Sweet Home Alabama

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  This is it, everything really kicks in to high gear today:  the packers arrive.  It's going to be a crazy week of having the house packed up and all that chaos that goes along with moving (especially moving overseas, from Germany back to the States).  So anyway, I thought I'd share a layout from a different move, when we arrived in Alabama after three and a half years in England.

Okay that pic of the hubs playing with the undergarments to my wedding dress makes me giggle, and really there could be no other title for these pictures than Sweet Home Alabama.  And I miss my sweet little Vader.  In the lower left corner, I included one of the address labels that I used for the 10 months that we lived there; I always get address labels every time we move and I have an entire stack of labels from all our previous addresses.  When we stop being nomadic, maybe I'll make a layout of nothing but the different address labels and pics of each house...I hope I *took* pics of all the houses!  Hmm.

Today's color palette:  Azure Afternoon, Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade, and Blueberry Bushel.  I'm going to need A LOT of Azure Afternoon 12x12 cardstock, I love it!  Missy was asking me what my favorite new SU! color is, and Azure Afternoon was the first to pop in my head.  Though I have really enjoyed playing with all the new core colors (and I've kind of ignored the new In Colors because they are comparatively dull and boring).

Anyway, time for me to supervise the pack-out of my craft room.  Send chocolate.  No, wait, don't--I mailed two large boxes of chocolate to Texas last week so that it wouldn't spend months in a shipping crate and leave me with a sad chocolate puddle on the other side.  Who has TWENTY-SEVEN POUNDS of chocolate in their house as a matter of course?  Me, apparently.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Shoppe Alphabet Upper & Lower, Metro Type, Be the Star, Paris in the Spring
Ink:  Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Poppy Parade, Blueberry Bushel, Crumb Cake, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Stars dies

Aunt Jill

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  The weather on Saturday was pretty terrible, all cold and rainy, but yesterday was GORGEOUS so we went out hiking and Ryan fell in a creek :) He's okay though and it was nice to get outside.  I also did a yoga workout and worked more on going through all our photos.  So yeah, Sunday was great!

Most of the trees here are still pretty bare, although a few smaller plants are starting to show signs of spring.  The layout I picked to share today definitely has a springtime vibe and also pictures of Ryan when he was super tiny and adorable!

That top left picture, where Ryan is yelling at his aunt Jill, makes me laugh every time I see it, mostly because it was usually me on the receiving end of "I am UNHAPPY with the service in this establishment!" yelling from Ryan.  Thanks to Jill's purple shirt, I had an excuse to break out the purple for this layout, which makes me happy--I love purple but for some reason I don't seem to use it much on layouts.

Today's color palette:  Pale Plum, Eggplant Envy, Certainly Celery, and Very Vanilla, all of which are retired except the Vanilla.  I only have teeny scraps of Eggplant Envy left; not long after I started stamping, SU! replaced it with the darker Elegant Eggplant and I accidentally used what I had left on swap cards instead of Eggplant Envy.  So I'm hoarding what I have left.  Not much left of that patterned paper either, so I am stretching it as far as I can!

Hope your week is of to a good start, y'all.  Germany did its "spring forward" for Daylight Savings Time (seriously, can we get rid of that?) this weekend, *and* I have to be at work an hour early for mandatory training, so double whammy.  Better get my caffeine on...cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lovely Letters Alphabet, Sweet Shoppe Alphabet Lower
Ink:  Eggplant Envy, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip marker
Paper:  Pale Plum, Eggplant Envy, Certainly Celery, Enchante DSP
Accessories:  None

Hawaii Botanical Garden

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today I have another Hawaii layout to share.  It's brightening up a dreary Monday morning here.

This layout goes right after The North Shore; after we left the sea turtles, we found a botanical garden and decided to stop.  See the original pictures here.  When the Tropical Oasis DSP was released, I knew I'd have to use it for my Hawaii pages!

Today's color palette is the  nice and warm Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody, Real Red, and Old Olive.

Have a good week, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Timeless Tropical, Notable Alphabet, Sweet Shoppe Alphabet Lower
Ink:  Mango Melody, Memento Tuxedo Black, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody, Tropical Oasis DSP
Accessories:  None

Cocok's Toes 2010

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today's scrapbook layout is the very LAST of the Cocok's toe photos from when we lived in Japan, so if you're foot averse then that's good news for you :D

I always took photos of my friends' toes as well as my own when we got our super fancy pedicures, so the white circles have the initial of whichever friend those toes belong to (all the toes pointing upwards are mine, because that's how my toes look when I look down, heh).

