Festive Dinos

Hey hey, y'all!  Ryan and I went to Target yesterday to do Christmas shopping for all his cousins, and then he had his first taekwondo class as a yellow belt in the afternoon, followed by his first-ever sparring session.  I took a video of his first sparring bout to send it to the hubs, it looked like fun!  Today Ryan's grandparents are going to pick him up for a visit so I'll have a chance to wrap some more Christmas presents and clean up the house a bit before the hubs gets in on Friday morning.  Maybe I'll be able to finish the THREE scrapbook layouts I have in process right now!

But for now, I have the fastest card in the west.

For real, I put this together in about three minutes because I was trying to pack up stuff to go to the post office while getting Ryan ready to go to school at the same time.  My friend Krissy loves dinosaurs, and I had a dino gift to send her, so she needed a dino card--puffy stickers to the rescue!  I chose colors I thought went well with the stickers and found a scrap of Polished Pink DSP to die cut for the background.  A few circle punches topped with stickers and a stamped greeting, and this card was finished in record time.  And Krissy was super excited to get it last week, too.

That's it for now.  Maybe Ryan and I can watch the first episode of the new Percy Jackson series on Disney+ before he goes to his grandparents' house.  We recently finished reading the first series and are almost at the end of The Lost Hero, which might be my favorite book out of the entire Percyverse.  So I hope we like the show, too.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Ringed with Nature
Ink:  Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Just Jade, Misty Moonlight, Sweet Sorbet, Polished Pink DSP
Accessories:  Dinosaur puffy stickers, Stitched So Sweetly dies

Christmas Cards 2003

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  We're starting Ryan's winter break off with a bang--he threw up again this morning so I got him an appointment for later today.  Hope we can figure out what makes him throw up and then a way to make it stop happening, poor kid.

Anyway, we're going way, way back for today's scrapbook layout, all the way to 2003, the hubs' and my first Christmas as a married couple.  We were babies (okay, 23) and we only have a few pictures of friends that came in Christmas cards that year, so no need for an entire color-blocked layout.  Here's what I did:

Just something very simple, and isn't that (very old) Snow Festival DSP cute?  I used one of the coordinating tags (of which I still have a ton) for my journaling block.

Today's palette comes straight from the DSP:  Baja Breeze (still my all-time favorite), Primrose Petals, Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple, and white.

Okay, my presence has been requested for couch time with the kiddo.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  none
Ink:  Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Baja Breeze textured, Gumball Green, Whisper White, Snow Festival DSP
Accessories:  Snow Festival tags

Festive Giraffe

Hey look, a post on Saturday!  I squeezed in one more card before Ryan got out of school early yesterday, so here it is:

Actually I didn't finish it before I had to go pick him up, I had finished the coloring but didn't stick everything together until afterwards.  Anyway, a lot of the time I don't get to play along at Just Add Ink because the challenges seem to close out like an hour before I get my link ready to go, so this time I was determined to do it.

I chose trees and ornaments, which are helpfully both in the giraffe image from Festive & Fun.  And this fits in with the Festive Friday challenge too:

I used white, brown, red, rhinestones, and embossing and I *still* want to do another card or two with this inspo list.  It's fun :)

Don't forget our month-long Christmas challenge and SUO Challenges, too.  Cheers, y'all!  Imma go eat a cinnamon roll.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Festive & Fun
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Pecan Pie, Shaded Spruce, Granny Apple Green, Blueberry Bushel, Balmy Blue, Flirty Flamingo, Gray Granite
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Shaded Spruce, Poppy Parade, Thick Basic White, Merry Bold & Bright DSP
Accessories:  White EP, red rhinestones, Dimensionals

Christmas Sweets

Mornin' y'all!  Well, my craft room time is going on hiatus today, Ryan has early release at school and I have to figure out how to entertain him until he goes back to school after the new year.  I think maybe we'll go to the Fort Worth Zoo one day...we went in the summer with his grandparents, but we only saw like half of it.  Hmm.

