Tranquility NOW, Dangit

Y'all, I'm having a bad hair day.  Last night Ryan closed out my internet browser and I'm like excuse me child I had 37 tabs open because I NEED THEM and I wasn't able to recover the tabs, so now I need to redo the hour and a half of research on summer camps for him and this morning Daphne chewed up some stuff in my craft room while I was in the shower and then had the gall to try to cute her way out of being in trouble.  And I'm literally having a bad hair day, I don't even know what is up with my hair today but I put it up on pigtails so that has to make it better.  Couldn't get worse than whatever it was doing before.

Grumpy grumpy grump grump grumpety.

Okay, I have a cheery card today so let's see if it helps me out.

I just looked through all of my SU! stamps over the weekend and pulled out around 200 sets that I set aside to possibly sell and I still have a huge collection and also since Daphne ate my occasions catalog (I do keep those for inspiration forever) I had to do an order this morning and I did buy one new stamp set and die bundle but anyway.  While I was looking through the stamps I found a lot of sets that made me think hey, I wanna make something with that, so I brought out Tranquil Tulips and Part of My Story for today and surprise, there are no bunnies in sight this time.

Check out the Retro Rubber challenge:

I went down the center with die cut - flowers - gems.  Tranquil Tulips is the same age as Ryan, so 8 years old; Part of My Story is a bit younger at 6 years old, but still retro in stamp years.

Next up is this week's CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch:

Once again I don't have the dies shown, but I found one in the Thoughtful Expressions dies that was a similar shape so I think it works.  And I switched my sentiment to the left side because my tulip stems were in a tangle.

I chose tulips for the Color Throwdown:

I used Soft Succulent, Daffodil Delight, and Calypso Coral for my colors.

And now it's time for me to go make a cuppa tea and grab some M&Ms, I need the big guns to get out of this grumpy mood while I redo all my summer camp research.  Check you later, kids.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tranquil Tulips, Part of My Story
Ink:  Soft Succulent, Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Basic White, Gingham Gala DSP Stack
Accessories:  Thoughtful Expressions dies, Ornate Frames dies, Dimensionals, In Color Gems

Tulip Greetings

Mornin' y'all, how's your Wednesday treating you?  I haven't been sleeping well this week so I've got the first of what is sure to be several cups of tea sitting next to me, hopefully that will help me wake up.

In the meantime, I have a tranquil little card today.

I pulled out some retired stamps for this card; I just really wanted to do tulips after seeing the inspo pic at The Card Concept:

I suppose my card is a clean-and-layered style, I think the patterned paper bumps it out of CAS territory.  I know we have a tulip stamp set in the current catalog, but I wanted something softer and more watercolor-y for my card and using an older retired set dovetails nicely with the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I used Very Vanilla (cream), Petal Pink and Flirty Flamingo (pinks), and Soft Sea Foam (green).  I was going for a very light and dreamy color palette and I forgot that my Soft Sea Foam got inked up recently, so it came out a lot darker than I was expecting for the stems.  I added a bit of shading with a blending brush.  Anyway, my first Tranquil Tulips card was posted on here in August of 2017, so that stamp set is at least five and a half years old; Sunny Sentiments is younger at about a year old.  The basket weave pattern is in the Regency Park DSP stack; I didn't get any of the coordinating stamp bundles but I do like that paper!

Okay, I'm off to do the things before the caffeine wears off and I want to take a nap.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tranquil Tulips, Sunny Sentiments
Ink:  Soft Sea Foam, Petal Pink, Flirty Flamingo, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Soft Sea Foam, Very Vanilla, Regency Park DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, Milky Dots

Speedy Spring Blossoms

Okay dude, I swear that ever since they "upgraded" the Blogger interface it is MUCH more difficult to upload several pictures and have them actually show up in the order I want them.  I started and trashed this post twice already, so here's hoping that the third time is the charm!

I spent a LOT of time in my craft room yesterday and I'm about to embark up on a project to go through all my retired stamps, so expect to see a lot of cards using older stamp sets :)  In fact, I chose two retired stamp sets for today's card:

I made this in 7 minutes, 54 seconds, and I timed it because I'm entering this in As You See It's speed stamping challenge:

I have cherry blossom stamps that I love, but I picked tulips because I've seen them in bloom near me.  We had freezing temperatures earlier this week and even a whole lot of snow (none of which stuck) so I hope the tulips and hyacinths survive the weather craziness.  I like tulips and flowers in general but I have two black thumbs.  We have three orchids in my kitchen because I adore them and my husband has figured out how to keep them alive ;)

Anywha, back to my tulip card!  I used the palette from this week's Color Throwdown challenge:

I used Crumb Cake, Mossy Meadow, Bumblebee, and Flirty Flamingo.  Side note:  Stampin' Up!, why on earth didn't you name it Busy Bumblebee or something like that?  All your other colors are at least two words and it BUGS me (pun intended) that this one isn't!  Anyway.  I had trouble incorporating the Crumb Cake into my card, so in the end I just sponged a bit of it on the tulip panel.

I'm also entering this at the Paper Players:

There's going to be a new suite of products featuring pansies in the next SU! catalog...

Anyway, I'm off to spend more time in my craft room.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tranquil Tulips, Suite Sentiments
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Mossy Meadow, Bumblebee, Flirty Flamingo, Early Espresso
Paper:  Bumblebee, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Tasteful Labels dies, Dimensionals

Friendly Tulips

Mornin', y'all!  After a four-day weekend we're back to business as usual and Ryan is getting into the DVDs and books every time I turn around.  Good thing he's cute!

Anyway, while Mr. Cute was napping yesterday, I made a quick card.

Tranquil Tulips is a gorgeous stamp set and why didn't I use it more often?!  Well, I broke it out for today at least.  And of course you recognize the sentiment from Orange Blossom because I'm still in denial that it's retiring.

So let's check out the CASE the Designer Challenge at Global Design Project:

Really I kept my card very close to Brian's original concept.  Pink and green (though mine are more saturated shades), flowers on the left, friend sentiment on the right.  I even had a lacy sort of stamp for the bottom, but it just didn't work for my card so I sponged it instead.

I was also thinking of this picture at Inkspirational:

This is why I did darker colors on my card, and I thought the way I sponged it sort of echoed the curve of the tree branch in the picture.  Okay, since I mentioned the colors...hey look it's Flirty Flamingo!  For some reason I've been using that more recently.  Today I paired it with Melon Mambo and two new greens, Shaded Spruce and Granny Apple Green.  I'm looking forward to playing more with those greens!  The glitter enamel dots are retiring (as are all the stamps) and they're actually Old Olive, but the color is light enough that I figured they blended pretty well with the Granny Apple Green sponging.

Well, it's time to feed the kiddo his morning Cheerios (not to mention get breakfast for me, too!).  Cheers, y'all, and have a great week.  New SU! catalog goes live on Friday!  Until then, it's likely I'll still be revisiting some retiring favorites.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tranquil Tulips, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo, Melon Mambo, Shaded Spruce, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Glitter enamel dots

Lovely Tulips

Mornin' y'all!  I've got tea steeping and a happy child playing in his playard so maybe I'll actually get a peaceful breakfast today (homemade lemon cream cheese scone for the win!).

There was some doubt yesterday afternoon but in the end I managed to finish a card to share today.

I love the hostess set Tranquil Tulips and somehow I've only ever used it once before today.  Actually this card was kinda difficult...I'd started out trying to do something completely different with a CASE the Designer challenge combined with a color challenge and it just wasn't working, so I tossed it and started over and that's how I came up with this.

So here's the CASE the Designer challenge from Global Design Project:

I used the same stamp set and label punch for my card, a bit of metallic accent (gold sequins on mine), and a similar layout on my card.  Looks like Krista layered a foil snowflake with ribbon, twine, and at least a couple of cardstock layers...I couldn't do that many layers without my card looking like a hot mess so I kept mine pretty simple.

And here is the color challenge from Fab Friday:

Yeah sure it's red and green but that doesn't mean it HAS to be Christmasy.  I added a bit of Chocolate Chip and of course the gold sequins.

That's it for me today, check ya later peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tranquil Tulips, Labels to Love
Ink:  Berry Burst, Lemon Lime Twist, Emerald Envy, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Emerald Envy
Accessories:  Everyday Label punch, Emerald Envy ribbon (I think this one is retired, oops), Dimensionals, Metallic Sequins

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