Botanical Bounty, Part 1

Mornin' y'all!  Daphne has already started pestering me to go for a walk (we usually go around 10 and it's just now 9), but I just made my second cuppa so she's going to have to wait.  Can't let the tea get cold.

So, after feeling rather blocked for a while last week, this week I am on fi-yurrrr again and I made a bunch of cards yesterday, and bonus, today is Ryan's STEM club so I get an extra hour and a half of crafty time.  Woo!  Anyway, yesterday I took the CAS on Friday prompt of BOTANICAL and I RAN with it.  First I looked up "botanical" online to make sure I was thinking the right thing, and it's anything related to "plants and plant-based products used for medicine, scent, or flavor."  So here's what I made:

The first image to pop in my head was the vanilla orchid in Lovely & Sweet, and I got out the coordinating Nature's Sweetness Specialty DSP (I always think Nature's Sweetness is the name of the stamp set rather than the DSP so it takes me longer to find the stamps).  Turns out I had some scraps already cut from the DSP, so I chose the two larger scraps and made two cards.

I was going to color in the image a bit, but after putting it next to the paper I decided I liked it just the way it is with no color on it.  But I wasn't done yet.

I used the large leafy die from Nature's Symphony to make a mask from scratch paper and then used a blending brush to put it on a Crumb Cake card base I found in my file cabinet.  I added some of the weathering stamp on top and I thought it was looking like a sympathy card since I tend to like more muted color palettes for those, and I gravitate towards blues and greens.  I hate making sympathy cards when I actually need one, so I decided to go with the impulse on this one so I have one on hand next time I need it, using a greeting from the retired hostess set Simply Sketched.

Still not done with my botanical cards, but that will have to continue in another post, probably later today.  Plus I still have some other botanical stamp sets on my table that I haven't used yet and I keep getting more ideas as I go, so I'm going to ride the creative wave where it takes me...after Daphne and I go out for our walk in the lovely sunshine.  Cheers!

Supplies, first card:
Stamps:  Lovely & Sweet
Ink:  Versamark, Pebbled Path
Paper:  Pebbled Path, Thick Basic White, Nature's Sweetness DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, clear EP, Dimensionals

Supplies, second card:
Stamps:  Lovely & Sweet
Ink:  Versamark, Pebbled Path
Paper:  Pecan Pie, Thick Basic White, Nature's Sweetness DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, clear EP, Dimensionals

Supplies, third card:
Stamps:  Nature's Symphony, Simply Sketched
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Mossy Meadow, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Layering Ovals dies, Dimensionals

Bubblegum Ice Cream

Mornin' y'all!  Blogger was being a little bit weird for some reason, but it seems like it's working now so let's get to it!  Today we're starting with Time Out Challenges:

And you know what,  I have an old SU! stamp set named Sweet Treats so obviously I had to get that out.  I think I got that stamp set fairly early in my stamp career, I'm thinking prior to 2010 so it's been here a while but it's still fun.  Here's what I made:

I had to color in the image twice, because the first time I colored in the cherry first and when I finished I realized I needed to switch the colors on the cherry and the ice cream topping, here's my first attempt:

Definitely looks better with the sauce darker than the cherry, but I had to color the second one in a hurry since I had dinner in the oven and I was trying to finish before the chicken was done cooking.  I suppose this image could be strawberry ice cream, but I'm going to call it bubblegum ice cream because my kiddo likes the weird flavors like that (though usually he'll go for one that's bright blue instead of pink).  I chose pinks for my card today for the Color Dare Challenge:

I went with Bubble Bath for my lightest pink, and then chose two darker shades, Magenta Madness and Berry Burst.  You know, I usually don't use much Berry Burst but here lately I have used it several times.  My additional color is Lost Lagoon because I thought it would jive well with the other colors, and it worked for the glass and the cherry leaf.