These were all the toe photos for 2010 minus what I had on the Last Call at Cocok's layout.  Also, I'm glad I bought the Number of Years stamp set and matching Framelits, I've been using those and the coordinating (and still current) Letters for You alphabet pretty regularly since I bought them.

This was another layout that I did when I was on my Barely Banana streak, but this time I didn't pair it with Poppy Parade.  Today's color palette includes Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Cool Caribbean, Lavender Lace (looks funky in that palette picture), and Whisper White.  That Petals & Paisleys DSP (the Cool Caribbean polka dot strip) is one of the earliest DSP packs I ever bought from SU!  Actually a lot of things I used on this layout are pretty old, like the Simply Said stamp set.  This is why I hold onto stuff though, never know when it will turn out to be just the thing for a scrapbook layout.

I'm going to go tackle the mountain of leftover waffles from yesterday (I'm sure you feel sorry for me, haha!) and then tiny child and I are going to the gym.  Hopefully he won't lose his marbles like he did on Saturday; I didn't get to do yoga because I had to come get him when he wouldn't stop crying.  So here's hoping today is better.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!

Stamps:  Number of Years, Sweet Shoppe Alphabet Upper & Lower, Beautiful Peacock, Simply Said

Ink:  Pretty in Pink, Cool Caribbean, Lavender Lace

Paper:  Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Cool Caribbean, Petals & Paisleys DSP, Berry Bliss DSP

Accessories:  Large Numbers Framelits

Nijo Castle

Hey y'all, how's your Wednesday going?  I'm working on getting Ryan on a regular schedule for feedings and naps, so wish me luck with that.  Although he is asleep right now, so I call that a win.

Anyway, we're back to Japan for today's scrapbook layout.

See the pictures here if you're interested.  Nijo Castle is in Kyoto, Japan, which we visited in October of 2009.  I skip around a lot when I'm choosing pictures to scrapbook, but I am making an effort to get my older pictures scrapped sooner rather than later.  I'm afraid that I've forgotten details for most everything before I started my blog, so journaling those pages will be interesting :p  It really does help me to look at old blog posts when I do journaling on my scrapbook pages.

My page title.  Instead of using white or vanilla for the title block and journaling block, I went with Sahara Sand, just for something a little different.  I meant to use Elegant Eggplant for the page base, and it wasn't until I had a bunch of stuff stuck down that I realized I accidentally used my last two pieces of Eggplant Envy instead.  Yes, it's still purple, but it's a few shades lighter than Elegant Eggplant--you can see the photo mats on the bottom of the pages are darker purple than the background.  It's okay that I used the lighter color, I think it still looks fine, but I wish I'd realized before I stuck things down so I could have made a conscious decision whether or not to use up the last of my Eggplant Envy.  I may have color hoarding problems.

Today's color palette:  Elegant Eggplant (and Eggplant Envy, but I don't have a cardstock swatch for it since I'm now completely out of that color), Taken with Teal, Old Olive, and Sahara Sand.

I'm off to do dishes and maybe even work in my craft room before Ryan wakes up.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lovely Letters Alphabet, Sweet Shoppe Alphabet, Bella's Bloom
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, Taken with Teal, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Eggplant Envy, Taken with Teal, Old Olive, Sahara Sand, Sweet Pea DSP
Accessories:  None

Amsterdam

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today's layout is one of the last few I made before Ryan was born, and it's pretty springy so I thought it was appropriate to share now that we're in April.

Hubs and I visited Amsterdam in April of 2013; you can see the original pictures here.  The main draw was going to see the tulips (more pages of those are forthcoming), but we also visited the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum, a Van Gogh exhibit (the Van Gogh museum was being renovated, so they had an exhibit at the Hermitage I think, and apparently there's more than one Hermitage museum in the world), and did a couple of walking tours of the city (and went through the Red Light District multiple times).

Thought I'd accent my title with some tulips.

We didn't take any pictures of people on bikes, but that is the main mode of transportation in Amsterdam, so I had to put the bicycle on here.

And some butterfly die cuts because I needed another accent and couldn't think of anything else ;)

Today's color palette is taken straight from the Painted Blooms patterned paper:  Blushing Bride, Blackberry Bliss, Rose Red, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Softy Sky, and Whisper White.

Tulip pages coming soon.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Shoppe Alphabet (upper & lower), Painted Petals, Timeless Talk
Ink:  Rose Red, Blackberry Bliss, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green marker
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Rose Red, Blackberry Bliss, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Soft Sky, Painted Blooms DSP
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Thinlits

Friday Flashback: True Friend

Happy Friday, peeps.  For this week's Friday Flashback, our retired stamp set is True Friend which came out in the 2007 holiday mini catalog so this one's quite the oldie.  Grab your cuppa tea and let's Flashback!

