Broken Elbow

Hey y'all!  I've been working hard on scrapbook pages this week, which is why I had no card to post yesterday.  But over the weekend one of my honorary nieces fell off her bike and broke her elbow, so I needed a card to send her.

The idea of an octopus card for a broken elbow just amused me, so I went with it.  I wish the sentiment was a wee bit smaller, I think the card feels kinda crowded but Abby is 8 so she won't care :)  I used the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

And the color challenge from Global Design Project:

I inked up Gus (the octopus) with Pineapple Punch ink, then used a sponge dauber to add some Granny Apple Green to his arms.  I made the sea background with a sponge brayer, but I had to add a little bit of Pacific Point because the Night of Navy on its own was reading too dark and not obviously blue.  After I did the brayer, I spritzed it with water, sprinkled on some table salt, and let it dry while I worked on the other parts of the card.

And here's a sneak peek of the layout I'm working on:

I changed how the pictures are laid out, added patterned paper and photo mats, and now it's ready for some accents and journaling.  But there you can see my phone (which was playing Disney music) and up at the top my (empty) Tinker Bell tea mug, and Rapunzel my desk princess.  Oh yeah, to the left of the mug is a Maleficent Hot Wheels car...I bought it for Ryan but by the time we got home I decided it was too cool for a two-year-old so it's mine now.  Haha!  I have a collection of Maleficent swag.

Okay, enough blah-blah.  Have a great day, folks!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea of Textures, Labeler Alphabet
Ink:  Pineapple Punch, Granny Apple Green, Night of Navy, Pacific Point
Paper:  Pineapple Punch, Granny Apple Green, Crumb Cake, Shimmery White, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Under the Sea Framelits, Mini Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Steampunk Adventure

Mornin' y'all!  It is time once more for a new challenge at Stampin' Up! Only Challenges!

This time around, we're making cards with dies, and there are a LOT of choices in the new Stampin' Up! catalog!  I wanted to make sure that dies were the main focus of my card, so I chose two sets of dies, Garage Gears and Well Written.

I love the gear dies in the Garage Gears bundle, they're great not just for car-related cards, but watches/clocks and all kinds of steampunk stuff too.  If you've never heard of steampunk, it's like a Victorian aesthetic with lots of steam-powered devices, like a Jules Verne novel.  Think deep jewel tones, lots of brass, gears and goggles, and machines like airships.  I know people who decorate their house in this style; I don't, but I've read several steampunk novels that I quite like.  So that's what I was thinking of when I made this card!  I looked through all the options for the Well Written dies and coordinating Well Said stamps, and this "Hooray! Time for a new adventure!" just seemed like the perfect fit, so I went with it.  And OH YES--I used a new color!  That's Pretty Peacock behind the copper foil gears.  Love it.

So now it's your turn!  Make a card using your favorite dies and share it with us at the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Well Said
Ink:  Pretty Peacock, Early Espresso
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Early Espresso, watercolor paper, copper foil
Accessories:  Garage Gears dies, Well Written dies

Sadie's Sn'ow

Scrappy Monday!  Did you have a good weekend?  I got two layouts completely finished and three more that just need journaling.  Woohoo!

For today I have another Sadie-as-a-puppy layout that I made fairly recently.

Sadie had this toy that was long like a snake but had a head like a cow, so we squished the two words together and called it a sn'ow (rhymes with cow).  She LOVED that thing!  Actually I think she went through four or five of them before she was done teething.

Today's color palette includes Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Lovely Lipstick, and Whisper White.  Sadie's bed and her collar are red IRL, but the way the photos printed it looked more like a very deep hot pink, so Lovely Lipstick it was for my accent color.

Have a great day y'all!  We're heading off for the gym in a bit.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet, Letters For You, Bow Wow
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Lovely Lipstick, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Lovely Lipstick, Thick Whisper White, Whole Lot of Lovely DSP
Accessories:  Large Letters Framelits

Sewing Notions

Hey y'all!  How's your Friday going?  My card-making for today was marked by a serendipitous confluence of challenges :D  Here's my card:

Very CAS, just white cardstock and seven colors of ink.  So why buttons?  Because of the Retro Rubber challenge:

I typically don't use actual buttons on my cards because it makes them hard to mail, but I have a stamp set that is all button STAMPS and this card is totally flat and mailable.  Button, Button is the name of that stamp set (appropriately), and I've had it since at least 2013, so plenty retro.  The sentiment is from Pattern of Friendship, which is even MORE retro since I got it in 2006.

And for a bit of serendipity, check out the sketch posted by CAS(E) This Sketch yesterday:

It's like they did it on purpose.  I did change mine up to two rows of three buttons rather than three rows of two buttons, because my sentiment was on the taller side.

And for the colors, I turned to the rainbow birds on the Fusion challenge:

These birds are obviously friends, so I thought my sentiment worked as being inspired by them.  I pulled a pastel rainbow of colors from the photo:  Pretty in Pink (retired), Peekaboo Peach (retired), So Saffron, Lemon Lime Twist (freshly retired), Balmy Blue, and Highland Heather.

I couldn't resist adding a stamp to the inside of the card:

I have no idea what I'd need this card for, but it was fun to make anyway!  Hope you have a great weekend, peeps.

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  Button, Button and Pattern of Friendship
Ink:  Pretty in Pink, Peekaboo Peach, So Saffron, Lemon Lime Twist, Balmy Blue, and Highland Heather, Gray Granite
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  None unless you count a Stamp-a-ma-jig

P.S.  You wanna see a card with EIGHTY actual buttons on it, that actually got mailed?  Click here!

Chic Thanks

Happy Thursday y'all!  Thursdays are my days to relax at the Y...my barre instructor had a baby (and she's moving), and there's no other fitness class that I want to take right now, so for the past few weeks I've been taking my stitching to the Y to work on while Ryan is in the nursery.  Making some progress on that so there's a happy thought for today!

And here's another happy thought:

I'm always tickled when I have the featured stamp set to participate in the What Will You Stamp? challenge.  Tropical Chic was one of my first purchases from the catalog last year, always fun to play with.  (By the way, my last Tropical Chic card won an honorable mention at CAS(E) This Sketch!  Woo!)

I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I love the color palette from Color Throwdown:

I used Night of Navy, Calypso Coral and Grapefruit Grove (I wanted a bit of color variation in my flowers), Bermuda Bay, and Very Vanilla.  Plus a bit of gold because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Have a lovely day, friends!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tropical Chic
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy, Grapefruit Grove, Calypso Coral, Versamark
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Rectangle Stitched Shapes dies, Tropical dies, Dimensionals, Gold EP

Bright Birthday Bloom

Mornin' y'all!  Okay, so yesterday was the last day of the old annual catalog and the Occasions catalog, but I just really wanted to play with Bloom By Bloom again so that's what I did!

Still loving those word dies too, though the dots for the I's are hard to keep track of.  I may always use sequins or glitter dots or something instead of the die cut dots!

I made this for the Global Design Project challenge:

I used a similar (but not identical) layout, and I used the colors that Charlett did with the addition of Granny Apple Green because I wanted some leaves on my card.  I used Pineapple Punch, Poppy Parade, and Coastal Cabana for the other colors.  At first I was going to use some Coastal Cabana patterned paper, but it just seemed too busy with the flower panel so I went with plain cardstock instead.

That's it for me today, kids.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bloom by Bloom
Ink:  Pineapple Punch, Coastal Cabana, Poppy Parade, Granny Apple Green, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pineapple Punch, Coastal Cabana, Poppy Parade, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Well Said dies, Glitter Enamel Dots

Myrtle Beach

Scrappy Monday!  Dude, I need to take pictures of my more recent layouts.  I have 40+ draft posts of scrapbook pages, but most of those are either wintry or for Ryan's baby book, and I'm kinda waiting until I finish Ryan's baby book to start posting the pages from it.  But I did scrounge up a beach layout!

And I think these pictures were actually taken in October ;)  I let the postcard (top of the right page) work for my page title, and busted out some loooooong-retired stamps--I think I got Stippled Shells in my first year of stamping.  This was a pretty quick layout to put together but I think it turned out okay.  Pretty sure I made this not too long after the color refresh that introduced Balmy Blue!  I love that color, we need lots more DSP with it and if SU! released a pack of 12x12 Balmy Blue I would buy lotsssss.  I hate having to buy the family packs that only have two sheets of each color.  I'm currently out of Balmy Blue because I already used it for two layouts, so I'd have to buy another family pack to get more, and I have tons of lots of the other Subtles already.  Whaddya do.

Today's color palette includes Blushing Bride, which I don't use very often but it seemed to work here (I was inspired by the pinks and reds in the postcard), the aforementioned Balmy Blue, retired Pistachio Pudding, and Whisper White.

Hope your week is off to a great start, friends.  Try not to melt in the heat!  (Really, it's the humidity that makes me want to lay on the floor and have a tantrum!)

P.S.  HAPPY NEW SU! CATALOG DAY!  I probably won't do another SU! order for a couple of weeks, but I still have To A Wild Rose to play with.  And I'm working on FIVE layouts with the luscious Garden Lane DSP.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Shells
Ink:  Balmy Blue, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White, Tranquil Textures DSP
Accessories:  postcard