Friday Flashback: Stacks of Wishes

Happy Friday everyone, and welcome to a very short Friday Flashback.  Today's randomly chosen retired stamp set is Stacks of Wishes, which was a hostess set I think from this year's Occasions catalog.  From the teeny tiny gallery, I think lots of other people might have used it about as often as I have....or else those cards are filed under image sets instead.  Without further ado, here's the entire Flashback!

Sooooo this is the only time I've used the stamp set but at least it was free?  And now I have another birthday card for my stash, which is always good.  My creativity kinda meandered while I was making this...the patterned paper dictated my color combo.  I stamped the image first and then went to look for a die to cut it with, and then I'd stamped it too far over to the right to center it and so I had the thought of doing the candle on the side, so that's where that idea came from.  Then I punched out the heart for the candle flame and I was going to cut it in half like a normal teardrop shape, but I kinda liked the heart so I left it that way.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stacks of Wishes
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Crisp Cantaloupe, Basic Gray (all markers)
Paper:  Crisp Cantaloupe, Gumball Green, Bermuda Bay, Very Vanilla, Summer Starfruit, retired Raspberry Ripple DSP, Birthday Basics DSP
Accessories:  Labels Framelits, Festive Paper Piercing Pack, small heart punch, Brights Candy Dots, Dimensionals

A Scrapbooking Double Header

Even though I had a very slow start this year, I think I might actually make it to my goal of 100 pages done by the end of December.  Well, if I counted the baby books I did then I'm way over 100, but the goal was for 100 pages in our personal scrapbooks, and as of this minute I'm at 68 pages.  So first up is a layout that I did a couple months ago:

This is from August of 2009 when we lived in Okinawa; it was our last lunch date with some friends of ours before they moved.  I was working on this layout and hubs was trying to chivvy me out the door to go to the movies, so in a hurry I accidentally put adhesive on the wrong side of the patterned paper.  Arrgh!  So then that piece of DSP sat adhesive side up on my file cabinets until I figured out something else to do with it...because I just couldn't throw out any of that Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP!

And then this week I finally got 'round to using it on a layout, so here's the one I just finished up:

When you read the title, you should sing it and do jazz hands, because that's how it sounds in my head.  That teeny polka dot print is the paper that I accidentally put all the adhesive on the wrong side; the Lucky Limeade print worked with these pictures so that's how I salvaged it.  These pictures are also from August of 2009, and this was hubs' and my first trip back to Texas in almost two years so we were pretty excited.  Hubs was having laser eye surgery and I was excited about going shopping at Target and having dinner at Panera Bread because priorities.

I am ridiculously happy that I have now scrapbooked my dad's arm-wrestling tradition.  His rule is that if he invites you out to dinner, then he pays for it.  If you want to argue the point with him, he will tell you that he'll let you pay for your own dinner only if you can beat him arm-wrestling.  Hubs might have won this time if he hadn't been all loopy from being on drugs after his surgery : )

Thanks for stopping by today!  I'mma keep scrappin'.

Supplies for Frakes Farewell:
Stamps:  Tall Tales Alphabet
Ink:  Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Strawberry Slush, Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP
Accessories:  none

Supplies for Texas!
Stamps:  Big Deal Alphabet
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP, Rainbow Sherbet DSP
Accessories:  Heart Framelits, small heart punch

Feathered Thanks

I am a challenge queen today:  I combined four challenges for today's creation.  Here it is:

And here are the challenges.  First up is the Stampin' Celebration November challenge:

The owl mug made me think of Fine Feathers, so I strayed from my normal fall leaves : )  I've been looking at their challenges for months now but this is the first time I've gotten to participate.

Next up is the fun sketch from Around the World:

As advertised, my card was "simple et rapide" : )  Ooh, I didn't put the sentiment in exactly the same place as the sketch, but otherwise I stuck to it pretty good.

I got the colors from Fab Friday, which lucky for me kinda dovetailed with the Stampin' Celebration inspiration pic:

And finally, the current SUO Challenge is to use a favorite sentiment.  Four You has turned into my go-to sentiment stamp set since Curly Cute is retired, so there you have it!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fine Feathers, Four You
Ink:  Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla, a scrap of some retired Christmas DSP but I don't remember which one but yay I used a scrap!
Accessories:  Early Espresso taffeta (this is retired?!), corner rounder punch

Happy Hexagons for the Nachos

Happy Tuesday!  Are you ready for another awesome Nacho Average color challenge?

