Red, White, & Beach for SUO Challenges

Mornin', stampy friends!  I'm going to type fast because I need to take Ryan to camp in about five minutes, so lets' introduce today's new challenge from SUO Challenges!

So I had a bit of a think and I wanted to use a newer stamp set as opposed to one of my retired patriotic ones, so here's what I made:

Okay, I am pretty happy with how this turned out.  For the umbrellas, I cut two out of white cardstock and one of the stripey ones from Real Red, and topped them with a Misty Moonlight enamel dot from back when it was an In Color.  Easy peasy.  For the waves, I inked up one of the big "shadow" stamps using a sponge to keep the ink from getting dark, and then stamped it several times on white cardstock until I liked it.  I die cut the top edge, then sponged around the other three edges for a bit more depth.  For the foam part, I die cut it from white cardstock and then embossed the entire thing with clear EP so it's shiny, which of course doesn't show up in the photo but it looks good IRL!  A bit of sand stamped along the waterline and a greeting, and there's my card done using only the challenge colors plus some Whisper White.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!  Upload your project at the SUO Challenges blog and don't forget, it's Stampin' Up! only.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rolling Waves
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Real Red, Whisper White
Accessories:  Rolling Waves dies, In Color Enamel Dots (retired), clear EP

Tool Time

Afternoon, y'all!  Usually I get my post written in the morning, but today I took Ryan to camp and then had a bunch of errands to run so I didn't get back home until almost noon.  Had to get blood drawn, and then I got some 4th of July decorations and a couple of new pairs of shoes, so I accomplished some things.  But here I am now, ready to start the week off with a MAN card!

When I went in my craft room yesterday, it took me a while to get stuck in and make something, so instead I got mostly caught up on doing my index sheets for my personal stamp library and washed all my blocks, and they needed that.  Then I was finally able to focus and make this for several challenges.  Let's start with TGIF:

I like to tease my husband about how 95% of his wardrobe is in what I call The Man Rainbow (gray, black, navy blue, and khaki) and the remaining 5% is usually like a medium blue or a dark red, but I thought the tiny bit of Granny Apple Green I used on my card still keeps it to the 95% Man Rainbow rule, haha.  Next up is Festive Friday:

I have masculine colors, splatters, tools, and a Father's Day sentiment; this will be for my hubs because he really is Mr. Fix-It.  See last week when he insisted on fixing the dishwasher after spending hours in the ER that day for his back.  Next up is the sketch from As You See It:

I had fun with this sketch, I'd like to make another card or two with it.  Finally, don't forget the theme challenge at The Paper Players:

He called this morning while I was getting ready to take Ryan to camp and asked if we wanted to go to the rodeo again this year (the answer is yes).  We had a good time last year and I think all of us are looking forward to going again.

Anyway, I'd better hurry up and take Daphne for her tour of the neighborhood since she didn't go this morning.  On the other paw, she didn't eat her breakfast and it's still sitting in her bowl, so...hmm.  She's giving me puppy dog eyes but I'm not giving her any treats until she eats her regular food.  That's it for now, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Totally Tool, He's All That, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink:  Night of Navy, Smoky Slate, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Night of Navy, Smoky Slate, Basic White
Accessories:  Circles Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, Shades of Green Hexagons

Paper Players: For the Guys

Hey y'all, happy Sunday!  Looks like Joanne's Tic-Tac-Toe challenge for the Paper Players last week was a big hit, judging from the size of the gallery : )  Today we're back and Stef has a great theme for us:

Need a card for Father's Day?  Know some guys with summer birthdays?  Now's your chance to make a card for them : )  So I'm still thinking Yellowstone (see here and here), but I thought I'd make a card featuring the animal we were most excited to see during our trip:

A grizzly bear!  (If you want to see lots of black bears, rent a cabin near Smoky Mountains National Park, we saw lots of black bears there!)  The bear and the trees are stamped directly on a pattern from the Nature Walk DSP (been a while since I had used it), and the big, bold greeting from Weekend Adventures is stamped on Basic Beige and popped up on Dimensionals.  I think Weekend Adventures was marketed as a scrapbooking stamp set (like I've ever had a problem using any and all stamps on my scrapbook pages) because it has a lot of large and in charge word stamps, but I've used it on a couple of cards instead.  I added a few Natural Matte Dots to finish it off.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wildlife Wonder, Weekend Adventures, Outdoor Adventure
Ink:  Pecan Pie, Mossy Meadow, Secret Sea
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Basic Beige, Nature Walk DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Natural Matte Dots

Check out the other design team creations on the Paper Players blog, and you can hop through their individual blogs to leave some comments too:

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

you are here --> Christy Stanford

And then upload your card at the Paper Players blog!  Keep in mind a few simple rules:
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL
4.  Have fun!

The Sky Phantom

Happy Saturday y'all, and welcome to this week's Nancy Drew Challenge!  This time, Nancy is taking on The Sky Phantom:

I like Nancy's flippy 'do here but it seems much darker than usual.  Kinda wish we could see her face with those aviator glasses too, ha!  So you can tell from the cover that this one has to do with flying planes and we also have some pseudo sci-fi shenanigans with the titular phantom.  Side note:  I think it's fun that Nancy is learning to fly in this one as Mildred Wirt Benson, who wrote many of the early Nancy Drews and was the original Carolyn Keene, became a pilot as well.

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are in an unnamed part of the midwest (I'm going to imagine Wyoming or Montana since we were just there), where Nancy is taking flying lessons and Bess and George are riding horses and flirting with cowboys.  Nancy and her flight instructor discover a downed plane, pilot missing, underneath a mysterious cloud that always seems to be in the same place.  We also have drama with a stolen horse and then relationship drama when one of the cowboys proposes to Bess right before Ned, Burt, and Dave show up.  And then the ending just feels like a big left turn from the rest of the book.

Here's my card:

Obviously I had to do a plane card, though I bet Nancy is flying a single-engine Cessna or something and not a biplane like this.  The main color I saw on the book's cover was (appropriately) Soft Sky, and that led me to the long-retired Western Sky DSP so my card can also have a bit of a western feel like the book.

That matte copy of the book is one that I found at the used book store in the middle of nowhere on the way to Yellowstone last week : )

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Adventurous Sky
Ink:  Basic Gray, Blue Bayou, Just Jade, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Just Jade
Paper:  Soft Sky, Just Jade, Thick Basic White, Western Sky DSP
Accessories:  Adventurous Sky dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals

Of course, I had to make a card for the ground-based side of this mystery, so here's one for the horsey girls like me:

This is the maiden voyage for Equestrian Dream, which is where I got the main image.  That stamp set doesn't have any greetings, but I thought the one from Let It Ride was a perfect match.  I used a different pattern from the Western Sky DSP and I wish I'd gotten a second pack of this paper, I am hoarding it for special projects.  (As if I don't have a bazillion sheets of paper...)

I stamped the horses and greeting with Early Espresso + Versamark and embossed with clear EP, so then I was able to paint the horses without the ink running.  Just the horses are running.  I made the one in the front a palomino (Golden Glow is the perfect palomino shade, BTW) because the stolen horse was a palomino.  The one on the right is a chestnut to go with Nancy's bright red hair on this cover and then I included a liver chestnut on the left to go with the flight instructor's dark hair.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Equestrian Dream, Let It Ride
Ink:  Early Espresso, Golden Glow, Copper Clay, Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, VersaMark
Paper:  Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Thick Very Vanilla, Western Sky DSP
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, clear EP, Earthy Matte Dots

So between the airplanes and the horses, this book is a rather odd mish-mash, and that's not even taking into account a revolutionary militia group, a random cave that rains oil, and the weird phantom shapes in the cloud that give the book its name.  If you want a ranch book, definitely go for The Secret of Shadow Ranch over this one, revised or original text, they're both more fun than this.  I did find the love triangle bit rather entertaining, so I'm going to give it two and a half stars.  Stay tuned next Saturday when Nancy tackles the Strange Message in the Parchment.

The Berry Best

Mornin' y'all!  Daphne thought it would be fun to make me get up at 5:20 this morning to let her out, and that was so much fun she did it again at 5:45.  Some days, she's lucky she's cute : p  So I'm going to need to put the kettle on and get some tea to wake up.

In the meantime, I have a card to share today:

This is another instance of Just Use The Paper, and today's pack is Homemade Sweetness.  I got just the DSP and the embellishments, not any of the stamps, and I think this suite hit the clearance rack this week.  Anyway, I do like cutting the images out of this paper and I cut into several patterns for this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch:

Now I need to get Ryan ready to go for his last day at farm camp.  He's had fun this week with ducks, chickens, goats, donkeys, horses, cows, and even a yak.  Who knew they had a yak?!  He'll be going back there later this summer for horse camp and let's be honest, *I* wanna do that one!  Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Berry Blessings
Ink:  Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Homemade Sweetness DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Strawberries & Dots Embellishments

Just Use The Paper

Mornin' y'all!  I hope today is less misadventurous than yesterday (I just made up a word).  Early yesterday morning, the hubs hurt his back and couldn't hardly move, but after he went to the doc and got some muscle relaxers he decided that it was the perfect time to replace the motor in the dishwasher because he can't just rest like a normal person.  Our dishwasher went on the fritz right after we got back from Wyoming...I've always been amused by the phrase "on the fritz", I think probably because my middle school principal was Mrs. Fritz.  Anyway, he enlisted Ryan for help and they got it all put back together and he started a cycle...and 30 minutes later the dishwasher was spewing water all over half our kitchen.  So then he had to take it apart again and fix an electrical short and he says now it's working again, but I won't lie, I'm a bit nervous to run a load of dishes today.

So yeah, let's hope today is a bit more boring.  Anyway, I saw this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I thought it was a good opportunity to show off some patterned paper, and one of my goals this year is to Just Use The Paper.  So I went through my stack of recent(ish) DSP and found with two packs that I couldn't decide between, so I ended up with two cards, one for the gals and one for the guys.  Or outdoorsy gals.  So here's the super girly one:

I had only used the Lovely Garden DSP I think one time before judging from the lack of scraps I have, and I thought the three heads of hydrangeas would be good for the circular elements on the sketch so let's use up some DSP!  I fussy cut all three flower bunches, adhered them on a Garden Green pattern from the same stack, and added a fun greeting from Flowing Flowers which retired a few years ago.  Some Starburst Sequins and I have a flat, easily mailable card.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flowing Flowers
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Lovely Garden DSP
Accessories:  Starburst Sequins

And here's one for those people who like being outside:

Yeah I think I'm still channeling our Yellowstone trip (more pics at the bottom of the post if you're interested).  This one started with the Weekend Adventures DSP, which I had never cut into before but I am wanting to get back to scrapbooking and I think I should print off the Yellowstone pics to start with and this paper will be *perfect* for that.  Not to mention that wonderful greeting from Exploring Nature.  So anyway, to make this more "manly", I tore the background DSP and used the Deckled Circles dies for the circular elements of the sketch.  I played around with which patterns I wanted to use where, and then I decided to add the deer for a bit more interest.  Some Earthy Matte Dots finish it off.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Exploring Nature, Outdoor Adventure
Ink:  Pecan Pie
Paper:  Old Olive, Basic Beige, Weekend Adventures DSP
Accessories:  Outdoor Adventure dies, Deckled Circles dies, Dimensionals, Earthy Matte Dots

So here's both cards together:

Whaddya think, guys and gals?

As promised, I have more Yellowstone pics.  We got up early on Thursday morning and drove out towards Old Faithful, but on the way we saw...

A small herd of buffalo (with babies!) right next to the road.  We stopped on the side of the road and took some pictures from inside the car before we drove slowly past them because we respect the wildlife.

And here's Old Faithful!  This is what it looked like when we got there, I think it's always venting something in between eruptions.

Luckily we only had to wait about a half hour before we saw an eruption, and we were there early enough in the day that it wasn't crowded and we had front row seats.  You can see a bit of the water on the right side; there was so much steam, it was hard to see the water.

Then we drove up to the Grand Prismatic Pool; we got out to hike to the boardwalk that overlooks the pool, and then we hiked what felt like 37 miles to Fairy Falls.

And on the way we saw a marmot!  I think it's a marmot.

Ryan at Fairy Falls.

After a late lunch, we drove back to some overlooks of the Yellowstone River and saw a bigger waterfall, this I think is the Lower Falls.

And here we all are and apparently we need a V-8 because we're all leaning?

Okay now I have a bunch of scenery shots because it was just SO GORGEOUS here.  I read a sign that said this canyon was formed by the river because it's V-shaped; if it's U-shaped, it was made by a glacier.  Interesting.  We did see a (labeled) glacial boulder, too.

We're both wearing Hulk shirts : ) And this time he's not holding his nose because it didn't smell like sulfur.

And just one more beauty shot of the Yellowstone River.  Daphne is staring at me because she wants to tour the neighborhood, and it's a gorgeous day so I'm going to accede to her wishes.  Cheers!

Chasing Rainbows

Mornin' y'all!  I'm going to type fast so I can finish this before it's time to take Ryan to farm camp.  So, behold!

CAS on Friday wants to see rainbow cards, and I paired that with the AAA Cards Challenge sketch:

I remembered I had several DSP rainbows and clouds already cut from the Sunshine & Rainbows DSP Stack so combining these two challenges was easy peasy.  And then, even though I'm playing in two clean and simple challenges, I couldn't resist adding some sequins:

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rainbow of Happiness
Ink:  Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Lemon Lolly, Sunshine & Rainbows DSP Stack
Accessories:  Starburst Sequins

And now I have just a few pictures from our trip last week, starting with this black bear:

She hustled her two cubs across the street and up into the trees so fast that this was the best picture I got.  So last Wednesday morning, we got up early and headed back to the north side of the park and then crossed into Montana...

And we went horseback riding!  Ryan was kinda nervous when he got up on his horse so he asked for a helmet.

Ryan is on Rimrock, the hubs is on Tabletop.  And my horse was probably at least a hand taller than either of theirs, I have no idea how they assigned the horses.

My horse, Anchor, is a Quarter Horse - Clydesdale cross who liked to try to snack on the grass as we went and would kinda give a big sigh every time we started moving.  The countryside was GORGEOUS and we saw a small herd of female elk while we were out.  Hard to take pictures while on horseback though.

And here's Ryan at the end of the ride, he said he had a good time and wants to do this again.  Yesss!

Me and Anchor : )

After our ride, we walked down to another paddock and got to meet this mama and her two-week-old baby.  She's a Belgian (a draft horse, but smaller than like the Budweiser Clydesdales) and her baby is another Quarter Horse cross.

I think she also does horsey shampoo commercials.

After the ride, we had some time to explore the small town of Gardiner a bit (we bought souvenirs), and then we went for a two-hour float down the river.

Don't ask me the name of the river, I don't remember.

Ryan really wanted this to be a white water rafting thing, but we had a little 3-year-old girl in the front and we didn't want to scare her, so mostly we just floated.  Plus, since this was our first time doing anything of this nature, I wanted to start on the easy level ; ) and I tend to get motion sick on boats, so I was happy with a tame float.  My kid is an adrenaline junkie though.

And after we got back, we got ice cream.  Because we were on vacation.  Cheers!