Red, White, & Birthday

From my blog post title, you can tell I am Team Oxford Comma ; )  I thought I wasn't going to have a card to share today--I started something yesterday and it ended up in the bin and then I was so busy this morning while Ryan was at farm camp that I didn't even get into my craft room at all until after lunchtime so here we are at 3:30 in the afternoon and I just finally made something and here it is:

I had to add the gold embellishments because I dropped a stamp on the card front as I was cleaning it and it made a little mark on the top of the card.  The recipient will never know that, but now you do!

Today is my mom's birthday so happy birthday, Ma!  My sister's birthday is a few days from now and my dad's birthday (and his twin's, obviously) are later this month, so a Fourth of July themed birthday card is always a good idea in my family.  Which works out nicely for the current Retro Rubber Challenge:

July Fourth is the stamp set with the fireworks and stars, and it is now 15 years old; the birthday greeting is the single stamp Birthday Wish which is at least 10 years old, so all my stamps today are very retro.  I used the sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

And the red, white, and blue color challenge from Shopping Our Stash.  I already sent out birthday cards to my mom and Adrienne (trying so hard to get them out on time, something new and different for me), so this will either go to my dad this year (though I already had a different card picked out) or else it will go in my birthday card file for next year.

So now let's hope I have worked through my creative block and that I can go make something else while Ryan is playing with his friends.  I hate it when I don't have much time to craft and then when I do finally get in my craft room that I just can't get anything done that I like, does that ever happen to any of you?  I've been having a block for a while now where it just feels like a lot more work than usual to come up with something that I like, not sure what the deal is.  But anyway, that's it for me today.  I'm going to go back up to my craft room while I can : )  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  July Fourth, Birthday Wish
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Real Red
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Blueberry Bushel, Real Red DSP scraps
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Dimensionals, Gold Starbursts

Friday Flashback: Carved & Candlelit

Happy Friday, y'all!  I have an appropriately October-ish stamp set for today's Friday Flashback:  Carved & Candlelit.  Love it!  So let's get to the fun part :)

Also features Rough Edges Alphabet

It's hard to tell from this photo, but the jack o' lanterns' faces are embossed with Iridescent Ice so they're all sparkly.

Also features Cool Cat, Background Basics, All-Year Cheer III

What's more Halloweeny than a cool black cat?

Also features Background Basics, Petite Patterns, All-Year Cheer II

I happen to know a couple of people whose birthdays are ON Halloween, and quite a few more with October birthdays who also love pumpkins.

Ok, so this one is really old:  it's a layout from the first set of baby books I did way, way back.

Also features Bright Blessings (unmounted wheel)

So Carved & Candlelit is a simple little set with a couple of pumpkins and a few faces, but clearly I love it.

Also features Grateful Greetings

Again with the Iridescent Ice EP faces.

Also features Priceless, Falling Leaves

You've seen this layout on here quite recently but I couldn't leave it out.  And that's the Flashback part of today's post, so here's the new creations:

Yep, I made two!  My brother-in-law and his son have birthdays one week apart so I figured I'd make cards for both of them.  And between the two cards, I used every stamp in the set one time.

First up is the grown-up card; I had quite a time trying to get this card to work.  This is actually the FOURTH background panel!  I don't know why but I was just having trouble getting things to gel yesterday when I worked on it.

I used the color combination from The Color Throwdown:

And the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

And I think this one counts for the Male Room challenge to make an autumn card for a guy:

So next up, the card for the 6-year-old.

This one didn't quite want to gel either, I don't know what is up with my craft cave lately.  But anyway I used the color combo from ColourQ:

And the sketch from Retro Sketches:

I think this might have worked better for me if I'd made my card more like 5 inches square instead of 4.25".  But I don't have envelopes that size, so what can ya do.

Well, I know what I'm going to do:  I'm going to go back down to my craft room and work on another project, and hope that this time my mojo cooperates a little better.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, next-to-last card:
Stamps:  Carved & Candlelit, Fall Fest, Birthday Wish, Work of Art
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Supplies, last card:
Stamps:  Carved & Candlelit, All-Year Cheer II
Ink:  Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss
Paper:  Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango DSP
Accessories:  circle punch, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Sweet Treats

It's the first Friday of the new year and that means the first Friday Flashback of 2015!  So today's stamp set is a real oldie, Sweet Treats, which retired in 2006.  Let's take a look back, shall we?

Also features Filigree

Please pardon the terrible picture, this card actually looked much better IRL than in this photo.  The filigree background was embossed with Iridescent Ice, as was the entire panel with the cake on it, so it was very sparkly.

Also features Teeny Tinies and Beyond the Basics

There are people who call the long-retired Orchid Opulence color Fairy Puke Purple, but I actually liked it and set out to make a card with it to try to make other people like it too.  Not sure if I changed anyone else's mind, but I enjoyed the challenge.

Also features Background Basics and Whimsical Alphabet

And here's the third stamp in the set, which now has me wishing I had ice cream.  And also one of those cool dishes to put an ice cream sundae in.

Also features Whimsical Blossoms wheel and A Greeting for All Reasons

Last but not least, this was the card I made for the first swap I ever participated in, not too long after I started stamping.  I do have a collection of wheels, but very rarely did I ever use them except when they were current.  Well, there were a few that I cut up and made into individual stamps, so I used those a bit more often.

Anywha, here's today's brand new creation:

January is my birthday month so I thought I would make a birthday card today.  Someone else is having a birthday too:

The color challenge at Colour Me...! is to pick one of the previous challenges, so I got some scrap paper to write down a couple of the challenges that I liked.  Then I ended up writing down about 2/3 of them, so I could probably do a Colour Me card every day for the rest of the month ;)  But here's the one I picked for today:

Nommy picture, and I do love the colors together!  So that's that.

It's raining in Alabama and I'd been hoping to take the dogs for a walk today.  Guess I'll have to do laps around my house until we leave to go see Night at the Museum 3 at the theater?  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Sweet Treats, Birthday Wish (single stamp)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Bermuda Bay, Real Red, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Basic Black, Whisper White, scraps of Big Top Birthday & Fresh Prints (of Bel Air!) DSP
Accessories:  Banner Framelits, Dimensionals