Pastel Shells

Mornin' y'all!  Happy Monday, hope you had a good weekend.  Since yesterday was Mother's Day, the hubs and the kid made me breakfast while I sat in the living room and was hugely entertained listening to them.  I pretty much live-tweeted the whole thing to my pal Krissy so she could be entertained too (and she was).  I ended up choosing a lemon coffee cake recipe and it tastes pretty good but doesn't look like much; the crumb topping kinda sank into everything else but the top was sorta chewy?  Anyway, I like the idea of a lemon coffee cake but I think the recipe could be better, no shade to my beginner bakers for how it turned out.  I just finished a piece for breakfast today and I think it benefits from being chilled.

Anyway, I do have a card to share today:

We're going retro today for the Retro Rubber Challenge.  So, By the Seashore is around 14 years old, Nature's Prints (the greeting) is 4 years old, and Netting (the background) is at least 13 years old.  And I paired all that retro-ness with some new things, like Barely Blush and Hydrangea Hue inks and I made a mask from the die out of the Rolling Waves bundle which I finally got last week (you will be seeing more of that tomorrow).

Here's the Retro Rubber color challenge:

I used Hydrangea Hue for the blue/purple tone, then Barely Blush, Pink Pirouette, and Crisp Cantaloupe for three pale pinkish shades.  That was about as close as I could get to the palette.  I paired that with the theme challenge from As You See It:

And I slightly modified the TGIF Challenges sketch:

I was hunting all over for a greeting to go on the little panel in the bottom left, but I ended up liking the hello from Nature's Prints so I subbed in a circle and then turned the other pink panel on the sketch into three In Color Dots.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  By the Seashore, Nature's Prints, Netting
Ink:  Barely Blush, Pink Pirouette, Crisp Cantaloupe, Hydrangea Hue, Versamark
Paper:  Barely Blush, Crisp Cantaloupe, Basic White
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Stitched Shapes dies, white EP, Dimensionals, In Color Dots

And now for some Daphne pictures because who doesn't love puppy pictures on a Monday morning:

I signed her up for Bark Box last week and her first one was delivered last night (in a bag, so is it a Bark Bag?).  I just opened it up this morning and she got three toys and a couple of types of treats.  I think she's excited about it.

She was running back and forth across the living room with her new toys and clearly she's loving this so I'm glad I signed her up.  I signed her up for the super chewers level so we'll see how well those toys stand up to Destructo-Dog Daphne here.

I am out of tea so I think I'll take Daph out for her daily perambulation and then go switch out laundry.  Very exciting plans for this morning, ha!  Cheers, y'all!

Botanical Bounty, Part 2

Happy afternoon, y'all, and welcome to my second post of the day because I have more botanical cards for the CAS on Friday challenge!  Here's where we're starting:

I had pulled out Nature's Pace because I was looking at the greeting in that set for a Nancy Drew card (did not use it though), and I just really like that thistle image so I thought I'd make a card with it.  I used a scrap of Enchanté DSP and stamped the image and the greeting in Soft Succulent.  The color in the DSP is Sage Shadow, but that's kinda like a lighter version of Soft Succulent anyway.  My very old Sage Shadow ink pad is probably pretty dried out and I didn't want to dig out the ink refill.

And one more (for now):

I was thinking of the Midnight Flora suite that's on preorder now (mine gets here tomorrow!) so I used Darling Duckling for the card base and stamped the ferns with Mossy Meadow.  Same greeting as before, this time on Basic Beige.

I think that's it for today.  Will there be more CAS botanical cards in my near future?  Probably.  I just thought of another stamp set that really needs to get inked up.  Cheers!

Supplies, first card:
Stamps:  Nature's Pace, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Soft Succulent
Paper:  Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Very Vanilla, Enchanté DSP
Accessories:  Squares Framelits, Layering Circles dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, second card:
Stamps:  Nature's Prints
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Darling Duckling
Paper:  Darling Duckling, Mossy Meadow, Basic Beige
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Dimensionals

The Clue in the Diary

It's my favorite day of the week which means it's time for another Nancy Drew challenge.  I'm actually thinking about starting a blog just for the book analysis part of this and then just sharing my cards here with the book covers and a short blurb, because if I have a separate book blog I can blather on all I want and just share the cards here.  Because it seems like I have more and more to say about each book as I go along : )  Anyway, for today today we're tackling #7, The Clue in the Diary!

