Balloon Bonus

Bonus post!  When I made my hot air balloon card earlier this week, I had at first stamped the greeting in Night of Navy before switching it to Gorgeous Grape, but then I decided I should make another balloon card with the navy greeting so here we are:

The CAS on Friday challenge is to use only dies and a greeting stamp, so I went with the big balloon dies and added a few clouds for good measure.  And this still fits in the Addicted to CAS challenge:

And that's it for me today, I have the kettle on and I'm going to go eat lunch.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Full of Life DSP Stack
Accessories:  Up & Away dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Hot Air Balloon Ride

Mornin' y'all!  I have about an hour until it's time to take lunch to Ryan at his camp so I'm going to type fast and try to get some work done in my craft room before I have to leave.  So here's today's card:

I pulled out the long-retired Lift Me Up stamp set for a variety of challenges today.  Let's start with the Shopping Our Stash color challenge:

My colors are a little off from the inspo pic but I had to use that Petal Pink cloud pattern.  I used Pool Party, Petal Pink, Highland Heather, and Gorgeous Grape; that smaller balloon is dark purple though it looks black in the photo.  Next up is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I changed it from a square card to a standard A2 size so my middle panel stretched to a rectangle as well.  Last up is Addicted to CAS:

And this is the challenge that inspired me to ink up Lift Me Up for the first time in seven years.  As much as I love new stamps, it's fun to play with the ones that have been in my collection for a while.

That's it for now, peeps.  Check ya later!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Basic White, Lighter Than Air DSP Stack
Accessories:  Up & Away dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals, Solid Faceted Gems

On Cloud Nine

Hey y'all!  Happy Thursday.  How's your week going so far?

I'm back with the third birthday card in a row because my SIL's birthday is three days after my mom's.  So here's a card for Adrienne:

Purple is her favorite color, so I used both Highland Heather and Gorgeous Grape on here.  You can't tell from the photo, but I painted some Wink of Stella on the hot air balloons for a bit of sparkle. 

Check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the theme challenge from Global Design Project:

There is a super-cute new hot air balloon stamp set in the SU! catalog (and a matching punch), but I already have Lift Me Up and an older stamp set as well so I really don't neeeeed the new one.  Or so I keep telling myself.  I have two older dinosaur stamp sets and that didn't stop me buying Dino Days ;)

Anywha, hope y'all have a great day.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Balmy Blue, Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Balmy Blue, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Up & Away dies, mini Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Soaring Congratulations

Mornin' y'all!  Ryan is still sick, so we're calling the doctor today.  I thought he was getting better yesterday, other than being tired...both of us fell asleep on the couch yesterday morning watching Cars 3.  I think I'm going to have those movies memorized before long.

Anyway!  During his afternoon nap, I got a card made!  Here it is:

Lift Me Up and the coordinating Up & Away Framelits are both retiring (though of course that doesn't mean they're leaving my craft room).  I love this die cut balloon, and I thought it would be great for the Global Design Project color challenge:

My first thought was butterflies, but I feel like I've done a lot of butterflies lately, so instead I went with the hot air balloon.  I also used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

The balloon and clouds on my card are what I used for the three circles on the sketch, I did a bit of a looser interpretation but I think you can still see it.  Oh, I took Ryan for a walk the other day and he kept saying "I see cows!" and I was like, "But there aren't any cows around here, kid" and finally he pointed up and said "I see C'OUDS!!" (because he doesn't really say L) and I was like "OOOHHHH CLOUDS!"  And he looked at me like yeah, I've been saying that for the past five minutes.  I love that kid.

Hope you have a great weekend, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Night of Navy, Coastal Cabana, Gorgeous Grape, Pineapple Punch, Smoky Slate, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Up & Away Framelits, Dimensionals

Bye-Bye Hot Air Balloons

Happy Friday, y'all!  I don't know about you, but I'm happy this week is coming to a close.

I've got another retiring stamp set to showcase today:  Lift Me Up.

Pretty simple card but I think it came out cute?  Sorry about the lighting; it's been super overcast here lately so there wasn't anything I could do about that.  Anyway, check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Paper Players color challenge:

I figured the blue was a no-brainer for the sky, and the Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral made some cheery hot air balloons.  A bit of gingham paper and some coral sequins and it was done!

Okay kids, I'm off to get Ryan up and we're going to go start our day.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Balmy Blue, Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Up & Away Thinlits, Rectangle Stitched Shapes, Dimensionals, sequins

Birthday Balloons

Happy Friday, y'all!  It's been a busy week and kiddo has been highly uncooperative with naptimes and my crafting and I had to get this card done really fast and I wish I could have taken more time on it.

I did a watercolor wash on the background and sprinkled it with salt, then dried it with my heat tool.  I don't think the salt really worked how I thought it would but it did bring out a green undertone in the Coastal Cabana ink.

I'm entering this at Inkspirational:

And I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Blueberry Bushel, Coastal Cabana, and Smoky Slate for my colors.  I feel like I could have done a much better job with this color combination (and the sketch) if I'd taken longer than 20 seconds to think about it.  Oh well.

Have a great weekend y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Blueberry Bushel, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Thick Whisper White, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Up & Away Thinlits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Lift Your Spirits

Hey, y'all, how's your morning going?  I had book club last night so I was up way past my bedtime.  It was fun though and that's only once a month...okay so I stay up past my bedtime more than once a month but you know what I mean!

I'm taking a break from red and green and Christmas cards today to bring you this:

I found this color challenge at As You See It and it's different from anything I've done lately so I just had to play along, and the hot air balloons in Lift Me Up seemed like the perfect choice to go with these colors:

I paired that with the Global Design Project's CASE the Designer challenge:

I kept the layout from the inspiration card, but used some patterned paper with torn edges for the panel behind the main image.  That stripey paper is retired, but I had a scrap of just the right size and I just loved those uplifting stripes with the hot air balloons.

Ryan's awake and moving around, so I'd better go grab him and feed us both breakfast.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Pool Party, Pacific Point, Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Whisper White, retired Pacific Point DSP
Accessories:  Up & Away Thinlits, gold metallic accents, Dimensionals

Moon Baby Love

Happy Friday, y'all!  I had a bit of an unplanned vacation this week--after hosting book club on Monday I was feeling a little punky for a couple of days and didn't get down to my craft room at all this week until yesterday afternoon.  But I finally made a card!

This week's challenge at Global Design Project is to CASE the Designer, Brian King:

Brian is king of the layers, so I picked a sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch and added lots and lots of mats and layers:

I used the same patterned paper on my card as Brian did, and I added a heart accent too.  The images on the baby panel are all stamped with Early Espresso + Versamark, then embossed with clear powder so I could color them without the ink running.  I used a variety of methods to color it in; old Blendabilities for the baby's skin, Aquapainter and ink pad lids for the baby's hair, umbrella, and onesie, blender pen for shadows on the baby's onesie, watercolor pencils for the stars, and finally I sponged a light layer of Soft Sky ink over the panel.

This is a bit of a spite card....my cousin sent us an Amazon gift card for the baby, and she wrote a note that NO ONE makes their own thank you cards and I should just send her a message on Facebook when I get it.  So of course I'm like YEAH HUH PEOPLE MAKE CARDS LOOK AT THIS I MADE YOU A CARD.  I even still had one of the baby thank you cards I made months ago that I could have sent, but nope, I made one special.  (It says thank you on the inside.)

Well, I've got ten minutes before kiddo and I head out the door to the gym.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Moon Baby, Lift Me Up, One Big Meaning
Ink:  Soft Sky, Early Espresso, Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, Versamark
Paper:  Soft Sky, Early Espresso, Thick Whisper White, Coffee Break DSP
Accessories:  Clear EP, watercolor pencils, Blendabilities, Up & Away Framelits, Dimensionals

Post Script Smiles

Happy Friday, y'all!  And it IS a happy morning, the hubs forgot we had muffins in the fridge so guess who gets to eat them now ;)

And today's card uses the OTHER new stamp that I got this week!

I love the Post Script background.  Actually SU! came out with several fantastic new background stamps that will sooner or later make their way to Snapdragonland.  Anyway, I thought the postmarks would be cute for a "miss you" type of card.  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Take a moment to laugh with me:  part of the reason why I've been doing watercolor washes so much lately is because I didn't have any current Designer Series Paper yet.  So I get my order with all the shiny new DSP, and the first piece I choose to use?  It's a watercolor wash.  Heh.  I almost didn't want to cut into it because I LOVE the other side of this piece too (it's jewels!) but then I reminded myself I could buy another pack on down the line if I need to.  Which I probably will.  I also picked the color combo straight from the DSP--Emerald Envy, Night of Navy, and Berry Burst.  I need to play with the new In Colors more.

Well, as soon as I finish breakfast I'm going to try reading a bit to Ryan.  We're working our way through The Son of Neptune right now and yes, I know my kid isn't even four months old yet but is it ever really too soon to introduce kids to good books?  Besides, I need to practice so I can do voices and stuff by the time he's old enough to understand what I'm reading to him anyway.  So cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Post Script, Lift Me Up
Ink:  Night of Navy, Emerald Envy, Berry Burst
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Night of Navy, Naturally Eclectic DSP
Accessories:  Up & Away Framelits, Dimensionals

Sailing the Skies in a Hot Air Balloon

Happy weekend, y'all!  I missed a couple days posting this week (sometimes Ryan throws me a curveball and won't nap for as long as I want him to) so here's a bonus Saturday post!

I did my first new catalog order on June 1, and aside from new Designer Series Paper I only bought two stamp sets.  And one of them is a background stamp.  So for a bit here I'm going to concentrate on playing with the stamps I currently have...I still have a bunch of current stamp sets even with the catalog changeover.  And some of them I haven't used hardly at all, so this is going to be fun :)  (Le'ts not be coy, I can't wait to get the two stamp sets I ordered...and that awesome new paper!)

So anywah, here's a new card with Lift Me Up and the coordinating dies.  I don't think I'd used that ornate balloon die before, isn't it gorgeous?  Still had the watercolor paper out, so I did (another) watercolor wash for the sky behind my balloon.  The clouds are die cut out of Shimmery White paper and the balloon is Gold Foil, with Night of Navy and Powder Pink backing.  This card should have taken me like 15 minutes to make (maybe a little longer?) but the kiddo woke up and so it sat half-done on my desk for most of the day yesterday.  But we got there in the end!

I used the sketch from Inkspire Challenges:

And the color challenge from Color Throwdown:

As I said, I used Night of Navy, Powder Pink, Gold Foil, and Shimmery White for my colors.

So my Saturday plans include going for a run and then doing a few errands.  Maybe laundry.  Oh yeah, it's the glamorous life here.  If I'm lucky maybe I can work on some scrapbook pages...or else I'll be binge watching The Flash with the hubs while the baby naps :D

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Powder Pink, Night of Navy, Shimmery White, Watercolor Paper, Gold Foil
Accessories:  Up & Away Thinlits, Dimensionals

Travel by Hot Air Balloon

If you're counting, Baby Sodapop is now five days overdue.  Grr.

So as I was trying to get to sleep last night, I was thinking about card designs using this week's Freshly Made Sketch and my plan was to use the food truck from Tasty Trucks in the Sale-a-Bration catalog.  And then I fell asleep and had a dream that hubs and I were traveling all over via hot air balloon, so instead this is the card I made today:

In the dream, we were traveling to Alaska, and I think a hot air balloon would really not be a great mode of transportation in the Great White North but since when do things make sense in dreams.  So here's the sketch:

And I paired it with the Color Throwdown:

I used Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay, and Basic Black for my card.  I like that cloudy pattern from the Cupcakes & Carousels DSP for this card.

That's it for me today,  y'all.  Maybe the full moon tonight will convince Sodapop it's time to make his debut?  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay, Basic Black
Paper:  Basic Black, thick Whisper White, Cupcakes & Carousels DSP
Accessories:  Up & Away Thinlits, Dimensionals, Rhinestones

On Cloud Nine

Hey kids!  IT'S MY BIRFDAY today and I've been really busy.  I had a doc appointment this afternoon with several other pregos (yeah, I do my OB appointments as part of a group, it's actually kind of fun) so I made cupcakes and some cookie dough dip for the appointment this morning.  But I managed to squeeze in some craft room time after I got home, despite my little girl dog laying down where she could be the most in the way.  I swear I made this card while sitting six feet back from my craft table...though I suppose with the beach ball belly I'm already having to sit at least a little ways back anyway ;)

More new goodies from Stampin' Up! that I got as a birthday present from ME ;)  This is the Lift Me Up bundle of stamps and Framelits, plus the coordinating patterned paper in the Sale-A-Bration catalog.  The inside of the card has the birthday sentiment from the same stamp set (Hope your day is on cloud nine.  Happy Birthday).  Anyway, the gang at As You See It is back after having their website hacked, so I wanted to play along in their first challenge of the year:

And I added some wee pearls to my balloons, so I can enter this in the current Cupcake Inspirations Challenge as well:

One of my bestest buddies has a birthday in a couple of days so I'll be sending this along to her in the mail tomorrow.  But for right now, my sweetie pie just got home so we're going out to dinner for my birthday.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Mint Macaron, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Island Indigo, Thick Whisper White, Carried Away DSP, Rich Razzleberry DSP
Accessories:  Up Up & Away Thinlits, Dimensionals, Pearls