Anyway, I busted out some retired paper and stamps (okay, one stamp) for today's card:

Here is the Sunday Stamps sketch that I started with:

Though I admit I strayed from the sketch a bit once my card decided that it needed to have a tag.  Check out the Festive Friday challenge too:

From the list, I used white, brown (two actually, Early Espresso and Crumb Cake), red, embossing, gingerbread, and candy canes.  Not too shabby.  What's funny is that I have *another* DSP that I could have easily used for this challenge, so maybe I should make a second card.  Guess we'll see how much I can accomplish in my craft room before Hurricane Ryan starts his winter break.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Snowflake Sentiments
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Real Red, Candy Cane Lane DSP
Accessories:  White EP, Merriest Trees dies (tag), Stitched Rectangles dies, Real Red taffeta ribbon, Dimensionals

Wonder & Cheer

Mornin' y'all!  Ryan is happy that he gets to wear jammies to school today, and they're watching The Polar Express so he gets to bring in a blanket and a pillow too.  Hmm, maybe I should get cozy on the couch and watch a Christmas movie while he's at school :)

Or maybe I'll spend some more time in my craft room.  Check out today's new card:

Okay y'all, I'm not really one to do a lot of different techniques and things like this card are the reason why.  The background is done with Stampin' Blends and 91% isopropyl alcohol, Ruth made it look easy when she described how to do it but it took me at least 4 tries and a full sheet of vellum to get this and really I gave up rather than keep experimenting because I only had a little bit of time before I had to go pick Ryan up from school.  I did do another technique on the green die cut trees though, I scrunched up a piece of plastic wrap from my kitchen, dabbed it on my ink pad, and then tapped it on the tree die cuts.  Gave them a nice texture that I think complements the style of the stamped trees.

So here is this week's excellent Freshly Made Sketch:

And here is the Color Throwdown:

I used Cucumber Crush (retired), Rich Razzleberry (also retired), Starry Sky (retiring next summer), and gold foil.  Part of my problem with the Blends background was that the Starry Sky kept overpowering the Rich Razzleberry, maybe I should have tried it with Blackberry Bliss instead.

So that's it for me today.  Ryan has his first taekwondo belt test this afternoon, I hope he does well for that.  And then we're going out for dinner at a hibachi restaurant per his request.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Above It All
Ink:  Cucumber Crush, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Starry Sky and Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Starry Sky, Vellum, Starry Sky DSP, gold foil
Accessories:  Above It All dies, Timeless Labels dies, gold EP, Wonderful Gems, Dimensionals

Winter Fox

Mornin' y'all!  Well, it's morning here for 32 more minutes anyway.  I had to wait for the sun to come up to take a picture of one of my cards today so I'm a bit later than usual with today's post.  But here we go!

Okay, y'all, I was doing such a good job of resisting the One Horse Open Sleigh DSP Stack but I kept seeing this fox all over and wouldn't you know my resistance crumbled and this paper magically appeared at my house yesterday.  I wasted no time in diving into it with this week's sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday:

And I figure my winter fox counts for the new challenge from Cupcake Inspirations too:

I used just two sheets of these papers, the Misty Moonlight dot is the reverse of the trees that are on the right side of my card.  I still had a big piece of the fox paper though so I did this:

Simple die cut, add a sentiment and a few Tinsel Gems and side note, I love those Tinsel Gems, I got both packs.  Anyway, I had a little strip of the dots left too so this card was made from the scraps of the first one.  And the DSP is 100% doing the work on both of the cards, the only stamping is the greeting on each card (and on the inside of the fox card, where it says I love you).

That's it for me today.  I kinda took some time off from scrapbooking last week when I couldn't seem to get focused on anything, but I did jump back in on that yesterday so I have two Christmas layouts in the works.  Trying to do all my paper crafting now since it'll be harder for me to get craft room time once Ryan is on winter break starting midday Friday.  Cheers!

Supplies, first card:
Stamps:  Softly Sketched
Ink:  Pebbled Path
Paper:  Pebbled Path, Mossy Meadow, One Horse Open Sleigh DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, Brushed Metallic Dots in copper

Supplies, second card:
Stamps:  Above It All
Ink:  Pebbled Path
Paper:  Pebbled Path, One Horse Open Sleigh DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems

Polar Wishes

Today is going to be a long day, y'all.  Ryan wasn't feeling good after school yesterday and on into the night (nothing serious, just tummy trouble) and I didn't get much sleep last night.  I did send him to school this morning but we'll see if I get a call to come get him early.

In the meantime, I did make a card to share today:

So let's check out this week's Global Design Project challenge:

Which I paired with the Paper Players color challenge:

And this really was a challenge for me.  Do you ever have two colors that you just do NOT like together?  My mom hates navy blue and black together (my dad likes to put on a navy blue shirt and black shorts just to mess with her and she always comments) and I have a couple of combinations that I just don't like.  Brown and gray.  Hot pink and red.  Now, Flirty Flamingo and Real Red?  Okay, sometimes, but still not my favorite.  I just like more contrast between the colors so Melon Mambo + Real Red = NO for me.  But I tried!  The card base and the scarf stamped images are Melon Mambo, while the big Merry and smaller snowflakes are Real Red.

I think I need a nap.  Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beary Cute, More Wishes
Ink:  Melon Mabo, Tahitian Tide, Real Red, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  White Glitter Sequins, Dimensionals

Season's Greetings 2021

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Ryan was at his grandparents' house for the weekend, so I went to a craft fair on Saturday morning at my high school alma mater with my mom, SIL, niblings, and my friend Missy.  Then I spent some time in my craft room with my BRAND NEW Occasions catalog preorder :) and spent several hours on Saturday evening addressing my Christmas cards.  Those are going out today!

Since we moved last summer, I kind of expect not to get as many cards this year, but one of my favorite things to do every year is to gather up the photo cards I get (plus an extra one of ours) and make collage layouts.  Like these ones from 2021:

First I put the cards down where I want them, and if the card has something on the back I use those photo corners so that I can take the card out later if I want to.  Then I choose a DSP pack from that year and fill in the spaces around the photo cards.  This time around, I used the Penguin Playmates DSP, which is one of my all-time favorites and I got a LOT of it during Sale-a-Bration that year.  I love the adorable little animals on some of the patterns, so I went to town fussy cutting the characters and adding them to my color block pieces.

Really I might have gone a little overboard but they're just so cute!  I even used some of the polar bears that was going off the edge of a page, look at the one in the center of my left page here and on the far right.  I haven't decided what paper I might use for this year's color block, I have both of the bear-centric packs plus Merry Bold & Bright, which sold out a while back.  I haven't done the 2022 color block yet so maybe in January after Ryan starts the new semester at school, I'll do this year and last year's color blocks.  This is also a really fun thing to do with the 6x6 DSP stacks, which a lot of times I *don't* use on my scrapbook pages because I like to do long strips that span the 12-inch page.  But with this idea, I just need little pieces.

Today's color palette comes straight from the DSP:  Just Jade, Soft Sea Foam, Fresh Freesia, and Misty Moonlight.  Just Jade is now retired, but Fresh Freesia and Misty Moonlight are now on the regular color lineup.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Penguin Place, Back to Basics Alphabet
Ink:  Just Jade, Fresh Freesia, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Just Jade, Thick Basic White, Penguin Playmates DSP
Accessories:  Tasteful Labels dies

French Horn

Happy Friday, y'all!  I started working on my Christmas letter last night, so I'm hoping to finish that up today and get my cards ready to mail out over the weekend.  I only send handmade cards to a select few people; I send a photo card and a letter to all our friends and family because I just don't want to make 50+ cards every December when things are busy enough.

I do still make Christmas cards though, so here's a new one to share.

That French horn is cut out of silver foil paper, it's not white, the light from my window reflected off the silver.  And my cutting plates are quite...seasoned...so running it through the Big Shot gave me a bit of texture on the die cut that I like.  I was in band all through middle school and high school, so I like musical stuff in general, and I had a friend named Nicole who played the French horn.  She died in a car wreck when we were 17, just before our senior year of high school, and I always think of her when I see French horns or hear them.  That's probably the biggest reason why I got this stamp and die bundle in the first place.  My musical paper has lyrics from Silent Night (I was using up a scrap), but I associate French horns more with a version of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen by Mannheim Steamroller, which we've been listening to every year since I was a kid.

