I'll Be There For You

Hey y'all!  How's it going?  Have you ever sat down to make something and you've got so many competing ideas in your head that it's hard to get even one out on paper?  That's what happened to me today.  I have so many awesome challenges that I want to play in that it was hard to focus enough to choose what to do first.  But here's what I ended up with:

Biggest Wish is a brand new stamp set and we're going to be friends; Flower Patch is an old retired set and we're still friends :)  For the sketch I used (more on that in a minute), I needed a big, bold focal point, and Flower Patch was a natural choice for that.  I also dragged out some long-retired DSP.  The sentiment strip is up on Dimensionals, and the flower is up on an additional layer of Dimensionals.  This card happens to be going in a package so I didn't have to worry about keeping things flat for the post office.

This is for two challenges.  First up is Festive Friday:

I chose to use a friendship sentiment, rhinestones, and pink (Polished Pink looks dark in my photo but I promise it's pink!).  I chose the purple and yellow colors because I was thinking of the door of Monica's apartment on the TV show Friends; plus Highland Heather and Daffodil Delight look pretty good with Polished Pink.  Next up is the awesome sketch from As You See It:

I did opt to put my sentiment on the long skinny panel rather than on top of the focal point.  And for some reason I could not get the DSP layer on my card straight...oh well, I'll chalk that up to the charms of being handmade!

Okay, I'd better skedaddle back to my craft room and see if I can channel some creative chaos into cards.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, Biggest Wish
Ink:  Polished Pink, Highland Heather, Night of Navy
Paper:  Highland  Heather, Thick Basic White, Beyond the Garden DSP
Accessories:  Flower Fair Framelits, Rectangles Stitched Dies, rhinestones, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Cocok's Toes 2009

Scrappy Monday!  Well, now that it's June I thought it was going to be really sunny and warm...nope, lots of clouds and it's actually pretty cool outside right now.  As someone who hates the heat and humidity that come with summer in the South, I'll take this :D  But I do have a summery layout to share today, and it's all about TOES!

When we lived in (on?) Okinawa, about every six weeks or so I'd go to a place called Cocok's (the K is silent, I know it's weird) for a pedicure.  For about $40, you could get an hour long massage and then whatever intricate design you could think up painted on your toes.  It was pretty awesome.  So of course I always took pictures of my toes, and this is the kind of thing you do with friends so I took pictures of my friends' toes too and here are all the Cocok's toes for 2009.

Ya know I love my mixed font titles.

If you click the picture of the whole layout to see it bigger, you'll see I modeled my scrapbook pages after my favorite toe design with the green stripes and bright yellow flowers.

We've got three long-retired colors as part of the palette today.  The page base is Green Galore, the stripes are Glorious Green, and Pink Passion for the flowers.  The other three colors are Daffodil Delight, Basic Gray, and Whisper White.

Time to feed the kiddo and then get going to the gym.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Back to Basics Alphabet, Broadsheet Alphabet, Flower Patch, Island Blossoms
Ink:  Gable Green, Glorious Green, Daffodil Delight, Pink Passion, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Green Galore, Glorious Green, Pink Passion, Whisper White, Beyond the Garden DSP
Accessories: none

More Happy New In Colors!

While I had the stamps and dies out for yesterday's card, I just had to make a second one with the other two new In Colors :D

Meet Berry Burst and Powder Pink, which I paired with longtime favorite Wild Wasabi.  I keep wanting to call that first color Berry Blast instead, I have to look every time to make sure I write the right name.  But it's probably my second favorite of the new In Colors.  Maybe.  I'm really liking all of them, but at least I know Tranquil Tide is my favorite ;)

Anyway, for today's card I used the sketch challenge from Global Design Project:

That bold stripey paper is retiring along with the stamps and Thinlits, I'm going to miss it.  I wish I'd gotten an extra pack of the Bold Brights prints...let's ignore exactly how much patterned paper I already have okay?  Because I neeeeeeed it all.  Obviously.

Once again this fits with the Retro Rubber Challenge:

And my stamps are still about three years old ;)

Have a great weekend, y'all!  Cheers.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch
Ink:  Berry Burst, Powder Pink, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Berry Burst, Powder Pink, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi DSP
Accessories:  Hello You Thinlits

Happy New In Colors!

Heyyy lookit that, I made a card!  Actually I made two, I have another one to share tomorrow or Saturday.  Anyway, I got my new catalog preorder with the new In Colors and I just had to bust 'em out!

Oooooooohhhh I love new colors.  That, my dears, is a card made with Fresh Fig, Lemon Lime Twist, and Tranquil Tide.  So far Tranquil Tide is my favorite; it reminds me of the deep bluish green on the Stoney Creek cross stitch patterns I used to stitch when I was a kid.  And I thought these three new colors fit pretty well with the Cupcake Inspirations color challenge:

Pretty.  I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I paired the brand new colors with some flower stamps that are retiring, so this fits with the Retro Rubber Challenge:

Pretty sure I've had Flower Patch for about three years, and I've made quite a few projects with it.  The Hello You Thinlits are retiring as well, also a favorite here at Snapdragon Stamps.  But just because they're retiring doesn't mean they're leaving my craft room.  I'm like a dragon with her hoard when it comes to crafty supplies ;)

My little baby Sodapop is doing tummy time on the floor next to me while I eat breakfast (homemade apple cranberry muffins, thanks again to Sally's fabulous muffin recipe!), but I'm hoping he'll take a nap here in a little bit so I can go work in my craft room again.  I'm working on a scrapbook project and I also really want to play around more with these new colors...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch
Ink:  Fresh Fig, Lemon Lime Twist, Tranquil Tide
Paper:  Fresh Fig, Lemon Lime Twist, Tranquil Tide, Whisper White
Accessories:  Hello You Thinlits, hole punch

2016 Showcase, Part 2

Time for Part 2 of my favorite projects from 2016.  Let's dive right in, shall we?

Love this bright and cheery card for May.

June's pick is this Millennium Falcon card, might not be the prettiest thing ever but I'm rather proud of it given that I don't do much punch art.  And I watched The Empire Strikes Back last night in honor of Carrie Fisher.

For July I chose this flamingo card, love the bright colors and I need to break out that stamp set again soon.

And the last card for today is August's jellyfish.  I admit the main image is a little indistinct with the clear EP, but I loved the idea of it and how the "sand" on the background turned out.

Part 3 coming tomorrow!

Nachos: Bright Blooming Birthday

Mornin' Nacho fans!  I'm a little late with my post today, I'm still so preoccupied with poor little Vader and his knee.  We got him some pain medication yesterday (yay!) and he's got an appointment this afternoon to have a cast of his leg done to be professionally fitted for a leg brace to help that knee heal, so that's good.

Anyway, Nacho Average Challenges has some bold, bright, beautiful colors for you this week, lookie!

If you have the Festive Birthday DSP (and the matching Birthday Fiesta stamp set, complete with party llama!) then this will be easy for you!  I don't have either yet, though I llove the llama :)  And who wouldn't love a card that says "Party like there's no manana"?

Well anyway, I thought these colors would be great with some bold black patterned paper and some bright flowers.

That pattern is from Pop of Paradise and it kinda makes your eyes cross a little bit IRL, it's not just the picture.  But I wanted a black layer to make my flowers pop.  I also used the circular Metallic Enamel Shapes for the flower centers.

Check out the Nacho blog to see some other festive creations...I spied a pinata but no party llamas, so if you've got that stamp set and participate in this color challenge I will give you a giant gold star :)  Fiesta!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Emerald Envy
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Thick Whisper White, Pop of Paradise DSP
Accessories:  Flower Fair Framelits, Metallic Enamel Shapes

Mojo Rain Dance

So yesterday I sat in my craft room for, no kidding, an hour and a half with absolutely zero idea what to do for today's card.  I was feeling severely mojo-less, but at last I settled on the sketch challenge from Retro Rubber:

And I needed a couple of thank-you cards for some longtime SU! customers, so here's what I came up with:

I used the colors from the Blooms & Bliss DSP, but my first new catty order doesn't arrive until tomorrow (probably late in the afternoon to boot) so I couldn't use the actual paper.  Still, I think this turned out okay.  Here's hoping I have an easier time of it in my craft room today, don't know what is up with my stamping mojo this week.  Oh yes, for Retro Rubber I have to say how long I've had the stamps--Flower Patch is two years old and I think I've had One Big Meaning for at least a year, so I'm retro on both counts.

This afternoon I'm going to see the original Ghostbusters on the big screen.  Wooohoooo!  Can't wait.  We ain't afraid of no ghosts!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, One Big Meaning
Ink:  Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaron
Paper:  Sweet Sugarplum, Blushing Bride, Thick Whisper White, Blushing Bride DSP
Accessories:  Flower Fair Framelits

Guest Designer

Guess what?  Today I get to be a guest designer over at What Will You Stamp? because I won their challenge a couple weeks ago :)

Winner winner chicken dinner!  And luckily I had the stamp set to play along in this week's challenge, which is Flower Patch:

Actually I use this one pretty frequently.  Who doesn't love big, bold flower stamps that have matching dies?  So here's what I made:

This was actually the second iteration; on the first card, I got the flowers up too high and the card looked unbalanced, but I'd already glued everything down so I had to make a whole 'nother one.  But this one looks much better and more balanced to my eye.  I was walking with my dogs last week and noticed a whole lot of yards have azaleas blooming (I think they're azaleas?) and they're in all kinds of different shades of pink, so that was the inspiration for my flowers.  On that one in the middle (on the bottom), the center might look orange but really I had stamped the Daffodil Delight flower, and then stamped off with Watermelon Wonder ink before I stamped the flower center and it turned out looking kinda orange.  Which is okay.  I used the sentiment from All Boxed Up because I love that set, I think it's adorable (and cheap!) and I'm a little sad it's retiring.

So that's it for me today!  If you missed Scrappy Monday, fear not--this week it will just be Scrappy Tuesday :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, All Boxed Up
Ink:  Cucumber Crush, Watermelon Wonder, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Cherry on Top DSP Stack
Accessories:  Flower Fair Framelits

Choices, Choices...

Sometimes I just can't pick a favorite for challenges to play along with.  That happened to me today with two color challenges, so I ended up electing to do both...but since my cards are on the CAS side the two of them came together pretty quickly :)

Dear Stampin' Up!,

I puffy heart love your thick Whisper White cardstock; I just wish we'd had this like a bazillion years ago because it's fabulous.  Please never retire it.

Sincerely,
Christy S.

I also puffy heart love the color combination from the Paper Players this week:

I do seriously love me some hot pink and orange together.  I was a little worried that Soft Sky would be overshadowed by the other three super-saturated tones, but I like how it turned out.  (Though Baja Breeze would have been better...I still wish they'd ditch Soft Sky in favor of reinstating Baja Breeze!)

I stamped a bit on the inside of this one, too.

For both of today's cards, I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Reminds me of a shirt that a friend of mine had in college, it said "Easy. Fast. Cheap." on the back (the shirt was in reference to tax services, I think.)  But anyway, this card also fits the Easy-Fast-Cheap bill--some white cardstock, a scrap of colored cardstock, a few stamps and Dimensionals and woohoo!

So I woohoo'd again!

I couldn't resist this super happy color combo from the Color Throwdown:

I used Daffodil Delight and Cucumber Crush, those two were easy, but SU! doesn't have a good analog to the blue color shown, which is kind of between Marina Mist and Night of Navy.  So I used *both* Marina Mist and Night of Navy.

My floral cards also count for this week's theme challenge from Global Design Project:

And had I been smart, I would have taken a picture of both my cards together for the end of this post, but I didn't and I'm on the top floor and the cards are in the basement so you'll just have to imagine that I did.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, first card, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, Rose Wonder
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Mossy Meadow, Soft Sky
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Mossy Meadow
Accessories:  Rose Garden Framelits, Dimensionals

Supplies, second card, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, Rose Wonder
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist, Night of Navy, Cucumber Crush
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Daffodil Delight
Accessories:  Rose Garden Framelits, Dimensionals

Spring Trio

Happy Wednesday, y'all.  Does it look like spring in your neighborhood?  The trees behind my house are all blooming, though when we went out last Saturday the cherry blossoms in DC weren't in full bloom yet.  But anyway, that brings me to the Paper Players challenge:

One of the things I loved most about living in England was the flowers.  I think gardening is England's national pastime, so in January I would see some snowdrops, February brought crocuses (croci), March was all about the daffodils, April was for tulips, May was purple with lilacs, and June brought out all the roses for June weddings.  And those are just the flowers I saw in my daily walks around our tiny village.  So I decided to make a trio of CAS spring cards for today:

I really liked how my shamrock card turned out for the Nacho blog hop, so I did the same kind of thing on these three.  I don't have current SU! stamps that look like the specific flowers I was going for, so I just used the colors of each to inspire my Flower Patch flowers.

This one is inspired by a crocus, all beautiful deep purple with a bright yellow or orange center.  I love that Bonjour, Beautiful stamp from Happy Happenings...originally I was going to do different sentiments on each card but I liked that one so much I just stuck with it :)

This one is my daffodil card, bright yellow with an orange center.  In March, daffs would spring up all over the village, even a few in my yard--and I can't keep plants alive for anything so you know they're pretty hardy if they survived being in my yard.

And last up is my tulip.  We went to Amsterdam one year to see the tulips, and let me tell you they come in an absolute rainbow of colors and they're all gorgeous.  But I decided to go with a pink and rosy red tulip for this card.

There you have it, my spring flower cards.  Hope you enjoyed them :)  I'm off once again to walk my doglets.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, Happy Happenings, Work of Art
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Blackberry Bliss, Tangelo Twist, Pool Party, Daffodil Delight, Mint Macaron, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, So Saffron
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Flower Fair Framelits, Dimensionals

Flower Power Thanks

Happy Monday, peeps.  I figured since I posted a scrapbook layout last Thursday, today I'd post the card I wanted to make then.  So just imagine that today's post and last Thursday's got switched.

Something bright and sunny, to match the weather outside.  Except we still have tons of snow everywhere, and giant mud pits in between the snow blobs.  But it's melting, mellllltiiiiiing!

Anyway.  This really cool color combo is from ColourQ:

And I used the latest Freshly Made Sketch:

And that's it for me right now because I've gotta run.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, A Dozen Thoughts
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Wisteria Wonder, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Chocolate Chip, Watercolor paper
Accessories:  Hello You Thinlits

2015 Showcase, Part 1

Since it's the last week of December (already!), it's time for the 2015 showcase here at Snapdragon Stamps.  So I went back through my blog posts for this year and picked out one card and one scrapbook layout for each month (okay, sometimes there were ties) just to share my favorites one more time.  So let's start off with Part 1 of the card showcase.

January's pick:  I love this happy card.  That "oh, happy day" stamp just makes me smile.

February's pick has Valentine-y colors and some pretty lotus blossoms.  I like how it turned out to do the first layer of the flower stamping with white ink.

March's pick:  By the Seashore has long been a fave stamp set, and I just love that patterned paper from last year's Sale-a-Bration.

April's pick is this giant Swallowtail paired with some stamps from Tea Party.  I love the watercolor background for the butterfly and those are my colors.  Spoiler alert:  new tea-related goodness is coming up in the Occasions Mini next week!

May's pick is this coral rose card.  It's an advertisement for why I don't get rid of my retired stamp sets:  I love that rose and the sentiments.  Plus, if I sold off all my retired stuff, how would I do Friday Flashbacks?

And for the last one of the day, June's pick is this bouquet card I CASEd from the catalog.

Be-You-Tiful

Howdy, peeps.  Once again I didn't get my card done the day before posting...but hey, maybe I'll do tomorrow's card this afternoon.  Anyway, I kinda think the wait was worth it for this one, take a looksie:

Ooh, ahh.  I inked up the peacock with Versamark, then Night of Navy (without stamping or cleaning in between) and stamped it on the cardstock, then embossed with clear EP so the ink wouldn't run when I watercolored it.  Worked a treat; I've seen the technique used by other stampers but this is the first time I've done it myself.  My only issue was I stamped the peacock a little too high; this was supposed to be an almost single-layer card.  But I like how it turned out with the mats anyway, so I'll call that a win.

I used the colors from this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Pumpkin Pie, Soft Sky, Night of Navy, and Crumb Cake.  Pumpkin Pie is a more vibrant orange than the one shown in the palette, so I only used it to watercolor the flowers and I kept the ink fairly light so it would look like the color swatch shown.  I don't know if you can tell, but I also used Soft Sky ink on the peacock's body and parts of the feathers to give it a little more depth (you can scroll back up, I'll wait).  And the little flowers are watercolored with Whisper White ink.

Anyway, I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

My peacock takes the place of the star element on the sketch, of course.  And as I said above I ended up adding a few matted layers, but I think my card is still has clean lines even if it isn't quite CAS.

Well, maybe I should go do tomorrow's card right now before I get busy with something else...cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfect Peacock, Flower Patch
Ink:  Versamark, Night of Navy, Soft Sky, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Mossy Meadow, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Soft Sky, Whisper White
Accessories:  Clear EP, Dimensionals

Nachos: Go For Gold

Happy Tuesday, Nacho fans!  Oy.  I did a kickboxing workout yesterday for the first time in a long time and today I can't hardly move.  Luckily I can still type to tell you about our latest Nacho sketch!

And here's my card:

It was really hard to get a good picture of this card; either the flower or the sentiment would reflect the flash and not look right.

But yup, there it is.  I love that "do more of what makes you happy" stamp.

So now it's your turn to do more of what makes you happy, and stamp something pretty for us.  Share your creation on the Nacho blog and then we'll all be happy :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello Life, Flower Patch
Ink:  Versamark, Watermelon Wonder
Paper:  Garden Green, Bermuda Bay, Watermelon Wonder, Whisper White
Accessories:  Gold EP, Flower Fair Framelits, Brights Candy Dots, gold baker's twine, Dimensionals