Keukenhof

Y'all, it definitely feels like spring here.  I went for my first run in, like, forever last night and the weather was SO FABULOUS I wanted to stay out twice as long.  And I hate running!  Srsly though, I did a lot better than I expected to on that run, but thanks to that and going to the gym for the first time post-baby on Monday, I'm pretty sore.  And also craving chocolate.

Okay, back to spring thoughts! (Does Easter candy count as a spring thought?)

Here are the tulip pages I promised on Monday!

Closeup of the quote stamp, which is totally apropos for the layout and also fit nicely in the stripes on the patterned paper, which makes me happy.

I did two tulip layouts (say "two tulips" five times fast) and I still had a bunch of printed photos I didn't use...and tons more that I didn't print,  I think I took about 200 or so flower pics on this day.

Same color palette as last time: Wild Wasabi, Rose Red, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Blackberry Bliss, and Whisper White.

On a totally unrelated note, I'm getting really good at typing one-handed, but the squirt is starting to cry so once again I go to change a diaper.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fabulous Florets
Ink:  Pacific Point
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Blackberry Bliss, Rose Red, Whisper White, Painted Blooms DSP
Accessories:  None

Amsterdam

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today's layout is one of the last few I made before Ryan was born, and it's pretty springy so I thought it was appropriate to share now that we're in April.

Hubs and I visited Amsterdam in April of 2013; you can see the original pictures here.  The main draw was going to see the tulips (more pages of those are forthcoming), but we also visited the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum, a Van Gogh exhibit (the Van Gogh museum was being renovated, so they had an exhibit at the Hermitage I think, and apparently there's more than one Hermitage museum in the world), and did a couple of walking tours of the city (and went through the Red Light District multiple times).

Thought I'd accent my title with some tulips.

We didn't take any pictures of people on bikes, but that is the main mode of transportation in Amsterdam, so I had to put the bicycle on here.

And some butterfly die cuts because I needed another accent and couldn't think of anything else ;)

Today's color palette is taken straight from the Painted Blooms patterned paper:  Blushing Bride, Blackberry Bliss, Rose Red, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Softy Sky, and Whisper White.

Tulip pages coming soon.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Shoppe Alphabet (upper & lower), Painted Petals, Timeless Talk
Ink:  Rose Red, Blackberry Bliss, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green marker
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Rose Red, Blackberry Bliss, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Soft Sky, Painted Blooms DSP
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Thinlits

Bear Book: February

Okay, now that Sodapop is six weeks old we're kind of settling into a bit of a routine.  Sort of.  At least, for the last several days, he's taken a pretty long nap in the afternoons, so I've actually made some new scrapbook pages!  But today is Saturday and I still have a few layouts from the bear book to share, so here's one of those.

Usually I use a pink for the February layout in a baby book, but I found that patterned paper that just seemed like the right one for Missy so I went with the retired Riding Hood Red instead.

And isn't this little bear Cupid the cutest?  The dark color is Early Espresso, not black, in case you wondered.

And there's the embellishment on the journaling block, an arrow to go with my Cupid bear.

Today's color palette is Riding Hood Red, Early Espresso, Pool Party, a smidgen of Pretty in Pink, and Whisper White. I thought they made for a nice little boy Valentine layout, what do you think?

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Cupid Bear from Whipper Snapper, Filled with Love, Love you More
Ink:  Basic Black, Early Espresso, Riding Hood Red
Paper:  Riding Hood Red, Early Espresso, Pool Party, Pretty in Pink, Thick Whisper White, Love Letter DSP
Accessories:  Circle Framelits, circle & scalloped circle punches, Sizzix Alphabet, Prismacolor Pencils

Denbigh

Scrappy Wednesday, y'all!  I have a squirmy hiccupy baby on my lap but he's not crying so I'm gonna attempt to type up this blog post!  One-handed, no less.

I did enough scrapbooking during my pregnancy that I have quite a few layouts that haven't been posted here.  For today I thought we'd go back to Wales, specifically Denbigh Castle.

A lot of times I'll try a few arrangements of photos before I settle on what I want to do, and I usually snap pics of them so I can compare the options.  So there's the one I didn't choose.  (The blank space in the upper right would have been for journaling.)

And here's the finished layout!  See the pics here. 

I've been using Jayne's Type for the titles of almost all my Wales pages.  The stylized sun is from Moroccan Nights.

Today's color palette:  Crushed Curry, Delightful Dijon, Cajun Craze, Gumball Green, Mossy Meadow, Basic Gray, and Whisper White.  I usually wouldn't pair Gumball Green (the patterned paper) and Mossy Meadow (the darker green photo mats), but it seemed to work on this layout so I went with it. 

I have SO MANY castle pictures (not complaining) that are a lot of gray, and then grass and sky, so it's a bit of a challenge sometimes to make the scrapbook pages for each one unique.  But since the main color is gray that means I can be more adventurous with the other colors I choose for the layout.  If you're curious, you can see more castle scrapbook pages here:  Rhuddlan Castle, Alnwick Castle, Chepstow Catsle, and Cardoness.  I've got more that I haven't posted yet :)

Squirt is crying now so I'd better get this posted so I can go change a diaper.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Jayne's Type Alphabet, Moroccan Nights
Ink:  Delightful Dijon, Cajun Craze, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Crushed Curry textured, Mossy Meadow, Whisper White, Gumball Green DSP
Accessories:  None

Return of the Baylor Bear

Mornin', y'all!  It's not yet five in the morning here but I suppose I keep odd hours with the wee babe in the house.  At any rate, I got to sneak down to my craft room yesterday to make a card!  (I kinda started on a scrapbook layout too but who knows how long it will take me to finish that!)

I found myself in need of a bear-themed thank you card so of course my bear from Thankful Forest Friends was the first stamp to come to mind.  (I'm still in love with this bear, even if he's retired.)  I used last week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Just because of the direction the bear is facing, I basically did a mirror image of the sketch because that looked better to me (if I'd done the sketch exactly as drawn, with the bear {smaller butterfly element} on the right and the sentiment on the left, it would have looked like he was pooping words!).  I had originally *planned* to do just a simple one-layer card (well, with the bear popped up) but I messed up the yellow splats the first time I stamped it, so I ended up cutting that card front up and flipping the paper over to salvage it.  I do like the extra layers though, those striped make me happy :)  Plus that got a bit more green on my card, and I love green.

In other bear news, here's our little polar bear and his first snow from earlier this month:

Those polar bear jammies are one of the few clothing items that I've bought for Ryan :)  We didn't have him outside for very long; he seemed pretty unimpressed with the snow but since it's his first one we had to take a few pictures.  See how the tree is blooming here?  After the cold snap and the snow, all those blossoms went DED.  Like, they all turned brown and are hanging off the trees like little bats.  The trees are still getting a few leaves on them, though.

Well, baby polar bear has had a bottle and is going back to sleep, so maybe I can do the same!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends (retired), Touches of Texture, Swan Lake (sentiment)
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Early Espresso
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Whisper White, Garden Green DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Brights Candy Dots (retired)

Thanks, Baby

Mornin', y'all!  How's it going?  We're still super-busy with the wee baby, but hubs kept an eye on him for a bit and I got to go down to my poor neglected craft room and make some cards.  And they're still baby-related because I needed more thank yous!

Still totally loving Moon Baby.  I made a dozen of these, so I kept it very simple and ignored the urge to add some baker's twine or do Wink of Stella on the little star.  Because I didn't want to wait for Wink of Stella to dry--I sent off at least half of the cards I made already.  And they count for this week's Paper Players challenge:

I am really, really missing my paper crafting time (though wee baby snuggles are fun too), so I think on the weekends when the hubs is home and enjoying his own baby snuggles that I should make a concerted effort to get in the craft room.  I suppose I could try to do that in the evenings, but it seems like once hubs gets home we make dinner and then it's time to try to convince the kiddo to fall asleep so we can go to sleep too.  Anyway,  I reallyreallyreally want to work on some scrapbook pages but first I need to print off some photos like this one...

TINY BABY FEETS!!!  This was another shot from the newborn photo session when Ryan was 8 days old; as of today he's five weeks old.  He's already changed a lot from the newborn photos, but he's still absolutely adorable with all that crazy hair.  We blow dry his hair after baths! (Low heat and very carefully, rest assured we aren't doing anything that will hurt him.  Bonus:  it all sticks straight out from his head after we dry it, which is totally hilarious.)

Anyway, wee lad is asleep right now so I need to get cleaned up.  Our adventure for the day:  Imma try taking him to the grocery store.  Wish me luck.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Moon Baby, One Big Meaning
Ink:  Marina Mist, Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, So Saffron DSP
Accessories:  None

Over the Moon, Baby

Hey, kids.  I know it's been quiet around here for a bit but I have a really good reason!  But first up, a card.

I fell in love with the Moon Baby stamp set as soon as I saw it, and this is its maiden voyage Chez Snapdragon.  I did a mirror image of a Fab Friday sketch:

I actually made the card in time to post over there, thinking I'd be able to get this blog post done before the challenge expired, buuuut that didn't happen.  I think you'll agree that my reason for not getting it posted is pretty good, though.

Meet our new addition, Ryan Luke!  I was *hoping* (since he was so late already) that he'd arrive on February 14 (and share a birthday with his dad), but this squirt had other ideas and didn't make an appearance until the wee sma's of February 15.  He weighed in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and as of yesterday he's at 9 pounds, 3 ounces.  Which feels more like 90 pounds when I'm trying to schlep him around in his car set.

The hubs took this picture and I just love it.  Sure, it might be nice if the depth of field was a little deeper so both eyes were in focus, or if I hadn't been wearing glasses (the blurry bit at the top of the photo) but despite its imperfections this is one of my favorite pictures ever.

So when will I get to stamp again?  Guess that depends on Ryan and getting him established with a good sleep schedule!  In the meantime, he's about to wake up and demand some food.  Cheers, y'all!