Tennessee, Part 3: Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Scrappy Monday!  Continuing my series of Tennessee pages, here we are at the national park:

I let the picture with the park sign function as the page title.  And on the right page, that "Bears need privacy, too!" sign was up in the women's bathroom at the park's visitor center, I thought it was funny so I had to take a pic of it.  I really went for the greens on this one with a green page base and lighter green photo mats.  It was a quick and easy layout but I like it.

Today's green-tastic color palette:  Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, Pretty Peacock, and white.

Until next time, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Prints, Wisteria Wishes
Ink:  Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, Pretty Peacock, Thick Basic White, Forever Greenery DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, 3/4" circle punch

All Tied Up with SUO Challenges

Mornin' folks and get ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

This time around we're all tied up:  use ribbon, lace, or twine on your project.  So here's what I made:

I bought that Night of Navy ribbon when it was in the Occasions catalog and it carried over to the annual catalog : )  And what do you know, it looks great with the Countryside Inn DSP!  I let the DSP do all the work--isn't that bunny pattern cute?  And the stripey pattern is on the opposite side of the bunnies.  One quick sentiment from Ringed with Nature and I've got a boho bunny card for my stash.

I hope you'll join in the fun and upload your card at the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ringed with Nature
Ink:  Boho Blue
Paper:  Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Countryside Inn DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Night of Navy Bordered Ribbon

Tennessee, Part 2: Meet the Neighbors

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  And I'm ready for it with the second of my Tennessee layouts.  (Sidebar:  I am writing this post on the hubs' laptop, and its little proofreading thingummy is pickier than the one on the Mac.  It keeps giving me random blue lines under certain words and dude will ya just CHILL 'cause I know how to speak AND write in English and you're annoying.)

Anyway.  Here there be BEARS!

We stayed in a cabin outside of Gatlinburg (this is the second time we've done that in this area and I would not say no to going back a third time) and there are signs everywhere about bears.  As in Do Not Feed The.  So we saw two juvenile bears and a mama bear hanging out near our cabin, begging for food we did not give them, and a full-grown bear checking out the trash cans near the cabin that we had stayed in on our first trip to this area.  And as much time as we spent in the national park, we didn't see a single bear there!

I chose "Meet the Neighbors" for my page title but maybe it should have been "Meet the NeighBEARS".  So I wrote that in my journaling.

Oops, I left out a color in my palette picture; the page base is Creamy Caramel which goes really well with Cinnamon Cider (photo mats), and then I also used Pretty Peacock, Pear Pizzazz, and white.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Pure & Simple Alphabet Upper, Simply Fabulous
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Pretty Peacock, Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Creamy Caramel, Cinnamon Cider, Pear Pizzazz, Pretty Peacock, Thick Basic White, Forever Greenery DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies

Friday Flashback: Artfully Folded

Hey hey!  We're flying from Germany to Texas today but the Friday Flashback has nothing to do with either of those places.  And it's a short one with just one card.

I think Artfully Folded was a host set (so, free) and otherwise I probably wouldn't own it, even though I usually go for the Asian-inspired sets.  I thought I'd go super-CAS with this card, using two of the paper crane stamps and three of the recently retired In Colors.

Have a good weekend, peeps!

Stamps:  Artfully Folded
Ink:  Soft Succulent, Pale Papaya, Evening Evergreen
Paper:  Soft Succulent, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  None

Tennessee, Part 1: Great Smoky Mountains

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  At the end of this week we'll be leaving Europe and heading back to the States, so today I thought I'd start a series of scrapbook pages from a trip we took to the Gatlinburg area of Tennessee in July of 2020 with the hubs' sister and her fam.  So here's the first layout:

So the long-retired Marina Mist turned out to be the perfect page base for these pics of the Great Smoky Mountains!  A lot of times when I do a series of layouts from a particular trip or event, I'll use the same alphabet stamps and/or the same pack of patterned papers to make the layouts feel like they go together, and this set is no different:  all of them feature the same alphabets as well as the Forever Greenery DSP.  Green is my favorite color, I imagine I could incorporate a shade of green into just about any scrapbook layout if I tried hard enough.

Today's palette:  Marina Mist, Garden Green, Pretty Peacock, and white.  Just as a coincidence, I think I used Pretty Peacock on all the Tennessee layouts and I made them just before SU! announced that Pretty Peacock was returning to the color lineup.  Yay me!

Have a great week, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Pure & Simple Alphabet Upper, Pines
Ink:  Garden Green, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Marina Mist, Garden Green, Pretty Peacock, Thick Basic White, Forever Greenery DSP
Accessories:  None

Friday Flashback: Ancient Art & Weathered

Mornin, folks!  By the time you read this, I will (hopefully) be hanging out on a beach in Greece : )  It's our last hurrah before we go back to the States next week, spending a week in Crete relaxing and, in my case, checking out the archaeological site because I'm a history nerd.

So today I thought we'd go with Ancient Art for a Friday Flashback post.  So I got this stamp set last year or the year before when I was randomly trawling eBay for old SU! sets (which my husband wishes I would stop doing...to be fair I do already have a lot of stamps and I haven't looked for any more on eBay in quite some time).  So this post is a Friday Flashback but it's also the first (ahem, only...so far) time I've used Ancient Art.  I paired it with Weathered, a great background stamp from way back when, and made a set of cards.

I'm over here talking about Greece but Ancient Art has a distinctly Native American vibe to it.

Hey, you never know when you'll need a thunderbird stamp.  Or a cool lizard.

Okay the snake is not my favorite but I do like the turtle.  One old, old stamp set I've thought about tracking down is Aquaria, and it has a neat turtle in it.  Not that I don't have other turtles, I'm sure my hubs would point out ; )

Not 100% sure what the animal on the left is meant to be, but I think of it as a bear.  And the handprint is good for a high five card, yes?  So I used every stamp in the set and kept the cards super simple without sentiments so they can be used anytime.  And they're good guy cards too, I think.  I will miss having Sahara Sand in the SU! color lineup, it was a unique neutral.

Anyway, check ya later, stampy friends.  I'm gonna go relax on a beach with my two favorite dudes.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ancient Art, Weathered
Ink:  Sahara Sand, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Mossy Meadow, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Floral Fantasy

Hey hey y'all, it's time for another challenge from SUO Challenges!

If you're a longtime Stampin' Up! fan, this challenge will likely be eeeeeeeeeasy for you:  flowers!  I  know I have many many many flower stamps to choose from, so here's what I made:

Playing around with Azure Afternoon, Berry Burst, and Lemon Lime Twist...I am quite happy to have LLT back in the SU! color lineup.  Actually I sneaked in just a smidge of Bubble Bath for the flower centers too.

Make your own floral fantasy card and don't forget to share with us at the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sending Smiles
Ink:  Berry Burst, Lemon Lime Twist, Azure Afternoon, Bubble Bath
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP
Accessories:  Sending dies, mini Dimensionals, Matte Decorative Dots

Nea Kameni (Redo)

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Another busy week ahead--we've got a big work event for the hubs, Ryan finishes kindergarten on Wednesday, and on Wednesday afternoon we're taking off for Greece to spend a week in (on?) Crete before we head back to the States.  So I thought today was a good time to share a layout from the last time we went to Greece!

This is the last of the three "re-do" layouts I made earlier this year; you can see the first version here.  For the first one, I used my purple shirt as the jumping off point for my color combination, and it just didn't "feel" right for the layout.  What I remember about all of our ports in Greece (it was a cruise) was that they were super hot!  So I went with a much hotter color combination for today:

Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Tahitian Tide, and Blueberry Bushel.  I think this color palette suits the photos better and conveys the mood of the pictures better.  Plus you can't go wrong with what I call the basic Superman color combination, red-yellow-blue : )

Have a great week, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet Upper, Stippled Shells
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Basic Gray
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Tahitian Tide, Blueberry Bushel, Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Sweet Taffy DSP
Accessories:  Circle punches