We're going retro today for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

Musical Season debuted in 2017 so it's six years old (just like my kiddo), but I only ever used it for the first time earlier this year (actually for another Retro Rubber challenge). 

Next up is the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge:

I chose this past sketch:

I loved Joanne's reindeer card, I like this sketch, and I did make a card for the original challenge so it was fun to revisit it.

Okay, time to get Ryan off to school.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Musical Season
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, silver foil, Merry Music Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Musical Instruments dies, Metallic Dots, Dimensionals

Blue Christmas

Today it's good afternoon, stampy friends!  My inability to manage my time this week continues...don't know what the deal is but I just can't seem to get myself organized this week.  I didn't go in my craft room at all yesterday so I made a couple of cards this morning.

It's all about the blues this week at the Color Throwdown:

I chose Blueberry Bushel, Azure Afternoon, and gold foil for my colors, I love that those two blues are now a part of the permanent SU! color lineup (at least until the next color refresh).  And here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And let's check out the theme challenge at Inspire. Create.:

I pulled out all my current Christmas stamps and have them spread across the floor in my craft room (but hopefully off to the side enough that I won't trip on them) and Merry & Bright won out for today's card.  Those little light bulbs are just so fun and I love the sentiments too.

I think when I finish my lunch, I'm going to go do a bit of Christmas shopping for Ryan this afternoon and maaaayyybe consider looking at embroidery floss at Michael's while I'm out.  I bought several new (huge) cross stitch patterns and it really makes me want to buy the floss to make them, but they're all so big that even if I started today it would take me YEARS to finish them :)  I'll never be bored!  Unmotivated and disorganized occasionally, but never bored...cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Merry & Bright
Ink:  Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel, gold foil, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Merry & Bright dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Brushed Metallic Dots

Christmas Rhino

Morning, y'all!  How's it going this morning?  Ryan is being a Very Angry Elf today, not sure why that is as he went to bed on time last night.

Anyway, I spent some time coloring in my craft room yesterday and here's my card:

This is the maiden voyage for Festive & Fun, you know I can't resist the critter stamps : )  I started with the Paper Players challenge:

I was drawn to the colors in the upper left picture, especially that bright blue with the more traditional red and green, so that informed my coloring decisions.  And please ignore the spot on the lower left side of the card front, apparently one of my Blends was resting on it when I was coloring and I didn't notice it soon enough, but I'd already stuck down the back layers, so...it's staying like that.

Check out the latest Try Stampin' on Tuesday sketch:

That big image panel I thought worked well for the rhino and his little birdy friends.  That's it for me today, I've got to go take the Very Angry Elf to school.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Festive & Fun
Ink:  Garden Green, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Sweet Sorbet, Shaded Spruce, Azure Afternoon, Pebbled Path, Crumb Cake, Balmy Blue, Lemon Lolly
Paper:  Sweet Sorbet, Thick Basic White, Sweetest Christmas DSP, Garden Green DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, In Color Baker's Twine

SUO Challenges: Get Into the Christmas Spirit

Hey hey, happy Tuesday!  Are you ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges?

This will be our last challenge of the year and our theme will probably come as no surprise, it's all about Christmas!

I know several other challenge blogs are running with the same theme right now, but there's no rush on ours as it will run for the next four weeks.  So maybe I'll be able to use all the Christmas stamp sets that I bought from the holiday mini before they retire!  (As a Christmas present to me, I did my preorder this morning for the new mini catalog that goes live in January!)

I've used Merry & Bright a couple of times already, but this was the first time I got out the coordinating Merry Bold & Bright DSP, and I had to try out the Melon Mambo foil sheets too.  Not gonna lie, it took me a couple of tries to get the bulb looking how I wanted it!  I don't have any of the adhesive sheets, so I was using Tombow adhesive to glue the filament on, and yeah it was a challenge to not have extra glue squidging out from under there.  I think I need to invest in some of those adhesive sheets.  Anyway, I kept the card pretty simple because who has time for elaborate cards when the holidays are rushing toward us like a runaway freight train?  The only stamping is the sentiment, which I then cut out with the Stylish Shapes dies.  I chose Lemon Lime Twist and Shaded Spruce from the DSP to go with my Melon Mambo light bulb.

