Blackberry Greeting

Mornin' y'all.  Per kiddo's request, there's a pumpkin coffee cake in the oven for breakfast today but my card is all about the blackberries:

I wasn't sure at first what to do with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

But then I decided to pair it with the colors from Hand-Stamped Sentiments:

And the Inspired By... challenge:

Obviously that's where I got my blackberries, but I also added a subtle woodgrain to the Basic Beige postal shapes with some Versamark ink.  I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out when I started, but I think I like the end result.

That's it for now, peeps.  Wish me luck as I try to get Ryan to do his homework...there was a major tantrum about it last night.  Ugh.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello Kiwi, Hardwood
Ink:  Versamark, Fresh Freesia, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Pool Party, Basic Beige, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Mini Dimensionals, Translucent Dots

Rustic Hello

Mornin', y'all!  Usually I write my blog posts the night before they go live, but I forgot to do it last night so I'm writing this one with Ryan bouncing all over the place.  So I'd better type fast.

Here's my card for today:

I hadn't used Gray Granite much yet so that's what the card base is.  The Hardwood background is intentionally not stamped all the way--I laid the cardstock down on the inked stamp and finger-walked on the back of it to get this effect, though somehow I ended up with a pretty stark line at the top.  My inspiration for this card is the Fusion challenge:

As you can see, I did both the sketch and the inspiration photo.  And I managed to sneak in another piece of my favorite Tropical Escape DSP ;) Man I love that stuff.

Okay, time to go chase the kiddo around until we go to the gym.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Varied Vases, Hardwood
Ink:  Gray Granite, Memento Tuxedo Black, Blush Blossom, Mint Macaron, Soft Sea Foam
Paper:  Gray Granite, Thick Whisper White, Tropical Escape DSP
Accessories:  corner rounder punch, Dimensionals, adhesive sequins

Guest Designer: Back to School!

I'm tickled pink to be a guest designer for Retro Rubber once again!  And they have the perfect challenge for this time of year:

Now, my kiddo is only six months old so I've got some time before I have to worry about doing teacher gifts and such,  but I did make a school-themed card for today:

I figure it could go in a kiddo's lunchbox on the first day of school, or it could be for a teacher gift at the beginning or end of the school year or whatever.  The sentiment is generic enough to work for lots of people.  Since this is for Retro Rubber, I had to use older stamps...Hardwood and Work of Art are both still in the current catalog but they're three years old; Tart & Tangy is nine years old.  Honestly I thought it was older, I thought I got it when I first started stamping!  But still, nine years is pretty old for a stamp set :)

Want to know how I made my chalkboard?

1.  Cut a rectangle of black cardstock as big as you want the chalkboard to be.  Punch the corners with a corner rounder.

2.  Stamp the Hardwood background stamp on brown cardstock (I used Crumb Cake and the coordinating ink).  Trim the planks along the lines of the stamp, then trim individual planks, two for the shorter side pieces and two longer ones for the top and bottom (same lengths as the black rectangle you cut out).

3.  Glue the shorter side pieces on, then punch the corners with a corner rounder.

4.  Glue the longer top & bottom pieces on, then punch the corners with a corner rounder.

5.  Voila!  You have your chalkboard.  My corner punch left a little indent on the corners, since I had three thicknesses of cardstock in there (even though I only punched through one layer at a time, my punch would cry and break if I tried to do all three at once which is why I punched each layer individually), so I just used the fine point of a black marker to turn those divots into nail heads on my chalkboard.  One fussy cut apple up on Dimensionals and there you have it!

When I was a kid, like in elementary school, my mom used to make pillows for my teachers at the end of the school year.  They had an appliqued chalkboard that looked like this card, complete with the apple, so I was definitely channeling that when I made this card.  The main fabric on her pillows was white with letters on it though.  I should dig up a picture...or more likely, ask my mom to dig up a picture because I don't think I have one :)  Anyway, I hope you play along in this fun challenge at Retro Rubber!  And thanks again to their Design Team for inviting me to be a guest designer!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hardwood, Work of Art, Tart & Tangy
Ink:  Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals

ETA:  Mom found the picture!  Ready to see little kid Christy? Hee!

Driftwood Anniversary

Happy Toooosday, y'all!  I've got a happy baby bouncing right next to me.  At least he can't reach the keyboard from where he is right now ;)

So here's today's card.  I'm in looooooove with Emerald Envy, what about you?  I had a good excuse to use it too, what with the current photo inspiration from Inkspirational:

Oooh pretty.  I don't have the new So Many Shells stamp set or I would have been tempted to use it today; instead I pulled out the brand-new-to-me Oh So Eclectic for the greenery on my card.  I tried using the matching Framelits to cut it out, but I discovered that the matching Framelit is not an exact match for this stamp, it works better with the *other* sprig of greenery.  So I ended up fussy cutting the two for my card to get the look I wanted.

I chose the sentiment to go along with this week's theme challenge from Global Design Project: 

So there you have it, that's my card for today.  Hope to get in some more stamping sometime later today once Ryan tires himself out in his bouncer :)  I literally have a bouncing baby boy.  Ha!

Cheers, y'all!  Happy stampin'!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hardwood, Oh So Eclectic, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Emerald Envy, Soft Suede, Whisper White
Paper:  Emerald Envy, Sahara Sand, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Elements of Style

Happy Friday afternoon, y'all, and welcome to the Friday Flashback.  This week's stamp set is Elements of Style, which is a lovely vintage-kinda style stamp set which debuted in 2010.  So let's get started!

Also features By the Seashore, Pursuit of Happiness, Perfectly Penned

The flourish behind the postage stamp-style element is the stamp that's from Elements of Style.  Hey Stampin' Up!, we need more flourishy stamps like this.

Also features Pursuit of Happiness

The real reason I got the stamp set:  the hummingbird.  Also that ribbon is actually Marina Mist to match the hummingbird stamp, it just really doesn't look it in the photo.

Also features Fabulous Phrases

There's a big toile stamp in the set in addition to that flourish, both fun.

Also features Papillon Potpourri and Perfectly Penned

Another one with the flourish!

And hey,t here's a card that has one of the Elements of Style sentiments on it.  So there's your flashback, here's today's new card:

Seems like all my card photos are under-exposed lately.  Well, we've been socked in with clouds for what seems like forever (it's a giant swamp outside) and I really think my little camera is on its last legs.  But anyway, that's the new card...and the sentiment is a bit crooked but I'm going to write that off as proof that this is homemade.  And it's going in the mail within the next week.

I used the brand new color challenge from Fab Friday:

But I added a bit of Sahara Sand (generally you're allowed to add neutrals to any color challenge) and that means it also counts for the Inkspire Me color challenge:

Well, we've got to go pick up my car from having its oil changed, so I'm outta here.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Elements of Style, Thank You Kindly, Hardwood
Ink:  Soft Sky, Sweet Sugarplum, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Soft Sky, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes & Lots of Labels Framelits, Dimensionals, Pearls

Friday Flashback: Choose Happiness

Happy Friday, y'all!  Once again I didn't get in my craft cave until a lot later in the day than I planned...I had an accidental two-hour nap in the middle of the day (oops).  But here I am and today's Friday Flashback stamp set is Choose Happiness!

Also features Petite Pairs, Hardwood

I think this is my favorite of the older cards for this set, I just like the soft watercolor on the background panels.

Stampy collages aren't really my forte, but I keep trying anyway.

Also features Gorgeous Grunge

And this one uses a lot of colored embossing powder and was a cooler idea in my head than it is on paper.  So that's it for the Flashback, here is my new creation:

It's got several layers, but it's still totally flat and easily mailable.  I stamped the flowers, then sponged that whole panel while making the flowers darker, and then I used the script stamp from French Foliage to fill in the empty spaces around the flowers a bit.  Didn't take long and I like how it turned out, all with just one color of ink.  I ran the edges of the panel on my Basic Black ink pad to give them a little definition on the card front.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Paired with the Color Throwdown:

I used Basic Black, Crushed Curry, and Marina Mist for the colors.  At first I thought this combo was really similar to the one I had trouble with earlier this week, but I think my problem with that one was mustard + silver.  Granted, today I used Crushed Curry instead of Delightful Dijon (lighter kind of mustard, maybe) but I think I like it a lot better with black than silver.

Well, I'm gonna take my sweet hubs out to dinner tonight for date night.  Cheers,  y'all!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Choose Happiness, French Foliage
Ink:  Basic Black, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Basic Black, Marina Mist, Very Vanilla, Beau Chateau DSP
Accessories:  None

2016 Showcase, Part 1

Mornin', y'all.  I have entered the phase of pregnancy when I'm tired all the time but CANNOT SLEEP more than 3 hours a night.  I swear this kid kicked me around 4:30 this morning so hard that I heard a noise when he did it.  Not even exaggerating.

Happily for me, it's time to do the annual look back at favorite projects from the year.  Most challenges are on hiatus until January and I haven't spent much time in my craft room so this is a great time to not worry about making something new :)  So today let's take a look back at cards from January through April.

This card was for my SIL's baby shower in January; my niece's nursery is decorated with ladybugs but I did this card with the colors we used for her Cinderella baby shower.

I loved this card from February, I don't use big bold sentiments like that too terribly often and this one just speaks to me.

For March, this punch art bear wins the prize for my favorite card of the month.  I actually just sent this one to my friend Missy a few weeks ago, how I managed to hold onto it for 9 months before I mailed it to her I really don't know!

And last up for today is this card from April, which was inspired by the color palette of a bathroom in Disneyland.  Inspiration is everywhere!

I'm off to the gym.  Hubs and I made sticky toffee pudding on Monday night and I feel like I need to live at the gym for a week to offset that.  Cheers, y'all!

Floral Wishes

How are you this rainy Wednesday morning?  I'd better bust a move if I want to get to my 11:00 gym class, so I'm gonna make this fast.

I was perusing my retiring stamps this morning looking for something to go with the color challenge I'd picked out, and I came across Choose Happiness which I haven't used very much and voila!  This card was born.  Petite Pairs is retiring too, but luckily our beloved Hardwood is sticking around for another year.

All of the cardstock (except the mat on the main image) is Thick Whisper White; I just scribbled some marker on acrylic blocks, misted with water, and stamped it for the Calypso Coral and Night of Navy panels, which gave me lovely pastel versions of the colors.  Added bonus:  the water made some stripes appear on the paper, which is a happy accident.

Here's this week's Global Design Project color combo:

I do like these colors together, I saw a lady wearing this combination the other day.  (I'd totally wear an outfit in this palette too.)  I also used this week's Paper Players sketch:

And I'd better fly out the door.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Choose Happiness, Petite Pairs, Hardwood
Ink:  Night of Navy, Calypso Coral, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Sahara Sand
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, 2 1/2" circle punch, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Happy Watercolor

Happy Friday, y'all!  Well, I failed in my goal to have this post up before noon, but here it is anyway :)  Today's featured retired stamp set is the beautiful Happy Watercolor, which debuted in the 2014 Occasions catalog.  So let's take a look through the archives!

Also features Bodacious Bouquet

I think that sentiment stamp is my very favorite stamp in Happy Watercolor.  That stamp makes me happy :)

Also features Postage Collection

I love orchids.  They will forever remind me of living in Japan, where the Make-Man Store had beautiful orchids in a huge variety of colors and some of the plants were as cheap as 500 yen (about five dollars at the time).

Also features Hardwood

And poppies remind me of living in England.  They grow all over the place in late fall and of course they sell plastic ones to put on your jacket for Remembrance Day (which is like the US Veterans' Day).

So even though I post things on here five (and lately six) days a week, somehow I still don't use some stamp sets nearly as much as I might want to....like why isn't this Flashback a lot longer?  So it was fun to play with this stamp set again.  And both of my cards count for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

Easy peasy!  Happy Watercolor is just two years old, so not as retro as some other stamps but hey, it's over a year old so it counts :)

First up is another orchid card!  We have an orchid in our kitchen right now.  I'm very surprised I haven't killed it yet, but it's got three blooms on it so yay us.  I almost called this post a Friday Frustration though because I was all done with this card when I decided to put some Wink of Stella on the flowers (because hey, I've got that pen now so let's wink up everything!) and then the pen BARFED all over my image panel!  So I had to rip that off and re-do all of the stamping and coloring.  Then I was much more carefuller (haha) and managed to give it a little bit of shimmer without having glitter barf all over everything.

Anyway, thank you to the lovely folks at Fusion for this inspiration photo:

Yay orchids!  I love the color on that vase on the left too, I wish we had that exact color in cardstock and ink.  I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I suppose I wanted to make up for yesterday's lack of motivation, and I didn't realize that it was already pretty late in the morning because I decided to make a second card for today's Flashback.

And darn it all if this one didn't take multiple tries too!  I used the color combination from Global Design Project:

You can probably tell from my two new cards today that I'm kind of in love with that diagonal stripe patterned paper.  What can I say?  It makes me happy too.  I always try to make the stripes point upwards though because that looks "happier" to me.  Maybe I over-think it.

This was attempt #1 on the poppy (I finished up with attempt #3).  The Tangelo Twist came out more orangey in this one which I liked better (it seemed to get a little muddier the more I stamped with it?) but I just didn't like the placement of the sentiment.  If I had stamped the poppy on there first, I would have moved the sentiment up and over a bit, but I stamped the sentiment first and then it just didn't work for me so I had to redo it.  Bleargh.

Well, I've got lots of errands to run today and my little girl dog Sadie just came in and reminded me that today is her 10th birthday and I owe my birthday dog a walk.  A long walk she says, not like yesterday's short one.  Who am I to deny the birthday dog?  So off we walk.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, orchid card:
Stamps:  Happy Watercolor
Ink:  Basic Black, Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Tip Top Taupe
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Thick Whisper White, Blushing Bride DSP
Accessories:  Wink of Stella glitter pen (clear), Dimensionals, hexagon punch, Party Pennants Bigz die (still available on the clearance rack)

Supplies, poppy card:
Stamps:  Happy Watercolor
Ink:  Tangelo Twist, Bermuda Bay, Early Espresso
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Early Espresso, Shimmery White, Tangelo Twist DSP
Accessories:  Hexagon punch, rhinestones, Dimensionals

Just Hanging Around

Ya know, sometimes I get an idea stuck in my head and I just have to make it as soon as possible.  And sometimes that idea turns into a bear hanging out on a card.  Like this.

I don't hardly ever do punch art, but I got the idea for this bear and it just wouldn't leave me alone, and when I saw this week's color challenge at Create With Connie and Mary, I couldn't resist making a black Baylor bear card.

Well, it doesn't have green, but I think Hello Honey is close enough to gold :)  Basically I pulled out every single SU! circle punch I have and just experimented with different sizes for my bear.  The black part of the eyes is actually a Word Window punch cut in pieces to fit on the smallest circle punch I have, and then the toes are made with a little hole punch.  I'm kind of in love with the hearts for the  nose and feets.  I wanted to use Hardwood for the background, but I didn't want it to be overpowering, so I used a sponge to ink up the stamp and that worked out way better than I even thought it would so yay.

The sketch at Fab Friday was actually what gave me the idea for the bear, but I'm too late to link up over there:

And my bear is a bit of a stretch on the sketch anyway, but I do still have elements above and below the horizontal strip.  Ah well, I love how my bear turned out and I hope you liked her too :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello, Botanicals for You, Hardwood
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Hello Honey, Whisper White
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Cajun Craze, Hello Honey, Basic Black
Accessories:  multiple circle punches, Word Window punch, hole punch, Itty Bitty Punch Pack heart

Always There

Soooo peeps, I'm up early today.  I didn't do hardly anything at all yesterday thanks to the nasty headache I had, but eventually it let up in the afternoon and I made this card to share today.  Lookie:

I got the sentiment stamp set Me = Grateful on my last SU! order, I love the range of sentiments and the pretty fonts.

And the set is designed so you have one stamp for the front of the card and another for the inside if you so desire :)

My color combo today is courtesy of Cupcake Inspirations:

I used Delightful Dijon (not exactly peach, but the closest I could get with current SU! colors), Melon Mambo, and Soft Suede.

The layout is from Sketch Frenzy Friday:

I suppose I could have switched around the stamps so the smaller "thanks for being you" was on the card front and it matched the sketch a little better size-wise, but oh well.  I like it the way it is.

Now the question is what am I going to do with all this extra time today since I'm up so early.  Maybe I'll go take a nap, it's still dark outside...

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Vintage Leaves, Me = Grateful, Hardwood
Ink:  Soft Suede, Melon Mambo, Delightful Dijon
Paper:  Soft Suede, Melon Mambo, Delightful Dijon, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Circles & Leaflets Framelits