Bonjour

Mornin' y'all!  Ryan has a tooth that's trying to come out and there's DRAMA.  It wiggles enough that it hurts when he tries to talk or eat, but he won't just yank it out and of course he has a field trip today.  I kept hoping it would come out last night but nope.  So he had oatmeal for breakfast and was all mopey and even asked me to try to get the tooth out after I promised him ice cream once it's out, but it is still stuck in there surprisingly well for how much it's moving around.  In the end I had to send him to school with a pocket pack of Kleenex and a bitty plastic bag in case the tooth comes out while he's on his field trip.  Poor kiddo.

Anyway, I had meant to post my other Paper Players travel card yesterday afternoon, but I got distracted working on scrapbook pages (so excited to be scrapping again) so here it is now:

I took French classes starting in middle school and all the way through college; I was the only fourth year French student in my high school and I would have gotten a minor in French had I taken two more classes in college, but I balked at doing advanced French grammar.  Unfortunately my French language skills are now extremely rusty but you can bet I was super excited when we actually got to visit France.  Several times : ) This card will likely also go to Krissy because we took a trip to Paris together shortly after we first met.

Here's the Paper Players challenge graphic:

And this time I paired it with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I chose a piece of the Parisian Blooms DSP that has suitcases and postmarks on it, then a piece with fleur de lis for the banner on the sketch, and floated my stamped Eiffel Tower on the left.  I think what might have taken the longest was finding a sentiment small enough to go where I wanted it on my card, but eventually I found the perfect Bonjour in Carte Postale, which has been in retirement for a very long time.  But we have an active retirement community here at Snapdragon Stamps.

Anyway, that's it for now.  It is a gorgeous day today so Daphne and I will go enjoy our daily sojourn and then I'm back to scrapbook pages and trying not to fret too much about Ryan and his tooth.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Parisian Beauty, Carte Postale
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Petal Pink, Thick Basic White, Parisian Blossoms DSP
Accessories:  Nested Labels dies, Parisian dies, Dimensionals, Champagne Rhinestones

Guten Tag!

Guten Morgen, y'all!  Guess what the theme is for today's card?

Mixing a bit of old and new for today's card, Chase Your Dreams (the castle and greeting) has been retired for years and I just got Painted Stripes last week as part of my latest SU! order.  I love the Paper Players challenge for this week:

I could very easily make different travel cards every day for a week (okay probably more like a month or more) and now I'm wondering why I *didn't* do that this week, it would have been fun.  I did make another card for this challenge, so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, here is this week's CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch:

And last up, here's the Inspire. Create. color challenge:

I wasn't intentionally following the challenge graphic, but I ended up using Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, and Merry Merlot for three shades of the same color.  I didn't worry about keeping my watercoloring neat because the style of the line art is a bit loosey-goosey.  Neuschwanstein was the first castle I ever visited outside of a Disney theme park and I have since been there several times.  I'll be sending this card to my friend Krissy, whom I met while we were both living in Germany : )  I miss living in Europe and getting to travel to all these cool places, but at least I can make travel-related cards and scrapbook pages.  And we will travel in the US too, I am particularly keen to visit the redwood forest and take Ryan to the Grand Canyon.

Ryan has a cartooning class after school today which means I get an extra hour and a half of kid-free crafting time today, woohoo!  Not that I can't craft when he's home, but it's easier to concentrate when he's at school.  So I'm going to finish my cuppa, take Daph for a walk, and then go finish the scrapbook layout I started yesterday.  Cheers!  Or should I say, auf wiedersehen!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Chase Your Dreams, Painted Stripes
Ink:  Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, Merry Merlot. Versamark
Paper:  Petal Pink, Merry Merlot, Thick Basic White, Calypso Coral DSP
Accessories:  Thoughtful Expressions dies, Stylish Shapes dies, clear EP, Faceted Gems

Make a Difference

Mornin' y'all!  I actually got to SLEEP last night so that's great and I am ready to do All The Crafty Things today : ) Gotta start some laundry (there's always laundry) and walk the Daphinator, but after that it's crafty time.  Woooooo!

Okay, so, card:

I am not 100% sure about this one but I gave it a go!  Let's start with the colors from As You See It:

Two members of their design team used the Thoughtful Blooms bundle but I kept coming back to it so that's what I went with.  Here's the Atlantic Hearts sketch:

This is the second time recently that they've had a sketch with a bunch of skinny strips on it, and once again, none of the strips I already have out on my craft table were the colors I needed for my card so I had to cut more : p. Anyway, I'm counting the peach flower as the circular element on the sketch.

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

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thoughtful Blooms
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Garden Green, Fresh Freesia, Peach Pie
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Garden Green, Peach Pie, Thick Basic White, Gorgeous Grape DSP
Accessories:  Thoughtful Blooms dies & masks, Rainbow Dots, Dimensionals

Bunny Trio

Mornin' y'all.  I am super duper ridiculously tired this morning thanks to Daphne so I am fortifying myself with a cuppa British Breakfast tea before I take her out for a walk.  I shall try valiantly not to take a nap today or else I won't sleep tonight and that won't help my long-term fatigue.  Ugh.  Good thing Daph's cute.

Anyway, for some reason I thought Easter was this weekend so I went ahead and mailed out Easter cards yesterday but my phone just told me it's not until the 20th.  Only time I'm this early for holidays is by accident, ha!  I did make another Easter card yesterday.

The Gifts of Spring is a very old retired stamp set but is that not the cutest bunny image ever?  I made this for the Addicted to CAS challenge:

That coordinates nicely with the CAS on Friday challenge to make an Easter card.  The bunny image is so large that I have less white space than I usually would for a CAS card, but I still think it counts.  I stamped the image in Pecan Pie ink and then dug out my watercolor pencils to do just a little coloring.

That's it for now, kids.  I'm going to go raid the Easter candy.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gifts of Spring, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Pecan Pie, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Basic White
Accessories:  watercolor pencils

April 2021 (Ow)

SCRAPPY MONDAY, Y'ALL!  Yes, it's back!!!  I finally started scrapping again last week and it's so nice to be doing that again.  We spent Saturday painting the ceiling in the living room (and let me tell you, as not-fun as it is to paint walls, ceilings are approximately 9,000 times worse) and then yesterday I worked on a new layout.  But for today I'm sharing one I finished last summer, check it out:

Ryan took a tumble into a wall at daycare in Germany and had to go to the emergency room.  I think his daycare provider was more flustered about it than I was (to be fair, she was the one who saw/cleaned up the blood right after it happened), but I told her that pretty much everyone in my family has had to go to the ER to get stitches on their face, though Ryan lucked out and just got glue.  He doesn't seem to remember much of our time in Germany, but he remembers this happening and to this day, if he has to write a story or something for school, he frequently picks "How I Got My Scar".

Today's color palette is chock full of past In Color favorites:  Sweet Sorbet, Lemon Lime Twist, Gumball Green, Orchid Oasis, and Starry Sky, and of course some white to round things off.  I chose the panda image on the right page because Ryan looks like he needs a hug in that one picture.

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

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  My Paper Pumpkin, Larger Than Life Alphabet & Numbers, Wildly Happy
Ink:  Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis, Orchid Oasis Stampin' Blend
Paper:  Sweet Sorbet, Orchid Oasis, Thick Basic White, Flowering Zinnias DSP, Country Floral Lane DSP, Gumball Green DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies

Donna in Mauve

Mornin' y'all.  Ryan is staying home today since he's not feeling good this morning, so we're going to have a quiet day here at the casa and hope he feels better soon.  Tell that to Daphne who kept squeaking a ball toy very loudly in my ear as I was trying to do yoga this morning.

Anyway, here's my card for today:

Another day, another dino card for my dino-loving pal Krissy.  I've decided that this dino's name is Donna, to go with Polly the triceratops and Trudy the T. Rex.  I wanted to try out the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge:

Might be hard to distinguish between the Moody Mauve and Blackberry Bliss, but I promise they're both on there.  The hearts are stamped in Blackberry Bliss and her toenails are colored with Blackberry Bliss nail polish.  Her spots are the two shades of Moody Mauve Blends; I tried coloring her whole body in with them and it just didn't look quite right so she's Ivory with Moody Mauve spots.

I did a CAS-ified version of this week's CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch:

Instead of layers, I stamped hearts on one side of the card base and didn't use any embellishments so I could keep it CAS.

I was super tired all day yesterday and took a big long nap in the middle of the day, but happily I did get some work done on more scrapbook layouts.  I had a stack of 8 layouts that were all done except for journaling, so I started work on those.  I am looking forward to being back in the scrappin' groove again, I've missed it while simultaneously feeling uninspired to do it.  Sometimes the creative spirit is persnickety like that.

Anyway, I'm going to go check on the kiddo and see how he's feeling.  Hope y'all stay healthy out there.  Peace!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Darling Dinos
Ink:  Moody Mauve, Pebbled Path, Blackberry Bliss, Stampin' Blends in Ivory, Moody Mauve, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Moody Mauve, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Darling Dinos dies, Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals

Lavender Love & Wishes

Mornin' y'all!  I tried to get to bed earlier last night, I really did, but...BOOKS.  Again.  Well, I only stayed up til 10:30 instead of 11 last night, so that's an improvement, right?  One of these days I'll get smart, but I'm not going to hold my breath.  In the meantime I'm having a cuppa tea in my new favorite mug, which has Disney's Robin Hood on it : )

Anyway, I have a card to share:

It's been super overcast here lately (and is currently snowing) so the lighting isn't great on this picture but I did what I could.  I used two stamp sets currently on the Last Chance list and one that retired a while back.  Check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

I used Highland Heather, Soft Sea Foam, and Lemon Lolly for the colors.  And this also fits with the tic-tac-toe challenge from the Paper Players:

This time it's down the left, flowers - die cut - lavender, and across the bottom, lavender - glitter - sentiment.  There's glitter in the purple shimmer gems and I also painted Wink of Stella on the lavender, though of course it doesn't show up in the picture because it never does.

I just gave Daphne a new rope toy so maybe she won't insist that I take her out for a walk in the snow : )  She's having a good old time chomping on the toy so maybe.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Perennial Postage, Sketched Plaid
Ink:  Lemon Lolly, Highland Heather, Soft Sea Foam
Paper:  Lemon Lolly, Highland Heather, Basic White
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, Purple Shimmer Gems, Lemon Lolly twine, Dimensionals

Regal Hummingbird

Mornin' y'all!  Last night I again did the stupid thing and stayed up too late reading.  I will never learn.  It snowed (again) overnight and Ryan was Most Displeased that he didn't get a snow day (kid, you've already had a LOT of snow days and two-hour delays, deal with it) but I got him off to school and now I'm wondering if Daphne will be cool with me taking a nap.  BUT I also have some crafty things I want to work on because I actually finished a scrapbook layout this week!  And I want to do more!  I also erased pencil lines from a whole stack of layouts and took pictures and I have ten new draft posts of scrapbook pages just awaiting their time to shine on the next Scrappy Monday, which will be making a return next week.

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

SU! updated the Last Chance List and I am now down to nine not-retired stamp sets, which doesn't really make much of a difference as I'm not shy about using retired stamps anyway.  Thoughtful Expressions is on the last chance list and it gets the spotlight today.

Let's talk challenges, starting with Sunday Stamps' color palette:

I used Crushed Curry, Mossy Meadow, Gorgeous Grape (well, Highland Heather Blends because we don't have Gorgeous Grape ones, or Crushed Curry or Coastal Cabana or Garden Green and I really want them), Blackberry Bliss, and Basic Black.  I used all of the colors, with the top yellow and green being the main ones.

Next up is the Paper Players tic-tac-toe challenge:

I did the left column (flowers - die cut - lavender) and the center row (die cut - animal - green) as long as a bird counts as an animal.  Oh, and the diagonal (flowers - animal - sentiment).  #overachiever

Last up is the Atlantic Hearts sketch:

This sketch would be perfect for a gate-fold card but let's be honest, I don't do fancy folds unless I'm forced to so I made mine a standard fold.  I thought the rectangular shape in the Thoughtful Expressions dies would be a good stunt double for the sketch's oval shape plus I was too lazy to go look for an oval die.  I really should stop staying up so late but...books.  I am currently reading three different books plus another one that I'm reading aloud to Ryan before he goes to bed, because that's how I roll.

Anyway, that's it for me.  I should take Daphers out for a walk and maybe if I go get crafty after that I'll forget about taking a nap.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thoughtful Expressions
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Crushed Curry, Mossy Meadow, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Mossy Meadow, Blackberry Bliss, Highland Heather
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Thick Basic White, Mossy Meadow DSP
Accessories:  Thoughtful Expressions dies, Dimensionals, Regal Glitter Dots

Egg Inspiration for SUO Challenges

Goooooood morning, stampy friends!  It is time once again for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

And we have an inspiration photo for you:

Interesting, right?  Not the expected pastels for Easter, but oh-so-pretty.  My teamie Tammy beat me to using the eggs and nest in Everyday Details so instead I made this:

I was also inspired by this card by Jan Clothier, that reminded me that I have that oval punch and it has been sadly neglected for far too long.  I played around with a few ideas before I landed on this one.  I used three of the soon-to-retire In Colors on this one:  Pebbled Path, Copper Clay, and just a little bit of Wild Wheat (which is the one I am most eager to get rid of...probably the only one).  I chose the greeting from Winterly Tree Tops even though there is nary a bird to be seen on my card just because I like it.

Your turn!  Upload your inspired creation at the SUO Challenges blog.  As you can see from my card, eggs are optional : )  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Winterly Tree Tops
Ink:  Pebbled Path
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Pebbled Path, Wild Wheat, Pebbled Path & Copper Clay DSP
Accessories:  Wide Oval Punch, Perennial Lavender dies, Dimensionals, Faux Glass Dots