Florals in Green

Mornin' y'all!  Since the hubs has been sick, I've spent the past couple of nights in the guest room in an attempt to not acquire what he's got (though I'm not sure it's working).  Daphne joined me in there last night and I woke up in the middle of the night with her head rammed into my spine--she and Ryan both like to sleep perpendicularly on the bed.  Just don't tell the hubs she was on the bed with me : )  Usually I agree with him about no doggos on the furniture (other than Daph's chair), but I wanted puppy snuggles.  They're medicinal.

Anyway, here's my card today and we're going all in on my favorite color, green!

As soon as I saw this week's Freshly Made Sketch, I knew I was going to use that Nested Essentials shape for the oval in the sketch:

That's the first one I could think of that was wide but short.  I made this card before I saw this Easter card by my Paper Players teammie LeAnne but apparently we were both riding the same brain wave.

Aww man, I just picked up my tea mug and found it unexpectedly empty.  Time to brew another cuppa!  Anyway, my next challenge is The Card Concept:

My colors don't exactly match their palette, but that inspo pic immediately made me think of the Garden Lane DSP (though I couldn't remember the name so I had to do some hunting for it).  I read their colors as Granny Apple Green, Shy Shamrock, and Always Artichoke, while my card is Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, and possibly a bit of Mossy Meadow.  Still very green.  I have a mix of still current (Pretty Florals), recently retired (Year of Flowers), and long retired (Garden Lane DSP and Pear Pizzazz as a color) on my clean and layered card.  This is the year of the retired supplies I think, I'm just using whatever I feel like for challenges and who cares if it's retired or not.  (Though I did just get a little bitty order from SU! yesterday evening that I haven't opened yet!)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pretty Florals, Year of Flowers
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, VersaMark
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Basic White, Garden Lane DSP
Accessories:  Pretty Florals dies, Nested Essentials dies, white EP, Pearls of Beauty, Dimensionals

I came down with a low-grade fever yesterday afternoon and just felt really tired, so I didn't get in my craft room at all but I DID watch a show and finish my latest cross stitch piece:

More green!  I bought this Art Deco Tiger pattern from Etsy and it was a delight to stitch.  For once I'm not sure what I'm going to make next; I have several patterns that I could do but I haven't picked yet.

Okay I feel like I've talked a lot today, so I'm going to take my fresh cuppa and go look at other blogs for a bit, then take Daphne for a walk, then start working on a birthday cake for the hubs.  I'm planning to make a homemade strawberry cake for him, and as much as I cook and bake I hardly ever make cakes so this will be interesting.  Cheers!

SUO Challenges: Choose Your Own Adventure

Mornin' y'all!  It is already time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

And this one is super easy:

Anything goes, so long as you use Stampin' Up! products!  For this challenge, I decided to CASE Tammy's card and now I have another sorta patriotic card for next year's July birthdays.  Here's what I made:

I loved how Tammy used the Painted Stripes background for her card and I just had to do it too.  I don't have the Mixed Florals bundle, so I chose the large and in charge hydrangea from Thankful Garden and added a few retired Tinsel Gems because I love those things.  I will admit it took me a few tries to get the stripes to look how I wanted them to; I think what I ended up doing was inking up the stamp with a sponge instead of pressing the ink pad on it, which makes the stripes a bit softer and a better match for my sponged/stenciled flowers.

Your turn!  Anything goes so long as it's SU! products.  Don't forget to upload your creation on the SUO Challenges blog and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Garden, Painted Stripes, Year of Flowers
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Balmy Blue, Soft Sea Foam, Real Red
Paper:  Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Balmy Blue
Accessories:  Thankful Garden masks & dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Tinsel Gems, Dimensionals

Think Threes

Mornin' y'all!  I took Daphne out for a walk at 6:15 this morning and I think that's going to be our new routine until the weather cools off some.  Today I even managed to get a workout done and get cleaned up well in advance of when Ryan needs to leave for camp, so it's 8am and I feel like I've accomplished something today.  Woo!

I have a triple challenge card to share today.

Let's start with the Paper Players challenge:

I knew from the jump that I would be starting with that Cloud Cover circle pattern, and then I saw the Sunday Stamps sketch:

And I think those two challenges were just made to go with the Inkspirational challenge:

I fussy cut three flowers and three leaves to go on three die-cut circles and accented with three Flat Pearls and if you want to get really pedantic the sentiment has three words on each line.  Think that's enough for the three challenges : )

It's about time to get Ryan out the door for his last day of robotics camp.  Next week it's STEAM camp at a mining museum, which he's looking forward to as he is obsessed with gold.  Not sure why that is, just call him Scrooge McDuck.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Year of Flowers
Ink:  Secret Sea
Paper:  Petunia Pop, Floral Impressions DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, In Color Flat Pearls

SUO Challenges: I'm on the CASE!

 Mornin' y'all!  Get ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges...

Because here it is!

