Interlaken

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Hope you had a good weekend.  We went to see the latest Fantastic Four movie yesterday, I liked it okay.  Not my favorite superhero movie, but a good way to spend some time on a Sunday.

Anyway, I'm still working through my Switzerland layouts, and here's the next one:

We took the train from Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken and kinda tooled around the town for a bit.  We had fun watching the paragliders come in for a landing at a nice park and check out the mountain views!  Those were even better from the top of the Ferris wheel.

Today's color palette:  Sweet Sorbet (I still love this color), Lucky Limeade, Marina Misty, Basic Gray, and white.  Bright and fun, I think.

That's it for now, I'm going to enjoy a piece of pumpkin coffee cake and then get started on my projects for the day.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Fabulous Flowers
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Marina Mist, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Sweet Sorbet, Pebbled Path, Marina Mist, Basic White, International Bazaar DSP
Accessories:  None

Caerphilly Castle

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Did you have a good weekend?  I did--I went to see Wonder Woman yesterday and it was AMAZING.  I can't wait for it to come out on digital/DVD so I can watch it again!  I left the hubs and the tiny human at home to go see it by my onesies, and then I went to Target.  And then when I got back to my car I opened what I thought was a bottle of flavored water and it turned out to be carbonated ICK which exploded all over me and the inside of my car.  So like an Amazon warrior, I destroyed it and did a load of laundry after I cleaned out my car ;)

But anyway!  Let's check out today's scrapbook layout, shall we?

More pictures from our 2014 Wales road trip, can't believe it's been three years already.  See the photos here.  What's funny is I chose to use Bravo Burgundy and So Saffron to go with the picture of the mannequin on Ye Olde Water Closet, and then I didn't use that pic on the layout.  Well, I'm weird like that.

I've been using Jayne's Type (the bigger alphabet) and Rough Type for all my Wales page titles.

Here's a slightly blurry closeup of the flowers I fussy-cut as accents.  I kinda think maybe I should add a few Watermelon Wonder flowers like the one next to the title...

Today's color palette:  the recently-retired Watermelon Wonder, long-retired Bravo Burgundy, still current So Saffron, medium-retired Midnight Muse, and will-never-retire Whisper White.  Hee.

I didn't actually get any pages done over the weekend, but I do have one layout sitting on my desk that's 75% done.  I'm going to go tackle that while the tiny human is asleep :)  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Jayne's Type Alphabet, Rough Type, One of a Kind, Fabulous Flowers
Ink:  Watermelon Wonder, Midnight Muse, So Saffron
Paper:  Watermelon Wonder, Bravo Burgundy, Midnight Muse, Whisper White, Bravo Burgundy DSP, Walk in the Park DSP
Accessories: patience?

Friday Flashback: Sweet Serendipity

Happy Friday, stampers!  It is time once more for a Friday Flashback, and today's stamp set is Sweet Serendipity, a set of six cool sentiment stamps plus a few little images.  Let's go!

Also features Bronc Buster and Flannel Plaid

 I'd say riding a bucking bronco would be an adventure, wouldn't you?

The Sweet Serendipity stamp I used on this layout says "Live each day with laughter/enthusiasm" which seemed perfect with the picture of my friend Sarah on a carousel in Florence.

Also features Pretty Amazing and Pretty Petals

You saw this one earlier this year in the Pretty Amazing Friday Flashback.

Also features Happiness Always

And this one was in last week's Happiness Always Friday Flashback.

Also features Fabulous Flowers, Sanded, Paisley

 Oh hey, Fabulous Flowers had a Friday Flashback already too.  This is still one of my favorite cards.

Also features Snow Burst and Paisley

The sentiment says sparkle, and this card delivered!  The whole top panel is covered in Iridescent Ice EP, which is hard to photograph but looks awesome and sparkly in real life.

Also features Pretty Peony and Sanded

This was the first card on the Pretty Peony Friday Flashback, and it's another of my old favorites.  I love that Sanded background stamp.   That's it for the flashback part of today's post (and the flashback to prior flashbacks, if you followed all the links), it's time to see what's new!

I had Sheltering Tree out on my table for a different project so I thought I'd use it for today's post too.  I used the Fall-To Layout #22 from Clean & Simple Stamping:

And the softer color combination from Colour Me...!

But since I was on a roll in my craft room, and there was a whole 'nother color challenge on there, I had to try the bold combination as well:

I added a bit of Sahara Sand to both color combinations, I couldn't help it :)  For this one, I also used the sketch from the Paper Players:

Hope you enjoyed today's extra-long Friday Flashback.  Have a great weekend, peeps, we're painting again!

Supplies, Sheltering Tree card:
Stamps:  Sweet Serendipity, Sheltering Tree
Ink:  Tip Top Taupe, Blushing Bride, Wisteria Wonder, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Tip Top Taupe, Blushing Bride, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder DSP
Accessories:  Oval & Scalloped Oval punches, Dimensionals

Supplies, Secret Garden card:
Stamps:  Sweet Serendipity, Secret Garden
Ink:  Night of Navy, Whisper White
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, Whisper White
Accessories:  Secret Garden Framelits, Spring Flowers EF, ticket corner punch, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Lots of Thoughts

Happy Friday, peeps, and welcome to the Friday Flashback.  Today's Flashback set was a Sale-a-Bration set from 2008, and it's called Lots of Thoughts.  Buncha little sentiment stamps, but not a set I've used much.

Also features Fabulous Flowers and Paisley

I have lots of thoughts on this card, and they all start with "Ew" and go downhill from there.  This is The Ugly Card.  Mostly I don't like Bravo Burgundy too much, and that corset lacing thing is just...no, and even Fabulous Flowers looks less than fabulous here.  The whole card is a world of no.  So sometimes sketch and color challenges will lead you astray!  I had to redeem myself today.

Ok, this might not be my favoritest card in the universe, but it's loads better than The Ugly Card, right?  I mean, it's hard to go wrong with Swallowtail.  And we're continuing yesterday's pinkalicious theme with this color combination from Create with Connie and Mary, who did not steer me wrong today:

And the sketch (turned on its side) is from Freshly Made Sketches:

So yep, I finally made something with Lots of Thoughts that is at the very least presentable.  My work here is done for this week ;)  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Lots of Thoughts, Swallowtail
Ink:  Versamark, Blushing Bride, Rose Red, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Rose Red, Whisper White
Accessories:  Gold EP, baker's twine from an old Paper Pumpkin kit, corner rounder punch, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: French Filigree

Felicitations on this fine Friday!  And welcome to this week's Friday Flashback, featuring the background stamp French Filigree.  That's a lot of F's :)  But no failing grades today, just some cards!  So let's visit the archives for some French Filigree artwork.

Also features Falling Leaves & All Holidays

This was my little brother's birthday card one year.  You knew that I was only going to go without leaves for one day :)

Also features Fabulous Flowers

 This one was created when Fabulous Flowers was the featured Friday Flashback stamp set.

Also features Medallion & Occasional Quotes

And here's a birthday card for my hubs from a few years ago.

Also features Well Scripted & My Matryoshka

When we went to Russia, we looked long and hard at the matryoshka dolls and would have loved to buy them, but all the really pretty ones were SUPER expensive so we didn't do it.

Also features Sage Advice & Hearts a Flutter

And there's another former Friday Flashback card.  But now it's time for today's all-new creation:

Hubs' aunt and uncle are hosting us for a big Thanksgiving hooferah next week, so I thought it would be nice to make a card for them.  I used the color challenge from Create with Connie and Mary:

I admit, I was not at all sure about Tangelo Twist on my card...it's just so BRIGHT.  But I think it works because there's so much Hello Honey on there.  I also used the sketch from Just Add Ink:

Easy peasy!  I cut a piece of Hello Honey cardstock to 3 3/8" by 5", stamped it, and then cut it into three strips that were 1 1/8" wide for my background pieces.  Then I pulled out some other wonderful retired stamp sets for the sentiment and leaves, and bing bang boom my card was done.  Which is good, because now I can tackle some other items on my to-do list :)

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  French Filigree, Day of Gratitude, Curly Cute (all retired)
Ink:  Hello Honey, Blackberry Bliss, Tangelo Twist
Paper:  Hello Honey, Blackberry Bliss, Tangelo Twist, Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensionals

We're All Mad Here

I've been working on this for the past two days:

In March, I'll be hosting a Mad Hatter tea party like I did last year.  I had ideas for decorations last year that I never got around to, so I'm starting early this time and I've got two helper bees this year where I did it all by my onesies last year.

So anyway, I'm mad here because I hand-cut every single letter and almost all of the flowers (the smallest pink and yellow flowers were punched out), which is why this took me two days to make.  But I like how it turned out, what do you think?  I once again used my favorite Bodacious Bouquet and a variety of other bold flower stamps, and the letters are a template from a company I kinda think is no longer in business (at least, that's what Google seems to be telling me).

Have a great day!  I'm off to my next mad idea...which is probably walking the dogs :)

Supplies:
Stamps:  Bodacious Bouquet, Eastern Blooms, Fabulous Flowers, One of a Kind, Paradise
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Melon Mambo, Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Whisper White, Kaleidoscope DSP (the old one, not the one that's out in the Occasions catty now)
Accessories:  non-SU lettering template

ETA for Mom:  The frame size is 16 by 20, and the opening is 11 by 14, so I started with a 12x12 piece of cardstock and added the patterned paper to the top and bottom to get 14 inches.  I happened to have this empty frame sitting around because I'd planned to do some kind of home decor with it and just hadn't gotten around to it, so it's been put to use now!  I can always switch this out for something else later if I want to.

Friday Flashback: Garden Silhouettes

Good morning, everybody!  It's Friday Flashback time, and this week's randomly chosen retired stamp set (RCRSS?  Nah, that doesn't work) is Garden Silhouettes, which is kind of a companion set to Stem Silhouettes (or at least, I often use them together).  So let's take a peek in the archives, shall we?

Ah, the shaving cream technique background.  Fun, right?  You put a layer of shaving cream on a paper plate and then add a few drops of ink refill and swirl them around, then smoosh glossy cardstock in it.  Scrape off the shaving cream and you're left with this neat swirly background.  I should do this again...oh yeah, use the cheap white foam shaving cream for this, not some fancy-dancy gel stuff : )  Sentiment on this one was from Hugs & Wishes.

I made this one for one of those "color" challenges that makes me roll my eyes, where there's only one color and two neutrals.  Not that I mind doing cards like that from time to time, but when you do that for six weeks in a row it gets old.  I think color challenges should have multiple colors in them, not neutrals. *steps off very colorful soapbox*  Sentiment from Fabulous Flowers.

Ooh, purple.  I miss Almost Amethyst, Lavender Lace and Lovely Lilac.   Sentiment on this one was from Fancy Flexible Phrases.

Here's another one color/two neutrals card, very simple because I think I was making Mother's Day cards at the last minute.  That sounds like me.

So here's today's brand new creation:

The colors are this week's SCS color challenge (now with multiple colors!):  Soft Sky (bring back Baja Breeze!!), So Saffron, and Summer Starfruit.  When I first read that, I thought EWWW and couldn't imagine what to do with them.  Then I got the cardstock colors out and what do you know, the So Saffron turns the Summer Starfruit into a green color, hmm.   So I actually liked that color combo a whole lot more than I thought I would.  I kept wanting to add more stuff to this card but it insisted that it was done like this, so I said okay.

I used last Friday's Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch:

I think I love this sketch.  I've got some ideas to use it again.  Anyway, for today's card I moved the banner flaggy thing over to the right side because otherwise all the Summer Starfruit would have been on the same side of the card and I thought it just worked better with my design to have it on the other side.  I used up some DSP scraps too, that Starfruit strip was straight out of the scrap pile, all I did was flag the end.  Yay for using up a small scrap!

Anyway, that's enough yammering for me today.  Since it is our tenth wedding anniversary today (yay us!), hubs and I are heading out to Liverpool for the weekend.  Wonder if he'd mind listening to the Beatles the whole way there...

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, last card only, all SU!
Stamps:  Garden Silhouettes, Noteworthy
Ink:  Summer Starfruit, Soft Sky
Paper:  Soft Sky, Whisper White, retired So Saffron & Summer Starfruit DSP
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, I forget the name of the butterfly Embosslit thingie

Friday Flashback: Fabulous Flowers

Howdy, folks!  It's time for another Friday Flashback :)  Today's randomly-chosen stamp set is the totally awesome Fabulous Flowers.  I'm not going to share allll my cards using this stamp set because then you'd be here all day and you'd probably get bored, but I did pick out several to share.

The background on this one is stamped with the Tres Chic background stamp, which I really should break out and use again.  I think I might go ahead and unmount all my background stamps to free up a bit more space in my stamp cabinets.  Hmm.

You can't really tell from this picture, but the sentiment panel is covered with Iridescent Ice EP so it was really sparkly IRL.

Here I used just the sentiment from Fabulous Flowers along with Garden Silhouettes.

Another one covered with Iridescent Ice.

I think this one might be my favorite card I've made with Fabulous Flowers, although the sentiment is hard to read on it.  I like how the flower turned out; I stamped it in a lighter ink color and then shaded the flower petals with markers.

So that's it for the Flashback part, and here's today's new creation:

It's a fabulous bouquet.  I didn't really have a good place to put the sentiment so I'll just stamp something on the inside when I'm ready to send it off.  I used the current sketch from The Paper Players:

This is my first time playing along in one of their challenges.  The color combo is courtesy of Color Throwdown:

I really liked those colors together so I had to play along.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fabulous weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Fabulous Flowers, French Filigree (both retired)
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Strawberry Slush, Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Dimensionals