Botanical Bounty, Part 4

Hey hey, y'all, I am continuing my creative streak with a few more floral cards, since I still had stamp sets out for that CAS on Friday botanical challenge.  So here's what I've got:

Ooooh some old sets here, Petal Prints and Elegant Cheer and me just playing around with some color combinations for the Sunday Stamps sketch challenge:

Well, it started with the sketch but I added some layers and they morphed a bit.  I was just having some fun with those pressed flower stamps, ya know?

I also had More Petal Prints out so I made one more:

And actually I think this is the first time I've used More Petal Prints, though I've had it for years, but at least I used all three stamps in the set for today's card.  Thought I'd give the SUO Challenges colors another go, and let's just say this is not my favorite color combination ever.  I thought I'd go really old skool on this one and just do stamps, ink, and paper, no dies or anything else (except Dimensionals).

Anyway, not much time before I go grab the kiddo from school.  I'm hoping to take him out for dinner early so maybe we can watch the livestream of the Artemis splash down tonight.  And it's about time that we named a mission to the moon after a goddess actually *associated* with the moon.  Apollo is such an attention hog.

*runs before Apollo can shoot me with arrows*

Cheers!

Supplies, first card, all SU!
Stamps:  Petal Prints, Elegant Cheer
Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Strawberry Slush gems (they were close enough), Wink of Stella

Supplies, second card, all SU!
Stamps:  Petal Prints, Elegant Cheer
Ink:  Old Olive, So Saffron, Delightful Dijon
Paper:  Old Olive, So Saffron, Delightful Dijon
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Noble Peacock rhinestones

Supplies, third card, all SU!
Stamps:  More Petal Prints, Gifts of Spring
Ink:  Lemon Lolly, Peach Pie, Pretty in Pink, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Lemon Lolly, Peach Pie, Whisper White, Pretty in Pink DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Bunny Trio

Mornin' y'all.  I am super duper ridiculously tired this morning thanks to Daphne so I am fortifying myself with a cuppa British Breakfast tea before I take her out for a walk.  I shall try valiantly not to take a nap today or else I won't sleep tonight and that won't help my long-term fatigue.  Ugh.  Good thing Daph's cute.

Anyway, for some reason I thought Easter was this weekend so I went ahead and mailed out Easter cards yesterday but my phone just told me it's not until the 20th.  Only time I'm this early for holidays is by accident, ha!  I did make another Easter card yesterday.

The Gifts of Spring is a very old retired stamp set but is that not the cutest bunny image ever?  I made this for the Addicted to CAS challenge:

That coordinates nicely with the CAS on Friday challenge to make an Easter card.  The bunny image is so large that I have less white space than I usually would for a CAS card, but I still think it counts.  I stamped the image in Pecan Pie ink and then dug out my watercolor pencils to do just a little coloring.

That's it for now, kids.  I'm going to go raid the Easter candy.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gifts of Spring, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Pecan Pie, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Basic White
Accessories:  watercolor pencils

Spring Flowers

Mornin' y'all!  Tell you what, the weather in Germany is taking that whole "April showers" thing seriously--I've gotten soaked two days in a row when I had to be out and about running errands.  But that means that spring flowers can't be far behind, and that's what's on my card today:

I had pulled out The Gifts of Spring for another card a while back, and then I left it out on my stamp table because I knew I'd want to use it again for the new Retro Rubber Challenge:

The Gifts of Spring is really, really REALLY retro--I've had it for seventeen years and in fact used it for my first ever upload to Splitcoast.  (Um, I have not updated my gallery there in...a long time.)  Not only are my stamps retro, so is the patterned paper (I think it's 3-4 years old?) and the embellishment--do you remember when they had Candy Dots in all the SU! colors?  I still have quite a few but I'm trying to do better about using things and not hoarding them.

Thought I'd play along with the Paper Players too:

I used So Saffron (retiring), Petal Pink, and Soft Sea Foam.  I've used Soft Sea Foam more often recently, it usually is not one I gravitate towards.  Anyway, I had wanted to try out some of the new colors like Lemon Lolly, but I didn't get them until yesterday after Ryan's doc appointment so I haven't gotten to play with them yet.  That's on my list of things to do today, if my doggo guests will allow me to work in my craft room!  I'm taking care of my friend Krissy's dogs for a few days while they're having their house packed out.  It's nice having dogs in the house again!

Okay, gotta go switch out laundry too.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  The Gifts of Spring (long retired)
Ink:  Gray Granite, Stampin' Blends in So Saffron, Petal Pink, Soft Sea Foam, Pool Party
Paper:  So Saffron, Gray Granite, Thick Basic White, Soft Sea Foam & Petal Pink DSP
Accessories:  Candy Dot, Dimensionals

Rustic Wreath

Hey y'all!  Hope your week is going well.  I am meeting a friend for lunch today and I have a present for her and I'm SO EXCITED to give it to her!  But in the meantime, I made a card this morning and I'm pretty happy about it too, check it out:

So how many sets of dies can I use on one card?!  A CAS card, no less.  Lots of retiring items (and two already retired items) on this card--Celebrate Sunflowers and Art Gallery are both retiring, as are the Painted Labels dies and the Stitched Rectangles dies which they can pry out of my cold, dead hands.  I use those so much that they just stay sitting out next to my die cutting machine.  I also used the Sunflowers dies and one of the Layering Circles dies to cut out the center of the Painted Labels die shape.  So yep, four sets of dies.

And this card will be entered in four challenges as well.  First up is Cupcake Inspirations:

So using Celebrate Sunflowers was the obvious choice.  Then came the CAS Colours & Sketches color challenge:

Crushed Curry and Shaded Spruce are fabulous sunflower colors, and I immediately decided that a bright pink butterfly would be just the ticket.  I also used a fair amount of (retiring) Soft Suede for my neutral.

Swimming right along to the Try Stampin' on Tuesday sketch:

I thought it was nice and CAS to go with the color challenge and I only just now see that I missed a layer, it's supposed to have a border at the top and bottom.  Whoops!  My apologies to the Challenge Police ; )

Last up is the Retro Rubber challenge:

It's always good to have a stash of birthday cards, so that drove my choice of sentiment.  Celebrate Sunflowers has been in my collection for a year and a half; Art Gallery (the birthday sentiment) is over two years old, and The Gifts of Spring (butterfly) is a whopping 17 years old.  I was looking for a smallish butterfly drawn in a style that would go well with the sunflower stamps and it fit the bill.  The butterfly is actually part of a much larger stamp with three bunnies and another butterfly, I just stamped the bit I wanted and fussy cut it.

And that's it for me!  I've got about 30 minutes before I have to leave for my lunch date so I'm going to go do some more crafty stuff.  It took me forever to do my SU! order yesterday but I'm excited about how much cardstock is now heading my way--I stocked up on the retiring 12x12 packs and picked up the new colors in ink pads and both sizes of cardstock.  Last night I realized that I had mixed up the names of two 50% off stamp sets from the Occasions catalog so I harrumphed at myself and did a second order to get the one I'd originally intended to buy (and got a bit more cardstock because I can't help myself sometimes).  Next time I'll be more careful about what I'm ordering but for now I've got a bonus stamp set heading my way (I got Picturesque by mistake, when I was thinking of Better Days, if you're curious).

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Celebrate Sunflowers, Art Gallery, The Gifts of Spring
Ink:  Soft Suede, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight (dark), Shaded Spruce (light), Melon Mambo (light), Soft Suede (light)
Paper:  Thick Very Vanilla, Soft Suede
Accessories:  Sunflowers dies, Painted Labels dies, Layering Circles dies, Stitched Rectangles dies, Mini Dimensionals, Wink of Stella, glitter Enamel Dots

Bonnie Wee Bunnies

Hey y'all, how's it going?  I've been battling some weird cough thing for the last week--it's not Covid (I tested...twice), I think it might be allergies or related to the recent weather fluctuations.  It is just sapping my energy today so here it is 2:30 in the afternoon and I only just got in my craft room at 1:45.  But I made a card!

I brought out a very, very old stamp set for this one, The Gifts of Spring.  I've had this set since 2006 and in fact I used it for my very first upload to my Splitcoast gallery.  How's that for a time warp! 

I had to use the sketch from Inspire. Create. before the challenge closes:

And the pastel palette from Global Design Project:

And finally the theme challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

Okay, I'm going to head back up to my craft room and try to enjoy the rest of my day off, if only this allergy thing would let me alone!  Well, I keep a box of Kleenex up there for a reason I guess...

Achoo!  Allergies are one gift I wish spring would take back :p  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  The  Gifts of Spring
Ink:  Versamark, Gray Granite, Soft Sea Foam, So Saffron, Blushing Bride
Paper:  Thick Basic White, So Saffron, Soft Sea Foam, Best Dressed DSP Stack
Accessories:  Clear EP, Layering Circles dies, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Butterfly of Happiness

Happy Friday!  Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback, where my retired stamp set this week is Butterfly of Happiness, which debuted back in 2006.  I think I'm going to try out something a little different...I like to tag every stamp set I use in each post, but it can be confusing for the longer flashbacks so I'm going to try out putting captions on the photos with the names of the other stamp sets (other than the featured Friday Flashback stamp set) that I used and we'll see how I like it.  I do have several photos to share today, so let's go!

Also features French Script

My first card with these butterflies; very simple monochrome purple.

Also features Take Three and Wild Hearts

Next one up, I rather liked this one at the time in blues and teals.  The background with the butterflies on top and the blue sponged on bottom is actually one piece, I covered the seam with ribbon.  I think I could do this idea better now ;)  Maybe I should have just done a makeover of this card, hmm.  Well, I still can I suppose.

Also features The Gifts of Spring and Beyond the Basics

Can't forget the baby books!  The little stamped butterfly in the journaling block is from today's stamp set.

So that's it for the flashback, here's today's bright and happy new card:

Let's take a closer look at that tangerine butterfly:

SPARKLY!  I stamped it once in Tangerine Tango and then stamped over it again with Versamark and embossed with Iridescent Ice.  Looks pretty cool IRL if I do say so myself :)  The ribbon tab and rhinestones on the card add other bits of shine.  I like it.  Which is saying a lot since I kinda feel like my mojo has been on vacay of late.

Must give props to Colour Q for the beautiful color combination:

Loved those colors together as soon as I saw them, so I was happy that my randomly drawn stamp set worked with the color palette.  Ok, to be fair if it hadn't worked I would have probably drawn another stamp set name until I got one that did ;) but this time I got it on the first try.

Anywha, do also check out the latest Retro Sketch:

I stuck to it pretty good this time around, I even got the little embellishments in the right places.  Whee!

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you have a lovely weekend.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Butterfly of Happiness
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay, Cool Caribbean, Versamark
Paper:  Peach Parfait, Cool Caribbean, Bermuda Bay, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White
Accessories:  White organza ribbon, rhinestones, Iridescent Ice EP, Dimensionals