Singin' in the Rain

Mornin' y'all!  Guess what?  It RAINED yesterday!  And we have a chance of rain several days this week!  Guess all my rainy day crafting has finally manifested actual precipitation, ha!  And I have another rainy card to share today:

I just had to have another go at some of last week's challenges, and Playing in the Rain and Rain or Shine were still out on my crafting table.  I decided to get out the sweet bunny this time for the Sunday Stamps challenge:

I skipped the lighter pink and then used Flirty Flamingo, Pineapple Punch, Cloud Cover, and Shy Shamrock for my colors.  That rainy background from the Rain or Shine Specialty DSP is I think a mix of Balmy Blue and Smoky Slate, but it turns out it coordinates really well with Cloud Cover.  I gave the bunny a bright yellow rain slicker because I've always wanted a bright yellow rain slicker and I've never had one.

Once again we have the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I think I nailed the rain theme better on this one than with my fox card.  Once again, Playing in the Rain is 3 years old and Rain or Shine is 13 years old, nice and retro for both.

Inkspirational wants to see rainy cards too:

And I used the same Freshly Made Sketch as the fox card:

This time I did die cut a circle to go behind my little bunny, I think I like it better than the fox card for that.  And then, since I had the Rain or Shine DSP out anyway, I made one more card:

I had never fussy cut these little pals out of the DSP before so it was past time they got on a card of their own, especially after Ann made such a cute card with this paper for a Paper Players challenge.  Everything on here is cut from the DSP, the only stamping is the greeting.  I have been on a tear with paper tearing lately, I seem to want to do that on a lot of cards, but it's a quick and easy way to add extra interest.

That's it for me, peeps.  I've got to get Ryan off to school, finish my brekkie (English breakfast tea and an orange strawberry scone) and then I'm off to have my head examined : )  I'm having an MRI to investigate why I've been having more headaches than usual lately.  Hubs says I've been needing my head examined for years since I live with him and Ryan, but I loves them anyway.  Hope you have a great day, rainy or not!

Supplies, first card:
Stamps:  Playing in the Rain, Rain or Shine
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Craft Whisper White, Stampin' Blends in Cloud Cover, Flirty Flamingo, Pineapple Punch, Shy Shamrock
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Thick Basic White, Rain or Shine Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Playing in the Rain dies, Textured Notes dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, white EP, In Color Flat Pearls

Supplies, second card:
Stamps:  Playing in the Rain
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Old Olive, Rain or Shine Specialty DSP
Accessories:  None

The Fabulous Ms. Fox

Mornin' y'all!  I just put the kettle on for my second cuppa, I am drinking as much tea as possible while it's still cool in the mornings because once summer arrives I don't like to drink hot things as much.  Gotta enjoy that tea while I can!

So it feels like we have had weeks and weeks of unrelentingly sunny weather, but at least it's a rainy day in my craft room.

It doesn't show up in the picture (it usually doesn't), but I did Wink of Stella on Ms. Fox's umbrella so that it matches the glitter dots and makes a visual triangle of Melon Mambo.  Design science, visual triangles help your eye move around the card (or scrapbook page).

I have three challenges today, starting with Freshly Made Sketches:

Next up is Retro Rubber:

I knew this would be the perfect excuse to use one of the cute images in Playing in the Rain, since I only used a greeting from that stamp set when we had the spring showers challenge at The Paper Players.  So, Playing in the Rain is now 3 years old (for some reason I thought it was more like 4 or 5?), so it's now retro in stamp years.  I used Rain or Shine for the greeting, and it's now 13 years old.

Last up is the Color Dare Challenge:

I used Highland Heather, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, and Soft Sea Foam.  I was going to do Pretty Peacock, but then I found the Sunshine & Rainbows DSP Stack and subbed in Bermuda Bay for that.  There are lots of rainy patterns in that stack but the two in the challenge colors aren't really themed, I kinda wish I had added a circle behind the fox and stamped some rain clouds but by the time I thought of that I was out of time to work on this card so it's staying how it is.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Wish we'd get some rain here, we've had fire hazard advisories on my weather app every day for quite a while.  Once I finish my tea, Daphne and I will get out there in the sunshine.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Playing in the Rain, Rain or Shine
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Melon Mambo, Highland Heather
Paper:  Highland Heather, Thick Basic White, Sunshine & Rainbows DSP Stack
Accessories:  Playing in the Rain dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Glitter Gems, Wink of Stella

Chasing Rainbows

Mornin' y'all, how are you doing?  I got in my craft room yesterday for the first time in weeks and made this:

I used the sketch from Retro Rubber:

The only stamping on my card is the greeting; otherwise the retro DSP does all the work.  The stamp set Rain or Shine is 11 years old, so quite retro ; ) and the Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP is an old favorite.

I took my theme from the Paper Players challenge:

I hunted up the Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP specifically for the rainbow stripes, and I had a scrap of the umbrella print that I couldn't resist using for the center shape on the sketch.  Then I had to add a die-cut sun from the soon-to-retire Hey Chuck dies, so I hit both sunshine and rainbows on my card.  I kept it pretty simple since I hadn't been in my craft room for so long.  I did sneak in the new-to-me Countryside Corners dies too.

Have a great day, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rain or Shine
Ink:  Pacific Point
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP
Accessories:  Countryside Corners dies, Hey Chuck dies, Fine Sparkle Gems, Dimensionals

Paper Players: April Showers

Happy Easter!  The Easter Bunny snuck into our house last night while Ryan and the hubs were asleep and left a trail of plastic eggs between Ryan's room and his Easter basket downstairs.  In completely unrelated news, I'm tired this morning ; )

But it's still time for an awesome new challenge from the Paper Players!

This immediately made me think of cute umbrellas, and as it happens I have multiple retired stamp sets from which to choose when it comes to umbrellas.  I decided to reach way back to the long-retired Rain or Shine for my card today.

Ryan stamped the bright pink umbrella for me and I did the handle, then cut it out.  And then Ryan got bored of helping my in my craft room so I finished the rest of the card on my own ; )  That cloud pattern from the Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP is one of my favorites and I'm hoarding what I have left, so I designed the rest of the card around that strip of paper.  Ryan wasn't too impressed (everyone's a critic) but I like how it turned out!

We've had some gorgeous weather lately, and on Friday Ryan and I took a bike ride and stopped at the blumen field near our house.  This is where they plant flowers every year and you're encouraged to come pick fresh flowers for your house, dropping money in a little box by the field.  Last year they did tulips first and later in the year there were various other flowers, including lilies (sadly I'm allergic) and sunflowers.  The tulips are in bloom right now!

So Ryan and I tiptoed through the tulips together, and he kept asking for my phone because he told me he is "an excellent picture-taker".

NGL, he did take some good ones ; ) We didn't have any money with us so we just took pictures; we'll have to go out again and pick some tulips for our house.

Anyway, I hope spring is springing wherever you are, and that you'll take the chance to make an April Showers CAS card and share it on the Paper Players blog.  Have fun!  I've gotta go...we're going to do an egg hunt in our yard.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rain or Shine
Ink:  Magenta Madness, Basic Gray, Pacific Point
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP
Accessories:  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

Friday Flashback: Best of Sale-a-Bration

A rainy Friday morning to you, friends!  Seriously, I'm going to need a boat to get to the gym today, and my little girl dog is going to be very sad when she realizes we're not going for a walk in the wet.  But you're not here for a weather report, you're here for the Friday Flashback.  And today's stamp set is Best of Sale-a-Bration, which shoulda been called Best of Flowers Part 2 because every image but one is a flower.  I was a total lemming and bought all 12 of the Best Of sets a few years ago.

Also features Petal Parade, Four You

So the Best of Sale-a-Bration stamp on this card is the smaller red flower (and there's my favorite Fresh Prints of Bel Air paper!)

Also features Petal Parade, Banner Blast

Same stamp on here.  It was actually a smaller version of a flower in Petal Parade, which was a SAB offering that same year the Best Of stamp sets came out.

Also features Morning Post Alphabet, Rain or Shine, Papillon Potpourri, Artistic Etchings

And here's the labels I made for my cross stitch projects because I'm a dork :)  The flower stamp on the Quarry label is the Best of Sale-a-Bration stamp on here.  Each one of the images has something to do with the cross stitch picture I'm working on:  Rain Blossoms is a scene of people in kimonos with Japanese parasols walking across a bridge; Eilonwy is a fairy with a crown of butterflies; the Quarry is a sort of Impressionist scene with lots of bluebonnets; and the Accolade is a famous Pre-Raphaelite painting of a lady knighting a man who is kneeling before her.

But anyway.  That's it for the Flashback, here's the new card:

Heyyy, I managed to use one of the stamps in the set that hadn't been used before!  Woo.  I used this week's Create with Connie & Mary sketch challenge:

And the Color Throwdown:

I used Pretty in Pink (though it might have worked a little better with a more saturated shade), Bashful Blue, Tangelo Twist, and Peach Parfait.  I can't wait to get the new In Colors in my hot little hands next week--there's a new peach color but what has me really excited are the new green and blue and purple.  And there's a pink.  I'll bust 'em out next week.

That's it for now, y'all.  Have a great weekend and stay dry.

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Best of Sale-a-Bration, Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink, Peach Parfait, Tangelo Twist
Paper:  Peach Parfait, Tangelo Twist, Thick Whisper White, Bashful Blue DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella glitter pen

A-Team Baby Book: April

Happy Saturday, y'all!  Time for another baby book layout.

April showers bring May flowers, so Noah's Ark seemed like a particularly appropriate theme for April's pages.

And this is the maiden voyage for Two by Two, which I got just before it retired a couple years ago.  It had a sentiment too (congratulations I think?) but I cut that apart from the image so I could use the ark by itself.

Some sweet brollies from Weather or Not.

Today's springy color palette:  So Saffron, Marina Mist, Lavender Lace, Smoky Slate, Close to Cocoa, and Whisper White.  Generally I think that gray and brown don't go together at all, but there's not much else you can do when the image has a wooden boat and an elephant :)

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Two by Two, Rain or Shine, Weather or Not
Ink:  Basic Black, Marina Mist, Lavender Lace, Smoky Slate
Paper:  So Saffron, Marina Mist, Lavender Lace, Smoky Slate, PTI White, Watercolor Wonder DSP
Accessories:  Sizzix alphabet, Prismacolor Pencils, Circles Framelits

Baby Books: April

Welcome back to another Snapdragon Stamps Special Edition...or something.  We're still doing baby books on Saturday because I have really fertile friends.  Uh, that sounds awkward.

Moving on.  April!

I can't remember where I got the idea for this color combination, because the Sunshine & Sprinkles paper has Melon Mambo in it rather than Calypso Coral.  Maybe I switched it out because Calypso Coral has enough orange in it not to seem too girly?  Yeah, that sounds like something I would do.

I still love those umbrellas from Rain or Shine.  Kinda wish SU! would do another umbrella stamp set with some matching Framelits, that would be awesome.

I do remember that my friend Tiana called me while I was working on this and asked what I was doing, and I said that I was looking for a rubber duck.  Which kind of surprised her but I do weird things :p  Anyway, I found this rubber ducky stamp in Baby Bundle.  Perfect!

And here's today's color palette:  Marina Mist, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Smoky Slate, and Whisper White.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Rain or Shine, Baby Bundle
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Marina Mist, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Marina Mist, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP
Accessories:  Sizzix Alphabet, Window Frame Framelits

Stitching Labels

I've been busy for the past couple weeks either working on tea party prep, or studying for my exam retake, or down with a headache (yeah, that lasted three whole days, it was awesome) so I haven't been doing much stamping other than my weekly Nacho cards and Friday Flashback stuff...everything else has been using some draft posts I had (including today's post).  My other hobby has kinda fallen by the wayside too, which is cross stitching.

And today I'll show you how my stamping and stitching hobbies converge.  If you've ever checked out my other blog, you've most likely seen progress posts on my stitching projects (click here to see).  I'm currently working on four very large projects in rotation, so at the beginning of every month I switch to a different project.  I've got four floss cases, one for each project, plus two cases of shared colors, but I thought it would be nice to have labels for the individual project cases so I could tell them apart more easily.

I'd had the idea for a long time and finally made them last month, so there they are.  I just stamped the first letter of the name of each project and a small image that has something to do with the image I'm stitching.  So here's my February project's floss case now:

"Eilonwy" isn't the name of the pattern I bought from Scarlet Quince, it's the name I gave to the fairy in said pattern because "Take the Fair Face of Woman" was far too long and I like the name Eilonwy.  I got the name from Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain; Eilonwy is a princess born of a line of enchantresses who talks a lot and is always described as having red-gold hair.  The second book in the series was made into a Disney movie, The Black Cauldron, so now I've managed to knit together four of my hobbies in one post.  Yay me.

