Paper Flower Power

Happy Friday, y'all!  Bit of a gloomy day here but I would be happy to get some rain, it's been terribly dry this year and I know it's going to be a bad summer for fires.  And I don't have to go anywhere else until it's time to pick up Ryan (other than taking Daph for a walk) so as far as I'm concerned it can pour down rain from now until midafternoon.  Whaddya say, Zeus?

Anyway!  Apparently this is my week to be an overachieving stamper because I have three cards to share this morning.  Let's start with these two:

I thought this week's Freshly Made Sketch was a good chance to showcase some DSP but then I couldn't pick just one.  Here's the sketch:

And I couldn't leave out one more gorgeous floral paper:

I actually made this one first and couldn't resist making the other two.

Supplies, first card:
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Basic Beige, Floral Charm DSP
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Low Profile Sparkle Dots, Pretty Peacock Metallic Ribbon, Dimensionals

Supplies, second card:
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Secret Sea
Paper:  Secret Sea, Basic White, Lovely Blossoms DSP
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Natural Matte Dots, Old Olive Polytwill Metallic Ribbon, Dimensionals

Supplies, third card:
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Garden Green
Paper:  Garden Green, Secret Sea, Petunia Pop, Florals in Bloom DSP
Accessories:  Sweet Blooms dies, Sparkle Dot Essentials

And here's a picture of Daphne from yesterday just because she's cute, she was sitting there with her toy in her mouth and just STARING at me until I tried to get her picture and then she dropped the toy.  And you can see the carcass of another toy off to the right, she yanked all the stuffing out pretty much as soon as she got it.  Destructo-Dog!

Get Your Sunglasses

Mornin' y'all.  I got some nice stitchy time yesterday and I made a few more things in my craft room; I'm hoping I can keep the streak going today but I might have to take a nap as I'm running on maybe 4 hours of sleep.  Insomnia stinks.

Anyway, today's card would definitely help wake you up, you might need sunglasses for this one:

I started with the Atlantic Hearts sketch:

I didn't get all the layers on there, I figured my card was busy enough with those colors so the vertical strip is just one piece of DSP instead of three layers.  I did find some Lemon Lime Twist ribbon in my stash though.  Next up is the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I went down the left side with sequins - ribbon - die cut and I think Sweet Blooms is maybe a hair under a year old (I published my first card with it in May last year) but with how fast SU! is cycling things now, six weeks counts as retro for them : p  But yeah, I don't think I quite count for the challenge.  I may try again with something different.

And here's the TGIF color challenge:

I used three different packs of DSP to get all the challenge colors.  It's really bright but I think I like it anyway.

Gotta get Ryan ready for school.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Timid Tiger, Lemon Lime Twist, Strawberry Slush
Paper:  Strawberry Slush, Thick Basic White, Refreshed Beauty DSP, Floral Charm DSP, Strawberry Slush DSP
Accessories:  Sweet Blooms dies, Nested Essentials dies, Finishing Touches Edglelits, Starburst Sequins, LLT ribbon, Mini Dimensionals

The Easy Button

Mornin' y'all!  I have to type fast...it's the last day of Ryan's film camp and they're having their movie premiere this morning so I am going to go watch that.  But first, I have a very quick card:

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And really it feels like I cheated, because when I saw the sketch I thought of the oval elements in the Lovely Blossoms DSP that Joanne made me get.  So all I did was snip out the central image; the horizontal strip was already a scrap, I just cut it to fit the card front, and one simple stamped greeting on a punched circle and a few dots finished it off.  I mean the whole thing probably took less than ten minutes so I decided to have a go at a similar sketch and made this card:

We have another large oval on the Sunday Stamps sketch, and since this DSP image isn't quite as oval as the first one, I floated it on a Crumb Cake oval and then put that on the fun stripes that's the opposite side of the DSP from the big images I used today.  Same greeting, but this time die cut with another oval.  Here's the sketch:

Another super fast card and now I have cards to mail out next week to my two friends.  I like to pick cards that kind of coordinate to send to these two ladies because they are also friends so just in case they compare what they get ; )

Ack!  Gotta run.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Secret Sea
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Secret Sea, Crumb Cake, Lovely Blossoms DSP
Accessories:  circle punch, Muted Palette Dots, Layering Ovals dies, Dimensionals

A Lovely Sketch for SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all!  Man, Ryan was in a MOOD this morning but he's off at school now and hopefully he'll be happier when I pick him up.  Daphne and I are enjoying the quiet...or we would be, if the wind wasn't kicking up so much.  I'm going to have hair styled by tornado when we go out for our walk in a bit.

Anyway, today is the day for the first SUO Challenge of the year!

