Nachos: Family Friends

Top o' the mornin' to ya!  Except for that part where I hate Daylight Savings Time and think we should kill it with fire.  Anyway, we have an appropriately green and gold St. Patrick's Day color combo for you today from the Nacho Average Challenges crew:

And I only just right this minute realized that I used the wrong light green on here--I wrote it down as Pistachio Pudding instead of Pear Pizzazz.  So just imagine the right side of my card is Pear Pizzazz, ok?  Here it is:

I really liked last week's Nacho sketch, so I used a modified version of it for today's card.  I put a Garden Green Candy Dot in my flower center, and on the right are two gold brads because I needed some gold on that side of the card, it just didn't photograph well.  Anyway, here was last week's sketch if you forgot:

And now it's your turn to make something green and gold!  Check out the Nacho blog and upload your creations there.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, Painted Petals
Ink:  Garden Green, Pistachio Pudding, Versamark
Paper:  Garden Green, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White, Gold Soiree DSP
Accessories:  Blossom punch, gold EP, gold brads, Regals Candy Dots, Dimensionals, corner rounder punch

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I just got a bunch of photo prints from all the stuff we did in 2014, so today's scrapbook layout is a pretty recent vintage.

All the pics on the left page are from my mom's birthday in July, the day the hubs and I got back to Texas from England and surprised her at her birthday dinner (she was expecting us three days later, but we pulled a sneaky trick on all the parental units).  The pics on the right are from the next few weeks we spent there, and you can see 'em close up here.

There's a closeup of the title.  I bought the Texas stamp and horses stamp at a rubber stamp store in Salado, Texas, several years ago but I think this is only the second time or so that I've used it.  Still, I loved it for my title on here, and the teensy letters are from the SU! Rough Edges Alphabet.  And the wee heart is from Wood You Be Mine.

I was totally inspired by the color combo at the Color Throwdown for my layout, though I swapped the Coastal Cabana aqua for Pacific Point.  I kinda had to because that was what was in the patterned paper I used.

There's my color palette:  Real Red, Pacific Point, Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, and Whisper White.  Love me some bright colors.

Anyway, I need to get moving and decide if I'm going to run or take the dogs for a walk first.  They both gotta get done though, so cheers, peeps!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Rough Edges Alphabet, Wood You Be Mine?, other stamps from Deadbeat Designs
Ink:  Real Red, Night of Navy (ink pad & marker), Sahara Sand
Paper:  Real Red, Whisper White, Night of Navy, Blueberry Crisp DSP

Friday Flashback: Kind & Caring Thoughts

Happy Friday, folks, and I hope you're staying warm and toasty today.  Even here in Alabama, it's 28 degrees this morning.  I'm going to have to bundle up like an Eskimo to take my dogs for their walk!  Anyway, today's featured stamp set for the Friday Flashback is Kind & Caring Thoughts, which was a hostess set in the 2009-2010 catalog.  I like it, it's got a few floral images and a host of beautiful sentiment stamps.

For some reason I can't make it do captions on the photos right now?  This one features Sprinkles and Teeny Tiny Wishes in addition to Kind & Caring Thoughts.

And this one features Weather or Not.  I think this card is cute, but it makes me sad--I sent it to a friend of mine who was undergoing cancer treatment, but she later died of the disease.  I miss her every day.

So anyway, let's move on to today's new creations.

I chose the Lullaby DSP from the current catalog because I like the softer colors in it; these two are both sides of the same sheet of paper so I thought hey, why not make two cards.  I don't have many get well cards in my stash, and I can always use a thinking of you card, so there you go.

I used this week's hot-off-the-presses CASE(E) This Sketch:

That's it for me this week, peeps.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies, last cards only:
Stamps:  Kind & Caring Thoughts
Ink:  Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Hello Honey, Baked Brown Sugar
Paper:  Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Hello Honey, Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Lullaby DSP
Accessories:  Banner punch

Lovely Amazing Butterfly

As advertised, it is much cooler out today--in fact, according to my phone, it was 18 degrees warmer first thing this morning when I went running than it was after noon when I took my dogs for a walk.  Not raining as much as expected though.

So anyway, let's have a bright fun card for today, shall we?

