Earthen Elegance Trees

Hey y'all, how's your weekend going?  We're having a quiet lazy morning but the plumber and tile guy are supposed to come back this afternoon (yeah, now there's TWO guys working on the shower problem!).  We know what happened at least--somehow the tile guy got self-leveling compound down the drain, where it hardened into a giant lump and totally blocked the pipe, though we don't know how or where the leak started yet.  So now we have a couple of holes cut in our ceiling downstairs to access the pipe, which will also have to be cut out and replaced, and hopefully we won't have any MORE problems.

Anyway, I have a card to share today:

I actually made this months ago for an SUO Challenges challenge but then the challenge got changed before it was posted and I've just been sitting on this card since, like, April.  I used the online exclusive set Encircled in Nature and the now-retired Earthen Elegance DSP and this card got mailed out weeks ago, so more than time to post it here.

For now, I'm going to go upstairs and start doing an inventory on my hard-copy cross stitch patterns.  I just started a new project yesterday (yay new project!!) but I need to look through all my patterns and decide what's next.  And then I'll probably stitch for a while and finish watching Charade with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant because I only got halfway through it yesterday.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Encircled in Nature
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Copper Clay
Paper:  Copper Clay, Night of Navy, Thick Very Vanilla, Earthen Elegance DSP
Accessories:  Deckled Circles dies, Tinsel Gems, Dimensionals

Sending Love

Mornin' y'all!  I'm sleepy this morning...the hubs has been having trouble sleeping, which means *I* have trouble sleeping.  Hopefully things will get better after the surgery next week.

Anyway, I mentioned that I had made a couple of cards on Wednesday that I just wasn't thrilled with when I finished, and here's one of them:

I did enjoy playing with the new Regal Flora bundle but I think I was trying too hard to make multiple challenges work together for me.  I do like the sketch from Try a Sketch on Tuesday:

And the floral theme at Inspire. Create. was an easy add:

I think it was the colors from The Card Concept that tripped me up:

I used Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Crushed Curry, and Boho Blue, which look great together--my problem was finding patterned paper that worked with what I was going for and I don't think it really gelled quite right.  But not every card can be your favorite, right?  And I got to practice layering lots of die-cut images for a clean-and-layered style card.

Almost time to get the kiddo off to school and then I get to do the super-fun grocery shopping.  We'll see if the contractor actually shows up today (he didn't yesterday) to fix whatever is wrong with our shower now.  So ready to have our shower back and functional!

Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Regal Flora
Ink:  Boho Blue, Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Thoughtful Journey DSP Stack, Full of Life DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Regal Flora dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella, In Color Dots

Perfectly Lovely Autumn Day

Mornin', y'all.  Yesterday morning was a doozie what with the shower shenanigans but theoretically the contractor is supposed to come back this morning and try to figure out what he did wrong.  And we have a date for the hubs' surgery (next Wednesday) so at least we're finally moving on that point too.

I made two cards yesterday afternoon but I wasn't real thrilled with either of them.  Hardly a surprise given how frazzled I was (I had to do some chocolate therapy.)  So this morning I made a real fast card kinda based on one of the ones I worked on yesterday and I think I like it better.  Here it is:

I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I drew a blank at first when I saw this yesterday, but then I thought of the larger sentiment stamps in my brand new Autumn Expressions set and went to work.  Here's the Color Throwdown:

I used Cherry Cobbler, Pecan Pie (it says terracotta, but it looked more like brown to me, I think of terracotta as being more orange) and Mossy Meadow.  What a cozy inspo pic, too!

If you're curious, here's my first version:

I used a teeny bit of the new Regal Winter DSP and a smaller oval for the sentiment.  So for my card this morning, I went with a larger oval to let the sentiment "breathe" a bit more, eliminated the DSP, and did three leaves and three of the smaller size speckled dots.  Small tweaks, but I think I like this morning's version better.

Got a busy day today with the contractor theoretically coming this morning and then getting the hubs a CT scan this afternoon, which is part of his surgery prep.  And I'm trying to decide if I want to make from-scratch cinnamon rolls for dinner tonight...cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Autumn Expressions
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Pecan Pie, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Autumn Expressions dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Speckled Dots, Dimensionals

Apple Picking

It's not quite 6 a.m. here and we've already had an exciting morning.  We just had our shower floor replaced and this morning was the first time we've used it since then...it doesn't drain.  At all.  The contractor must have put some kind of plug in it and forgotten to take it out before he finished.  So 10 minutes after the hubs got out of the shower, we noticed a dripping sound...the water was coming through the ceiling to downstairs.  So we grabbed a bucket and bailed 3-4 giant buckets of water out of there as fast as we could, put down towels to get the rest, and there's still water slowly dripping through the light fixture downstairs.  Oh, and today is the day we *finally* have the hubs' initial appointment at the neurosurgery clinic and hopefully get a date for his brain surgery.  When it rains, it pours...but it should NOT rain inside the house.

Anyway, on a brighter note, I got to play with some new stamps and here is my very first card with my holiday catalog stuff:

Still with the apple theme : )  I used this week's color challenge from the Paper Players:

I used Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, and Azure Afternoon, and the Tinsel Gems are Blueberry Bushel but I thought they worked here.

I'm also entering this at Shopping Our Stash, where the theme is using something that you have a lot of and yet keep buying more of and yep, guilty over here.  I have literally hundreds of stamp sets (I can think of at least seven other apple-related stamp sets in my collection without trying hard) and thousands of sheets of patterned paper, but for the card I made today, I used one of my brand new stamp sets and a brand new DSP stack.  I also got three new types of embellishments in that order, though I used some Tinsel Gems I already had for this card ; )

Okay, I'm hoping that we have exhausted all of our bad luck for today and that we can get this shower thing fixed ASAP.  Not to mention getting the hubs' brain fixed as well.  Positive vibes would be appreciated, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Warms My Heart
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Daffodil Delight, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Azure Afternoon, Poppy Parade, Pecan Pie, Petal Pink, Gray Granite
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Thick Basic White, Brights DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Tinsel Gems, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: The Highlander Challenge

 Mornin' y'all!  It's time again for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This particular challenge came from my diabolical brain...

I call it the Highlander challenge because there can be only ONE...stamp.  (Okay my knowledge of Highlander is limited to "There can be only one" and a mental image of Sean Connery with a sword.)  At least one other stamper on the design team was like WHAT how is that possible, but I think the easiest way to do this challenge is to pick a great DSP and add a sentiment.  BAM.

The Thoughtful Journey DSP was too gorgeous to not use the whole sheet though so I made two cards.

The stamp on this one is from Feathered Flight in the Online Exclusives.  Super, super simple with the gorgeous DSP, a die cut sentiment, and one Boho Blue gem.

For this one, I used a sentiment from Thoughtful Expressions and two In Color Shimmer Gems in Petunia Pop.  I thought this would be a nice sympathy card, and I like to make those when I don't need them so I have a couple on hand.

So there's two ideas from me and I could have done a lot more with different DSPs and let's be honest I probably will.  Hope you have as much fun with this as I did and don't forget to upload your cards to the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Feathered Flight, Thoughtful Expressions
Ink:  Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Boho Blue, Mossy Meadow, Petunia Pop, Thick Basic White, Thoughtful Journey DSP Stack
Accessories:  Countryside Corners dies, Thoughtful Expressions dies, Dimensionals, retired Solid Gems, In Color Shimmer Gems

September 2020

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  The hubs decided this morning that we should run a bunch of errands after we drop Ryan off at school, but I'm hoping to have time to play with my BRAND NEW SCHTUFF this afternoon.  So far all I've gotten to do is unpack the box and look at the stuff!

But for now, scrapbook pages!

This is from right when we got to Germany; I mentioned that we were confined to our room for a couple of weeks BUT we were allowed to go walking in a small patch of woods near our suite.  And then once we were out of quarantine, Ryan loved playing in the playground right next to our building, see how dirty he got?  Then the bottom three pictures on the right page are when we first looked at the house we ended up renting for our time in Germany.  I did another layout after we moved in the house.

Today's color palette:  Boho Blue, Bumblebee, Sweet Sorbet, Misty Moonlight, Night of Navy, and white.  I made these pages not long after Boho Blue was introduced as an In Color.

Okay, time to get this show on the road.  Peace out, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Full Calendar, Honeybee Home
Ink:  Boho Blue, Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in So Saffron, Smoky Slate, Boho Blue
Paper:  Boho Blue, Misty Moonlight, Sweet Sorbet, Harvest Meadow DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes & Honeybee Blooms dies

Pail of Apples

Mornin' y'all!  I'm in an apple mood this weekend--made apple cobbler last night for dessert and then apple crumb muffins this morning for breakfast.  And an apple card to share today!

Breaking out another old retired set for this one, it's called Give Thanks.  And this is a multi-challenge card, starting with Just Add Ink:

I used the leaf stamp for some foliage and Sweet Sorbet baker's twine for string.  Next up is Inkspirational:

Had some fun with my Stampin' Blends so that counts for this challenge!  Now how about Inspired By...:

The metal bucket in the inspo pic made me think of the stamp image with the apples in a metal pail, so that's how I chose my stamp set.  Last up is Festive Friday:

Thought I'd give this challenge another whirl and take my time with it this time, since last time I paired it with a speed stamping challenge.  This time I used fruity colors, twine, gingham, scalloped edges, and fruit.  Some of the supplies overlap with the first card I made for this, but why change it if it works? ; )

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

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Give Thanks
Ink:  Lemon Lime Twist, Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Sweet Sorbet, Lemon Lime Twist, Gray Granite, Balmy Blue, neutrals
Paper:  Sweet Sorbet, Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Basic White, Gingham Gala DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Sweet Sorbet baker's twine, white EP, Dimensionals, Shiny Sequins