Inked Flowers

Hey y'all!  I'm back with a third Inked & Tiled card from my play session with this bundle last year.

I layered a couple of the stamps to make my distressed flowers and added some Polished Dots to the flower centers.  Again, just playing with the stamps, dies, and paper.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inked & Tiled
Ink:  Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, Pool Party
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Thick Basic White, Inked Botanicals DSP Stack
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Polished Dots, Dimensionals

Catty Inspiration with SUO Challenges

 Hey y'all, it's time already for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

And here it is:

If you need it, here's a bigger pic, we're on page 66 of the SU! catalog:

My eye was immediately drawn to the Pretty Peacock card on the right, so I used that as a starting point and made this:

I do love the Inspiring Snapdragons bundle and I want to see more stuff made with it so that's why I chose it for my card.  Plus do snapdragons come in pink?  Doesn't matter if they do in nature because they do in my craft room!  I found the lovely Pretty Peacock wash in the Thoughtful Journey DSP Stack and used it for the background for my snapdragons.  I chose a sentiment from Inspirational Sketches just because it was smaller than the ones from the snapdragon set and I could cut it apart like the card in the catalog.  I used a few long-retired Noble Peacock Rhinestones for accents as well as a dragonfly because why not.

You have three lovely cards to choose from for this CASE the Catty challenge, so I hope you'll share over on the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspiring Snapdragons, Inspirational Sketches
Ink:  Pretty in Pink, Granny Apple Green, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Granny Apple Green, Thick Basic White, Thoughtful Journey DSP Stack
Accessories:  Inspiring Snapdragons dies, Mini Dimensionals, Noble Peacock Rhinestones

Eisriesenwelt Ice Cave

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Continuing with my Alpine Adventure series, I have THREE layouts to share today!

Eisriesenwelt is the world's largest ice cave, tucked away near Werfen in Austria.  We lucked out, they were closed for all of 2020 with the pandemic, and had only reopened for tourists on July 1.  We got tickets for July 3, and it wasn't busy at all.  So you start out taking a steep, windy road up into the mountains, park at the visitor center, and then do a 25-minute hike up to a gondola.  The gondola ride is only 3 minutes, but it's pretty zippy and also nearly straight up.  Then there's *another* 20-minute hike to get to the ice cave, so you gotta WORK to visit here.  But man oh man, the mountain views!

Our tour guide, David, was really great and conducted the tour in both English and German.  He said that it's about 1400 stairs each time he takes a group through, 700 up and 700 down, and when they're running at full capacity he would do several tours in a day, I forget how many.  But every day is leg day if you're a tour guide here, that's for sure!  Our only illumination was carbide lanterns and the magnesium flares that David carried, so taking pictures inside was a challenge.  Usually you're not allowed to take pics in there but since it was a small group we got the go-ahead to do it.

And of course after the ice cave tour, you have to do all the hiking to get back down to your car!  We stopped at a restaurant on the mountainside to eat lunch and we all got dessert because we deserved it after all that physical activity.  Ryan did great with it, he only asked to be carried towards the end of the ice cave tour and did a good job with all the hiking.

So for the first and third layouts, my color palette includes Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon, Calypso Coral, Mossy Meadow, Granny Apple Green, and Whisper White.

For the Ice Cave layout in the middle, I kept Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon and white, but used Blueberry Bushel as my accent color.  Plus snowflakes to really sell the ice theme.

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!, first & third layout:
Stamps:  Alphabest, Art Gallery
Ink:  Azure Afternoon, Calypso Coral, Granny Apple Green, Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon, Granny Apple Green, Awash in Beauty DSP
Accessories:  Floral Gallery dies

Supplies, all SU!, second layout:
Stamps:  Alphabest, Snowflake Wishes
Ink:  Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Snowflake Splendor DSP
Accessories:  So Many Snowflakes dies

Friday Flashback: Apple of My Eye

Friday Flashback, y'all!  Today's stamp set is Apple of My Eye and I have a few cards to share, all of which were inspired by this card that paired Apple of My Eye with the Color Theory DSP.  So let's go!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Apple of My Eye
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Dapper Denim, Cinnamon Cider, Thick Basic White, Color Theory DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Apple of My Eye
Ink:  Versamark, Cinnamon Cider, Garden Green
Paper:  Real Red, Thick Basic White, Color Theory DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, White EP, Dimensionals

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Apple of My Eye
Ink:  Berry Burst, Old Olive, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Old Olive, Thick Basic White, Color Theory DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Apple of My Eye
Ink:  Grapefruit Grove, Night of Navy
Paper:  Grapefruit Grove, Thick Basic White, Color Theory DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

That's it for me today, peeps.  Cheers!

Inked Leaves

Hey y'all, how's your week going?  I'm back with another card I made last year and just never posted, once again with Inked & Tiled.

This one has a more masculine feel with Lost Lagoon and Mossy Meadow.  I kept it simple and just played with a few sizes of the Deckled Rectangles dies.

Have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inked & Tiled
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Mossy Meadow, Thick Basic White, Inked Botanicals DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Dimensionals

Golling Waterfall

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I'm back with Alpine Adventure part 2 today, which features a waterfall.

The hubs had some fun playing with the camera settings to get the picture right under the page title, see how soft the water looks?  We did a short hike out to the waterfall, took some pictures, and then headed back out to get pizza for dinner.  And that was the first day of our Alpine Adventure, not counting the 7-hour car trip we started with.

I wanted to draw out the pretty blue-green colors in the waterfall, so I chose Tranquil Tide for the page base, Night of Navy for the photo mats, Mint Macaron and Whisper White for supporting colors.  For the dragonfly image, I inked it up with Mint Macaron and then daubed on some Tranquil Tide to the edges and somehow it ended up being a color in between Tranquil Tide and Mint Macaron.  That dragonfly stamp dates back to like the first year I started stamping, too!

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Alphabest, All I Have Seen
Ink:  Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, Tranquil Tide
Paper:  Tranquil Tide, Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, Thick Basic White, Delightful Daisy DSP
Accessories:  None

Friday Flashback: Approaching Perfection

Friday Flashback!  Today's stamp set is Approaching Perfection, though I did pull in Wrapped Bouquet for a couple of cards as well.  And today I'm working on using up the Moonlight DSP stack.

Approaching Perfection is all greeting stamps, so I used the newsprint from Wrapped Bouquet as a background.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Approaching Perfection, Wrapped Bouquet
Ink:  Basic Gray
Paper:  Hello Honey, Thick Basic White, Moonlight DSP Stack
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Approaching Perfection, Wrapped Bouquet
Ink:  Basic Gray
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Thick Basic White, Moonlight DSP Stack
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Tasteful Labels dies, Dimensionals

Playing with a few different die shapes on this one.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Approaching Perfection
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey, Thick Basic White, Moonlight DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Approaching Perfection
Ink:  Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon, Thick Basic White, Moonlight DSP Stack
Accessories:  Tasteful Labels dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Approaching Perfection
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Hello Honey, Blackberry Bliss, Thick Basic White, Moonlight DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Tasteful Labels dies, Dimensionals

And that's it for today.  Cheers, y'all!

Pressed Petals

Happy Wednesday, y'all!  Today's card is one I made right before we moved out of Germany in 2023 and somehow never got around to posting while the stamps and paper were current, but here it is now:

I really like the Inked & Tiled stamp set, it reminds me of several much older floral stamp sets in the same style and I had fun playing with it.  I was also working on ways to use those Nested Essentials dies.

Cheers, y'all!  Have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inked & Tiled
Ink:  VersaMark, Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Sweet Sorbet (came out looking like Calypso Coral)
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Calypso Coral, Thick Basic White, Inked Botanicals DSP Stack
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, white EP, Polished Dots, retired Garden Green ribbon, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Christmas in July

Mornin' y'all and welcome to a new SUO Challenge!

And heeeere we go:

As it happens, I only have one current Christmas stamp set, so that made my stamp set choice pretty easy.  So here's what I made:

I CASE'd a sample from a new Online Exclusives stamp bundle called Sophisticated Sled, which I am looking forward to adding to my personal stamp hoard.  I just wanted to wait until I could see alllll the new stuff in the Holiday Catalog before I started buying Christmas stuff, but I do love that sled set and I don't have anything similar. 

Anyway!  I digress.  Merriest Trees is still current, and don't let the new stuff distract you from how awesome this stamp set is.  I love how there's one tree stamp but multiple dies so you can choose how big your tree turns out.  I stamped off my tree with Garden Green ink, added some stars in Blueberry Bushel (my Blueberry Bushel ink pad is so juicy that it almost looks like Night of Navy), and then coated the entire thing with Wink of Stella for an easy way to step up the card.  I liked the new Basic Beige with the Winter Meadow DSP even though it's not listed in the colors for that paper pack.

Your turn!  Let's see your Christmas creations on the SUO Challenges blog.  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Merriest Trees
Ink:  Garden Green, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Basic Beige, Thick Basic White, Winter Meadow DSP
Accessories:  Merriest Trees dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Wink of Stella, Tinsel Gems, Dimensionals

Alpine Adventure

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  We're in Colorado now and since I don't have any Colorado scrapbook pages (YET), I thought I'd share some different mountain pics!  The last set of layouts I did in Texas before we packed out was our 2021 trip to the Austrian and German Alps, so here's the first layout:

We started out in Werfen, which is just across the border in Austria and not terribly far away from Salzburg.  The first thing we did was check out the Sound of Music trail, which seems like a misnomer because we didn't see a trail, but it DOES have the meadow where Maria teaches the Von Trapp children how to sing Do Re Me in the movie.  I absolutely LOVE being in the mountains!  I don't necessarily want to climb any ; ) but I just love looking at them, and the Alps are particularly spectacular.

Today's color palette:  Gray Granite for the mountain peaks, Primrose Petals for my capri pants, Granny Apple Green for the meadow, Night of Navy to frame the photos, and Whisper White for title and journaling.  This is the first layout out of...nine, I think?  And I used the same alphabet stamp set for all my pages so they look more like a set.  Actually I worked on all nine layouts concurrently too, which kind of bit me a little bit on some of them but it turned out fine.

That's it for me today, peeps.  I'm gonna go look at the mountains some more : )  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Alphabest, Lighting the Way
Ink:  Gray Granite, Granny Apple Green, Night of Navy
Paper:  Gray Granite, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Afternoon Daydream DSP, Friendly Hello DSP
Accessories:  Lighting the Way dies

My Paper Pumpkin March 2021

Hey y'all, this is a pseudo Friday Flashback post.  I subscribe to the Paper Pumpkin kits but...gasp...this is the only one that I've ever put together!  Okay, I took at least a dozen kits and did all the stamping, then sent the pieces to my friend Tiana and her daughters, but this is the only kit that I've ever put together myself.  I know I should cancel the subscription since I haven't been using it (don't even ask how many unopened kits I have) but FOMO is real, y'all.  So here's the cards I made with the kit.

Pretty printed backgrounds and the kit is easy to put together, I'm just usually focusing on something else.  Those were the cards as designed in the kit.

I think the floral pattern was an envelope or something else but I liked it for a card panel, so I made this one with other pieces of the kit.  Maybe one of these days I'll do something with the other kits...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  My Paper Pumpkin March 2021
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  stuff from the kit, Seaside Spray, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  stuff from the kit, Stitched Nested Labels dies

Oceans of Love

Hey y'all, how's your Wednesday going?  Got a quick card to share today.

I had made this for the SUO Challenges red white and blue color challenge, but then I decided to go with Adventurous Sky instead.  But that left me with an extra card to share today : )  How do you like the white sequin bubbles?  It took me a while to play around with the layout of this card because I was trying to use a specific scrap of that Azure Afternoon wash from the Bright & Beautiful DSP stack.

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

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Submarine Life
Ink:  Real Red, Gray Granite, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, white sequins, Dimensionals

Having a Grand Time in Texas

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  This is our last Monday in Texas, so I thought I'd share a Texas layout from right before we moved to Germany in 2020.

