Sassy Llama

Not too long ago, our friend B hit his head while working in his garage and managed to give himself a concussion.  He's fine now, but he did have to miss a couple of days of work.  And his birthday is coming up soon, so I made him a card yesterday.

Okay, fun llama and a punny greeting, but here's what I put on the inside...

I couldn't help it ; )  B joked with the hubs after hubs' brain surgery and really helped spread the Numbskull nickname at work (they work in the same building), much to hubs' dismay, so I think this is perfect.  And as karmic payback, I was helping Ryan to tie his snow boots yesterday and when I stood up I whacked the back of my head on the kitchen counter.  I, at least, did not concuss myself, but head trauma is apparently contagious.

Anyway, I used the new sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

I didn't make my card a slimline because I just don't like making slimline cards (I know, I'm a minority of one, but it's my craft room and I make the rules in there).  The Creative Colour Challenges palette this week is pretty firmly in the Man Rainbow so I used that:

The Man Rainbow is gray, black, navy blue, and khaki; we'll let Boho Blue slide in there as Man Rainbow adjacent.  And since I made a sassy llama card yesterday afternoon, in the evening I watched a sassy llama movie.  You know which one I'm talking about, right?

Daphne is asking me very politely but insistently to go on a walk, and who am I to tell her no.  So that's what we're going to do now.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Llama Drama from The Ink Road
Ink:  Basic Gray, Boho Blue
Paper:  Boho Blue, Basic Gray, Thick Basic White, Lily Pad Lane DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, In Color gems, Wink of Stella on the sunglasses

Nashville & Gatlinburg

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I was hoping to get a lot done this weekend, but instead I spent over four hours yesterday looking for a specific photo.  I did eventually find it, but of course by then I had used up almost all my scrappy time :p  At least now I have everything I need to get started on the next layout.

But for today, we are once again going way back to 2004.  This one will come up right after last week's layout in my albums:

Pics are from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and the Guinness World Record Museum in Gatlinburg.  My page base is non-SU cardstock; my brain insisted that I needed a specific shade of greenish blue, which I found in my small stash of cardstock left over from when I worked in a local scrapbook store while in college (back in the day when local scrapbook stores were a thing).

For the color palette, I put Tranquil Tide in there because it was the closest SU color to what I actually used.  The other colors are Almost Amethyst (which I chose because of the color of Patsy Cline's dress), So Saffron, Mint Macaron, and Whisper White.  I'm pleased I had a reason to use one of the Musical Instruments Framelits, that treble clef is pretty great.

Well, kiddo and I will be off to the Y soon to get our week started.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Labeler Alphabet
Ink:  Basic Gray
Paper:  Non-SU blue-green, Mint Macaron, Almost Amethyst, So Saffron, Thick Whisper White, Tea Party DSP
Accessories:  Musical Instruments Framelits

Tennessee Sightseeing

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Didja have a good holiday?  While Ryan was taking naps over the past several days, I got some good progress made on both my stitching and my scrapbook pages.  I'm at 94 pages for the year now :)

And for today I have another layout of older pictures, these from 2004:

When we moved to North Carolina the first time, we took the scenic route through Tennessee and just stopped whenever something looked interesting, so on the left are pictures from Memphis and on the right are pictures from the Casey Jones museum.  I busted out an old, old pack of patterned paper called Western Star, love it.

Today's color palette is almost entirely retired, but still great for a red-white-blue layout:  Ruby Red, Not Quite Navy, Blue Bayou, River Rock, and Whisper White.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Labeler Alphabet, Words of Courage
Ink:  Not Quite Navy
Paper:  Ruby Red, Blue Bayou, River Rock, Thick Whisper White, Western Star DSP
Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits

Broken Elbow

Hey y'all!  I've been working hard on scrapbook pages this week, which is why I had no card to post yesterday.  But over the weekend one of my honorary nieces fell off her bike and broke her elbow, so I needed a card to send her.

The idea of an octopus card for a broken elbow just amused me, so I went with it.  I wish the sentiment was a wee bit smaller, I think the card feels kinda crowded but Abby is 8 so she won't care :)  I used the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

And the color challenge from Global Design Project:

I inked up Gus (the octopus) with Pineapple Punch ink, then used a sponge dauber to add some Granny Apple Green to his arms.  I made the sea background with a sponge brayer, but I had to add a little bit of Pacific Point because the Night of Navy on its own was reading too dark and not obviously blue.  After I did the brayer, I spritzed it with water, sprinkled on some table salt, and let it dry while I worked on the other parts of the card.

And here's a sneak peek of the layout I'm working on:

I changed how the pictures are laid out, added patterned paper and photo mats, and now it's ready for some accents and journaling.  But there you can see my phone (which was playing Disney music) and up at the top my (empty) Tinker Bell tea mug, and Rapunzel my desk princess.  Oh yeah, to the left of the mug is a Maleficent Hot Wheels car...I bought it for Ryan but by the time we got home I decided it was too cool for a two-year-old so it's mine now.  Haha!  I have a collection of Maleficent swag.

Okay, enough blah-blah.  Have a great day, folks!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea of Textures, Labeler Alphabet
Ink:  Pineapple Punch, Granny Apple Green, Night of Navy, Pacific Point
Paper:  Pineapple Punch, Granny Apple Green, Crumb Cake, Shimmery White, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Under the Sea Framelits, Mini Dimensionals

Advice from Dory

Hey y'all!  Hope you had a good Easter yesterday.  We had a really tough week last week (I was sick, the hubs was ridiculously busy at work and exhausted by Saturday) so we didn't do anything for Easter other than make a ham for dinner.  Ryan doesn't know what he's missing as far as Easter baskets and egg hunts go, and he got to pet the neighbors' bunny so he was happy.

Usually it's Scrappy Monday here, but this week that will be on Tuesday instead.  I found a couple of challenges that I just *had* to do and I want to make sure I get to enter my card in both of them before they expire : )  With that, here's a little aquatic advice:

I dusted off Ocean Commotion, which has been retired for years but I love it.  And here's the Fusion challenge that prompted me to ink it up again:

And the Color Throwdown was just too perfect with the Fusion challenge!

I used Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, and Blueberry Bushel as my colors.  The Tangerine Tango embossing powder has been retired for quite some time as well, but it was fun to play with it on this card.  For the background, I took a piece of Shimmery White cardstock and brayered the heck out of it with Blueberry Bushel ink, stamped and embossed the coral, and then flicked a bit of water on it, but the water spots didn't come out as well as I wanted them to.  Still, I'm happy that somehow I managed to get a photo that shows the shimmery part of the ocean : )

Scrapbook layout coming up tomorrow.  I finally took pictures of a whole bunch of layouts over the weekend so I have lots to choose from!  And I feel like I am once again making some scrappy progress, which makes me happy.  Maybe I'll actually finish Ryan's baby book by the time he turns 3!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ocean Commotion, Labeler Alphabet
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Crushed Curry, Versamark
Paper:  Shimmery White, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Tangerine Tango EP, Dimensionals

Baby Love!

Mornin' y'all!  I must admit, I've lately been obsessed with a new project--I'm stitching Disney Princess bookmarks for my friend Tiana and her girls so I've been concentrating on those (since...Sunday) and not wanting to do anything else.  BUT!  A friend announced her pregnancy on Facebook this weekend so I decided to make a card for her.  And just because I can (and I love these feets), I broke out some older retired stamps for this card.

The Gingham Gala paper and the ribbon are new (though sadly the ribbon pack is no longer available, it was a super-popular Sale-a-Bration option apparently) but like I said, the stamps are old.  But I don't know that there will ever be a more perfect baby card stamp than those feets, I just love 'em.  I took my color combo from the ribbon and paper:  Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lime Twist, and Grapefruit Grove.  Grapefruit Grove is kinda pinkish, but it's not a frilly girly pink to me if that makes sense, so I think this works as a gender-neutral baby card.  I hope.

I used this week's sketch from Global Design Project:

And the theme challenge at Retro Rubber:

I admit that I'm stretching their theme just a teensy bit but I was singing "Baby Love" to myself the whole time I was making it so I hope that the kind ladies at Retro Rubber will forgive me.  I *did* use ribbon, and the card does say love on it ;). I got Baby Prints in 2012, so it's 7 years old now, and Beyond the Basics is even more retro since I've had it since 2008.  Labeler Alphabet is just one year old so it's a relative baby in my craft room.

Ryan and I are off to the gym today and maybe I'll get to try out my new BlueTooth wireless headphones that hubs gave me for my birthday.  I was supposed to test-drive them yesterday but I lost my brain and left the headphones at home when I went to the gym.  Sigh.  Today is a new day though!

Cheers, y'all!  Don't forget your headphones.

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  Baby Prints, Beyond the Basics, Labeler Alphabet
Ink:  Lemon Lime Twist, Grapefruit Grove
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Whisper White, Gingham Gala DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Sale-a-Bration ribbon, Dimensionals

Welcome to Okinawa & 2019 Goals

Howdy, y'all!  I've been enjoying a bit of a break with the holidays but I should be starting back up with the ol' blog next week.  In the meantime, here's a layout that I finally got photographed yesterday:

This was from January 2008, so 11 years ago now and we still have these two crazies.  I used the Wintergreen DSP again and I'm seriously thinking about looking for more on eBay or something because I has a sad when I think how close I am to being out of it.  And there's my favorite paw print stamp, I don't even know who makes it but I use it a lot on my doggy scrapbook pages.  (Yes I am making a scrapbook for my dogs...well really it's for me but it's all dog pictures.  I don't care if you think I'm crazy, I love my fur babies.)

Color palette is almost straight out of the patterned paper:  Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Always Artichoke, and Night of Navy (navy is not in the paper but I like it with all those greens and blues).  I would never have put Certainly Celery and Always Artichoke together on my own, but I do really like how it looks.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Labeler Alphabet, Whimsical Alphabet Upper, non-SU paw print
Ink:  Always Artichoke, Night of Navy
Paper:  Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Wintergreen DSP
Accessories:  Circle Punches





Okay, so instead of resolutions, I have GOALS for 2019 and a lot of them are paper craft-related, so I'm sharing them here so I have them written down somewhere and I can keep myself accountable.

Goals for scrapbooking!
1.  Make 200 scrapbook pages (so 100 double-page layouts).  I got fairly close to that in 2018 (178 finished, 8 more just need journaling but I'm bugging the hubs to do that this weekend), so I think I can do this as long as I keep at it regularly.
2.  Finish Ryan's baby book.  I pretty much finished June so I've got 8 months left to do.  And then I'll start sharing those here when I finish up the China posts on Sundays.
3.  Work on getting my pictures organized.  I've done a lot of organization on them, but I know we have a LOT of extra pictures...like, we don't need 75 nearly identical shots of Neuschwanstein, and I can cull out blurry pictures and stuff too so when I'm looking for something in particular it won't take me forever to find it.  I also need to organize recent photos of Ryan and order them so I have even MORE photos to scrapbook ;)  I'm hoping to make the organization progress a weekly thing, like on Sunday mornings we have muffins or pancakes or waffles or whatever for breakfast, so I can work on the photos for a bit while I eat breakfast on Sundays.  That's my plan.

Goal for reading!
1.  End the year with fewer unread books on my Kindle than I started, so the number to beat is 125.  Basically I want to read faster than I buy books, haha.  Ummm so is now the time to mention that I just got two more books for free with Kindle First and yesterday my friend alerted me to another free book so I'm already +3?  Yeah this goal is going well.  At least those three books were all free?

Goal for cross stitching!
1.  Finish The Accolade.  I started working on this in 2011, and I've put in 18 months of work on it over the past 7+ years, and this year I'm going to FINISH IT.  I've got several projects in mind when that one is done, but here's my progress pic on it:

I'm about 78% done, hope to finish it by this summer.

So.  Five goals.  I think they're all reasonable as long as I keep them in mind as I go along this year.  With that in mind, I have the supplies for my next layout on my craft table right now, so I'm going to go get started.  Cheers, y'all!

We've Got Fun and Games

Hey, kids!  I'm typing this as fast as I can because the kidlet is making noise.  Thankfully he's not roaring yet...

AAAAAAHHHHHH I die of the cute.  I'm stuck on A Little Wild lately.  And also I can't wait to get more Stampin' Blends because that lion would look 500 times better colored with an alcohol marker.  Usually I watercolor, but for this card the lion needed to be a saturated color.

Anywha!  I used the Sunday Stamps sketch:

...I just realized that I tilted the DSP layer the opposite direction from the sketch.  Whoops!

I'm also entering this at SUO Challenges to make a card for babies or kids.  I think this would be adorable for a baby shower, what do you think?

Gotta run.  Cheers, folks!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  A Little Wild, Labeler Alphabet
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Crushed Curry, Flirty Flamingo, retired Blendabilities Crumb Cake marker
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Garden Green, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Tropical Escape DSP
Accessories:  Little Loves Framelits, Tropical Thinlits, Dimensionals

Target Inspiration

Happy Friday, y'all!  I've got a bright and cheery card to help us coast into the weekend.

Last week I saw a cup at Target that said "Squeeze the day" on it, and I actually wrote the phrase down on a Post-It Note stuck to the Lemon Zest stamp case so I'd remember it the next time I came across a good sketch to use it.  And happily for me, Freshly Made Sketches delivered one this week:

My orange was inked up with Mango Melody and then I used a sponge dauber to apply some Pumpkin Pie ink to the outer edges.  And then once I had it on my card front, I put some Wink of Stella on it to give it a bit of citrus shine.  I'm seriously loving the Tropical Escape DSP.  I liked this polka dot pattern to kind of coordinate with the weathered look on the stamps.

Hope you have a great Friday, folks.  Here in a little bit I'll be heading off to the gym to go run and then do yoga.  The lady who teaches my pilates and yoga classes told me on Wednesday that she can tell I'm getting stronger.  Always nice when someone else can tell you've been working hard!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lemon Zest, Labeler Alphabet
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Mango Melody, Pumpkin Pie, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Mango Melody, Thick Whisper White, Tropical Escape DSP
Accessories:  1 3/4" circle punch, Everyday Label punch, Lemon Builder punch, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Bonus Buzz

I don't usually post on Saturdays, but I had an idea yesterday that I just *had* to commit to paper so...bonus card this week!

Even my pun-hating husband thought this was at least mildly amusing.  Try as I might, I could not color-correct the photo; my pictures are pretty bad if I take them later in the afternoon like I did this one, but kid would NOT go down for a nap yesterday until 5 p.m.  And that's after he got up an hour earlier than usual yesterday morning!  So anyway, the card is just a white card base with Crushed Curry bees.

I'm revisiting the Cupcake Inspiration color challenge because it's perfect for this card:

This idea started buzzing around in my brain when I saw the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch:

Once I got the kid to go down for a nap this card took almost no time to make.  And I think it's still fun.  Right?

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Labeler Alphabet, A Little Wild
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  None

Hi Sweetie

Hey y'all!  How's your Thursday going?  I've got a sweet card for today.

I love this stamp set (A Little Wild) but haven't used it too often so I was happy to bust it out for today's card.  At first I wanted to make the sentiment say "Hello Sweetie" like River Song on Doctor Who, but I thought the "Hi" fit better with my other card elements.  And none of my friends are Doctor Who fans so they wouldn't get it anyway.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I paired it with the Color Throwdown:

I used Smoky Slate, So Saffron, and Soft Suede for my colors.  I'll let you in on a little secret:  I don't like gray and brown together.  My mom hates navy blue and black together, so I guess color combo aversions run in the family?  Whatever the case, I just don't like them together at all, so I wanted to try this challenge because it WAS a challenge for me to combine gray and brown in a way that didn't make my eye twitch.  My solution?  A little gray shadow for "ground" under the bear.  Heh.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  A Little Wild, Labeler Alphabet
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, So Saffron, Soft Suede, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, So Saffron
Accessories:  Little Loves Framelits, Dimensionals

Because I'm Punny

Happy Friday, y'all!  That holiday smack in the middle of the week threw me off.  I spent half of yesterday feeling like it was Monday again!  But today really is Friday and I have the fifth card in a row with a white card base.

And a pun.  No matter what my husband tells you, puns are FUNNY.

First up, I used the colors from this week's Color Throwdown:

Which means Night of Navy, Petal Pink (I'm somewhat obsessed with it right now TBH), gold and white.  I paired that with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I made mine a standard A2 card instead of square, and I'm counting the gold die cut flower as the layer behind the sentiment.  And for a nice surprise, my butterfly card from Monday was chosen as one of the winners for last week's sketch!  Yay!

Okay, my kiddo is making noises so it's time to get him up and feed us both breakfast.  Cheerios, peeps!  (because I'm punny again!)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sheet Music, Labeler Alphabet, Brushwork Alphabet, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Petal Pink, Night of Navy
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Petal Pink, Night of Navy, gold foil
Accessories:  Eclectic Layers Thinlits, metallic sequins, Tailored Tag punch, Dimensionals

Let's Flamingle

Mornin', y'all.  How's your Thursday going?  Ryan is already up and taking all the books off the bookshelf, but I'm going to allow it until I finish writing this blog post as long as he doesn't destroy anything.

Here is today's card:

I was at Wal-Mart the other day and saw a plastic cup with this written on it, which I thought was funny but now I wonder if this card sounds like a proposition? o.0  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I'm counting the leaves as the smaller rectangle layer on the sketch; I wanted more of the Melon Mambo stripes to show.

Here is this week's theme challenge from the Paper Players:

I think my card counts as clean, but simple might be a bit of a stretch since it does have multiple layers.  Nevertheless I was thinking of this challenge when I made it, and I discovered I have not a single solitary bird stamp that's in the current SU! catalog.  My flamingo retired at the end of may.

Finally, here is this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Petal Pink, which despite its name seems more peachy to me, Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, and Old Olive for my colors.

Okay, time to go rescue the books and feed Ryan his breakfast.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pop of Paradise (retired), Labeler Alphabet, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Petal Pink, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Petal Pink, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Melon Mambo DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Sing It With Me...

I showed this card to the hubs and he got it immediately.

Love potion number niiiiiiiiiiiiiine!  I had this idea for the Message in a Bottle stamp set *months* ago and I'm glad I finally got to make it.  Twice actually; I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out the first time so I tweaked some things and made it a second time.

Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I took a few liberties with the sketch but all the elements are there.  And I had to revisit the Sunday Stamps color challenge:

This time I used a Painted with Love pattern that has alllll the colors in it :)

Happy Friday, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Message in a Bottle, Labeler Alphabet, Labels to Love
Ink:  Powder Pink, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Powder Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Painted with Love DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals