 2 yet.  I love that first picture that says "Do your job!" on it--we visited my hubs' office and Ryan immediately plopped himself in the desk chair, so we took that picture of him.  Man, he's grown so much since these pictures were taken!

Today's color palette:  Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Bashful Blue, Blueberry Bushel, and Whisper White.  Y'all know I love me some greens and blues together :)

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Full Calendar, Festive Flurry
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, Frosty Day DSP
Accessories:  Festive Flurry Framelits

Stamping with Ryan

Mornin' y'all!  I've got a little bit of time before I'm due to leave for work today, so I thought I'd share a couple of cards that Ryan (4 years old) made for his cousins around the beginning of November.  Here are his creations:

Even though it was after Halloween, he insisted on using the ghost and Halloween greeting for the first card.  Ryan did all the stamping and die cutting, though I helped line up the dies before he cranked 'em through the Big Shot.  He chose the DSP scraps and I adhered them on the card fronts, and then he stuck on the other pieces (I just made sure they didn't overlap the card edges so we could still get them in envelopes when he finished).  Ryan also colored the dog in and somehow ended up with Camouflage Canine, haha!  I think he asked me to color in the dog's collar but he did all the rest.  Once he finished making the cards, he dictated messages for me to write to his cousins.

Ryan does like doing arts & crafts stuff; we have a tub of construction paper, pompoms, markers, and glitter glue that we play with, and if he sees me go in my craft room he always wants to "help".  Right now I have to supervise pretty closely (um, he put a 6-inch scratch on our dining room table with a pair of scissors when I went to the bathroom once) but it's still fun to see how his brain works when he creates things.

Have a great day, peeps!

Snowman Celebration

Hey y'all, happy hump day :)  Uh, I just realize I'm pretty sure I do not have a camel stamp so sometime in 2022 I need to fix that, haha!  Anyway, I baked about a zillion cookies on Monday and then yesterday I worked a half day and spent the other half in my craft room, which was lovely.  It's been so long since I got to spend much time in there (I made yesterday's hedgehog card probably a couple of months ago) that for a while I just had to look around everywhere in confusion before my brain kicked in and I got to creating.  Anyone else have that happen?

Anywha, I did eventually make a card to share today.

Remember the Peaceful Prints DSP that was in the fall Sale-a-Bration catalog?  This is the first time I've cut into any of it and I am loving this pattern with the plaid and the snowflakes.  Also I loved the idea of a red backdrop for my celebrating snowman :)  I played around with the layout a bit before deciding to go super-simple and low-key reminiscent of a snow globe.  Appropriate for the image, no?

I'll be entering this at Global Design Project:

Just so happens that the SUO Challenges theme is *also* celebrations, so that's fun :)  I'm also entering this at Cupcake Inspirations:

Thanks, Cupcake Inspiration, for giving me an excuse to ink up Snowman Season, I really enjoyed the creative process on this card.  Here's hoping I get a bit more time in my craft room this afternoon :)

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Snowman Season, Sweet as a Peach
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana, Stampin' Blends in Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Gray Granite, Just Jade
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Thick Basic White, Peaceful Prints DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Rectangles Stitched dies, Potted Succulents dies, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Time to Celebrate!

Mornin' y'all!  You ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges?

This time our theme is celebrations!  Aside from the major holiday later this week ;) what are you celebrating?  I had to ink up a new-to-me stamp set for this one:

Yep, as soon as I saw that sentiment in Badger Besties, I knew I had to use it for this challenge!  My friend Faith is a proud Hufflepuff and I have heard her say on several occasions that 'Puffs are HUNGRY and that's why their common room is by the kitchens, hence the background of cupcakes :)

Your turn to celebrate and upload a card at SUO Challenges.  We look forward to seeing what you create!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Badger Besties, Sweets & Treats
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Bumblebee, Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends
Paper:  Bumblebee, Thick Basic White, Pattern Party DSP
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals

December 2005

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  Ughhh, I'm so tired!  We're taking care of our neighbor's dog and cat while they're traveling, and doggo has kept us awake the last two nights.  I know part of it is just getting used to being in our house overnight rather than her own house (she goes back to her house during the day when we leave to go to work or run errands or whatever, and the cat stays there all the time) but yeah, I could use some more sleep.  Here's hoping that the third night is the charm!

In the meantime, I have a seasonal layout to share.

