Vases of Sunshine

Howdy, y'all!  I just got a big ol' box of SU! goodies late on Tuesday afternoon, so yesterday I got to bust it open and start playing a little.  I used one of my brand new stamp sets--Vibrant Vases--with the coordinating Varied Vases that I already had, and then I just had to use a sunny greeting for my card.

I think it's the gingham that sells the sunshine here ;) The vases are all from Vibrant Vases, but the plants are from Varied Vases.  Fun, right?

I used this week's Color Throwdown:

I decided to use lighter values of the colors for my card--I tried stamping the lilacs (I'm assuming they're lilacs) with Gorgeous Grape and it was just too dark.  So I went with Highland Heather, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, and Smoky Slate, plus some Basic Gray and Whisper White.  Paired that with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I did slightly change the placement of my sentiment strip just to make it work a little better with the vases.  I've still got several other new stamp sets to play with, not to mention some new patterned paper, so I'll be having some fun for the foreseeable future!

Cheers, y'all!  Hope it's sunny where you are.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Varied Vases, Vibrant Vases, Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Highland Heather, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Gingham Gala DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Lemon Sunshine

Hey y'all!  How's your day going?  I'm looking forward to Ryan's second swim lesson this afternoon.  His first lesson went well I thought, he smiled the whole time and didn't even mind getting dunked.  That kid loves the water.

Anywha, I've got a very sunny card to share today!

This reminds me of Ron's spell to turn his rat yellow in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid fat rat yellow!"
*excessive wand waving*

It didn't work, but maybe this card will work to put some sunshine in someone's day when I mail it out.  I sent out cards to my friend Tiana's daughters last week and they were both so excited to get mail.  Heck, I get excited to get mail (which might explain my Amazon addiction...).

My lemon sunshine card is a triple challenge effort.  First up is the color combination from Cupcake Inspiration:

Heyyy I only used the three colors called for!  Yay me.  I used Pineapple Punch for the yellow, I am enjoying all the new colors.  I need to work on building up my cardstock stash for the new shades though, I only have like three sheets of Pineapple Punch at the moment.

Next up (alphabetically) is Global Design Project's sketch:

And finally, this is my first time playing along at Just Us Girls:

I figured the color combination and this word prompt were made to go together and that's how I got my lemon wedges.  I put Wink of Stella on them too, which you can actually see in the picture if you click to embiggen.  It's a miracle!  That never shows up in pictures ;)

Hope you have a sunshiney day, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lemon Zest, Sunshine Sayings, Magical Mermaid (splatter, why is that my favorite stamp from this set?!)
Ink:  Pineapple Punch, Whisper White
Paper:  Pineapple Punch, Thick Whisper White, Basic Black
Accessories:  White EP, white baker's twine, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella, circle punch

Hello Again

Mornin', y'all!

I must confess.  I cannot resist the octopus in Sea of Textures.  He needs a name!

And he's gradually branching out into more colors!  So this card is the maiden voyage for my Grapefruit Grove ink pad, as well as my new Poppy Parade (RIP, gold sheen pad from however many years ago).  I inked up the octopus in Grapefruit Grove, then used a sponge dauber to add in some Poppy Parade on his tentacles and then on his head.  I wasn't exactly sure what it would look like, but I was really pleased with the effect.  The three hellos are all Poppy Parade too, but the middle one is stamped off once, just to add some interest.  Though maybe I should have put eight hellos on there, one for each tentacle?

Here is the current sketch from Global Design Project:

And I'm entering this at Retro Rubber too:

Sea of Textures is new of course, but the greeting comes from Sunshine Sayings which is two years old.  And maybe Poppy Parade counts as retro too because it retired for a while and then came back ;)

Hope y'all have a great day.  Kiddo and I are off to the gym again.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea of Textures, Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Grapefruit Grove, Poppy Parade
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Thick Whisper White, Tranquil Textures DSP
Accessories:  white baker's twine, Under the Sea Framelits, Dimensionals

Sending Sunshine Via Hot Air Balloon

Mornin', y'all!  Last week I shared an umbrella card on a sunny day...well, today I've got a sunshine card and it's pouring down rain!  Apparently I'm meteorologically challenged.

But LOOK--the Wink of Stella on the die cut word actually shows up!  It's a miracle!

