Happy Halloween! 2012

Happy Halloween, y'all!  We'll be taking Ryan out tonight to go trick-or-treating with his cousins.  But first, I have a scrapbook layout from Halloween past to share!

Here's my furbabies dressed up for Halloween.  These costumes were pretty hilarious, even if the "riders" wouldn't stand up right--Sadie was the steed for the Headless Horseman, while Vader's rider was a pretty pretty princess.  The hubs thought I got them backwards, but personality-wise this was 100% correct : )  You can see the original pictures here.  I just put this layout together last week and what took the longest was choosing the colors and where each one was going to go.  What ended up deciding things was the haunted house pattern on the lower left--once I'd chosen that, I settled quickly on an Old Olive page base and small accents of Pumpkin Pie and Highland Heather.  Though I suppose I could have done Highland Heather for the page base.  Ehh.

Today's color palette:  Old Olive, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Highland Heather, and Whisper White, plus a bit of Basic Gray/Smoky Slate if you want to get picky about it.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cutest Halloween, Wonderfully Wicked
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Highland Heather, Pumpkin Pie, Smoky Slate, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Old Olive, Basic Black, Highland Heather, Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Cute Halloween DSP Stack, Ghostly Greetings DSP
Accessories:  Halloween punch, Stitched Rectangles dies, Stitched Shapes dies



And now for Halloween present:

Marshall is all fired up!  His school is doing a storybook characters parade today, so they're allowed to dress in costume and bring a book featuring their storybook character.  Happily he has *lots* of Paw Patrol books from which to choose : )  The costume has a little Pup Pack velcroed to his back AND it has a tail--Ryan was very excited to show me how he can waggle the tail.  Meanwhile I'm wearing purple sweats and I have a purple top hat, so I will be a very comfy Mayor Humdinger and it will be 100% in character for me to steal all of Marshall's candy!  Hey, dogs shouldn't have chocolate anyway, right?

Gilded Greetings for the Paper Players

Happy Sunday and get ready for a great new challenge from the Paper Players!

Today's tic-tac-toe is from Anne Marie and there's lots of fun options.  I went with the top row, metallic - die cut - fall/Thanksgiving, and I made this:

I've got four different metallic elements on here, starting with the Gilded Autumn DSP and then gold metallic dots, twine, and a gold foil leaf.

Hope you'll have fun with this challenge and upload your card to the Paper Players blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Mint Macaron
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Thick Very Vanilla, Gilded Autumn DSP, Gold Foil
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, gold twine, Brushed Metallic Dots, Dimensionals

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford <-- You are here : )

Jennie Maier

Leaves of Beauty

Fall is my favorite season by far, but my husband thinks summer is better (clearly he's crazy and also wrong).  So while I keep talking about how pretty the fall leaves are, he's sitting next to me talking about how it's so sad that all the trees are dying and here I am glorifying their death throes : p  So I made a card to further glorify all those poor dying trees.

I think this year's color family DSP is my favorite ever, for once I got all of the color families and I can't stop using it.  I used this week's sketch from Global Design Project:

And the colors from Retro Rubber:

I chose Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade, and Bermuda Bay as my colors from the graphic.  The sentiment is from Simply Fabulous, which doesn't count as retro yet; the leaves are from last year's Gorgeous Leaves, so just one year old for that one but it counts as retro.

My brain keeps trying to tell me it's Saturday because kiddo is off school and the hubs took today off work, it's doing me a confuzzle ; )  Next up on today's list of things to do:  go get flu shots and Covid boosters for the adults.  Ick.  At least I can enjoy the pretty fall colors while we're out.

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Simply Fabulous
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Early Espresso
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade, Thick Basic White, Bermuda Bay DSP
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Die-Cut Wreath

Hey y'all, how's your Thursday?  I got a slow start this morning, wasn't feeling too great so I took a nap this morning after Ryan got on the bus.  But I did get a card made for today.

When I saw this week's Freshly Made Sketch, I thought of this wreath die in the Natural Prints dies (coordinates with the Nature's Prints stamp set).  The flowers are from the Penned Flowers dies (coordinates with the Hand-Penned Flowers stamp set); I die cut three flowers, then adhered them to Basic White cardstock and fussy cut around them so they'd stand out a little better.

Here's the sketch:

And here's this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Fresh Fig (retired), Petal Pink, and Soft Succulent for my colors.  The "thinking of you" stamp from Flowering Tulips fit inside the wreath perfectly, and who doesn't need more thinking of you cards?

I've still got about two hours until Ryan gets home so I'm going back up to craft some more.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flowering Tulips
Ink:  Fresh Fig
Paper:  Petal Pink, Soft Succulent, Fresh Fig, Basic White, Petal Pink DSP
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies, Penned Flowers dies, Dimensionals

Agnes Again

Hey y'all!  I sent out almost all my Halloween cards yesterday but I do have one more I haven't shared here yet.  This was the first one I made for this week's sketch from the Paper Players:

And here's Agnes again:

This was the first card I made for the challenge, but then I decided I wanted to do brighter colors.  For this one, I used Rich Razzleberry, Kiwi Kiss/Old Olive, and just a couple pops of Pumpkin Pie.

Have a great day, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Smoky Slate, Stampin' Blends in Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, neutrals
Paper:  Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Ghostly Greetings DSP
Accessories:  Circles dies, Glitter Enamel Dots

SUO Challenges: Color My World

Good morning, y'all!  It's time for a new challenge at Stampin' Up! Only Challenges!

This time it's a technique challenge and I think you're gonna like it:  coloring!  You've got some options here, you could do Stampin' Blends, the regular markers, watercolor pencils...hey, I think watercoloring would count too ; )  I decided to take a break from Halloween cards (whaaaaat) and instead went for All Bundled Up from the holiday catalog.  Take a look:

I chose that pink snowflake pattern from the Celebrate Everything DSP Stack, which gave me Polished Pink as a starting point.  I chose Tahitian Tide and Granny Apple Green for complementary colors and then neutrals for these two woodland pals.  Normally I seriously dislike brown and gray together, but I think it works for these two.  (And I still think that moose looks like my brother!)

I've been practicing a lot with my Blends of late.  When I first got alcohol markers, I tried laying down the lightest color first and then using the darker Blend for shading, but I always ended up with harsh lines around the shadows.  Now I do it in reverse:  I put in the darker areas and then lay down the base layer of the lighter shade, which lets me blend the colors together better.  I think I saw a video somewhere where they did the dark color first, but I don't remember when or where I saw it.

Hope you'll join us for this challenge and upload your card at the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  All Bundled Up, Yeti to Party
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Tahitian Tide, Stampin' Blends in Tahitian Tide, Granny Apple Green, Polished Pink, Gray Granite, various neutrals
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Tahitian Tide, Thick Basic White, Celebrate Everything DSP
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Yeti dies, Dimensionals, In Color gem

October 2018

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I'm planning to do some scrapping today : )  And also laundry, because there's always laundry.  But for right now, I've got a layout to share.

Pics are from the month of October 2018.  Man, Ryan was so little!  This kid has gotten so TALL lately.  Amusingly enough, you see that bear shirt in the two photos top left?  I got him that shirt in 2T and loved it so much I went back to buy it in a bigger size, so he still has a 5T one but he hasn't worn it lately and it will soon be in the pile of clothes he's outgrown.  I used to buy him alllll the clothes with bears and/or foxes on them; nowadays his clothes are like 98% superheroes and at least half of them are red and/or black.  He has a lot of Spider-Man and The Flash stuff.

Today's color palette:  Crumb Cake, Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Grapefruit Grove, and Whisper White.  I've used Pretty Peacock on several layouts just recently and I like the Grapefruit Grove as a more muted orange for this one.

Okay, I'm off to go do all the things.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Full Calendar, Jack of All Trades, Spooky Sweets, Haunt Ya Later
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Grapefruit Grove, Garden Green
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Thick Whisper White, Woven Threads DSP
Accessories:  None

Paper Players: Agnes Flies Again

Happy Sunday, y'all!  Hope your weekend is going well.  My Sunday morning involved pumpkin coffee cake and a huge cuppa one of my favorite teas, so I call that a good start : )  And to make it even better, there's a fun new sketch from the Paper Players!

