Happy Birthday, Freckles

Hey y'all, how's it going?  Turning out to be a rainy week here in Germany but that's okay.  I didn't get as much craft room time yesterday as I might have liked because I had an event to go to with the hubs, but I do have something cute to share today!

My mom loves hippos, so now I just have to remember this card in July when it's her birthday! :D  I think it's funny that the Coastal Cabana layer on the hippo came out looking like he's got freckles on his face.  This is only the second time I've gotten Hippo Happiness inked up, it's so cute so I'm glad I chose it for today's challenges.  Check out the Fab Friday sketch:

The die cut for the polka dot layer is also in the Hippo & Friends dies, and it was roughly square so I thought it was a good choice for that layer of the sketch.  I picked the birthday sentiment to fit in with the Global Design Project theme:

The recently retired Playing with Patterns DSP stack had some fun colors for birthday cards, so I picked two patterns to play with and let them dictate the colors I used for the stamped images and the card base.  Easy peasy!

Hope you have a great day, stampy friends!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hippo Happiness
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy, So Saffron, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Thick Basic White, Playing with Patterns DSP
Accessories:  Hippo & Friends dies, mini Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: To Hydrangea, or Not to Hydrangea

Hello stampy friends!  How are you today?  My day got an extra-early start when Ryan woke me up at 4 in the morning :p But I've got my tea and my protein shake on the desk in front of me, and I have today off of work so that means craft room time!  Which is perfect, because it's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

Today, we have a color challenge which we pulled straight from the Hydrangea Hill suite in the Occasions catalog:

Rococo Rose and Seaside Spray are officially retired, but as of right now you can still order the Hydrangea Hill DSP and all that good stuff.  I do *own* the Hydrangea Haven stamp set and that DSP, but I'm hard-headed so I decided to do something different with these colors...and ink up a brand new stamp set.

I had zero plans to buy Simply Succulents and its matching Potted Succulents dies and then all of a sudden I HAD TO HAVE THEM.  Does that happen to anyone else???  I stamped the pot with Misty Moonlight, the plants with Gorgeous Grape, and the sentiment with Mossy Meadow, and then I went to town with Stampin' Blends to color the images.  I won't lie, it took a while.  Also, this background die is fabulous but definitely run it through your die cut machine three or four times to make sure that all the bitty pieces get cut.  Pro tip :)

Your turn now!  Show us what you can do with the Hydrangea Hill color palette (hydrangeas are not required to play along) and post it on the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Succulents
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Misty Moonlight, Mossy Meadow, Stampin' Blends in Rococo Rose, Old Olive, Highland Heather, Mossy Meadow, Seaside Spray, and Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Seaside Spray, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Potted Succulents dies, Mini Dimensionals

Virginia Beach, Part 1

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  When I posted my Fishy Friends card last week, I mentioned that I'd bought it and Silly Sealife for my Virginia Beach scrapbook pages, and then I discovered on Saturday that I hadn't posted those pages yet!  Oops.  So I present to you Virginia Beach, part 1.

These pictures were taken in October of 2018, so Ryan was about one and a half.  He had a grand time playing in the sand and surf and also tried eating the sand...twice (see the closeup picture of him right under the page title?).

I made four VB layouts, and for each one I used patterns from the Sweet Taffy DSP which retired quite some time ago.  I think I only have a couple sheets of Bashful Blue 12x12 cardstock now too...yes, Balmy Blue is similar, but I don't have very much of it either since I have to buy a pack of Subtles cardstock to get two sheets of Balmy Blue.  I wish when they introduced new colors that I could buy packs of just the new color cardstock in 12x12.  I would own SO MUCH Balmy Blue and Shaded Spruce.

Today's color palette is what I think of as the basic Superman:  primary colors!  Bashful Blue, Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Blueberry Bushel, and Whisper White.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Fishy Friends, Rough Draft Alphabet by Fontwerks
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Bashful Blue, Blueberry Bushel, Real Red & Daffodil Delight Blends, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Bashful Blue, Blueberry Bushel, Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Thick Whisper White, Sweet Taffy DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies

Bright Parasol

Surprise Sunday post!  I didn't want to miss entering a card in a couple of challenges, so here we are.  This time around I used a stamp set that's only a teensy bit retired--as in, it was current a week ago ;)

I got Under My Umbrella and the coordinating umbrella punch when they first came out, and I was tickled when Pretty Parasol was released that also coordinates with the punch.  Took me a while to get it, and then I didn't get it inked up before SU! retired all the umbrella stuff.  Better late than never, right?  I also got the Flowers for Every Season DSP stack when it went on deep discount before retiring.  As if I didn't already have a lot of 6x6 DSP that I'm trying to work my way through ;)

Check out the Hand Stamped Sentiments color challenge:

This color combo is what inspired me to ink up the Pretty Parasol stamp set for today's card.  And I think I'm getting better with Stampin' Blends--check out the blended Flirty Flamingo top on the parasol!

I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I like this sketch, I'll have to use it again.  Anywha, hope you have a great Sunday and Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pretty Parasol
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Flirty Flamingo & So Saffron
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Basic White, Flowers for Every Season DSP Stack
Accessories:  Umbrella Builder Punch, Mini Dimensionals, Stitched Shapes dies

Baby Luke: Game Day

Hey y'all, happy Saturday!  After a week of mostly rainy weather, it looks like today is going to be beautiful!  We'll have to figure out something to do outside today.

Trucking along on Luke's baby book and we're up to the football layout.

My brother (Oklahoma State cowboy) and SIL (Texas Christian horned frog) go to the OSU-TCU game almost every year, so when I did my niece's baby book I made her a layout for the big game and had to do it again for Luke's book.  But I couldn't do the exact same thing again...and I think I got rid of my first set of football stamps anyway?  So I had to buy new football stamps *rolls eyes*  My mom sent me a bunch of OSU and TCU stickers so I used the mascot stickers on here and sent the 8 billion other stickers back to Mom.

Like Clara's layout, the page base is gray, but I switched up the accent colors for each side.  Clara got TCU on the left and OSU on the right; I switched it up for this layout even though I don't like having Pistol Pete staring off the edge of the page.

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Fall Family & Football by Joy Clair
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Soft Suede
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie, Gorgeous Grape, Thick Whisper White, Basic Gray DSP
Accessories:  Sizzix letters, OSU & TCU stickers

Baby Giraffe

Hey y'all, happy Friday.  I spent the morning catching up on NCIS and working on my stitching, but I'm about to go up to my craft room again.  And in a continuation of the retired stamp showcase I seem to be running here, today's card features two retired stamp sets.

D'aww.  I wasn't thinking about it as I made the card, but I totally made this gender-neutral.  Actually my first choice for the card base was Soft Sea Foam, and then I discovered that my SSF ink pad is in desperate need of a re-inking and guess who doesn't have that ink refill?  I have the Soft Subtles refills...but from *before* the last color refresh, so no Soft Sea Foam.  Guess what's going on my next order.

Anyway, the inspo pic on the current Fusion challenge is just too sweet:

I used the sketch as well, though I flipped it so all the elements are on the right rather than the left.  I didn't want my baby giraffe looking right off the edge of the card.  Did you know that giraffes give birth standing up?  Nothing says welcome to the world like a 6-foot drop I guess!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bundle of Joy, Bundled in Love
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Cinnamon Cider, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Cinnamon Cider & So Saffron
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Cinnamon Cider, So Saffron, Thick Basic White, vellum
Accessories:  Stitched Nested Labels dies, Mini Dimensionals

Polar Bear Pal

Hey hey, y'all!  I've got today and tomorrow off of work, it's rainy outside, and after running errands this morning I've been spending some time in my craft room with some new OLD stamps!  I recently went through all my old catalogs and whoops--I found several stamp sets that I just really wanted.  So I found some of them on Ebay and I had to make a card with one of those new to me/old retired stamp sets!

Once again Blogger is being a PAIN IN THE BUTT about uploading pictures but I think I've got it now.  Behold!

My friend Sarah is OBSESSED with polar bears and Cold-Weather Friends was in the very first catalog I ever got when I first started stamping.  I had forgotten all about it until I looked through that catalog, but I just had to have it!  In addition to the polar bear, there's a penguin pair (I typed penguin pear at first, yeah that's not a thing), a harp seal, and an arctic fox.  But of course I had to make Sarah a polar bear card for my inaugural Cold-Weather Friends card.

I used the colors from Color Throwdown:

I used some retired colors too!  I used Ruby Red, Baja Breeze (my favorite), Crumb Cake, and Very Vanilla.  If you're wondering where the Crumb Cake is, I lightly watercolored it on the polar bear for a bit of shading, while the snow around him is shaded with Baja Breeze.  The Ruby Red patterned paper was from a 6x6 pad that might have been a hostess option one year, so woo for using up more 6x6 paper too.

I used the sketch from Global Design Project:

And let's not forget the Animal Kingdom challenge from SUO Challenges!

I've got a bit more than an hour and a half before time to pick up Ryan so I'm going to go work on some more stuff.  After all, I have a couple other new/old stamp sets, plus some new/new ones that I just got in my latest SU order.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  Cold-Weather Friends, Friendly Words (unmounted wheel)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Thick Very Vanilla, Ruby Red DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies (can you tell I like the stitched dies?), Dimensionals