Guest Designer: CAS Colours & Sketches Color Challenge

Happy Tuesday y'all!  I'm very excited to report that I am the guest designer at CAS Colours & Sketches for the month of April!  It's always a surprise to me when I get offered a guest designer gig :)  Check out these colors:

I have to say, this was definitely a challenge for me!  It took me over an hour trying different things in my stamp room before I finally came up with something I thought might work, and here it is:

Okay, pink and green together is a totally classic combination, that's not what gave me trouble.  I couldn't wrap my brain around using Soft Succulent and Garden Green together :p In the end, I decided to stamp the outline of my flowers and the sentiment in Garden Green (it might look black in the photo, I promise it's Garden Green ink), and then I colored in the image with Blends.  This worked much better than the several earlier attempts that ended up in the trash can, and I was happy to play with Hydrangea Haven.

I hope you'll make your own CAS creation and share it on the CAS Colours & Sketches blog.  I'm sure you'll have lots of ideas for these colors!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hydrangea Haven
Ink:  Garden Green, Stampin' Blends in Soft Succulent & Polished Pink
Paper:  Soft Succulent, Thick Basic White, Polished Pink DSP
Accessories:  Hydrangea dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

The Biltmore Gardens

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  After a snowy Saturday, we did a bit of spring cleaning yesterday and now we're ready to start a new week.  So let's check out not one but two scrapbook layouts for today!

This is the second part of my layouts from the Biltmore in North Carolina (first part is here).  I always love taking pictures of flowers so of course I couldn't resist making a couple of layouts for the Biltmore's gardens.  The patterned paper I chose is another sheet out of the Country Club Simply Scrappin' Kit from eons ago.

I used Pear Pizzazz for the page bases, matted the pictures with Fresh Freesia, and the journaling and accents are matted with Orchid Opulence.  Turns out Fresh Freesia and Orchid Opulence look amazing together!

Harsh shadows, but here's the color palette:  Pear Pizzazz, Fresh Freesia, Orchid Opulence, So Saffron, Not Quite Navy, and Whisper White.  I like it!

Hope your week is off to a good start, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Celebrate with Flowers
Ink:  Not Quite Navy
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Fresh Freesia, Orchid Opulence, Thick Basic White, Country Club SSK
Accessories:  1" and 1 1/4" circle punches

Paper Players: Just for Giggles

Mornin' y'all and happy Sunday!  Did you get through April Fools Day unscathed?  Overnight on Friday, the weather here in southern Germany decided to play a prank on us--we woke up yesterday morning to SNOW.  It snowed heavily all day, but by noon the temperature had warmed up enough that it was melting as soon as it hit the ground, and everything that had accumulated overnight melted too.  Looks like a beautiful sunny day today but we'll see ;)

We've got a new challenge at the Paper Players!

As soon as I saw this one, I knew I had the perfect stamps for it (love it when that happens).  I bought the set Sassy Pants Best Friends from My Favorite Things *mumbledy mumbledy* years ago and this was the perfect opportunity to break it out!

I just had to make two cards and would have made more if I'd had the time, there are some excellent funny sentiments in this set.  I decided to raid my scraps for these and went way back for the Fresh Prints DSP stack from years ago--I still have tons of scraps (and let's be honest, a completely pristine pad of it because I couldn't stand the thought of running out) so I just picked through the long skinny pieces until I found some mixes that I liked.  Might have chopped off a bit if they were longer than four inches, but other than that I didn't do any trimming, and I stuck them down at angles and didn't worry too much about exact placement as these cards are meant to have a playful vibe.  Heat embossed my sentiments with white EP and cut them out with the Stitched Rectangles dies and voila!  Two funny cards in a very short amount of time.

Your turn to have some fun!  Upload your funny card creations at the Paper Players blog so we can all giggle together.  Enjoy!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Sassy Pants Best Friends from My Favorite Things
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Fresh Prints (of Bel Air) DSP Stack
Accessories:  White EP, Stitched Rectangles dies, Dimensionals

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford

Jennie Maier

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Hey hey, y'all!  How's your week going?  For me, on the plus side, I finally finished my giant stitching project!  Woohoooooooooo!  I'm very excited, I need to get some better pictures of it.  On the minus side, I feel like I'm either coming down with something or else allergies are trying to kick my butt.  Things are a-bloomin' here, except the cherry tree in our yard which has yet to get with the program.  C'mon, TREE.

Anywha, I have a quick and cute card to share today and I definitely let the DSP do all the work here.

The Bloom Where You're Planted DSP is retiring soon and it was absolutely made for the challenge at Fusion!

I played with both sides of the challenge this time around.  For the inspo photo, I chose a paper with a white background but the plants reminded me of the plant in the lower right corner of the picture, and then I stuck to a neutral color for my sentiment strip.  Easy peasy!  Ornate Thanks is also retiring soon and I feel like I should have used it more.  Heck, I want to use ALLLLL my stamps more often ;)

Hope you have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ornate Thanks
Ink:  Gray Granite
Paper:  Just Jade, Gray Granite, Thick Basic White, Bloom Where You're Planted DSP
Accessories:  None

SUO Challenges: Animal Kingdom

Salutations, stampers!  It is time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

Our theme this time is animals!  There are a lot of Stampin' Up! animal sets to choose from, so this will be fun!  Here's what I made:

This sweet little bunny is from Easter Friends, and I decided on the baby sentiment because one of my coworkers is pregnant, so this card is for her.  I used a piece of Hand-Penned DSP for a background panel and chose colors based on that--Blushing Bride, Pale Papaya, and Cinnamon Cider.  I absolutely adore Cinnamon Cider, time to stock up now before it retires.  The Stitched So Sweetly dies are also retiring, but you'd have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands to get me to quit using them ;)  Though I'm sure there will be fabulous new dies in the upcoming catalog.

Make your own animal card and share it with us at the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Easter Friends, Happy & Heartfelt
Ink:  Cinnamon Cider, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Pale Papaya, Thick Basic White, Hand-Penned DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, Polished Dots

The Biltmore

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  We went on a little trip this weekend to Cologne and Koblenz and I have a funny story to share :)  We had lunch in Koblenz yesterday and I went to the bathroom before we left.  I know you've seen public restrooms where the sink is motion-activated, but have you ever seen a sink like that where it's got the hand dryers on it too?  Like, the faucet sticks straight out over the sink and it's got these two wands on the sides sticking out like airplane wings.  Every sink has its own hand dryer, which sounds great on paper, but...I kept activating the hand dryer by accident while I was trying to wash off my hands.  Multiple times.  AND the sink didn't drain properly either, so the hand dryer sprayed water all over!  Happily (for me, at least) the hand dryers were angled in such a way that all the water got sprayed all over the mirror instead of me.  There were three little girls in the bathroom washing their hands at the same time and the looks on their faces were just priceless.  I got back to our table and laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my face and couldn't hardly even talk to tell the hubs and the spawn why I was laughing.

Anyway, today I have scrapbook layouts from another road trip, this one to the Biltmore outside of Asheville, North Carolina.

Aww, teensy weensy little Ryan!  He was just two and a half in these pictures and now he's FIVE.  Anyway, it was pretty hot the day we were at the Biltmore, which is one reason why I chose the deep orange Dusty Durango page base.  I paired it with the Country Club Simply Scrappin' Kit from ages ago.

The peacock feather pattern is also part of the same kit.  I used the Mosaic Madness stamp set and coordinating punch for page accents.

Today's color palette:  Dusty Durango, Cajun Craze, Not Quite Navy, So Saffron, and Whisper White.  I love Dusty Durango and Cajun Craze together :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet Upper, Broadsheet Accents, Mosaic Madness
Ink:  Not Quite Navy
Paper:  Dusty Durango, Not Quite Navy, Cajun Craze, Thick Basic White, Country Club SSK
Accessories:  Mosaic punch, 1 1/2" circle punch

Triptych Sketch for the Paper Players

Happy Sunday, stampy friends!  It is time once again for a new challenge at the Paper Players!  Check out this week's sketch:

This sketch is a classic!  I decided to play with some patterned paper for my card, here's what I made:

Stitched Rectangles dies to the rescue!  I love the patterns in the Symbols of Fortune DSP, but I didn't get the coordinating Crane of Fortune bundle.  The three smaller rectangles were cut from the Symbols of Fortune DSP and then I decided they needed a darker backdrop, so I used the In Color DSP stack for the Evening Evergreen pattern.  The sentiment is once again heat embossed in white on dark cardstock, and then I used the Potted Succulents dies to cut it out (slightly crooked, but...it's a handmade card, so slightly crooked is to be expected).  A few gems under the sentiment and done!

Hope you enjoy the sketch as much as I did, don't forget to upload your card at the Paper Players blog!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Succulents
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Evening Evergreen, Symbols of Fortune DSP, Evening Evergreen DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Potted Succulents dies, White EP, Dimensionals, Polished Dots

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford

Jennie Maier