Your turn!  Make a Christmas card (or maybe more than one?!) with all SU! products and upload it over on the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Merry & Bright
Ink:  Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Shaded Spruce, Melon Mambo, Thick Basic White, Merry Bold & Bright DSP, Melon Mambo foil
Accessories:  Merry & Bright dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Hairy Holidays! 2010

Scrappy Monday!  I've been working through my Maine scrapbook pages, but now that it's December, I'm going to switch over to holiday pages and I'll pick back up on Maine in January.  So to start with, I have a cute layout featuring my much-loved fur babies.

I miss them so much.  Anyway, I had already done some Christmas pages for this year (2010), but I had several pics left over with Sadie and Vader, so I made a layout for their album.  Yeah, Sadie and Vader will have their own scrapbook album once I finally take all my completed pages and actually put them in albums.  For this layout, I used a couple of different packs of patterned paper and just had fun with it.  Usually I'm trying to cram in a lot more pictures on a single layout but this time I could let it breathe with the fun patterns.

Today's festive color palette:  Garden Green, Real Red, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla.  And of course black for my doggos.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Snow Swirled
Ink:  Garden Green, Real Red, Old Olive, Basic Black Marker
Paper:  Garden Green, Real Red, Old Olive, Thick Very Vanilla, Merry Moments DSP, Cerise DSP
Accessories:  1 3/8" circle punch, Circles Framelits

So, last week I spent some time getting all my loose scrapbook pages organized.  I don't necessarily make pages in chronological order, and I haven't put my pages into albums in quite a while, so I had two or three paper holders of scrapbook layouts that needed to be organized into their proper years.  It took me a couple of hours to get it all done:

I already had a lot of containers labeled with different years, I just needed to file the newer pages into place.  But this gives you an idea of how many layouts I have done...

Yeah this went pretty much around the whole craft room.

And here they are, all properly labeled and organized!  I got several more paper storage containers the week of Thanksgiving when they were on sale for $4; I still have four empty ones at the top so I'll need to work on that ; )  Then there's two containers that have some supplies and odds and ends, and every single other one of these containers has completed scrapbook pages in it.  I'm going to need a whole room just to house my scrapbooks when we get our forever house.  And now that I have all the pages organized, I think Sadie and Vader are going to get at least two albums, because I have a very large stack o' pages for them.

Today I need to start wrapping some Christmas presents for Ryan while he's in school and maybe I'll get to do some more scrapping.  Like I said, I have those four containers that need to be filled with more completed pages.  Cheers, y'all!

Bear With Me

Hey y'all, happy Friday!  And it is a happy Friday, I got up and did a nice relaxation yoga routine this morning and here in a bit I'll be going to the Y to do a yoga class there too.  Time to get my stretch on : )  And this afternoon, Ryan and I will have our monthly ice cream date because as of today, we've conquered five months of the hubs' deployment.  Almost halfway there...

Anyway, apparently this is my week for rustic bear cards because I made another one.  Here it is:

It's a bit of a liberal take on this Try Stampin' on Tuesday sketch:

The trees (which are both one big stamp) are standing in for the two vertical strips, and the bear is the third panel.  I did have to add some ground for him to walk on because he looked weird just hovering there.  And I'm playing along in the new Retro Rubber challenge:

I went down the right side with trees, embossing (the bear is heat embossed with black EP, so he stands out a bit from the rest of the card), and your choice, and I chose BEAR.  'Cause I love bears.  The stamp set Pines (trees and bear) is at least two years old; I bought it used off of eBay when I was making my Maine scrapbook pages.  Wildlife Wonder (the ground) is coming up on two years old as well, but the sentiment stamp from Feathered Friends is brand new.  Had to get it when it showed up in the online exclusives because it's got a bunch of ducks and those are Ryan's favorite.

Okay I've gotta get moving if I want to make my yoga class on time.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pines, Wildlife Wonder, Feathered Flight
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Crumb Cake, Versamark
Paper:  Crumb Cake
Accessories:  Black EP, Dimensionals, linen thread