Springy Butterfly

Good afternoon, friends!  I had a big nasty headache yesterday, but this morning I managed to get a card made to share today.

For a wonder, the Wink of Stella on the butterfly actually shows up somewhat!  So of course the Soft Sky sponging behind the butterfly doesn't show up as well.  My springy colors are courtesy of Fab Friday:

 And I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Just for good measure, I'll enter this over at Retro Rubber as well:

Watercolor Wings is almost 3 years old (I got it in July of 2015); Orange Blossom isn't quite a year old yet and of course Beautiful Peacock (where I got the teeny flowers) was from this year's Sale-a-Bration so it's pretty much new.

Okay, kiddo is running riot and angry that I won't feed him any more goldfish so I'd best attend to him before he starts chasing Sadie around again.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, Orange Blossom, Beautiful Peacock
Ink:  Soft Sky, Night of Navy, Powder Pink, So Saffron
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Naturally Eclectic DSP
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Thinlits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Guest Designer: Retro Butterflies

Good morning y'all!  Today I have the honor of being the guest designer at Retro Rubber!  And this week's challenge is all about color.

Isn't that pretty?  The color that struck me first when I saw this picture was lots of GREEN, and I love green so I decided to make most of my card front Garden Green.  Then I pulled the plummy and peachy colors out of the photo and this is what I made:

You can see it just a little bit, but I added Wink of Stella to both butterflies so they sparkle.  That's also why the sentiment is smudged--I didn't allow sufficient time for it to dry before I started with the Wink of Stella so I got my fingers in it.  Dangit!  I didn't have time to redo the card so I'm chalking it up to the charm of a handmade item.  All my supplies today are still current, but Watercolor Wings is two years old and Work of Art (the sentiment) is three years old.

Hope you play along with the Retro Rubber challenge!  I had fun with it :)  And dyed my fingers green for a little bit.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, Work of Art
Ink:  Garden Green, Sweet Sugarplum, Fresh Fig, Peekaboo Peach
Paper:  Sweet Sugarplum, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, Glossy White
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Framelits, Beautiful Butterfly Thinlits, Rose Garden Thinlits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Your Friendly Neighborhood Butterfly

I stole a few minutes yesterday to work on a card, but then I got interrupted and discovered this morning that I'd left my Chocolate Chip ink pad out and open all night.  Oops!  But so far it doesn't seem like it's been too adversely affected, and I finished my card:

ETA:  The white lacy bit is the lace stamp from Touches of Texture stamped with Whisper White ink :)  Mystery solved!

I used the latest sketch from As You See It:

And bonus!  They chose my Tranquil Hello card as a top pick last week.  Thank you, AYSI team!

Back to today's card, I paired the sketch with the new Color Throwdown:

That's a gorgeous picture, isn't it?  And beautiful colors too.  I used Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, and Garden Green.

We're hoping to spend today at the house just relaxing after all the craziness of the last week.  I'm itching to get to work on some more scrapbook pages...speaking of which, I have a layout I specifically wanted to share on July 4th so this week we'll have Scrappy Tuesday instead of Scrappy Monday.  I didn't forget :)

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, Touches of Texture, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Garden Green
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Framelits, Dimensionals

Butterfly for You

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  And today it really is Wednesday, I checked :)  Once again I have a hiccupy little Ryan in my lap.  He's starting to get interested in what I'm having for breakfast so I'm going to have to look up information about when you can start feeding kiddos solid foods and what to start with.  The hubs gave him a taste of a sundried tomato and basil Wheat Thin last night...he just licked it but he seemed to like it okay.

Anyway, I have a super simple card to share today:

I started with the Paper Players color challenge and decided to just keep it simple.  FYI, I think it's easier with the Bold Butterfly Framelits if you stamp whatever combination you want for the butterfly's wings, then run it through the Big Shot before you stamp the butterfly body.  I can't ever get it lined up to where it cuts right if I stamp the body first.

And there's the challenge graphic for today.  I'm off to go read to Ryan until he's ready to take his morning nap.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings
Ink:  Lemon Lime Twist, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Basic Black
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Whole Lot of Lovely DSP
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Framelits, Dimensionals

Bonjour Butterfly

Bonjour from the land of computer issues.  I don't know what was up with the Mac this morning, but it was being super-slow about opening photo files (so I could post today's card) and saving things.  I did a restart and so far, so good.  Maybe our computer is coming down with techno-Alzheimers.  It *is* like 9 years old...

Anyway, card:

Yesterday was better than the day before in the mojo department, I got this card made pretty quickly.  And then I went to go see the original Ghostbusters on the big screen, can't be a bad day when that happens :)  FYI, those are rhinestones flanking the sentiment; for some reason they didn't catch the flash when I took the picture and they look a little weird.  Anyway, I used the brand new Freshly Made Sketch:

And paired it with the Color Throwdown:

I used Peekaboo Peach, Watermelon Wonder, and Elegant Eggplant for my colors, though I wish I'd gone with Rose Red.  The Watermelon Wonder DSP is lighter than the ink (my WW ink pad is still very juicy) and I think Rose Red would have contrasted better.  But too late to peel it all apart.

I'm off to the gym for kickboxing.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, Happy Happenings
Ink:  Peekaboo Peach, Elegant Eggplant, Watermelon Wonder
Paper:  Peekaboo Peach, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant & Watermelon Wonder DSP
Accessories:  Rhinestones, Dimensionals

Nacho Blog Hop: Mother's Day & Graduation

Happy Sunday,  y'all!  It's time for this month's Nacho Average Challenges blog hop, and this month it's all about moms and graduates.  I don't have any new or recent graduates in my immediate circle, but I did make some Mother's Day cards so that's what I have for you today.

First up is a CAS monochromatic card:

This was for my mom; the white layer is actually Shimmery White and it was made to go with her present:

It's a special edition Starbucks mug for Disneyland's Diamond Anniversary (my mom was born the same year Disneyland opened, so it's her diamond anniversary too!).  There's a gemstone in one of the Occasions catalog sets, but I don't have that one, so I looked in my past Paper Pumpkin stamp sets and found the one I used which I thought was perfect.  One die cut word and stamped sentiment later, and that card was done!

Next up is something tea-riffic:

We got my MIL some herbal teas from a tea shop in Old Town Alexandria, so I made a tea-related card to go with.  The sentiment is from a recent Paper Pumpkin kit (because I might not put the kits together, but I DO use the stamps pretty often!)

Last up is a picture frame for my SIL's desk at work:

She's a new mama, so I thought I should get her something for her first Mother's Day.  She can put a 4x6 photo on there and have it on her desk when she goes back to work full time.  How do you like the ladybugs?  They're made with two circle punches (1/2" and 1") and the sweetheart punch turned upside down.  I loved how they turned out.  I tried stamping the spots all over the heart but decided I liked just a few sprinkles of spots better.




Supplies, first card:
Stamps:  Crazy About You, past My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Pacific Point
Paper:  Pacific Point, Shimmery White
Accessories:  Hello You Thinlits

Supplies, second card:
Stamps:  My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Basic Gray, Blushing Bride, Old Olive
Paper:  Pool Party, Blushing Bride, Sahara Sand, Birthday Bouquet DSP
Accessories:  Cups & Kettles Framelits, Circles Framelits, Dimensionals

Supplies, picture frame:
Stamps:  Larger than Life Alphabet, All About Everything, Made with Love (spots), Watercolor Wings (antennae)
Ink:  Garden Green, Basic Black, Real Red
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White, Real Red DSP
Accessories:  1/2" and 1" circle punches, Sweetheart punch, Deco Labels Framelits

Best Wishes Butterflies

Mornin' y'all, how's it going?  My little girl dog is desperate to go on a walk this morning so I'd better type fast :)  This past Sunday was the first day of spring, so I have an appropriately springy card for today:

Orange and green were my parents' high school colors :)  But the inspiration for today's color combo comes from Cupcake Inspirations:

I used Pumpkin Pie, Cucumber Crush, and Pear Pizzazz for my SU! colors, which would be the world's weirdest salad:  pumpkin, cucumber, and pear.  I hate eating cucumbers but I like the SU! color.

Anywha, I also used the latest sketch from Fab Friday:

And the latest CASE the Designer challenge from Global Design Project:

I kept the neutral card base and black mat (though the inspiration card used patterned washi tape and I just used plain ol' black cardstock), and my colors are kinda similar.  I thought the asymmetric mat on the Fab Friday sketch would correlate nicely with the ribbon placement, and since I don't have any wreath stamps I thought that sentiment from All Boxed Up (which I just got recently) would work well because it has a circle around it.

Okay, I must succumb to puppy dog eyes and take my lil' girl and her brother out for a walk in the nice spring weather.  Wait, it's in the 40s and windy.  Well, it's not raining so we're going anyway...cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, All Boxed Up
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Cucumber Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie & Cucumber Crush DSP
Accessories:  Linen thread, Dimensionals

Baby Books: May

You know what y'all, I'm glad I decided to do baby book posts on Saturdays.  It's nice to get these pages out there because then I get to look at them again.

Once again, this was for twin boys but I figured May is Mother's Day so I could girly it up just a little bit.  (That, and I wanted to play with Watercolor Wings!)

I took the colors straight from the Painted Blooms paper, and added Early Espresso for butterfly bodies.

The layout needed another butterfly on the right side, but it only looked right if it overlapped the photo a bit.  So I included the butterflies (loose) when I sent the books to my friend Jen, and wrote her a note that she could adhere the butterflies after she put in pictures.  Or leave them off and I probably wouldn't know because we don't live near each other anymore.

Usually I go for smaller stamped designs on the journaling blocks, but those watercolor flowers just fit with the butterflies so giant flowers it is.

My all things bright and beautiful color palette today is Daffodil Delight, Rose Red, Blackberry Bliss, Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point, Early Espresso, and Whisper White.

Happy Saturday, y'all!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, Painted Petals, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Rose Red, Blackberry Bliss, Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point, Early Espresso
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Rose Red, Blackberry Bliss, Whisper White, Painted Blooms DSP
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Framelits, Butterfly Thinlits, Sizzix Alphabet

Lovely Amazing Butterfly

Happy Thursday, y'all!  I'm sitting here snarfing down some scrambled eggs and trying to mentally psych myself up for my appointment at the gym today...a personal trainer is going to give me a workout and I haven't worked out in MONTHS.  Oy.  I'll be hurting tomorrow, but hopefully I'll still be able to walk. o.O

Anyway, I have a quick little card to share today.

I still like Pink Pirouette better than Blushing Bride, but Blushing Bride is errywhere right now so what can ya do.  The sequins are something new and different for me, I snagged them out of this month's Paper Pumpkin kit which is SO adorable I really need to actually put it together.  Anyway, for this card, I started out with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Global Design Project CASE the Designer challenge:

I kept the butterfly and Crumb Cake card base, and chose a sentiment in a scripty font, but I used the color palette from the Color Throwdown:

Cute and springy.  I used the aforementioned Crumb Cake as well as Mint Macaron and of course Blushing Bride.  And just a smidge of Basic Gray for the butterfly's body.

Well, guess I'd better get my workout duds on.  Wish me luck...cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, Lovely Amazing You
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, Basic Gray
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Mint Macaron, Thick Whisper White, Birthday Bouquet DSP
Accessories:  Chalk Talk Framelits, Butterflies Thinlits, sequins from Paper Pumpkin kit, Dimensionals

Green & Gold Butterfly

Well, I had thought that I could get down to the crafty cave this morning to make a new card for today, but instead I spent almost three hours chatting with Missy (HI MISSY AND MISSY'S MOM!!!) because it had been so long since we last talked.

So in Missy's honor, I bring you a Baylor butterfly card.

I made this quite some time ago and just never posted it before now.  And I think maybe I actually mailed this to Missy?  I can't remember, but I bet I did, because it's green and gold. :D

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, A Dozen Thoughts
Ink:  Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry, Early Espresso
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Crushed Curry DSP
Accessories:  Banners & Butterfly Framelits, rhinestones, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Banner Blast

Happy Friday, stampy pals!  Today's Friday Flashback stamp set is Banner Blast, which was one of last year's Sale-a-Bration offerings.  So let's get to it!

Also features Baby Prints and My Paper Pumpkin (tiny chevron)

Sweet baby feets!

Also features Bring on the Cake

Or how about a bright birthday banner?

Also features Petal Parade, Best of Sale-a-Bration

Or just a funky floral "hi".  This was one of those odder Splitcoast layouts...and that's it from the archives.  So let's see something new!

I tried to resist the butterflies, really I did, but I just couldn't.  (I almost used them yesterday too but went with Be the Star instead.)  I used the latest sketch from Create with Connie and Mary:

I adapted it to a landscape card instead of portrait and I cannot seem to type today so hopefully I caught all the typos before this goes up on the blog.  Anyway, I used all the same parts and pieces, but the butterfly was too wide to accommodate a portrait card.

I also used the colors from this week's Color Throwdown:

Hmm, maybe that inspiration pic is why I couldn't resist the butterflies today.  There's a thought.  Anyway, I interpreted these colors as Tangelo Twist, Basic Black, and Garden Green.

Hope you have a great weekend, peeps!  Mwah!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Banner Blast, Watercolor Wings
Ink:  Tangelo Twist, Garden Green
Paper:  Basic Black, Whisper White, Night & Day DSP, Basic Black & Garden Green DSP
Accessories:  Bold Butterflies & Ovals Framelits, Butterfly Thinlits, banner punch, rhinestone, Dimensionals

Kind Butterfly

I'm running out of names for butterfly cards.  I mean, I try to give each blog post a name that has something to do with the card (or scrapbook layout, or whatever) that I'm sharing, but it's getting tougher to come up with unique names for butterfly cards.  'Cause I love the new Watercolor Wings butterfly stamps.

Even though I can't get the butterfly body on there straight even *with* a Stamp-a-ma-jig.  I'm special like that.  Anyway, since Watercolor Wings is brand new and it is a current favorite, that qualifies this card for the challenge over at SUO Challenges to use favorite new stamps.

I also used the brand new posted today sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

I looked at several color challenges, but none of them were speaking to me today so I ended up using a color combo I had sitting out on my stamp table for a baby book layout.  The butterfly is stamped with Crushed Curry (stamped off twice) and Calypso Coral, with a Marina Mist die cut on top.  Later this afternoon I'm going to work on the baby book layouts with that same color combination :)

That's it for now, peeps.  I've gotta get to the grocery store.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Marina Mist, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Marina Mist, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Cherry on Top DSP
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Framelits, Dimensionals, rhinestones

Nachos: Another Butterfly

Hey stampy friends, are you ready for another terrific Nacho Average Sketch Challenge?  Because we've got one coming your way, right....now!

Don't be scared of the layers, this sketch is easy to work with I promise!  In fact, I ended up matting almost all my layers so my card has about eight layers on it.  Nine if you count the rhinestone.  Here it is:

Once again I used the Cherry on Top DSP (I so need to order some new stuff!...though I do still love the Cherry on Top stuff, lots of good patterns in there) and a butterfly from Watercolor Wings.  You've gotta get those butterflies if you haven't already, it's so fun to play around with color combinations and patterns.  But if you don't have Watercolor Wings yet (or any other butterflies), feel free to sub in another shape for the butterfly on the sketch.  That's totally allowed :)

So it's your turn!  Upload your sketchariffic creation to the Nacho blog by Sunday night for us all to see and oooh and ahhh over.  Cheers, peeps, and happy stampin'!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, Best Thoughts
Ink:  Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Watermelon Wonder, Tip Top Taupe
Paper:  Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Watermelon Wonder, Whisper White, Cherry on Top DSP
Accessories:  Butterflies Thinlits, rhinestone, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: En Francais

Happy Friday, friends, and welcome to this week's Friday Flashback!  This week's randomly chosen retired stamp set is En Francais, and it just might be one of my most-used background stamps.  Even with picking and choosing just some favorite projects from the archives to share today, this is gonna be a long flashback...let's go!

Also features Artistic Etchings, Circle Circus, I {Love} Love Wheel

It's only natural to pair En Francais with the Eiffel Tower from Artistic Etchings...I did that quite a few times actually, but I picked these to share today because I like the collage effect.

Also features Carte Postale

Here's another French-inspired creation with a fleur de lis.

Also features Baroque Motifs, All Holidays

En Francais also makes some pretty Christmas cards.  I like how this one has the traditional red and green but also Elegant Eggplant for something different.  And I made this card before I learned how to tie pretty knots :)

Also features Illuminations, Bella's Border wheel

I *love* the stamp set Illuminations, love love love it.  This was for one of those annoying all-neutral color challenges.

Also features Stippled Blossoms, Christmas Messages

 Another Christmas card, this one of a more recent vintage.

Also features Joyful Christmas

And this is one of my favorite cards ever.  I love the white watercolored poinsettias.

Also features Stem Silhouettes, Print Pattern, Sincere Salutations

One more less-traditional Christmas card.

Also features Pretty Peony, Lovely Letters Alphabet

And a pretty monogram.

Also features Simply Sketched

This one is a little bit different with the script stamped in such a dark color, so it's a bolder element than most of the cards on this post but I still thought it worked well for a sympathy card.

Also features Perfectly Penned, Flower Shop

You can just see the script stamped in white on the background squares.  And that's all I'm sharing from the archives, which is maybe half the cards o.0  Ready for a new creation?

It's Friday Flashback day and I still got to play with my brand-new Watercolor Wings :D  For the white squares, I pressed an acrylic block into my Whisper White ink pad and used it like a stamp--it came out with more ink around the edges and less in the middle without me even trying, which was great since that's what I wanted it to do.  I used three different stamps to make the butterfly (actually four, counting the antennae), but I ended up having to cut it out by hand because where I stamped the butterfly body didn't jive with the matching Framelit.  Note for next time:  cut out the butterfly and stamp the body on afterward.  That baker's twine bow was a pain too, it took four tries to get something that looked halfway decent.

But anyway!  I used this week's ColourQ colors:

I kinda thought that they shouldn't work together, but I did really like them when I had all five laid out on my stamp table.  I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And that's it for me this week.  Hope you have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  En Francais, Watercolor Wings, Vintage Verses
Ink:  Summer Starfruit, Concord Crush, Pale Plum, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White
Paper:  Summer Starfruit, Whisper White
Accessories:  white baker's twine, Dimensionals