Looking at this picture right now it looks like my letters kinda slightly trend upwards towards the end of "December".  Oh well, that's part of the charm of handmade stuff, right?  We only had a couple of pictures from different events in December, not enough for each one to get their own layout, so I combined them here.  I used the same DSP pack as I did for the Christmas Treats layout I posted a while back.

Today's color palette is straight from the DSP:  Baja Breeze (still my favorite), Blushing Bride, Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, and Whisper White.

I'm off to get ready for work, yawning all the way....cheeeeeeers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Endless Wishes, numbers from Unity
Ink:  Garden Green, Baja Breeze, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Baja Breeze textured, Real Red, Garden Green, Blushing Bride, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Candy Cane Christmas DSP
Accessories:  None

Friday Falala

Oh man y'all, that Covid shot is brutal even if the booster is supposedly a half dose.  I kinda wish I could remove my left arm until it decides to quit hurting so much.  Doesn't help much that I decided on a whim to take Ryan to a meet Santa event last night and then we ended up spending over 3 hours in line and got home an hour and a half past bedtime!  That was his first time talking to Santa though so at least he had fun.

I did make a card today with some new stamps I just got!

I bought a few sets of stamps and dies from Newton's Nook and how CUTE is that llama?!  I made this for this week's Color Throwdown challenge:

I used Cherry Cobbler, Rococo Rose, and Mint Macaron for my colors, which all handily come in Stampin' Blends.  Kept the layout simple to focus on the llama :)

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Newton's Nook
Ink:  Early Espresso, Mint Macaron, Cherry Cobbler, Stampin' Blends in Ivory, Bronze, Mint Macaron, Cherry Cobbler, and Rococo Rose
Paper:  Rococo Rose, Cherry Cobbler, Thick Very Vanilla, Flowering Cactus DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals

You Get a Gold Star

Hey kids!  The hubs "surprised" me the other day by scheduling me for my Covid booster shot, so that's happening this afternoon :p  Here's hoping I don't feel as bad as I did with both of the other shots!

Quick and simple card for today.

I started with the Paper Players color challenge:

I keep forgetting that I bought the gold ribbon in the Blackberry Beauty suit, I could have used it for this challenge!  Oh well, maybe next time.

This week's Freshly Made Sketch is similar to the Global Design Project sketch I used yesterday:

Funny how that worked out!  I used the star as the pink circle in the sketch, and stamped the splatter from Gorgeous Leaves twice on the background for the other two circles.  I stamped them in Versamark and clear embossed so they would be shiny like the star but not be too dark on the Merry Merlot cardstock.  I really don't use Merry Merlot very often...

Cheers, y'all.  Wish me luck with my shot today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Frosted Gingerbread
Ink:  Versamark, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Merry Merlot, Thick Very Vanilla, Gold Foil
Accessories:  Gingerbread dies, clear EP, Dimensionals

Deceptively Simple

Hey y'all!  Do you ever sit down to create something and it feels like your brain and/or your project just won't cooperate?  Yeah that was me yesterday.  I think it's worse when I know I have a finite amount of time to spend in my craft room and then panic because I'm "wasting" time trying to figure out what I'm doing.  So here's the card that took me two hours *rolls eyes*

I had a couple of challenges in mind and then I just couldn't figure out how to make them work for me but I think I got there in the end?  First up is the Inspired By Warm Winter challenge:

I just got a new (non-SU...shhhh!) stamp set with all kinds of supercute mugs and I couldn't wrap my brain around using that set (that SHOULD have been perfect with this inspo pic!) so I ended up with Nothing's Better Than from SU.  I think what was throwing my brain for a loop is the all-neutrals aspect of the inspiration picture, I just could NOT make it work in my head until I finally said FINE and used some Misty Moonlight.

Check out the Global Design Project sketch:

Once I finally got the colors and DSP sorted, this sketch made the card come together really fast.  Ya know, after I agonized over it for a while first :p  I bought a Starbucks mug to send to someone so this card is going in the package with the mug.  But man, was it a struggle to get it done...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nothing's Better Than, Biggest Wish
Ink:  Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Early Espresso, Thick Basic Vanilla, In Good Taste DSP
Accessories:  Love You More Than dies, Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals

Evergreen Angel

 Mornin' y'all!  Happy Tuesday!

I had a bit of confusion with the SUO Challenges design team about when our second batch of Christmas inspiration was supposed to go live so here I am with it now!