Today's sketch is courtesy of Ann, isn't it great?  Here's what I made:

Agnes flies again!  Frankie, Vlad, and even the bat and spider from Best Fiends have all gotten inked up this spooky season, of *course* I had to make a new card with Agnes.  And I finally remembered to use the glitter washi tape I bought ; )  Agnes decided to go with brighter colors this year, including a pop of pink on her hat and her socks, what do you think?

Hope you'll give the sketch a try and upload your card on the Paper Players blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Starry Sky, Stampin' Blends in Highland Heather, Polished Pink, Pumpkin Pie, Parakeet Party, neutrals
Paper:  Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Halloween washi tape, Stylish Shapes dies, Stitched Rectangles dies, adhesive sequins, Dimensionals

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford <-- You are here : )

Jennie Maier

Changing Leaves

Surprise bonus post this afternoon!  There's a challenge closing today and I just *had* to get a card made for it.  So here's my card:

Once again I'm pulling out some older stamps to play with!  I wanted to have another go at the Color Throwdown, without so much black this time:

I still used Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive, but added just a little Chocolate Chip for a neutral this time.

Since I used older stamps, I'm going to enter this at the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I love that greeting stamp from Beauty of Tomorrow; it's just one year old, but the Best of Autumn leaf has been in my collection for 9 years so it's quite retro.

And here's the challenge that is closing today, the Sunday Stamps sketch:

I rotated the sketch to the left 90 degrees because I just liked the spacing better for my sentiment that way.  It's very simple stamping and kind of on the CAS side but I think I like it!

ETA:  Oh silly me, I misread the challenge--it closes next Friday.  Well, I wanted to get a card done for it anyway!

Hope you're having a good Friday afternoon, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Autumn, Beauty of Tomorrow
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Banners Collection Framelits, Chocolate Chip polytwill ribbon, Dimensionals

Eyeball Booquet

Happy Fri-YAY, y'all!  I still have Halloween on the brain so I'm back with yet another Best Fiends card.

I checked my archives and poor Vlad here hasn't been featured as often as Frankie or Agnes, so he's in the spotlight today.  Also somehow it doesn't show up at all in the photo, but I used the Shimmer Black embossing powder for the sentiment so in person it's *very* sparkly.  I also outlined the images with the lighter Smoky Slate Blends marker and used the color lifter to soften the edges; that doesn't show up as much in the photo either.

I used the sketch and theme from Try Stampin' on Tuesday:

And the color combo from Global Design Project:

Yeah those colors don't exactly scream Halloween, do they?  Just got to be creative I guess ; )

Last up is the theme from Cupcake Inspirations:

Though you know what?  Those cute cupcakes remind me of another Halloween stamp set that I haven't inked up yet this year...good thing I've got ten more days to make Halloween cards!

Trick or treat, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Just Between Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Petal Pink, Sweet Sorbet, Soft Succulent, Crumb Cake, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Petal Pink, Sweet Sorbet,  Thick Basic White, Soft Succulent DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Shimmery Black EP, Dimensionals

I'm Just Here for the Boos

Hey y'all, happy Thursday!  I worked the last three days so I'm happy to have today off.  Watched the latest episode of NCIS this morning with a good cuppa tea and then I meandered up to my craft room and made a quick card.  Here it is.

This week's Freshly Made Sketch was just the excuse I needed to bust out the smaller stamps from Best Fiends.  Why should Frankie, Vlad, and Agnes get all the inky love?

As usual, I paired the sketch with this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, a little bit of white, and copious amounts of Basic Black for my card.  And I used up some scraps of cardstock and patterned paper, so whee!

Have a great day, boos!

Supplies, all SU! (many retired)
Stamps:  Best Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Old Olive DSP, Cute Halloween DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, postage stamp punch, oval & scalloped oval punches, Dimensionals, chalk marker, black rhinestones

If You've Got It...

When I was a kid, I read a book called The Wednesday Witch by Ruth Chew.  She flew on a vacuum cleaner before the Sanderson Sisters ever thought of it : )  Today is Wednesday and my card features a witch, but no vacuum cleaner in sight.

Hadn't used this witch from Best Witches yet so here's her time to shine.  (Why, yes, I am having All The Fun making Halloween cards!)  Check out the Festive Friday challenge:

I used a witch, pumpkins, orange (her hair), stars, black, and ghosts.  I just can't get away from purple and green for witchy cards : )  I actually made this before yesterday's anniversary card, but since I managed to squeak that one out in time to post yesterday, I had to post it ON our anniversary.  Hence the Wednesday Witch.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Witches
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Highland Heather, Granny Apple Green, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Petal Pink, Smoky Slate, neutrals
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Crushed Curry, Thick Basic White, Celebrate Everything DSP, Granny Apple Green DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

The Perfect Place to Be

Guess what, chickens?  Today is our 19th wedding anniversary.  Happy anniversary to the hubs, who puts up with a lot from me and still loves me anyway.  I made a quick anniversary card to sneak into his car this morning:

Over the past 19 years, the hubs and I have lived in four different states and three different countries (...I think), so this sentiment seemed particularly apt for us.  I'll be entering this at the Festive Friday challenge:

Yes, I managed to take a Halloween-inspired challenge and make a non-Halloween card!  (Fear not, I'll be back to spooky season shenanigans tomorrow!)  For today's card, I included the moon, stars, black, and silhouette.  You'll have to squint to see the stars though, they barely show up even in person. I stamped the main silhouette and embossed with shimmery black embossing powder (seriously, why was this available for such a short time, it's awesome), used blending brushes to add the background (our wedding colors were royal blue and royal purple, I decided to go with a more pastel version for this card), and then stamped the stars in the background and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I expected the stars to show up a little darker even though they're tiny, but they turned out to be tough to see.  So that's when I added the moon.

And book-loving me also loved this stamp from One In a Million, so I had to use it for the inside of the card.

One more picture that shows the sparkle a bit more, and you can see the reflection of the teeny tiny stars if you look closely.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Silhouette Scenes, So Many Stars, One In a Million
Ink:  Versamark, Starry Sky, Highland Heather, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Starry Sky, Thick Basic White, Balmy Blue DSP, glimmer paper
Accessories:  Shimmery Black EP, Clear EP, non-SU punch for the moon, Dimensionals

SPQR

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I've been scrapping up a storm (at least, as much as I can manage) so today's layout is one that I just finished within the last week or two.

This layout is comprised of random pictures from our first visit to Rome in 2012; see the original pics here, here, and here.  I let the SPQR picture work as my page title.

Today's color palette feels fall-inspired even though we took the pictures in May:  Cajun Craze, Delightful Dijon, Shaded Spruce, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla.  I've been using Very Vanilla on a lot of stuff lately, I kinda go in streaks with colors sometimes.  I really wish I'd bought more than one pack of that Moroccan DSP, it's so fabulous and I am hoarding the bits for scrapbook pages like this.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Moroccan Nights, Touch of Nature
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Delightful Dijon, Shaded Spruce, Early Espresso Marker
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Delightful Dijon, Shaded Spruce, Thick Very Vanilla, Moroccan DSP
Accessories:  None

The Paper Players are Wheelie Great

Happy Sunday, y'all, and welcome to another fabulous Paper Players challenge!  This week we have a great CAS theme challenge from LeAnne:

Now, I've been a stamper for...*checks math*...about eighteen years now and I am a stamping DRAGON who almost never gets rid of old stamps or patterned paper, and the challenge graphic reminded me of one of my stamp sets from way back when.  So I dusted it off (didn't have to dig it out of anywhere, my stamp sets are organized alphabetically on bookshelves #nerd) and made a new card with it for the first time in years.  Lookie:

If you're a longtime Stampin' Up! enthusiast, you might recognize Loads of Love and Loads of Love Accessories, which I used here.  Gotta say, I love using my Stampin' Blends to color in the images from older stamp sets like this one and Best Fiends that I used last week.  I intentionally colored this one to match the challenge graphic.  Ryan was asking yesterday to buy pumpkins so we can carve jack-o'-lanterns, but I think we're going to wait until closer to Halloween.  It's another rainy weekend so I don't know if we'll get to go to a pumpkin patch or just buy them at the grocery store.

