Just My Cuppa

Afternoon, y'all!  I can't seem to get ahead this week--I didn't end up getting anything made in my craft room yesterday after driving the hubs to his appointment, though I did get a nice fat box of SU! goodies unpacked.  Okay it seems like half of it was empty stamp cases to put my newly unmounted stamps in, but still, I do have some new stamp sets to play with.

So what did I do today?  Pulled out a stamp set that's been retired for years : )

I was very intrigued by the color challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

I read it as Concord Crush, Peach Pie, and Basic Beige; the first two are long-retired In Colors and I particularly love that super-dark purple.  I was thinking about these colors a lot yesterday but couldn't get them to work in my brain with any of the current sketch challenges, so enter the new Freshly Made Sketch:

And then my card came together very quickly, go figure.  Once again I stamped directly on DSP (a Basic Beige pattern from Peaceful Garden) and then the rest of it was just playing with the colors and the patterns in an old In Color DSP stack.  A few rhinestones that have probably been in my stash for like ten years and it's done.

Ryan has STEM club after school today which means extra crafty time, so I'd better go use it since he's got early release on Friday and I haven't done this week's Nancy Drew cards yet.  Back up to the craft room I go.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tea Party
Ink:  Concord Crush
Paper:  Basic Beige, Concord Crush, Peaceful Garden DSP, In Color 6x6 DSP Pack
Accessories:  Layering Ovals dies, Dimensionals, rhinestones

Friday Flashback: Tea Party

Happy Friday!  Once again I've waited until late in the day to work on my card, but I got there in the end.  Today's Friday Flashback stamp set is Tea Party, and you know how I love my tea!  If you're here just to see today's new card, scroll to the bottom; otherwise, let's take a trip down Memory Lane :)

Also features Artistic Etchings, Curly Cute

The scallopy border stamp on this card is from Tea Party.

Also features Petite Petals

And I bet you can figure out from the picture which stamp on this card is from today's set :)

Also features Fabulous Phrases

A fabulous teapot planter colored with markers for a nice effect...

Put a couple of these together very quickly for my cohosts when I did a Mad Tea Party a few years ago.

Also features Swallowtail

The thank you tag is also from today's set, and of course you recognize Swallowtail.  Who doesn't love that one!

So here is today's brand new creation:

I just loved the sketch from Fab Friday today so I had to use it:

And I'm also entering this over at Retro Rubber:

I have approximately 7 gabillion brads in different colors, and given that I jabbed myself under the fingernail with one while working on my card I remember why I was so happy to switch to Candy Dots.  But perhaps I should do this challenge lots more times to whittle down my brad stash a bit?  Anyway, in the spirit of retro-ness, Tea Party came out in 2013 and I had to have it immediately so it's 3 years old.  The brads are older than that :)

Well, the hubs is here and wants to go out to dinner, so who can say no to that.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Tea Party
Ink:  Always Artichoke
Paper:  So Saffron, Thick Whisper White, Tea & Crumpets DSP
Accessories:  Ovals & Labels Collection Framelits, Rich Regals Brads, Dimensionals

2015 Showcase, Part 1

Since it's the last week of December (already!), it's time for the 2015 showcase here at Snapdragon Stamps.  So I went back through my blog posts for this year and picked out one card and one scrapbook layout for each month (okay, sometimes there were ties) just to share my favorites one more time.  So let's start off with Part 1 of the card showcase.

January's pick:  I love this happy card.  That "oh, happy day" stamp just makes me smile.

February's pick has Valentine-y colors and some pretty lotus blossoms.  I like how it turned out to do the first layer of the flower stamping with white ink.

March's pick:  By the Seashore has long been a fave stamp set, and I just love that patterned paper from last year's Sale-a-Bration.

April's pick is this giant Swallowtail paired with some stamps from Tea Party.  I love the watercolor background for the butterfly and those are my colors.  Spoiler alert:  new tea-related goodness is coming up in the Occasions Mini next week!

May's pick is this coral rose card.  It's an advertisement for why I don't get rid of my retired stamp sets:  I love that rose and the sentiments.  Plus, if I sold off all my retired stuff, how would I do Friday Flashbacks?

And for the last one of the day, June's pick is this bouquet card I CASEd from the catalog.

Tea, Thanks

Happy hump day, peeps.  Hope you're having a good week.  If not, maybe a butterfly tea party will cheer you up?

So the Stampin' Up! retirement list dropped yesterday, and while Swallowtail is safe for another year, Tea Party is going bubye, so I thought I'd use it on a card today (the tag and the swag at the bottom are both from Tea Party).  This year I have 24 stamp sets that are on the retiring list, and I'm sad about a few of them (By the Seashore!  Stippled Blossoms!  Four You!) but mostly I'm a little scared they're retiring all my favorite Framelits.  So I hope they've got some good shapes up their sleeves for the new catalog!

