Tropical Butterflies

Happy Friday y'all, and for those of you in America, I wish you a lovely (and safe) holiday weekend.  In the meantime, I have a summery card to share.

I had some fun yesterday coloring up these tropical butterflies : ). Check out the Hand Stamped Sentiments sketch:

And the Global Design Project colors:

I admit, my first thought was to use the leaves in Artfully Layered because I love it so much, but then Butterfly Brilliance caught my eye and I had to go with the butterflies this time instead.

Better get moving and finish packing for our weekend adventure.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Butterfly Brilliance, Peaceful Moments
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Tahitian Tide, Daffodil Delight, Parakeet Party, and Gray Granite
Paper:  Parakeet Party, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Parakeet Party & Tahitian Tide DSP
Accessories:  Brilliant Wings dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Stitched Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, In Color Matte Dots

Hyacinth Hippo

Well, I got my SU! order late Monday afternoon and I've already busted out a couple of the new stamp sets (though one card you won't see 'till later as it's for a design team).  Today it's time for Hippest Hippos from the new Sale-a-Bration catalog.

Meet Hyacinth.  She's named after the dancing hippo on Disney's Fantasia : )  Can't see it in the picture, but I put Wink of Stella on her tutu because a tutu should be sparkly, don't you agree?

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

That made for a pretty quick card!  I used Bermuda Bay and Gorgeous Grape for the colors; the Highland Heather Stampin' Blends were close enough to Gorgeous Grape.  I grabbed some scraps of retired DSP for the layers and had this card done in under 15 minutes easy.

And now it's time for me to go back upstairs and see if I can finish off the scrapbook pages I was working on yesterday.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hippest Hippos
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Thick Basic White, Bermuda Bay & Gorgeous Grape DSP
Accessories:  Hippo dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Wink of Stella, Dimensionals

Starry Birthday

Mornin' y'all!  I have another red, white, and blue birthday card to share today, this one for my dad:

I busted out the retired set So Many Stars and the Stitched Stars dies for this one, and all I can say is there is a REASON I never used the stamp set with the dies before.  It *looks* like the stamp should line up with the die, but it's pretty much impossible to stamp the stars and then cut out with the die and have them be lined up correctly.  What I ended up doing was to stamp the stars on white, cut it out with the oval die, and then glue on the Starry Sky die cut on top, kind of squishing it around to make it line up right and hoping that I wasn't getting stray glue everywhere.  Pretty sure that's why the stamp set was current for just a short time but the dies stuck around for much longer; they were a pain to use together.

Anyway, I used the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

And the theme challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

Since both of my parents have July birthdays, they both like stars and stripes stuff, so I kept the red-white-blue from the inspiration pic, using Starry Sky and Sweet Sorbet, with a Tahitian Tide card base.  I know I'm not the only one who's having so much fun with the new In Colors!

That's it for me today.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  So Many Stars, Peaceful Moments
Ink:  Tahitian Tide, Versamark
Paper:  Tahitian Tide, Starry Sky, Thick Basic White, Sweet Sorbet DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Stars dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Retro Red Rose

July means I need lots of birthday cards for my friends and family, so I gotta get crackin' this week!  First up is my mom's birthday on July 2, so here's her card:

She loves all things red, white, and blue, and the current Fusion challenge was perfect for her birthday card:

I love it when I see a challenge and immediately think "I have the perfect stamps for that!"  The inspo pic made me think of Stippled Blossoms right away, which was released before Stampin' Up! had dies for so many of their sets, so I fussy-cut the flower and leaves.  I rather enjoy a bit of fussy-cutting every now and again.  I used Sweet Sorbet and Cherry Cobbler for the flower, and busted out some retired shades for the leaves, namely Baja Breeze (still my favorite) and Not Quite Navy.  The sentiment is stamped in Midnight Muse for the darkest shade on the color palette.

My SU! order *finally* arrived yesterday so I need to go unpack it all and get to work on some scrapbook pages.  Woohoo!  Fun day ahead for me, hope your Tuesday is fun too!

Supplies, all SU! (many retired)
Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms, Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Sweet Sorbet, Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Midnight Muse
Paper:  Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Thick Basic White, Walk in the Park DSP
Accessories:  Circles Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, In Color Matte Dots

Cornwall

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I am still very impatiently awaiting the arrival of my latest SU! order so I can continue scrapping the series I'm working on right now.  I came up to a set of pictures and realized that I neeeeeeeeed Starry Sky for the page base and this box is taking its sweet time to get to me.

In the meantime, here's a layout I finished fairly recently.  I often try to post scrapbook pages that are more or less seasonal, but it looks like I've got a ton of draft posts for fall/Christmas pages and almost nothing for summertime.  Well, these pics were taken in April in England, and that's what I've got for today!

Pretty sure I never got these pictures up on my other blog when we took the trip in 2012.  Our British neighbors, Mark and Ness, would do trips about twice a year with a group of friends.  They had already booked this massive house in Cornwall when half their group had to back out, so they invited Lee and me to go with them.  We could only stay for 3 days but we made the most of it, driving to St. Micheal's Mount (obviously not the French one), eating lunch in Penzance (sadly there were no pirates), going to Land's End (westernmost point in England), and visiting an awesome open-air theater on the coast.  I love Cornwall, it's gorgeous.  And that blue color on the water?  I didn't edit the photos, that's what it looked like in real life!

