Dunskey

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today's layout is another castle in Scotland; are you tired of castle pictures yet?  Hope not, because we took more last weekend ; )

I started this layout in 2020 and didn't finish it until a couple of weeks ago because that's how long it took me to order a 5x7 print for the left hand page.  And I added the round accent on the right page, too.  It wasn't until I was taking pictures of the layout that I realized I had done the title and accent on Very Vanilla but the journaling on Whisper White.  Horrors!  I'll have to redo the journaling but I won't redo the picture here.  Probably.  It bothers me to have both white and vanilla on the layout though.

Today's color palette features a variety of retired colors:  Concord Crush, Blue Bayou, More Mustard, Vintage Violet, and Very Vanilla (and soon-to-be-not-there-anymore Whisper White).

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lovely Letters Alphabet, Best of Shelli
Ink:  Blue Bayou, Concord Crush marker
Paper:  Concord Crush, Blue Bayou, Vintage Violet, Thick Very Vanilla, Blue Bayou DSP, Autumn Traditions DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies

Sketchtastic Paper Players

Hey y'all stamping friends!  I'm a bit late with my post today because the hubs was using the computer to do our taxes.  But here I am at last with the new Paper Players sketch:

Lots of layers equals lots of fun!  I couldn't resist playing with a new stamp set and coordinating paper for my card today:

I kept the sketch on my craft table right in front of me to make sure I wouldn't skip any of the layers :)  And really I added an extra layer with the stamped leafy frond on there.  I am digging the tropical vibes from this stamp set and papers!  I really went for the dies on this one too, I used FOUR different sets to construct all those pretty layers.

Now it's your turn to join the fun!  Be sure to upload your sketchtastic card at the Paper Players blog.  Enjoy!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Artfully Layered
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Versamark
Paper:  Pale Papaya, Calypso Coral, Thick Basic White, Artfully Composed DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Hippo Friends dies, Potted Succulents dies, Tropical Layers dies, White EP, Polished Dots

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford

Jennie Maier

Hangry

Well, I was supposed to have today off with Ryan at daycare, but now I have to go pick him up early.  Dangit.  I just finished my first card of the day, too.

Had to have another go at the Festive Friday challenge:

I used baked goods, brown, neutrals, and enamel dots.  Paired that with the sketch from CAS Colours & Sketches:

And now I need to switch out my laundry real fast and get out the door.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nothing's Better Than, Lighthearted Lines
Ink:  Early Espresso, Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  In Color Enamel Dots

Lovely Butterfly

Hey y'all, how's your afternoon going?  At least, it's afternoon where I am.  Once again, I managed to snatch about 20 minutes in my craft room this morning so I have something to blog this afternoon :)

This is the maiden voyage for Amazing Silhouettes, which is a lovely stamp set bundled with some awesome word dies that I didn't use this time around.  I did take a stab at this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I let my new rhinestones stand in for the chevrons on the sketch, and I went over the butterfly negative space with Wink of Stella for more sparkle which, of course, doesn't show up in the picture.  I'm hoping to get lots more stamping/scrapbooking done tomorrow as I finally have a day off--most of my days off recently Ryan has been home as well and it's just about impossible to do paper crafting with him in residence.  Looking forward to getting inky tomorrow!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Amazing Silhouettes, Bamboo Beauty
Ink:  Fresh Freesia, Polished Pink
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Rhinestone Waves Basic Jewels

ETA:  Well, here's a fun surprise--my squirrel card was chosen as the winner over at Just Add Ink!  Thanks, y'all!

Two Technicolor Squirrels

Happy Twos-Day on a Tuesday, y'all!  Late post today as I just barely squeaked out this card in the morning before I left for work and didn't have time to write my blog post.

Technicolor squirrels!  Love these little guys :) Especially in fun, bright colors!

