Bye-Bye Hot Air Balloons

Happy Friday, y'all!  I don't know about you, but I'm happy this week is coming to a close.

I've got another retiring stamp set to showcase today:  Lift Me Up.

Pretty simple card but I think it came out cute?  Sorry about the lighting; it's been super overcast here lately so there wasn't anything I could do about that.  Anyway, check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Paper Players color challenge:

I figured the blue was a no-brainer for the sky, and the Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral made some cheery hot air balloons.  A bit of gingham paper and some coral sequins and it was done!

Okay kids, I'm off to get Ryan up and we're going to go start our day.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Balmy Blue, Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Up & Away Thinlits, Rectangle Stitched Shapes, Dimensionals, sequins

Bye-Bye Dragonfly

So the Stampin' Up! retiring list dropped on Monday afternoon and of course some stamp sets that I adore are on it.  Not that it matters to me since I keep all my stamps, but I definitely don't use the retired ones as often.  So I'll probably make cards with the soon-to-retire stamps for a while, starting with Dragonfly Dreams.

I have several different dragonfly stamps in different sets, but I love that this one has big, bold dragonflies and some beautiful dies to coordinate.  I started with the sketch from Fab Friday:

Of course I immediately thought of the stitched rectangle dies when I saw that sketch, those are going to be favorites for a long time.

Here's the color challenge from Global Design Project:

I chose Tranquil Tide as my color.  I love that color!!  I already got a few extra packs of cardstock and some ink refills.  Tranquil Tide and Lemon Lime Twist are the two retiring In Colors that I'll miss the most.  You can't tell from the photo, but all the white is Shimmery White cardstock, and I added some Wink of Stella on the dragonfly for extra sparkle.  I've also decided I need some new white embossing powder; I tried using that and it looked terrible.  To be fair my pot of EP is probably nearly 10 years old, so I guess it's time for a new one!

In happy news, I'm a winner!

The folks at GDP chose my butterfly card from last week as a winner for that challenge, woohoo!  Definitely a bright spot in what's been a tough week.  I'm still trying to recover from the nasty virus that's knocked me on my rear since Tuesday.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Dragonfly Dreams
Ink:  Tranquil Tide, Whisper White
Paper:  Shimmery White, Tranquil Tide
Accessories:  Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits, Rectangle Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella, metallic sequins

Stained Glass Sympathy

Hey y'all.  I was supposed to have this post up for SUO Challenges this morning, but I woke up at 4 a.m. feeling like the floor of a taxicab, so....better late than never?  I'm very grateful my husband was able to get our kiddo into daycare for the day because I've been useless.

So this week we have a sketch for you to try!

I still have several new stamp sets that I haven't inked up yet, so I used one of those for today's card:

I've been wanting the Painted Glass stamp set and coordinating Framelits since the catalog came out last summer, and I finally got it!  I made this card on Saturday, and I did the top part before I decided what sentiment to use, and I figured that it would be a good idea to make a sympathy card when I didn't need one.  Then on Sunday I found out a friend lost her sweet doggo to kidney failure, so it turns out I needed a sympathy card after all.  I feel extra sad posting this though because of the fire at Notre Dame yesterday--stained glass always makes me think of churches, and I got to see Notre Dame's rose windows in person a few years ago.

Well, anyway, I need to go crawl back in bed and try to recover enough that I'll be able to take care of kiddo tomorrow.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Glass
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Smoky Slate, Powder Pink, Mint Macaron, So Saffron, Real Red & Shaded Spruce Blends
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Smoky Slate
Accessories:  Stained Glass Framelits, Dimensionals

Ripley's Aquarium

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Well, Ryan had a fever through Saturday, but yesterday he was feeling much better so we should be able to go to the Y this morning.  Yay!  I hate missing my running days...not because I like running, but because if I don't run regularly then it's really tough to start again, so I have to be consistent with it.

Anywha!  I did pretty well this weekend, I finished two more scrapbook layouts.  I actually have a stack that I need to photograph, but in the meantime here's one I did last year.

This is, once again, part of my quest to scrap more of my pictures from before we moved to Japan in 2008.  I actually finished my 2008 scrapbooks, and 2008 is when I started my first blog, so I really need to get those older photos done ASAP because I'm forgetting what all we did and I don't have a handy blog to refer back to :p  These pages feature pictures from Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach; I let the photo in the upper left do double duty as my page title.  A couple of sea creatures from the sadly retired From Land to Sea and this layout came together pretty quick.

The color combo feels a little unusual for me, but it's what I came up with based on the colors in the photos:  Pool Party, Primrose Petals (I love that diamond pattern), Tranquil Tide (appropriate for an aquarium visit, no?), Marigold Morning, and Whisper White.

Cheers, y'all!  Hope your week is off to a good start.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  From Land to Sea
Ink:  Pool Party, Tranquil Tide, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Pool Party, Tranquil Tide, Marigold Morning, Whisper White, Patio Party DSP
Accessories:  None

Butterfly in the Skyyyyy

Happy Friday, y'all!  Ryan wasn't feeling quite up to scratch yesterday, so I'm hoping he feels better today.  In the meantime, I worked on a card while he was sleeping :)

I do love these butterflies, and I can't believe I waited so long to get the Share What You Love DSP...had to use those leaves again since they were still sitting out where I could see them.

Today I started with the CASE the Designer challenge from Global Design Project:

I kept the butterfly theme (I even used the same stamp set!), but I used a different sentiment from the set, and at long last I figured out how to use one of those pearlized doilies I got right before the end of Sale-a-Bration.

I used the Sunday Stamps sketch:

I swear I planned three or four different cards in my head with this sketch, so I'm glad I finally got one of them down on paper.

And here's the Color Throwdown palette:

I used Pear Pizzazz and Old Olive for the two greens (handy that they're both in that leafy pattern), Pool Party for the card base and sentiment panel, and Melon Mambo for my butterflies.  And some black because that always helps.  Oh darn, I had planned to add some Wink of Stella to my butterflies but I forgot to do it before I took the picture.  Oh well!

Have a great weekend, y'all.  I'm hoping to work on Ryan's baby book during his naptime today...maybe I'll have it done by the time he turns three!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Butterfly Gala
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Whisper White, Share What You Love DSP
Accessories:  Rectangle Stitched Framelits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Butterfly Duet punch, pearlized doily, Dimensionals

Glitter Rainbow Unicorn

Mornin', y'all!  I had an enjoyable naptime in my craft room yesterday (to be clear, my kiddo was napping, I was crafting).  I finished up a scrapbook layout and made a very happy card to share today.

AAAAHHHH I kind of love it.  Alllllll the colors!

And there's the inside; I thought the rainbow stripes, the glitter circle, and my fabulous unicorn would be too busy if I put the sentiment on the card front.

This card started with the new challenge from Retro Rubber:

When I was little (like, before I was 7, which is when we moved), I had a bedroom that had rainbow wallpaper on one wall.  I can't remember what color the rest of the walls were painted, but I had a yellow blanket on my bed and I still have the rainbow afghan my mom made to go with it all.  So yeah, I had to do the rainbow challenge!  And since Magical Mates (now one year old, I'm still salty it wasn't carried over from last year's Occasions catalog) is one of my favorite stamp sets ever, I had to use it for this challenge.

I stamped the unicorn with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, die cut, and then just used markers to color in her mane and tail to match the colors in the patterned paper.  I used the retired Pink Pirouette for the card base because I wanted a lighter color that wouldn't compete with all the fabulousness happening up top.  It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but the punched circle behind the unicorn is the white glimmer paper that we had last year to coordinate with Ms. Fancypants.  It looks fun IRL.  My not-so-inner child is pretty happy.

I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

The glitter enamel dots are standing in for the scalloped embellishment on the sketch.  This was so fun to make!

Okay, y'all have a great Thursday.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Magical Day
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Melon Mambo, Pineapple Punch, Granny Apple Green, Coastal Cabana, Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Pineapple Punch, Shimmery White, How Sweet It Is DSP
Accessories:  Magical Mates Framelits, 1 3/4" circle punch, Dimensionals, Glitter Enamel Dots

A Simple Note

Hey y'all!  I have a super simple card for you today.

Wishing You Well was in the Holiday catalog, but I didn't get it until just recently--I just couldn't resist it anymore! 

When I sat down to stamp yesterday, I had a different plan in mind for this inspiration photo from Just Add Ink:

I'm too late to add my link on the challenge, but that's okay, I liked this picture a lot anyway.  So, as I was saying, I started out with a completely different thought but then Wishing You Well just insisted on being inked up.  The only thing that took a bit of time was cutting out the bow to pop up, and even that didn't take long.

So here's the Inkspirational challenge again:

I think you can see my use of Dimensionals better on this card than the quintuple challenge card I posted yesterday.

Well, I've got to leave early today to get Sadie to the vet before Ryan and I hit the Y, so we're out of here.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wishing You Well
Ink:  Soft Sea Foam, Petal Pink, Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensionals