Friday Flashback: Starburst Sayings

Happy Friday!  It is time once more for the Friday Flashback, and today's featured stamp set is Starburst Sayings, which seems kinda appropriate to kick off the 4th of July weekend.  So let's take a whirl through the archives, and if all you want to see is today's new card then scroll to the bottom :)

Also features World Map

Starting off with this lovely map card.  I wish that SU! had done some more stamp sets (or even just one more!) to coordinate with the Starburst dies before they retired them all, but oh well.

Also features Perfectly Penned

That little starburst stamp on the left is covering up a booboo on the embossing powder at the bottom of the H :)

Also features Something to Say

Ahh, my favorite stamp from this set.  What's not to love about a giant Happy Day stamp!

Though apparently that little starburst stamp is the runner-up for favorite stamp from Starburst Sayings.

Works on any color combination!

And lots of different card layouts.

Also features Alphabet Rotary, Gorgeous Grunge, Positively Chevron

This is quite possibly my favorite card in the history of ever.  The inside says "You know the rest!" and I sent it to my dad :D

Also features Wood You Be Mine?

And here's a little lumberjack thank you card.

Also features Too Kind, My Paper Pumpkin (tiny chevron stamp)

Last one, another brightly-colored thank you card.  Now for today's new creation!

My SIL's birthday is on July 5th, so I'm going to send this out to her ASAP for her birthday.  Hey, it looks like this is the first time I used the little celebrate stamp so woohoo for me!  The fireworks and star stamps are from a stamp set called July Fourth.

And I stamped on the inside of the card too.  My patriotic color combo is courtesy of Fab Friday:

And of course I re-used the Freshly Made Sketch that I used yesterday:

And that's it for today.  See you back here tomorrow for another baby book layout :)

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Starburst Sayings, July Fourth, Happy Happenings
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, Night of Navy, Real Red
Paper:  Temping Turquoise, Night of Navy, Pacific Point, Shimmery White, Whisper White (just for the inside)
Accessories:  Starburst Framelits, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Secret Garden

Hey y'all, happy Friday.  This week's Friday Flashback stamp set is Secret Garden.  So let's hop to it!

Also features Perfectly Penned, Positively Chevron

 Let's start off with some shiny gold chevrons, shall we?  I think the Strawberry Slush flowers really pop against the lighter colors and the gold.

Also features Simple Stems, Blessings from Heaven, Gorgeous Grunge

And here's a less successful card; there are matching Secret Garden Framelits and the stamp set Simple Stems works with them too.

Also features Sweet Serendipity

And for the last part of the Flashback, I made this one for the Sweet Serendipity flashback a little while back.  So that's it for digging around the archives, and here is today's brand new card:

This time I hand-cut the flowers instead of using the Framelits because my little girl dog parked herself right behind my chair and I couldn't get up (I'm absolutely certain she does that on purpose).  I need a birthday card for my MIL, so I turned to this week's Create with Connie and Mary color challenge:

I did only use SU! products, though the stamps are retired; they don't specifically say that's against their rules but if it is then they can throw paper scraps at me.  I love it when Elegant Eggplant shows up in color challenges, which happens next to never so I had to play along.

I also really liked this week's CAS(E) This Sketch:

So that's it for me today, folks.  I need to go vacuum the house (hopefully the vacuum won't try to knock me down the stairs this time) and get my Thanksgiving shopping list ready.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Secret Garden, Happy Everything
Ink:  Island Indigo, Versamark
Paper:  Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Gold EP, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Simply Stars

Happy Friday, peeps!  I hope lots of you have this Friday off to make for a long Independence Day holiday weekend.  Today's Friday Flashback is themed appropriately:  I grabbed a whole handful of stamp set names for the next 20 Flashbacks or so, and I was happy that Simply Stars was one of them so we get to be starrily festive today!  My sister-in-law and both my parents have July birthdays, and they all love stars and stripes, so this just worked out all around :D  Let's get started!

Also features Perfectly Penned

Uh, you know you're going to see a whole lot of red, white, and blue today.

Also features July Fourth

And some turquoise!  Because fun.  This was a layout from the last set of baby books I made, which was two years ago.  I'm about to start another set, which is also for twin boys.

Also features Perfect Pennants

 I love bright orange and blue together :)

Also features Banner Greetings

Pretty sure this was for a sketch, and I like using the negative shape from the circle Framelit so the patterned paper peeks out.  I should do that more often.

Also features Words of Courage

One more stars and stripes card...

Also features Perfect Pennants, Positively Chevron

And last (and probably also least), this one that has way too much Soft Sky.  I dunno, Soft Sky just kinda looks dirty to me sometimes.  So are you ready for today's new creation?  Here it is!

Now I just need to decide which of my July birthdays gets this card, I think it would work for all three of them :)  Oh, see the striped paper?  Originally it was horizontal stripes (or vertical, depending on how you hold the paper) but I wanted angled stripes, so I did a little creative paper trimming.  Just what I was looking for!

I used this week's monochromatic color combo from Colour Me...!

And I used last Saturday's Retro Sketch:

Though of course I replaced the bow on the sketch with my star element.  Oops, I just noticed that the ribbon was supposed to extend to the edges of the card.  Too late now...

That's it for me this week, peeps.  Have a wonderful holiday!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Simply Stars, Word Play
Ink:  Real Red, Early Espresso, Tip Top Taupe
Paper:  Real Red, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Cherry on Top DSP Stack (what?  It's the only current DSP I have)
Accessories:  large star punch (retired), Early Espresso taffeta ribbon (retired), rhinestone, Dimensionals

2014 Showcase, Part 2

Welcome back for Part 2 of the 2014 Showcase here at Snapdragon Stamps!  Let's go.

Eastern Influences

My pick for May is this scrapbook layout of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan.  Some great pictures that I'm so glad are immortalized on a scrapbook layout, and a great excuse to use some of my favorite colors :)  However, I couldn't pick just one project for May, so here's a bonus:

Hello Lovely, Nacho card!

This card took under 5 minutes to make and I still love it.  That patterned paper is workin', y'all!  Proof that a really cute card doesn't have to take forever.

Wanderlust, World Map, The Open Sea, Nacho card!

June's pick is this travel-inspired card, which I immediately sent to a friend who travels so much that she makes me and the hubs look like shut-ins.  In three years, she and her hubs visited 50 countries!

Stippled Blossoms, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Nacho card!

My July pick is yet another Nacho card, this time anniversary roses.  I do love those roses.

Starburst Sayings, Alphabet Rotary, Gorgeous Grunge, Positively Chevron, Nacho card!

And finally, my August pick could be none other than this Princess Bride-inspired Inigo Montoya card.  I giggled like crazy the whole time I was making it and I know it gave my dad a chuckle when he opened it up, too.

One more part of the 2014 Showcase coming up, but first...ya know tomorrow is Nacho Average Challenges day :)

Friday Flashback: Dream a Little

It's Friday Flashback day!  This week's retired stamp set is Dream a Little, which was a hostess set back in 2009 and I admit I got it because of the hummingbird.  I'm a sucker for hummingbird stamps.  And peacocks.  And stars.  Hubs thinks I'm just a stampin' fiend.  Anyway, back to Dream a Little:

And then that was the only card I ever made with it....well, at least I made a dozen of them because it was for a swap, right?  And also, I love that Raspberry Tart DSP.  So today's Flashback is pretty short, and here's my new card:

I wasn't feeling very inspired today until I found the brand new sketch from Sketch Frenzy Friday.  Once I got started at my craft table though, this came together pretty fast.  If I'd looked in my archives and realized that I'd already done pink roses with this set, I might have gone for a different color combination but what can ya do.  I used Strawberry Slush, Blackberry Bliss, and Coastal Cabana, which might just be my default color combination.  I didn't even try to get the rose outline stamps lined up, I wanted them to be a little more freeform and I embossed them with gold EP.  I'm an embossin' FOOL lately, it's been nice to have my heat gun in the same room with me.  In England, it had to be plugged into the transformer so it wasn't quite as convenient to emboss there.

Anywha, here's the SFF sketch:

I made the image panel a little bigger than the original sketch but otherwise I stuck pretty close right?

That's it for me today, peeps.  I'm off to make one more batch of cookies (been baking for a Fall Fest that's happening tomorrow) and then I'm going to refuse to bake anything else for, like, at least three days.  Cheers!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Dream a Little, Positively Chevron, Curly Cute because it's one of my fave sentiment sets ever and I love it
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Blackberry Bliss, Strawberry Slush, Versamark
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Blackberry Bliss, Whisper White
Accessories:  Gold EP, Blackberry Bliss ribbon

A Friendly Ghost

I am still trying to think cool thoughts, but I just looked at our weather widget (which is still set for England) and it's in the 60s there.  Yep, pretty sure we're at least 30 degrees warmer than that here still!  But I'll keep trying.  In the meantime, here's another fall-ish card, this one for Halloween.

I'll be honest, I don't think I'm on my A game today.  But I still gave it a shot, right?  I think I need to spend more time in my craft room and get back in the groove.  Anyway.  The sketch is from Retro Sketches:

And the color combo I came up with on my own.  Thought I'd shake it up a little and not use black on a Halloween card :)  That Boo! stamp is one I just got yesterday, in this month's My Paper Pumpkin kit.  The kit is to make little goodie bags, but the stamps by themselves are SUPER cute.  And I love Halloween stamps even though I don't send out Halloween cards :)

That's it for me today, folks.  Thought I might try to organize a few things in my craft room before I leave for book club tonight.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fall Fest, Positively Chevron, My Paper Pumpkin (September 2014 kit)
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Blackberry Bliss, Tangerine Tango
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Blackberry Bliss, Whisper White
Accessories:  Arrows TIEF, Ovals & Fun Fall Framelits, Dimensionals

Nachos: Hello, My Name Is...

Greetings, Nacho fans!  It is time again for an awesome color combo courtesy of Nacho Average Challenges.

I kind of want an outfit in these colors, is that weird?

So before I show you today's card (unless you're scrolling right past all this blah-de-blah to get to the good stuff), I should tell you that I love to quote movies in everyday conversation.  My absolute favorite quotable movies are Ghostbusters and The Princess Bride.  So you might know where this is going already...

I couldn't help it, the idea popped in my head when I was looking at the "Hello My Name Is" stamp from Starburst Sayings, and I just HAD to make it!  And I laughed the whole time I was working on it.  I can't be the first person to have thought of this (after all, Starburst Sayings has been out for a while) but I haven't yet seen another card where someone else did the Princess Bride quote.  I also stamped more words on the inside...

I think I'll send this one to my dad.  I know, it says "You killed my father" on the front, but Dad loves that movie too and he'll totally get it and I betcha money he'll say "Prepare to die!" just reading the front of the card, which is why I put "You know the rest!" on the inside.  The letters are from the new Alphabet Rotary stamp, which is pretty nifty that you can spell out words or phrases by twisting the rotary stamp.  I had to practice a bit before I got the letters to stamp out all the way--I kept not getting the bottom of the letters to show, you have to rock the stamp up and down a bit to make sure you get the whole letter to stamp at once.

My little brother has a plain white T-shirt that has one of those "Hello, My Name Is" stickers printed on the chest of it, with Inigo Montoya written on it.  So you know, clearly this movie is a family favorite.

Hope you have as much fun with this color combo as I did!  Be sure to post your creations on the Nacho blog for us to ooh and ahh over :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Starburst Sayings, Alphabet Rotary, Gorgeous Grunge, Positively Chevron
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Pool Party, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Paper:  Tangerine Tango, Pool Party, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Accessories:  Starburst & Circle Framelits, Hexagon punch, Regals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Inspiration

Mostly it seems like I do sketch and color challenges, but I really like inspiration challenges too.  Sure, some of the color challenges come with a photo of whatever inspired the color combo, but I like these kinds of inspiration challenges:

Just realized this is my second inspiration challenge this week!  This one is from Just Add Ink, and here's what I did:

I won't lie, I wish I had the gold vellum already printed with the chevrons :)  My embossing powder got a little messy on the chevron panel.  The larger flower and the sentiment are also gold embossed.

Still hard to tell, but you'll have to take my word for it.  I used a retired Glimmer Brad from when Pear Pizzazz was an In Color; I figured it looked close enough to a darker shade of Pistachio Pudding.  The other whozit (I can't even remember what these are called?) was a freebie added to a Paper Pumpkin kit a while back, otherwise I probably wouldn't own them.  My post office is SO picky about anything dimensional going through the mail.

I also used the latest sketch at Clean & Simple:

I really like their sketches but haven't played along over there in a long time; sometimes I feel a little ADHD with so many challenges out there to choose from.

Hope y'all have a lovely day.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Secret Garden, Positively Chevron, Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Versamark, Strawberry Slush, Whisper White
Paper:  Pool Party, Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White
Accessories:  Secret Garden Framelits, lots of Gold EP, Dimensionals, retired Glimmer Brad, is it called Boutique Details?  I don't even know.

Wish Upon a Star

I don't know what the deal is lately, but I've been having a hard time making cards that I really, really like.  Except I did like yesterday's card.  But anyway, here's a new one for today:

I used a Splitcoast color challenge--Soft Sky, Bermuda Bay, and Midnight Muse--and I can't help thinking that Soft Sky looks kinda dishwatery and this card would be better with Baja Breeze.  Because everything is better with Baja Breeze.

I'm afraid I didn't quite do justice to the Seize the Sketch challenge:

Well, I gave it a shot.  And the only way to get my mojo back is to keep trying, and since I post here five days a week I don't get any time to slack off (especially since that stupid exam used up almost all of my draft posts while I was too busy studying to create stuff).

Thanks for stopping by.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Stars, Perfect Pennants, Positively Chevron
Ink:  Soft Sky, Bermuda Bay, Midnight Muse
Paper:  Soft Sky, Midnight Muse, Whisper White, retired Bermuda Bay DSP because I'm still using up scraps
Accessories:  retired star punches, Dimensionals, corner rounder punch

Baby Cakes

I had a stamping serendipity moment today.

A friend of mine is well-known for her cupcake-making skillz, and she's pregnant right now with a baby girl, so of course I wanted to make a baby card with a cupcake on it.  I was looking for a baby sentiment stamp to go with it and found this "baby cakes" stamp I'd totally forgotten I even owned and I was like crown me queen of the stamping universe!

Because some days you just have to pat yourself on the back, right?

So I stamped the card base with Positively Chevron, and despite using a brayer to apply the ink I ended up with this kind of mottled look so I'm going to pretend it was on purpose to add visual texture.  The cupcake is punched out of some scrap paper and assembled on top of a small Labels Collection Framelit shape because that made things easier and I thought I needed a little something to keep the cupcake from getting lost on the busy background panels.

I used today's hot-off-the-presses Freshly Made Sketch:

I spent some time procrastinating this morning (because sadly, I am just as good at procrastinating about getting crafty as I am about unpleasant things like doing the dishes) but now I'm in the Zone so I'm gonna go try to work on some more schtuff before I have to leave for the gym so my friend the tiny fitness instructor can abuse me.

Cheers, peeps!  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Banner Greetings, Positively Chevron
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Pink Pirouette, Pear Pizzazz (on the cherry stem)
Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Pool Party, Whisper White, Basic Black, Sweet Sorbet DSP, retired Crumb Cake DSP
Accessories:  Cupcake builder punch, Labels Collection Framelits, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Googly Ghouls

*singsong voice* Friday Flashback!!  Today's randomly-chosen retired stamp set is Googly Ghouls, appropriate for October, no?  Let's do the Monster Mash as we flash back!

I figured these not-at-all scary monsters would be good for baby books, so last year I used them for two books.  Same layout, just different DSP.  The one above was for a girl, and the next one was for a boy:

Because Basic Gray is more manly than Rich Razzleberry, or so I hear.

Frankie here made an appearance not that long ago for a Nacho challenge; I'm really surprised that I haven't used Googly Ghouls more than I have.  Maybe I just got it late in the season last year...sometimes it takes me a while to glomp onto a stamp set and by the time I get it, the holiday is past.  Oops.

Here's today's new card:

Well, I think it's all right but just not as awesome as it was in my head.  Hmm.  Grateful Greetings was last week's Friday Flashback and I just couldn't resist using it again for my ghoulish lineup.  I thought it would be fun to stamp the ghouls in colors instead of stamping in black and coloring in bits of them (the fact that this is so much faster than coloring bits has nothing to do with that decision).  I'd already stamped the ghouls when I went to look for a good Halloweenie paper to go with them, so the stripe is actually Cajun Craze as opposed to Tangerine Tango but I think it still kinda works.

Thanks for joining me for today's spooky Friday Flashback!  Have a great weekend.

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Googly Ghouls, Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, Wicked Fun Specialty DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Dimensionals (under the bat)