Built Tough

Mornin' y'all!  I am happy to report that I finished up my batch of scrapbook pages yesterday, so hopefully today I'll get them photographed for future blog posts and I can start getting some things ready for the move.  I also framed several pieces of artwork, which I've been meaning to do for a long time (cheap Michael's frames, but better than nothing).  I need to sit down and make a list of the things I need to do before next Monday.

In the meantime, you *know* I'm sneaking in as much craft room time as I can manage, so here's a card for today:

I tried mighty hard to resist Rhino Ready when it was introduced as an Online Exclusive, and then my friend Krissy called my kid Rhino Ryan which is the most fitting sobriquet ever and then I had to have it.  Sadly for me the dies were already sold out but I don't mind doing some fussy cutting.  Anywha, I made this for the current Paper Players challenge:

And the new-to-me Creative Colour Challenge:

I used Blackberry Bliss to stamp my rhino and his bird friend as well as the sentiment, the card base and grass are Soft Sea Foam, and I used Boho Blue to color in the rhino.  I have colored in the rhinos from this stamp set in several different colors just because it's fun.

Anyway, it's about time to get Ryan slathered up with sunscreen and head out the door for soccer camp.  And then I'm going to start that to-do list and see what I can get done before he gets done with camp at noon.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rhino Ready
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss, Soft Sea Foam, Stampin' Blends in Boho Blue, Blackberry Bliss, Gray Granite
Paper:  Soft Sea Foam, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Transparent Dots, Dimensionals

Studious Bird

Mornin', y'all!  I am very excited that Texas is finally starting to get with the fall program, the high temps have been below 90 for the past couple of days and I am Here For It.  I got a new electric kettle and I have been using it every day since the beginning of September to make tea : )  I do love a cuppa every day.  Okay, multiple cuppas.

Anyway.  Card!

I do so love the Bird's Eye View stamp set :)  Check out the sketch from Inspire. Create.:

I copied down the sketch in a notebook and took it upstairs to my craft room, so my proportions and placement are a bit off from the original sketch.

And here is the color challenge from the Paper Players:

And this was definitely a challenge!  I didn't add any colors unless you count white, or a teensy bit of Crumb Cake with the embellishments.  I don't have the Blends for the In Colors yet (well, I think I have Boho Blue, but none of the other ones), so I inked up the stamps with Versamark and Pebbled Path, then heat embossed with clear EP so I could watercolor.  Wild Wheat (Barley Barf) will never be my favorite color, but I like it okay with the other colors in this palette.  Have to say I love Pretty Peacock and Copper Clay together.  Anyway, I'll have to pick up the Blends for the other In Colors next time I do an SU! order, but for now, watercoloring works.  And I think Bird's Eye View might be my go-to stamp set for when I don't know what to do with a particular color combination, I can see them working for just about anything!

Have a great day, peeps.  I need to get this week's batch of cards ready to go out in the mail, and make some more : )  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bird's Eye View, Rhino Ready
Ink:  Versamark, Pebbled Path, Copper Clay, Wild Wheat, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Wild Wheat, Copper Clay, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, clear EP, Dimensionals, Speckled Dots

SUO Challenges: Back to School Blues and Bird

Happy Tuesday and hope you've got your backpack and books, 'cause it's time for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

Yep, we're doing back to school cards for this challenge!  And my kiddo starts school tomorrow, woohoo!  There are actually several great choices for this theme in the current catalog and of course you could use retired SU! stamps too.  Here's what I made:

One of my besties is starting a new teaching job this school year, after being a SAHM for several years and then substitute teaching for a while.  So this card is for her to wish her luck with her new 4th grade class!  I love that Apple Harvest has carried over from last year, I don't know why they didn't make the coordinating dies a permanent thing.  The dies were on the clearance rack for quite a while, don't know if they still are.

And I have a bonus card for today!  As luck would have it, my last SU! order before leaving Germany arrived right before I had to start packing up my craft room, and I made time to make one more card for this challenge because I fell in love with the Bird's Eye View stamp set.  Here it is:

The sentiment is from Rhino Ready, and the papers are from the Inked Botanicals DSP Stack.  In the same order, I got the Nested Essentials dies, so I had to give those a try too (the die around the bookish bird).  So glad I got to make this before everything got packed up.

