Nachos: Veterans Day

Hello stampy friends, I hope you're ready for another sketch from the Nacho Average Challenges team.  Here it is:

Because today's Nacho post happens to fall on Veterans Day, I made a patriotic card with a favorite retired stamp set (um, don't ask how many "favorite" retired stamp sets I have, k?).

Ok, I had to make the panels bigger to accommodate my eagle, but I just couldn't get the current patriotic/military stamp set (For Your Country) to work with this sketch unless I did some flipping and mirror imaging and I just wanted to stick to the sketch so Land That I Love is it.

Check out the Nacho blog for more sketchy goodness and then let's see your take on the sketch.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Land That I Love (retired)
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Night of Navy
Paper:  Night of Navy, Baked Brown Sugar, Very Vanilla, retired Real Red DSP
Accessories:  Oval & Curly Label punches, Brights Candy Dots, Dimensionals, Lucky Stars EF

Autumn Rose

Good Monday mornin', folks!  Hope your week is off to a good start.  It took me a little while to get going in my craft room this morning, but I do have a card to share today:

It's been a while since I used the roses from Stippled Blossoms, and I need more fall birthday cards so this works!  I was also inspired by the challenge at Cupcake Inspirations:

Aren't those gorgeous?  I like the coppery/bronze baroque pattern that's on some of the cupcakes, so I incorporated that with an embossing folder and I used some pearls in the middle of my flowers.  And now I want a cupcake, but that's nothing new.

I also used the latest sketch from Sketch Frenzy Friday:

Hey, I followed the sketch pretty much exactly this time!  I've even got some pearls under my sentiment, hee.

Time for me to get going.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms, Four You
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso, Tangerine Tango
Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Beautifully Baroque EF, pearls, Dimensionals, ribbon from an old SAB pack (this year?  or last year's?)

Friday Flashback: A Little Love

Happy Friday, peeps!  You know why I love the Friday Flashback?  It lets me dig back in my stash of retired SU! stamps and revisit some old favorites, and maybe make some new "old" favorites :)  Like today's set, A Little Love!  It's a cute little set of 12 bite-size images, so let's flashback!

Also features Ruff Day and All-Year Cheer

That little baby onesie with the "yeah, baby" sentiment under it is my FAVORITE stamp in this set.  I don't know why, but it makes me giggle every time I look at it.

Also features Loads of Love & Accessories and Something to Celebrate

I used the umbrella with the "showers of love" sentiment to make a background for this baby shower invite.  I think it can be difficult to come up with card ideas for such small images where they really take center stage instead of being more background elements like in those first two cards, so for today's new stuff I tried to really shine a light on the super-cute teeny stamps.

This quick little card was inspired by a couple of cards that Mary Fish posted not too long ago.  If the colors in the photo are off, I apologize--we won't get our new graphics card in for the Mac until next week, and sometimes I can't tell if a picture looks right on the laptop.  The card base of this one is Pink Pirouette and I stamped the little umbrella with Elegant Eggplant ink and then added a bit of color with markers.

When I saw the little candy machine stamp I thought hey, I have the perfect patterned paper to go with that!  So I had to make a bonus card for today's Friday Flashback.  Maybe I'll get crazy and make a few other cards with this set and next week will be A Little *More* Love?  Who knows!

Have a great weekend, peeps!

Supplies, last two cards:
Stamps:  A Little Love
Ink:  (first card) Elegant Eggplant, Pink Pirouette, Wisteria Wonder; (second card) StazOn Black, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Smoky Slate
Paper:  (first card) Pink Pirouette, Wisteria Wonder; (second card) Pool Party, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White, Sweet Shoppe Specialty DSP
Accessories:  (first card) what's the name of the punch pack in the current catalog?; (second card) 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" circle punches, scalloped circle punch, Dimensionals

It's Not Time For Christmas Yet

Let's all enjoy fall and Thanksgiving a little bit longer, shall we?

I, for one, love fall.  And Thanksgiving.  To my surprise, some of the trees here in 'Bama do change colors...after growing up in Texas, I expected the leaves to turn brown and fall off, no color at all.  So hey, nice surprise.