My first errand yesterday took much longer than expected so I didn't get as much done in my craft room as I wanted to yesterday, but I didn't have any errands to run today so I should be clear to craft as soon as I take Daphalonia on her walk.  For once she's not shoving her nose under my elbow telling me to hurry up, but that could change at any moment.  Maybe she's tired because she played with Ryan this morning and he threw her toy and it BROKE OFF bits of the wall where it hit.  I think the hubs will be able to fix it but he won't be happy about it.  At least it was one of the walls that I want to repaint anyway, and we've got another wall on the staircase landing where Daph cannon-balled into it so that eventually needs fixed too.  I think we're going to paint the master suite before we go back and repaint the living room/stairs/upstairs hallway/loft.  Anyway, none of that will be today, I've got some card ideas swirling around for today.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Treats, You're Cherished, Background Basics
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Berry Burst, Lost Lagoon, Stampin' Blends in Bubble Bath, Magenta Madness, Berry Burst, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Berry Burst, Bubble Bath, Thick Basic White, Abstract Beauty DSP Stack, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems, Wink of Stella

Strawberry Greeting

Mornin' y'all!  Hope your week is starting off well.  After I get Ryan off to school, I'm going to finish off the leftover waffles and strawberries from yesterday's breakfast : )  And it so happens that I'm starting off my blog week with a strawberry too!

Something about the CAS Colours & Sketches palette made me think of strawberries right off:

Also I think Shy Shamrock and Summer Splash are twins, they look a lot alike but one leans a bit green and the other leans a bit blue.  My card base and the greenery around the strawberry are Shy Shamrock, and the DSP and the greeting are Summer Splash, and they don't look all that different to me.  Hmm.

Anyway, I need to get Ryan out the door and off to school so I can go run some errands, eat brekkie, switch out laundry, take Daph-Daph for a walk, and hopefully get some things done in my craft room.  Yeah, I've got plans today.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Shy Shamrock, Summer Splash
Paper:  Shy Shamrock, Thick Basic White, Summer Splash DSP
Accessories:  Strawberry builder punch, Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals

April Showers with The Paper Players

Happy Easter!  Mornin' y'all and it's time for a new challenge from The Paper Players!  First though, thanks to everyone who played along with Ann's tic-tac-toe board last week, we had so many beautiful cards in the gallery!  And today we have a new challenge courtesy of the marvelous LeAnne, take a look:

As I said earlier this week, I've been feeling kinda blocked lately and so this challenge took me a while but then I ended up with two cards for it.  So here's the first card:

I got Million Dollar Moments out of the To Sell? boxes and paired it with the same Pleased as Punch paper I used for a different rainy day card a while back.  I stamped the lady in VersaMark + Night of Navy and embossed with clear EP.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Million Dollar Moments
Ink:  Night of Navy, VersaMark
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Pleased as Punch DSP
Accessories:  Clear EP, Textured Notes dies, Full Heart Punch, Dimensionals, Milky Dots

Here's my second card, actually I think I made it first but whatever:

Rather similar to the other card with embossing an image on DSP, but this time I used the Rain or Shine Specialty DSP.  Same Balmy Blue card base and Milky Dots for embellishments.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Silhouette Scenes, Playing in the Rain
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Thick Basic White, Rain or Shine Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Clear EP, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Milky Dots

Funny story:  we actually got rain for the first time in a long time one day last week, and Daphne rang the bell to go outside, so I opened the door for her.  She stuck her nose out and noped right back into the house and I laughed.  She did the same thing ten minutes later and looked at me like "Mahm, why is water falling from the sky?  I don't understand!"  Yeah, we haven't gotten much rain around here lately.

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 Clue in the Crossword Cipher

Happy Saturday, y'all, and welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we are on the forty-fourth book in the series, The Clue in the Crossword Cipher:

This is two books in a row featuring a largely brown cover, both by Rudy Nappi.  This time Nancy has a most excellent dress on with a fun chevron pattern that I like, but I like 99 Steps better than this one.