I bought Angels of Peace from the mini catalog as an impulse buy and had to use it with the Ever Eden DSP with all those gorgeous greens.  This card went out in the mail yesterday to my friend Missy who is *always* a fan of gold and green together ;)  I kept my design simple because I didn't want to cover up too much of that beautiful paper, and also a gold-embossed angel always looks elegant.

Every time I show my hubs a card I made, he checks the inside even though I don't stamp anything on the inside probably 92% of the time.  This time I did!

Hope you'll share your own Christmas creations on the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Angels of Peace, Poinsettia Petals
Ink:  Versamark, Evening Evergreen
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Evening Evergreen, Thick Basic White, Ever Eden DSP, gold foil
Accessories:  Seasonal Labels dies, Matte Decorative Dots, Dimensionals

Christmas Card Photo Shoot 2018

Scrappy Monday!  Last week was super BUSY and this one might be too...I work every day this week but shorter days, so in the afternoons I'll probably be trying to get some Christmas stuff prepped.  The hubs and the spawn put up the Christmas tree yesterday and I decorated the entryway a bit, so we're in the process of getting in the holiday spirit :)

How about a Christmas layout for today...

For our Christmas cards in 2018, we plopped Ryan down in front of the tree and did a quick 10-minute photo shoot; we used that 5x7 photo for that year's cards.  I used to hand-make about 65 Christmas cards every year, but I figured most people were probably just going to throw those in the trash anyway so I switched to photo cards.  Now only a few select people get handmade cards.

Today's color palette:  Real Red (Ryan's favorite color), Old Olive, Blueberry Bushel, Shaded Spruce, and Whisper White.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Signs of Santa
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Blueberry Bushel, Stampin' Blends in Real Red, Shaded Spruce, So Saffron, Petal Pink, Balmy Blue, Smoky Slate, & Ivory
Paper:  Real Red, Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White, Under the Mistletoe DSP
Accessories:  Santa's Signpost dies

Sparkling Snowflakes

Hey y'all!  I have to write this post really really fast because I need to be out the door in about 10 minutes.  This is the current view from my craft room window:

SNOW!  The temperature is too high for it to stick on the ground, especially the roads, but it always seems so special to me when it snows.  I grew up in Texas where snow is a Really Big Deal if you're a kid--if the ground is even just kinda white, they cancel school, so yep, snow = magic to me!

Here is my super sparkly snowflake card for today!  I'm submitting this for the Paper Players challenge:

I couldn't think of anything to fit the words "Winter Wonderland" better than a super sparkly snowflake.  I used the sketch from Inspired By Challenges:

I'm hoping I can grab enough time in my craft room to make a card based on one of their inspo pics, too.  And finally, here's the brand new Festive Friday challenge:

I used sparkle, emboss (white embossing powder for the sentiment), rhinestones, silver, and die cuts.  The rhinestones were a last-minute addition; I thought it was too much to put one in the middle of the snowflake, but I needed something in the bottom corner of the blue strip, so rhinestones to the rescue!  That's going to be my new band name, Rhinestones To The Rescue.  I like it.

Gotta run.  Stay toasty warm, friends!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Snowflake Wishes
Ink:  Pacific Point, VersaMark
Paper:  Bashful Blue, Shimmery White, Pacific Point, Snowflake Splendor DSP, silver Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  So Many Snowflakes dies, white EP, rhinestones, mini Dimensionals

CAS Christmas, Part 2

Hey y'all!  I had intended to write this post in the morning before I went to work, but I ran out of time :) I'm back with the other three card designs I made for my husband's work.

I got Lots of Cheer right before it retired and then didn't have a chance to ink it up, so I'm glad this cute boxy snowman finally gets his chance to appear!  The outside sentiment is from First Frost, and inside says Happy Holidays from Warmest Regards.

Kinda wish I'd done the mittens in blue and the sentiment in green, but I didn't have that thought until I'd already made most of the cards so oh well.  The mittens are from Merry (long, long retired!) and the sentiment is from Warmth & Wonder.  You may notice that all of the sentiments on the card fronts have something to do with warmth, guess that's my theme this year!

Last up is a cup of cocoa from Scentsational Season.  And that's all my cards!  I think making 65 cards in a single day is a personal best for me ;)  I was very productive at work for the past few days too, and I'd like to relax tomorrow for my day off but nope, looks like I'll be making desserts for a potluck thing in the afternoon.  I do like to bake though...

Cheers, y'all!  Stay toasty.

Supplies, snowman card:
Stamps:  Lots of Cheer, First Frost, Warmest Regards
Ink:  Balmy Blue, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Balmy Blue
Accessories:  None

Supplies, mittens card:
Stamps:  Merry, Warmth & Wonder, Warmest Regards
Ink:  Garden Green, Pacific Point
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz
Accessories:  None

Supplies, cocoa card:
Stamps:  Scentsational Season, Warmth & Wonder, Warmest Regards
Ink:  Real Red, Soft Suede
Paper:  Blushing Bride
Accessories:  None

CAS Christmas, Part 1

So I mentioned yesterday that the hubs asked me to make 65 Christmas cards for his work...well, more like winter holiday cards, not Christmas specific.  I managed to make ALLLLLLL of them yesterday.  I did five cards which are all basically the same one-layer CAS design, I just used different stamps so I only made 13 of each card.  That made me feel like I was making progress when I switched to a different design, and it kept me from completely running out of any single color of cardstock since I hadn't specifically planned for this project.  I have a very large stamp collection, so it took me quite some time to go through all my winter stamps and settle on images and sentiments for the five designs.  Almost all the stamps I ended up choosing are retired.

Here's card #1!  I used the cute cabin image from Cozy Christmas and a sentiment from the still current set Poinsettia Petals on Crumb Cake cardstock.

This was actually design #5 but I wanted to pair these two together and share the other three designs later this week.  For this one I used Serene Snowflakes and Hugs & Wishes for the greeting.  Inside of both of these designs I stamped "Season's Greetings" from Bright & Beautiful.

Very simple design, but it had to be for me to make 65 cards in a single day, and I think they're still reasonably cute.  Now I just need to sign the insides of them and see what the hubs wants as far as envelopes...

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies for first card, all SU!
Stamps:  Cozy Christmas, Poinsettia Petals, Bright & Beautiful
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Early Espresso
Paper:  Crumb Cake
Accessories:  None

Supplies for second card, all SU!
Stamps:  Serene Snowflakes, Hugs & Wishes, Bright & Beautiful
Ink:  Fresh Freesia, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  None

Christmas Treats

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Wow, I haven't worked on scrapbook pages in a really long time.  I won't get the chance this week either since the hubs asked me to make 65 Christmas/holiday cards for his work.  No rest for the crafty!

These photos are from all the way back in 2008; we always gave Sadie and Vader some kind of treat or toy when we first started opening Christmas presents so they would be distracted by the treats and not try to "help" with opening the other stuff.  Man, I miss those two.  Anyway, I've got some nontraditional colors happening here thanks to the Candy Cane Christmas DSP and I like it.

Island Indigo, Blushing Bride, Real Red, Wild Wasabi, my favorite Baja Breeze, and Whisper White.  Well, there is a red and a green on there.

Christmas cheer, kids!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Endless Wishes, Tags Til Christmas
Ink:  Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Island Indigo, Wild Wasabi, Baja Breeze, Real Red, Blushing Bride, Whisper White, Candy Cane Christmas DSP
Accessories:  None

Blackberry Beauty Best Wishes

Mornin' y'all!  I had so much fun making yesterday's card for the Global Design Project CASE the Designer challenge that I made another one:

Here's the challenge graphic:

This time I kept my layout a bit more similar to the inspiration card, and layered several floral elements together.  But I went in a different direction with the patterned paper rather than leaving a lot of white space, so my card doesn't feel nearly as CAS.  I love that owl pattern!

Hope you have a great day, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beauty of Tomorrow, Art Gallery
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Thick Basic White, Blackberry Beauty Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Blackberry Beauty Ephemera Pack, Dimensionals

I Got Sunshine

It seems so DARK now with the time change from a few weeks ago, so I made a sunny card in my craft room on Monday!

I made this for the Global Design Project challenge:

At first I thought of using the Nature's Harvest suite from the mini catalog because I haven't inked it up yet, but then I saw Celebrate With Flowers and had to use that instead.  I got it during the one-day stamp sale in October and this is my first card with it.  I kept a tall floral element on the left side of my card, I used yellow as my main color, and I used some twine on my card as well.  Also you can't tell from the picture but the dragonfly is covered in Wink of Stella :)

Hope your day is filled with sunshine!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Celebrate With Flowers
Ink:  Just Jade, Flirty Flamingo, Bumblebee, Night of Navy
Paper:  Bumblebee, Thick Basic White, Sweet Symmetry DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched Dies, Potted Succulents Dies, Dimensionals, twine from a Paper Pumpkin kit, Wink of Stella