Olaf Likes Warm Hugs

Happy Friday, y'all.  Dude, I feel like Ryan has declared war on me this week so I am very, VERY excited that my husband will be here this weekend.  I know Ryan doesn't feel good, and that's why he's been acting abby-normal, but DANG he's been tough on me.  So hallelujah for parental backup.

I know yesterday I was all like yay fall woohoo but today I made a winter card :p

I stamped the Marbled background stamp on the Coastal Cabana panel after inking it up with a sponge.  That made the stamp a lot more subtle, and I like that it kinda gives the impression of a blizzard with not a whole lotta effort and without overwhelming the snowman.  I cut out the snowflakes from Coastal Cabana cardstock and then sponged some ink on them to make them a wee bit darker than the background panel and they don't show up great in the photo but I used three glitter enamel dots on the snowflakes and IRL they look pretty fabulous.  Anyway, my adorable Olaf is from Seasonal Chums, which is this week's stamp set at What Will You Stamp?:

These little dudes are so cute, I was happy to ink one of them up for today's card.  I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I used ribbon in place of the gray rectangle, and my ribbon is retired but who's keeping track of that anyway.  That 1/4" taffeta ribbon was my *favorite* and I should use what I've got, right?

Last up is the color palette from Color Throwdown:

I interpreted this as Real Red, Crumb Cake, Coastal Cabana, and Pumpkin Pie.  Granted I focused more on the first three colors and Pumpkin Pie was relegated to the snowman's carrot nose.  Sometimes it's hard to work in four colors on a card.

Hope you have a great weekend, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Seasonal Chums, Marbled, Sheltering Tree
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana, Pumpkin Pie, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Crumb Cake, Real Red, and Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Real Red, Coastal Cabana, Crumb Cake, Shimmery White
Accessories:  Seasonal Tags Thinlits, retired white 1/4" taffeta ribbon, Glitter Enamel Shapes, Dimensionals

Sheltering Trees

Happy Friday, y'all!  Hubs and I took the wee babe out for a few hours yesterday and when we got back home he conked out HARD so I got a couple of cards made for today :D

I started out with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I'll be honest, I'm not terribly in love with square cards.  I do have some leftover 5x7 envelopes from ordering photo Christmas cards (yeah, I know, I'm a card maker and I ordered Christmas cards...it's just easier to do photos that way and most people don't care about handmade Christmas cards and it's hard to make 60+ cards knowing they're mostly going to go in the trash) so it's not like I can't make 5" square cards, I just prefer the standard A2 size.  But anywha.

I started with the idea for this one based on this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Dapper Denim and Emerald Envy for my colors.  The bike is stamped with Basic Black and the body of the bike is Dapper Denim, but it's hard to tell that even IRL.

Next up something more fallish:

I used this week's color combination from Create with Connie and Mary:

I think the sponged-on sky (...in Soft Sky) was more successful than my Dapper Denim sky above.  And I traded out the bike for the rake this time.

So when I stamp this tree, I like to stamp the leaf stamp once and then rotate it 180 degrees, ink and stamp again to make the tree look fuller.  On the peach card, I also got the little leafy stamp and added a bit of Tangerine Tango to the tree and some extra to the ground to look like leaves in need of raking.  The sentiment blocks are different heights and widths because I was just basically using up scraps of white and vanilla, and that's what I found in my stash.  I always have narrow strips of white and vanilla to use up.

That's it for today, folks.  I'm going to release the Kraken...by which I mean I'm taking Ryan out of his bouncer and letting him go roam around the house a bit.  He really likes the dogs' water bowl....

Cheers!

Supplies, Emerald card:
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree
Ink:  Emerald Envy, Dapper Denim, Early Espresso, Basic Black
Paper:  Emerald Envy, Dapper Denim, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Accessories:  Rose Garden Thinlits, Dimensionals

Supplies, Peach card:
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree
Ink:  Peekaboo Peach, Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso, Basic Gray
Paper:  Peekaboo Peach, Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Rose Garden Thinlits, Dimensionals

2016 Showcase, Part 3

Mornin' kids, welcome to the last post in the 2016 showcase, at least for cards.  I think I'll pick out some favorite scrapbook layouts over the next few days too because it's fun to go back and look at those (which is the whole reason I make them, right?).  So let's get started.

October's pick is this Halloween card featuring Agnes, whom I dearly love (along with her pals Frankie and Vlad).

Here's a pretty Thanksgiving card for November's pick.

And I really liked two cards for December, the first one being this Christmas Magic train.

And my other favorite is this CAS snowflake card.  That wraps up the card showcase for 2016, hope you enjoyed it!

Two More Trees

Hey kids!  Remember last week when I posted the cherry tree and snowflake tree cards?  Well, it occurred to me last night that I should do two more trees and make it a whole seasonal set.  So I did.

The summer tree is Pear Pizzazz (which I should have stamped off first to make it a better match for the other cards, oops) and Garden Green; the autumn tree is Peekaboo Peach and Cherry Cobbler.

Once again I used the Freshly Made Sketches square sketch:

And the Global Design Project theme challenge:

If you forgot what the other two looked like, here they are:

And the new set again:

Four seasons of trees :)  Much as I hate the summertime in Virginia (kill me now, ridiculous humidity), I do love actually having fall colors and even some occasional snow.  I just need a set of gills for the summertime, and a really great AC.

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, Pear Pizzazz card:
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Metallic Enamel Shapes, Dimensionals

Supplies, Peekaboo Peach card:
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Peekaboo Peach, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Peekaboo Peach, Cherry Cobbler, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Metallic Enamel Shapes, Dimensionals

Cherry Blossoms & Snowflakes

I was busy with running errands yesterday and never got in my craft room to make anything, so today I decided to take it easy and not go anywhere and just enjoy being home with my doglets.  I read a book while I ate lunch and then I headed on downstairs and made not one, but two cards to share today.

I happen to have a stack of extra 5x7 envelopes left over from Christmas cards (it's nice that they send extra in case you mess up writing addresses on some of them, but I have like at least 20 extra from the past two years) so I made these two cards five inches square.  I used the last sketch of the year from Freshly Made Sketches:

I let a stamped image be the long strip on the left instead of having another layer of paper in there.  My cards also fit in with the last Global Design Project challenge for the year:

I just don't wanna do anything with Christmas trees right now so out came Sheltering Tree, which is lovely for more than just fall cards.

See, this one is a cherry tree.

And I was thinking snowflakes on this one, but the idea of bluish leaves kinda makes me happy too.  Which do you like better, pink or blue?  Having flashbacks to Flora and Fauna in Sleeping Beauty :)

So I've still got probably about two hours before the hubs gets home, and I think I'll use that time to get started on a scrapbook layout.  He's got five days in a row off of work so it will be great to spend some quiet time together and maybe possibly watch the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special.  Or Die Hard.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, pink card:
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Metallic Enamel Shapes, Dimensionals

Supplies, blue card:
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Pool Party, Island Indigo, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Pool Party, Island Indigo, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Metallic Enamel Shapes, Dimensionals

Nachos: Yummy Little Christmas

Happy Tuesday, kids!  I meant to get this post written and scheduled ahead of time, but yesterday was very long and very busy and I forgot because I think all my brain cells are being diverted to Baby Sodapop.  But anyway, today the Nachos have a color challenge for you!

And it's appropriately festive for December.  I haven't bought hardly any Christmas stamps this year though, and I've been both cooking and baking a lot, so my stamp set choice for today's card was pretty natural:

I bought Yummy Little Christmas on a whim a while back mostly because I liked that mixer stamp.  And actually I know exactly who's going to get this card too, so the stamp set has come in useful :)  I needed a wee snowflake background stamp for the Cherry Cobbler panel, so that came from Sheltering Tree.

So this layout isn't something I would typically come up with on my own...I CASEd it from the holiday catalog!  Page 27, if you're interested.  The proportions on my card area  little different because I used different stamps, but if you look at the catalog and then my card you'll see that they're definitely sisters.

So now it's your turn!  Upload your creation on the Nacho blog by December 19 for us to oooh and aaah over.  In the meantime, I'll probably be making another batch of these cranberry cardamom spice muffins, which are probably the most ridiculously spectacular thing to come out of my kitchen in recent memory.  Seriously, hubs couldn't stop talking about them after I made them for breakfast on Sunday.

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Yummy Little Christmas, Sheltering Tree
Ink:  Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Gold Glimmer paper
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, Dimensionals

More Nacho Gratitude

Hey kids!  It's week two of the Nachos gratitude theme challenge:

Isn't that a beautiful picture?  I love Thanksgiving, I really do, and it makes me sad that every year it gets forgotten thanks to the Christmas juggernaut that now starts rolling even before Halloween.  Ugh.  Is it weird that I like Thanksgiving better than Christmas?  The colors are better, for one thing.

Okay so I got the idea for this color combination when I was out and about somewhere and I made a note of it in my phone, does anyone else do that?  It might look black in the picture, but the darkest color is actually Elegant Eggplant, and I paired it with Always Artichoke (just a smidge), lots of Delightful Dijon, and then a bit of Soft Suede for the tree trunk and a wee bit of sponging around the main image panel.  Eggplant, Dijon, and Artichoke...sounds like a weird veggie side dish for Thanksgiving, dunnit?

Anyway, I just got Suite Seasons last Friday because it's ON SALE this month (always a good thing!) and one thing I've learned from Brian King is that you can make beautiful cards where the focal point is a sentiment instead of an image.  On this card the image and sentiment kinda get equal billing, but Brian was a big reason why I got that stamp set since it was on sale.  I do like his style.

One last thing:  I used now-retired Candy Dots on this because I still have a bunch of those and I haven't invested in all the packs of the enamel shapes.  Actually I only have the metallics so far.  I still kinda miss the Candy Dots though.

Enough chatter from me!  Don't forget to upload your gratitude-themed creation at the Nacho blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree, Suite Seasons
Ink:  Delightful Dijon, Elegant Eggplant, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede
Paper:  Delightful Dijon, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Regals Candy Dots (retired)

Cherry Tree in Bloom

Hey y'all.  It's Day 5 of Snowmageddon, but I think we'll *gasp* leave the house tomorrow.  In the meantime though, I need to get some stamping done!

I made this cherry tree (it's a cherry tree now, don't argue) for a friend whom I met in Japan.  And also I've never liked Blushing Bride much but for some reason now that the Love Blossoms stack is here I like it.  And also Birthday Bouquet, I've been up to my eyeballs in Blushing Bride for the baby shower.  But anyway, I used last week's CAS(E) This Sketch for my card:

My card would have worked for The Colour Tree #2, but that challenge is already over and #3 is here and even though I tried 4 times I couldn't get the challenge graphic to load.  But if you hit that link for the Colour Tree you can see it there.

Got a couple more things to do today, so cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree, Curly Cute (I know it's retired, but I needed a pretty Happy Birthday that was all horizontal and none of my current stamps fit the bill which means I need more stamps right?)
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Crumb Cake, Garden Green, Rose Red
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Love Blossoms DSP Stack
Accessories:  Neutrals Candy Dots

Golden Leaves of Autumn

Greetings, crafty compadres :)  Let's all take a minute to celebrate the fact that it's the first of October, which is quite possibly my favorite month of the year.  And if I'd thought this through a little better, I would have made a Halloween card for today, but I also love fall in general so we'll just go with that.

I was a little late getting on the Sheltering Tree bandwagon when it came out, but I have enjoyed creating with it this year.  This time I stamped the tree trunk in Soft Suede and the ground swoosh with Crumb Cake (I did the ground swoosh several times, right side up and upside down, stamping off some to add a little depth).  And then I used gold EP for the leaves.

Of course gold EP is hard to photograph, especially given the deplorable light conditions in my craft cave.  I really need to get another light to put in there, even the Ott Lite on my craft table isn't enough, and it's been so overcast and rainy this week that even the windows aren't helping any to bring in some light.  But anyway, I do like how this simple little card turned out, and it was inspired by the latest challenge from Global Design Project:

CASE-ing a card is fun, you just look at the inspiration card and choose what makes you happy.  So I used the same basic layout and I used the same colors, but traded in the wreath for the tree and I used gold EP instead of the gold glimmer paper heart and gold cord.  I tend to notice color first (and last, and always) so color is usually what draws me to a card.  Usually I'm not an all-neutrals kinda stamper, but I did like how the inspiration card looked so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  After all, challenges are all about pushing you out of your comfort zone a bit and making you try new things.  Sometimes you end up with something that you like a lot, and it seems like it doesn't too often go the other direction ;)  Although I have had one or two cards that I thought I should just light on fire...

That's it for me today, peeps.  Come back tomorrow for the Friday Flashback, and in the meantime, happy stampin'!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Versamark
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Gold EP, Dimensionals

Trees Can Be Blue

I've said this before, but one of the fun things about stamping is that you're not bound by anyone else's rules for what colors things can be.  Bright purple leaves?  Sure, why not!  Green-skinned witches?  Totally!  How about a blue tree?

I LIKE IT.  Fun and different, right?  So here's the Create with Connie and Mary color combo that inspired my blue tree:

I really wanted to make something with these colors because I haven't hardly touched Delightful Dijon since it debuted.  But it is a fall color to me, so it'll probably get more action now.