So for this challenge, you pick anything from my blog and CASE it using only Stampin' Up! supplies.  I just looked at the number of posts and today happens to be my THREE THOUSANDTH published post!!! Can't even believe that.  Well, I know I tend to get lost when I have too much to choose from, so I rifled through my box of more recent card creations and came across this one:

You can see more about it on my original blog post here.  So I picked that one to CASE and decided to stay pretty close to the original card, but with updated supplies.  Here's what I made:

I used the Florals in Bloom and Floral Impressions DSP, which I think just go together, a lot of the colors overlap and I keep combining them.  For this card, I wanted to stick with the idea of using DSP flowers for the main image, so I fussy cut a bouquet of purple blooms from the Florals in Bloom DSP to start with, and then chose a mix of patterns from both packs for the other layers of the card.  I even found some Garden Green twine (I think it's retired) and chose a different friendship sentiment, this one from Year of Flowers.  Here are the two cards together:

I'd love to see what you create, so don't forget to share over on the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, purple card:
Stamps:  Year of Flowers
Ink:  Garden Green
Paper:  Petunia Pop, Florals in Bloom DSP, Floral Impressions DSP
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Garden Green twine, Petunia Pop Shimmer Gems, Dimensionals

Posy Pair

Good afternoon, y'all!  Usually I post in the mornings but Ryan wanted me to stay for his entire 4-hour soccer camp today so that's what I was doing.  While they were practicing, I finished reading one Nancy Drew book and started another, and then I watched him play in two scrimmage games.  He won a prize for the longest kick in his age group this week.

Anyway, I'm finally here with a pair of purple posy cards.

The carnation is the January flower and that's my birth month, so that's why I chose it for today's card.  The sketch is courtesy of CAS Colours & Sketches:

And it was hard to keep this sketch CAS, you know?  I chose a patterned paper for the nine blocks, but I made sure it was a more subtle pattern that kinda blends in with the card base and I did just straight cuts instead of anything with a fancy edge to keep it more CAS.  I chose the failed prior In Color Purple Posy for the Hand-Stamped Sentiments challenge:

A gorgeous array of pastel shades there.  I used both purple and pink on my first card, and then I had three more of the little rectangles left over so I thought I'd make another quick floral card:

I really love Painted Lavender.  Purple Posy was a failed In Color because the ink would darken and not match the cardstock properly, so I used different purples on this.  The flower is stamped in Fresh Freesia and the greeting is stamped in Highland Heather, I know it looks more like dark gray but I recently inked up that pad so it's extra dark.

So there's my two Purple Posy cards.  Looks like it's about to rain and Ryan needs to do his daily reading time, so we're about to both curl up with some good books.  Cheers!

Supplies, carnation card:
Stamps:  Year of Flowers
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Pretty in Pink & Soft Sea Foam
Paper:  Purple Posy, , Thick Basic White, Playing with Patterns DSP Stack
Accessories:  Year of Flowers dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Mini Dimensionals

Supplies, lavender card:
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Lovely & Sweet
Ink:  Fresh Freesia, Soft Sea Foam, Highland Heather
Paper:  Purple Posy, Thick Basic White, Playing with Patterns DSP Stack
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, Mini Dimensionals

A Blooming Duo

Mornin' y'all!  Hope your weekend is going well.  I got some stitchy time in yesterday so that's always nice.  And for today I have two cards to share:

I used this week's CASE-ing Tuesday sketch:

Here's the pic in the catty that we're CASE-ing:

Since I had two sets of triangles, I made two cards with them.  I also had to try out the Hand Stamped Sentiments color challenge:

I must say, it was a challenge--I felt like I could make the Fresh Freesia work with either of the other two colors but putting them all three together I wasn't so sure about.  In the end I used three different packs of DSP and two different stamp sets.  And I've finally inked up one of my new sets : )  I just got Sweet Blooms last week; I've had Year of Flowers for a bit but haven't used it much yet.

We're going out for breakfast this morning so that's it for me.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms, Year of Flowers
Ink:  Fresh Freesia, Soft Sea Foam, Summer Splash
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Soft Sea Foam, Thick Basic White, Floral Impressions DSP, Lovely Garden DSP, Unbounded Beauty DSP
Accessories:  Sweet Blooms dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems

Morning Glory Hug

It's 9:30am and that still feels like it's too early in the morning, y'all.  I love to sleep but somehow over the years I have gotten really bad at it so I'm super tired today...I almost put my morning cuppa in my Stitch mug that says "Not Today" (it's super cute and I love it), but I decided I'm gonna manifest myself a good day despite being tired so I went with my Robin Hood Oo-de-Lally mug instead (also super cute and I love it).  I keep telling Ryan that he needs to focus on the good things in life and let go of the things that don't go how he wants them to, so Imma take my own advice.

So let's start off the good day I'm going to have today with some new stamps!

I think I got Year of Flowers over a month ago but this is the first time I've inked it up (other than making its page for my personal stamp catalog, which is a ridiculously huge affair consisting of three binders).  I was inspired to ink up this morning glory by the CAS Colours & Sketches palette:

I love those colors together.  I really love Shy Shamrock, I need to use it a LOT before it retires next summer.

Speaking of summer, here's the latest challenge from Inkspirational:

Morning glories bloom all summer long so that's my season today.  Many many moons ago, when the hubs and I lived in North Carolina for the first time (so 20-ish years ago), I grew morning glories and moon flowers in our backyard.  Should have added some four o'clocks to have flowers all day and into the evening.  Anyway, despite my complete lack of gardening skillz, the flowers were growing pretty well...until the hubs dumped undiluted Miracle Grow on them, which killed them all.  Oops.  We did better the next summer, but I haven't tried growing flowers since we left that house.  We do keep an orchid or two in the kitchen, but the hubs is in charge of that which seems counterintuitive since I just told you he murdered my morning glories : D  but he usually does a great job of taking care of them and keeping them healthy and blooming.  Maybe he just had something against my morning glories?

Anyway, enough about my old flowers.  It's cold and cloudy today so I need to take Daphne for a walk while it's not raining, and I plan to work on my stitching project today because I'm almost done with it and I already have a new project planned because that's how I roll.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Year of Flowers
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Balmy Blue & Shy Shamrock
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Thick Basic White, Bloom Impressions DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Year of Flowers dies, Night of Navy Opal Round, Mini Dimensionals