First up is the Just Add Ink sketch:

Pretty sure I've got the Global Design Project theme down:

And happily for me, that overlapped with the current Festive Friday challenge:

I used nuts (acorns are nuts, right?), brown (Cinnamon Cider and Early Espresso inks), twine, and circles on my card.  May have to have another go at this challenge and go for the baked goods ; )  I started by choosing my polka-dot paper and let it dictate the colors for the squirrels and everything else.  If I'd had more time, I might have added enamel dots too, but I'm just amazed and happy I managed to complete a card before work today!

Time for Taco Tuesday.  Adios, amigos!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nuts About Squirrels
Ink:  Early Espresso, Bermuda Bay, Cinnamon Cider, Mango Melody, Magenta Madness
Paper:  Mango Melody, Pool Party, Thick Basic White, Sunshine & Rainbows DSP Stack
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Kenilworth Castle

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today is a holiday for us so I think we're going to try to get out and DO something--maybe tour a small castle.  Like ya do.  Today's scrapbook layout also features a castle.

You can see lots more pics here and here.  If we take 100 pictures, I usually blog about 25-30, print 15-20, and actually scrap 8-10.  I'm never going to catch up even if I only scrap about 10% of the pictures we take.  At least I'll never be bored!  Once I decided to use the Fine Art Floral DSP, I had to use the coordinating Art Gallery flowers as a stamped accent.  We did spend quite a bit of time exploring the castle's gardens, so that's appropriate.  I love when I find DSP/stamps that perfectly accent my pictures!

Today's color palette:  Petal Pink, Terracotta Tile, Merry Merlot, Mossy Meadow, and Whisper White.  I've used Merry Merlot several times on scrapbook layouts lately, but since I skip around as I scrap I won't have a bunch of layouts all together that have the exact same colors.  Unless that's what I intentionally decide to do, but mostly I like to use lots of different colors.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Art Gallery
Ink:  Terracotta Tile, Merry Merlot, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Petal Pink, Terracotta Tile, Merry Merlot, Thick Basic White, Fine Art Floral DSP
Accessories:  Floral Gallery dies, Tasteful Labels dies

Paper Players: Wild About Wildlife

Salutations and greetings on this fine Sunday morning!  At least I hope it's a fine Sunday morning where you are.  We had gorgeous weather yesterday, hoping it continues today.  And there's a new challenge at the Paper Players to enjoy, too!

Not gonna lie, I loved this challenge.  I made a card for it weeks ago and then had to go back and make two more!  Couldn't pass up the excuse to ink up the awesome and amazing Wildlife Wonder stamp set for multiple cards, and here they are:

And now for some closeups:

I made the wolf card first.  I found the Basic Gray enamel dots in a pack of Halloween embellishments from a couple of years ago.

A single layer card for my bear dude here.  I stamped the thanks sentiment from this set on the inside of the card.

And I couldn't leave out the owl.  The sentiment strip looks blue in the pic (thanks to the uncooperative lighting where I live) but I promise it's Soft Succulent.

If you have even half as much fun as I did with this challenge, you're in for a happy Sunday :) Don't forget to upload your project(s) at The Paper Players blog!

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford

Jennie Maier

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wildlife Wonder
Ink:  Gray Granite, Cinnamon Cider, Memento Tuxedo Black, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Evening Evergreen
Paper:  Basic Gray, Gray Granite, Cinnamon Cider, Evening Evergreen, Crumb Cake, Soft Succulent
Accessories:  Tasteful Labels dies, gray enamel dots, Dimensionals

Otterly Awesome

Mornin', y'all.  Well, our Friday plans have been scuttled...hubs' day off got taken away but daycare is still closed (thanks a lot, powers that be) so Ryan and I are chillin' at the house today and I'm trying to get some appointments taken care of for him.  But I'm kinda grumpy about it.

On the other hand, I managed to snatch a few minutes in my craft room yesterday between getting off work and picking Ryan up, so I made a card to share today.

I love the Sale-a-Bration set Awesome Otters, it was the very first thing I wanted out of that catalog :)  Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Which I paired with the Color Throwdown:

That cake is gorgeous and I think 85% of our house is decorated in blues and greens, so no way was I going to let this challenge pass me by.  I used Seaside Spray, Misty Moonlight, Shaded Spruce, and Early Espresso for the colors--all of the images and the sentiment are stamped with Early Espresso, and then I used some lighter neutral Blends to color the otters.

Well, Ryan just told me he's going to play upstairs until I finish my workout and all that boring stuff, so I'd better get to it :)  Have a good weekend, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Awesome Otters
Ink:  Early Espresso; Stampin' Blends in Seaside Spray, Shaded Spruce, Bronze, Ivory, Soft Suede
Paper:  Seaside Spray, Misty Moonlight, Shaded Spruce, Thick Basic White, Beauty of the Earth DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Tasteful Labels dies, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: All Holidays

Been a while since I did a Friday Flashback post and I actually have quite a few draft posts just waiting to see the light of day :) So let's revisit the all-word set All Holidays, from way back in 2007.  There are 12 stamps in the set and I didn't want to make 12 different cards, so I just chose six stamps and paired them up with the For All Seasons DSP Stack to make some quick and cute cards.  Enjoy!

Supplies, Peace Card:
Stamps:  All Holidays
Ink:  Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Just Jade, Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Flowers For All Seasons DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Hippo & Friends dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, Christmas Card:
Stamps:  All Holidays
Ink:  Poppy Parade
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Bumblebee, Thick Basic White, Flowers For All Seasons DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Hippo & Friends dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, Easter Card:
Stamps:  All Holidays
Ink:  Highland Heather
Paper:  Highland Heather, Bumblebee, Thick Basic White, Flowers For All Seasons DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Ornate Frames dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, Friend Card:
Stamps:  All Holidays
Ink:  Bumblebee
Paper:  Bumblebee, Magenta Madness, Thick Basic White, Flowers For All Seasons DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, Mother's Day Card:
Stamps:  All Holidays
Ink:  Magenta Madness
Paper:  Magenta Madness, Just Jade, Thick Basic White, Flowers For All Seasons DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Potted Succulents dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, Father's Day Card:
Stamps:  All Holidays
Ink:  Just Jade
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Just Jade, Thick Basic White, Flowers For All Seasons DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals

Starting Anew

Mornin', y'all!  We had a good time for Ryan's birthday yesterday.  He was SUPER excited that I got him balloons :) and he had opening his presents, though I'm pretty sure he thinks I got him too many books (no such thing as too many books, if you ask me).  Anyway, I'm back with the other card I made for the Paper Players color challenge:

And here it is:

It's that same Butterfly Bijou DSP as my other card, but this one just didn't feel...awesome enough for a Paper Players card?  I don't know, it just feels a bit lacking to me.  I do like that sentiment paired with butterflies but *shrug*  That's why I made the mermaid card!

Okay, I've got to get ready for work.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flowering Tulips, Confetti
Ink:  Mint Macaron, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  So Saffron, Bermuda Bay, Mint Macaron, Thick Basic White, Butterfly Bijou DSP Stack
Accessories:  Tasteful Labels dies, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Bring on the HEAT

Gooooood morning, happy taco Tuesday, happy birthday to Ryan, and happy SUO Challenges day!  Lots to be happy about today :)  You ready for a new challenge?

This time we're asking you to bring on the HEAT:  do some heat embossing!  I love heat embossing, you can do so many fun things with it.  I had one idea in my mind for today's challenge, but when I sat down to work on it, a GOAT interrupted and insisted I make this instead:

I did think about making a goat card for the Paper Players challenge this week and went with a mermaid instead, so the goats from Way to Goat insisted on making a card appearance this week too.  I embossed the goat with white EP and then watercolored it with white craft ink.  The sentiment is heat embossed with gold EP to go with the gold centers on the flowers.  I just love how self-satisfied this goat looks :)  I snagged the layout idea from Lyssa Zwolanek.

Your turn!  Turn up the heat and share your heat embossed creation at the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Way to Goat
Ink:  Versamark, white craft ink
Paper:  Magenta Madness, Night of Navy, Pumpkin Pie, Abstract Beauty DSP Stack
Accessories:  white EP, gold EP, Dimensionals

Flying with Holie

Scrappy Monday and happy Valentine's Day.  Today is also the hubs' birthday!  He does *not* like being a Valentine's baby and would probably rather ignore his birthday altogether but we love him and want to celebrate him.  I don't have a traditional red hearts and roses layout to share today, but I do have one showcasing one of the hubs' favorite activities:  flying!

He had the opportunity a few years ago to meet up with a friend (Holie is his nickname) and go flying in some vintage planes.  Every once in a while, especially if it's some event that I wasn't involved with at all, I have the hubs do journaling on scrapbook layouts.

Today's fall-ish color scheme includes Garden Green, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla.  Well, the pictures were taken in November, after all.

Hope you have a great Valentine's Day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Vintage Leaves, Rough Type, Letterpress Alphabet
Ink:  Garden Green, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso
Paper:  Garden Green, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Thick Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Leaflets dies, Layering Ovals dies

Paper Players: Mermazing Colors

Good morning stampy friends!  How is your weekend going?  It's about to get better...there's a great new color challenge at The Paper Players!

They're great, right?  I admit though, I really had to think for a while before I decided on what I wanted to do.  In fact, I made a different card first but it didn't feel quite right so I had to have another go at it, and then I made this:

I bought Pirates & Mermaids on a whim when it was on the one-day stamp sale last October and this is the first time I've used it.  I thought the Mint Macaron and Bermuda Bay made good ocean colors, and I found a pattern in the Butterfly Bijoux DSP stack from last year that I thought coordinated beautifully with my mermaid.  I thought about making her hair blonde (So Saffron), buuuut...I'm a brunette ;) Plus if she'd had blonde hair then I would have had to give her a bright pink flower and I wanted to stick to the color challenge plus neutrals.  I've ordered all the new neutral Stampin' Blends so now I'm just waiting to get them in my hot little hands :)  You can't see it in the picture (as always), but I did accent her tail and the flower with Wink of Stella for a bit of sparkle.  For the layout of my card, I CASEd this card on Dawn Olchefske's blog, and I have since seen it pop up in a few other places too.

So what will you make with these mermazing colors?  Something ocean-related like me?  Butterflies?  A dancing goat?  (I did think about making a dancing goat card.)  Upload your creation at the Paper Players blog and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pirates & Mermaids
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Bermuda Bay, Stampin' Blends in Mint Macaron, Bermuda Bay, So Saffron, Petal Pink, Bronze, Soft Suede
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Bermuda Bay, Thick Basic White, Butterfly Bijoux DSP Stack
Accessories:  White EP, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford

Jennie Maier

Tiger Blues

Mornin', kids.  Man, I am dragging today...I did NOT get enough sleep last night.  Pretty sure this is what I looked like when I discovered it was time to get up and face the day:

This is my new Facebook profile picture, courtesy of the Denver Zoo : )  Yuri the tiger is my new Patronus.  By sheer coincidence, my card today also features a tiger:

And he's blue.  Once again I could *not* get a really good picture of this; either it's full sun (harsh shadows) or so cloudy that *everything* looks blue.  So just trust me when I say it looks better IRL.  I was looking through my stamp sets to find something to go with a color challenge (more on that in a minute) and I thought why not have a blue tiger?  It's my craft room, I can stamp what I want : )

Check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I used the colors from the Color Throwdown:

I read it as Misty Moonlight, Coastal Cabana, and of course gold.  I'm not really sure what color is on that DSP background because it doesn't look quite like Misty Moonlight *or* Coastal Cabana, but I thought it was enough of a contrast with the Misty Moonlight tiger to count for the color challenge.  At first I tried stamping his stripes and embossing them gold but that didn't work out too well.

Gotta get ready for work.  This is going to be fun, considering I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep...

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wild Cats
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Night of Navy, Versamark
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, gold foil
Accessories:  Big Cats dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Tasteful Labels dies, gold EP, Dimensionals

You Sweet Thing

Hey y'all, happy Thursday.  I have a very quick card to share today:

As soon as I saw the sketch from Sunday Stamps, I knew it would be perfect for showcasing some patterned paper and I have SO MANY beautiful patterns :) But the hubs' birthday is coming up on Valentine's Day, so I chose a pattern from the Sweet Talk DSP.  Yeah, it's pink on a guy's birthday card, but I think the Coastal Cabana card base makes it a bit less girly.  Plus I just liked the lollipop pattern with the "sweet" sentiment.  Here's the sketch:

As a bonus, here's the Festive Friday challenge:

For my Valentine birthday card, I used red, pink, sparkle (check out the glitter dots under the sentiment), hearts, and stitching (the stitched dies).

Hope you have a great day, kids!  Oh, we got a new girl at work this week who happens to share the hubs' Valentine birthday, and she's NINETEEN years younger than me.  I think I'm the work mom...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Sweet Talk DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, white EP, Glitter Enamel Dots, Dimensionals

Levitating Tulips

Mornin' y'all!  I was supposed to be at work today, but my boss switched my schedule around so now I'm off today and working on Friday.  I have laundry to do (ALWAYS) and things to do in my craft room :) So let's get started!

Had some fun on Sunday playing with the new Cactus Cuties set, though this looks like a pot of tulips to me.  I was silly too, I stamped and cut out all the images and then ended up sticking them all on a white circle, ha.  Anyway, I popped up the two flowers and I'm sorta tempted to draw stems for them but on the other hand I just kinda like the floating tulips look.  What do you think?

I used the sketch from Fusion:

The inspiration pic looks good enough to eat, but I also wanted to use the color challenge from As You See It so no chocolate cupcakes for me today.  Here's the color challenge:

Okay so now I want to snatch a cupcake (or two) from the Fusion inspo pic and crawl into the AYSI picture and curl up with the cat, cupcakes, and a good book.  Looks cozy!  I had fun with these colors.

I'm off to my craft room for now to have some fun in between loads of laundry.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cactus Cuties
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen, Thick Basic White, Crumb Cake & Soft Succulent DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Floral Gallery dies, Dimensionals, In Color rhinestones

Rosy Thoughts

Mornin' y'all!  How is your week going so far?  I've got a Valentine-adjacent card to share today.

Okay I may have thrown off the alignment on my picture here.  They changed the formatting on Blogger a while back and I still don't like it :p  But anyway, I saw a couple of challenges last week that made me dig out a very old set called Wreath of Roses.  First up is the Try Stampin' on Tuesday sketch:

Which I paired with the Inkspirational inspo pic:

With an image like that, how could I *not* use Wreath of Roses?  I decided to go with a thinking of you sentiment instead of something Valentine-y though, I need more TOY cards than Valentines.

Have a great day peeps!  It's Taco Tuesday :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wreath of Roses
Ink:  Early Espresso, Polished Pink, Stampin' Blends in Polished Pink & Just Jade
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Pink Pirouette DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Grimes Graves

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I didn't really get my day off last week since Ryan has been throwing up periodically for a couple of weeks, and then his daycare provider got sick.  The hubs took Ryan to get his hair cut yesterday and I ended up having a few hours to myself to play in my craft room!  Got a couple of cards made and worked on some scrapbook pages too, love that.  I find that I need that time to play with paper and ink to keep my mental/emotional balance.

Anyway, here's one of the layouts I made in January:

Pictures are from when we went in a Neolithic flint mine in England, see 'em here.  Sorry for the harsh shadows on the layout/palette pictures today; I usually try to take scrapbook pages out onto our balcony to take pictures.  Indirect light is best (so a partly cloudy day) but lately it's been super cloudy so all the pictures turn out blue.  The day I took these pics it was really sunny so then I ended up with fairly accurate colors but harsh shadows.  What can ya do!

Today's color palette:  Perfect Plum, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Marina Mist, and white.  The pattern on the DSP reminded me of the funky patterns on the ground in the pictures--the old mines in that area make the sheep fields above them look like Eggo waffles :)

Have a great day and stay healthy, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Well-Worn Alphabet
Ink:  Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Perfect Plum, Marina Mist, Old Olive, Whisper White, Hydrangea Hill DSP
Accessories:  None