My original idea was to stamp more of the leafy bits around the edges...

But then I thought it made my card look like it has measles, which isn't really what I was going for.  And not until I saw the photos on the computer did I think that maybe I would have liked this better on a So Saffron card base.  D'oh!  That happens a lot, I think of something I might have wanted to do differently when I'm uploading on the computer.  But a.) I'm lazy and b.) it's two flights of stairs from my computer to my craft room.  So the card base is staying Delightful Dijon, but at least it doesn't have measles.

Hold up a minute...

Theeeeerrrre it is, much mo' bettah.  And this time I did the little splotches more spread out instead of covering everything, and I like it better now.  It's like Goldilocks, and this one's juuuust right.

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree
Ink:  Delightful Dijon, So Saffron, Night of Navy
Paper:  Delightful Dijon, So Saffron, Night of Navy, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  None.  Really!  It's a flat card and I hand-cut the flagged end of the sentiment.

Nachos: Wonder Womaaaaan!

Happy Tuesday, Nacho fans!  We have a super fantastic sketch challenge for you today, check it out!

You can see the other design team members' cards on the Nacho blog.   I had an idea for what I wanted to do with this sketch, but it took me a couple tries to get it right.

At first I was just going for red, white and blue, but then I thought hey, we could turn this into a card homage to everyone's favorite Amazon warrior.

So the blue panel looks better, but it's not quite right yet.

Theeeerrre we go, it's WONDER WOMAN!!!

And the card works that direction, too.  I loved this sketch and I think you will too, so don't forget to upload your creations on the Nacho blog.  In the meantime, I think I'm gonna go watch some classic Wonder Woman...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfect Pennants, Sheltering Tree, Flower Patch
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Whisper White, Pacific Point
Paper:  Real Red, Whisper White, Pacific Point, So Saffron, Glimmer Paper (silver, red, and gold)
Accessories:  corner rounder punch, white EP, Neutrals & Brights Candy Dots

Friday Flashback: Sweet Serendipity

Happy Friday, stampers!  It is time once more for a Friday Flashback, and today's stamp set is Sweet Serendipity, a set of six cool sentiment stamps plus a few little images.  Let's go!

Also features Bronc Buster and Flannel Plaid

 I'd say riding a bucking bronco would be an adventure, wouldn't you?

The Sweet Serendipity stamp I used on this layout says "Live each day with laughter/enthusiasm" which seemed perfect with the picture of my friend Sarah on a carousel in Florence.

Also features Pretty Amazing and Pretty Petals

You saw this one earlier this year in the Pretty Amazing Friday Flashback.

Also features Happiness Always

And this one was in last week's Happiness Always Friday Flashback.

Also features Fabulous Flowers, Sanded, Paisley

 Oh hey, Fabulous Flowers had a Friday Flashback already too.  This is still one of my favorite cards.

Also features Snow Burst and Paisley

The sentiment says sparkle, and this card delivered!  The whole top panel is covered in Iridescent Ice EP, which is hard to photograph but looks awesome and sparkly in real life.

Also features Pretty Peony and Sanded

This was the first card on the Pretty Peony Friday Flashback, and it's another of my old favorites.  I love that Sanded background stamp.   That's it for the flashback part of today's post (and the flashback to prior flashbacks, if you followed all the links), it's time to see what's new!

I had Sheltering Tree out on my table for a different project so I thought I'd use it for today's post too.  I used the Fall-To Layout #22 from Clean & Simple Stamping:

And the softer color combination from Colour Me...!

But since I was on a roll in my craft room, and there was a whole 'nother color challenge on there, I had to try the bold combination as well:

I added a bit of Sahara Sand to both color combinations, I couldn't help it :)  For this one, I also used the sketch from the Paper Players:

Hope you enjoyed today's extra-long Friday Flashback.  Have a great weekend, peeps, we're painting again!

Supplies, Sheltering Tree card:
Stamps:  Sweet Serendipity, Sheltering Tree
Ink:  Tip Top Taupe, Blushing Bride, Wisteria Wonder, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Tip Top Taupe, Blushing Bride, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder DSP
Accessories:  Oval & Scalloped Oval punches, Dimensionals

Supplies, Secret Garden card:
Stamps:  Sweet Serendipity, Secret Garden
Ink:  Night of Navy, Whisper White
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, Whisper White
Accessories:  Secret Garden Framelits, Spring Flowers EF, ticket corner punch, Dimensionals