This Time With More Pink

I couldn't help it, y'all, I had to make another flamingo card, this time with more PINK:

And yes, I used the exact same stamps as the card I posted this morning, but I changed up the patterned paper and colors a bit.  Still going to enter this at Hand-Stamped Sentiments:

And here's the brand new Freshly Made Sketch:

I think what took me the longest on this card was choosing the three patterns from the Tropical Escape pack.  I wanted to choose ones that only had a little bit of pink because it's technically Blushing Bride and I really wanted to make this flamingo very PINK.  Here's both flamingo cards together:

I think I achieved my goal of more pink : )

I'm off to make breakfast for dinner, whee!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Fabulous Flamingo
Ink:  Pretty in Pink, Polished Pink, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Polished Pink, Shaded Spruce, Basic White, Tropical Escape DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Nested Essentials dies, Basic Borders dies, Dimensionals, In Color Gems

Tropical Love

Mornin' y'all!  Looks like it's going to be another beautiful spring day here : )  Tomorrow we've got a 35% chance of rain and temps in the 40s, but that's springy too.  But I think today's card has a summery vibe...

Check out the excellent sketch from the Paper Players:

It's a great one, very versatile, and I had ideas swirling in my head but then I zoned in on the top left corner of the Hand-Stamped Sentiments inspiration challenge:

I am loving that tote bag with the tropical leaves and flamingos, and I would totally wear those pink sunnies.  I bought Fabulous Flamingo off a BST board on Facebook last year and this seemed like the perfect time to ink it up for the first time.  Next time I'm going to go with super PINK instead of Pale Papaya + Calypso Coral, but I was matching the tropical Artfully Composed DSP.

Time to rush the spawn off to school.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fabulous Flamingo
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Pale Papaya, Evening Evergreen
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Thick Basic White, Artfully Composed DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Nested Essentials dies, Noble Peacock Rhinestones, Dimensionals

Winter Roses

Double post today!  It seems like every once in a while, the challenges I follow kinda converge and do a whole bunch of sketches in one week and y'all know sketches are my favorite, so extra posts so I can do All The Sketches : )  So here's a retro card for today:

Showing my age as an SU! demonstrator here since I still own Roses in Winter, which was the It Stamp Set for a long time when I was a wee baby stamper.  It was the first stamp set that popped in my head when I saw this week's sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

And the colors from AAA Cards Challenge seemed like the perfect palette for my roses:

But then I thought that my card wasn't really super CAS since the roses are so large, so I made this one too while I had everything out on my craft table:

More CAS : )  I used Lemon Lime Twist for both of the green colors (lighter stamped off once, darker full strength), Bubble Bath, and Berry Burst.  I have two friends that I send cards to on a weekly basis, and they're good friends with each other too so a lot of times I send them cards that kinda coordinate with each other, so they'll probably get both of these too.

That's it for me, y'all.  Time to make tacos for Taco Tuesday, we take that seriously around here.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Roses in Winter, AYC I
Ink:  Bubble Bath, Berry Burst, Lemon Lime Twist
Paper:  Bubble Bath, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  None

SUO Challenges: Bright & Beautiful CASE

 Morning, stampy friends!  It's time for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

Ready....set....CASE!  Here is Angel's card that we are CASE-ing this time around:

Now, the Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack is one of my favorite-ever DSPs and it's on the Last Chance List (I haven't looked to see if it's sold out yet or not) but I had to use it for today's card:

Y'all KNOW you won't catch me doing fancy fold cards except under duress, so I adapted Angel's card to a regular A2 card.  I used the star pattern instead of the confetti because I had a large piece of the stars in my scraps, and the striped piece and the spots were also scraps.  The sheer ribbon trio is retired but the colors match the DSP so I went with it and used a sentiment from the also-retiring Lovely & Sweet stamp set.

So let's see what you've got!  Share your card at the SUO Challenges blog and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lovely & Sweet
Ink:  Azure Afternoon
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Berry Burst, Lemon Lolly, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Sheer Ribbon combo pack, rhinestones, Dimensionals

Lunch in Luxembourg

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Yesterday's scone experiment turned out GREAT so I'm going to be writing that down for my personal cookbook.  And yesterday the hubs did touch-ups on the living room accent wall that I painted on Saturday and I got all my books organized and put back on the shelves--I am REALLY loving how the dark blue looks on that one wall with the lighter blue we had already painted.  Now we need to get to work on the entryway, up the stairs, and the loft and hallway upstairs.  Slowly but surely this house is turning colors!

