United States Capitol, Part 1

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Yesterday I managed to get pictures of no fewer than TWENTY-EIGHT scrapbook layouts, woohoo!  And I have three more layouts that are done except for journaling by the hubs (yeah I make him do journaling on some of the layouts, if it's stuff he did without me or if it's pictures from something with his side of the family).  Oh, and I finished another layout yesterday afternoon, so there's another one that needs photographed soon.

So!  Today I'm sharing one of the layouts I photographed yesterday.  Now I need to get all those pages put in the right albums!

I really slacked off on posting on my other blog after Ryan arrived, so I never did blog posts over there for when we went to the US Capitol on July 4, 2017.  But here's the first layout anyway!  We really enjoyed the tour; the inside of the dome is beautiful and as a student of Greco-Roman mythology, it's interesting to see how that's incorporated in the artwork there.

When I made this layout, it so happened that I did several layouts in a row with a patriotic theme or red-white-blue color scheme.  While I do probably 99% Stampin' Up! only for my paper crafting, they just never have enough stars and stripes paper and stamps!  So I found this star pattern from a different company in my stash, and it worked beautifully here.  But I only had one piece of it, so I had to use a different one on the other two layouts (which I'll be sharing next Monday).  If SU! did a pack of DSP with just stars and stripes, I'd buy a ton of it.

So here is today's patriotic color palette, 3/4 of which is now retired:  Midnight Muse, Riding Hood Red, Creamy Caramel, and Whisper White.  That's not to say we don't have some wonderful reds and blues in our current color lineup, but I like to use current and retired colors on my scrapbook pages based on what looks best with my pictures.

Hope your week is off to a great start, kids.  Ryan and I are going to watch some of Monsters Inc. before we head off to the gym.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:   Back to Basics Alphabet, Letters for You, Land That I love
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Riding Hood Red, Creamy Caramel
Paper:  Midnight Muse, Riding Hood Red, Thick Whisper White, K & Company patterned paper
Accessories:  Large Letters Framelits

Underwater Watercolor Seahorse

Happy Friday, y'all!  Ryan definitely thinks it's a happy Friday, he's running around in circles with Peking (his stuffed duck toy) and is very happy.

I'm very happy that I have more new schtuff to play with!  I am a sucker for all the ocean-themed stamp sets that SU! does, which is funny because I'm not really a beach baby (but the hubs is).  So anyway, Seaside Notions was on my first new catty order.

I wish there was a die for the seahorse, but I cut her out by hand.  For the seahorse and the coral, I inked up the stamps with Versamark, then whichever color I wanted, stamped it on watercolor paper and then embossed with clear EP so I could have color that didn't run when I watercolored everything.  I had fun with the watercoloring and everything dried fast enough while I was working on other bits of the card that I never got impatient with it.  Yay!  The background seemed a little too plain, so the sequins were a last-minute addition, but I like that they kinda remind me of bubbles so it works.

Check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I used "Here's to You" for the card front because it fit the best with the sketch; the inside is stamped with a happy birthday from the same stamp set.

I also used this week's Color Throwdown:

Perfect for an underwater card!  I used some retired colors because I'm a rebel like that--Flirty Flamingo and Balmy Blue are still current, but Sweet Sugarplum and Pistachio Pudding are retired.  They play very well together though, I'll have to remember this combo for scrapbook pages.

Okay, it's almost time to head out to the gym.  This afternoon, if the weather stays nice, Ryan and I are going swimming at a friend's house :)  Have a great weekend, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Seaside Notions
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo, Balmy Blue, Sweet Sugarplum, Pistachio Pudding, Versamark
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Pistachio Pudding, watercolor paper, glimmer paper
Accessories:  Clear EP, self-adhesive sequins, Mini Dimensionals

Dino Daze

Mornin' y'all!  And also....

NEW SCHTUFF ALERT!  NEW SCHTUFF ALERT!!!!  Aaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

I'm terribly excited about today's card because the new dinosaur stamps are SO RIDICULOUSLY CUTE.  Lookie!

My dino is playing peek-a-boo from behind Tropical Chic leaves.  Somehow I managed to use two stamp sets and no fewer than FOUR sets of dies to make this!  And!  That new patterned paper I used heavily features Pretty Peacock, and I'm in love with that color.  So fantastic.

Here's the Fab Friday sketch I started with:

I promise there's a stitched rectangle under the dino and his leaves.  I just used a simple strip of Pool Party cardstock instead of doing any kind of scallop though; I figured the rest of the card was busy enough.

So there's my first Dino Days card, and I can't wait to make more with this stamp set.  SO.  CUTE.  I love that it has dies too; I've got two previous dinosaur stamp sets that don't have matching dies and this one is already the favorite of the three just for that reason.

Well, I'm off to take Tiny Terror to the gym and then I've got a lunch thing to go to, and I haven't decided if he's going with me or not yet.  Hmmm....

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Dino Days, Tropical Chic
Ink:  Mango Melody, Pretty Peacock, Old Olive
Paper:  Mango Melody, Pool Party, Thick Whisper White, Dinoroar DSP
Accessories:  Dino Dies, Tropical Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies, Rectangle Stitched Dies, Dimensionals

Garden Birthday Wishes

Mornin', y'all!  My first new catty Stampin' Up! order got here yesterday...I checked the tracking online and it said delivered, but I didn't see it anywhere around my house.  Well, Mr. Brown delivered it to my next-door neighbor!  I just went and grabbed it off their porch, hoping no one in the house was like "Why is she STEALING from us?!"  But I promise, the box was addressed to me :D

Buuuuuuut I had an idea in my head for the card I'm sharing now before I knew that my SU! order would get here, so no new stamps.

However, I did just get the Happiness Blooms enamel dots yesterday, so I went ahead and used some on here!  They're Night of Navy, which matches the sentiment and the thin border--it's not black, I promise.  I chose Grapefruit Grove for the flowers because it seemed cheerful and I hadn't played with that color in a while.

I used the Global Design Project sketch:

I did move the greeting down, but I made that choice because I was working with a scrap of the Garden Lane DSP and it was already two inches wide, so I had room underneath the flowers and I just went for it :)

I'm also entering this at the theme challenge at Inkspirational:

Good thing this is a stampy garden, and not a reflection of what my real-life garden would look like if I had one--full of weeds!  I am not much for gardening.  Or yard work.  But I can have pretty paper flowers in my stamp room so it's all good.

Hope you have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Bouquet, Itty Bitty Birthdays
Ink:  Grapefruit Grove, Night of Navy
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Soft Sea Foam, Night of Navy, Thick Whisper White, Garden Lane DSP
Accessories:  Bouquet Bunch Dies, Happiness Blooms enamel dots

National Zoo

Scrappy Monday y'all!  I didn't get as much scrapping done this weekend as I wanted to...I've got one layout that still needs journaling, and another one is about 75% done but I'm kinda stuck on it for accents.  I thought it was going to be a really quick one to finish, too.

But anyway!  Today I have two layouts from when we visited the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. when Ryan was tiny (I think he was 2 months old when we did this).

I think I bought the Animal Expedition DSP months before I got the Animal Outing stamp set and dies :)  But that paper was perfect for zoo pages!  I chose the Berry Burst background because my honorary niece Emma helpfully wore a bright pink sweater, and happily that's one of the colors in this particular pack of DSP.  It seems like I don't use the really bright, saturated pinks for page bases very often, so I'm excited when I do it and I like how it turns out.

So here's the color palette for the first layout:  Berry Burst, Call Me Clover, Pool Party, Crushed Curry, and Whisper White.

For the second layout, I used the same pack of DSP, but I swapped the Crushed Curry for Lemon Lime Twist (which I hope will make a reappearance in a few years when they do another color refresh, I love that color).  Honorary niece Abby helpfully wore a lime green shirt, so this really worked out perfectly for my scrapbook pages :)

And there's the second color palette:  Call Me Clover, Berry Burst, Lemon Lime Twist, Pool Party, and Whisper White.

Despite not making as much progress as I wanted to over the weekend, I still have a stack of 20+ layouts that I need to take pictures of so I can share on here.  Maybe I'll get that done before the next scrappy Monday...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, first layout:
Stamps:  Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Broadsheet Alphabet, A Little Wild
Ink:  Berry Burst, Call Me Clover, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Berry Burst, Pool Party, Crushed Curry, Thick Whisper White, Animal Expedition DSP
Accessories:  Hexagon punch, Lots of Labels Framelits

Supplies, second layout:
Stamps:  Tropical Chic
Ink:  Call Me Clover, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Call Me Clover, Pool Party, Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Whisper White, Animal Expedition DSP
Accessories:  Tropical Thinlits

Bouquet Bunch

Happy Friday, y'all!  I almost didn't get a card done for today...I was working more on scrapbook pages but I hit a good stopping point on my layout and I just had enough time to get a card made before Ryan woke up from his nap.  So here 'tis!

I'm loving the bright colors right now.  I used Call Me Clover for the card base and I haven't played with that nearly enough yet.  Such a pretty green!

I used the sketch from Fusion:

My colors are a pretty good match for the van, too, but I used the Color Throwdown challenge to choose my shades:

I used Pineapple Punch, Mango Melody, Lovely Lipstick, and the aforementioned Call Me Clover.  Looooove those bright colors!

Hope y'all have a great weekend, y'all.  This afternoon I'm back to work on more scrapbook pages...I've got a ways to go if I want to make my annual goal!

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Bouquet
Ink:  Call Me Clover, Mango Melody, Pineapple Punch, Lovely Lipstick
Paper:  Call Me Clover, Mango Melody, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Rectangle Stitched Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies, Dimensionals

Broken Elbow

Hey y'all!  I've been working hard on scrapbook pages this week, which is why I had no card to post yesterday.  But over the weekend one of my honorary nieces fell off her bike and broke her elbow, so I needed a card to send her.

The idea of an octopus card for a broken elbow just amused me, so I went with it.  I wish the sentiment was a wee bit smaller, I think the card feels kinda crowded but Abby is 8 so she won't care :)  I used the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

And the color challenge from Global Design Project:

I inked up Gus (the octopus) with Pineapple Punch ink, then used a sponge dauber to add some Granny Apple Green to his arms.  I made the sea background with a sponge brayer, but I had to add a little bit of Pacific Point because the Night of Navy on its own was reading too dark and not obviously blue.  After I did the brayer, I spritzed it with water, sprinkled on some table salt, and let it dry while I worked on the other parts of the card.

And here's a sneak peek of the layout I'm working on:

I changed how the pictures are laid out, added patterned paper and photo mats, and now it's ready for some accents and journaling.  But there you can see my phone (which was playing Disney music) and up at the top my (empty) Tinker Bell tea mug, and Rapunzel my desk princess.  Oh yeah, to the left of the mug is a Maleficent Hot Wheels car...I bought it for Ryan but by the time we got home I decided it was too cool for a two-year-old so it's mine now.  Haha!  I have a collection of Maleficent swag.

Okay, enough blah-blah.  Have a great day, folks!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea of Textures, Labeler Alphabet
Ink:  Pineapple Punch, Granny Apple Green, Night of Navy, Pacific Point
Paper:  Pineapple Punch, Granny Apple Green, Crumb Cake, Shimmery White, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Under the Sea Framelits, Mini Dimensionals