A CASE of Blueberries for SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all and guess what?  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

And this time, we're on the case...CASEing the catalog, that is!

We're CASEing page 29 out of the Occasions catalog, here's a closer look:

I liked that there are three levels of craftiness on display as well as the variety of coloring methods.  You don't have to use Blueberry Bunches for your card, but I have it so I wanted to : )  Here's what I did:

I used the card on the bottom left as the jumping-off point, and instead of coloring the blueberries, I embossed them on Blueberry Bushel cardstock with white EP for a different look.  I mixed patterns from the Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack and the Stargazing DSP...have you seen the retiring lists?  The cool astronaut stamp set is on the retiring list and I've been eyeing it all year so I think I may have to get it.  Blueberry Bunches will be moving over to the online exclusives, and the Tinsel Gems are carrying over which is great because I love them.  I think the Bright & Beautiful DSP is carrying over too and I already have an extra pack of that because it's been a favorite this year.

Anyway, it's your turn to make your CASE.  Don't forget to share at the SUO Challenges blog and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blueberry Bunches
Ink:  Versamark, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Blueberry Bushel, Lemon Lime Twist, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack, Stargazing DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Details dies, White EP, Tinsel Gems, Dimensionals

Duck Tales, Woo-Ooo

Mornin', y'all.  We got up very early this morning to take the hubs to the airport; we won't see him again for another 3 1/2 months, but next time we see him this deployment is over so that's good : )

I have another quick card I made on Thursday to share today:

I got Feathered Flight because ducks are my son's favorite animal.  Check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

I used Boho Blue, Smoky Slate, and Pecan Pie.  Do you ever have colors that you just don't like together?  For my mom it's navy blue and black; for me, it's gray and brown.  So this challenge was definitely a challenge for me.  And it's a challenge when house hunting too, I know we saw several houses where everything was gray (SO GRAY, gray everywhere) but the cabinets in the kitchen were brown.  Sometimes the cabinets were brown and the counters were gray and I just hate it.  There was one house that all three of us loved but we're not going to get it because of the school district and also it's huge.  And absolutely everything in there was gray--carpet, laminate floors, walls, even the ceilings.  I told my husband I would want to have the entire interior repainted like a pale blue.  I'm okay with gray, I just don't want everything to be gray.  Don't want to live inside a rain cloud.

Anyway, enough about my color ramblings.  Hope you have a good weekend, y'all.  Ryan goes back to school on Monday so he'd better enjoy his last couple days of spring break.  I have a feeling he'll be difficult to awaken on Monday morning...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Feathered Flight, Textured Timber
Ink:  Boho Blue, Smoky Slate, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Boho Blue, Pecan Pie, Basic White
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Classic Matte Dots

To Thine Own Self

Happy Friday, y'all!  We returned to Texas from our Colorado house-hunting trip late on Wednesday, just in advance of the major snowstorm that rolled through there.  And I stole a bit of stamping time yesterday because I just have to play along in my favorite challenges.

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

Really, really retro!  Heartspeak (the main image) is from 2008, so it's 16 years old.  The greeting is from Botanical Blooms, which a quick trip through my photo archives says I've never used; I did a bit of Googling and it's from 2009.  So two very retro stamp sets!  I thought the Paper Players color challenge was perfect to go with spring flowers:

I used Lemon Lime Twist, Bubble Bath and Flirty Flamingo, and Lemon Lolly for colors, stamping in black on a white card base.  I used an Ivory blend to color in the flower basket.  It was fun to break out these old stamps for today's card; Heartspeak was one of my favorite stamp sets from that year, which was when SU! was running an experiment with new catalogs every 6 months and Heartspeak was one that only lasted for one catalog.  I hadn't played with it in so long and that kind sentiment caught my eye when I was flipping through my personal stamp catalog (which is now three giant binders because my stamp collection is large and in charge).

Okay, I'm off to make pumpkin coffee cake for my two dudes.  Have a great day,  y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Heartspeak, Botanical Blooms
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Lemon Lime Twist, Bubble Bath, Flirty Flamingo, Lemon Lolly, Ivory
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Adhesive-Backed Sequins Trio

Explore the Countryside

Hey y'all, we are on the road today heading back to Texas.  We're planning to make it back into town in time for Ryan to do his taekwondo class, and the hubs will actually get to watch for once!

A quick card to share today, this is one that I made last year right before our house was packed up in Germany.

Next Destination was an impulse buy stamp set for me, but I like the images in it and the travel theme--super appropriate considering how much we travel and how frequently we move house!  I kept this very simple and just played around a bit with patterns from the Countryside Inn DSP.  I haven't used that in a while, I should break it out soon...

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Next Destination
Ink:  Boho Blue, Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Boho Blue, Thick Basic White, Countryside Inn DSP
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Dimensionals

Luck & Love

Top o' the mornin' to ye!  Okay, enough with the pretend Irish accent for today but guess what holiday is featured on today's cards.  Ha.

I was inspired to go green today by the Festive Friday challenge:

I used green (lots of green!), gold embellishments, shamrocks, rainbows, and a good luck sentiment.  And here's the sketch from Try a Sketch on Tuesday:

Obviously I decided to stick with the shamrocks depicted on the sketch.  Actually, I had started out by dusting off my old Pinch Proof stamp set, and then remembered that I had gotten Lucky Clover last year (the year before, maybe?) when it was offered at a discount (unfortunately, after the coordinating punch was sold out...okay I had been doing well with resisting buying it at all until it went on sale, that phrase is like kryptonite).  Anyway, I had already stamped a couple of images from Pinch Proof, and since I had the two triangular pieces of the rainbow paper still, I decided to make a second card:

And here they both are together:

Cheers, y'all!  Hope your day is filled with good luck and rainbows.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lucky Clover, Pinch Proof
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pool Party, Shaded Spruce, Thick Basic White, Sunny Days DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Gold Enamel Dots, Pool Party baker's twine, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Spring Into Easter

Happy Tuesday, y'all, and buckle up for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

And we have a new theme challenge today:

I decided to do an Easter card with the fun springy colors and patterns in the Lighter than Air DSP stack.  Here's what I came up with:

I punched out the bunny with the fun diamond pattern, and then just played around with other patterns in the DSP until I found a combination that I liked.  I ended up with a Bubble Bath card base, Pool Party for the flags, and Azure Afternoon for the layer with the sentiment heat embossed on it.  What do you think?

I think it's time for you to toddle off to your own craft space and make a card to share with us at SUO Challenges.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Easter Bunny
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Bubble Bath, Pool Party, Azure Afternoon, Lighter Than Air DSP Stack
Accessories:  Easter Bunny punch, Nested Essentials dies, white EP, Dimensionals

Unser Zuhause (Our Home)

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  We are in Colorado right now looking at houses : )  We will be moving to the Colorado Springs area this summer, so we're looking around at different areas and kinda getting a feel for the city.  We've never bought a house before so this is exciting...and also scary!

So for today's scrapbook layout, I thought I'd share pics of the house we rented in Germany:

I'd have to sit here and count up how many houses we've lived in over the course of my husband's career (in five US states and three other countries), but I think this house in Germany and the one we had in England were two of my favorites.  I try to take pictures in and around the houses since we move so often because it's funny how fast you can forget!  So on the left is the entryway to the house, then the living room, dining room and kitchen on the first floor.  On the right page, there's pictures of Ryan's room, the main bathroom/laundry room (there were no en suite bathrooms in this house, so hubs and I had the bedroom directly across from the main bathroom and that is the closest distance between the washer/dryer and where my clothes live out of all the houses we've ever lived in), my craft room, and our bedroom, with several photo bombs by Ryan.  I didn't put pics of the top floor, which had the guest room, a storage room, and one really huge room that we used for the hubs' hobby stuff and more storage, as well as another large bathroom.  I did really like this house.

Today's color palette:  Dapper Denim, Certainly Celery, Cherry Cobbler, Cinnamon Cider, and Very Vanilla.  I chose the paisley DSP because it coordinated with the colors in the kitchen and on my couch, and the pattern echoes the paisley on the comforter in my bedroom.  Very simple layout considering I squeezed in 10 photos with minimal cropping.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pure & Simple Alphabet Upper & Lower, Polka Dots & Paisley
Ink:  Dapper Denim
Paper:  Dapper Denim, Cherry Cobbler, Certainly Celery, Thick Very Vanilla, Cinnamon Cider, Certainly Celery DSP, Cherry Cobbler DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies

Enjoy a Cupcake

Hey y'all,  I managed to make one more card before hitting the road, so here it is...

The colors in the picture are off but it was raining so much the whole day when I took the picture that this was the best I could get.  I used this fun sketch from Just Add Ink:

I picked a couple of fun patterns from the Lighter Than Air DSP stack and colored my bunny in to match, though I think maybe I should have colored the bunny in yellow or pink instead of Pool Party since he's on the Pool Party DSP.  But I didn't have time to make another one.  I will have to keep this sketch in mind though, it's a fun one.

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fluffiest Friends, Heartfelt Hellos
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Pool Party, Bubble Bath, Balmy Blue, Sweet Sorbet, Lemon Lolly
Paper:  Lemon Lolly, Azure Afternoon, Thick Basic White, Lighter Than Air DSP Stack
Accessories:  Fluffiest Friends dies, Thoughtful Expressions dies, White EP, Dimensionals

Papaya Herbal Tea

Happy Friday, y'all!  And today is extra happy, we're picking up the hubs at the airport this morning and we haven't seen him since Christmas.  And we get him for a whole week!  All of us are ready for this deployment to be over, but at least we're over 2/3 there now.

Anyway, here's my card for today:

I won't lie, I was initially stumped when I saw the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, but then I had the idea to break out my retired Watercolor Shapes stamp set and sponge ink on the circle to make a more CAS background for my card.  Everything else just kinda followed from there.  Here's the sketch:

And I used this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Pale Papaya, Soft Succulent, and Very Vanilla for my colors, though looking at this again I kinda wish I'd gone with Petal Pink.  Well, the Pale Papaya works fine, even if it's a bit more orange than the inspo pic.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Everyday Details, Notes of Nature, Watercolor Shapes
Ink:  Pale Papaya, Pecan Pie, Soft Succulent, Stampin' Blends in Pale Papaya, Soft Succulent, Ivory
Paper:  Thick Basic Vanilla
Accessories:  Dimensionals, In Color Rhinestones

Leggo My Eggos

Mornin' y'all!  It is a super RAINY morning where I am, maybe my rainy fox card summoned the rain here.  Looks like it will be rainy tomorrow too, which might slow down our road trip a little bit.

Anyway, since apparently I am just as contrary as Mary Mary, today's card has suns on it.

The Sunny Days DSP officially retired at the end of Sale-a-Bration, but I didn't even get to cut into any of it until this week.  But I liked the sun pattern for my little Easter card today.

Speaking of Easter, that's the theme for two challenges, starting with As You See It:

They titled their challenge post "Let's Get Eggy" and I took that to heart with my little egg lineup.  I hadn't used it before and why should the bunny get all the fun?  They're also looking for Easter cards at Global Design Project:

The springy colors from Hand-Stamped Sentiments were perfect for Easter, too:

And last but not least (I listed the challenges alphabetically) is a fun sketch from Sunday Stamps:

I subbed in a trio of white enamel dots for the little flags on the sketch, I didn't think I could fit three flags on there.

Well, I have a busy day ahead getting ready for our road trip tomorrow.  Gotta schedule some blog posts, do some laundry, pack the suitcase, gas up the car...all that fun stuff.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Easter Bunny
Ink:  Versamark, Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo DSP, Sunny Days DSP
Accessories:  White EP, Clear EP, Stylish Shapes dies, Stitched Greenery die, Dimensionals, Matte Enamel Dots

Timid Timmy Turtle

Mornin' y'all!  How's your day going?  I think I have finally figured out a way to get my kid to brush his teeth without us getting into a fight about it every morning and evening--I told him if I had to tell him to do it more than 3 times, he loses his iPad for 24 hours.  And he did it no problem this morning, woo!  This has been a twice-daily battle for a long time so I'm happy about that.

Anyway, I do have a card to share today.

I had just completed yesterday's rainy day fox card when I saw the colors at CAS Colours & Sketches:

And they made me think of Timmy the Turtle, who doesn't get inked up as much as the bunny and the fox in the Playing in the Rain stamp set, so here he is today!  The bunny looks so happy to be playing in a puddle, the fox looks perfectly self-possessed with her raincoat and umbrella, and Timmy just looks...anxious.  Right?  Maybe he's nervous about being perched on that tree stump.  Anyway, I kept today's card CAS with just a masked deckled circle shape behind Timmy to give him a spotlight.  I used a light Crumb Cake blend for the bottom of his shell, and just layered different intensities of the Old Olive blends for the rest of him.

That's it for me today!  On Friday we're picking up the hubs at the airport and starting the drive to Colorado to look at houses...and last night I had a dream that the hubs got here and I wasn't even packed and he was grumpy because I wasn't ready and it for reals stressed me out a bit even when I woke up.  Bet my facial expression looked a bit like Timmy's here.  I am definitely packing up everything I can tomorrow afternoon so we're ready to rock on Friday morning.  Ha!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Playing in the Rain
Ink:  Night of Navy, Azure Afternoon, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake & Old Olive, Crushed Curry marker (for the flower center)
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Crumb Cake, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Playing in the Rain dies

Rainy Day Blues

Mornin' y'all!  I had a good time in my craft room yesterday and made THREE cards that I'm quite pleased with, but the other two will make their appearances later as they're for design team work.  It has been bright and sunny here lately, but it's raining on my card today, take a look:

I do love these bold colors together!  Check out the Paper Players challenge:

Joanne used the cute bunny from Playing in the Rain, so I wanted to use something different.  I was going to go rooting through my retired stamps until I saw the color challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

And then I had to use the fox stamp : )  I used Pumpkin Pie and both Blueberry Bushel and Azure Afternoon for my colors, and for once the Wink of Stella on the fox's umbrella actually shows up.  I thought it would be cute to put my greeting on a die-cut cloud, and that little "hello" from Submarine Life worked perfectly.  And even though it looks more like fluffy snow than rain, I couldn't resist using Drizzling Droplets for my background.  Guess where that strip of Pumpkin Pie DSP came from?  It's in the Stargazing pack and I thought just a little strip of it was just the thing to ground my fox on the rainy background.

That's it for me today.  I've got some more projects to tackle : ) Whether it's rainy or sunny where you are, have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Playing in the Rain, Drizzling Droplets, Submarine Life
Ink:  Night of Navy, Blueberry Bushel, Azure Afternoon, Stampin' Blends in Pumpkin Pie, Ivory, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Stargazing DSP, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Playing in the Rain dies, Wink of Stella, Dimensionals

Caernarfon

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I had a lovely Saturday working on a couple of projects, watching a movie (it's rare I get control of the TV when Ryan is in the house), and reading a book.  Pretty good day in my opinion.  I picked Ryan up yesterday morning and he was so tired from having run around with his cousins that he mostly camped out on the couch : )

Anyway, I have a layout to share today, from our 2014 road trip through Wales where I dragged the hubs to as many castles as I could manage.  And today is the Welsh castle you're most likely to recognize:

This was the site of Charles' investiture as Prince of Wales, I wonder if/when they're going to do something similar for Prince William?  It's another large castle and similar to several others we saw in Wales; I always think it's funny to see a centuries-old giant castle nestled right up next to a parking lot (car park) with modern cars in it.

I used my all-time favorite sketch to make this layout, and only realized afterwards that I had used the same layout for my Beaumaris pictures and they're right next to each other.  Oops.  Well, that's what happens when I don't scrap my pictures in chronological order, I forget that I used that sketch already!  Oh well, I like both of the layouts so they're staying the way they are.  I even used a pink and a green in the same spots on both layouts!

Today's fun color palette:  Lemon Lime Twist, Calypso Coral, Garden Green, and Blueberry Bushel.  When I made the layout, two of the colors were retired but now LLT and Blueberry Bushel are in the regular color lineup, hooray!

Okay, I'm off to go work on my projects.  The kid is off school on Friday, and that morning we're picking up the hubs and driving to Colorado to look at houses.  So I want to get some quality crafty time in before that happens.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Jayne's Type Alphabet, Nature's Prints
Ink;  Calypso Coral, Blueberry Bushel, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Garden Green, Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Pretty Prints DSP
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies

Spring Gnome

Mornin' y'all!  Well, I get to have a relaxing day to myself--after Ryan and I had our monthly ice cream date yesterday (we have now completed 8 months of the hubs' 12-month deployment, woo!), I dropped him off to spend the weekend with his grandparents and then I went to the used book store because I know how to party.  So I slept in this morning and then worked a little more on the house-hunting thing, and I plan to spend the rest of the day working on some projects in my craft room.  And I'm going to enjoy it : )

Anyway, I do have a card to share today, take a look:

I brought back last year's Friendly Gnomes for this card and this is only the second time I've used the stamp set, oops.  Anyway, I had to do retro for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I zeroed in on the "gnomes" space right away, so I went down the right side with patterned paper, a gnome, and floral--the flowers and stripes are actually one piece of patterned paper, just the two different sides.  Friendly Gnomes, as I mentioned, is a year old. I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And of course this week's Color Throwdown:

I went with three retired colors:  Merry Merlot, Rococo Rose, and Succulent Sage.  I like these colors together, might have to give them another go.

Anyway, I'm off to work on my wedding album.  I finished putting together all the pages with the pictures taken by the professional photographer; I think I'm going to add a bit of minimal journaling on a few pages and then I can put them in an album and it's done.  I do have a lot of pictures that we took on our own cameras, so those will be going into a separate album and will be my next project.  At least I'm finally making progress!

Cheers, y'all!  Enjoy your weekend.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Friendly Gnomes
Ink:  Merry Merlot, Stampin' Blends in Soft Succulent, Rococo Rose, Petal Pink, Cherry Cobbler, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Soft Succulent, Rococo Rose, Thick Basic White, Merry Merlot DSP
Accessories:  Gnomes dies, In Color dots

Bear

That's it, just bear.  Bear is today's card. 

Bear.

This is the one that I was going to post on Wednesday and then cute cows happened : )  Anyway, I started with the CAS Colours & Sketches sketch:

And I paired that with the Card Concept inspiration:

I really did try to keep it CAS for the CC&S challenge but I'm not sure I managed it, this looks more like either the clean & layered or clean & graphic style.  I would have gone for a moose like the inspiration pic, but my moose punch isn't working quite right and I forgot to have the hubs take a look at it when he was here for Christmas.  So I went with a bear, and also this is the quilt on my bed right now:

I got it on Amazon, I do love it.  It's a lighter weight than the comforter we have, and I tend to get hot at night so I've been using this.

Anyway, we're preparing to move again this summer so I've spent the past few days looking at pictures of dozens of houses and I think my eyeballs are about to cross.  I've come up with a motley list of things I like, things I don't like, and one thing I saw that felt like an assault to my eyeballs and I wish to press charges against two different houses:  CARPET IN THE BATHROOM.  Like, whyyyyyyy.  Ew.

Anyway, that's it for me today.  It's March 1, so kiddo and I will be going on our ice cream date after school today--we have officially made it through 8 months of this year-long deployment!  So that definitely warrants ice cream.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wildlife Wonder, Perennial Postage
Ink:  Pecan Pie, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Thick Basic Vanilla, Shaded Spruce DSP
Accessories:  blending brush