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

Castle Acre Priory

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How's your week starting off?

I didn't get to spend time in my craft room this weekend, but I did get some stitching done so at least that's progress.  I do have a layout to share though.

See more pics here.  As the hubs was telling someone last night, I have dragged him to a LOT of castles and churches and ruins and they all blur together in his memory, ha.  Castle Acre Priory was one of the religious institutions that suffered after King Henry VIII started the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  I do still enjoy going to different castles and churches and ruins and trying to take interesting pictures : p

Today's color palette:  Certainly Celery, Calypso Coral, Cajun Craze, Gray Granite, Basic Black, and Very Vanilla.  I like how the green and the coral/deep orange balance each other.

A'ight kids.  New week, so...go forth and conquer!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rough Type, Angelic, Timeworn Trim
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Gray Granite, Basic Black Marker
Paper:  Certainly Celery textured, Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, Very Vanilla, Epic Day This & That DSP
Accessories:  None

Holyrood Palace & Abbey

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Wow, did we have a humdinger of a storm come through in the wee hours of this morning.  I was afraid that Ryan would start crying with all the thunder and wind, but he either slept through it or didn't get scared, so yay!  I was still up early this morning and got in a workout and a bit of cross stitching before anyone else got up.  Oh!  I also did some work on photo organization yesterday so woo on that!

For today's scrapbook offering, I have two more layouts from Edinburgh.  I think these are the last two layouts for that 2012 trip.

See the original pictures here.  I broke out some textured Pale Plum for my page bases, I love it.  I don't have a lot of that Enchante' DSP so I'm trying to make the most of it.  When I do pages from castles or abbeys or whatnot, it's usually a lot of gray in the pictures, so I can play around with all kinds of colors because gray is a neutral and goes with everything.  Except brown.  I don't like gray and brown together.

For example, see the floral pattern on the right page?  It looks like it would be one solid block under the pictures, right?  Nope.  I only had a little bit of it left so I cut creatively so it would show where I want it, but it's scraps under the pictures.  I also used a full sheet of that striped pattern between the two layouts.  Not like I don't have an enormous patterned paper collection.

Today's color palette is straight out of the DSP:  Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, and Very Vanilla.  All of the colors are retired except the Vanilla.  I wouldn't put the two greens together on my own, but they do seem to work here in combination with the purples.

Hope you have a great week, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spencerian Alphabet Upper & Lower, Rough Edges Alphabet, Carte Postale, Angelic
Ink:  Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, Pale Plum, Basic Gray Marker
Paper:  Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, Thick Very Vanilla, Enchante' DSP
Accessories:  None

Ely Cathedral

Scrappy Monday on a Tuesday, y'all!  So I said I had just taken pictures of a bunch of recent layouts and here I am finally posting two that I did a long time ago.  Oh well!

These pictures are from Ely Cathedral, which was about a half hour drive from where we lived in England.  I sponged some Mint Macaron ink on the DSP to tone down the white, and I did it with Blushing Bride on the second layout which you'll see in a minute.

I'd finished stamping the entire page and then I got a SMUDGE on it.  Oh well.

Not sure I like the DSP as much on this one as the first layout, but done is better than perfect, right?

Today's color combination is Bordering Blue, Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, and Blushing Bride.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Letterpress Alphabet, Brushwork Alphabet, Angelic, Strength & Hope
Ink:  Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, Blushing Bride
Paper:  Bordering Blue, Mint Macaron, Blushing Bride, Floral Boutique DSP
Accessories:  None

2015 Scrapbook Showcase, Part 2

Welcome back to the second half of the 2015 scrapbook showcase.  Know what I just noticed?  All of the layouts from the first half of the showcase had warm, bright colors for the page bases.  And all of the layouts for today are on the cooler end of the spectrum.  Just how it happened to turn out, so let's take a look!

July's pick is this layout from a Scottish castle which supposedly belonged to my ancestors a zillion years ago.  I'm glad I have a large stockpile of Baja Breeze cardstock to use in my scrapbooks, it is one of my favorite colors ever.

My pick for August is the first of my terracotta warriors layouts; this was my very favorite thing that we got to see in China.

In September, I was hard at work on baby books so September's pick is the first layout I did for my friend Jen's twin boy books.  I like how bold the orange and green are on the black page base.  Well, it's hard not to love everything with Cucumber Crush on it.

October's pick is this Parisian layout, for which I made my own fleur de lis patterned paper.  I probably have patterned paper somewhere in my stash that's already printed with fleur de lis, but I like how my homemade version turned out.  And also those stair pictures.

November's pick is this layout from our somewhat abortive Mount Fuji climb; that picture of the four of us in that cubby under the stairs is one of my very favorites and I need to put a framed one up in our house somewhere.

And to finish off the 2015 scrapbook showcase, December's pick is this layout from the church near the house where we lived in England.  I think that's my favorite place that we've lived, and that house is my favorite one that we've lived in too.

Okay, kids.  That was a very Scrappy Monday :)  Tune in tomorrow for...something.  I don't know what yet but I hope it's fabulous!

St. Nicholas, Feltwell

Hey kids, it's the last Scrappy Monday of 2015.  And I'm ready to be done with all the Christmas color block layouts, so instead, I bring you this:

St. Nicholas is the church that was about a half a block up the street from our house in England.  Super tiny, first built in the 7th century (yes, 7th, not 17th), with a collapsed bell tower on one side and a graveyard surrounding it.  Hubs thinks I'm weird for wandering around graveyards, but I don't know, I think they're peaceful.  And I love looking at all the old names.

There's my usual mixed-font title, using the Spencerian Alphabet for the name of the church and the Rough Edges alphabet for the village name.

I had quite a time trying to figure out photo placement for this layout, so this was another option I considered before I changed my mind.

My color palette:  Perfect Plum, Cajun Craze,  Garden Green, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla.  I must thank my Color Coach for this palette; I knew I wanted to use Cajun Craze but I was having trouble figuring out what to pair it with.  The Color Coach gave me Perfect Plum and Always Artichoke, but I swapped out the Artichoke for Garden Green because it went with the pictures better.  That Perfect Plum turned out to be just what I was looking for to do the page base.  Wish they hadn't retired the Color Coach.

Cheers, peeps!  Tomorrow is Nacho Day, and then it's time for the annual showcase.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spencerian Alphabet Upper & Lower, Rough Edges Alphabet, Angelic
Ink:  Early Espresso, Garden Green
Paper:  Perfect Plum, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze DSP
Accessories:  None

Favorites Showcase 2013, Part 2

2013 is almost over, so here we are with the second half of the 2013 favorites showcase.  Let's go!

Here's one of my picks for July, I love this card.  Always good to have some masculine cards on hand.

My second July pick; July is when I really started to get back into scrapbooking and had loads of fun with it.  I can't wait to dive back in once my exam is over on January 13th!

Here's another scrappy pick for August, from when hubs' truck got squished almost 10 years ago.  It wasn't fun at the time, but I get a kick out of looking at this layout now.  The title makes me giggle every time.

My choice for September was this awesome leafy card, I love those colors together!

Another scrappy layout for October with lots of blues for my mama!

Another great color combo for November's card, love the aquas and purple together.

And we'll finish it up with my favorite December card, this Wedgwood-inspired poinsettia creation.  Once again, I've linked up the original posts for each card or scrapbook layout if you want to see more.  Tomorrow is Nacho Average Challenges day and then we're in to 2014!  Seems like I just got used to writing 2013...

Saint Paul's

So I *finally* got back into scrapping our own photos (as opposed to making baby books) in the last week or so and I've been having SUCH FUN with it.  Hubs just watches in amusement as I dance around the room upon completing a layout.  I can't seem to help myself, I'm particularly excited that I started working on some Europe photos.  Wanna see?

This photo isn't the best; I always have trouble getting good pictures of scrapbook layouts.  It's always dark on the edges.  Oh well, trust me when I say it looks better IRL.

The pics on the layout were taken just a month after we moved to England; you can see my original blog post on them here.  I chose these pics to scrap because when I was shuffling through all my prints, I immediately had an idea what color to do for the page base on these, and the pages came together pretty quickly except for the title, which is traced from a lettering template and then hand-cut.  I suddenly remember why normal people quit hand-cutting their letters like 10 years ago.  But I like how it turned out regardless.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Angelic (long retired)
Ink:  Soft Sky, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Soft Sky, Smoky Slate, Crushed Curry, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  lettering template