So let's see your back to school cards!  Post 'em over on the SUO Challenges blog.  And have fun, this is art class : )

Supplies, all SU!, apple card:
Stamps:  Apple Harvest, Sending Smiles
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Sweet Sorbet & Soft Sea Foam
Paper:  Boho Blue, Thick Basic White, Countryside Inn DSP
Accessories:  Apple Blossoms dies, Sending dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, all SU!, bird card:
Stamps:  Bird's Eye View, Rhino Ready
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Petal Pink, Night of Navy, Pool Party, Thick Basic White, Inked Botanicals DSP
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Milky Dots

P.S.  This is what my craft room currently looks like:

And this is the loft area next door to the craft room, where the *rest* of my stuff currently is:

Okay, not quite all of it is craft room stuff, but a lot of it is.  So these two areas are my next area to tackle in the house; I've got the downstairs about 80% unpacked and organized (including the garage, even!), and I need to work on these two places next before I can figure out where I'm storing certain things from downstairs.  I'm hoping that my craft room might be workable by the end of the week.  With Ryan starting school tomorrow, I think I can do it.  Wish me luck!

Dancing in the Rain

Happy Friday, y'all!  And my last day working at Arts & Crafts, too.  And then next week it's all about prepping for the packers to come on the 22d.  Going to be busy, busy, busy for the rest of the month!

Which is exactly why I am squeezing out every possible minute in my craft room before all my stuff gets packed up.  So here's my card for today:

So I started with this week's Color Throwdown:

File this under "colors I would never put together in a million years".  Actually the only one that had me flummoxed was the lilac shade, I like orange and aqua together just fine, but that lilac shade definitely threw me for a loop.  In the end, I went with Pumpkin Pie, Azure Afternoon, Wisteria Wonder (retired), and Memento Tuxedo Black for stamping the bunny.  I paired that with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

So I was pondering what on earth to do with those colors and this sketch and I was in the shower yesterday morning (because naturally most good ideas occur while in the shower) and I remembered this week's Paper Players theme challenge:

And that made me think of the bunny dancing in the rain and suddenly I figured out how to make the colors work together.  I managed to make this entire card in the space of about 20 minutes before work yesterday.  So thank you to the Paper Players for pulling together those other two challenges and making my brain work : )

I'm off to work for the last time (at this job, anyway).  Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Playing in the Rain, Rhino Ready
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Wisteria Wonder, Azure Afternoon, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Pumpkin Pie, Flirty Flamingo, Azure Afternoon
Paper:  Wisteria Wonder, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Blue Rhinestone Gems

Fashion-Forward Fox

Mornin' y'all!  My day got off to a ridiculously early start...my alarm is set to go off at 5:15 (I like to do my workout before we get Ryan up at 6) but lately I've been waking up between 4:00 and 4:30, and can't get back to sleep before the alarm.  Arrrrgh!  So of course in the evenings I want to go to bed at like 8:00, if not earlier.  And if my blog posts seem a bit incoherent, now you know why.

Anyway.  The Paper Players have a very timely challenge this week, it's been wet and rainy for the past few days (I just got my car all clean, that's why it's raining so much).  So let's celebrate some rainy days.

As always, some fun inspiration pics on the challenge graphic!  So here's what I made:

Two of the ladies on the design team used this same fox but I couldn't resist her, I love her.  Once again I busted out my favorite Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack and pulled colors from that.  I've got quite a stack of scraps from that paper already, and I ended up finding three that were just the right widths for a triptych layout.  After I colored in Ms. Vixen's hat and rain coat, it occurred to me that the combination of Bubble Bath and Fresh Freesia is what Maid Marian wears in Disney's Robin Hood (one of my favorites!).  And her umbrella is the color of Robin Hood's outfit, too.  I think I need to rewatch that movie now.

Have a great day, peeps!  If my day goes like yesterday, I will have ample opportunity to listen to the rain come down : )  Which is great, as long as I don't have to be out in it.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Playing in the Rain, Rhino Ready
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Pumpkin Pie, Lemon Lime Twist, Fresh Freesia
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Lemon Lime Twist, Night of Navy, Fresh Freesia, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP
Accessories:  Playing in the Rain dies, Stylish Shapes dies, white EP, mini Dimensionals

Once More, In Purple

Hey y'all, Scrappy Monday is on hold for this week because our packers arrive two weeks from today and I am over here trying to stamp cards for as many challenges as possible before they pry my supplies out of my little grabby hands.  Plus I had a third rhino stamp and I just couldn't leave her out of the technicolor goodness so I made this:

I was inspired by Tammy's beautiful card at Inspire. Create.:

Tammy is one of my teammates over at SUO Challenges so I'm extra tickled to see her card featured as a CASE the Designer challenge.  Congrats, Tammy!  I traded her pinks for purple (Bubble Bath kind of rides the line between purple and pink, it's pinple...or PUNK) and used more of the most excellent Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack for my background panels.  And I chose purples thanks to the pretty inspo pic from Just Add Ink:

No hearts or flowers or cookies on my card, but I think that little rhino is just as sweet as any of those things.  Finally, I'm entering at the As You See It challenge:

Rhino Ready and the Bright & Beautiful DSP were both in my most recent SU! order, so they are the newest additions to my craft room.  I did order a few things on May 2 and I'm worried I won't get them before we pack out, oops!  I'll figure out something.  Anyway, in happy news, the AYSI team chose my card as the winner of their last challenge, which was super exciting!  Thank you, AYSI team!

Okay, I should probably go do *something* to prep for the move...like pack up my retired ink pads.  And another load of laundry because there's always another load of laundry to do.  Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rhino Ready
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Fresh Freesia & Bubble Bath
Paper:  Bubble Bath, Fresh Freesia, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, In Color Opal Rounds (retired), Dimensionals

Technicolor Rhino #2

Okay kids, we made it to Friday!  I had a dinner thing to go to last night and as a result I went to bed about an hour later than usual...yeah I was still awake at 4:30 this morning.  I'm going to be super tired this afternoon I bet.

In the meantime, I just finished up another Technicolor rhino card...because as they always say, one good Technicolor rhino deserves another.  I'm just kidding, no one says that, but maybe they should.

I really liked the color combo from CAS Colours & Sketches:

My card does have a few layers to it so I hope it's still CAS enough.  I had started with a Stitched Rectangle die around the rhino, but I liked just a plain Night of Navy mat better.

Time to go do dishes, wheee.  I know how to have a good time.  Happy Friday, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rhino Ready
Ink:  Night of Navy, Pool Party Blends
Paper:  Pool Party, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Flirty Flamingo DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Mini Dimensionals

The Pink Elephant's Best Friend

You know, I was doing a pretty good job of resisting the online exclusives like Rhino Ready.  And THEN my friend Krissy called my kid Rhino Ryan which is the most accurate description I've ever heard and all of a sudden I had to have Rhino Ready but of course I waited long enough that the dies were gone and anyway I made this yesterday:

I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I typically pair their sketches with the Color Throwdown:

I did have an extensive internal debate about using these colors for a Rhino Ready card, but I decided to embrace the whimsy and go for a lemon-yellow rhinoceros and his pink bird friend and it just took me three tries to spell rhinoceros correctly so for once the red squiggle line was doing its job.  I went with the just-retired Soft Succulent, Flirty Flamingo, Lemon Lolly, and Early Espresso for my colors and is that not the happiest looking rhino you've ever seen?

I'd best get to work.  Got to finish the laundry from yesterday and someone is coming over this morning to take a look at how much stuff we have to pack out in a couple of weeks...this move is fast approaching!

Also, happy Star Wars Day.  May the Fourth be with you!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rhino Ready
Ink:  Early Espresso, Soft Succulent, Stampin' Blends in Lemon Lolly & Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Early Espresso, Flirty Flamingo, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful Stack
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Noble Peacock Rhinestones