Yes, I now own three copies of this book and they all have the same cover.  The one on the left is the OT version (with dust jacket) that I just got in the mail earlier this week, the middle one I bought a few weeks ago hoping it was an OT but it's not, and the one on the right is the RT that's been in my collection for years.

Case file:  The OT and the RT for this book are very similar so one synopsis will do.  Nancy, Bess, and George witness a country mansion explode and burn down, and learn that the mansion belonged to a shady businessman who supposedly died in the explosion.  Nancy becomes involved in exonerating an inventor who has been accused of murdering the shady businessman because he fleeced the inventor and many others out of money.  She proves that the shady businessman faked his death; in the OT his wife didn't know that he was really alive, but she was still happy to implicate the inventor in her husband's death, while in the RT the shady businessman was going to have his wife collect his life insurance money, so we get to learn about fraud.   Also, Nancy meets Ned Nickerson who is destined to be her main man through many more mysteries.  Ned is adorable in this book, he has such cute interactions with Nancy and that's my favorite part.

So here's my card for The Clue in the Diary:

My vast stamping hoard is curiously deficient when it comes to images of burning buildings.  Weird.  So instead I picked out the colors of Nancy's outfit for the main colors of my card, and I chose the greenery images because of the bushes on the cover of the book into which the innocent-but-looks-guilty inventor is fleeing.  I chose a Cajun Craze strip for the color of the roof behind Nancy.

The Splendid Autumn DSP Stack continues to be a gold mine for patterns to coordinate with the Nancy Drew book covers.

Drop a comment below if you'd like to participate, I would be delighted to find more Nancy Drew card-making friends out there.  I am so very tickled that Tracy was not only inspired to read her very first Nancy Drew book, but she made a card for The Secret of the Old Clock!  I just love that.  If you'd like to play along too, feel free to play along for any of the books I've covered thus far (no time limit), and next up is Nancy's Mysterious Letter!  And if you want a spoiler of what the covers look like, you can check out this website.  I'd love to see if you're inspired to make a Nancy Drew card.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Prints
Ink:  Old Olive, Garden Green, Azure Afternoon
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Thick Basic White, Splendid Autumn DSP Stack
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies, Matte Decorative Dots, Dimensionals

Caernarfon

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I had a lovely Saturday working on a couple of projects, watching a movie (it's rare I get control of the TV when Ryan is in the house), and reading a book.  Pretty good day in my opinion.  I picked Ryan up yesterday morning and he was so tired from having run around with his cousins that he mostly camped out on the couch : )

Anyway, I have a layout to share today, from our 2014 road trip through Wales where I dragged the hubs to as many castles as I could manage.  And today is the Welsh castle you're most likely to recognize:

This was the site of Charles' investiture as Prince of Wales, I wonder if/when they're going to do something similar for Prince William?  It's another large castle and similar to several others we saw in Wales; I always think it's funny to see a centuries-old giant castle nestled right up next to a parking lot (car park) with modern cars in it.

I used my all-time favorite sketch to make this layout, and only realized afterwards that I had used the same layout for my Beaumaris pictures and they're right next to each other.  Oops.  Well, that's what happens when I don't scrap my pictures in chronological order, I forget that I used that sketch already!  Oh well, I like both of the layouts so they're staying the way they are.  I even used a pink and a green in the same spots on both layouts!

Today's fun color palette:  Lemon Lime Twist, Calypso Coral, Garden Green, and Blueberry Bushel.  When I made the layout, two of the colors were retired but now LLT and Blueberry Bushel are in the regular color lineup, hooray!

Okay, I'm off to go work on my projects.  The kid is off school on Friday, and that morning we're picking up the hubs and driving to Colorado to look at houses.  So I want to get some quality crafty time in before that happens.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Jayne's Type Alphabet, Nature's Prints
Ink;  Calypso Coral, Blueberry Bushel, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Garden Green, Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Pretty Prints DSP
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies

Maine: Bar Harbor Head Lighthouse

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I hope you had a good holiday last week if you celebrated Thanksgiving.  We were thrilled to have my hubs here for a couple of days, though it was super tough on Ryan when he had to leave again on Saturday.  Starting today, Ryan will be getting back into the school routine and I think that will help until we get to see the hubs again for Christmas.

In the meantime, I have another Maine layout today!

So the hubs and Bennet had gone to this lighthouse on a previous day to take pictures at dawn (see that layout here), and then we all six went out during the day to check it out.  We didn't go inside the lighthouse itself (I'm not sure they allowed people in at all?) but we did clamber around the rocks next to the lighthouse for a while, which Ryan enjoyed because he thinks he's indestructible.  I paired the still-current Nature's Prints stamp set with Seaside Notions, they seem to fit together pretty well style-wise.

Today's color palette:  Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake, and white.  I chose Pretty Peacock for this layout a while before we found out that it was rejoining the SU! color lineup, so now I don't have to hoard my Pretty Peacock 12x12 cardstock quite so much ; )

Almost time to get Ryan up to get ready for school...hope he's not too angry since he was going to bed late for all of last week.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Rough Edges Alphabets, Seaside Notions, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Crumb Cake, Sweet Sorbet, Stampin' Blends in Pretty Peacock, Crumb Cake, and Petal Pink
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Crumb Cake, Thick Basic White, Pretty Prints DSP
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies

Maine: Wonderland Trail

Scrappy Monday, y'all, and happy Thanksgiving week!  I baked two batches of cookies on Friday and burned two pans arguing with the ovens--yeah, I was all excited about having two ovens to use for Thanksgiving prep, but the temperature fluctuates wildly (I have oven thermometers so I can check).  After some experimentation, I've started setting the temperature in both ovens to 25 degrees hotter than the recipe calls for, and that gets close enough to bake correctly.  I baked four batches of cookies on Saturday and not only did I finish them all by two in the afternoon, I didn't burn any!  So now I have cookie gift bags ready for our Thanksgiving guests this week.  And a full schedule of things to make for the feast : )

But for now, it's Scrappy Monday and I have two layouts to share from our Maine adventures.

The Wonderland Trail is yet another part of Acadia National Park and this one was closer to the water.  Also I think that is the best picture of Missy ever, she looks beautiful : )

The beach is all rocks so of course all of the guys had to throw rocks into the water and also destroy someone else's rock tower before building their own.  Boys.

Today's water-inspired color palette:  Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis, Gray Granite, and Whisper White.  I'm glad that these In Colors were released before I did these pages because I am in LOVE with Starry Sky and Orchid Oasis with these pictures.  IN.  LOVE!  The 2022-2024 In Colors as a group are my favorite assortment that we've ever had; I've already started stockpiling cardstock and ink refills before they retire next summer.  In contrast, the 2023-2025 In Colors were my least favorite set on first look, but to my surprise I've been using them for some scrapbook pages lately.  Wild Wheat is still my least favorite, but I even managed to use it for a page base on a layout and liked it.

Anyway, I have to get the kiddo ready to go to his grandparents' house, he's staying with them until Wednesday so I can do Thanksgiving prep and not have to entertain him at the same time.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Nature's Prints, Seaside Notions
Ink:  Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis, Gray Granite Stampin' Blends
Paper:  Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis, Gray Granite, Thick Basic White, Sun Prints DSP
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies

Friendly Foliage

Mornin' y'all!  Man, Ryan was SUPER angry this morning!  I don't know why but every once in a while he wakes up in a monster mood.  He was starting to come out of it by the time I got him to school but yeesh.  Usually he's pretty chipper by the time I get him back in the afternoons so I hope his day goes okay.

Anyway, I've got a card today that's a bit outside my normal stampy comfort zone but I liked how it turned out, here it is:

I don't do the collage look very often, I agonize over where to put every single piece, but I ended up pretty happy with this one.  And I hit no fewer than four challenges, starting with Festive Friday:

I used bright colors (does it count if it's just one bright color?), enamel dots, patterned paper, two of something (two stamp sets, two die sets), and a hello/hi sentiment.  I had this list simmering in the back of my mind when the other three challenges came up, so here's the Global Design Project:

So this challenge is why I decided to try my hand at the collage look, and did a mix of cardstock and stamped images, plus I did a wee bit of distressing on the edges of the DSP.  Next up is the Hand-Stamped Sentiments challenge:

I really liked this one, lots of possibilities and it would be fun to do something Christmasy with those colors.  I haven't played hardly at all with Pebbled Path so this was fun for me.  And finally, here's the Just Add Ink challenge:

Again, I have one bright, but this challenge led me to the foliage stamps from Nature's Prints, and happily for me Inked & Tiled has that "hello friend" sentiment stamp so with one stamp I was able to hit friend for this challenge and hello or hi for Festive Friday.  Strategy!

Okay, that's it for me today.  Tomorrow I'm going to start The Great Thanksgiving Prep because I had the brilliant idea to make cookies for everyone who's coming over, so I'll be doing that for a few days and start on pies next week when Ryan goes to his grandparents' house.  Gonna be busy so I'm going to try enjoy my stamping time today before the craziness starts to gain speed.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Prints, Inked & Tiled
Ink:  Berry Burst, Mossy Meadow, Pebbled Path
Paper:  Berry Burst, Mossy Meadow, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Nature's Prints dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems

Going Postal

Mornin' y'all and happy Thursday!  I think I'm *finally* starting to feel better (and of course I coughed right as I was typing that sentence) And Ryan is all better too so things are looking up.  And I played with a new stamp set yesterday!

'Member when SU! had that one-day stamp sale a few months ago?  I got Stamped With Love during that sale and this is the first time I've inked it up, other than for my personal stamp inventory binders.  I was inspired by this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Crushed Curry, Pecan Pie, Sweet Sorbet, and Crumb Cake for my colors, which also fits in with the current challenge at SUO Challenges! 

There's only a tiny bit of Crumb Cake on the main image, I used it to shade the envelope going into the post box, but it barely shows up.  So that's why I dug out some Crumb Cake ribbon, that 3/8" satin in my all-time favorite ribbon.  I used an old retired scrap of Crushed Curry patterned paper for the background and this card is already in the mail!  I usually mail out three to five cards a week.

Okay, I'm off to my craft room!  I have yet another scrapbook layout in progress on my craft table, I've 10000% been procraftinating by scrapping pics from when we first moved to Germany instead of getting out my wedding pictures.  I do need to work on that though...Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stamped with Love, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Sweet Sorbet, Pecan Pie, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Pecan Pie, Thick Basic White, Crushed Curry DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Layering Circles dies, scalloped circle punch, corner rounder punch, Crumb Cake 3/8" satin ribbon, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Silhouettes

Goooooood morning stampy friends!  Get ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

So we're all about silhouettes this time.  I saw some beautiful cards by Helen Read earlier this year using this technique and I suggested it for a challenge.  So you stamp an image and use a dark marker to color in the image to get a silhouette for a different look on line art images.  I had to give it a try with the moths from Night of Flight, so here's my card:

For the background, I sponged Mossy Meadow and Moody Mauve ink onto an acrylic block, spritzed it with water, and then stamped that on some watercolor paper.  I had to spritz more water and stamp again actually as the colors didn't blend together enough the first time, and then I used my heat tool to dry it because I'm impatient ; )  Then I stamped the moths with Pretty Peacock ink and colored them in with the darker Pretty Peacock Stampin' Blend.  I like that you can still see a little bit of the detail on the wings but it's very subtle.  I left the moths' bodies uncolored just because I liked the look.

At first I had stamped the greeting on the Pretty Peacock circle and heat embossed with some truly ancient copper embossing powder (like for reals, I bought it the first time Stampin' Up! had copper embossing powder, I'm pretty sure it's over 10 years old), but I tried taking pictures of this card several times, in several places, on different days, and I just couldn't get the greeting to show up in pictures.  So I stamped it on Very Vanilla and glued it on top of the other circle and I like it better now.  The copper cord *is* from SU!, but like the embossing powder, it is quite old.  One year in a holiday mini catalog, they had non-stretchy cord in gold, silver, and copper; I bought them all and I still have them.  Couldn't resist getting it out to coordinate with the All About Autumn DSP Stack.

I hope you'll give silhouette stamping a try and share with us on the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun getting inky!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Night of Flight, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Moody Mauve, Mossy Meadow, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Moody Mauve, Pretty Peacock, Thick Very Vanilla, watercolor paper, All About Autumn DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Circles dies, copper cord, Dimensionals

Side note, check out the sunrise rainbow we had here yesterday!

A few minutes before I took this picture, I looked out side and the entire sky was PINK with the sun coming up.  Not just a little bit either, everything was pretty much Barbie pink.  Then I went outside to take the trash out and saw this beautiful rainbow!  Had to get Ryan to come out and look too, and I'm glad I did because when we left the house a few minutes later to take him to school, the rainbow was gone.  Beautiful start to the week!

Tennessee, Part 3: Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Scrappy Monday!  Continuing my series of Tennessee pages, here we are at the national park:

I let the picture with the park sign function as the page title.  And on the right page, that "Bears need privacy, too!" sign was up in the women's bathroom at the park's visitor center, I thought it was funny so I had to take a pic of it.  I really went for the greens on this one with a green page base and lighter green photo mats.  It was a quick and easy layout but I like it.

Today's green-tastic color palette:  Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, Pretty Peacock, and white.

Until next time, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Prints, Wisteria Wishes
Ink:  Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, Pretty Peacock, Thick Basic White, Forever Greenery DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, 3/4" circle punch

Under the Sea with SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all!  It's day two of our pack out and I'm already ready to be done with the moving process already.  Every time we move I think we have too much stuff and yet we always seem to accumulate more!

Anyway, it is time for another challenge from SUO Challenges!

Our theme this time around is Under the Sea...use shades of blue and/or sea creatures.  I didn't get the current oceanic stamp set (well, I do have On the Ocean, but today's challenge is about under the waves) so I went with blues for my card:

I figure that this plant might very well be an undersea type of thing so why not?  Also I continue my love affair with Azure Afternoon paired with Blueberry Bushel.  The background pattern is from the Bright & Beautiful DSP stack, true to its name it has lots of bright colors in it and I've been having some fun playing with the different patterns.  This watercolor wash was perfect for the challenge theme.

Hope you'll take a dive into this challenge and upload your card at the SUO Challenges blog.  As Sebastian says, it's better down where it's wetter, take it from meeeeee!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Prints
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Azure Afternoon, Versamark
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies, white EP, Dimensionals, white sequins

Guest Designer: Countryside Thoughts

Bonus blog post!  I am honored to be the guest designer at As You See It Challenges today!  This time around it's a recipe challenge, take a look:

As soon as I saw "flowers" and "shades of blue", I thought of the Countryside Inn DSP which I haven't played with a lot yet, so of course that was my first pick for my card.  Here's what I made:

I started by cutting out the white frame with the Deckled Rectangles dies, and then used different sizes of the same dies for other elements on the card front.  Luckily I have some Night of Navy ribbon that looks great with the patterned paper, and I tied that around my frame.  So I had all of the background elements picked out, and then had to think for a bit about what to use for the main image and sentiment.  I landed on Nature's Prints, because it's always fun to play with that one and I thought it went well with the DSP.

I hope you'll join in the fun at As You See It Challenges, and thanks again to the AYSI team for inviting me to play along as a guest designer.  I'll be back in a couple of months once my new craft room is set up after the move.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Prints
Ink:  Versamark, Night of Navy
Paper:  Night of Navy, Misty Moonlight, Boho Blue, Thick Basic White, Countryside Inn DSP
Accessories:  Night of Navy bordered ribbon, white EP, Deckled Rectangles dies, Milky Dots, Dimensionals

On A Dark Desert Highway

Happy Friday, y'all!  The hubs is off work and Ryan is off school today, so I may not get much craft room time, but I'll get to spend time with my two favorite dudes.  And I did have a *really* good time in my craft room yesterday, so there's that : )  Here's one of my creations!

Umm how much am I in love with Starry Sky.  It's amazing.  The colors aren't quite right in my photo, but it's the best I could do with yesterday's super gloomy skies.

I rotated this week's Freshly Made Sketch to make a landscape card:

And I paired that with the Color Throwdown:

I used Starry Sky, Soft Suede, and Cajun Craze for my colors, isn't this a fun palette?  I like it.

Okay, I need to go start finalizing our itinerary for spring break.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Desert Details, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Starry Sky, Soft Suede, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Starry Sky, Soft Suede, Thick Basic White, Delicate Desert DSP
Accessories:  Desert Details dies, In Color Matte Dots, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Going Green!

 It's time for a new challenge at SU Only Challenges!

This time around, our theme is GO GREEN!  So make a card using shades of green and/or make a St. Patrick's Day card.  I did both...twice!  Here's my first card:

We're reaching way back in my SU archives for the set Pinch Proof, which I've had for fifteen years now.  I stamped the leprechaun in Shaded Spruce and fussy cut him, and then the sentiment is stamped 3 or 4 times in Granny Apple Green so it's kinda in between the Parakeet Party plaid pattern and the darker Shaded Spruce.  I added some gold rhinestones from a past Paper Pumpkin kit because a leprechaun has to have some gold coins, right?

Next up I used the Country Bouquet stamp set and punch to make an XL four-leaf clover.  The "stem" is from Trees for Sale, you could easily draw a line or use a stem from any stamp set with large floral images.  This one is just Parakeet Party and Shaded Spruce, with a matte dot in the center of the clover for a bit more interest.

Hope you'll take the time to go green and share a card with us at the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, leprechaun card:
Stamps:  Pinch Proof
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Thick Basic White, Parakeet Party DSP
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals, gold rhinestones

Supplies, clover card:
Stamps:  Country Bouquet, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Parakeet Party, Thick Basic White, Parakeet Party & Shaded Spruce DSP scraps
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies, Dimensionals, Matte Dots

Leafy Thoughts

Back with another super quick card for today!  Check it out:

Stampin' Up! didn't come out with a leaf-centric stamp set this year (unless you count Soft Seedlings, I suppose, and it's got just one big leaf in it) so I got out last year's Gorgeous Leaves to play with again.  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Though I admit it's a bit of a looser interpretation.  The woodgrain stamps are the larger rectangle and I'm counting the sentiment as the smaller rectangle; both of those elements are stamped directly on the card base and I just popped the leaves up on top.

I used this week's color challenge from CAS Colours & Sketches:

Which is why I tried to CAS-ify the sketch a bit by cutting down on the layers.  The larger leaf was inked up with Calypso Coral and then a bit of Merry Merlot around the edges; I promise I did use all the challenge colors : )

And don't forget this also fits with this week's theme challenge at the Paper Players:

And that's all she wrote today!  Have a good one, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Merry Merlot, Calypso Coral, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Dimensionals, Rustic Metallic Dots

Sugar Apples

Mornin' y'all!  How's your day going?  I had just enough time on Monday (in between six loads of laundry) to make a card to share today.

Yeah I was so set to resist Apple Harvest and then the dies came out and it's all I want to use now ; )  Once again, I inked up the stamp with Versamark, then Early Espresso, stamped it and sprinkled clear EP on it.  Apparently I should have tapped off a bit more of the embossing powder because my apples look like they've got sugar on them.

For today's card, I started off with the Global Design Project challenge:

I traded the yellow/orange tones for greens but kept the layout and the main colors the same on my card.  I thought this paired nicely with the new Inspired By challenge:

Welcome back, Inspired By Challenges!  Nice to see y'all again.  I loved the gorgeous deep red color on the apples in this photo, so I used Cherry Cobbler to watercolor my apples.  Now I've done apples in Polished Pink, Sweet Sorbet, and Cherry Cobbler, but not the color that actually has the word "apple" in its name.  Ha!

Hope you have a great day, peeps.  I need to go pick up a bunch more apples that have fallen off the tree in our yard.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Apple Harvest, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler DSP
Accessories:  Apple Blooms dies, Dimensionals, Clear EP

Blue Wishes for the Paper Players

Good morning, stampy friends!  I'm a bit late with my Paper Players post today, but it's been a loooong week.  Last weekend we went to Switzerland for a few days, which was awesome, and then when we came back both the hubs and I came down with Covid.  I spent most of the last week feeling like I'd been hit by a truck : (  We're getting better, but I've still got a ways to go before I'm fully recovered.  But here I am finally with my post for the Paper Players!  Check out Claire's Tic-Tac-Toe challenge:

Some fun options on there, am I right?  I elected to go for the middle row, die cut - blue - patterned paper.  Here's what I made:

This was actually the first card I made with Nature's Prints when I got it earlier this summer.  I bought the stamp set and coordinating DSPs (Sun Prints and Pretty Prints) on a whim for some scrapbook pages and I'm so glad I did, I've enjoyed playing with them.  You'll see the scrapbook pages later this fall : )  Anyway, this card came together super quickly because I loosely based the layout on a past Paper Players sketch.  Work smarter, not harder, right?

We hope you'll join us for this fun tic-tac-toe challenge and upload your card at the Paper Players blog.  Have fun stamping!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Prints
Ink:  Starry Sky, Night of Navy
Paper:  Gray Granite, Pacific Point, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Sun Prints DSP
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies, Waves of the Ocean rhinestones, Dimensionals

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford <-- You are here : )

Jennie Maier