Also features Hugs & Wishes

Starting off with a cute and simple set of cards that you could do in any color.  I like 'em.  (Mom, something like this might be good for your Christmas card project...)

Also features Priceless, Polka Dot

A fun and bright birthday card...

Also features Happy Everything & Boho Friend Wheel

And one more for good measure.  Can ya tell I like that big flower.

And here's a few of the other stamps in the set.  I do like the "true friend" sentiment but I haven't used it much.

Also features Wonderful Favorites, Flannel Plaid, Itty Bitty Backgrounds

Not my favorite card, it was for a combination SCS sketch and color challenge and this sketch just didn't do anything for me.

Also features Paisley, Warm Words

And the last card of the Flashback has lots o' layers.  I miss the ticket corner punch.

So for today's new project, I bring you a scrapbook layout:

Yay me getting more pages done.  This is the first layout I've made with pictures from this year; these were taken last spring in Alabama.  I wish I'd gotten the spacing a bit better on the stamped part of the title, and really the purple letters show up better IRL than they do in the picture (it was very overcast and kinda dark when I took the photo).  I do love the color combination I used:

Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, and Lavender Lace.  This layout came together pretty fast once I'd picked the patterned papers I wanted to use.

And that's all she wrote this week, peeps.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, Spring layout only:
Stamps:  True Friend, Sweet Shoppe Alphabet
Ink:  Rose Red, Chocolate Chip marker
Paper:  Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette, Lavender Lace, Bali Breeze DSP, Pink Pirouette DSP
Accessories:  non-SU lettering template

Friday Flashback: Sweet Shoppe Alphabet

Happy Friday, peeps!  Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback, featuring the Sweet Shoppe Alphabet.  It's a very cute alphabet, I'm happy for the reminder to break it out and use it again!  So let's go flash back.

This is a more recent creation, I made it just last December.

Ok, I admit, it's a little sad that the Flashback is pretty short and one of the photos is the index card I did for the Splitcoast gallery.

Also features Broadsheet Alphabet & Array of Sunshine

Ok, so there's one more project I used the alphabet for.  Clearly I needed the reminder to use it again, and I'm super excited about what I made!

These photos are from way back in 2006 when the hubs and I lived in North Carolina and we had a go at growing flowers in our backyard, no mean feat for me who has two black thumbs.  The layout is very, very simple, so to make it a little more interesting I matted half the pictures with different colors and left the other half unmatted.  So let's take a look at that title:

Your eyes do not deceive you, I used a different alphabet for the capital letters (Empire Alphabet).  I just love mixed font titles and I love how those two looked together!  I will admit, though, that it took For.Ev.Er. to stamp the title on here.  I always worry I'll do something like drop an inked stamp on the cardstock and I'll have to start over, but I managed to get through that entire very long title with no oopsies.  Even spelled it right.

And I finally used the largest of the Butterfly Thinlits.  This is a flashback for color too, that lovely shade on the butterfly is the long-retired Marvelous Magenta.  It's such an 80s color, am I right?  It retired shortly after I started stamping, so I only have a few pieces of 12x12 cardstock this color and no 8.5x11 and no ink pad.  If you want to get technical, the cardstock I have is from before Stampin' Up! went to "true" 12x12, it's about a quarter inch shy of twelve inches square.  And now I have three pieces of it plus some scraps, but it was worth it to use one piece for this layout.

There's my color palette:  Pistachio Pudding, Garden Green, Marvelous Magenta, Ballet Blue, and Elegant Eggplant even though it looks black 'cause it's not.  So that's it for me this week, peeps, hope you have a marvelous weekend, whether or not it's magenta ;)

Supplies, scrapbook layout only:
Stamps:  Sweet Shoppe Alphabet, Empire Alphabet, Embrace Life
Ink:  Garden Green, Ballet Blue, Elegant Eggplant
Paper:  Pistachio Pudding, Marvelous Magenta, Ballet Blue, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories:  Butterfly Thinlits

Three Dimensional Thinking

Ok, if you've been a regular visitor here at Snapdragon Stamps (hi Mom!) you know I pretty much stick to flat paper crafting--cards and scrapbook pages, not 3D items.  But every once in a while I want to try something new, so today I'm sharing a gift card holder box I made.

My friend Karyn's birthday is coming up next week, and I'm giving her a gift card, so this seemed like the perfect time to try out Qbee's Pop-Up Gift Card Box Tutorial.  The tutorial is easy to follow (I had it up on the iPad while I was at my craft desk) and the box isn't hard to make, but there are a few things I learned on the way that would make a second box easier.  For example, after you do the score lines and cut the tabs, next time I would fold along all the score lines and put the adhesive on the OTHER side of the cardstock.  I basically had to fold the cardstock the opposite direction that I'd scored because I put the adhesive on the "inside" side (that would make sense to you if you were trying to make this box, I think). 

Here's the inside, and that's a pack of Rolos because you know you get hungry when you're shopping if you do it correctly.  Here's another thing I learned:  maybe I made the slot for the gift card a little too wide, because it was kind of tilting so that the edge of the gift card was at the edge of the box and it didn't stand up straight.  So I stuck a Dimensional down in the bottom of the box and made sure that the gift card was put with the edge in front of that Dimensional and voila!  No more tilting.

So anyway, I'd say this little project definitely qualifies for the challenge at Create with Connie and Mary.

And I also used the fun color combination from Just Add Ink:

You're probably wondering, where's the Real Red?  To be honest, I don't like hot pink and red together, I think they clash :) but I *did* use Real Red ink to sponge the edges of the rose petals.  Now, pale pink and red I think is totally fine ;)  But just so you know, I DID use all the challenge colors on here.  And champagne glimmer paper, because it's fun.

So, would I make a box like this again?  Yeah.  Am I going to make a regular habit of it?  Probably not, I'm lazy and I'm used to thinking two-dimensionally ;)

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Shoppe Alphabet (retired), Label Love
Ink:  Real Red, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, Strawberry Slush, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Champagne glimmer paper, retired Wild Wasabi DSP
Accessories:  Spiral Flower Bigz Die, Autumn Accents Bigz Die, Note Tag Punch, Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack (heart), Decorative Label Punch, Artisan Label Punch, Hexagon Punch, Dimensionals, hot glue & Sticky Strip to adhere everything together

Friday Flashback: Broadsheet Alphabet

Woohoo, it's Friday!  And time again for another Friday Flashback.  Today's featured stamp set is Broadsheet Alphabet so you know there will be some scrapbook pages.  Oh look!

Best of Shelli

Scrapbook pages.  I so miss Baja Breeze!  But I'm loving that we have Lost Lagoon now.

Nursery Times

Here's a name frame I did for a baby gift basket.

Flower Fancy

And another one, I really like how the flowers turned out on this one.

Baroque Motifs, Strength & Hope

Two more name frames.  At this point I think I know too many pregos!

Array of Sunshine, Sweet Shoppe Alphabet

And here's the sign for last year's Mad Hatter tea party.  So, nary a card in the whole bunch from the archives, and today's all-new project is another scrapbook layout:

Wish it wasn't dark there on the left side but I kinda can't help where the window is in my craft room, the right side is always lighter than the left.  Hubs and I took these pics at Leeds Castle in August 2011; you can see the photos here and here on my other blog.

Anyway, click on the picture to see it larger.  I was surprised (and happy!) with how fast this layout came together--as soon as I saw the peacock photo, I knew I had to use that patterned paper from the Country Club Simply Scrappin' Kit (retired).  There were so many bright colors in the photos that I decided to go with a neutral for the page base, and I used the bright Glorious Green for my title (sadly retired).  Whee for more scrapbook pages done!

That's it for me today.  Cheers, peeps, and have a great weekend!

Supplies, last photo only:
Stamps:  Broadsheet Alphabet
Ink:  Glorious Green, Midnight Muse
Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Midnight Muse, Whisper White, Country Club SSK
Accessories:  None

Mad Hatter Tea Party

We have reached that unspecified point in the future at which I promised to post the things I made for the tea party this past Tuesday.  :)

Here's the sign I made for the front door so guests would just come on in and I wouldn't have to run answer the door every 20 seconds.  I used the Broadsheet Alphabet for the top part, and "Come On In!" is stamped with the now-retired Sweet Shoppe Alphabet, though I wish I'd picked one that was a bit thicker letters because it kind of got lost on the sign.  The flowers are from the retired hostess set Array of Sunshine, and after I stamped them I thought d'oh!  I should have used the teacup stamp from Tea Shoppe!

I made labels for all the food and stuff using the Floral Framelits dies and Daydream Medallions stamps with some computer-generated words.  They came together really fast,  like 20 minutes to make 10 signs.

I have a bunch of little decorative jars?  flower vases? glass containers of some kind that I got for cheap at the 100 yen store when we lived in Okinawa, so I just filled them with jellybeans (the guests loved the jellybeans) and used pipe cleaners for the flower stems.

If you want to see a few more pics and get a look at the recipes I used, visit my other blog here.  Thanks for stopping by!