Friday Flashback: Elements of Style

Happy Friday afternoon, y'all, and welcome to the Friday Flashback.  This week's stamp set is Elements of Style, which is a lovely vintage-kinda style stamp set which debuted in 2010.  So let's get started!

Also features By the Seashore, Pursuit of Happiness, Perfectly Penned

The flourish behind the postage stamp-style element is the stamp that's from Elements of Style.  Hey Stampin' Up!, we need more flourishy stamps like this.

Also features Pursuit of Happiness

The real reason I got the stamp set:  the hummingbird.  Also that ribbon is actually Marina Mist to match the hummingbird stamp, it just really doesn't look it in the photo.

Also features Fabulous Phrases

There's a big toile stamp in the set in addition to that flourish, both fun.

Also features Papillon Potpourri and Perfectly Penned

Another one with the flourish!

And hey,t here's a card that has one of the Elements of Style sentiments on it.  So there's your flashback, here's today's new card:

Seems like all my card photos are under-exposed lately.  Well, we've been socked in with clouds for what seems like forever (it's a giant swamp outside) and I really think my little camera is on its last legs.  But anyway, that's the new card...and the sentiment is a bit crooked but I'm going to write that off as proof that this is homemade.  And it's going in the mail within the next week.

I used the brand new color challenge from Fab Friday:

But I added a bit of Sahara Sand (generally you're allowed to add neutrals to any color challenge) and that means it also counts for the Inkspire Me color challenge:

Well, we've got to go pick up my car from having its oil changed, so I'm outta here.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Elements of Style, Thank You Kindly, Hardwood
Ink:  Soft Sky, Sweet Sugarplum, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Soft Sky, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes & Lots of Labels Framelits, Dimensionals, Pearls

Friday Flashback: For All You Do

Happy Friday, ya'll!  How are you this rainy afternoon?  Yeah, I'm late getting my Friday Flashback post up, but today we're celebrating the retired stamp set For All You Do, which is really cute even if the name isn't very descriptive.  So let's get started!

Also features Essence of Love, Strength & Hope, Elements of Style

Japan pages!  The butterfly next to "Park" is the one from today's stamp set.  This layout is a little busier than my usual style, what with three different patterned papers and the more complicated placement of all the elements, but I do really love it.

Also features Bloomin' Beautiful

That wee flower on the journaling block is from For All You Do...

Also features Fresh Fillers

And there's the butterfly again.  And I'm sad that that was all I had in the archives for this set, and so I set out to remedy that today.

I continue to be enamored of CAS cards this week (I thought to myself, I can't stop CAS-ing and then I laughed because I amuse myself) and this one started with the color challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

I wrote down pink, yellow and purple so I accidentally got a real hot pink instead of a baby pink.  Oops.  I also used this week's CAS(E) This Sketch:

And I kinda want to make like five more cards with it.  Anyway, when I made the first card I kept thinking the colors were yellow, pink, and teal like a certain My Little Pony:

Hi Fluttershy!  So when I re-read the challenge colors I thought I should make a Fluttershy card anyway, so bonus Friday Flashback card!

To be honest though, I'm not sure how much I like this one.  I do like the colors together (So Saffron, Pretty in Pink and Bermuda Bay) but I'm not sure about my composition here.  I did some Wink of Stella on the butterfly for a wee bit of sparkle.

Since I wasn't 100% thrilled with that card, I made another one, but not another Fluttershy one.

Okay, what is the deal.  I edit my photos on the computer and then somehow when I go to upload them on the blog they look so much darker!  Grr.  Anyway, the idea for this card popped into my head and I figured that I really hadn't done justice to the stamp set so I made a third card.  The sentiment on this one is from Great Friend, another set with a pretty butterfly and a nondescript name, and they share a stamp case in my house.

Anyway, for this last card I used the color combo from Pals Paper Arts:

So there you have it, this Flashback was equal parts old and new projects.  Hope you have a great weekend, y'all!

Supplies, Happy Everything card:
Stamps:  For All You Do, Happy Everything
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Strawberry Slush, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  None

Supplies, For All You Do card:
Stamps:  For All You Do
Ink:  So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Wink of Stella

Supplies, Great Friend card:
Stamps:  For All You Do, Great Friend
Ink:  Sahara Sand, Mint Macaron, Night of Navy
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Neutrals Candy Dots

Happy Hummingbird

The weeks are just flying by, aren't they?  Can't believe we're almost at the end of April.  But here's another springy card for today:

Thought I'd give some other soon-to-retire stamp sets some lovin' today, so I chose Elements of Style and Pursuit of Happiness.  I *am* bummed that they're retiring Pursuit of Happiness, I've used that set a LOT.  I really like Elements of Style too but haven't used it much of late.  This was going to be a Mother's Day card until I settled on that "grateful" sentiment from Pursuit of Happiness; it shows up against the background better IRL than it looks like on the picture.  And the ribbon matches the hummingbird better too, even though I've got some natural light in my craft room the colors in the pic seemed to be a tad off.

This layout is courtesy of Retro Sketches:

Kind of an unusual layout to my mind but I kinda like how my card turned out.  I saw a card earlier today (I think it was in the new SU! catalog, demos can see it online now which I just figured out this afternoon, DUH) that had the reverse masking technique so I thought I'd give that a whirl today.

Hope you have a fantastic day and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Elements of Style, Pursuit of Happiness
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze (sniffle! is there a petition to replace Soft Sky with Baja Breeze, 'cause I'd sign it!), Crumb Cake
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Twitterpated DSP
Accessories:  Baja Breeze seam binding, Labels Collection Framelits, Dimensionals

Favorites Showcase 2012, Part 2

2013 may have started already, but I've still got to do the last 6 months of the 2012 retrospective.  So let's go!

I live in England and I have grown really fond of tea this last year.  I made this birthday card for a friend because we sent him a whole lotta tea for his birthday!  I used Morning Cup, the Take a Sip wheel (I cut it up into individual stamps), and Curly Cute.

I think By the Seashore and Perfectly Penned are two of my favorite stamp sets, and I really like the look of the shells thumped with markers.

I couldn't pick just one card for August, so here's an Artistic Etchings/Pursuit of Happiness card.  Generally I hate those "color" challenges that involve only neutrals and no colors, but I really liked how this card turned out.  (And I'm proud of myself for using Artistic Etchings but *not* the Eiffel Tower!)

This French Foliage card was for a September combo color/sketch challenge at SCS and I lurve those fall colors!  Had some good times with my leafy stamps this year...and we had a gorgeous autumn in this part of England, too.

Here's a pink birthday card for October using Papillon Potpourri, Perfectly Penned, and Elements of Style.  Sometimes it's fun to stamp on patterned paper.

More fall colors for November; this was a Friday Flashback card for Lovely Leaves.  Still really like that layout sketch too, I should re-use that soon!

I had a LOT of Christmas cards to choose from for December, but I thought I'd go with this sweet Scentsational Seasons gingerbread man instead of our personal tea-riffic Christmas cards.  Sentiment is of course from More Merry Messages, which got quite a workout this year!

I'll be back tomorrow with something all-new.  Hope your 2013 is off to a great start!

Friday Flashback: On Angel Wings

This week's Friday Flashback set is one that I really love, On Angel Wings.  It was a hostess set in 2004, the first year I started stamping.  It's not just a Christmas set, though one of the sentiments in here is Christmas-related, so I'm including it in my holiday Friday Flashbacks :)  Up first are two cards from the archives.

Here's the first card I ever made with it, for a combination sketch/color challenge on Splitcoast.  And from the looks of my SCS gallery, it took me three years to make anything with the stamp set...though I think that I may have gotten it long after it retired from the BST boards.  That's my story anyway.

I made this one last year as a sympathy card.  How is it that I can use the Stamp-a-ma-jig and *still* have the sentiment be crooked??  I really like this color combo though, Pink Pirouette, Wisteria Wonder, and Concord Crush.

Ok, here's my first new card with this stamp set.  I'm still plugging away at catching up on all the SCS color and sketch challenges though sometimes I think that kind of warps my creativity a little bit, do you ever feel like challenges are stifling?  But I keep at it because I've only got about 30 to 40 more of each to go and I can combine those for the most part.  I kind of threw the kitchen sink at this card though with the stripes stamped with snowflakes (somebody please remind me to re-ink my Whisper White ink pad!) and then the holly on the Certainly Celery layer.  I meant to stamp the angel on Shimmery White cardstock but I forgot so instead I spritzed it with vanilla Smooch Spritz.  She's watercolored with WWC and since I stamped her with Early Espresso, the ink ran a little bit when I wasn't careful enough with the Aquapainter.  I'm hoping it looks like a nice softening of the image and not like she's wearing camouflage-print robes.  Good grief.

Because I'm an overachiever this week (and I was waiting for that Smooch Spritz to dry) I made a second card, this time going more CAS, and I like it better.  Plus I wanted to try stamping the angel in a color without coloring the image in afterward.  I was inspired by the current color challenge on Create with Connie and Mary, but I didn't use any silver so I won't link it up over there.  I think I'll do that color challenge sometime next week, it looks awesome...maybe I'm trying too hard on the SCS challenges and that's why I'm not loving my cards for those.  Hmm.

Hope you enjoyed this angelic Friday Flashback, thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, card #3:
Stamps:  On Angel Wings, Background Basics, Snowflakes
Ink:  Early Espresso, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Blushing Bride
Paper:  Rose Red, Early Espresso, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Subtles DSP Stack
Accessories:  Vanilla Smooch Spritz, Dimensionals

Supplies, card #4:
Stamps:  On Angel Wings
Ink:  Baja Breeze, Wisteria Wonder
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Shimmery White, In Color DSP Stack
Accessories:  Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon