Friday Flashback: Bareback

Happy Friday, peeps!  It's time for the Friday Flashback, and this week I bring you Bareback.  I was one horse-obsessed kid growing up--when we moved to Texas, 7-year-old me thought we'd have a horse in our backyard and I'd get to ride to school.  When I found out that wasn't the case, I packed a bag and tried to walk back to California ;)  All that to say, of course I bought this horsey stamp set!

Also features Flannel Plaid, Many Merry Messages

This was my Christmas card right before we moved to Japan, because we were in Texas for a few months.  My mom said it wasn't Christmasy enough; I said whaddya mean?  It says Merry Christmas big as day, how much more Christmasy can you possibly get ;)

Also features Flannel Plaid, A Word for You

This one was a fairly recent creation, but not really one of my favorite cards ever.  It's my least favorite of the cards on today's post...I do like how the white markings on the horses' faces turned out, though.

Also features Flannel Plaid, Wanted, Full of Life

And now I realize that I *always* use Bareback with Flannel Plaid, but luckily today I did something different :)  Behold the new card on the block:

I even know who this is going to:  a friend of mine bought a horse a few months ago and takes riding lessons on the regular.  I'm totally jealous, I've always wanted a horse :)  Anyway, knowing her, I figured that sentiment from You're a Gem was perfect on this card.  It's going in the mail today--I'm trying to mail out more of the cards I make instead of just storing them.

The colors are from The Color Throwdown:

I interpreted this as Night of Navy, Cajun Craze, Soft Sky, and Always Artichoke.  The sketch is from CAS(e) This Sketch:

There's something about this one that I just reeeeally like, even all that white space isn't making me nervy.  I like it!

So anyway, today I'm leaving on a jet plane to go back to the land of no-you-don't-have-a-horse-in-your-backyard because my brother's promotion ceremony is on Sunday.  Woohoo!

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Bareback, You're a Gem
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Night of Navy
Paper:  Soft Sky, Night of Navy, Wintergreen DSP
Accessories:  None

Friday Flashback: Eastern Influences

Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback!  Today's featured stamp set is another one of my very favorites:  Eastern Influences.  Let's flash back!

Also features Bella Toile and Cardinal Christmas

This was our Christmas card one year when we lived in Okinawa.

Also features Floral

This one was a swap card I made when Eastern Influences debuted in the catalog.

A red rose this time with what is possibly my favorite-ever DSP, Bella Rose.

Also features Full of Life

And another Bella Rose for good measure : )

Also features Bella Toile and Thank You Kindly

I think this was an after-Christmas thank you card.

Also features Bella Toile and Cardinal Christmas

I tried out a few color combos for my Christmas cards that one year :)

The Baja Breeze one at the top won out because I love that color.  I had fun playing with the other colors though.

So that's it for the Flashback part, and for the brand-new project I have a scrapbook layout!

The pictures are of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan.  I had to have all my photos reprinted because the first time they came out too dark...they looked so much better the second time around!  And I'm kind of in love with the color combo:  Baja Breeze, Crushed Curry, Garden Green and Chocolate Chip.  The stamping is done in Lost Lagoon, which is like a slightly darker version of Baja Breeze.  LOVE IT.

There you can see Lost Lagoon in action on Baja Breeze.

And one more time.  I was lucky on this; when I punched the patterned paper, the place where I wanted the birds was pretty much as far down as the punch would go on the paper so it was easy peasy.  I just punched half the shape out, adhered the DSP to my page base, and stamped the birds in the negative space.  I think this is one of my favorite scrapbook layouts ever :)

So that's it for me today!  Thanks for joining me for the Friday Flashback.

Supplies, scrapbook layout only:
Stamps:  Eastern Influences
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Crushed Curry, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  Curly Label & Decorative Label punches

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

Friday Flashback: Eastern Blooms

Wow, today is already the last Friday in April.  Time is just speeding by and it's time for another Friday Flashback!  Today's featured stamp set is one of my favorites (ok, I have a lot of favorites), Eastern Blooms.  So let's go!

Also features Best Yet and Bella Toile

Let's start off with a baby card.  Hey, baby cards don't always have to have baby-specific images, right?

Also also features Best Yet :)

And here's another one for good measure, this time in purple because not all baby girls (or their mamas) love pink.

Also features Thank You Kindly

And now for something very bright!  I love these flowers with bold colors.

Also features Bring on the Cake

And maybe a lot of rhinestones.

Also features Full of Life, Sprinkles, and Itty Bitty Backgrounds

I think this one would have been better had I moved down the three flowers just a tiny bit more toward the middle of the card.

And last up, here's a scrapbook layout from our time in Japan.  So yep, I've used Eastern Blooms quite a bit I think.  So here's today's brand new card:

Again with the bright colors, they were this week's Splitcoast color challenge.  The sentiment is from Happy Day, which is on the retirement list.  I'm a little sad about that one actually; I think it's a great little stamp set.  Oh well, it will always have a permanent place in my stamp collection!

The layout is courtesy of Retro Sketches:

When I copied down the sketch I didn't make the top panel scooch over to the right like on the original sketch, so my card is a little bit different.  But hey, I got the banner and the button right!

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

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Eastern Blooms, Happy Day
Ink:  Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red
Paper:  Pacific Point, Whisper White, retired Pumpkin Pie DSP, Ski Slope DSP (I think?  It was in my scrap box)
Accessories:  Banner punch, retired Playground button, Whisper White baker's twine

Friday Flashback: Natural Beauty

Time for another Friday Flashback!  This week's featured stamp set is Natural Beauty, and it is a beauty.  It was fun for me to play with this set again : )  So let's take a look back in the archives:

My first two Flashback cards were inspired by some yellow freckled orchids I had when we lived in Okinawa.  The above card also features Floral (background), Full of Life (sentiment), and Itty Bitty Backgrounds (freckles on the flower).

This one is mostly the same as above, but trade out the Full of Life sentiment for one from All Holidays.

Here's something a little different; only the sentiment on this one is from Natural Beauty.  The stamp is kind of a word cloud thing so I just inked up the "Imagine" bit that I wanted.  The dragons are from Ancient Asia, and I also used Bamboo II and Itty Bitty Backgrounds (again).

This one is more CAS; the sentiment is from that perennial favorite, Sincere Salutations.  So that's it for the Flashback part, let's check out the brand new creation:

I used this week's SCS sketch and an old color challenge (I have about 20 sketches and 15 color combos to go to complete my challenge to myself to complete them all).  The flower image was stamped with Chocolate Chip craft ink (sadly retired) and embossed with clear EP before I colored the image using both a blender pen (need some new ones) and an Aquapainter.  The card is pretty straightforward, the only thing that took some time was coloring the image.

Thanks for joining me for this week's Friday Flashback, and have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Natural Beauty, Warmest Regards
Ink:  Chocolate Chip (craft and classic), Crumb Cake, Barely Banana, Real Red, Mellow Moss
Paper:  Barely Banana, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, retired Real Red & Mellow Moss DSP
Accessories:  clear EP, Dimensionals