Friday Flashback: Choose Happiness

Happy Friday, y'all!  Once again I didn't get in my craft cave until a lot later in the day than I planned...I had an accidental two-hour nap in the middle of the day (oops).  But here I am and today's Friday Flashback stamp set is Choose Happiness!

Also features Petite Pairs, Hardwood

I think this is my favorite of the older cards for this set, I just like the soft watercolor on the background panels.

Stampy collages aren't really my forte, but I keep trying anyway.

Also features Gorgeous Grunge

And this one uses a lot of colored embossing powder and was a cooler idea in my head than it is on paper.  So that's it for the Flashback, here is my new creation:

It's got several layers, but it's still totally flat and easily mailable.  I stamped the flowers, then sponged that whole panel while making the flowers darker, and then I used the script stamp from French Foliage to fill in the empty spaces around the flowers a bit.  Didn't take long and I like how it turned out, all with just one color of ink.  I ran the edges of the panel on my Basic Black ink pad to give them a little definition on the card front.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Paired with the Color Throwdown:

I used Basic Black, Crushed Curry, and Marina Mist for the colors.  At first I thought this combo was really similar to the one I had trouble with earlier this week, but I think my problem with that one was mustard + silver.  Granted, today I used Crushed Curry instead of Delightful Dijon (lighter kind of mustard, maybe) but I think I like it a lot better with black than silver.

Well, I'm gonna take my sweet hubs out to dinner tonight for date night.  Cheers,  y'all!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Choose Happiness, French Foliage
Ink:  Basic Black, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Basic Black, Marina Mist, Very Vanilla, Beau Chateau DSP
Accessories:  None

2016 Showcase, Part 1

Mornin', y'all.  I have entered the phase of pregnancy when I'm tired all the time but CANNOT SLEEP more than 3 hours a night.  I swear this kid kicked me around 4:30 this morning so hard that I heard a noise when he did it.  Not even exaggerating.

Happily for me, it's time to do the annual look back at favorite projects from the year.  Most challenges are on hiatus until January and I haven't spent much time in my craft room so this is a great time to not worry about making something new :)  So today let's take a look back at cards from January through April.

This card was for my SIL's baby shower in January; my niece's nursery is decorated with ladybugs but I did this card with the colors we used for her Cinderella baby shower.

I loved this card from February, I don't use big bold sentiments like that too terribly often and this one just speaks to me.

For March, this punch art bear wins the prize for my favorite card of the month.  I actually just sent this one to my friend Missy a few weeks ago, how I managed to hold onto it for 9 months before I mailed it to her I really don't know!

And last up for today is this card from April, which was inspired by the color palette of a bathroom in Disneyland.  Inspiration is everywhere!

I'm off to the gym.  Hubs and I made sticky toffee pudding on Monday night and I feel like I need to live at the gym for a week to offset that.  Cheers, y'all!

Floral Wishes

How are you this rainy Wednesday morning?  I'd better bust a move if I want to get to my 11:00 gym class, so I'm gonna make this fast.

I was perusing my retiring stamps this morning looking for something to go with the color challenge I'd picked out, and I came across Choose Happiness which I haven't used very much and voila!  This card was born.  Petite Pairs is retiring too, but luckily our beloved Hardwood is sticking around for another year.

All of the cardstock (except the mat on the main image) is Thick Whisper White; I just scribbled some marker on acrylic blocks, misted with water, and stamped it for the Calypso Coral and Night of Navy panels, which gave me lovely pastel versions of the colors.  Added bonus:  the water made some stripes appear on the paper, which is a happy accident.

Here's this week's Global Design Project color combo:

I do like these colors together, I saw a lady wearing this combination the other day.  (I'd totally wear an outfit in this palette too.)  I also used this week's Paper Players sketch:

And I'd better fly out the door.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Choose Happiness, Petite Pairs, Hardwood
Ink:  Night of Navy, Calypso Coral, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Sahara Sand
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, 2 1/2" circle punch, Dimensionals

Pink Ladybug

Smee:  I've just had an apostrophe.

Captain Hook:  I think you mean "epiphany".

Smee:  Lightning...has come into my brain.

Captain Hook:  That must have hurt.


I heart the movie Hook :)  And this brain lightning didn't hurt, it turned out pretty cute!

So, as you saw yesterday, we're doing a Cinderella baby shower for my sister, and Blushing Bride and Pool Party are the main colors of decorations and stuff I've been making.  She's planning to do the baby's room in a ladybug theme and that's when I got the brilliant idea to combine this week's Color Throwdown:

With the sketch from Fusion:

Et voila!  A pink ladybug.  I think it's pretty cute.  So now I have a card to go with my baby shower gift...which I need to finish :p  Anyway, I mainly used the sketch from the Fusion challenge, though there's a bit of polka dots and some black on my card too.  I tried it with a woodgrain background first and that just looked uuuugghhhh so I went pretty CAS.

Okay, I'm going to get back to work.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Petite Pairs
Ink:  Soft Suede
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Basic Black, Love Blossoms & Birthday Bouquet DSP
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, 1 3/4" circle punch (I think that was the size I used?), Itty Bitty Punch Pack heart

Autumn Silhouettes

Howdy, peeps, how's it going this rainy Wednesday morning?  I need to go make myself a cuppa tea so I can wake up a bit more.  But anyway, you're here to see a pretty card, am I right?

I made this one for this week's Global Design Project challenge:

I used the same colors (Cherry Cobbler, Tip Top Taupe, Very Vanilla, and a little bit of Crushed Curry) and I kept the large circle element as well as the Cherry Cobbler banner, though I used the sketch from Mojo Monday instead:

And even though it's Tall & Skinny week at Mojo Monday, I did a regular A2 card because that's what size envelopes I have.  I was going to make my card a thank you card as in the GDP inspiration, but I need a couple more birthday cards in the next week or so, and thus my birthday card came to be.  And even though the main image is stamped with a set called Summer Silhouettes, I think I made it look nice and autumnal ;)

Ok peeps, I'm off to make some tea so I can then conquer the world.  Or at least get my list of things to do started.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Summer Silhouettes, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Tip Top Taupe, Cherry Cobbler, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Tip Top Taupe, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, Woodgrain Embossing Folder, Dimensionals, Hexagon punch

Golden Birthday Wishes

Howdy, peeps!  How's your Wednesday going?

I had planned to make a card yesterday for today's blog post, but I didn't get to it because I was working on baby books.  Hoping to finish those up in the next week or two, but this morning the first item on my agenda was to make a card for today.  Luckily I had help from The Color Throwdown:

I used Basic Black, Whisper White, Lost Lagoon, and Watermelon Wonder for my colors, and put them together with the hot-off-the-presses Freshly Made Sketch 201:

A few gold touches and my card was done.  I kept it pretty simple.  And now I can go back to working on baby books...or maybe I should to Thursday's card first?  Hmm.

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Crazy About You, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Watermelon Wonder, Versamark
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Watermelon Wonder, Basic Black, Whisper White, Kaleidoscope DSP (retired), Brushed Gold cardstock (retired)
Accessories:  Gold EP, scallop circle punch, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, gold brad, Dimensionals

Swirly-Twirly Gumdrop Flower

I love this one flower in the Crazy About You stamp set where the petals kinda curve around and it makes me think of Buddy the Elf talking about swirly-twirly gumdrops and I bet these are the kind of flowers that would grow on gumdrop trees.  (And if I'm misquoting Elf, it's because I didn't get to watch it this Christmas.)  What do you think?

I just inked up my Sahara Sand ink pad, and it made some kinda fun patterns on the leaves when I stamped them (I stamped them off once first).  That was a happy accident, but I'm still looking forward to upgrading my ink pads to the firm foam ones.  My Sahara Sand is quite old and kinda dips in the center.  And if you look closely, you might see that I put some Dazzling Details glitter glue on the center of my gumdrop flower.

Anyway, I used the color challenge from the Paper Players, with the addition of Basic Black:

And the sketch is from Retro Sketches:

That's it for me today, it's raining outside so I'm going to go spend time in my craft room and make something pretty.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Crazy About You, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Crisp Cantaloupe, Sahara Sand, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Basic Black, Whisper White, All Abloom DSP Stack
Accessories:  Scallop circle punch, hole punch, Lost Lagoon ribbon, Dazzling Details, Dimensionals

Flights of Fancy

It took me another hour after dinner last night to finish sorting my stamps and getting them alphabetized.  The only ones not done are my retired background stamps; for some reason I didn't unmount them when I did every other stamp in my collection so I still need cling foam to do about 16 more background stamps.  Plus cases.

But my crafting space is much more organized than it was this time yesterday, so I thought I'd make a card for the Inkspirational challenge.

Hmm, now if only I had a beautiful new bird stamp that I could use for this challenge...oh hey wait, I found one!  (Because my stamps are all nice and organized now.  I can FIND things.)

Maiden flight for the Perfect Peacock here!  He's not the only thing that was flying today though--I was trying to open up my Island Indigo ink pad and the top flew off it three feet across the room and landed on my plastic drawers right next to the wall.  Then it took me several minutes to get the stupid thing reconnected to the ink pad and now I have indigo fingers on both hands.

My silverware pattern is called Flight, but I don't have any silverware stamps.  Somehow I've never had the need for silverware stamps before, so I went with the peacock instead.

Looks like I'm going on a road trip this weekend to finally pick up our second car!  The hubs isn't crazy about me driving 10+ hours by myself, but I'll be fine.  Just need to make some more cards today so I can still post for the next couple days :)

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfect Peacock (it's a wood-mount stamp, but I put it on cling foam), Petite Pairs
Ink:  Versamark, Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Strawberry Slush, Blush Blossom, Mossy Meadow, Soft Suede
Paper:  Island Indigo, Watercolor paper, All Abloom DSP stack, Very Vanilla (lining the inside)
Accessories:  Early Espresso EP

So Glad You're Here

It is a rainy Monday here in Alabama!  I accidentally went running in it.  Well, the running part was on purpose (grudgingly), but it started raining when I was halfway around.  I just wish I'd been wearing anything but a white shirt :P

But anyway!  I have a quick and cute card today.

I know lots of pregos so I'm sure this will come in handy pretty soon!  I used the colors from the Color Throwdown:

And the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

That's it for me today.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Something to Say, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Canteloupe
Paper:  Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Lullaby DSP
Accessories:  Hearts Framelits, corner rounder punch, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Watercolor Winter

Happy Friday!  Are you ready for another festive Friday Flashback?  Today's featured stamp set is last year's Watercolor Winter, which I wish had carried over to this year because I really like it.  I suppose that doesn't matter though since I can still use it : )  So let's flash back!

The fun part about stamps is you can make things any color you want, so in my world, there are blue poinsettias.  This was a birthday card for a friend of mine last year, the same one who got the hedgehog snowman card from earlier this week.

I think this one might be my favorite of the flashback cards for today; I like the CAS layout and the little pops of pink.

And this is probably my least favorite one...it was a combination SCS sketch/color challenge card and I think I was just trying too hard.  Bleah.

I kinda like the layout on this one, which was another sketch I'm sure.  I almost always do sketch challenges for my cards, but I branch out a fair amount on my color combos.

This was my attempt to make a Watercolor Winter card *without* using the poinsettia stamp : )  So that's it for the cards from the vault, here's my brand new creation:

The layout is courtesy of Retro Sketches and the color combo was from an SCS challenge a few weeks ago.  I was prepared to hate Cameo Coral paired with Real Red, but when I stamped off the coral once and then layered the Real Red over it, I kinda liked how it turned out.  But I think if I'd used any more coral on here then I wouldn't like it as much; I kept the traditional red for my card base and then balanced it with lots of neutrals.

Here's the sketch, which for once I think I followed it pretty closely!

So that's it for me today.  I haven't decided yet if I'll do another Christmas-themed Friday Flashback next week since Christmas Day will be in the middle of the week, hmm.  I don't need any more Christmas cards this year, but I will need some post-Christmas thank you cards...

Have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Watercolor Winter, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Real Red, Cameo Coral, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White Craft
Paper:  Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, retired Old Olive & Chocolate Chip DSP
Accessories:  Dazzling Details (on the flower center, though somehow I ended up with clear glue and not much glitter), Apothecary Accents Framelits (probably my favorite set of Framelits ever), corner rounder punch, Dimensionals

CreativeCrew: Rosette Gift Box

Howdy, folks!  I managed to get all my June CreativeCrew projects done just barely on time :)  No minute like the last minute, am I right?

One of June's challenges is to make a project with an accordion fold.  Well, the first thing that came to my mind was a rosette, and since I'd never made one before now seemed like a great time to start.

Wanna know how to make one?  Follow these steps:

1.  Cut a piece of DSP to 1 1/2 by 12 inches.
2.  Score it across the short way every 1/2 inch, then fold mountain-valley-mountain etc.
3.  Adhere the two ends together with Sticky Strip and argue with it till you get it to fan out how you want.  (May take lots of arguing, and I think I ended up cutting off an inch or two of the paper because it just would NOT fan like I wanted).
4.  Embellish as desired and sit back and admire your handiwork!

I just did some simple ribbon loops for "leaves" around my rosette flower, and put a button threaded with linen thread in the middle of it.  The "for you" is from a Petite Pairs stamp that says "I'm here for you"; I just used a marker to ink up the part I wanted.

Side view of the polka-dotted Gumball Green paper.  At first I was going to do the whole box with that Daffodil Delight pattern from Quatrefancy, but I'm kinda wanting to hoard it so I did the green instead.  I could have gone a lot more gonzo decorating the box but I kinda like it more simplified anyway.  I got those kraft gift boxes months ago and never did anything with them...3D objects are not my crafting forte.  Who knows, maybe I'll give 'em a try more often now :)

Thanks for stopping by today and go check out all the June Creative Crew pretties here!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Petite Pairs
Ink:  Gumball Green
Paper:  Quatrefancy DSP, retired Gumball Green DSP
Accessories:  Kraft gift box, neutral button (retired style), linen thread, Gumball Green stitched satin ribbon

CreativeCrew: Blooming Birthday

Time for the last of my May CreativeCrew challenge cards!  I need to get crackin' on the June challenges :)

And here's the pic I used for my inspiration:

I think it's pretty easy to see where I got the colors and the idea for the stripes.  I love Garden Green, I should use it on cards more often.

Must dash, so that's it for me today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blooming with Kindness, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Garden Green, Primrose Petals
Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Primrose Petals, Whisper White, Regals DSP Stack
Accessories:  Oval punch, Whisper White baker's twine, Windows Collection Framelits

Tangerine Dream

No Friday Flashback today...I spent part of the day finishing an essay for a class, and then kinda got knocked out by a headache and never did get a Flashback post written.  But I can't leave you cardless, so here's one I made a little while back.  Enjoy!

I love bright colors, I really do.  Get out your sunglasses!

This was for a color challenge on SCS, to use Tangerine Tango, Lucky Limeade, and Whisper White.  I added the black in there because I think it provides a great contrast with the two bright colors.  Whaddya think?

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Fabulous Florets, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Tangerine Tango, StazOn Black
Paper:  Tangerine Tango, Basic Black, Whisper White, Summer Smooches DSP
Accessories:  black taffeta, oval & scallop oval punches, rhinestone, Dimensionals

Watercolor Poinsettia

I really liked today's sketch challenge at Splitcoast, though I admit I took a few liberties with it:

I switched out an oval and framing rectangle for graduated sizes of the Window Frames Collection Framelits.  I just got Watercolor Winter so I couldn't resist using it for this card.  Wish I'd found my Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon before I put the Early Espresso ribbon on here, but too late now!  I'm running out of the Early Espresso and it's retired so I didn't want to cut it off the card and waste it.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies (all SU):
Stamps:  Watercolor Winter, Snow Swirled, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Early Espresso, Pool Party, Whisper White (can't hardly see it even IRL but there are small white snowflakes on the Pool Party layer)
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Neutrals DSP STack
Accessories:  Window Frames Collection Framelits, coordinating Festive piercing template, Early Espresso taffeta (sadly retired), Dimensionals