Sunday, November 3, 2024

Merry Reindeer

Okay, okay, I give.  I'll start making Christmas cards : )


I bought both the Reindeer Fun and Christmas Labels bundles a while back and this is the first card I've made with either of them.  Check out the beautiful inspiration challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments:


I took something from each of the three sections:  the bright blue, deer (well, reindeer), and pink with snowflakes on it.  Who would have thought Azure Afternoon + Pretty in Pink + Pecan Pie = Christmas card?  But I like how it turned out.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Think I need to make some more fall creations while I still can.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Reindeer Fun, Christmas Labels
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pretty in Pink, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Pecan Pie, Pretty in Pink, Ivory
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Pretty in Pink, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Reindeer Fun dies, Christmas Labels dies, Dimensionals, White EP, Rainbow Dots

Saturday, November 2, 2024

A Couple of Copper Cards

Mornin' y'all, and happy Saturday!  Our pre-Halloween snow is still sticking around in the backyard, though it was completely gone in the front yard by the time trick-or-treating started on Halloween night.  Just goes to show how much colder it is in constant shade!  But I'm all nice and toasty in my house and thinking about starting the kettle for my first cuppa tea today : )

But first, a couple of copper cards!


I have been having lots of fun playing with Copper Clay lately, love this color.  For this card, I paired it with Old Olive and a little bit of Peach Pie on the bird--I did regular masking and reverse masking to sponge Peach Pie on the bird and Old Olive on the background.  Then I used a marker to isolate just the single word from a greeting stamp (the whole thing says "Sending a bit of love your way") and added some retired Chocolate Chip ribbon.

Still having fun with this Atlantic Hearts sketch and the Sweet Days of Autumn DSP so I made another card:


I kinda wish the animals were all facing one direction on this paper, not gonna lie.  That deer looks a little past tense if you know what I mean ; )  Still, it's super cute paper and this time I used a greeting from Latte Love and some leaves from Autumn to Remember.  The ribbon is retired; I almost never buy ribbon anymore because I don't use it a whole lot, but lately I've been dipping into the retired ribbon stash.  Soft Suede taffeta worked pretty well on this card I thought.

Here's the Just Add Ink inspiration challenge that I started with:


I took the colors Old Olive, Copper Clay, and Peach Pie from the picture, plus the nature images and cozy feel and that's what I started with for my cards.  And like I said, I'm just having too much fun with the Atlantic Hearts sketch:


This time I tried to stay very close to the sketch instead of making it more CAS, so I've got lots of layers and patterns happening on both my cards.  Here they are together:


I do love me some fall cards : )  That's all I've got for today, peeps.  Have a great weekend!  I'm planning to make a chai spice swirl bundt cake today and call it coffee cake so we can have it for breakfast tomorrow.  Cheers!

Supplies, lovebird card:
Stamps:  Inspirational Sketches, Lovely & Sweet
Ink:  Copper Clay, Peach Pie, Old Olive, Early Espresso
Paper:  Copper Clay, Thick Very Vanilla, Sweet Days of Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Circles Collection dies, Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon, Speckled Dots

Supplies, hello fall card:
Stamps:  Latte Love, Autumn to Remember
Ink:  Copper Clay, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Copper Clay, Thick Very Vanilla, Sweet Days of Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Soft Suede taffeta ribbon, Speckled Dots, Dimensionals

Friday, November 1, 2024

Beautiful Change

Mornin' y'all and happy Friday!  Did you have a good Halloween?  The hubs took Ryan (as Iron Man) out trick-or-treating while I handed out candy.  We had LOTS of trick-or-treaters of all ages and despite having a huge bag of candy, we ran out around 7:45...notes for next year.  I thought it was funny how many teenagers looked at our inflatable decorations and talked about how much they love Bluey : )  One girl came up to the porch and I immediately said "Fa Mulan!" and her dad told his wife, "See? SHE knows!" so apparently not everyone knew what the girl's costume was.  But of course I recognized the hero who saved China.

Anyway, Halloween cards may be done for the year but I'm still making fall cards!


I tried twice and could NOT get that sentiment to be straight on the die cut.  I tried stamping first, then die cutting--crooked.  So I die cut, then stamped--still crooked.  So now I'm chalking it up to handmade charm.

Check out this week's Color Throwdown:


Pretty!  I used Crushed Curry, Crumb Cake, and Copper Clay, and grounded those warm shades with some rich Early Espresso for the background.  I turned this week's Freshly Made Sketch on its side:


And now my brain is considering other options for this sketch, so we'll see if anything comes of that.

In other news, I had to go to the UPS Store this morning after I dropped Ryan off at school, and that just so happens to be adjacent to Walmart and they have their Halloween stuff 50% off.  LOOK WHAT I SCORED!


Aaahhhhh I'm so excited to have this up next year.  Even more excited that I only paid half price.  I also bought some Baby Ruths for half price because Ryan only brought me ONE in his entire candy haul last night.  (He doesn't like them so I get to eat them!  Sadly for me he DOES like Twix...)

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Regal Flora, Autumn Expressions
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Copper Clay, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Regal Flora dies, Stitched Nested Labels dies, Earth Tones Shimmer Gems, Dimensionals

Thursday, October 31, 2024

Gothic Halloween

Happy Halloween, y'all!  I'm wearing a super cute shirt featuring Gretchen the mini horse with a witch hat on and it's bright orange :) and my Stitch Halloween jammy pants and socks so I am appropriately festive.  I'm glad that my costume for tonight is nice and toasty--we got quite a bit of snow yesterday!  Like, a couple of inches!  Now it's bright and sunny out and the high is in the 50s, so the snow might be gone by the time trick-or-treating starts, but this is the first time I've ever experienced snow on Halloween.  Ha!  I put all our Halloween candy in a big bag up by the front door where hopefully I will not be snacking on it all day long.  We've got a lot of kids in the neighborhood so that bag of candy weighs probably 20 pounds...I wanted to be prepared.

You know I couldn't resist making just one more Halloween card this year.


Once again I'm reaching back in the retired archives for a cool Halloween stamp set.  I'd never used this particular image stamp before, what would you call it, anyway?  It's From the Crypt, and there's a creepy skull that I haven't used too (next year).  I added Wink of Stella to the bat's wings for some sparkle but you can't see it in the photograph, and I thought the greeting from Fancy Flexible Phrases was appropriate for the ornate bat design.

I started with the Atlantic Hearts sketch and made it a little more CAS:


I like how the torn edges on the top and bottom add a bit more detail without making the card front feel too busy.  I was trying to make it more CAS so I could still enter at Addicted to CAS:


And sadly, that is most likely my final Halloween card for this year.  But I am plotting an entire parade of Halloween cards for next year, I love making them.  In the meantime, I'll still make some fall cards and Christmas is going to start creeping in here soon.  But for now I am enjoying the last bit of Halloween joy.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  From the Crypt, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Ink:  Basic Gray, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate
Accessories:  Basic Black 3/8" taffeta ribbon, Wink of Stella

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Work It, Witch

Mornin' y'all!  Ryan's school is having a dress as your favorite character day so he decided to wear his Iron Man costume to school today (and he plans to wear it to school again tomorrow).  This is the conversation we had this morning as we were getting ready to head out the door:

Ryan:  You know, Iron Man doesn't have to go to school...
Me:  Sure he did.  Where do you think he learned the skills he needed to build his suit?
Ryan:  They're not teaching ME that stuff at school.
Me:  You have to learn the basics before moving on to advanced mechanical engineering, kid.

Nice try getting out of school, but it didn't work.  Anyway, I'm back with a fun Halloween card today.  I know it's too late to send anymore out this year but I'm working on a stash for next year.  Here's my fun witch:


I used the most excellent sketch from the Paper Players:


And it's still spooky season for two more days so I'm entering this at Inkspirational:


And finally, I just had to use a witchy stamp for the Cupcake Inspirations color challenge:


I used Lemon Lime Twist (kind of edging into Granny Apple Green), Gorgeous Grape, and Basic Black for my colors.  I had lots of fun putting this one together : )

We all went out last night to look at shower tile AGAIN and the hubs and I managed to choose tiles that both of us are very happy with, so I'm calling that a win.  And I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that we'll have a functional shower before Thanksgiving.  Wish us luck!

Have a great day, peeps.  Um, I might need to watch Hocus Pocus again today : )

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Witches
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Basic Black, Pecan Pie, Petal Pink, Highland Heather, Lemon Lime Twist, Lemon Lolly
Paper:  Basic Black, Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Basic White, Toil & Trouble DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Layering Circles dies, Dimensionals, Shiny Sequins

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Boo Hoot

Hey y'all, how's your day going?  I've been busy so far and I have a list of things to do today so I'd better get with it : )  Let's start off with a card!


Have a Hoot and the coordinating Peek a Hoot dies were I think in the 2020 holiday catalog, and since we were just moving to Germany then I didn't get them and I had regretted it ever since so I had to fix my mistake this year, ha.  (See also:  Hallows Night Magic.) I'm hoping this reads as Halloween enough for the Addicted to CAS challenge:


My mom has this giant inflatable spider that she gets out every Halloween, so I'll be sending this to her, probably next year since I sent out a batch of Halloween cards yesterday (which was probably like the third batch of Halloween cards this year).  The Sunday Stamps colors aren't your traditional Halloween colors but I thought they worked well for the image:


These were a little difficult to translate into SU! colors, but I was going for Copper Clay, Terracotta Tile, Seaside Spray, Boho Blue, Starry Sky, and Night of Navy.  But there were no Stampin' Blends in Terracotta Tile (why), so I used Cinnamon Cider for the owl instead.  (Side note:  I really loved Cinnamon Cider.)  So I did manage to use some approximation of all six colors on my card.

We're not quite at the end of October and I'm already sad that spooky season is winding down.  I think next year I'm going to have to pull out all the stops for Halloween cards for the entire month of October...I have so many great Halloween stamps that I don't get to use nearly enough of them every fall.  So I'm plotting for next year.  But for now, I need to mop the kitchen and put laundry in the dryer.  Cheers, y'all!

Oh, before I forget, Ryan and I watched the two Amazing Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone over the past few days, and now he has a bit of a crush on Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy.  He's seven, y'all.  I think it's so cute that he has a crush on her : )  And apparently he likes blondes?

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Have a Hoot
Ink:  Night of Navy, Starry Sky, Boho Blue, Seaside Spray, Stampin' Blends in Copper Clay, Cinnamon Cider, Starry Sky, Peach Pie
Paper:  Starry Sky, Boho Blue, Seaside Spray, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Peek a Hoot dies, Nested Essentials dies, Stylish Shapes dies, mini Dimensionals

Monday, October 28, 2024

October 2020

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  And it's looking like it will be a busy day--Ryan is going back to school after being on fall break for two weeks, I'm meeting Missy for lunch and I also need to go shop for tiles because we have come to the conclusion that we need to replace our entire shower.  (Happily, we are firing our first contractor now.)  What was supposed to be a two-day job has now edged into its third month and I think it will be a couple of weeks before our new contractor can start work, but that gives me time to order tile.  Just hope it's done by Thanksgiving.

Anyway, on to the scrapbook pages!


This is my monthly catch-all layout for October 2020, our first fall in Germany.  I was so excited that we got fall colors there : ) so I would take pictures while the hubs was driving and we went out hiking several times (because 2020, hiking was all we were allowed to do).  Then there's a pic of Ryan with the first pumpkin coffee cake of the year (family favorite recipe, find it here), playing at the village park, and we got me a bike for the first time in decades!  I used my favorite Color Me Autumn DSP and I really wish I had bought like ten packs of it because I am running out.  Sadface.


Here's our very autumnal color palette:  Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla.  All taken straight from the DSP and they work great with all my miscellaneous photos.  Man, I haven't worked on scrapbook pages in a long time and now I really really want to...maybe I'll get to do that this week.

Time to get Ryan off to school.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Full Calendar, For All Things
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Thick Very Vanilla, Color Me Autumn DSP
Accessories:  None