E is for Eventually

Mornin' y'all!  I'm tired today...I woke up at 1am thinking that Ryan had yelled or something, but he hadn't, and then I had a lot of trouble getting back to sleep and more or less woke up on the hour until I finally got up at six this morning.  That's always fun.  So I'm going to drink two XL cups of tea before I get out with Daphne this morning.

So!  As I have said, I've been feeling a bit blocked creatively this week and it was driving me nuts yesterday as I was looking for a stamp set to go with the AAA Cards Challenge:

This image popped into my head of a stamp featuring flowers spilling out of an envelope, so I went searching through my hoard and...I don't have it?!  My brain was conflating that image with an old Sale-a-Bration stamp set which I do have (back when it was Sell-a-Bration) and while I do have a few stamp sets featuring envelopes, none of them was what I wanted.

Then my brain FINALLY decided to join the chat (hello brain, I have missed you) and I thought of something starting with E that was not an envelope or an elephant or the Easter bunny.  Those are all totally valid options, but I wanted to do something different.  So here's what I eventually made:

The Eiffel Tower!  And another excuse to use Artistic Etchings, YASSS.  I also embossed the tower with clear EP so I have two Es.  I wanted to add some embellishments (which would have been another E), but since this is for a CAS challenge I resisted the lure of all things shiny.  I thought the new Color Hues Challenge was perfect for this:

That looks like Berry Burst and Night of Navy to me.  I started with the card on the left, using Crumb Cake as a neutral for the script background (I inked up part of the background stamp using a sponge to keep it light, stamped it, and sponged more ink over that one corner) and then my Artistic Etchings stamps kept falling off the blocks so I had to get my Aleene's Tack It Over and Over glue and paint it on the backs of the stamps and let it dry for a while.  In the meantime I wondered what it would look like if I switched the neutral to Smoky Slate, so that's the card on the right and the answer is I need to ink up my Smoky Slate ink pad because it's a bit TOO light.  I let the glue on the stamps dry while I went to pick Ryan up from school and was able to finish both cards in short order when I returned home.

Yesterday I also did my preorder for new In Colors and stuff from SU!, and the new Peaceful Pine ink pad wasn't available and that was the color I'm most excited about (green is my favorite color) but I wanted to get some of the outgoing In Color 12x12 cardstock before it sold out so I submitted the order.  Wow, that was a run-on sentence.  A few hours later I got a notification that the Peaceful Pine ink pad was back in stock so naturally I had to do a second order...I might have gotten another stamp set and another color of cardstock while I was at it.  And some embellishments I missed the first time around.  Aside from new colors (I always love new colors), I splurged and got most of the Midnight Flora suite, I can't wait to see that DSP in person.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Artistic Etchings, Carte Postale, French Script
Ink:  Night of Navy, Berry Burst, Crumb Cake, Smoky Slate, VersaMark
Paper:  Night of Navy, Basic White
Accessories:  Clear EP

So yesterday, Jan commented on my post (HI JAN!) and she wanted to see a picture of Daphne, and of course I am always happy to share pictures of my darling girl so here she is:

The oversize chair has turned into Daphne's throne and I just got her a new fluffy blanket to put on it.  She particularly loves that chair because she can see out the window into the backyard and the green space behind us to make sure all the neighbors are behaving and staying out of her territory.

This is what she looks like when she wants something:

And there's my current stitching project in the background, it's fun with the bright orange fabric.  Daphne does this impression of a baby seal when she has her ears slicked back, I'm sure she's trying to look more pathetic so I'll give in to what she wants.

Here's what Daphne looks like when she's being a pushy brat but tries to act like she's not a pushy brat when I take her picture:

Not buying the innocent act, Daph.  (She was shoving my arm with her nose until she saw me trying to take her picture.)  We got her DNA tested (that was a Christmas present to me from Daph last year) and she really is a supermutt.  She was listed as a German shepherd/Labrador mix at the shelter, which is 10% right; she's American bully/pibble/German shepherd/golden retriever/border collie with a bit of Australian cattle dog, Shar-Pei (!!), and Australian shepherd thrown in.  She's about the same size as our previous Lab mixes and weighs about 65 pounds.  She is my darling girl even when she's being a punk nugget, I adore her.

Okay, I'm nearly finished with my second cuppa, so I'm going to take the Daphinator out for her tour of the neighborhood, start some laundry, and hopefully get some work done in my craft room today.  Cheers, y'all!

Because Spring

Mornin' y'all!  I am currently trying to teach Daphne patience...she really wants to go for a walk, and I really want to finish my tea and write this blog post.  So far it's not going well, Daphne is either staring at me from across the room or shoving my elbow with her nose.  So I'm going to ignore her for a few minutes while I write this.

I have not made very much in my craft room this week, I'm still feeling a bit blocked and it had better resolve quickly because I have Things To Do for upcoming challenges and stuff.  But I did make a card yesterday to share today:

Since Joanne made me buy the Words of Beauty bundle, I figured I had better get some use out of it : ) before she convinces me to buy even more things.  This is a triple challenge card, starting with Just Add Ink:

I have twine and sequins on there.  I thought I had some solid color twine in at least one of my card colors, but nope, now I'm imagining I have even more supplies than I really do.  Next up is the sketch at Hand-Stamped Sentiments:

Happily for me, that lent itself handily to the Words of Beauty bundle, and I used some Pretty in Pink DSP that I had pulled out when I was hemming and hawing over my SUO Challenges card for yesterday.  Speaking of colors, I used the new color challenge from As You See It:

A pretty palette, I like it even though Soft Sea Foam is not my favorite green.  The other two colors make it look good, ha.

I was on my way to run some errands this morning and found out that the deers were out running errands too:

I think about six or eight of them total crossed the street in front of me, came up to a fence that was on a level with their noses, and hopped over it like it was nothing.  So that was fun.

Daphne is back to nosing me...uh-oh, she has deployed puppy dog eyes!  I cannot resist the puppy dog eyes and she knows it...so I had better wrap this up and take her for a walk.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Words of Beauty
Ink:  Pool Party
Paper:  Pool Party, Soft Sea Foam, Pretty in Pink, Basic White, Soft Sea Foam DSP, Pretty in Pink DSP
Accessories:  Words of Beauty dies, Nature's Symphony dies, Dimensionals, Pool Party baker's twine, white sequins