Merry & Bright (Christmas 2006)

Welp, I missed Scrappy Monday by a lot, but I have so many Christmas layouts in my draft posts that I couldn't skip this week entirely.  Last week was really tough and this week started out a bit rocky, and then on Wednesday Germany went into lockdown again until mid-January BUT I discovered that the playgrounds are still open which makes me ridiculously relieved and I've taken Ryan there every day.  And yesterday afternoon I got a tentative job offer for work at the local arts & crafts store.  The pay is beans but it would be an excuse to have Ryan in daycare and it would be fun for me :)

Anywha, let's get to the scrapbook pages!

I really worked hard last year and this year to scrap older photos, so these are from Christmas 2006.  The paper is from a year or two ago though, I seriously love that reindeer print and I'm a sucker for a good plaid, so it makes me happy to use both of them on one layout.  The accents are poinsettias stamped and embossed with white EP on red cardstock, then cut out (because that stamp set was from before we had so many dies for different stamps).  I love that Christmas Deer stamp but I don't think I've hardly ever used him, so it's nice that he got to shine here too.

Today's color palette:  Crumb Cake (textured, even), Real Red, Shaded Spruce, Balmy Blue, Early Espresso, and Whisper White.  Nice and Christmasy.

Have a good weekend, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Christmas Deer, Watercolor Winter, Jolly Jingles (unmounted wheel)
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Balmy Blue, Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White, Under the Mistletoe DSP
Accessories:  white EP

Friday Flashback: Watercolor Winter

Happy Friday!  Are you ready for another festive Friday Flashback?  Today's featured stamp set is last year's Watercolor Winter, which I wish had carried over to this year because I really like it.  I suppose that doesn't matter though since I can still use it : )  So let's flash back!

The fun part about stamps is you can make things any color you want, so in my world, there are blue poinsettias.  This was a birthday card for a friend of mine last year, the same one who got the hedgehog snowman card from earlier this week.

I think this one might be my favorite of the flashback cards for today; I like the CAS layout and the little pops of pink.

And this is probably my least favorite one...it was a combination SCS sketch/color challenge card and I think I was just trying too hard.  Bleah.

I kinda like the layout on this one, which was another sketch I'm sure.  I almost always do sketch challenges for my cards, but I branch out a fair amount on my color combos.

This was my attempt to make a Watercolor Winter card *without* using the poinsettia stamp : )  So that's it for the cards from the vault, here's my brand new creation:

The layout is courtesy of Retro Sketches and the color combo was from an SCS challenge a few weeks ago.  I was prepared to hate Cameo Coral paired with Real Red, but when I stamped off the coral once and then layered the Real Red over it, I kinda liked how it turned out.  But I think if I'd used any more coral on here then I wouldn't like it as much; I kept the traditional red for my card base and then balanced it with lots of neutrals.

Here's the sketch, which for once I think I followed it pretty closely!

So that's it for me today.  I haven't decided yet if I'll do another Christmas-themed Friday Flashback next week since Christmas Day will be in the middle of the week, hmm.  I don't need any more Christmas cards this year, but I will need some post-Christmas thank you cards...

Have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Watercolor Winter, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Real Red, Cameo Coral, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White Craft
Paper:  Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, retired Old Olive & Chocolate Chip DSP
Accessories:  Dazzling Details (on the flower center, though somehow I ended up with clear glue and not much glitter), Apothecary Accents Framelits (probably my favorite set of Framelits ever), corner rounder punch, Dimensionals

Not a Poinsettia!

So my horrible British cold has abated enough that I can work on stuff in my craft room again, so for the last couple of days I've been working on dozens of swaps.  Can't wait to show those, but first, we have to get through the Christmas card extravaganza (and that whole possible apocalypse thing).  So here's today's card, flat and easy to mail!

I don't think I inked up the sentiment *quite* well enough.  My Riding Hood Red ink pad developed the Dreaded Brown Goo, so I thought I've got nothing to lose, let's see if I can wash it off.  It did slide right off the top of the ink pad and then a bunch of ink did too so it looked like I killed something in my sink, but since it's water-based ink even that didn't last long.  Then I let the ink pad dry overnight, put some ink refill in it, and so far so good.  'Cept maybe we need more ink refill in there.

So hey, I finally used Watercolor Winter *without* using the poinsettia stamp!  I'm quite proud.  I saw this layout on a blog...somewhere...a few weeks ago...and of course now I have no idea where it was, so if it's yours, let me know so I can give credit properly.

Have a wonderful day and watch out for crazy Mayans tomorrow!

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Watercolor Winter, Curly Cute
Ink:  Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Regals DSP Stack
Accessories:  Scallop border punch, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" square punches

Baja Breeze Poinsettias?

Sure, why not!  Made this one for last week's SCS color and sketch challenges:

I realize there are other stamps in this set than the poinsettias, but I'm still having fun with the flowers :)  I didn't put a sentiment on the front due to the textured layer, and I ended up using it as a birthday card for a friend of mine (yes, it's already been mailed, woohoo!).  I kind of wish I'd stamped off the poinsettias on the square layer so the fussy-cut one would stand out more, but I'm not of a mind to redo it :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Watercolor Winter, En Francais
Ink:  Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, So Saffron
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Square Lattice EF, Dazzling Details

A Fresh Pink Poinsettia

Seemed like it took me forever to get cookin' yesterday, but today I had a card I really liked within like a half hour of going in my craft room.  Lookie!

Not to shabby, I like it!  (It's okay if I say I like my own stuff, right?  I mean, why else do we spend all this time creating things if we don't like the results?)  The poinsettia is fussy-cut and I added a bit of Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details to the center for just a touch of bling.  The DSP is from a very old pack called Holiday Harmony...could have used some current Always Artichoke DSP but I'm trying to get rid of at least a little bit of my old stuff.  Maybe if I actually got started on the Christmas scrapbook I bought before Lee and I got married...

Anyway, I digress.  This card was made possible by today's Freshly Made Sketch:

Ok, so once again I kind of tweaked it just a tiny bit but I think it still counts.  Thanks for stopping by today, and happy 12 - 12 - 12!

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Watercolor Winter, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Pretty in Pink, Always Artichoke
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Pretty in Pink, Very Vanilla, Holiday Harmony DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Word Window & Modern Label punches, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Dimensionals

Watercolor Poinsettia

I really liked today's sketch challenge at Splitcoast, though I admit I took a few liberties with it:

I switched out an oval and framing rectangle for graduated sizes of the Window Frames Collection Framelits.  I just got Watercolor Winter so I couldn't resist using it for this card.  Wish I'd found my Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon before I put the Early Espresso ribbon on here, but too late now!  I'm running out of the Early Espresso and it's retired so I didn't want to cut it off the card and waste it.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies (all SU):
Stamps:  Watercolor Winter, Snow Swirled, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Early Espresso, Pool Party, Whisper White (can't hardly see it even IRL but there are small white snowflakes on the Pool Party layer)
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Neutrals DSP STack
Accessories:  Window Frames Collection Framelits, coordinating Festive piercing template, Early Espresso taffeta (sadly retired), Dimensionals