Thoughtful Sea Turtle

Happy Friday, folks!  It's the last day of Ryan's karate camp and this afternoon they'll have a little showcase and hand out some awards, so I'm looking forward to seeing what Ryan has learned this week.  But for the next few hours I will be trying my best to be productive in my craft room while I still can ; )

I was cruising through my current stamp sets with a particular color challenge in mind and this is what I came up with:

At first I had picked up Thoughtful Expressions with its beautiful hummingbird image, but I couldn't resist the sea turtle (and I still used Thoughtful Expressions for the sentiment).  Here's the color challenge from Hand-Stamped Sentiments:

Just realized that the last time I used the Sea Turtle stamp set, it was for a different color challenge on this same site :)  Anyway, this time I used Lost Lagoon for the bubbly background stamped off once, and then full strength for the sentiment.  My Petal Pink ink pad is extra super juicy for some reason, so I had to experiment a bit to find a way to make the sand dollars dark enough to see but light enough that they didn't look weird.  For the sea turtle, I inked up the back side (solid side) of the stamp and then used a sponge to remove some of the ink so it wouldn't be quite as dark.  I also didn't worry about getting absolute even coverage when I stamped, as I figured it would just give the sea turtle some extra texture.  Then I stamped the detail side twice to make it stand out, and then covered it in Wink of Stella which you can actually see in the photo, it's a miracle!  A few retired Polished Dots and there's my card for today.

I've been very focused on scrapbook pages lately and I have a stack of like eight layouts (soon to be nine) that I need to write journaling for, and then add those to the other seven or so that I haven't taken pictures of yet.  The movers are coming to start packing out the house on June 24 so I'm trying to squeeze in as much crafting time as possible.  At least this isn't an overseas move so it won't be months before I get my craft room set up on the other side.

That's it for me today, peeps.  I'm going to do my morning blog surfing while I finish my tea, then it's up to my craft room to make more things.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea Turtle, Thoughtful Expressions
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Soft Sea Foam, Petal Pink
Paper:  Soft Sea Foam, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Polished Dots

Flying By

Well, I got all the paperwork signed on the new house yesterday...still doesn't feel real though, probably because we've not yet seen the house in person.  We've got about six or seven more weeks until that happens, and lots to do before that.

Anyway, I have another MAN card to share today!

The hubs is a pilot, so the Adventurous Sky suite was an instabuy for me.  I've had it sitting in my craft room for a few weeks and finally got it inked up.  Seemed like a good fit with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

That decision was clinched when I saw the Color Throwdown colors:

A red biplane on a bright blue sky, DONE.  I used Real Red, Blueberry Bushel, and white for my colors, plus a bit of Smoky Slate for parts of the plane.  I thought about adding some kind of embellishment on my card, but decided it was good to go as-is.  My hubs isn't much for glittery dots or sequins ; )

Anyway, I've got about fifteen minutes to finish eating breakfast and then I need to leave for an appointment and an errand or two.  Then I have yet another scrapbook layout on the table waiting to be finished.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Adventurous Sky
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Real Red, Blueberry Bushel, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Adventurous Sky dies, Perennial Postage dies, Mini Dimensionals

It's a Bird...It's a Plane!

Hey y'all!  Big day here in Snapdragon Land--in less than an hour, I'll be signing the paperwork for us to buy our new house in Colorado.  This is the first time the hubs and I have ever bought a house, so it's a really big deal for us!

So while I wait for the notary to get here (we're doing a remote close since I'm in Texas and the hubs is not even in this hemisphere), I have a card to share that will be going to my hubs soon:

It's...SUPERMAN!  Yes, I have Superman stamps.  This one happened to be out on my craft table (Ryan was going to make a Superman card for his dad and then got distracted and never did it) and it was perfect for a couple of challenges.  Love the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

I did tweak it a little bit with my Superman image for the main image panel and the placement of the sentiment, but I think you can see that I definitely started with the sketch.

Next up is the Festive Friday challenge:

I used twine, alcohol markers, Superman, and a thanks sentiment.  I don't really count this as masculine colors because I like to tease the hubs about the Man Rainbow--it seems like 99% of his wardrobe is black, navy blue, gray, and khaki, so that's what I think of as "masculine" colors.  Anyway, my hubs always does a lot to take care of me and the kid, and he's put in a lot of work on this house acquisition thing so basically I'm just signing the papers.  So he deserves a Superman thank you card.

Happily for me, Superman dovetails nicely with the Cupcake Inspirations color combo:

I always think of the triadic red-yellow-blue color combo as the basic Superman.  I used Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, and Azure Afternoon for my colors.  Took  me a while to get Supes colored in, some of those spaces are teeny tiny!

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

Supplies:
Stamps:  Superman from Inkadinkado, Latte Love
Ink:  Night of Navy, Azure Afternoon, Stampin' Blends in Azure Afternoon, Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, SU800
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Best Dressed DSP Stack, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Rainbow Adhesive Dots, Mini Dimensionals, Night of Navy baker's twine, Stylish Shapes dies

Purple Floral Fusion

Hey y'all!  My Tuesday is starting off with a literal bang--we've had severe weather rolling through off and on since last night and it's really been going since about 5:30 this morning.  (Thunder and lightning, very very frightening ME! Not really, I'm not scared of thunderstorms, but I do love me some Queen.)  It seems like it's slacking off a bit now, but it was raining pretty good when I dropped Ryan off at karate camp, I thought I was going to have to blow-dry my hair a second time when I got back to the house.

Anyway, on to today's card.  I still have a handful of brand-new stamp sets that I haven't played with yet, so what did I do yesterday?  I pulled out a set that's been retired for a while and made this:

Wisteria Wishes was a natural choice for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

Isn't that a pretty picture!  When I used to take my doggos for walks in England, we walked past a house that had a big patch of lavender out front and my boy dog would always pee on it, blithely ignoring the bees buzzing all around there.  I kept warning him that he was going to get stung in a very uncomfortable place, but it never happened.  Anyway, our England house also had wisteria growing on the front of the garage and I loved it.  Wisteria Wishes only retired last year (seems like it was longer ago??) but it's been in my stash for about a year and a half so it counts as retro.

I couldn't pass up the Paper Players sketch:

I decided on the Perennial Lavender DSP for my background elements and used Berry Burst as an accent color on the butterflies and the gem embellishments.

I've been scrapping away on pictures from 2021, but after this challenge I wish I had pics printed out from when we visited the lavender fields in Provence in 2022 so I could scrap those.  I'll get around to it one day : )  I am making lots of progress on scrapbook pages so that makes me happy.

It looked like the rain was slacking off but I just saw some more lightning, so I think I might turn off the computer for a while and unplug it just in case there's a lightning strike nearby.  A few weeks ago there was one close to us and while it didn't do anything to my house, my neighbor said it zapped their refrigerator and dryer, and fried the modem of the guy next door to him.  Gotta love spring weather in Texas.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wisteria Wishes, Painted Lavender
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Fresh Freesia, Gorgeous Grape, Berry Burst
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Thick Basic White, Perennial Lavender DSP
Accessories:  Wisteria dies, Painted Lavender dies, Mini Dimensionals, Purple Gems, Wink of Stella

St. Peter's

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  I think I'm going to need extra caffeine today--Ryan insisted on sleeping in my bed last night and he tends to hit or push me throughout the night, so my sleep was definitely interrupted.  I had weird, disjointed dreams about trying to hide from Darth Vader in a car (like that would work), buying a copy of a long-lost Beatles album called Blue that was the soundtrack to a TV show that never got produced, and on my way from that I found my mom and helped her rent a car and so she gave me a frosted brownie to say thanks, and I was still holding that brownie when I got off a plane in Brazil with my friend Missy.  Probably the weirdest dream progression I can ever remember having!

Anyway, we had a good trip to Waco on Friday/Saturday and then I was down with a headache the rest of the weekend, so I'm glad to be feeling human again this morning.  Ryan is at his first day of karate camp, and I have a scrapbook layout to share from a 2012 trip to Italy!

We didn't actually go into St. Peter's, just took pictures in the piazza out front.  This layout was a great excuse for me to use Heavenly Heralds, which is a long-retired stamp set that I bought on eBay for cheap a few years ago.  That picture of the hubs in the upper right corner always makes me giggle.

Today's color palette:  Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Concord Crush, and Whisper White.  Technically all of those colors are retired but they can live forever in my scrapbooks ; )

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Letters for You, Heavenly Heralds, Angelic
Ink:  Ballet Blue, Concord Crush marker
Paper:  Certainly Celery, Concord Crush, Ballet Blue, Thick Basic White, Maine Blueberry DSP
Accessories:  Large Letters dies

Sparkly Snapdragons

Mornin' y'all, happy Friday!  Ryan and I will be heading to Waco today with my parents for a promotion ceremony.  I got up and did my workout this morning (okay, it was restorative yoga) but Ryan is still asleep.  Lucky him, 'cause I didn't sleep much.

Anyway, I have a card to share today with NEW stamps!

You totally knew that with a blog named Snapdragon Stamps that I would absolutely get the new Inspiring Snapdragons bundle.  The Snapdragon name actually comes from my high school band director, who was a little obsessed with his garden during my senior year and liked to compare us kids to different plants.  He called me a snapdragon and it's what popped into my head when I was naming my blogs.  (One of the other kids got a skunk cabbage, so I definitely count myself lucky with snapdragon!)

Anyway, I'm glad I got to bust out this new stamp set (and Charming Duck Pond for the sentiment) thanks to this challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments:

I took my photos after dark last night so the colors aren't coming across as vibrant as they are in real life, and I can't fix them right now because it's so overcast, but I chose the colors Bubble Bath, Lost Lagoon, Soft Sea Foam, and a teensy bit of Berry Burst sponged onto the Bubble Bath flowers.  I'm also entering this card at Shopping Our Stash for the How Does Your Garden Grow challenge.  Paper gardens are the only ones growing around here!

I got a new Wink of Stella pen and you can actually see it in a picture for once!

Here's my kiddo yesterday on the last day of school:

I parked my car and went in to get him, and I was not at all prepared for the literal weeping and wailing I witnessed in the hallways!  I don't remember ever getting that way at the end of school, but it's been a long time since I was in elementary school.  Ryan was not a weeper or a wailer, though he did tell me yesterday morning that he wasn't looking forward to the last day of school because he would miss his teacher.  He was a bit downcast so I took him to Sonic for ice cream.

Okay, I need to go get him up and start getting ready for our road trip today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspiring Snapdragons, Charming Duck Pond
Ink:  Bubble Bath, Berry Burst, Lost Lagoon, Soft Sea Foam
Paper:  Bubble Bath, Soft Sea Foam, A Latte Love DSP
Accessories:  Inspiring Snapdragons dies, Nested Essentials dies, Milky Dots, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

For Everything

Mornin' y'all!  It's Ryan's last day of school and they're supposed to have a water party so he's dressed in his swimsuit.  Gotta get him out the door in about 20 minutes and then I have to  make the most of the morning because he gets out at 11:55.  On the up side, he has karate camp all of next week for what is basically school hours : )

I have not one, but two cards for today!

Check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

It says olive, but that color looked more like Wild Wheat to me so that's what I went with, plus Pebbled Path.  I used a blender brush to add just a little Wild Wheat ink to my white cardstock but the white is on there too.  I must be honest, I was not a fan of this color combination; I mean, Wild Wheat is a bit of a hard sell for me in general, and I prefer brighter colors too.  But once I found that Wild Wheat pattern in the Thoughtful Journey DSP stack, and then decided on the Inspirational Sketches stamp set, I ended up with a second card:

I wanted to use the full image of the bird on this one and kept it very simple with the same supplies as the first card.  In fact, both cards use 3" pieces of the DSP so I only have some little scraps of that piece.  I finally cut into the Thoughtful Journey DSP!  : )

Yesterday was game day for Ryan at school, and when I picked him up, he said that one of the other kids had brought in Mexican train dominoes and he had really liked playing that.  My great-grandmother taught my brother and me how to play dominoes (just regular dominoes) when we were kids and I had liked it too, so we went out to Target yesterday and got a set for ourselves:

Don't let the face fool you, we played six rounds of dominoes last night and he loved it : ) He just also likes to make faces in pictures.  Maybe we can talk the hubs into playing dominoes with us when the deployment is over, though happily this is one game that works just fine with just two people.  Ryan and I both love lots of variations of Uno, but that usually works better with more than two people.  So I foresee a lot more rounds of dominoes for the next few weeks.

Okay, time to get the kiddo off to school for his last day.  He's not too excited about it because he likes his teacher so much, but I think the water day will help cheer him up.  Byeee!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspirational Sketches
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Wild Wheat
Paper:  Pebbled Path, Thick Basic White, Thoughtful Journey DSP Stack
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Rustic Metallic Dots, Dimensionals

Tea Rex

Mornin' y'all!  I did not get up early enough to do my workout before I had to get Ryan up and ready for school, so I'll have to do that once he gets dropped off.  It's his next-to-last day of first grade and today he gets to bring in board games to play.  Sounds like fun to me!

It will likely come as no surprise that I have a card to share today.

Nobody tell my SU! stamps that I'm cheating on them, okay?  This little Tea Rex was the first thing I thought of when I saw the Paper Players challenge:

I decided to go for punny rather than slapstick humor 'cause I love me a good pun, and the greeting stamp for my cute dino has two of them.  I chose new In Colors Shy Shamrock, Pretty in Pink, and Peach Pie for my colors because I thought they'd be fun together.  I used Pale Papaya Blends on his belly because I didn't have the Peach Pie Blends yet...yeah I bought the rest of the In Color Blends and the new In Color markers yesterday for free shipping day.  And maybe some DSP.  (Oops.)

Anyway, I had had a general plan in mind for this card and then I saw the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge and had to use it:

I did mine mirror image because I wanted the Tea Rex to be walking into the card and not off the edge.  Don't want to spill the tea, right?  And I just realized that I graduated the sizes of the background strips backwards to the original sketch, which wasn't my intention.  Oops!  Maybe I copied the sketch down wrong when I took it upstairs to my craft room.  Regardless, I'm sure my friend Krissy will love this cute-tea so I'm going to mail it out today or tomorrow.

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Tea Rex from The Ink Road
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Shy Shamrock, Stampin' Blends in Shy Shamrock, Pale Papaya, Pretty in Pink
Paper:  Shy Shamrock, Thick Basic White, In Color DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Oh, biscuits!  I almost forgot.  Here's the card Ryan made for his teacher to go with her end-of-school-year gift yesterday:

He stamped Bandit and Chilli (it's one big stamp), I helped him run it through the Big Shot, and he colored them in and put the card together.  Then he wrote a note on the inside for her yesterday morning.  His teacher this year has been phenomenal, I've said it before but I wish he wasn't switching schools again because this one has been so great.  Hopefully the school in Colorado will be good, too.

Mix It Up with SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all!  Hope your Tuesday is off to a good start.  Ryan got to take a blanket and a pillow to school today and they're watching a movie...kinda envious of that TBH ;)  I suppose I could do the same here at the house, but I do have some things to do today starting with the new SUO Challenges challenge!

I hope you think this one is fun...

Fun, right?  And if you have a pack of DSP, it should be pretty easy to mix and match for a cute card!  So I made it my mission to fit in as many patterns as I could using the A Little Latte DSP, and here's what I made:

Stripes, plaid, coffee beans, splats...I think I got a good mix here!  It was easy peasy to put together with a couple of sizes of circles from the Stylish Shapes dies, and then the coffee mugs are cut out of the DSP as well.  The only stamping is on the sentiment.  A few adhesive-backed Swirl Dots and this card is ready to go in the mail.

