2015 Season's Greetings Colorblock

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  These layouts have been languishing in my draft posts folder for a very long time, so I'm finally posting them today!  Every year, I do a collage layout (or multiple layouts) with the photo Christmas cards we receive.  I say "every year", but I haven't done the last two years yet (oops).  So I'm reminding myself to get with it and catch up!

I just pick a pack of DSP and cut down pieces to fit around the Christmas card photos until it looks like a patchwork quilt.  They really don't take too long to do and it's a great way to use up scraps of patterned paper.

Most of the time there's minimal stamping on these layouts, but I do some kind of title.

So for this particular year I had quite a few cards to fit in!  It took two full layouts and one extra single page.

And that's it!  Easy peasy.  So as soon as I finish the baby book, I'm going to knock out a few of these.

Today's color palette is straight out of the Season of Cheer DSP (which I totally love):  Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky, and Whisper White.  It's not possible to coordinate with every single photo card, so I just pick whatever patterned paper I like that year and go with it.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Larger Than Life Alphabet & Numbers, Many Merry Messages
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Real Red, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Thick Whisper White, Season of Cheer DSP
Accessories:  Curly Label Punch

Friday Flashback: Bareback

Happy Friday, peeps!  It's time for the Friday Flashback, and this week I bring you Bareback.  I was one horse-obsessed kid growing up--when we moved to Texas, 7-year-old me thought we'd have a horse in our backyard and I'd get to ride to school.  When I found out that wasn't the case, I packed a bag and tried to walk back to California ;)  All that to say, of course I bought this horsey stamp set!

Also features Flannel Plaid, Many Merry Messages

This was my Christmas card right before we moved to Japan, because we were in Texas for a few months.  My mom said it wasn't Christmasy enough; I said whaddya mean?  It says Merry Christmas big as day, how much more Christmasy can you possibly get ;)

Also features Flannel Plaid, A Word for You

This one was a fairly recent creation, but not really one of my favorite cards ever.  It's my least favorite of the cards on today's post...I do like how the white markings on the horses' faces turned out, though.

Also features Flannel Plaid, Wanted, Full of Life

And now I realize that I *always* use Bareback with Flannel Plaid, but luckily today I did something different :)  Behold the new card on the block:

I even know who this is going to:  a friend of mine bought a horse a few months ago and takes riding lessons on the regular.  I'm totally jealous, I've always wanted a horse :)  Anyway, knowing her, I figured that sentiment from You're a Gem was perfect on this card.  It's going in the mail today--I'm trying to mail out more of the cards I make instead of just storing them.

The colors are from The Color Throwdown:

I interpreted this as Night of Navy, Cajun Craze, Soft Sky, and Always Artichoke.  The sketch is from CAS(e) This Sketch:

There's something about this one that I just reeeeally like, even all that white space isn't making me nervy.  I like it!

So anyway, today I'm leaving on a jet plane to go back to the land of no-you-don't-have-a-horse-in-your-backyard because my brother's promotion ceremony is on Sunday.  Woohoo!

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Bareback, You're a Gem
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Night of Navy
Paper:  Soft Sky, Night of Navy, Wintergreen DSP
Accessories:  None

Friday Flashback: Peaceful Wishes

Howdy, folks!  It's the last Friday before Christmas, and you know what that means:  the stores are gonna be PACKED this weekend.  And also this is the last Christmas stamp Friday Flashback this year :)  This week's choice is Peaceful Wishes.

Also features Many Merry Messages

This is another one of those times that I could have sworn I'd used a retired stamp set a whole lot more often, but other than two other versions of this same card this is IT from the archives.  So I made a new card for today:

At least this time I managed to use different stamps and make a completely different card than the first time :)  Most of the time I don't go back and look at my previous creations before I make something new for the Friday Flashback, so every once in a while my new card winds up looking a whole lot like whatever was in the archives.  Anyway, here's a closeup:

I showed the card to the hubs and we both thought the pine cones could use a little glitter, which you still can't see well in the picture but I tried.  So the pine cones have a bit of sparkle, because sparkle is always a good choice on a Christmas card.

I used the festive color challenge at Colour Me...!

And the sketch from Mojo Monday:

And there's one more Christmas card done :)  Christmas cheers to you, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Peaceful Wishes, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso, Always Artichoke
Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Holly Berry Bouquet & Candlelight Christmas DSP
Accessories:  Circle Framelits, Dazzling Details glitter glue, linen thread

Friday Flashback: Dream Gardens

Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback!  Today I get to feature one of my favorite stamp sets, Dream Gardens.  Since I used to live in Japan, I pretty much buy every Oriental stamp set Stampin' Up! makes ;)  So let's flash back!

I discovered pretty early on that I love this lady stamped in craft ink on patterned paper and then heat embossed.

I did Japanese Christmas cards one year.  See, you can use a non-Christmas stamp set and make perfectly festive Christmas cards.

Alternate Christmas card design; my hubs liked this one because he said the layout reminded him of kimonos with the obi around the middle.

Quick and easy thank you card for some friends of ours whom we met in Okinawa.

I shared these pages a few months ago and I was unhappy because I did the title and then decided to mat the kimono lady instead of stamping her directly on the paper, so it looked out of whack to me with too much space above the title.  It stuck in the back of my head for a while and finally I got it back out and added the little origami crane from Gifts from the Orient and voila!  Fixed.

And here's today's new card:

I love blues and greens together, they're very peaceful to me.  Something about using shades of those two colors together just makes me happy...which might be why 98% of the stuff we own is blue and/or green ;)  Anyway, I pulled out my favorite Baja Breeze (sniffle! please don't really be retired forever) and I picked the two stamps I'd never used from the stamp set.  I love that dream kanji stamp, don't know how it hadn't been used on something before.  And I used a couple of DSP scraps on this too.

Thanks for joining me for this week's Friday Flashback.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Dream Gardens
Ink:  Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke, Midnight Muse
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke retired DSP, retired Green Tea DSP
Accessories:  circle punches, Dimensionals