Moonlight Pines

Afternoon, y'all!  I had an extra productive day in my craft room yesterday so I have an extra card to share today.  Take a look:

Why I always seem to get some kind of smudge but only on Misty Moonlight cardstock?  Of course it happened after everything was stuck down so it's staying that way.  Let's start with the Inspired By... challenge:

I couldn't get it to show up in a picture taken straight on, but the dark parts on my card are the Earthen Toned Metallic Paper, take a look:

IRL it matches the shine on the copper plates and utensils in the inspo pic.  Next up is the Sunday Stamps sketch:

I made the strip across the bottom taller than in the sketch, which made the greeting be within that strip instead of above it, but that's what made sense to me for my card--if I'd made the DSP narrower, I don't think it would have come across that it's a pattern with pine trees.

This was the first time I'd played with the image stamps in Branching Out and I had a good time with it.  I love the shaped dies in this set too, so I'm sure you'll be seeing lots more of this as we get closer to Christmas : )  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Branching Out
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Early Espresso
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Winter Meadow DSP, Earthen Toned Metallic Specialty Paper
Accessories:  Branching Out dies, Textured Notes dies, Tinsel Gems

Christmas Thoughts Duo

Mornin' y'all, how's your Friday going?  Mine started extra early...every once in a while the hubs has a weird work schedule that involves getting up at 4am so guess who was *also* awake at 4am.

Nevertheless, I have two cards to share today, starting with this one:

Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I used the colors from CAS Colours & Sketches:

But I worried that it wasn't really CAS enough, and I still had all my paper scraps out including another bit of that same plaid, so I made this:

Same basic idea as the first card, but I took out the Night of Navy layer and I changed the layout around to leave more white space and thus make it more CAS.  But before I mail this out I'm going to add some gold glitter enamel dots like on the other one ; )

That's it for now, peeps.  Have a good Friday...I'm going to go make a cuppa tea and try to wake up.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sleigh Ride, Greatest Part of Christmas
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Real Red & Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Wrapped in Plaid DSP
Accessories:  Gold Glitter Enamel Dots

Foresty Thanks

Mornin' y'all!  I actually did sleep last night, hallelujah, but my left hip and knee are really hurting this morning for no reason that I know of.  Don't know what that's about, but Daphne will insist on going for her usual walk so maybe that will help work the kinks out if I just slept on it wrong?  Here's hoping.

Anyway, here's my card for this morning:

I like the TGIF Challenges color palette this round:

I did add some Early Espresso because I needed a dark neutral to ground the other colors.  Paired that with the Atlantic Hearts sketch this week:

I thought the explosion of leaves, mushrooms, and acorns from the Gathering Moments stamp set worked well for this sketch.  I added a few of the new Pearls of Beauty in Crumb Cake for accents, I would love these in lots more colors.

That's it for now, I'm going to go take Daphne and hope that my hip and knee will cooperate.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gathering Moments
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral, Old Olive
Paper:  Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Thick Basic White, Gathering Together DSP
Accessories:  Gathering Moments dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Pearls of Beauty

Grateful Greetings

Afternoon, y'all!  Well, since I was last here, I got Ryan to school (he left his backpack at home so we had to come back and get it, but he got into school on time just by the skin of his teeth) and then I took a long nap to make up for last night's insomnia.  The only good part about insomnia is that I got to read for a couple of hours while the house was all quiet since everyone ELSE was asleep.

Anyway, I have another card to share today and here it is:

I have to say, when I first saw the Hand-Stamped Sentiments sketch, I had planned to skip it because I didn't really want to futz with all the layers, but when I actually got in my craft room my brain insisted on making it anyway : )  Here's the sketch:

The easy part was pairing it with the Color Dare Challenge:

Those colors together instantly made me think of the long, long, long-retired Fall Flowers DSP, and that chose my third color for me (and a neutral) because the paper has Really Rust, Old Olive, Soft Sky, and Crumb Cake.  Once I chose patterns for the background bits, this came together really quickly.  There is a Bigz die for the leaves, but since you can't see where you're cutting it (as the name implies, it's a big fat die, not one of the wafer-thin ones you can see through), I almost never use it and just fussy cut the leaves.  Wonderfall is another longtime favorite leaf set and Grateful Greetings popped into my head for a sentiment, and happily there was one that fit perfectly in the sketch.

Okay, Daphne is staring me down because I didn't take her for a walk this morning, so I had better fix that oversight before she takes matters into her own paws.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wonderfall. Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Really Rust, Soft Sky, Old Olive
Paper:  Really Rust, Thick Basic White, Fall Flowers DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Enamel Dot Essentials

Cardigan Card Again

Mornin' y'all...insomnia must be contagious because I think I caught it from the hubs.  I was awake from midnight to 3am last night and I did NOT want to get up this morning, but Daphne and Ryan insisted.  Maybe I'll get to take a nap once I get Ryan off to school...

Anyway, I do have a card to share today and actually I might be doing multiple posts some days this week because there are a plethora of great challenges out there and I want to play with all of them : )  So here is today's card:

We have two challenges that were absolutely meant for each other, starting with Inkspirational:

And next is Inspired By...:

I had to get out my trusty Knit Together background stamp and the knit cardigan from Forever Friendship for these two challenges.  I could not for the life of me remember the name of the stamp set with the cardigan in it so I think it took me almost as long to locate the stamp set as it did to make the card, ha!  I couldn't resist adding some Mossy Meadow to my color palette even though there's no green in the inspo pic.  Also I think I've gone through half a package of Cajun Craze cardstock in the last six weeks.

Time to get the kiddo to school.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Forever Friendship, Knit Together
Ink:  Versamark, Tip Top Taupe, Cajun Craze, Pecan Pie, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Tip Top Taupe, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Speckled Dots

A Colorful Challenge from SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all and guess what?  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

And without any ado whatsoever, here it is:

Okay I have to say that my brain kept thinking it was an inspiration challenge rather than a color challenge, but I like to use the colors I see on inspo challenges anyway so it worked out and I got to ink up a couple of new stamp sets!  Here's what I made:

Looking at the picture, I saw Cloud Cover, Darling Duckling (or gold, but I opted for Darling Duckling), Strawberry Slush, and Garden Green.  The adorable snowman is from Festive Friends and the trees are the coordinating Festive Friends dies; the greeting comes from Branching Out, which I just *had* to buy because of Cynthia and all the pretty cards she's made with it.

I kept a lineup similar to the challenge graphic, and to give the trees a bit more texture I scrunched up plastic wrap and used it to dab ink on the die cut trees.  Such an easy technique and it makes the trees match the DSP background.  A few Strawberry Slush gems and done!

We hope you'll join in the fun at SUO Challenges.  Don't forget to use only Stampin' Up! supplies and link up your card at the challenge blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Festive Friends, Branching Out
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Darling Duckling, Garden Green, Stampin' Blends in Cloud Cover, Soft Sea Foam, Darling Duckling, Strawberry Slush
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Darling Duckling, Garden Green, Thick Basic White, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Festive Friends dies, Dimensionals, Strawberry Slush sparkle gems

Berlin Zoo

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  The hubs is off work today which always makes my schedule go wonky but that's okay.  We walked Ryan to school this morning and walked Daph at the same time, then I cleaned up some things in the house when we got back and here it is almost 11 and I never really had breakfast.  Okay so I may have grabbed a couple of pieces of Halloween candy but whatever.

Anyway, I have another pair of Berlin layouts to share today and I quite like how they turned out!

Hey look, I spy Hedwig in the upper right corner!  They really do have some very nice zoos in Germany, I know we went to at least one other one in a different city, Köln maybe, I can't remember offhand.  The enclosures all look really nice and we got good views of a lot of animals.

Pandas and seals and hippos and polar bears, oh my!  Not to mention mountain goats.  These layouts are similar to some older ones I made for a visit to the Fort Worth Zoo; Crumb Cake page base plus a bright green seems to work really well for zoo pics.

Today's color palette:  Crumb Cake, Call Me Clover, Shaded Spruce, Merry Merlot, Early Espresso, and white.  I pulled the Merry Merlot and Crumb Cake from the first Berlin layouts I did, and for the one after these two I pulled the green, which you'll see next week.  I think it helps several layouts from one trip flow together without having to use the same colors on everything, and I used the same alphabet stamps for the page titles...well, I used Schoolbook Serif on the first layout, and I used it again here plus Brushwork Alphabet, and I think for the other ones I used both alphabets together.  We'll see.

Anyway, time for me to write out this week's cards and go feed some mailboxes.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Schoolbook Serif Alphabet, Brushwork Alphabet, Artfully Layered, Tropical Chic
Ink:  Merry Merlot, Call Me Clover, Shaded Spruce, Early Espresso Marker
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Call Me Clover, Shaded Spruce, Thick Basic White, Painted Seasons DSP
Accessories:  Tropical Layers dies, Tropical dies