We hope that you'll play along with us and upload your card (or cards, if you're inspired to make more than one!) at the SUO Challenges blog.  As always, use just your Stampin' Up! supplies, and have all the funs!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Latte Love
Ink:  Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Lemon Lolly, Thick Basic White, A Latte Love DSP
Accessories:  Latte Love dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Swirl Dots

Alma Mater

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Well, I didn't finish the journaling on those scrapbook pages on Friday...but I did get it done yesterday : )  Sometime this week, I'll have to take pictures of eleven scrapbook layouts for future blog posts.  Whee!

Today is Ryan's last Monday in first grade, ack!  He's got fun things going on every day this week and Thursday is his last day.  Then on Friday we're heading down to Waco for a promotion event for a friend, which will be held at our alma mater, Baylor University.  Which is why I picked this layout to share today:

These pics are from 2013, hubs was deployed so I went back to Texas for a couple of weeks around my birthday and my parents took me on a day trip to Baylor.  Usually I'm trying to cram in as many pictures as I possibly can but today it's just four, so I kept the layout simple and left some open space, which helps balance out the busy pattern I used on the edges.

Today's Bayloriffic color palette is Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen, and So Saffron.  I bought a bright yellow dress to wear to the event this Friday, can't wait!

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

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Schoolbook Serif Alphabet, Wildlife Wonder
Ink:  Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen marker
Paper:  Soft Succulent, So Saffron, Lovely in Linen DSP
Accessories:  None

Puddle Bunny

Mornin' y'all!  Okay, this morning didn't go how I thought it would...I had planned to go do a yoga class at the Y after I dropped Ryan off at school, but I ended up conking out for two hours instead.  Not sure why I was so tired but apparently I needed more sleep!  We've got a busy afternoon ahead with Ryan participating in the black belt test for his teacher, so probably a good thing I got a bit more sleep this morning.

Anyway, here's my card today:

The colors are a bit muted in the picture, probably because we were absolutely socked in with clouds and rain all day yesterday.  For a while, it was getting darker instead of lighter as the sun came up!  That might have influenced my choice of stamp set for today's card.  Anyway, I like the Just Add Ink sketch:

And I had to have another go at the Color Throwdown:

This time, I used Pumpkin Pie, Petunia Pop, and Pretty Peacock, so today's card is brought to you by the letter P.  And now I'm wishing I had gotten all the new In Color Blends because I don't have Petunia Pop yet; I had actually stamped and cut out the fox first but decided to switch it out for the bunny because I wanted the fox to have a purple jacket.

Anyway, my goal for today is to go work on some scrapbook pages.  I have one layout in progress and four (five?) other ones that only lack journaling to be finished.  Gotta use my time wisely since Ryan's last day of school is coming up and it's harder for me to get craft time when he's out of school.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Playing in the Rain, Saying Hey
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pretty Peacock, Stampin' Blends in Gray Granite, Pretty in Pink, Pretty Peacock, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Petunia Pop, Thick Basic White, Petunia Pop DSP, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Playing in the Rain dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Mini Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Fox Face

Mornin' y'all!  Our busy week continues, but I did make a card to share today with more new stamps : )

I bought Pets & More a couple of months ago but this is the first time I've inked it up.  I used another greeting from Saying Hey just because a.) I could and b.) it fit on the die cut.  Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Ummm...this is *not* a sketch I will be using again.  Not My Thing.  I do, however, really like this week's color palette from the Color Throwdown:

I used Pumpkin Pie, Gorgeous Grape, and the new In Color Summer Splash.  I hope I can find time today or tomorrow to give these colors another go because I like them.