Anyway, hope you'll carve out a bit of time to participate in the challenge and upload your CAS card creation over at the Paper Players blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Loads of Love, Loads of Love Accessories
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Pool Party, Mango Melody, Pumpkin Pie, Smoky Slate, Basic Black, Petal Pink, neutrals
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Basic White, Mango Melody DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford <-- You are here : )

Jennie Maier

It's Pie Season

Happy Friday, y'all!  Y'know, I was just telling my boss yesterday about how I bake pies from scratch for Thanksgiving every year, and wouldn't you know, I've got a pie card today.

I love that sentiment stamp, it's from an old, old Paper Pumpkin kit.  The pie image is from last year's Sweets & Treats; I had to bust it out for this week's Inspired By... challenge:

Thanksgiving dress code in our house is mandatory pajama pants or sweats.  That's how we roll ; )

I gave this week's Color Throwdown another shot:

This time I used Starry Sky, Bumblebee, and Cinnamon Cider for the colors.  The CAS Colours & Sketches sketch made this card super quick to make:

The sponging on the corners is a bit darker than I'd really intended, but it's still okay.  And now I'm going back up to my craft room to work on some design team stuff while I daydream about pie.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweets & Treats, past Paper Pumpkin kit
Ink:  Starry Sky, Bumblebee, Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Cinnamon Cider, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies

Squirrel Girl Greetings

Hey y'all!  I didn't get quite as much done in my craft room yesterday as I wanted to (I will forever have more things that I want to do in there, I will never run out of projects) but I did get a few cards made and I did six loads of laundry, so I did get some things done.  Even put up all the laundry and made the bed!

So, card for today!

I just love this squirrelly stamp set : )  Kinda wish it had dies but it's not that hard to fussy cut, either.  I was hunting through my embellishments for something to put on a different card and I found the champagne rhinestones, which I thought were perfect for this card.  Yay!

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I really like this one.  Simple, but lots of scope for imagination as Anne Shirley would say.  As per usual, I paired it with the Color Throwdown:

I think that pretty inspiration pic left me with acorns on the brain because I just couldn't do anything other than the acorn-holding squirrel for my card.  I busted out some long-retired colors here:  Not Quite Navy, More Mustard, and still-current Soft Suede.  The square behind the squirrel is white cardstock and I used a blending brush to brush on a bit of More Mustard ink so the white bits on the squirrel would stand out better.

Hope you have a great day, peeps!  I will be busy at work today by the time you read this.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nuts About Squirrels
Ink:  More Mustard, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, VersaMark
Paper:  More Mustard, Soft Suede, Thick Basic White, Not Quite Navy DSP
Accessories:  white EP, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Champagne Rhinestones

Frankie Goes Trick-or-Treating

Mornin' y'all!  It is a gorgeous day here and it's cooler than yesterday so I think it's time for another cuppa tea : )  Another reason to be happy:  it's time to bust out that perennial favorite stamp set, Best Fiends!

For reals, it's not October until Frankie, Vlad, and/or Agnes make an appearance.  Frankie won the honors for today's card thanks to the color challenge from As You See It:

Isn't that an awesome collection of colors?!  Perfect for Halloween, so of course I had to use Frankie.  My Starry Sky elements look super dark in the photo, but I promise I used Starry Sky Blends and Starry Sky DSP on there.  I used the color lifter to lighten up the color around the words on Frankie's shirt so they'd still be legible.

I also used this week's sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to accommodate my long, tall image.  I'm also entering this at Retro Rubber:

Any excuse to ink up some older stamps!  Best Fiends is super retro, I've had it since 2007.  The sentiment is from All Holidays, also in my collection since 2007, and the background is Wonderfully Worn, which is an old stamp background but it's been in my collection for a year or less (thanks, eBay).

Frankie also counts for the Frightfully Delightful challenge at Shopping our Stash.  So fun!

Okay, I'm off to make something else, and switch out laundry.  I'm already on my fourth load of the day, it's never-ending.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Wonderfully Worn, All Holidays
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Parakeet Party, Stampin' Blends in Parakeet Party, Starry Sky, Mango Melody, Basic Black, Smoky Slate, neutrals
Paper:  Parakeet Party, Thick Basic White, Starry Sky DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, stars accents