Missing You Zinnia

Hey y'all, we are once again in the throes of preparing to move and it is stressing me out.  Ugh.  After I write this post I'm going to go sit down with my cuppa and watch the 1,000th episode of NCIS and try not to think about moving for a while.

In the meantime, here's the card I made yesterday:

I'm really enjoying the Flowering Zinnias DSP, and this time I used the Simply Zinnia dies to make my flower.  I used the Try A Sketch on Tuesday sketch:

I just realized that challenge is closed now but oh well!  It's odd how the various challenges cycle, sometimes it seems like there's a plethora of sketches but right now it's all about the color challenges.  Speaking of which, I used this week's Paper Players palette:

I wanted a bit of color variation on my cardstock flower and leaves, so I used the coordinating Stampin' Blends to get darker values; it's easiest to see on the leaves, but one of the Melon Mambo die cuts is darker and the little ring on the center of the flower is also a bit darker (and a touch sparkly with Wink of Stella).  I like the bright, summery palette.

I'm also entering this at Cupcake Inspirations for their latest challenge:

Like I said, I'm having fun with the Flowering Zinnias paper and playing with the coordinating stamp set and dies.  When I was a kid, we had a neighbor who grew zinnias in their front yard and I remember her telling me how she harvested seeds from them at the end of the season.  I can't remember the lady's name as she moved out after only a year or two of us being neighbors, but I always think of her when I see zinnias.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Time for me to watch NCIS :)  Cheers.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Vertical Blooms
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Stampin' Blends in Granny Apple Green, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Granny Apple Green, Melon Mambo, Thick Basic White, Flowering Zinnias DSP
Accessories:  Simply Zinnia dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies (retired), Opaque Faceted Gems, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Slimline Valentine & Lavender Bonus

Hey y'all, how's your day going?  Apparently I am extra inspired this week because I have another double card post for today.  Here's the first card:

Okay I realize I am a minority of one but I don't like making slimline cards, they make me grumpy.  I like A2 cards because that's half of a sheet of paper, which is economical, and slimline cards don't work like that.  But slimline it is for this week's Paper Players sketch:

And I paired that with the Festive Friday challenge:

From the list, I have red, purple, slimline (reluctantly), and hearts.  I know it's fun to pull out the newest stamps to play with, but this time I used last year's Country Bouquet for my Valentine.  Don't forget about the new Valentine challenge at SUO Challenges too!

Anyway, like I said, slimline cards make me a little grumpy, and when I was trying to go to sleep the other night I was turning over ideas in my head about how to turn that sketch into an A2 card.  Then of course I had to make this when I got in my craft room yesterday:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees and happily for me, one of the Perennial Postage dies fits on a standard card front five times.  This was a good excuse to use one of the vertical sentiments from Vertical Blooms too, and I need to send out some thank you cards so this one will be going out today or tomorrow.  Win!  And after I made this card, I made several other ones that I really liked, I was on fire in my craft room yesterday (not literally, that would have been messy).  Honestly I'm procraftinating because I haven't started my wedding album yet.  I haven't done any new scrapbook pages yet this year!  Gotta fix that.

Anyway, have a great day, peeps.  I'm hoping to get some more quality crafting time today and start that wedding album.  It's got to be done.  Cheers!

Supplies, slimline card:
Stamps:  Country Bouquet
Ink:  Real Red, Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Most Adored Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Country Bouquet punch, Dimensionals

Supplies, lavender card:
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Vertical Blooms
Ink:  Orchid Oasis, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Orchid Oasis, Thick Basic White, Perennial Lavender DSP
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Painted Lavender dies, Iridescent Foil Gems, Dimensionals, Orchid Oasis baker's twine

Miss You Bear

Mornin', y'all!  Ryan has been watching a lot of Bluey lately, so last night he wanted to play doctor like they do in one of the shows.  I was the patient and Ryan performed surgery on me, using a blunt wooden sword and a couple of Nerf missiles as his surgical instruments.  I ended up with toilet paper bandages on one leg, across my belly, and all around my throat, and he is still insisting that I call him Doctor this morning.  So that's fun.

Anyway, I got into my craft room yesterday for the first time in almost a week.  I started with a pretty simple card:

I bought Vertical Blooms in that one-day stamp sale a few months ago specifically for this miss you sentiment.  Let's start with the Festive Friday challenge:

I used natural twine, an animal, and stripes.  Does "miss you" count as a supportive sentiment?  Next up is the Paper Players sketch challenge:

And here is the Sunday Stamps color challenge to round things off:

I used Evening Evergreen, Pebbled Path, and Basic Black from the color palette.  I wanted to work in some Real Red, but once I got the card started, I couldn't figure out a place to use it, so I kept it to just green and neutrals.  I really like Evening Evergreen.

Anyway, it's almost time for me to get Doctor Ryan off to school.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Vertical Blooms
Ink:  Pebbled Path
Paper:  Evening Evergreen, Basic Black, Pebbled Path, Thick Basic Vanilla, Evening Evergreen DSP
Accessories:  Bear punch, linen thread, Rustic Metallic Dots, Dimensionals