We're starting off with a sketch:

Okay, I had to think long and hard about this sketch, but I ended up with two cards:

I made the darker card on the left first, and then I wanted to play around with the colors a bit so I made the lighter card on the right.  Okay I had a piece of that beautiful DSP I used in the background that was big enough for a second card front and I just had to, isn't that pattern gorgeous?  Here's a closer look at the dark card:

Instead of cutting smaller pieces for the elements behind the circle, I cut a striped pattern the "wrong" way (usually I like to cut where the stripes go the long way of the piece of paper if that makes sense) so it kind of gives the feel of those breaks in the pattern but it's still one piece.  Except one of those strips is two pieces because I am a thrifty soul and I knew the join would be hidden by the circle so I could use up a smaller scrap.

Here's the lighter version:

I had cut the white "lovely" for the first card and didn't use it, so I figured I would work it in here.  I remembered there are stripes in the color family DSP packs so I got some Summer Splash stripes from that, and then used the Summer Splash splatty pattern for the circle since I knew the Secret Sea ink would show up well on it.  So which one do you like better, the darker version or the lighter one?  Either way I love that floral DSP : )

We hope you'll play along with us at upload your card at the SUO Challenges blog.  Don't forget to use only Stampin' Up! products and most important, have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Secret Sea
Paper:  Garden Green, Cloud Cover, Secret Sea, Petunia Pop, Basic White, Flowers in Bloom DSP, Summer Splash DSP
Accessories:  Sweet Blooms dies, In Color Flat Pearls

Color Options

Evenin' y'all!  I said in this morning's post that I had a couple of other cards I made for the new Paper Players color challenge:

So I thought I would share them both tonight.  Here's the first one:

I used Crumb Cake for the main image layer, embossed my image with Versamark + Early Espresso ink, and then I started out using watercolor pencils but they just weren't vivid enough so I watercolored with the ink pad lids.  I also tried it on Very Vanilla:

And then I decided they might not be "good enough" for my Paper Players card so I made the pheasant card I shared this morning.  I think these two cards turned out okay but I just wasn't loving them, what do you think?

Time to get Ryan started on the usual nighttime routine since he's back at school tomorrow.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rustic Centerpieces, Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Pecan Pie, Whisper White
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Deckled Circles dies, Textured Notes dies, Potted Succulents dies, Dimensionals, Streaked Dots

Tranquil Tiger

Mornin' y'all!  Had to take a brief pause to start my morning tea brewing.  But now I'm ready to share today's card:

I've only used the Along These Lines stamp set twice and both times it's the tiger, but honestly the tiger is the whole reason why I bought this stamp set.  Anything tiger-related reminds me of my friend Neelu, who loved tigers and was one of my very favorite people ever, and she's the reason why my Facebook profile pic is a tiger and why I wear a tiger necklace every day.  Yay tigers.

Sooo today's tiger was inspired by the TGIF Challenges color palette:

I only added a bit of black because a tiger has to have black stripes.  At first I was thinking about adding some more Peach Pie to the tiger by coloring with Blends, but I decided I liked him in his simple majesty on the patterned paper.  

I paired the colors with the CAS Colours & Sketches sketch:

That one's a classic, love it.

That's it for me today, peeps.  I'm going to finish my tea (Adagio's vanilla this morning) and go write up my review of a Nancy Drew book for my other blog.  Right after I let Daph-Daph outside for the twentieth time today.  I think it's a game to her, to see how many times she can make me get up to let her in and out the back door.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Along These Lines, Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Shy Shamrock & Peach Pie DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies (retired), Dimensionals, Neutrals Matte Dots

Charming Hello

Mornin' y'all!  I got a new pack of DSP and I just had to cut into it for today's card:

I thought the current Paper Players sketch allowed for several patterns:

I stuck with the circle on the sketch rather than doing a different shape and let the patterned papers be the star of the show.  The only stamping is on the greeting and I finished off with some Blackberry Bliss dots.  Can't wait to play with this paper some more!

Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Berry Burst, Thick Basic White, Floral Charm DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Perennial Postage dies, Dimensionals, Blackberry Bliss Dots

Lovely Yellow Flowers

Mornin' y'all.  I just had a minor mishap and I'm not sure how it happened, but my water bottle got knocked over across the computer desk.  Luckily for me it seems to have spilled in the open space between the computer base and the keyboard; the bottom of the keyboard was a bit wet but I don't think any water actually got IN it.  I have a pile of wet kitchen towels sitting next to me but the keyboard works, and the mouse was completely out of the puddle.  Glad it wasn't my tea that spilled!

Anyway, here's my card for today:

I just had to try the Thankful Garden flower masks *without* stamping the outline, what do you think?  This took me a couple of tries...take my word for it and put some scratch paper down on the sides of the masks because I kept ending up with ink where I didn't want it.  I had one image panel done but I flubbed the stamping (the "you're" is a piece of a larger stamp) so I had to do it over.  The advantage to that is that the third try I ended up with no ink where I didn't want it and I got the one single word stamp done right.  Sometimes it just takes extra tries to make it work.