So this week's theme challenge from Global Design Project is all things sunshine:

So of course the first thing I thought of was the Sunshine Sayings stamp set and its matching Thinlits.  And then I thought of the hot air balloon.  And I decided to showcase two of the retiring colors:  Tempting Turquoise and Tangerine Tango.  Add in a healthy dose of Daffodil Delight and this is a super sunny card!

I also used this week's sketch from the Paper Players:

That's a classic sketch, love it.

Hope you have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sunshine Sayings
Ink;  Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango, Thick Whisper White, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Up & Away Thinlits, Sunshine Wishes Thinlits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Always Always Always

Mornin', y'all!  How's your Tuesday going?

Mine is pink.

Powder pink, with a side of Melon Mambo and some Rich Razzleberry just for funzies.  What do you think of my Valentine?  I stamped the "Always" three times and it's supposed to get lighter toward the right, not sure if that really came out how I was intending but oh well.

I used this sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping:

And paired it with the theme challenge from the Paper Players:

This card would have been done in under 10 minutes if I hadn't decided to inlay the heart.  It just felt a little too busy to leave the die cut heart open, so I cut another one from Powder Pink cardstock and inlaid all the fiddly little bits so it looks cleaner.  I always forget what a pain that is to do until I'm in the thick of it, but I do like how it turned out.

As usual, Ryan and I are about to go to the gym.  Wish me luck on the treadmill.

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Melon Mambo
Paper:  Powder Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Painted with Love DSP, gold foil
Accessories:  Sunshine Wishes Framelits

Sunny Sunflower

Happy Friday, y'all!  I woke up at 5:00 this morning and could not get back to sleep, so eventually I got up and got to cross stitch for a while before Ryan woke up.  Not a bad start to the morning, but hopefully I don't run out of steam in the middle of the day.

How about a sunny sunflower card for this Friday morning?

The sunflower and leaves are from Painted Harvest, the same stamp set I used for the sentiment on Wednesday's card.  I used sponges to ink up my stamps, except for the sentiment and the second layer of the sunflower petals; those were done inking up the stamp as usual with the ink pad.  Using the sponge gives a bit of a softer effect on the stamped images, and it's helpful if you've got a super juicy ink pad--use the sponge to ink up the stamp to keep from over-inking it.

So meet this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Lots of different images I could have used for the circular element; I used Painted Harvest because a.) it's new and b.) it was still on my stamping table :)  What, I'm lazy.  It's *finally* cooling down just a tad here; hubs and I have been taking the baby and the doglets for walks in the morning (since hubs is still on convalescent leave for his back surgery, and he's supposed to walk as much as he can) and it's actually quite pleasant outside at 8 in the morning now, instead of feeling like a nasty giant sauna of ickiness.  (I hate summer in the south.)  So anyway, expect more fall cards from me for the foreseeable future!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Harvest, Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Lemon Lime Twist, Garden Green, Early Espresso
Paper:  Garden Green, Early Espresso, Soft Sky, Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, Mini Dimensionals

Sunshine Tulips

Mornin', y'all!  It's been a busy day here already and it's just eight o'clock.  But my little squirt took a good long nap yesterday afternoon (because he skipped the morning one, oy vey) so I had time to do some stamping!

I loved the color inspiration photo at Retro Rubber (and they've been so very nice asking me to be a guest designer! and they've said such very nice things about me that I've been blushing for days) that I had to make another card for the challenge:

This time I used current colors, so Old Olive for the green along with Daffodil Delight and Real Red.  I do have to confess that today's stamp sets are not nearly as retro as my first attempt; Sunshine Sayings is one year old and Tranquil Tulips is....one day old.  I couldn't help it!  I got it YESTERDAY and I had to bust it out! *guilty look*

Anyway, I paired it with the new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

I thought this sketch was really intriguing, and I couldn't wait to play with it.

I painted the die cut word with Wink of Stella, and this is my totally ineffective attempt to show the sparkle.  Trust me, IRL it is very sparkly and pretty and awesome.  Oh!  The yellow background was kind of an experiment.  I tried first spritzing the cardstock with some water and then using an Aquapainter to add some Daffodil Delight ink, but it didn't hardly show up and I got a few very dark spots.  So I inked up a small acrylic block with DD ink and kinda smeared it over the watercolor area, and this is what I ended up with.  I wouldn't try it with red because I think that would make it look like some kind of serious skin rash ;) but the Daffodil Delight I thought was interesting.  The thick Whisper White card base is slightly warped from the water, but not too bad.

Okay, baby is calling.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sunshine Sayings, Tranquil Tulips
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Real Red, Early Espresso
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Delightful Daisy DSP
Accessories:  Sunshine Wishes Thinlits, Wink of Stella pen

Birthday Fishes

Mornin', y'all!  How goes it?  I'm all hunky-dory :)

Speaking of Dory, how about a fish card...

That segue was totally unplanned, it just happened as soon as I typed hunky-dory :D  Even though this fish doesn't look like Dory.  Whatevs.  The inside has the sentiment from Seaside Shore that says "Hope your day goes swimmingly!" which I figure works fine for a birthday card, and pretty much any other kind of card for that matter.  All purpose.  All porpoise? 

Moving on.  Not-Dory is a quadruple challenge card!  First up is the SUO Challenge to make a birthday card; check.

Next up is the Cupcake Inspirations challenge to make a beachy card:

Hubs and I had a discussion about if an under-the-sea card like mine counted as beachy, and hubs decided that yes it does count, so check on this one too.

Next up is the Global Design Project sketch:

I turned the sketch on its side because making the sentiment sideways like that was making my brain itch, but check.

And finally, the Paper Players tic-tac-toe challenge:

I did the diagonal from lower left to upper right:  blue, enamel dots, and birthday.  Easy peasy mcsqueezy!  And also check.

Well, looks like the little one is maybe starting to wake up...either that, or he kicks his feet even when he's asleep (which wouldn't surprise me, future karate champion in da house).  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Seaside Shore, Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Night of Navy, Soft Sky, Peekaboo Peach
Paper:  Night of Navy, Watercolor paper, Naturally Eclectic DSP
Accessories:  linen thread, Dimensionals

A Tranquil Hello

Mornin', y'all!  How's it going this fair Tuesday?  It's nice and sunny out here today, a nice change after a lot of rain yesterday.

Today's card looks sort of watery, too.

AAAAHHHHH I love the new Designer Series Paper.  This is Delightful Daisy, and as it happens I used both sides of a single sheet of paper.  I'm glad I got to play around a bit with Tranquil Tide for this card, I looooooooooooove that color and need to use it more.  Delightful Daisy has the color Daffodil Delight in it, but on the circular pattern the yellow was softened so it looks more like So Saffron, so I used that for my card base.

I used the latest sketch from As You See It:

And the inspiration challenge from Just Add Ink:

Isn't that gorgeous?  I die cut "love" out of copper foil paper, which was inspired by this copper pitcher.  The swirly circular design on the DSP reminded me of the AYSI sketch, and lucky for me the colors in the paper also hearkened back to this inspiration picture.  And once I had these two challenges in mind, this card came together superfast, which is good because the kiddo was starting to wake up as I worked on it.  I feel like I should rename my blog Urgent Naptime Crafter.  :p

Well, I'm off to see what I can accomplish today while little Ryan is napping.  He's moved around some so I might not have much time before he's awake and ready for his next bottle...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Tranquil Tide
Paper:  So Saffron, Tranquil Tide, Thick Whisper White, Delightful Daisy DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, Sunshine Wishes Thinlits, Dimensionals

Cool Summer Treat

Happy Friday, y'all!  Looks like it won't be much longer before Ryan is trying to "help" me type up my blog posts...he's starting to reach out for the keyboard when I hold him in my lap :)  He's also working really hard on his "mmmmm" sound so he sounds like the monster on Young Frankenstein.

My little monster napped just long enough yesterday afternoon for me to make this card:

I got Cool Treats I think when I did a big SU! order for my birthday but this is its maiden inky voyage.  Having a baby kinda derailed my stampy plans for a little bit ;)  How do you like my stripey paper?  I made it myself.  The "stripe" is actually the stem stamp from Sunshine Sayings; it's got just a little curve to it and I didn't line up my stripes exactly so it gives kind of a hand-drawn feel to the stripes.  Uh, probably would have been faster if I'd just drawn the stripes with markers but that's not where my brain went!

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I was utterly incapable of resisting the Just Add Ink color challenge:

I've kinda had a hard time working with Peekaboo Peach, so I'm going to have to file this color combination for use again, maybe in a scrapbook layout.  It's a perfect combo for summer!