See the curvy sentiment?  It's a photopolymer stamp in this month's Paper Pumpkin kit; it's really "supposed" to be a straight line but I couldn't get it on the stamp exactly straight so I decided to try to curl it a bit on purpose.  Came out pretty nice, I thought!

Anyway, my card was inspired by the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge...I've been stalking them for a while but it's the first time I've played along.

A challenge that combines stamping *and* cute cupcakes?  Count me in.  I wanted to incorporate Mossy Meadow on my card, but I didn't figure out until I'd already stamped the leaves and embossed the background piece that I don't own Mossy Meadow ribbon.  D'oh.

And I also used one of my favorite challenge sites, Freshly Made Sketches:

Rare is the occasion when they have a sketch that doesn't give me a couple of ideas right off the bat.

Too bad everything else isn't going quite so swimmingly...we think the graphics card on our Mac has bit the dust *sadface* so I'm sneaking some time on the laptop while the hubs takes the Mac apart and attempts to figure out what to do next.  Better him than me, I'm minorly technophobic and I'd break it for sure.  Break it more, I mean.

So anyway, cheers y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  For All Things (because it is awesome), My Paper Pumpkin (because it curls)
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Accessories:  Woodgrain EF, Candy Dots, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, Dimensionals

Guest Star Stamper: Stellar Wishes

Guess what?  I'm a Guest Star Stamper at the Color Throwdown today!  And I was SUPER excited when I saw this week's color challenge:

Dude, I seriously love that picture of the Eiffel Tower!  Isn't it gorgeous?!  I interpreted the colors as Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Basic Black, and Whisper White, and I made this:

I'd seen cards with that kind of background before, but I went to search for it in the SCS tutorials and I kept thinking it was called "galaxy" something or other but it's Northern Lights :)  This was another one of those techniques that up until I finished the card I thought I was going to have to chuck it and start over, my background just didn't look "right" to me until I got the Pool Party EP "stars" on there.  I didn't use the Embossing Buddy on the paper before I stamped the Gorgeous Grunge spatter, so I got stray embossing powder on there but I think it kind of works for what I was going for with this card so I'm calling that a happy accident.  The star is also Pool Party EP on top of Wisteria Wonder cardstock, and I wasn't sure what to do for a sentiment until I found that "Wish Big" from A Dozen Thoughts and it was perfect!

So thanks to the Color Throwdown team for letting me be a Guest Star Stamper today!  I had a ball making my stellar card :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bright & Beautiful, A Dozen Thoughts, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink:  Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant, Basic Black, Versamark
Paper:  Basic Black, Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White
Accessories:  Stars & Banners Framelits, Pool Party EP, Dimensionals

Nachos: Sympathy Birds

Sooooo I meant to write up this post last night but I started editing the hubs' latest paper for class and the Nacho post didn't get done.  Oops.  So here I am now with this week's Nacho Average Color Challenge:

My first thought was to use By the Seashore and/or By the Tide but then I decided to go with something different.

I don't *need* a sympathy card right now (thank goodness), but it's good to have a few in the stash just in case.  It's hard to tell in the photo, but I sponged on Pool Party ink to make it look like a sky on the panel with the birds.  I must say, I love the font on the sentiments that come with Bloom With Hope :)

Your turn now!  Check out the Nacho blog for more eye candy and then show us what you can make with Baked Brown Sugar, Pool Party, and Very Vanilla.  Have a lovely Tuesday!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Summer Silhouettes, Bloom with Hope
Ink:  Pool Party, Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso
Paper:  Pool Party, Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Fancy Fan EF, Neutrals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Nuts to You

When I was in high school, the cafeteria sold these ice cream cones called Nuts to You, which was a knockoff of drumsticks.  Loved those things.  But today's nut isn't ice cream, it's a nutcracker!

I seriously thought about ditching this dude for another fall card today--I'm one of THOSE people who likes to have Thanksgiving before getting all Christmas obsessed--but he's just so stinkin' cute I couldn't resist.  I used the sketch from Just Add Ink and this card was super quick!

Ok, gotta hurry now; I'm getting picked up to go to the gym in a few minutes.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Santa Stache
Ink:  Versamark, Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist, Crushed Curry, Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso
Paper:  Marina Mist, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, Trim the Tree DSP Stack
Accessories:  Mustache die, Dimensionals, Early Espresso EP