Well, I suppose I coulda done some non-traditional fall leaves or something, but instead I went with hexagons:

Just a bit of fun with Six-Sided Sampler : )  This would have been even easier if I'd just punched the hexagons out of patterned paper, but I liked the mix of hexagon stamps and the bold sentiment stamp from Hello, Lovely.

So now it's your turn!  Post your creation on the Nacho Average Challenges blog and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Six-Sided Sampler, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Marina Mist, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Early Espresso, Whisper White
Accessories:  Hexagon punch, Dimensionals

Love You Leaf

I made a card for my hubs yesterday 'cause I think he should be the recipient of more of my creations.

When I saw the new challenge at Dynamic Duos, this idea popped into my head--I even already had the leaf stamped and cut out from a previous project.

If I hadn't already had that leaf done, I might have been tempted to do a Christmas card with these colors, but I'm in denial about how close Christmas is.  Anyway, when I paired the colors with the latest Freshly Made Sketch, this card practically made itself.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!  Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Autumn, Express Yourself
Ink:  Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Real Red DSP
Accessories:  Button (retired style, because as soon as I got all the buttons from last year's catalog, they came out with a new set!), linen thread

Friday Flashback: Best Yet

Happy Friday and welcome to this week's Friday Flashback!  Today's featured stamp set du jour is Best Yet, a cute little set of six greeting stamps that was a hostess set back in 2008.  I thought the Splitcoast gallery for this set would be pretty small since usually cards get filed under the name of the image (i.e. flowers or whatever) rather than the name of the sentiment set, but if you click that link, the Best Yet gallery is huge!  So let's flash back.

Made this for hubs for our anniversary one year : )  The grass is from Inspired By Nature.

That was a weird sketch challenge, lemme tell ya, and it was before circle Framelits but I tried to get it to look right.  I love this sentiment stamp to make cards for babies or little kids.  The flowers are from Eastern Blooms, and the background is my favorite Bella Toile.

Eastern Blooms again and another baby card.  And every color on this card is retired except for the white.  Harrumph.

And this was a first birthday card for the daughter of a friend.  It matched the colors in the outfit I got her, which included a tutu because what one-year-old girl doesn't need a tutu?

How about a cool blue and white Christmas card?  The Scandinavian Season Christmas tree was stamped with Bashful Blue craft ink (retired, wah!) and embossed with Iridescent Ice for some sparkle.

Ooookay so that "little someone" stamp definitely wins for most used in this set, right?  The bear is from Bundle of Joy, awesome baby set.

And here's today's card:

Lemme just pat myself on the back for coming up with that color combo:  Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Rich Razzleberry, and a bit of Midnight Muse (I tend to use any really dark color kinda like a neutral).  The flowers are from Bodacious Bouquet (another longtime fave) and I lightly sponged the flower panel with some Pink Pirouette ink to make the bit with the sentiment stand out a little bit more.

The sketch is from Retro Sketches:

I LOVE this sketch.

So that's it for me today, I kinda want to go start on another scrapbook layout.  I've already got probably four or five layouts done that I haven't even shared here yet, I'm on a roll!  Thanks for stopping by today and have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Best Yet, Bodacious Bouquet
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Rich Razzleberry, Pink Pirouette
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Midnight Muse, Whisper White, Strawberry Slush DSP
Accessories:  Curly Label punch, Dimensionals

Halloween Collage

Happy Halloween!  When SU! introduced the Halloween photopolymer stamp set Bite Me, I had to get it because I often say "bite me!"  So here's a Bite Me card only somehow I didn't use the stamp that actually says bite me...oops!

I stamped the splats with Summer Starfruit ink, they're monster splats.  And because you can see through photopolymer stamps, I didn't even use a SAMJ to make this card--easy peasy to get the images exactly where you want them!

Have a great Halloween and eat lots of chocolate.  I bought a bag of mixed candy several weeks ago and somehow all the Baby Ruths have disappeared, no idea how that happened ; )

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bite Me (photopolymer)
Ink:  Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Starfruit, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla, Witches' Brew DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals