Kiwi Valentine

Mornin' y'all!  Posting a bit late today as I had to go to the store this morning...I do NOT have the ingredients for chicken taco soup memorized (whereas I think I could make the beef taco soup in my sleep!), so I had to get a few things for that and the hubs has challenged me to make from-scratch cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfast this weekend.  This will definitely be a challenge for me but I have the ingredients now, so that's the first step.

Speaking of food, that's what's on my card today.

I knew I wanted to use the kiwi stamps for my card, so I came up with a color combination that I thought would be nice:  Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa, Lemon Lime Twist, and black.  Dunno why, but the combination appealed to me.  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I've had the Addicted to CAS challenge in the back of my mind ever since it was posted, so I'm glad I finally got a card made for it:

I had pulled out the retired Hello Kiwi stamp set I think at least twice over the past week or so before I finally got my card made for today.  I think 2026 is going to be the year of the retired stamp sets...and why not?  They still work perfectly well and I might as well use them, right?  Doesn't really matter if I'm using current stamps or not since no one I send cards to would know the difference or care about it, so I'm just going to use what makes me happy.

Daphne is looking quite eager to take her daily perambulation, so I'm going to go grab her leash and make her a happy pupper.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello Kiwi
Ink:  Lemon Lime Twist, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pretty in Pink, Thick Basic White, Close to Cocoa DSP
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals

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

Kiwi Blackberry Greetings

Mornin' y'all, how was your Cinco de Mayo?  As expected, Ryan ate one single bite of enchilada loaf whilst literally holding his nose, but that just means more for the rest of us.  Except tonight is Taco Tuesday night, can't skip that.

How about some fruit?

I was inspired to break out my Hello Kiwi stamp set by the most recent Inspired By... challenge:

I took the purple and green colors and general theme for my card, and just did a pseudo-collage of stamped and fussy cut images, one die cut greeting, and some In Color Gems (from when Fresh Freesia was an In Color) over some lightly stamped splatters.  Quick and easy but I like it pretty well.  I really like Fresh Freesia so it was fun to make a card with that color as the main focus.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Ryan has a doctor's appointment this morning so we have to get out of the house earlier than usual, so I'm going to go tell him to get ready.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello Kiwi
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Fresh Freesia, Lemon Lime Twist, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, In Color Gems

Kiwi Berry Greeting

Howdy, y'all!  I didn't get to do anything in my craft room yesterday with Ryan being out of school (he will be fine and he's not contagious, so he's back at school today sporting approximately 3,497 Band-Aids where he itches) so I just made this card a few minutes ago.  Take a look:

Last day to order Hello Kiwi if you haven't already!  I think it's so fun and I wish I had played with it more since I bought it, but that's usually how it goes.  Maybe I get too many different stamp sets?  NAAHHHH that's not it.

Anyway, check out Joanne's fun sketch for the Paper Players this week and my goodness I cannot type today, you're lucky you can't see all my typos.

I really like the mood board at Inkspirational, too:

The two pictures of rainbow-colored macarons had me thinking of food (for reals, I pulled out four stamp sets when I was deciding which one to use for the challenges and all four were food-related) and I loved all the colors together.  I knew from the jump that I wanted to use the pattern with the big dots for my background and built the card from there.

Okay, I'm going to run back upstairs and work on some more stuff because I know I will be busy most of the day tomorrow while Ryan is at school so I won't have a chance to craft.  Well really part of the day I will be crafting, I'm going to my mom's house and she's going to teach me how she finishes cross stitch pieces into Christmas ornaments.  But I won't be in my craft room.  And I have THREE scrapbook layouts on the floor in there just waiting for titles and journaling, so I wanna get that done.

Cheers, y'all!  For some reason I'm hungry now too...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello Kiwi
Ink:  Lemon Lime Twist, Berry Burst, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Shiny Sequins, Dimensionals

Happy Kiwi, Happy Craft Room

Hey y'all!  Usually today would be Scrappy Monday, but after a lot of work last week I got my craft room about 95% ready to rock and I just had to jump in on a couple of challenges before they close.  So here's my first card made since I got my craft table and everything else : )

I took advantage of the one-day stamp sale even though I didn't have a functional craft room, and Hello Kiwi is one of my new acquisitions.  (I am currently awaiting the arrival of my holiday catty preorder, don't tell the hubs on me.)  I used last week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And as usual, I paired that with the Color Throwdown:

These colors look autumnal to me, but I wanted an excuse to use new stamps.  I used Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, and Pecan Pie for my colors.

So over the last two weeks, I have unpacked the house and gotten things mostly organized.  Every time we move, I pack up my ink pads--a rubber band around each one to keep it closed, and each ink pad goes in a plastic baggie.  (Knowing how often we move, I keep the baggies in a tub, and when I prep for the next move I reuse the baggies and toss the prepped ink pads in the tub for shipment.)  And this is why I do that:

It's a bit tedious getting all the ink pads prepped, especially since I have all the retired colors too, but this is why I do it.

Instead of having purple ink all over everything, I was able to easily rinse off this one ink pad and move on with getting everything organized.  I think I've only had two or three ink pads leak like this while in transit, but again, I didn't get ink all over anything but one ink pad each time.  So there's your moving tip.

And here's what my craft room looks like this morning:

Big difference from the picture I shared last week!  My file cabinets have been quite beat up and one is missing a drawer handle, so I think I'll be getting new ones in the next couple of months.  And this is the last house for those three bookshelves too, the movers finally damaged them terminally.  The top of one is totally broken, but I can use the shelves for the next year.  So when we get ready to move next summer, I'll buy some new bookshelves but I'll just leave them unassembled until we get to wherever we're going, and these shelves will get tossed.  I'm pretty sure I've had them since before I got married, so they're over 20 years old and have weathered about 10 moves now (including 3 different countries).  So they've had a pretty long life.

Anyway, I took a bit of time this morning to make one card, and now I'm going to the Y to take a yoga class.  I've been working very hard for the last two weeks, so it's time to do a bit of self-care.  I'll be back to work on the last bit of organization this afternoon.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello Kiwi
Ink:  Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, Classic Matte Dots