Autumnal Tree Tops

Hey y'all, how's your day going?  We have a snow day today--both the hubs and Ryan are staying home today (well, except the hubs is currently out looking to buy a snowblower).  I think we've got like 12 to 18 inches of snow so far?  It's quite nice to look out through our big living room window at the wind whipping the snow around in our backyard and the open green space behind us while I'm nice and cozy and sipping my first cup of tea of the day.  And I have a Very Good Girl laying down next to me and being a little angel.

I found out yesterday that Daphne may turn out to be a good craft room companion; she was pretty good about chilling out in there while I was working on a few things yesterday.  So here's the maiden voyage for another stamp set I got like 6 weeks ago : )

The bundle is called Winterly Tree Tops but I made it autumnal.  Ironic, considering all the snow outside.  Here's the theme challenge from the Paper Players:

I found the grateful sentiment in Inspirational Sketches.  And here's the new sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

Thanks to LeAnne for introducing me to this challenge, I've been having fun with it.  Last up is the color challenge from TGIF Challenges:

I found wash patterns in both Cherry Cobbler and Crushed Curry in the Splendid Autumn DSP Stack and used Pecan Pie for layers in between.  That Cherry Cobbler wash is very dark but it really is Cherry Cobbler.

That's it for me today, peeps.  I think I need another cuppa tea.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Winterly Tree Tops, Inspirational Sketches
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Stampin' Blends in Pecan Pie, Cherry Cobbler, Bronze, neutrals
Paper:  Pecan Pie, Thick Basic White, Splendid Autumn DSP Stack
Accessories:  Winterly Tree Tops dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella, Festive Pearls

SUO Challenges: Honor Our Heroes

Mornin' y'all!  Daphne and I had a pretty successful first day together yesterday; I took her on a short walk and we played tug-o-war and she was a Very Good Girl.  Now we just need to start training her : )

But right now it's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

Here is our theme:

Veterans Day is coming up on November 11 and as it happens I am surrounded by veterans.  I've been an Air Force wife for 21 years.  My dad, brother, and uncle were in the Air Force too (and my brother is currently in the Texas Air National Guard).  My maternal grandfather was in the Army.  I have a cousin who was in the Navy and another one who's in the Air Force (think you can tell what my extended family's preferred service is), and that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.  And of course many, many, many of our friends are or have been active duty.

My challenge today was to make a Veterans Day appropriate card using current Stampin' Up! products, and they haven't had a patriotic type stamp set in a while, but I am up to the challenge!  So here's what I made:

That big bold beautiful Grateful for You is from Autumn Expressions and the heart is from Bee My Valentine (it's also covered in Wink of Stella which of course doesn't show up, it's like vampires in that it cannot be photographed).  The patterned paper is from the Take to the Sky DSP and the Cherry Cobbler wash pattern is from the Splendid Autumn DSP stack.

I'm also going to enter this at Inkspirational:

Considering I have 8 layers of cardstock and DSP, I think I have this challenge covered ; )

So who's your hero?  Make a card with only Stampin' Up! products (current or retired) and share it with us at the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Autumn Expressions, Bee My Valentine
Ink:  Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Boho Blue, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Take to the Sky DSP, Splendid Autumn DSP Stack
Accessories:  Autumn Expressions dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Breaking News...Meet Daphne

Hey y'all, we interrupt this stamping blog with some breaking news...we did a thing yesterday.

We drove out to the Humane Society in Pueblo to look at doggos yesterday and yep, we came home with one : )  I wanted to look at several black dogs (I have read that black dogs usually have the hardest time getting adopted) but no fewer than FOUR of them got adopted while we were there so we didn't even get to meet them!  So our little girl isn't black, except for some eyeliner and her tail really.  Her shelter name was Bella, but she doesn't respond to it, so we have renamed her DAPHNE.  Poor baby was pretty shy and scared in the shelter and then we immediately took her to Petsmart, but we had to get All The Things like a new bed, collar, tag, leash, harness, treats, food, and of course toys.

She was not a fan of riding in the truck and it took us an hour to get her home.

Then she got to explore her new yard...

And try out for the soccer team...

She actually does kick the ball sometimes, and sometimes she kinda somersaults over it : )  After she got some wiggles out and finally tinkled, we brought her inside.

She was not at all sure about going up the stairs and when we finally got her to the top, I betrayed her by giving her a BAFF!  But she needed it, she was pretty stinky.

And here she is getting a brush down from the hubs and Spider-Kid.  I wanted to get her a collar that was either green or purple (our previous two doggos, Sadie and Vader, had red and blue so I didn't want those colors) but the one we got is kinda teal and she looks a bit like Scooby-Doo.  I'm okay with that though.  Her name is Scooby-adjacent, after all ; )

We just put her in her kennel (that she inherited from Sadie) so I'm going to drop Ryan off at school and then go to the store and get a couple more things for our newest family member.  Cheers!

P.S. We also got another dusting of snow last night : )

Merry Reindeer

Okay, okay, I give.  I'll start making Christmas cards : )

I bought both the Reindeer Fun and Christmas Labels bundles a while back and this is the first card I've made with either of them.  Check out the beautiful inspiration challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments:

I took something from each of the three sections:  the bright blue, deer (well, reindeer), and pink with snowflakes on it.  Who would have thought Azure Afternoon + Pretty in Pink + Pecan Pie = Christmas card?  But I like how it turned out.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Think I need to make some more fall creations while I still can.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Reindeer Fun, Christmas Labels
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pretty in Pink, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Pecan Pie, Pretty in Pink, Ivory
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Pretty in Pink, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Reindeer Fun dies, Christmas Labels dies, Dimensionals, White EP, Rainbow Dots

A Couple of Copper Cards

Mornin' y'all, and happy Saturday!  Our pre-Halloween snow is still sticking around in the backyard, though it was completely gone in the front yard by the time trick-or-treating started on Halloween night.  Just goes to show how much colder it is in constant shade!  But I'm all nice and toasty in my house and thinking about starting the kettle for my first cuppa tea today : )

But first, a couple of copper cards!

I have been having lots of fun playing with Copper Clay lately, love this color.  For this card, I paired it with Old Olive and a little bit of Peach Pie on the bird--I did regular masking and reverse masking to sponge Peach Pie on the bird and Old Olive on the background.  Then I used a marker to isolate just the single word from a greeting stamp (the whole thing says "Sending a bit of love your way") and added some retired Chocolate Chip ribbon.

Still having fun with this Atlantic Hearts sketch and the Sweet Days of Autumn DSP so I made another card:

I kinda wish the animals were all facing one direction on this paper, not gonna lie.  That deer looks a little past tense if you know what I mean ; )  Still, it's super cute paper and this time I used a greeting from Latte Love and some leaves from Autumn to Remember.  The ribbon is retired; I almost never buy ribbon anymore because I don't use it a whole lot, but lately I've been dipping into the retired ribbon stash.  Soft Suede taffeta worked pretty well on this card I thought.

Here's the Just Add Ink inspiration challenge that I started with:

I took the colors Old Olive, Copper Clay, and Peach Pie from the picture, plus the nature images and cozy feel and that's what I started with for my cards.  And like I said, I'm just having too much fun with the Atlantic Hearts sketch:

This time I tried to stay very close to the sketch instead of making it more CAS, so I've got lots of layers and patterns happening on both my cards.  Here they are together:

I do love me some fall cards : )  That's all I've got for today, peeps.  Have a great weekend!  I'm planning to make a chai spice swirl bundt cake today and call it coffee cake so we can have it for breakfast tomorrow.  Cheers!

Supplies, lovebird card:
Stamps:  Inspirational Sketches, Lovely & Sweet
Ink:  Copper Clay, Peach Pie, Old Olive, Early Espresso
Paper:  Copper Clay, Thick Very Vanilla, Sweet Days of Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Circles Collection dies, Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon, Speckled Dots

Supplies, hello fall card:
Stamps:  Latte Love, Autumn to Remember
Ink:  Copper Clay, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Copper Clay, Thick Very Vanilla, Sweet Days of Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Soft Suede taffeta ribbon, Speckled Dots, Dimensionals

Beautiful Change

Mornin' y'all and happy Friday!  Did you have a good Halloween?  The hubs took Ryan (as Iron Man) out trick-or-treating while I handed out candy.  We had LOTS of trick-or-treaters of all ages and despite having a huge bag of candy, we ran out around 7:45...notes for next year.  I thought it was funny how many teenagers looked at our inflatable decorations and talked about how much they love Bluey : )  One girl came up to the porch and I immediately said "Fa Mulan!" and her dad told his wife, "See? SHE knows!" so apparently not everyone knew what the girl's costume was.  But of course I recognized the hero who saved China.

Anyway, Halloween cards may be done for the year but I'm still making fall cards!

I tried twice and could NOT get that sentiment to be straight on the die cut.  I tried stamping first, then die cutting--crooked.  So I die cut, then stamped--still crooked.  So now I'm chalking it up to handmade charm.

Check out this week's Color Throwdown:

Pretty!  I used Crushed Curry, Crumb Cake, and Copper Clay, and grounded those warm shades with some rich Early Espresso for the background.  I turned this week's Freshly Made Sketch on its side:

And now my brain is considering other options for this sketch, so we'll see if anything comes of that.

In other news, I had to go to the UPS Store this morning after I dropped Ryan off at school, and that just so happens to be adjacent to Walmart and they have their Halloween stuff 50% off.  LOOK WHAT I SCORED!

Aaahhhhh I'm so excited to have this up next year.  Even more excited that I only paid half price.  I also bought some Baby Ruths for half price because Ryan only brought me ONE in his entire candy haul last night.  (He doesn't like them so I get to eat them!  Sadly for me he DOES like Twix...)

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Regal Flora, Autumn Expressions
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Copper Clay, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Regal Flora dies, Stitched Nested Labels dies, Earth Tones Shimmer Gems, Dimensionals

Gothic Halloween

Happy Halloween, y'all!  I'm wearing a super cute shirt featuring Gretchen the mini horse with a witch hat on and it's bright orange :) and my Stitch Halloween jammy pants and socks so I am appropriately festive.  I'm glad that my costume for tonight is nice and toasty--we got quite a bit of snow yesterday!  Like, a couple of inches!  Now it's bright and sunny out and the high is in the 50s, so the snow might be gone by the time trick-or-treating starts, but this is the first time I've ever experienced snow on Halloween.  Ha!  I put all our Halloween candy in a big bag up by the front door where hopefully I will not be snacking on it all day long.  We've got a lot of kids in the neighborhood so that bag of candy weighs probably 20 pounds...I wanted to be prepared.

You know I couldn't resist making just one more Halloween card this year.

Once again I'm reaching back in the retired archives for a cool Halloween stamp set.  I'd never used this particular image stamp before, what would you call it, anyway?  It's From the Crypt, and there's a creepy skull that I haven't used too (next year).  I added Wink of Stella to the bat's wings for some sparkle but you can't see it in the photograph, and I thought the greeting from Fancy Flexible Phrases was appropriate for the ornate bat design.

I started with the Atlantic Hearts sketch and made it a little more CAS:

I like how the torn edges on the top and bottom add a bit more detail without making the card front feel too busy.  I was trying to make it more CAS so I could still enter at Addicted to CAS:

And sadly, that is most likely my final Halloween card for this year.  But I am plotting an entire parade of Halloween cards for next year, I love making them.  In the meantime, I'll still make some fall cards and Christmas is going to start creeping in here soon.  But for now I am enjoying the last bit of Halloween joy.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  From the Crypt, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Ink:  Basic Gray, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate
Accessories:  Basic Black 3/8" taffeta ribbon, Wink of Stella