Peterhof Gardens

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  It's a bit overcast today so maybe I'll be able to take pictures of my scrapbook layouts today...I have a giant stack that I have finished but not photographed to share here yet, and I don't want to do it when it's full sun because then harsh shadows and glare on the pictures.  Which there's still a bit of glare on the ones I'm sharing today but all I can do is the best I can do...

These layouts are from our visit to Peterhof near St. Petersburg when we visited on a Baltic cruise in 2014.  Peter the Great was happy living in a simple wood cabin, but his ministers insisted he had to have a residence to impress foreign dignitaries, so Peterhof was built and surrounded with extensive gardens.  Our tour didn't take us inside any of the buildings, just through the gardens.

That watch out for pickpockets sign in the lower right just always makes me laugh for some reason.

Today's color palette:  Evening Evergreen, Pale Papaya, Gumball Green, and Dapper Denim.  I made these pages over a year ago and honestly I don't know how I landed on this color palette with these pictures.  I guess it works?

Anyway, that's it for me today.  Ryan has his taekwondo belt test this afternoon and then we're going to dinner at Texas Roadhouse after.  But in the meantime I have to start contacting utilities companies in Colorado to set things up for when we move.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Letterpress Alphabet, Rough Edges Alphabet, Friends Never Fade
Ink:  Gumball Green, Evening Evergreen, Pale Papaya
Paper:  Evening Evergreen, Gumball Green, Dapper Denim, Thick Basic White, Lovely in Linen DSP
Accessories:  None

China: Green Lotus Hotel

So, I was so excited to have the hubs home after he was gone for a week that I forgot to do my China Sunday post this morning.  Well, better late than never!  Next stop:  the Green Lotus Hotel in Guilin.

See the original pictures here.  Again, Missy is the one who takes pictures inside hotel rooms ;)  We got up early one morning to take pictures in the hotel's courtyard though, I still love those uniquely shaped hills.  And I found a lotus stamp in my stash to go along with the hotel's name.

I love the color palette for today:  Garden Green for the page base, Lemon Lime Twist makes the mats pop, Soft Sky patterned paper, a pop of Real Red, and some Whisper White.

On our way to the airport, we did two last stops in Guilin: the Reed Flute Caves and the China Odyssey Tours offices.

These two layouts are repeats though, see more info here.

I like these layouts, I think the black page base makes them more dramatic.

That's it for today, y'all.  Next Sunday I have the very last page in the Shanghai/Guilin album, which means we're at roughly the halfway point for the China books...I think I have a few more pages in the Xi'an/Beijing album.  I'm still very, very happy that I finished these books!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, Green Lotus Hotel layout:
Stamps:  Rough Type, Friends Never Fade
Ink:  Garden Green, Lemon Lime Twist, Real Red, Soft Sky, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Garden Green, Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Whisper White, Soft Sky DSP
Accessories:  Lettering Template

Friday Flashback: Friends Never Fade

Well, my dogs are now in the air on their way to Texas...I already miss them so much!  But we'll soldier on with this week's Friday Flashback.  Today's featured stamp set is Friends Never Fade.  It's one of the bazillion flower stamp sets I have (even though I just got two more yesterday but we talked about that).  So let's go!

Also features Full of Life

So I got that photo corner punch because I kept seeing other people do fantastic things with it and I. Can't. Make. It. Work. on my projects.  It always looks like an afterthought, rather than an intentional part of the design.  Bleargh.  But that color combo is pretty fun, I like that.

Yeeeeaahhh, this was my only other project with Friends Never Fade; I stamped the index card for the Splitcoast gallery.  So not one of my more favorite floral stamp sets?  But I did make something new!

If you look in the top right corner, those are not Candy Dots--I broke into my stash of totally neglected brads!  I used to use brads pretty frequently but then they came out with the Candy Dots and those are the coolest things since Betty White, so now I have lots and lots of brads in my stash.  I'm not going through the Candy Dots super-fast though because I think my natural craft supply hoarding tendencies are working. 

Anywha, I used this week's ColourQ challenge:

If you're wondering, I used Calypso Coral to shade the petals on the flower, so really all the colors are on there.  Plus Early Espresso.

I also used this week's sketch from Unscripted, been a long time since I played along with them:

That's it for me this week, peeps.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only, all SU!
Stamps:  Friends Never Fade
Ink:  Versamark, Pretty in Pink, Calypso Coral, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Whisper White, Early Espresso, some scraps of long-retired DSP but I know for sure the Old Olive pattern is from Raspberry Tart, the other one I can't remember...oh wait it's Petals & Paisleys DSP
Accessories:  Early Espresso EP, Dimensionals, white organza ribbon, retired brads