Anyway, we're here for scrapbook pages today and I have a sweet little layout to share:

Okay, so it was Very Cool to live in a place where you could decide on a random weekend to drive to a different country for lunch and still be home in time for dinner.  It was a two-hour drive from our house in Germany to the capital of Luxembourg.  We had lunch at a place called the Chocolate House, where Ryan tried his first croissant, and we bought a bunch of chocolate truffles which melted on the way back to the car.  It turned out much warmer that day than we had anticipated!

Today's color palette:  Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry, Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, and white.  Blushing Bride was never one of my favorite colors so I'm always surprised when I use it on a layout and I actually like it.

That's it for now, peeps.  I've got to get Ryan to school, do the grocery shopping, take Daph for a walk, do some laundry...all the things!  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Alphabet Antiques Upper, Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Tulip Fields, Petal Parade
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Sahara Sand, Blushing Bride, Soft Suede marker
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Thick Basic White, Best Year Ever DSP
Accessories:  None

Stellar Astronaut

Happy Sunday, y'all!  I am once again making lemon blueberry scones for breakfast...the ones last week turned out really dry and not that great, so this week I'm modifying a recipe for orange scones and we'll see how that works.  I've made the orange scones many times and we all love them, so I'm hopeful for this variation!

Ever since I went through my stamps last week, I've been dusting off some retired stamp sets to play with and it's been fun.  And here's what I made for today:

I had to get Reach for the Stars and the coordinating Stargazing DSP because it's different than anything else that SU! has had since I've been a stamper (which is about 20 years).  This suite  popped in my head as soon as I saw the Shopping Our Stash challenge for the theme Outta This World, which happily for me worked well with the Freshly Made Sketch this week:

I chose two patterns from the Stargazing DSP, stamped and die cut my astronaut, added a few Tinsel Gems and done!  And I've discovered that I need to ink up my Starry Sky ink pad; I've inked up quite a few pads since we moved here last July.  Not sure if that's because we're at a higher elevation and lower humidity, or if I just hadn't inked up my ink pads in a long time : )

Time to go glaze the scones and have breakfast with my two favorite people.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Reach for the Stars
Ink:  Starry Sky
Paper:  Tahitian Tide, Thick Basic White, Stargazing DSP
Accessories:  Reach for the Stars dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems, Wink of Stella

Treasured Friend

Happy Saturday, y'all!  It's starting out quiet, only Daphne and I are up yet and it's all misty outside.  I typed too soon, sounds like Ryan just woke up.  Anyway, Daph-Daph had her first group class last night and she did very well--that's the first time she's been around multiple other dogs without having a fence in between them.  Yeah she still gets squirrelly and distracted by things, but I think she did so well for it being her first time in that environment.  And she's officially graduated from her private lessons and we can do group classes with her as often as we want : )

Enough about my pupper (never!), I did make a card to share today:

Kinda love this, the Symbols of Fortune Specialty DSP is gooooorrrrrgeous and I didn't use much of it before it retired.  The flowers are cut from one sheet of patterned paper and then the next two layers are other patterns in the pack (the plaid is from that year's In Color DSP, my favorite of the patterns they've done in recent years).  I paired that with the stamp set Treasured Kindness for the greeting (also a great stamp set that I hadn't played with enough yet) for my Oriental-inspired card.  Check out the sketch from Just Add Ink:

And the inspo list from Festive Friday:

I used greens, twine, frames (the bamboo pattern layer is a frame around the flowers that I cut from another piece of the DSP, and I die cut it with a Radiating Stitches die so it's got a fun but subtle edge on it), and plaid.  And finally, here's the challenge from As You See It:

For card-making *and* scrapbooking, it's my Stamp-a-ma-jig.  That lives on my craft table full time and I used it on today's card to place the greeting exactly where I wanted it on the die cut frame panel.  For scrapbooking, it would be my Journaling Genie, which is a thing where you can trace lines at even intervals with a pencil so your journaling looks nice and even; if there is writing on a scrapbook page, I used the Journaling Genie on it.  Not glamorous, but those are my two most-used tools.

Time to feed Ryan breakfast and do a bit of yoga to start my Saturday.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Treasured Kindness
Ink:  Evening Evergreen
Paper:  Soft Succulent, Symbols of Fortune DSP, Evening Evergreen DSP
Accessories:  Radiating Stitches dies, Evening Evergreen baker's twine, Faceted Gems, Dimensionals

Outgoing & Incoming

Mornin' y'all!  Yesterday *did* get better, I think the pigtails made it all turn around : )  I sorted out all of Ryan's summer camp stuff and then got four cards made in the afternoon, plus I have ideas swirling around for some more today.  I've still been having trouble getting really good pictures of my cards; I took three pics of yesterday's cards in three different places, and I think the winner is doing it downstairs next to the giant window in the living room with my giant light that I use when I'm stitching.  So here's today's card:

I had to sneak in one more bunny for the Paper Players challenge.  Um, is there a limit to how many times one can enter that challenge?  Because I may have exceeded the limit with four different cards.

But I just haaaad to do a Playing in the Rain bunny once I saw this week's Inspired By... challenge:

I also went for the sketch this time:

I haven't played with the new In Colors much yet so I got out Cloud Cover and Secret Sea for this card.  I forgot we don't have Cloud Cover ink yet (hope they get that issue sorted out soon), so I embossed white clouds on my card base instead of doing tone-on-tone how I originally planned.  I used Secret Sea for the dark panel and also to stamp my bunny and sentiment.  So there's the new stuff; for the outgoing items I have the stamp set and retiring In Color Moody Mauve for the bunny's rain jacket.

Looks like rain where I am today too; we got some hail last night but happily it was close to bedtime so we were all snug in the house and our cars were already in the garage.  Daphne is still chomping at the bit to go for her tour of the neighborhood though so I'll get on that...right after I finish my cuppa tea : ) And maybe take a nap.  Okay, just kidding about the nap, Daph!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Playing in the Rain
Ink:  Secret Sea, VersaMark, Stampin' Blends in Gray Granite, Pretty in Pink, Moody Mauve
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Secret Sea, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Playing in the Rain dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, White EP

Tranquility NOW, Dangit

Y'all, I'm having a bad hair day.  Last night Ryan closed out my internet browser and I'm like excuse me child I had 37 tabs open because I NEED THEM and I wasn't able to recover the tabs, so now I need to redo the hour and a half of research on summer camps for him and this morning Daphne chewed up some stuff in my craft room while I was in the shower and then had the gall to try to cute her way out of being in trouble.  And I'm literally having a bad hair day, I don't even know what is up with my hair today but I put it up on pigtails so that has to make it better.  Couldn't get worse than whatever it was doing before.

Grumpy grumpy grump grump grumpety.

Okay, I have a cheery card today so let's see if it helps me out.

I just looked through all of my SU! stamps over the weekend and pulled out around 200 sets that I set aside to possibly sell and I still have a huge collection and also since Daphne ate my occasions catalog (I do keep those for inspiration forever) I had to do an order this morning and I did buy one new stamp set and die bundle but anyway.  While I was looking through the stamps I found a lot of sets that made me think hey, I wanna make something with that, so I brought out Tranquil Tulips and Part of My Story for today and surprise, there are no bunnies in sight this time.

Check out the Retro Rubber challenge:

I went down the center with die cut - flowers - gems.  Tranquil Tulips is the same age as Ryan, so 8 years old; Part of My Story is a bit younger at 6 years old, but still retro in stamp years.

Next up is this week's CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch:

Once again I don't have the dies shown, but I found one in the Thoughtful Expressions dies that was a similar shape so I think it works.  And I switched my sentiment to the left side because my tulip stems were in a tangle.

I chose tulips for the Color Throwdown:

I used Soft Succulent, Daffodil Delight, and Calypso Coral for my colors.

And now it's time for me to go make a cuppa tea and grab some M&Ms, I need the big guns to get out of this grumpy mood while I redo all my summer camp research.  Check you later, kids.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tranquil Tulips, Part of My Story
Ink:  Soft Succulent, Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Basic White, Gingham Gala DSP Stack
Accessories:  Thoughtful Expressions dies, Ornate Frames dies, Dimensionals, In Color Gems

Friendly Bunny

Mornin' y'all!  Going to be busy too, I've got to take Daph to the vet in about an hour and then I've got some things to do around the house.  But first, a card!

Okay, at this point it's just a game to see how many other challenges I can pair up with the Paper Players challenge:

This one is a little less CAS than my other cards, but this bunny from Serene Spring was the other stamp that popped in my head when I saw the challenge (since I'd already used the bunny trio from The Gifts of Spring pretty recently).  I do have more bunny stamps though, hmmm....

Today I paired my bunny with the theme challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

Happily for me, the friendly quote is in the same Serene Spring stamp set as the bunny.  Keeping it simple today : )

Okay, I'm going to take Daphne out for a walk so hopefully I can get her to expend some energy before I take her to the vet.  She haaaaates going in the car and I'm wrangling her by my onesies today, so wish me luck!  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Serene Spring
Ink:  Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Seaside Spray, Misty Moonlight, Ivory, Cinnamon Cider, Pale Papaya, Soft Succulent
Paper:  Pale Papaya, Thick Basic White, Desert Details DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Fine Shimmer Gems, Dimensionals

Bunny Friends

Mornin' y'all!  The hubs took my car today to have some work done on it, so Ryan was wanting to ride bikes to school.  We got the bikes down and got started and discovered that my tires are super flat, so we had to come back to the house and take the hubs' truck instead...I think it's only the second time I've driven the truck?  But if we get my tires aired up maybe Ryan and I can do the bike thing tomorrow.

In the meantime, how about another bunny card?

I'm playing along with the Paper Players once again:

And for real I have another bun-bun on my radar to make another card with and all I can hear is Judy Hopps in Zootopia saying "Well, we do know how to multiply!"  I thought this week's Atlantic Hearts sketch would be CAS enough to combine challenges:

And finally, I'm having another go at the Festive Friday challenge:

I've got earthy colors, burlap (I stamped a burlap-esque pattern on the Chocolate Chip strip but I realize this might be iffy), splattering (again, a stamp, this time on the Garden Green strip), and animals.  I had the bunnies all picked out for my card and I was looking through my other stamp sets to see if I could hit a couple of other items on the list, and Awesomely Artistic gave me both of the texture stamps and the greeting, so win.  And I'm fairly certain this is the first time I've actually used this Forest Friends from 2005; there's another stamp set with the same name that came later and I've used that a lot, but I got this one on eBay a few years ago and this is her maiden voyage.

I have come to the conclusion that my stamp collection is getting unwieldy and I need to thin out some that I don't use, so I spent Sunday doing just that and put them in banker's boxes with "To Sell?" written on them (note the question mark).  I'm going to let them sit for a few months and if I don't ever go digging through there then I know it's okay to override my dragonish hoarding instincts and let those stamp sets go.  After all, I have four giant shelving units for stamp sets and they were kinda bursting at the seams.  So we'll see how that goes.

Anyway, that's it for now, peeps.  I'm going to eat breakfast and then take Daphne out to enjoy this beautiful day.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Forest Friends (2005), Awesomely Artistic
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, watercolor pencils, Dimensionals, Earth Tones Shimmer Gems

Reading Rainbow!

Hey y'all, I told you I might be back for another card this afternoon and here I am!  And I'm pretty pleased with this card too, take a look:

IT'S THE READING RAINBOW!!!!!!!!  Y'all know I'm mostly an SU! girlie but I could not resist the Little Woodland Library stamp set from Lawn Fawn.  And books were the first thing to pop into my head when I saw the Inspired By... challenge:

Maybe because many of my books are currently piled on the dining room table and the kitchen counter since we still need to paint a wall in the living room.  I found the watercolor rainbow pattern in the Full of Life DSP Stack to mimic the stack of paper in the picture.

Then there's the Paper Players challenge:

Easter may be over for the year, but I have more bunnies to share so I will be playing in this challenge again, I already have a second bunny card made.  Anyway, once I put together the bunnies reading with the rainbow DSP, there's no way I could NOT make this happen!  I'm just tickled with how it turned out.

Okay, that really is it for me today as I need to go get started on dinner.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Little Woodland Library from Lawn Fawn
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Stampin' Blends in Pool Party, Granny Apple Green, Gray Granite, Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Full of Life DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems

Happy Easter 2021

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Daphne is currently trying to catch a fly that's buzzing around the bottom of the window and she's not having much luck, but she is entertaining : )

Anyway, since Easter was yesterday I thought I'd share an Easter layout from 2021 today.  And here it is:

You might think of Easter colors as pastels, but I was going off of the colors of the plastic eggs and Ryan's bright orange bucket.  And I went for some reeeeeallllly old DSP for today, anyone recognize the Rainbow Sherbet DSP?  That's from way back when Green Galore and Apricot Appeal were SU! colors.  So I decided on Green Galore for my page base, which is also in that fun pattern I used, and went with a rainbow of colors to match the eggs.  I watercolored a trio of Azure Afternoon Easter bunnies as accents and there you go!  A super colorful Easter layout.

Taste the rainbow:  Green Galore, Magenta Madness, Tangelo Twist, Yoyo Yellow, Azure Afternoon, Gorgeous Grape, and white.  Can't believe I managed to get all those colors in a layout with ten photos but hey, I made it work!

That's it for now, peeps.  I may be double posting this week to get in all the challenges I want to make cards for, so I might pop up again this afternoon, we'll see.  Gotta do some house cleaning first.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Easter Bunny, Pure & Simple Alphabet Upper
Ink:  Azure Afternoon, Tangelo Twist, Versamark, Gorgeous Grape marker
Paper:  Green Galore, Tangelo Twist, Magenta Madness, Yoyo Yellow, Gorgeous Grape, Thick Basic White, Rainbow Sherbet DSP, Tangelo Twist DSP
Accessories:  Easter Bunny punch, Stylish Shapes dies, clear EP

One Wild Lion

Mornin' y'all and happy Easter!  We took Ryan out yesterday for the world's chilliest Easter egg hunt with friends (the wind chill was 17 degrees and there was snow on the ground), had lunch at their house and then learned a new-to-us card game.  This morning the Easter Bunny left a bunch of eggs hidden downstairs in our house and WAYYYY too much candy on the counter where Ryan usually eats breakfast.  So yeah we're going to have a sugar monster here today : p

But it's time for today's card!  Every once in a while I get two stamp sets that probably aren't *designed* to go together but they just NEED to go together and that's what happened today and here it is:

This self-satisfied lion is the third creature in the Inspiration Squad stamp set, and the Support Wildlife stamp is in Motherhood Mottos and really that stamp is the whole reason I bought the stamp set (although the other greetings in it are great too).  That Support Wildlife stamp just cracks me up : )

So! I had to get little Bravely here out for The Card Concept Challenge:

When I was a wee young Christy, I had a lion stuffie that had a voice box in it and would say one of a few phrases when you squeezed him, and his name was Bravely so of COURSE this is his stampy equivalent.  Anyway, I kept to the theme in the inspo pic and kinda went with slightly brighter versions of the colors, so I used Shy Shamrock, Lemon Lolly, Pool Party, and Peach Pie.  I think my card fits into the Clean & Layered style.

For the card layout, I used the latest CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch:

I always have a good time with these challenges.

That's it for now, y'all.  I'm going to make lemon blueberry scones for breakfast and we might do a little painting today while Ryan enjoys his Easter basket.  Have a fantastic Easter, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspiration Squad, Motherhood Mottos
Ink:  Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Lemon Lolly, Shy Shamrock, Peach Pie, Pool Party
Paper:  Lemon Lolly, Peach Pie, Thick Basic White, Shy Shamrock DSP
Accessories:  In Color Resin Dots, Dimensionals

Hang In There

Mornin' y'all!  We did get snow yesterday and last night, but it's a fairly thin layer on the ground and the temperatures are supposed to start climbing back up a bit tomorrow.  Ryan is supposed to do an Easter egg hunt thing today so if it's plastic eggs (and with the price of actual eggs, I'm sure they are) then the snow should make them even easier to spot.  I think I'll make some tea in a travel mug...

Anyway, I was a busy little crafty bee yesterday and here's one of the things that I made:

This little dude is hanging out in the Inspiration Squad stamp set along with the dragon and another cutie that you'll meet tomorrow.  For today's card, I rotated this week's Freshly Made Sketch 90 degrees:

I should have made that Early Espresso scrap be angled too but...I didn't.  I paired the sketch with the most recent Festive Friday challenge:

I used earth colors, an animal, and plants because I picked the Garden Green DSP that has leaves and flowers on it.  I stamped the lemur in Early Espresso ink, colored with Blends, and since we don't have a Garden Green Blend pair (what gives, SU?), I used a watercolor pencil for the background.  A few Earth Tone Shimmer Gems and I'm done.

Okay, Daph is poking her nose at me most insistently so I'm going to go play with her.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspiration Squad
Ink:  Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Ivory, neutrals
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Thick Basic White, DSP in Garden Green, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, watercolor pencil, Dimensionals, Earth Tone Shimmer Gems