Anyway, back to today's card.  I used the color combination from Cupcake Inspirations:

I don't think I edited the color on my photo quite right, my card looks better IRL because the Pistachio Pudding card base doesn't look quite so washed out.  I think you get the idea, though.  I also used the sketch from Fab Friday:

Obviously I changed the shapes on a few of the elements, but I think it's still pretty clear that I followed the sketch.  I even used a button and twine :)  The button is an older retired style, but hey, half this card is going to be retired as of June 2.

And finally, I'm going to enter this in the current challenge at The Paper Players:

To make my background for the butterfly, I heavily spritzed some watercolor paper with water, then dropped ink refills on it and swirled it around...I found out the hard way you have to swirl the ink immediately, because if you don't it settles into the paper a bit and it looks like the watercolor paper has some weird multicolored measles or something.  Not the look I was going for.  So after the second try (got it right that time), I set it aside to dry while I worked on a scrapbook layout, and then stamped the butterfly and put the card together a little bit later.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Hope you have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Swallowtail, Tea Party
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder & Pistachio Pudding ink refills
Paper:  Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Retired tag punch, retired button, white baker's twine

Eiffel Tower Birthday

So I had this idea with this week's Nacho sketch.

I thought, what if I used stamps to create the two banner-y layers?  So I gave it a try.

It took some finagling with the Stamp-a-ma-jig, and I wish that I'd moved the image panel a little bit further down, but overall I think it worked out okay.  I pulled out some old retired favorites (Artistic Etchings and Curly Cute, still love them both) and used the little doily stamp from Tea Party to complete my collage.  Is it a collage?  It's not a whole lot of elements.  But anyway.

My parental units are on their way out here right now, so I've got a bunch of stuff to do today, like make up the guest bed.  Better get to it.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Artistic Etchings, Curly Cute, Tea Party
Ink:  Soft Sky, Smoky Slate, Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo
Paper:  Soft Sky, Whisper White
Accessories:  Labels Collection Framelits, Stamp-a--ma-jig

Teatime with the Nachos

Happy Tuesday!  Are you ready for another Nacho sketch challenge?  Here it is!

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned here that I'm planning an Alice in Wonderland-style Mad Hatter tea party for later this month (eek, still so much left to do!).  Last year I planned it all by my onesies but lucky for me this year I have two cohosts!  So I needed a couple of tea-riffic thank you cards.

Honestly I'm not sure I like Tempting Turquoise with Coastal Cabana...I know, usually greens and blues are like peanut butter and jelly, but...I don't know about this one.  Hmm.  Well, it was an older color challenge from Splitcoast.

Go check out the Nacho Average Challenges blog for more sketchy goodness and then show us what you've got.  In the meantime, I'll be drinking some tea while I study : )

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tea Party
Ink:  Early Espresso, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Tempting Turquoise
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Coastal Cabana DSP, Sweet Sorbet DSP
Accessories:  Oval & Windows Collection Framelits, Dimensionals

Cuppa Tea, Anyone?

Living in England for three years has left me addicted to tea.  Like, I have boxes and boxes of the stuff on my kitchen counter, and during the winter I usually have at least two cups a day, and I can't keep track of all the people who have gotten tea pots as gifts from me.

I'm not 100% sure I like how the main image turned out--I colored it with markers and stamped it, and I thought the Soft Suede bits seemed ever so much darker than the Pear Pizzazz ones.  Well, not every card can be your favorite, right?  I do like the sketch I used though, it's courtesy of Around the World:

I even used the same shape as on the sketch, though mine was rotated 90 degrees.

Happy Thursday and thanks for stopping by today.  I think I'm going to go make myself a cuppa to start the day...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tea Party, Petite Petals
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Soft Suede, Blushing Bride
Paper:  Blushing Bride, So Saffron, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Afternoon Picnic DSP
Accessories:  Oval & Labels Collection Framelits, Lacy Brocade EF, Petite Petals punch, pearls, Dimensionals

Nacho Tea Party Bouquet

Happy Tuesday!  It's time for another fabulous color challenge from the Nachos.  Check it out!

I love Daffodil Delight, it's so sunny and cheerful.  Here's my take:

I just got Tea Party so I decided to use it for this card.  I used markers to ink up the bouquet stamp, which I wouldn't advise if you're mass-producing, but it looks pretty for a one-off card.  I left the layout really simple to let the image and sentiment take center stage.

Hope you join the Nachos for this week's challenge.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tea Party, Fabulous Phrases
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Daffodil Delight, Primrose Petals, Gumball Green
Paper:  Primrose Petals, Midnight Muse, Whisper White, Quatrefancy DSP
Accessories:  none...just a SAMJ to line up my stamped images