Cozy Rosy Christmas

Good AFTERNOON, y'all, I got a late start today : )  We're going to do game night tonight with friends and I volunteered to provide dessert, so I'm baking some things for that and my house smells like gingerbread, at least the downstairs does, which is much better than it smelling like the sealer the hubs used on the floor of our shower.  The hubs has finished sealing it (I think) and so now we just need to reinstall the glass wall and door and then we can USE that shower for the first time in three months.

Anyway, here is today's card:

I started with the inspiration challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments:

I zeroed in immediately on the center picture, the pitcher with the roses and pine cones, which made me think of the Holly Berry Bouquet DSP.  And then I got stuck until I looked through some old sketches from Freshly Made Sketches and came across this one:

And then my card came together pretty quickly.  I'm a little too late to enter this at Retro Rubber but I'm mentioning it anyway:

This time I did the diagonal, with dies - greenery - ribbon.  I am continuing my trend of using older retired stamps:  Cozy Christmas (the greeting) is 9 years old, and To a Wild Rose is 5 years old, so both retro.  And of course my DSP is retro too : ) and so is the ribbon.  Just retro all around.

That's it for me today, peeps.  I need to frost the gingerbread bars and bake the Oreo cheesecake cookie dough that I made this morning before I took Daphne out for a walk.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cozy Christmas, To A Wild Rose
Ink:  Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Versamark
Paper:  Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Thick Basic White, Holly Jolly Bouquet DSP
Accessories:  Wild Rose dies, Stylish Shapes dies, White EP, white 3/8" taffeta, Dimensionals

Conwy Castle

Mornin' y'all, and Scrappy Monday!  The temperatures here in Colorado dropped over 20 degrees over the weekend and I am LOVING the fall nip in the air : )  (Hubs is obviously whining that summer is over but tough luck for him!)  We had some blustery weather and gray skies over the weekend so I picked a scrapbook layout that matches:

This was one of the last couple of castles we visited on a week-long road trip through Wales in 2014 just before we left England.  Conwy Castle is one of the larger ones we visited and it is smack dab in the middle of town.  I absolutely loved visiting Wales and wish that we hadn't left it to the very last of our time in the UK; we got a Wales Explorer pass to visit all the castles and historical sites but we didn't do things like go to Snowdonia.  The hubs said all the castles kinda blended together by the end, but that's not surprising considering that several of the ones we saw were commissioned by Edward I in his campaign to crush the Welsh so they share a lot of design features.

Anyway, today's more subdued color palette is Blue Bayou (kickin' it old skool with a very retro In Color!), Perfect Plum, and Wild Wasabi.  I managed to squeeze in 10 pictures, some patterned paper, title and journaling blocks and a stamped accent.  Pretty good for two 12x12 pages.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Jayne's Type Alphabet, Rough Type, To a Wild Rose
Ink:  Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Perfect Plum, Basic Gray
Paper:  Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Perfect Plum, Thick Basic White, Porcelain Prints DSP
Accessories:  Wild Rose dies

SUO Challenges: Summer

Good mornin' y'all and welcome to Tuesday!  I had a very productive day in my craft room yesterday so that makes me happy :)  Another reason to be happy--it's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time it's a theme challenge--we want you to make a SUMMER card!  For some reason, summer is the hardest season for me to translate into a card.  For fall, you've got all the glorious fall leaves and pumpkins and stuff.  Winter means snowflakes and holiday stuff.  Spring means baby animals and pastel flowers.  But what about summer?  Well, here's what I made.

I got Silhouette Scenes *months* ago and this is the first time I've used it at all, along with the coordinating Sweet Silhouettes dies.  My original plan was to brayer or sponge a colorful background for the little girl, but that May Paper Pumpkin kit is still on my craft table and I thought that rainbow piece was perfect.  To a Wild Rose was also still on my table from one of my cards last week, so that's where the "hello" came from (what can I say, sometimes I'm lazy!).

Share your Stampin' Up! only summertime creation on the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers, y'all!  Wish the playgrounds were open, a swing sounds like fun about now...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Silhouette Scenes, To a Wild Rose
Ink:  Versamark, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White, May Paper Pumpkin kit
Accessories:  Sweet Silhouettes dies, Ornate Frames dies, black EP, Dimensionals, In Color Enamel Dots

Snow White, Rose Red

Mornin' y'all.  Our morning started early:  Ryan woke up before 5, crying and saying that his belly hurt.  We eventually got him soothed back to sleep, but by then it was time for me to get up and do my workout anyway.  Hope Ryan feels better when he wakes up again!

I made two cards during Ryan's quiet time yesterday, one of them with brand new stamps (and colors)  and the other one with stuff I've had for a while.  But since there's a color challenge that's about to expire, I'm sharing this one first:

I don't think I'd done this rose in Real Red before and it looks really stunning IRL.  To get the color variation, I inked up the "filler" stamp using a sponge rather than tapping the stamp on the ink pad.  The darker stamp is just inked up as normal, but that gave me a nice range of color using just one ink pad.  Well okay, I used black for the outline ;)

Here's the Paper Players color challenge:

I had a particular stamp set I wanted to use yesterday and this color challenge didn't work with it, but while I was working on that other card the idea for this bright red rose popped in my head and I had to get it out on paper as well.  I'll be sharing the other card soon ;)

Loved this sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

Have a great Friday, peeps.  I think there's Mexican food in our future today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To a Wild Rose
Ink:  Real Red, Tranquil Tide, Basic Gray, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Smoky Slate
Accessories:  Wild Rose dies, Dimensionals

Wild Rose Hello

Mornin' stampers!  It's Friday, though I'm not sure how much that matters with the continuing quarantine.  Not much has opened up yet in North Carolina.

I spent some time in my craft room yesterday and made a card and worked on a couple of scrapbook layouts.  So here's the card:

Looking at this picture, I think I should have trimmed the patterned paper a bit more so that more of the Petal Pink card base showed, but it's all glued down now.  That paper is retired but it was just what I wanted for this card, so I went with it.  I used both Shimmer Black EP and Wink of Stella on the rose so it's nice and sparkly, don't know why they're retiring the shimmer embossing powders.

Anywha, I used the color challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

As I mentioned, I used Petal Pink for my pink color, and Basic Black and Very Vanilla for the neutrals.  I also used the Global Design Project sketch:

That's it for me today, peeps!  Have a great Friday, even if it doesn't seem much different than any other day right now :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To a Wild Rose, Free as a Bird
Ink:  Petal Pink, Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Petal Pink, Thick Very Vanilla, Modern Medley DSP
Accessories:  Shimmer Black EP, Wild Rose dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Hello Rose

Okay, as promised, I have something a bit more cheerful today.  Here it is:

I used the color challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments:

I didn't realize how often I stamp this rose with Rococo Rose ink until I looked back at all my other To A Wild Rose projects, haha.  I guess my brain is literal.  I added some Crumb Cake and Early Espresso to the challenge colors.  And rhinestones, because rhinestones seemed like a good idea.

It seems that my electric kettle is going to the Small Appliance Graveyard In the Sky, so I've got to get a new one.  I drink too much tea to go without an electric kettle ;)  Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To A Wild Rose, Butterfly Gala
Ink:  Rococo Rose, Mint Macaron, Early Espresso
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Wild Rose dies, Stitched Nested Labels dies, Dimensionals, Rhinestones

SUO Challenges: Dealing With Dies

Hey y'all!  It is time once more for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time around, we want you to use your dies!  I use dies all the time so my first challenge was narrowing down which ones I wanted to use :)  I thumbed through all my current dies and chose Wild Rose.  At first I was going to do something all sweet and pastel, and then...this happened instead:

How about a Christmas rose instead?  I used the colors from the Wrapped in Plaid DSP and I used five different dies from the set.  I'd never used two of them, the gold border one and the navy blue sprigs behind the rose.  So yeah, I think this card counts as die-riffic.

Now it's your turn!  Make a card using dies and share it on the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To A Wild Rose, Greatest Part of Christmas
Ink:  Versamark, Night of Navy
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy, Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White, gold foil, Wrapped in Plaid DSP
Accessories:  Wild Rose dies, gold EP, Dimensionals

Best Rococo Rose

Hey y'all, how's it going?  So far this week is starting off well, much better than last week :)  So here's a cute card for today:

Ahh, I hate it when I don't take pictures of my cards until late in the afternoon and then the colors look a little wonky in the photo.  This looks nicer IRL so I may have to take the picture again.  Anyway, I started with the Global Design Project challenge:

I wanted to use the same-ish colors as the picture, so I went with Sahara Sand for the card base, Rococo Rose, Soft Sea Foam, and Balmy Blue.  I also did a similar idea for the layout, with die-cut shapes over a cardstock strip, but I used the sketch from the Paper Players:

Uh, tall & skinny cards are the same as short & fat cards, right? ;) I turned the sketch 90 degrees to the left because I wanted to be able to put my sentiment on the cardstock strip.  I should have used a darker green for the leaf stamp because the stamp just blends into the watercolor because Soft Sea Foam is so pale, but at least you can see the detail on the rose.  For both pieces, I inked up my stamp with Versamark and then the ink color, stamped, and quickly set with clear powder.  And that's how you get stamped outlines in any color that don't run when you watercolor.

Okay y'all, have a great day.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To A Wild Rose, First Frost
Ink:  Rococo Rose, Soft Sea Foam, Soft Suede, Versamark
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Soft Sea Foam, Shimmery White, Balmy Breeze DSP
Accessories:  Wild Rose dies, Dimensionals, Clear EP

Hello Rose

Mornin' y'all and happy Friday!  I have been SO tired this week but hoping that I can get back on track this weekend with sleep and everything.  Wish me luck.

While my kiddo was asleep yesterday, I made up a real quick card:

Something a little different, eh?  The only stamp I used is the "hello" from To A Wild Rose; the other pieces are die cut from the coordinating Wild Rose dies.

I was inspired by this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the colors from Color Throwdown:

I especially loved the colors on the black background, so that's why I decided to make my card the way I did.  I used Basic Black, Lovely Lipstick, Granny Apple Green, and Crumb Cake for my colors, and the Happiness Blooms enamel dots added a bit of interest to the flower center and some visual weight to the sentiment, since it's so much smaller than the other three elements.  I puffy heart love me some enamel dots, y'all.

Hope your Friday is off to a great start!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To a Wild Rose
Ink:  Whisper White
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Lovely Lipstick, Granny Apple Green
Accessories:  White EP, Wild Rose dies, Happiness Blooms enamel dots

Texas Yellow Roses & Goal Check-In

Hey, y'all!  Happy Wednesday.  How's your week going?  We're looking forward to the holiday weekend!

In the meantime I have a super summery card to share:

Having some more fun with To a Wild Rose and its coordinating dies.  And also plaid, because plaid is fun.  The scrapbook layouts I'm currently mid-process on also feature plaid :)  Back to the card!  I was inspired by the CASE the Designer challenge from Global Design Project:

I kept the idea of large flowers on a plaid background but tried to make it my own, ya know?  I used some retired plaid paper in Lemon Lime Twist because I refuse to believe LLT is actually retired ;)  The rose on the right is popped up to give the card some dimension.  I thought about adding some sequins, but in the end I decided that sequins would just be too much on here.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To a Wild Rose
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody, Lemon Lime Twist, Call Me Clover
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Whisper White, Gingham Gala DSP
Accessories:  Wild Rose dies, Dimensionals

Well, since we're halfway through the year, I thought it would be a good idea to check in on my annual goals (you can read about those here).

1.  Make 200 scrapbook pages.  I'm currently at 86, which at first made me a little discouraged, but really that's only 7 layouts away from being right on track.  I've made some great progress on Ryan's baby book, I've finished a LOT of older photos, and I'm having fun.  So pretty happy about this goal.

2.  Finish Ryan's baby book.  I'm up to October/November!  I have to get a few photos printed in different sizes but again, making good progress and some of these pages are SO. STINKING. CUTE.

3.  Organize photos.  Well, I got through all the ones for the last two years (a.k.a. Ryan pictures), but I haven't gone back to the older photos to weed out shots we don't need.  So half credit here.

4.  End the year with fewer unread books on my Kindle than when I started.  AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA.  Yeah I have a feeling this is going to be the toughest one to do.  I'm trying to be better about just getting rid of books if I start them and don't enjoy them, rather than forcing myself to slog through something that isn't fun, so at least I'm holding steady at about +4 or +5 from where I started.  Needs improvement.

5.  Finish The Accolade.  Um, if I don't post as much this month, it's because I'm obsessively working on this!  I've got just over 5% left to do, and I'm so excited that the end is in sight.  This thing is looking pretty spectacular.

SUO Challenges: All About Birthdays

Happy Tuesday, stamp enthusiasts!  We have a new challenge at Stampin' Up! Only Challenges today, and it's all about BIRTHDAYS!  Everyone you know has a birthday, so why not make 'em a card?

So here's a birthday card I made for my dear friend Sarah!

This card is a bit Beauty and the Beast inspired because I'm sending her BatB socks (long story).  I chose blue and yellow for Belle's two most iconic dresses in the animated Disney version, and of course there's a rose that plays an important part in the story but I made my roses yellow.  I used the recently retired Post Script background because I love it :)

Go check out the rest of the design team's creations at SUO Challenges, and then make a birthday card yourself!  It's fun, I promise :)  I have three birthdays coming up in my family in the next few weeks, so I'll definitely be making more birthday cards!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Well Said, To a Wild Rose, Post Script
Ink:  Balmy Blue, Pineapple Punch, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Granny Apple Green, Shaded Spruce, Night of Navy
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Night of Navy, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Wild Rose dies, Well Written dies, Dimensionals

Bridal Rose

Hey y'all!  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

Today we're sharing spring cards, including Mother's Day if you're late (like me).  I *almost* made a Mother's Day card, but then the card insisted it was a bridal shower card instead.  Lookie:

I got my new catalog preorder late on Thursday but last week was so hectic that I didn't get to play with the new schtuff until the weekend.  Well Said and the coordinating dies are in the Occasions catalog but I just now got them because I didn't want to miss out on the 10% discount bundle pricing.  I can tell those are going to be favorites for me. 

Brand new stuff alert!  To A Wild Rose is a new stamp set with coordinating dies, and I stamped my rose with the new In Color Rococo Rose.  The DSP is new too, it's called Garden Lane and it's my favorite new DSP even though there are LOTS of great new DSPs.  This reminds me of the old, old set Wintergreen, which I've used on my scrapbook layouts a lot.  I was actually thinking maybe I should try to find some more on eBay or something because I don't have much of it left, and then Garden Lane came along.  It's all in shades of green (my favorite color) and I LOVES IT.

So now it's your turn to show us some spring on your papercrafting project!  Add your linky at the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To A Wild Rose, Well Said
Ink:  Rococo Rose, Merry Merlot, Mint Macaron, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Merry Merlot, Thick Whisper White, Garden Lane DSP
Accessories:  Wild Rose Dies, Well Written Framelits, Dimensionals