Case file:  Nancy's new friend Carla Ponce invites Nancy, Bess, and George to Peru to see if they can figure out the mystery behind a wood carving that's been in her family for 300 years, featuring a monkey and a crossword cipher on it.  We get another travelogue story with sightseeing in Peru and the Argentine (when did we start calling it Argentina instead of the Argentine?) while Nancy matches wits with a mysterious criminal known only as El Gato, The Cat.  She eventually finds (yet another) buried treasure near the Nazca lines.

Here's my card:

Yep, I found a chevron patterned paper in my stash in a color that coordinates with the book cover, and I had to do a monkey stamp since the wooden plaque has a monkey on it.  I used the colors of Nancy's dress as supporting colors on my card.

I will admit that monkeys are another human-adjacent thing that I find kind of creepy (add it to the list of dolls, puppets, and clowns).  But this little guy from Fox & Friends is rather cute.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fox & Friends, Really Retro
Ink:  Soft Suede, Versamark
Paper:  Tahitian Tide, Soft Suede, Thick Basic White, Park Lane DSP, Tahitian Tide & Parakeet Party DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, white EP, mini Dimensionals, Transparent Dots

Here's my second card:

There's a scene in a book where Bess is surprised by the sudden appearance of an alpaca in the window of a restaurant and thinks it's going to bite George (who, let's be honest, usually deserves it for the abominable way she treats Bess).  I don't have an alpaca stamp but I do have several llamas so I went with that and it just occurred to me that I could have used the extra long-necked llama from Long Time No See.  Dangit, missed opportunity!

I found another chevron patterned paper and used the colors of the book cover for the party streamers behind the llama.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Birthday Fiesta
Ink:  Early Espresso, Tahitian Tide, Versamark
Paper:  Tahitian Tide, Gumball Green, Peach Pie, Copper Clay, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Watercolor Wonder DSP
Accessories:  Fiesta Time dies, Tasteful Labels dies, white EP, Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls

This one isn't among my favorite Drews, perhaps because I still have yet to visit anywhere in South America, but it's an okay installment in the series so I give it three stars.  If you're inspired to make a card based on this book, please leave me a comment below and I hope you have fun with it!  Be sure to visit next week when Nancy takes on The Spider Sapphire Mystery.

Butterfly Garden

Hey y'all, happy Friday!  I did NOT do laundry yesterday but maybe I can put it off until Monday, ha.  I have a bunch of things to do today and laundry is not on the list.

Anywha, here's my card for today:

I busted out the now-retired Sketched Butterflies and some (slightly) older DSP for this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Which I paired with the Creative Colour Challenges palette:

Hey, since the Color Throwdown is no longer throwing down, maybe I should make this challenge my weekly pairing for FMS.  There's a thought.  Anyway, something about these colors made me think of butterflies in a garden, so I went with it.  At first I was going to do the card base in Cajun Craze, but I traded it out for Garden Green instead, though I think the Cajun would have looked good too.  I didn't worry about really blending the colors on the butterfly, just did a quick color job and called it good.  Some Cajun Craze + Gold Dots to match the Wink of Stella on his wings and it's done!

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sketched Butterflies
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Berry Burst, Cajun Craze, Basic Black
Paper:  Garden Green, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Garden Green & Berry Burst DSP
Accessories:  Sketched Butterflies dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Cajun Craze & Gold Dots

E is for Eventually

Mornin' y'all!  I'm tired today...I woke up at 1am thinking that Ryan had yelled or something, but he hadn't, and then I had a lot of trouble getting back to sleep and more or less woke up on the hour until I finally got up at six this morning.  That's always fun.  So I'm going to drink two XL cups of tea before I get out with Daphne this morning.

So!  As I have said, I've been feeling a bit blocked creatively this week and it was driving me nuts yesterday as I was looking for a stamp set to go with the AAA Cards Challenge:

This image popped into my head of a stamp featuring flowers spilling out of an envelope, so I went searching through my hoard and...I don't have it?!  My brain was conflating that image with an old Sale-a-Bration stamp set which I do have (back when it was Sell-a-Bration) and while I do have a few stamp sets featuring envelopes, none of them was what I wanted.

Then my brain FINALLY decided to join the chat (hello brain, I have missed you) and I thought of something starting with E that was not an envelope or an elephant or the Easter bunny.  Those are all totally valid options, but I wanted to do something different.  So here's what I eventually made:

The Eiffel Tower!  And another excuse to use Artistic Etchings, YASSS.  I also embossed the tower with clear EP so I have two Es.  I wanted to add some embellishments (which would have been another E), but since this is for a CAS challenge I resisted the lure of all things shiny.  I thought the new Color Hues Challenge was perfect for this:

That looks like Berry Burst and Night of Navy to me.  I started with the card on the left, using Crumb Cake as a neutral for the script background (I inked up part of the background stamp using a sponge to keep it light, stamped it, and sponged more ink over that one corner) and then my Artistic Etchings stamps kept falling off the blocks so I had to get my Aleene's Tack It Over and Over glue and paint it on the backs of the stamps and let it dry for a while.  In the meantime I wondered what it would look like if I switched the neutral to Smoky Slate, so that's the card on the right and the answer is I need to ink up my Smoky Slate ink pad because it's a bit TOO light.  I let the glue on the stamps dry while I went to pick Ryan up from school and was able to finish both cards in short order when I returned home.

Yesterday I also did my preorder for new In Colors and stuff from SU!, and the new Peaceful Pine ink pad wasn't available and that was the color I'm most excited about (green is my favorite color) but I wanted to get some of the outgoing In Color 12x12 cardstock before it sold out so I submitted the order.  Wow, that was a run-on sentence.  A few hours later I got a notification that the Peaceful Pine ink pad was back in stock so naturally I had to do a second order...I might have gotten another stamp set and another color of cardstock while I was at it.  And some embellishments I missed the first time around.  Aside from new colors (I always love new colors), I splurged and got most of the Midnight Flora suite, I can't wait to see that DSP in person.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Artistic Etchings, Carte Postale, French Script
Ink:  Night of Navy, Berry Burst, Crumb Cake, Smoky Slate, VersaMark
Paper:  Night of Navy, Basic White
Accessories:  Clear EP

So yesterday, Jan commented on my post (HI JAN!) and she wanted to see a picture of Daphne, and of course I am always happy to share pictures of my darling girl so here she is:

The oversize chair has turned into Daphne's throne and I just got her a new fluffy blanket to put on it.  She particularly loves that chair because she can see out the window into the backyard and the green space behind us to make sure all the neighbors are behaving and staying out of her territory.

This is what she looks like when she wants something:

And there's my current stitching project in the background, it's fun with the bright orange fabric.  Daphne does this impression of a baby seal when she has her ears slicked back, I'm sure she's trying to look more pathetic so I'll give in to what she wants.

Here's what Daphne looks like when she's being a pushy brat but tries to act like she's not a pushy brat when I take her picture:

Not buying the innocent act, Daph.  (She was shoving my arm with her nose until she saw me trying to take her picture.)  We got her DNA tested (that was a Christmas present to me from Daph last year) and she really is a supermutt.  She was listed as a German shepherd/Labrador mix at the shelter, which is 10% right; she's American bully/pibble/German shepherd/golden retriever/border collie with a bit of Australian cattle dog, Shar-Pei (!!), and Australian shepherd thrown in.  She's about the same size as our previous Lab mixes and weighs about 65 pounds.  She is my darling girl even when she's being a punk nugget, I adore her.

Okay, I'm nearly finished with my second cuppa, so I'm going to take the Daphinator out for her tour of the neighborhood, start some laundry, and hopefully get some work done in my craft room today.  Cheers, y'all!