Have a great week, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Morning Post Alphabet, Rain or Shine, Papillon Potpourri, Best of Sale-a-Bration, Artistic Etchings
Ink:  lots of different ones, I'm not even gonna try to remember
Paper:  Whisper White
Accessories:  Deco Label Framelits

April Showers

Last time I was making baby books, I had just done some "April showers" layouts when I saw the Occasions mini catalog with Rain or Shine in it, and of course the matching DSP.  Since it was too late to use that stuff last time, I made sure to use it for this set of pages!

Karyn (the mommy who will get these books for her twin boys) loves bright colors, and I think I delivered that on these layouts.  Since they're for boys, I tried doing the title and accent color with Lucky Limeade, but it just didn't pop enough, so I did Melon Mambo instead.  And I left open some areas on the layout to showcase that oh-so-cute umbrella DSP.  I suppose it would look more boyish if I'd done the photo mats in Lucky Limeade and used Pacific Point as the accent color, but I like this the way it is (and I'd already cut all the photo mats for both layouts anyway).

I think this might be my favorite-ever April layout.  Hope you like it too!  I'm happy to report that I am very nearly halfway done with this batch of baby books.  I've been going at warp speed--want to make sure they're done in time for the baby shower near the end of June :)

Supplies:
Stamps:  Rain or Shine, Weather or Not (the small umbrellas on the journaling block)
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP
Accessories:  old Sizzix alphabet

April Showers

When I was a kid, it seemed to take three to five years just to get from one birthday to the next.  Nowadays, I swear that time is running at warp speed all the time (unless you're waiting in line) and I'm like DUDE, how is it April already.  At least it's finally warming up a bit...I almost left my jacket at home yesterday when it was a balmy 12 degrees Celsius.

Back to April showers!  Though it's not raining here today, it's actually quite pleasant outside.

The Splitcoast color challenge this week was Baja Breeze (sniffle!), Calypso Coral and Basic Black.  My first thought was to use By the Tide or By the Seashore but then I thought I'd shake it up some and work with these cute umbrellas again.  Sorry the pic is a bit blurry, I think it's getting close to time to replace our little camera...it's done really well for us but it is starting to get old.

Anyway, the main image panel is cut with my fave Apothecary Accents Framelits, stamped on my brellies and the sentiment, and then added some clouds made with the cupcake builder punch.  I admit, making clouds with that punch was the main reason I got it...I was thinking earlier today how cool it would be to have some larger cupcake Framelits.  See, I really should be elected Queen of the Stamping Universe.  :D

Go forth and stamp happy, by order of the Queen!  (And I wonder why my hubs told my mother to stop sending me coffee mugs that say Queen of Everything on them...)

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Rain or Shine (look ma, I didn't fussy cut the umbrellas this time!)
Ink:  Baja Breeze (get it while you can, I'm hoarding the cardstock!!!), Calypso Coral, Basic Black
Paper:  Baja Breeze (I think it's my fault they ran out of the cardstock already), Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories:  In Color Designer Printed Brads so I can't mail this in a regular envelope, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Cupcake builder punch, Square Lattice EF (hard to see, it's on the black strips)

Rain or Shine

Happy Monday, everyone!  I've got another swap card to share today:

Oh, how I love those cute little umbrellas, and that DSP.  That DSP is why I am almost completely out of Melon Mambo cardstock...can't have that with Valentine's Day on the horizon!  The row of flagged DSP strips was inspired by this card on SCS that used the More Amore DSP and Hearts a Flutter stamps; I wanted to do that to show off a lot of the scrumptious Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP without using a lot of each sheet.  The umbrella tops are popped up on Dimensionals and I think I might have liked a more opaque ribbon on there, but that was the only Daffodil Delight ribbon I had on hand and it works.

I said this one day last week and I liked it, so go forth and stamp happy!  :)

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Rain or Shine, Cuddles & Kisses
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Pacific Point, Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray
Paper:  Melon Mambo, Pacific Point, Whisper White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP
Accessories:  Daffodil Delight seam binding, Dimensionals

A New Little Someone

I posted the pics from the baby book for our new niece a while back, and this is the card I made to go with it:

The picture seems just a little bit blurry, doesn't it?  Sometimes it's hard to tell if I got it really well in focus until it's downloaded to the computer.  Oh well, you get the idea.  This was an old SCS sketch and I really like it...especially now that SU! has oval Framelits!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Rain or Shine, Cuddles & Kisses
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray
Paper:  Pretty in Pink, Basic Gray, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP
Accessories:  Oval Framelits, Occasions paper piercing template, heart punch, Dimensionals