Today's color palette:  Dapper Denim, Raspberry Ripple, Tip Top Taupe, Garden Green, and Whisper White.  I was feelin' the past In Colors on this layout.  Man, I wish I could get unlimited supplies in every color SU! has ever had when I want them...every once in a while I just *need* one of the super old random colors, even the super bright Yoyo Yellow or Only Orange.  Ah, well.  Occasionally I find cardstock or ink refills on eBay, I guess that will have to do.  Thank goodness I got a Concord Crush ink refill recently, I needed that for my most recent layout!

Cheers, y'all.  I'm going to do some work planning for some upcoming trips...and then I'll have MORE pictures to scrap!  Never-ending cycle : )

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spencerian Alphabet Upper & Lower
Ink:  Garden Green, Dapper Denim marker
Paper:  Dapper Denim, Raspberry Ripple, Tip Top Taupe, Thick Basic White, Raspberry Ripple DSP, Artistry Blooms DSP
Accessories:  None

Sketchy Series for the Paper Players

Hey stampy friends!  Ready for a wonderful new sketch from the Paper Players?  I hope so, because it's coming at you right now!

Isn't that a great sketch?  Here's what I made:

Yep, still obsessed with Artfully Layered, the coordinating dies and papers.  Better hurry up and grab 'em before they retire on July 1!  I thought this sketch was a great way to showcase a couple of  patterned papers together, and after I made this card I just couldn't resist trying out the sketch with some other papers.  I, uh, made several more cards with the sketch :)

Here's the Butterfly Kisses DSP stack in action, sentiment courtesy of Simply Fabulous (don't you love that font?!).  My biggest problem was narrowing down which butterfly to cut out and what papers to use for the layers of the sketch.

Next up, I used the He's the Man specialty paper to make this one, no stamps required.  The hubs and I have talked about getting an RV or something and spending a year or two traveling around the US after he retires.  Don't know if we'll do that if gas prices continue to be so astronomical, though.

You know I wouldn't leave out Cup of Tea and the coordinating Tea Boutique DSP stack!

Finally, I was able to squeak out just one more quick card with the Design a Daydream DSP that's a host option.  I don't like this card quite as well as the other ones, but by the time I got to this one I was in a rush and didn't have time to add a stamped image or some embellishments.  I do like the giant floral pattern though.

If y'all like this sketch even half as much as I did, then the Paper Players gallery is going to be full of beautiful cards this week!  Have fun and get inky!

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford <-- You are here : )

Jennie Maier

Supplies, Artfully Composed card:
Stamps:  Artfully Layered
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Just Jade
Paper:  Just Jade, Thick Basic White, Artfully Composed DSP
Accessories:  Tropical Layers dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, sequins from a past Paper Pumpkin kit

Supplies, Butterfly Kisses card:
Stamps:  Simply Fabulous
Ink:  Starry Sky
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Thick Basic White, Butterfly Kisses DSP
Accessories:  Potted Succulents dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, He's the Man card:
Stamps:  None
Ink:  None
Paper:  Sahara Sand, He's the Man DSP
Accessories:  He's the Man die cut shapes, Dimensionals

Supplies, Tea Boutique card:
Stamps:  Cup of Tea
Ink:  Starry Sky, Stampin' Blends in Fresh Freesia & Parakeet Party
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Thick Basic White, Tea Boutique DSP Stack
Accessories:  Teacup dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, Design a Daydream card:
Stamps:  Flowing Flowers
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Petal Pink, Thick Basic White, Design a Daydream DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Friendly Cherries

Surprise Saturday post!  Had to play along with a couple of challenges and since I have cherries on the brain this week...

Our neighbors joined us one evening this week and we picked a bunch of cherries off the tree in our yard, and then I spent HOURS pitting, chopping, and freezing them, about 16 cups worth when it was all said and done.  Today I'll be making a cherry pie and tomorrow I'm going to experiment with cherry muffins.  Anyway, knowing that we have that cherry tree in our yard, of course I had to buy Sweetest Cherries when the new catalog was released.  So for today's card, I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

I rotated the sketch to the left 90 degrees, because I just don't like sentiments going vertically like that.  Personal preference.

The Color Throwdown inspiration photo had different berries:

I used Real Red, Polished Pink, Daffodil Delight, and Granny Apple Green for my cherry card.  Where's the red, you may ask?  Well, I inked up the cherry stamp with Polished Pink, and then used a sponge dauber to add some red ink for some color variation.  I promise I used all the colors : )

I'm off, peeps.  I've got to go to work for a few hours today so the hubs is entertaining Ryan.  Wish them luck!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweetest Cherries
Ink:  Polished Pink, Real Red, Granny Apple Green, Daffodil Delight, Starry Sky
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Thick Basic White, Polished Pink DSP
Accessories:  Cherry Builder Punch, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals