Castle Acre Priory (Invasion)

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I think I am *finally* starting to feel better after being a human pancake for a solid month.  I went to the doctor on Friday and it turns out I've had pneumonia!  At least now I don't feel like a weakling who couldn't shake a cold.  I've got antibiotics and steroids and like I said, I feel like I'm finally on the upswing now.  Which means hopefully I'll be back on track with scrapbooking very soon, I've got two layouts on my table right now, and a giant stack I need to take photos of.

For now, here's one of my recent finishes:

More pics from the "Invasion" in 2013, during the Britain part of their trip.  The hubs and I took everyone up to Castle Acre Priory so they could kinda get a taste for the kinds of things that we typically did over the weekends, and we had a lovely cream tea at a local tea room afterwards.  I put a couple of bee accents on these pages because beekeeping sounds like something the monks might have done when this was a working religious house.  After all, monks all over Britain brewed beer and did stuff like that, so why not bees.  I don't know if they actually did keep bees but I like 'em on my pages anyway.

Today's palette is a bit unusual I think:  Fresh Freesia, Certainly Celery, Terracotta Tile, and Basic Gray.  It's a triadic color scheme (purple - green - orange) and the Terracotta Tile isn't that molten orange like it looks in the picture.  I think it works pretty well though, I like it.

Gotta go do some grocery shopping and then hopefully lots of work in my craft room. Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Classic Alphabet, Postage Collection
Ink:  Basic Gray, Terracotta Tile
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Terracotta Tile, Certainly Celery, Thick Basic White, Certainly Celery DSP
Accessories:  None

Enjoy Your Retirement

Hey kids!  How's your week going so far?  Ryan is doing swim lessons, and for some reason it feels just SO MUCH busier with that 30-minute lesson added into our day.  At least it was just for last week and this week...I'd prefer one or two lessons a week for several weeks rather than 4 lessons in 4 days.  Oy!

Anyway, I got in my craft room yesterday and I was feeling the vintage vibe pretty hard, so here's what I made:

Oh, we're pulling out all the retired stuff for this one!  Retired stamps, retired paper, retired ink.  Here's my inspiration pic:

This is the current challenge at the new-to-me Library Challenge.  I must admit I've never read any Jules Verne; I saw an image floating around Facebook last week that was a comparison of the tallest structures in the world, and "Books I intend to read" was like twice as tall as everything else ;)  Definitely related to that one!  Anyway, since I've never read the book, I took inspiration from the image on the front cover.  Even though my card doesn't *say* anything about retiring on it, I think this would be a great "congratulations on your retirement" card.  I bet a lot of people want to travel when they retire, though probably not by hot air balloon ;) and I liked the idea of a bunch of postage stamps for that reason.

This idea sprang forth fully formed Athena-style when I saw the sketch from Global Design Project:

Fun.  I like it when an idea for a card actually works out on paper more or less the way it looks in my head.

Well, we've got lots to do today, so peace out, friends.  Enjoy your day!

Supplies, all SU! (lots retired)
Stamps:  Postage Collection, Suite Sentiments
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Primrose Petals, Delightful Dijon, Soft Suede
Paper:  Primrose Petals, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Print Poetry DSP
Accessories:  postage stamp punch, Dimensionals, linen thread

Walk Along the Thames

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I got some scrapping done this weekend while the kiddo was napping, but I have like over a half-dozen layouts that I haven't taken pictures of yet.  I'm up to 140 pages done so far this year...I'm going to aim for an even 200.  :)

So here's today's layout!

See the original pictures here.  I wish I had lightened them up with some photo editing before posting on that blog and before printing them out for this layout, but this is what I've got.  These pics were taken on our first trip into London and I'm wishing I'd bought an extra pack of that DSP before it retired.  I love how the blue pattern reinforces the water theme for a walk along a river.  And I put a wee baby umbrella accent on the layout because it's England :)

Today's color palette includes Mint Macaron (I have been using this A LOT in my scrapbooks of late, probably a good thing I jump around when I choose what photos to work on so you can't tell when I get obsessed with one certain color), Watermelon Wonder, Dapper Denim, and Very Vanilla.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Hope you have a great week!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Letters for You, Rough Type, Postage Collection
Ink:  Dapper Denim, Watermelon Wonder, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Dapper Denim, Watermelon Wonder, Very Vanilla, By the Seashore DSP
Accessories:  Postage stamp punch

Friday Flashback: Happy Watercolor

Happy Friday, y'all!  Well, I failed in my goal to have this post up before noon, but here it is anyway :)  Today's featured retired stamp set is the beautiful Happy Watercolor, which debuted in the 2014 Occasions catalog.  So let's take a look through the archives!

Also features Bodacious Bouquet

I think that sentiment stamp is my very favorite stamp in Happy Watercolor.  That stamp makes me happy :)

Also features Postage Collection

I love orchids.  They will forever remind me of living in Japan, where the Make-Man Store had beautiful orchids in a huge variety of colors and some of the plants were as cheap as 500 yen (about five dollars at the time).

Also features Hardwood

And poppies remind me of living in England.  They grow all over the place in late fall and of course they sell plastic ones to put on your jacket for Remembrance Day (which is like the US Veterans' Day).

So even though I post things on here five (and lately six) days a week, somehow I still don't use some stamp sets nearly as much as I might want to....like why isn't this Flashback a lot longer?  So it was fun to play with this stamp set again.  And both of my cards count for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

Easy peasy!  Happy Watercolor is just two years old, so not as retro as some other stamps but hey, it's over a year old so it counts :)

First up is another orchid card!  We have an orchid in our kitchen right now.  I'm very surprised I haven't killed it yet, but it's got three blooms on it so yay us.  I almost called this post a Friday Frustration though because I was all done with this card when I decided to put some Wink of Stella on the flowers (because hey, I've got that pen now so let's wink up everything!) and then the pen BARFED all over my image panel!  So I had to rip that off and re-do all of the stamping and coloring.  Then I was much more carefuller (haha) and managed to give it a little bit of shimmer without having glitter barf all over everything.

Anyway, thank you to the lovely folks at Fusion for this inspiration photo:

Yay orchids!  I love the color on that vase on the left too, I wish we had that exact color in cardstock and ink.  I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I suppose I wanted to make up for yesterday's lack of motivation, and I didn't realize that it was already pretty late in the morning because I decided to make a second card for today's Flashback.

And darn it all if this one didn't take multiple tries too!  I used the color combination from Global Design Project:

You can probably tell from my two new cards today that I'm kind of in love with that diagonal stripe patterned paper.  What can I say?  It makes me happy too.  I always try to make the stripes point upwards though because that looks "happier" to me.  Maybe I over-think it.

This was attempt #1 on the poppy (I finished up with attempt #3).  The Tangelo Twist came out more orangey in this one which I liked better (it seemed to get a little muddier the more I stamped with it?) but I just didn't like the placement of the sentiment.  If I had stamped the poppy on there first, I would have moved the sentiment up and over a bit, but I stamped the sentiment first and then it just didn't work for me so I had to redo it.  Bleargh.

Well, I've got lots of errands to run today and my little girl dog Sadie just came in and reminded me that today is her 10th birthday and I owe my birthday dog a walk.  A long walk she says, not like yesterday's short one.  Who am I to deny the birthday dog?  So off we walk.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, orchid card:
Stamps:  Happy Watercolor
Ink:  Basic Black, Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Tip Top Taupe
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Thick Whisper White, Blushing Bride DSP
Accessories:  Wink of Stella glitter pen (clear), Dimensionals, hexagon punch, Party Pennants Bigz die (still available on the clearance rack)

Supplies, poppy card:
Stamps:  Happy Watercolor
Ink:  Tangelo Twist, Bermuda Bay, Early Espresso
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Early Espresso, Shimmery White, Tangelo Twist DSP
Accessories:  Hexagon punch, rhinestones, Dimensionals

Nachos: Orchids for a Friend

Hellooooo Nacho fans!  Wait till you see the beautiful color combo the Nacho Average Design Team has for you today...actually, you don't have to wait 'cause here it is!

I admit, I'm generally not a fan of Blushing Bride but darn it all if I don't really like it with Rich Razzleberry and Rose Red.  So here's my card!

The colors reminded me of all the beautiful orchids I saw in Japan, so I had to break out this stamp from Happy Watercolor.  The flowers are stamped with Versamark and embossed with Early Espresso EP, then watercolored with a mixture of blender pen and Aquapainter.  I sponged some River Rock ink on it just because it seemed like a good idea at the time :)

Now it's your turn!  Check out the other beautiful Nacho DT creations on the Nacho Average Challenges blog, and then show us what you've got!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Happy Watercolor, Postage Collection
Ink:  Versamark, Blushing Bride, Rose Red, Rich Razzleberry, River Rock
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Rose Red, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, retired Rich Razzleberry DSP
Accessories:  Curly Label punch, pearls, Beautifully Baroque EF, Early Espresso EP, Dimensionals

Vintage Vehicle

As I mentioned yesterday, I'd made a card for this week's Nacho sketch that just kinda didn't do anything for me, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

For some reason, I think this looked much better in my head than it did on paper, hence me making the Stippled Blossoms card.  Here's the sketch:

So hey, not every card can be your favorite, but if you don't like what you make at first then try, try again!  I was much happier with my rose card than this one.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Postage Collection (hostess set)
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Pistachio Pudding
Paper:  Pistachio Pudding, Very Vanilla, Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, In Color DSP Stack, Venetian Romance DSP
Accessories:  Labels Collection Framelits, Postage Stamp punch, Dimensionals