Okay, gotta get the kiddo off to school and then I have a couple of appointments today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pets & More, Saying Hey
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Summer Splash DSP, Gorgeous Grape DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Moments dies, Dimensionals, Noble Peacock Rhinestones

Tranquil Turtle

Mornin' y'all!  How's your week going so far?  I had a nasty headache most of the day yesterday but I didn't let that stop me from working in my craft room...I finally landed on a color combination for my problem scrapbook pages and they're 75% done now, plus I got a card made to share today.  Here it is:

So probably a couple of years ago now (I forget when exactly), I bought the very old retired stamp set Nature Prints on eBay (not to be confused with Nature's Prints, which just retired this year).  It's four images, the largest one being this sea turtle, and this is the first time I've used it for a card.  I was inspired to go with a sea theme by the inspo pic at Sunday Stamps:

I was actually looking for a specific stamp set with a sand dollar in it when I took a left turn and arrived at the sea turtle.  From the picture, I used the top three colors, which I translated as Copper Clay, Soft Sea Foam, and Mossy Meadow.  I stamped the sea turtle in Mossy Meadow ink that I stamped off once to get a lighter shade, and it's on a scrap of long-retired Tranquil Textures DSP just because I thought it would look cool.  This is another card where I didn't have a sketch so I kinda just played with pieces until I arrived at something I liked.  The background panel is from the just recently retired Earthen Textures DSP, I thought it kinda works for seaweed or something like that, and I just liked the texture with the style of the sea turtle stamp.  The sentiment is from Notes of Nature, which also just retired.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Have a good 'un!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature Prints, Notes of Nature
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Copper Clay
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Copper Clay, Soft Sea Foam, Tranquil Textures DSP, Earthen Textures DSP
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Matte Metallic Dots, Dimensionals

Glad You Exist

Mornin' y'all!  How is your Tuesday going?  I'm happy that I got to break out a brand new stamp set for today's card, take a look:

Saying Hey was on my first new catty order, it has some fun sentiments, like "Insert clever message here", which makes me giggle.  Plus it makes me think of Into the Spider-Verse and if you've seen that movie, you know why.  Ryan likes to put his hand on my shoulder, look in my eyes, and say HEY which makes me laugh.  (Miles Morales' uncle is trying to teach him how to flirt with a girl by using that move in the movie; Ryan ups the ante by making a goofy face while he does it.)

 Check out the color challenge from the Paper Players:

I admit this combination had me scratching my head at first.  I chose the birds from Bird's Eye View because I figured I could make them any color I wanted so I bet you could use them for just about any color combination under the sun :) I chose Pretty Peacock for my extra color, so I had two purples and two teals to work with.  I stamped several birds on scratch paper and colored them however seemed like a good idea at the time, and cut them out.  I really didn't have a plan for this card when I started since I wasn't working with a sketch, so I just kinda kept moving pieces around until I liked it.

I would not have put those colors together on my own, so I'm surprised how much I ended up liking my card when I finished it.  And that right there is why I am a challenge junkie ;) Helps me stretch my creativity.  And now I'm off to wrestle with the scrapbook layout that has been giving me fits with the color combination.  Too bad these colors wouldn't work with my photos, ha!  Also, thanks to LeAnne for choosing my octopus card as the winner of last week's challenge.  I always love to play along with the Paper Players!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bird's Eye View, Saying Hey
Ink:  Fresh Freesia, Pretty Peacock, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Lost Lagoon, Highland Heather, Fresh Freesia, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Mini Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems

Tallinn

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Can't hardly believe it but this is Ryan's next-to-last Monday in first grade--his last day of school is next Thursday.  We are going to be busy for the next two weeks, then he has karate camp for the last week of May...and as soon as June hits, we are in full-blown get-ready-to-move mode.  It's coming up fast.

Anyway, today's scrapbook layout is from our 2014 Baltic cruise, when we visited Tallinn, Estonia.

Estonia's most recent claim to fame is that they invented Skype, which we were told several times.  We did a free walking tour of the city and our tour guide Heli was AMAZING!  She told us lots of interesting facts about the country and the capital city itself, and gave us restaurant recommendations at the end of the tour.  We ended up having these giant pancakes at a place she recommended and they were delicious.

My color palette was mostly inspired by the two signs on the right-hand page, and for some reason I find that "decent bowl of elk soup" amusing.  Anyway, the color palette for today is Soft Succulent, Cajun Craze, So Saffron, and white.

I have a set of pictures out on my craft table right now that are giving me fits for a color combination, so hopefully brilliant inspiration will strike today so I can work on that.  And I have four other layouts that I need to do journaling on.  That's it for me today, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Letterpress Alphabet
Ink:  Basic Gray
Paper:  Soft Succulent, Cajun Craze, Thick Basic White, Fine Art Floral DSP, Delicate Desert DSP
Accessories:  None

Inner Goofball

Happy Friday, y'all!  I have a fun card to share today...

It's Bluey and Bingo!  NGL, Bluey is one of my favorite shows.  It's amazing, it doesn't matter how old you are or if you have kids or not, it's fantastic.  So when The Ink Road debuted a Bluey stamp set, I bought it so fast my computer practically smoked : )

It should not surprise you that I am playing once again in the Paper Players theme challenge:

For reals I want to do animal cards all the time, I love this challenge.  And I used the newest sketch from Try a Sketch on Tuesday:

For the triangular elements in the corners, I had a scrap of Mango Melody DSP that I cut into a 3" square, and then I just cut that from corner to corner to make two triangles.  Bluey and Bingo are colored with an assortment of Stampin' Blends and I added some star accents from a few Halloweens ago just for funsies.  This stamp set has a bunch of fun quotes from the show so I do want to play with it more...but I also have a bunch of new SU! stamps that I haven't played with yet either.  I've been working more on scrapbook pages this week, and also cross stitching some Christmas ornaments for a friend.  I never lack for projects, that's for sure.

Speaking of which, I'm going to pick one to work on now.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Whackadoo from The Ink Road
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Night of Navy, Azure Afternoon, Balmy Blue, naturals, Pumpkin Pie, Ivory
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Balmy Blue, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful stack, Mango Melody DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals, star accents

Sweet Sadie Fox

Mornin', y'all!  I had an appointment yesterday morning, so I didn't have as time as I might have liked to work in my craft room, but I am inching closer to having three more scrapbook layouts done and I made a card for today : )

Something like two years ago, maybe more--I just remember I was in Germany--I ordered a few stamps from Whipper Snapper Designs, including this adorable fox, and this is the first time I've inked her up!  This is also my first try at using the brand-new Basic Beige paper, and I discovered that the Ivory Stampin' Blend is pretty much exactly the same color, as in it ends up just barely showing up on the cardstock.  I ended up using some of the natural tones blends for the lighter parts of her fur, and then added highlights with a chalk marker (retired).

I told you I wanted to play along again with the Paper Players challenge:

I could make a card every day for a month and never use the same animal stamps twice, and still have more left over.  I love animal stamps!  I'm glad this challenge finally prompted me to ink up this sweet fox.

Check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

I used Boho Blue, Pecan Pie, and Basic Beige for my colors, with a bit of white and Night of Navy thrown in.  If you want to get super picky, I added a bit of pink to Sadie's ears, and used Mossy Meadow for the grass and leaves.  This is a fun color combination, I like the inspiration pic and now I'm getting hungry.  Is that some kind of apple tart?  Coincidentally, Ryan and I have been playing the game Outfoxed this week, where one of sixteen fox characters steals a pie and the players work together uncovering clues and suspects to deduce who stole the pie.  But sweet Sadie here isn't a thief, right?

That's it for me today and I think I'll go looking through my animal stamps for more fun.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Sadie from Whipper Snapper, Country Bouquet
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, VersaMark, Stampin' Blends in Pecan Pie, Ivory, natural tones, Pretty in Pink, Mossy Meadow, Boho Blue
Paper:  Boho Blue, Basic Beige, Night of Navy, Countryside Inn DSP
Accessories:  White EP, white sequins