Well, my little boy is starting to get his wiggle on so I'd better put him on his play mat for a while.  See if I can't convince him to turn that "mmmm" sound into Mama! ;)  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cool Treats, Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Peekaboo Peach, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Peekaboo Peach, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Frozen Treats Framelits, retired Circles Framelits (I needed an extra-large circle), Dimensionals

Love & Hugs

Hey kids!  Apparently my new year's schedule doesn't include posting on Wednesdays, this is the second week in a row I haven't gotten to do a card for the middle of the week.  Guess it's just too much to go to the gym, do the grocery shopping, make lasagna and get a blog post in ;)  But now it's Thursday so I've got something to share!

This isn't a great picture of this card, I took more than one and just couldn't get a really great one so trust me when I say this looks better IRL.  And it's a triple challenge card, starting with the Cupcake Inspirations color challenge:

At first I thought baby with those colors, but then I decided to make the card a little more generic 'cause love and hugs could be for anything.  Babies included ;)  I used Marina Mist and Blushing Bride as my SU! colors (and of course gold is still gold).

I also used this week's super-simple-but-fun Freshly Made Sketch:

Love sketches like this that are super easy to work with, I could use this one again and again.

And finally, I chose my stamp set because of this week's What Will You Stamp? challenge:

Combined with the Sunshine Wishes Thinlits, you can make all kinds of sentiments with this.  Thanks to the What Will You Stamp? crew for encouraging me to dust this stamp set off :)

Okay, chatting with Missy so I'm out.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Marina Mist
Paper:  Whisper White, Marina Mist, Blushing Bride DSP, gold foil
Accessories:  Sunshine Wishes Thinlits, Metallic Enamel Shapes

Okay, That's Better

After yesterday's misfire, I decided to go back to the flamingo since I'd made a card with it that I liked lately and I thought maybe it would be good luck.  So here's what I have today:

I do like it a heck of a lot better than yesterday's mess.  Here's the latest from Freshly Made Sketches:

I used the Layering Circles Framelits to cut a circle out of some scratch paper, and then used the negative as a mask for my card.  I really thought about adding some stripey Melon Mambo DSP to the card, but in the end I decided to stick to the sketch and I added some of those Metallic Enamel Shapes.  They're not exactly where I wanted them, but those little boogers are sticky.

Just had to play along at What Will You Stamp? again:

I wasn't going to buy that stamp set at first, but I'm glad that I got it on a whim because I have had fun playing with it (except for yesterday).  Well, I'm off to go work on the next scrapbook layout and spend some time in the basement with little Vader man.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pop of Paradise, Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, Hello You Thinlits, Metallic Enamel Shapes

Big Shot Magic

Ya know, with all the great new dies that SU! came out with this summer, it's easier than ever to make a cute card super fast.  Which is nice when it's 3:00 in the afternoon and you still need to go to the grocery store if you're gonna make lasagna for dinner tonight and yet you still want to make a card...not saying that happened around here ;)

(It totally just did.)

So I broke out two new Sunshine Sayings dies, plus the Lots of Labels Framelits that apparently are my favorite thing lately, and ten minutes later I had this:

The only reason it took ten minutes is because my girl dog, Sadie, insisted on plopping herself under my craft table so I couldn't roll my desk chair where I wanted it to access my paper trimmer, so I was having to lean over crazy angles to cut the cardstock and she just looked at me like yep, I'm in charge around here.  Sometimes I think she really is...

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

I admit, though, that my interpretation of the sketch is a bit liberal...I used the heart for the circle element, and the die-cut word is meant to take the place of the long skinny piece on the sketch.  When I finished adhering everything to the card base, I was looking at it and trying to decide if it needed anything else when the song "Rhinestone Cowboy" started playing on my iPod, so I took it as a sign and added some rhinestones.  Who doesn't like rhinestones.

I also used this week's Global Design Project color combination:

Since I got the Pop of Pink DSP last week (not to mention the Pop of Paradise stamp set with the flamingo!) I've been wanting to Melon Mambo everything all the time so this challenge was excellent timing :)

Anyway, I'd better skedaddle to the grocery store or we ain't havin' nothin' for dinner at all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Smoky Slate
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Melon Mambo, Thick Whisper White, Pop of Pink DSP
Accessories:  Sunshine Sayings & Lots of Labels dies, rhinestones