This one goes right next to my Fort Worth Zoo layout, so I kept the Crumb Cake page base and changed up the supporting colors.  And I went punny for my title because this is mostly pictures of Ryan with his grandparents.

Today's color palette:  Crumb Cake, Mango Melody, Shaded Spruce, and Gorgeous Grape, with some Whisper White but I didn't put that in the palette for some reason.  I got to sneak in a bit of purple because I was wearing a purple shirt in one photo : )

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Schoolbook Serif Alphabet, Takeout Treats
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Shaded Spruce, Mango Melody
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Shaded Spruce, Gorgeous Grape, Thick Basic White, Dandy Designs DSP
Accessories:  Takeout dies

Friday Flashback: Array of Sunshine & A Big Thank You

Today is the day, y'all!  The hubs will arrive later this morning and then the three of us are going to stay at Great Wolf Lodge for a couple of nights, which Ryan doesn't know about yet.  So glad this deployment is OVER!

And I have a celebratory Friday Flashback to share today.  Today's sets are Array of Sunshine and A Big Thank You.

I chose sunny Daffodil Delight for my cards today because yellow makes me happy.  It's Ryan's favorite color after he changed it from red.

I got like a half a dozen packs of those glitter dots because I was making a set of invitations for my friend Sarah and I seriously overestimated how many I would need.  So I used up several on today's cards and those glitter dots are where I got my color combination.

One last fun floral card.  Again, two stamp sets that I like but hadn't used in a long time, so this was fun.  Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Array of Sunshine, A Big Thank You
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Coastal Cabana, Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Coastal Cabana, Gorgeous Grape, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Glitter Enamel Dots, Dimensionals

A Study in Blue

Mornin' y'all, happy Wednesday!  Today's card is brought to you by the color blue.

I had originally made this card for an SUO Challenges CASE the Catty challenge, but then we changed the challenge and this one never got posted.  Until now.  I loved Softly Sketched from last year's catalog, it has three pretty images and several great sentiment stamps.  What do you think of it stamped in blue?

Have a great day, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Softly Sketched
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Boho Blue
Paper:  Boho Blue, Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Countryside Inn DSP
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Deckled Circles dies, Tinsel Gems, Night of Navy ribbon, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: The Colors of Freedom

Happy Tuesday y'all and get ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

This time it's a color challenge:

It might be the colors on the American flag, but you don't have to do a patriotic card.  I mean, that would be a great choice for my mom's birthday card (HI MA, happy birthday!) but you can choose your shades of red and blue and make it your own thing.  So here's what I made:

I added a bit of gray with the cloud pattern from the Take to the Sky DSP floated on a Perennial Postage die shape.  I did make the die cut a little bit shorter than the original die, which is easy enough to do because you just line up the dimples to make it shorter.  Then I added a couple of simple red biplanes, a sentiment, a few retired Milky Dots, and it's done!  I keep using embellishments even after they're retired because why not.  I have a photo box full of fun things and I always write the colors on the packaging so I know what they match.

Anyway, I chose Blueberry Bushel and Real Red for my shades, so what are your red and blue combo?  Make sure you share your card at the SUO Challenges blog and as always, have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Adventurous Sky
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Take to the Sky DSP
Accessories:  Adventurous Sky dies, Perennial Postage dies, mini Dimensionals, Milky Dots

Stars & Stripes Forever

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Ryan and I are very excited that it's July--today we'll have our FINAL monthly ice cream date and we can count down the days until our reunion with the hubs on ONE HAND.  So today's layout is a celebration too!

We were allowed to have fireworks at our house in North Carolina, so the hubs bought some and we had a little fireworks show in our driveway in 2020.  This time the hubs gave Ryan some headphones to cut down on the noise so he wasn't scared like he had been the year before--he loved it!  And I had fun choosing fireworks and stars images for this layout.

Today's patriotic palette:  Real Red, Pool Party, Blueberry Bushel, Night of Navy, and Whisper White.

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Red White & Blue, July Fourth, Simply Stars, Christmas Star
Ink:  Real Red, Blueberry Bushel, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Real Red, Blueberry Bushel, Pool Party, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Pool Party DSP
Accessories:  Large Star punch, circle punches