I continue to love the Butterfly Thinlits, they are awesome.  The trick is to run them through the Big Shot with some waxed paper between the cardstock and the die, and to run it through twice to ensure it's all cut out.  For this card, I did that and then used the waxed paper cutout as a mask on my card front, so I still have a perfectly good butterfly die cut to use later.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Though obviously I made it an A2 card size.  And then I couldn't resist the inspiration photos at Just Add Ink:

I suppose I could have used some retired Pool Party baker's twine, since the bit of blue in the butterfly photo is much lighter, but the Bermuda Bay twine was more accessible.  I got it a few weeks ago when it was one of the Weekly Deals from Stampin' Up! and I like the brighter pop of Bermuda Bay with all that Melon Mambo.  The sentiment I used is from the new photopolymer stamp set Lovely Amazing You.  I love the one that says "I love you more than chocolate" but it's a pretty select group of people that I could send a card like that to.  I do love my chocolate.

Anyway, I'm off to go work on a scrapbook layout and enjoy being in a nice warm house.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lovely Amazing You
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black (kind of in love with it), Melon Mambo
Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Black, retired Melon Mambo DSP but I was using up scraps
Accessories:  Butterfly Thinlits, scallop border punch, Bermuda Bay baker's twine, rhinestone

Spring Wellies

Hey, peeps!  Betcha thought I forgot to do today's post, right?  I didn't, I was just busy this morning with my stitching group.  But I got my act together this afternoon to make a spring card!

We've had a LOT of rain lately, and I think we're in for more in the next few days.  And it's in the 70s today, but it's supposed to drop 30 degrees overnight:  definitely spring weather.  I'm already not looking forward to summer heat and humidity.

Anyway, I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

And I used the color challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

And (and!) my card just happens to fit the inspiration challenge at Paper Players:

Triple challenge.  BOOM.

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions
Ink:  Night of Navy, Coastal Cabana
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Lucky Limeade DSP
Accessories:  Labels Framelits, Best Year Ever buttons, white baker's twine

Nachos: Thoughtful Starfish

It's Nacho Day!  Woowoo!  It's time for another great sketch from Nacho Average Challenges, take a look:

I have lots and lots of stamps that would work for that flower element, but I didn't decide which one to use until I found a scrap of paper in my stash and decided to go with a beach theme.  So here's my creation:

I love that Best Year Ever DSP from the Sale-a-Bration catalog, don't you?  I think this is only the second time I've used it though.  Anyway, usually I would put the starfish on Dimensionals but I didn't feel like finagling that so I just glued it to the card front and added some teensy pearls.  My sentiment got a little bit smudged on the right side but I'm calling that proof of hand-made-ness :p

Your turn now!  Make your own Nacho-riffic creation and post it on the Nacho blog for us to see, and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  By the Seashore, A Dozen Thoughts
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Soft Suede
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Best Year Ever DSP
Accessories:  Pearls, corner rounder punch

Hard Rock Cafe Beijing

Scrappy Monday, peeps!  Hope you had a good weekend.  On Saturday I was working in my craft room to meet my scrappin' goal for February, I'm now officially at 40 pages for the year so far.  Woowoo!  So today's layout is from China, take a look:

You can see the original pictures here (scroll down to the bottom).  And here's my color palette:

I think it was overcast when I took the picture of the layout; the Lost Lagoon page base makes it a *little* dark but it looks even darker in the photo.  Anyway, the colors are Lost Lagoon, Concord Crush (I so wish I had an ink refill for my ink pad), Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, and Smoky Slate.

I'm using this combination of the letter template and Rough Type alphabet to do all the titles on my China layouts, to kinda make them feel like they all go together.  I thought this title needed a little something so I sponged a circle behind the words to kind of mimic the Hard Rock logo.

Here's my stampy collage on the journaling block.  I bought both Extreme Elements and Grunge Rock right before they retired on a whim, but I'm glad I did.  I've used them both a few times and I have other layouts where I know they'll come in handy.

A trio of guitars as accents...I didn't even think about it until the layout was done, how many circles/polka dots I used on here.  Variations on a theme!

And finally there's my stamp of authenticity, which I thought was a nice touch since when we went to the Hard Rock, all four of us were kinda tired of Chinese food and dying for a good ol' fashioned American hamburger.  Or chicken caesar salad.  And French fries.

Have a great Monday, peeps!  I'm off to get my run on, which is gonna suck because my legs are sore from my workout on Saturday.  Oh well, gotta do it anyway.

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Grunge Rock, Extreme Elements, Rough Type Alphabet
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Crushed Curry, Concord Crush, Cajun Craze, Smoky Slate, Basic Black, Versamark
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Whisper White, Concord Crush DSP
Accessories:  Circle punches & Framelits, Crushed Curry EP, lettering template