Anyway, I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the colors are from Cupcake Inspiration:

I used both Lemon Lolly and Daffodil Delight for yellows, with Pecan Pie for brown.

That's it for now, peeps.  The hubs will be here in a little bit and we're going to a picnic thing his work is doing, and tonight we're going to the rodeo.  I went to a rodeo once when I was a kid so now I'm looking forward to telling anyone I can, "This ain't my first rodeo!"  I am easily amused, it's true.  Think I might use the next hour or so to work on my stitching.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Lemon Lolly, Daffodil Delight, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Pecan Pie, Lemon Lolly, Thick Basic White, Floral Delight DSP
Accessories:  Thankful Garden masks, Sweet Blooms dies, Textured Notes dies, Faceted Gems

SUO Challenges: Summer Floral

Mornin' y'all!  I got Ryan off to soccer camp this morning (it's a day camp thing for the next couple of days) so he's happy and I get a bit of quiet time.  And it's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

Check out this inspiration pic:

And here's what I made:

For realsies, that inspo pic is what convinced me that I *needed* the Pretty Florals dies.  Well, that and a whole bunch of beautiful cards I've seen other stampers make with them ; )  I die cut my flowers and greenery in colors to echo the inspiration pic, and then played with the arrangement until I liked it.

We hope you'll join in the fun at SUO Challenges!  Get out your Stampin' Up! supplies and share your card over on the challenge blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Secret Sea, Peach Pie, Petal Pink, Soft Sea Foam
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Garden Green, Lemon Lolly, Peach Pie, Petal Pink, Soft Sea Foam, Florals in Bloom DSP
Accessories:  Pretty Florals dies, In Color Flat Pearls

Hello Lovely

Mornin' y'all!  I'm getting a leisurely start today after being so dead tired all day yesterday from being up late on Monday on airport pickup duty.  And I have Ryan here all day too; his farm camp adventure was curtailed yesterday when they called me a half hour after drop off because he'd thrown up.  He's fine, I think it was just a lot happening in a short amount of time, but since he's missed half of farm camp this week they let us reschedule him for later this summer which was very kind of them.  So anyway, I finally got some sleep last night and I'm ready to share a card today.

I just had to cut into my new Celebratory Sips DSP for the TGIF Challenge:

And since the SOS Challenge is to feature something sweet, I picked a fruity page to use for my card.  You can see I am still loving the Textured Notes dies too : )

I paired those challenges with the CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch:

I chose a very busy pattern for the big rectangular layer instead of putting a whole lot of die cuts on top of it and ended up using the same stamp set and dies for the greeting.  Weirdly the Pretty in Pink Flat Pearls look much more like Bubble Bath to me but that worked on this card for some embellishments.  Pretty easy and fun card to put together.

The mist has lifted so I think it's time to chivvy Ryan out the door so we can take our darling Daphne for a walk.  She didn't get to go yesterday so we definitely need to do it today : )  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Timid Tiger, Bubble Bath, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Sweet Blooms dies, In Color Flat Pearls

A Joyful Sketch with SUO Challenges

 Mornin' y'all and it's time for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

And this time we bring you...a sketch!

So here's what I made:

I knew as soon as I saw the sketch that I wanted the rectangular panel in the corner to have the greeting on it, but when I chose the Sweet Blooms dies that rectangle had to get a little bigger : ) The only stamping on this is the "let joy" part of the greeting, the "bloom" is die cut and the flowers were fussy-cut from some Florals In Bloom DSP.  I am loving that DSP : )

We hope that you'll have fun with this sketch too and upload your card at the SUO Challenges blog.  Don't forget to keep it SU Only!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Secret Sea
Paper:  Bubble Bath, Petunia Pop, Secret Sea, Florals In Bloom DSP
Accessories:  Sweet Blooms dies, In Color Flat Pearls

A Blooming Duo

Mornin' y'all!  Hope your weekend is going well.  I got some stitchy time in yesterday so that's always nice.  And for today I have two cards to share:

I used this week's CASE-ing Tuesday sketch:

Here's the pic in the catty that we're CASE-ing:

Since I had two sets of triangles, I made two cards with them.  I also had to try out the Hand Stamped Sentiments color challenge:

I must say, it was a challenge--I felt like I could make the Fresh Freesia work with either of the other two colors but putting them all three together I wasn't so sure about.  In the end I used three different packs of DSP and two different stamp sets.  And I've finally inked up one of my new sets : )  I just got Sweet Blooms last week; I've had Year of Flowers for a bit but haven't used it much yet.

We're going out for breakfast this morning so that's it for me.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms, Year of Flowers
Ink:  Fresh Freesia, Soft Sea Foam, Summer Splash
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Soft Sea Foam, Thick Basic White, Floral Impressions DSP, Lovely Garden DSP, Unbounded Beauty DSP
Accessories:  Sweet Blooms dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems