CAS Christmas, Part 1

So I mentioned yesterday that the hubs asked me to make 65 Christmas cards for his work...well, more like winter holiday cards, not Christmas specific.  I managed to make ALLLLLLL of them yesterday.  I did five cards which are all basically the same one-layer CAS design, I just used different stamps so I only made 13 of each card.  That made me feel like I was making progress when I switched to a different design, and it kept me from completely running out of any single color of cardstock since I hadn't specifically planned for this project.  I have a very large stamp collection, so it took me quite some time to go through all my winter stamps and settle on images and sentiments for the five designs.  Almost all the stamps I ended up choosing are retired.

Here's card #1!  I used the cute cabin image from Cozy Christmas and a sentiment from the still current set Poinsettia Petals on Crumb Cake cardstock.

This was actually design #5 but I wanted to pair these two together and share the other three designs later this week.  For this one I used Serene Snowflakes and Hugs & Wishes for the greeting.  Inside of both of these designs I stamped "Season's Greetings" from Bright & Beautiful.

Very simple design, but it had to be for me to make 65 cards in a single day, and I think they're still reasonably cute.  Now I just need to sign the insides of them and see what the hubs wants as far as envelopes...

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies for first card, all SU!
Stamps:  Cozy Christmas, Poinsettia Petals, Bright & Beautiful
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Early Espresso
Paper:  Crumb Cake
Accessories:  None

Supplies for second card, all SU!
Stamps:  Serene Snowflakes, Hugs & Wishes, Bright & Beautiful
Ink:  Fresh Freesia, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  None

Friday Flashback: Bella's Bloom

Happy Friday and welcome to the Friday Flashback!  This week's stamp set is a super-cute little set called Bella's Bloom. 

Also features All Holidays

Here's a quick 5-minute CAS card...

Also features Hugs & Wishes, Bella Toile

And something a little more involved, and then the archives were empty.  So here is my new Bella's Bloom creation:

It's more on the CAS side again but I like it.  I used this week's Color Throwdown:

I interpreted the color swatches as Melon Mambo, Lost Lagoon, and Basic Black.  It reminds me of a lot of the cross stitch patterns I have from Stoney Creek, it seems like their color of choice for the leaves and stems on roses is always more in the blue-green area rather than straight green.

I also used this week's Retro Rubber Challenge:

I got Bella's Bloom when it debuted in the fall of 2008, so it's 7 1/2 years old, and I've had Curly Cute probably since 2010 or 2011, so both of my stamp sets for today are suitably retro for this challenge.

See you here tomorrow for another baby book layout!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Bella's Bloom, Curly Cute
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Lost Lagoon, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Shimmery White
Accessories:  Brights Candy Dot

Friday Flashback: True Friend

Happy Friday, peeps.  For this week's Friday Flashback, our retired stamp set is True Friend which came out in the 2007 holiday mini catalog so this one's quite the oldie.  Grab your cuppa tea and let's Flashback!

Also features Hugs & Wishes

Starting off with a cute and simple set of cards that you could do in any color.  I like 'em.  (Mom, something like this might be good for your Christmas card project...)

Also features Priceless, Polka Dot

A fun and bright birthday card...

Also features Happy Everything & Boho Friend Wheel

And one more for good measure.  Can ya tell I like that big flower.

And here's a few of the other stamps in the set.  I do like the "true friend" sentiment but I haven't used it much.

Also features Wonderful Favorites, Flannel Plaid, Itty Bitty Backgrounds

Not my favorite card, it was for a combination SCS sketch and color challenge and this sketch just didn't do anything for me.

Also features Paisley, Warm Words

And the last card of the Flashback has lots o' layers.  I miss the ticket corner punch.

So for today's new project, I bring you a scrapbook layout:

Yay me getting more pages done.  This is the first layout I've made with pictures from this year; these were taken last spring in Alabama.  I wish I'd gotten the spacing a bit better on the stamped part of the title, and really the purple letters show up better IRL than they do in the picture (it was very overcast and kinda dark when I took the photo).  I do love the color combination I used:

Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, and Lavender Lace.  This layout came together pretty fast once I'd picked the patterned papers I wanted to use.

And that's all she wrote this week, peeps.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, Spring layout only:
Stamps:  True Friend, Sweet Shoppe Alphabet
Ink:  Rose Red, Chocolate Chip marker
Paper:  Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette, Lavender Lace, Bali Breeze DSP, Pink Pirouette DSP
Accessories:  non-SU lettering template

Friday Flashback: Garden Silhouettes

Good morning, everybody!  It's Friday Flashback time, and this week's randomly chosen retired stamp set (RCRSS?  Nah, that doesn't work) is Garden Silhouettes, which is kind of a companion set to Stem Silhouettes (or at least, I often use them together).  So let's take a peek in the archives, shall we?

Ah, the shaving cream technique background.  Fun, right?  You put a layer of shaving cream on a paper plate and then add a few drops of ink refill and swirl them around, then smoosh glossy cardstock in it.  Scrape off the shaving cream and you're left with this neat swirly background.  I should do this again...oh yeah, use the cheap white foam shaving cream for this, not some fancy-dancy gel stuff : )  Sentiment on this one was from Hugs & Wishes.

I made this one for one of those "color" challenges that makes me roll my eyes, where there's only one color and two neutrals.  Not that I mind doing cards like that from time to time, but when you do that for six weeks in a row it gets old.  I think color challenges should have multiple colors in them, not neutrals. *steps off very colorful soapbox*  Sentiment from Fabulous Flowers.

Ooh, purple.  I miss Almost Amethyst, Lavender Lace and Lovely Lilac.   Sentiment on this one was from Fancy Flexible Phrases.

Here's another one color/two neutrals card, very simple because I think I was making Mother's Day cards at the last minute.  That sounds like me.

So here's today's brand new creation:

The colors are this week's SCS color challenge (now with multiple colors!):  Soft Sky (bring back Baja Breeze!!), So Saffron, and Summer Starfruit.  When I first read that, I thought EWWW and couldn't imagine what to do with them.  Then I got the cardstock colors out and what do you know, the So Saffron turns the Summer Starfruit into a green color, hmm.   So I actually liked that color combo a whole lot more than I thought I would.  I kept wanting to add more stuff to this card but it insisted that it was done like this, so I said okay.

I used last Friday's Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch:

I think I love this sketch.  I've got some ideas to use it again.  Anyway, for today's card I moved the banner flaggy thing over to the right side because otherwise all the Summer Starfruit would have been on the same side of the card and I thought it just worked better with my design to have it on the other side.  I used up some DSP scraps too, that Starfruit strip was straight out of the scrap pile, all I did was flag the end.  Yay for using up a small scrap!

Anyway, that's enough yammering for me today.  Since it is our tenth wedding anniversary today (yay us!), hubs and I are heading out to Liverpool for the weekend.  Wonder if he'd mind listening to the Beatles the whole way there...

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, last card only, all SU!
Stamps:  Garden Silhouettes, Noteworthy
Ink:  Summer Starfruit, Soft Sky
Paper:  Soft Sky, Whisper White, retired So Saffron & Summer Starfruit DSP
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, I forget the name of the butterfly Embosslit thingie

Friday Flashback: Fifth Avenue Floral

It's time for another Friday Flashback!  Today's randomly-chosen stamp set is Fifth Avenue Floral, and yet again I'm surprised I don't have more stuff in my archives because this is a really pretty stamp set.  Let's take a look at what I've got, shall we?

I made this for a swap, probably right when Fifth Avenue Floral made its debut in the SU catalog.  Not hard to make a pretty card with this stamp set, amirite?  My only problem was I thought the DSP I used coordinated with Sahara Sand and then after I'd stamped all my floral pieces, I realized the DSP was actually Crumb Cake, so I had to re-stamp the whole set because my OCD wouldn't let me not be all matchy-matchy.  Oops.

But it all worked out because I used the Sahara Sand pieces to make cards to send out to my SU customers.  I just couldn't toss all those perfectly good stamped bits!

Some while later, I made this one for my friend Connie for her birthday.  I was in a hurry so I CASE'd those two earlier cards to make this one.  So that's it for the archives, but it's longer than last week's Friday Flashback ;)  I could have sworn I had used that one stripey flower for a scrapbook layout, but I went through my scrapbook pages three times and I couldn't find it on any of my pages.  At this point, given my week-long battle with insomnia, I may be delusional about that scrapbook page.

Anywhoo, how about a brand-new card!

Dang, that photo is slightly out of focus on the bottom.  Shoulda taken an extra shot for insurance but oh well, you get the gist.  I realized in looking at the archives that I'd never actually colored the flowers in (unless it was on that mythical scrapbook layout, snort) so today I pulled out an oldie from the technique files:  polished stone.  I'm sad that the glossy white cardstock is retiring because you have to have that to do polished stone, which is a technique I love.  The flower is done with Summer Starfruit and Primrose Petals ink refills, and then stamped with Raspberry Ripple for the outline and cut out.  Really fast way to color the flower and get a unique result every time!

Let's hear it for last week's Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch:

It's pretty layer-licious for my tastes but I just had to give it a go with that giant rose.  And the two strips behind the flower were a great way to use some more Print Poetry DSP, because I need to either a.) buy less DSP (yeah like that's gonna happen) or b.) use more of what I've got (I think I could actually do that one).

The color combo is from the hot-off-the-presses Fab Friday color challenge:

My challenge was working in the Soft Suede; if left to my own devices, I would have stamped the sentiment in Primrose Petals.  But I managed to hit all five colors on this challenge and didn't add any extras, can I get a whoop whoop!  :D  So given the stamp sent name and the challenges, this card is a Fab Frenzy Floral Flashback, bwahahahaa!

Thanks for joining me on today's Friday Flashback, have a fabby-dabby weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Fifth Avenue Floral, Elementary Elegance
Ink:  Raspberry Ripple & Soft Suede ink pads, Primrose Petals & Summer Starfruit ink refills
Paper:  Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit, Glossy White, Print Poetry DSP, Neutrals DSP Stack (the vanilla piece is actually DSP with subtle stripes on it)
Accessories:  Modern Label punch

Friday Flashback: Pocket Silhouettes

Hooray for another Friday Flashback!  Today's retired stamp set of choice is Pocket Silhouettes, a cute little set which retired not all that long ago if I remember correctly.  Let's open up the archives, shall we?

This first card is my favorite of the cards I have for today (much more so than the new card, but we'll get to that).  The one thing I'd change is just tying the ribbon 'round the DSP layer rather than the whole card front, and shortening the pierced line a little bit so it didn't go edge-to-edge on the image panel.  Well, I guess that's two things.  But I like the color combo:  Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, and Chocolate Chip even though it looks black.

Pretty sure this was for a combo color/sketch challenge and to be honest I kinda wonder why everyone else on the cardmaking planet is so in love with Crumb Cake.  I think it's okay I guess, but this much of it I think is drab.  And so MANY of the SCS "color" challenges are Crumb Cake, white or vanilla, and only one actual color (as opposed to a neutral).  YAWN.

And here's today's card, which is also a bit of a yawner to me.  I love Taken with Teal (retired, sniffle!) and Close to Cocoa (also retired, another sniffle!) but this card strikes me as trying too hard to catch up on the old SCS color and sketch challenges, and it just doesn't do anything for me.  Oh well, not every card can be your favorite, right?

Thanks for joining me on today's Friday Flashback!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Pocket Silhouettes
Ink:  Taken with Teal (marker, because my TWT ink pad does this weird shade that looks more like Baja Breeze, what's up with that?!) and Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Taken with Teal, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, retired Close to Cocoa DSP
Accessories:  Triple Flower punch (retired), Word Window punch, Neutrals brads