Dragon Parade

 Mornin' y'all!  I got another card made on Thursday and I can't wait to share it :)

As soon as I saw the Festive Friday challenge, I knew I would have to play along even if it meant getting up at four in the morning to stamp while Ryan was asleep.  (Thankfully I didn't have to do that.)  Hubs and I lived in Japan for almost three years (Okinawa, to be precise) so I have a collection of Asian-themed stamps and I will take any excuse to ink them up!  Here's the Festive Friday inspo list:

I used a dragon (of course), red (Poppy Parade), gold (embossing powder), and foil paper (also gold).  As it happens, I also have stamps with lanterns, fish and coins, but I had to use this teeny tiny dragon because he's my favorite.  I didn't know at first what kind of sentiment I wanted to use, and I was just looking through my stamp sets when this one in Loyal Leaves caught my eye and it made me think of Mushu from the animated Mulan movie (which I adore).  So there's my Chinese New Year card!

Check ya later, peeps.

Supplies, all SU! (some retired):
Stamps:  Ancient Asia, Loyal Leaves
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Versamark
Paper:  Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Brights DSP, Gold Foil
Accessories:  Gold EP, Hippo & Friends dies, Dimensionals, Gold Glitter Enamel Dots

Humming Along

Mornin', y'all!  Ryan had his second day at the babysitter yesterday and I said to heck with chores and spent most of my time in my craft room.  I had to organize some things and then I got to work on a couple of cards and then ran out of time to do any scrapping, but it feels so good to do ANY papercrafting so I'll take it.  I busted out another brand new stamp set!

I admit, I am a total sucker for hummingbird images; I buy almost every stamp set SU! comes out with that has a hummingbird (but not that one that did the weird movement thing last year because I didn't like it at all).  A Touch of Ink is one of the Sale-a-Bration offerings that you can get for free with a $100 purchase and of course I had to have it.  I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

It's been a minute since I got to play along with them (or anyone, really).  I was thinking of the sketch as I looked through my new stamp sets and I thought the two circular elements would work really well as the hummingbird and flower cluster, so there was my start.  I combined it with this week's Color Throwdown:

Honestly I wish I'd used a different pink to better match the inspiration picture because Petal Pink is too peachy to be a good match, but I didn't have time to redo it.  I used Petal Pink, Misty Moonlight, and Gray Granite for my colors; for the hummingbird, I inked up the fill-in stamp by sponging Misty Moonlight ink on instead of tapping it on the ink pad.  That way I got a lighter shade of the color so the outline stamp (inked twice in Gray Granite) would show up well.  No idea if there's a solid blue hummingbird out there somewhere, but I liked it :) And of course it doesn't show up at all, but I painted the hummingbird and the flower with Wink of Stella so it sparkles in real life.

Time to get some lunch for the kiddo.  Unfortunately we have to find a different babysitter now...he went to the first one for two days and she said she has to go back to the States because her aunt is dying and she's not going to reopen her in-home daycare when she comes back.  The hubs is like "Are you sure she just doesn't want to mess with Ryan?"  I mean, I don't think so....I think it was just bad luck.  My kid BETTER not be acting the fool at someone else's house...

Have a great weekend, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  A Touch of Ink
Ink:  Gray Granite, Misty Moonlight, Petal Pink
Paper:  Petal Pink, Thick Whisper White, Peony Garden DSP
Accessories:  Hippo & Friends dies, In Color Enamel Dots, Mini Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Thanks a Ton

Howdy, y'all!  Surprised to see me?  :D  Yesterday I had Ryan in daycare for six hours and it was GLORIOUS.  Okay so yeah I spent a good portion of the time catching up on housekeeping chores, but I've got clean bathrooms and I enjoyed some quiet time and unpacked a nice fat SU! order that I just got.  Then I had juuuuuust enough time to quickly put together one card before I had to go pick him up.  He's currently outside, playing in the yard because once again it is snowing buckets.  We were told over and over that it doesn't snow much here but I've lost count of how many times it's happened.  I'm told this is unusual ;)

Anyway, on to the card!

Question:  what's the difference between a hippo and a Zippo?  One weighs a ton, the other is a little lighter.  My mom loooooooooooooooooves hippos and Hippo Happiness was in the order that I just got this week and I needed a thank you card and here it is.  Fun fact:  you know the famous Fiona the hippo at the Cincinnati Zoo?  Fiona and I have the same birthday (different years, obviously).

For my card, I started with the Global Design Project challenge:

For these types of challenges, I usually write down a couple of key words and maybe sketch out what the inspiration card looks like, then go upstairs to work in my craft room.  So this time I kept blue as the main color (light and dark), the plaid background, and worked with a similar layout thanks to the sketch from the Paper Players:

I added a vellum shape behind my hippo since to help her stand out since she's the same colors as the plaid background.  I could not get this card to photograph really well no matter what I did.  Well, right now the sky is the exact same color as the ground so it's white everywhere outside.  Just trust me when I say this little hippo is cuter in person.  I used some retired glitter enamel dots (I have a ton left over from making birthday party invites in 2019) and I painted over the die-cut word with Wink of Stella so it has some sparkle too, which of course doesn't show up in the picture.

Ryan will be at daycare again tomorrow (I can hardly contain my excitement) and since I did most of the chores yesterday I'm hoping to get more stamping done.  After ten months of various levels of quarantine restrictions, it is amazing to have some time away from Ryan.  Not that he isn't amazing and wonderful, but I need a break.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hippo Happiness
Ink:  Seaside Spray, Misty Moonlight, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Seaside Spray, Melon Mambo, Thick Whisper White, Vellum, Wrapped in Plaid DSP
Accessories:  Hippo & Friends dies, Well Written dies, retired glitter enamel dots, Wink of Stella

Disney Cruise: Butterfly Garden (Key West)

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  My birthday was yesterday and we celebrated starting with waffles for breakfast (with strawberries and lots of whipped cream, of course) and then had pizza, cake and ice cream for dinner. I love me some carbs but I'm kinda looking forward to getting back to healthier eating now ;)

So!  I have another Disney cruise layout to share today, and it's bright and fun and I love it.

I chose Tangelo Twist for my page base color because of Ryan's super bright orange shirt, and the purples for the patterned paper and photo mats because of the flowers.  I love purple but for some reason I don't seem to use it a lot on scrapbook pages, so I'm always happy when I do manage to sneak some in there.  I love going to places like this butterfly garden--so easy to get some really eye-catching pictures!  They also had a pair of very noisy flamingos living there but I liked all my butterfly pictures better than the flamingo ones, so there ya go.

Today's color palette:  Tangelo Twist, Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Lucky Limeade, and Whisper White.  I don't know that I would have put these colors together on a card or anything like that, but I do love how they work together on this layout!

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Tomorrow is Ryan's first day at daycare, he'll be doing a good chunk of time every Tuesday and Thursday until whenever I can start my job, and then he'll be full time.  I'm hoping to get some good stamping/scrapping done this week!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Positive Thoughts
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Tangelo Twist, Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White, Botanical Butterfly DSP
Accessories:  None

SUO Challenges: Looking for LOVE

 Mornin', y'all!  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

 

Valentine's Day is just under 4 weeks away so this time we are lookin' for LOOOOOVE!  Doesn't have to be romantic love either, I love my friends and I think the card I made for today's challenge will end up going to my mom rather than my husband.

I kinda went literal with the challenge and found a stamp that says "Love" on it.  My mom loves the Love stamps from the post office so this will be perfect for her.  I used Just Jade, Magenta Madness, and Petal Pink for my colors, and I was inspired by the cards on page 18 of the Stampin' Up! catalog for the layout.  There's lots of great inspiration in there if you're feeling stuck!  My Magenta Madness swirly circle is from the Painted Labels dies, and I was able to use one of the Layering Circles dies to cut out the center part, love how that turned out.  I just needed a little something behind the postage stamp to give it some oomph but a solid circle of Magenta Madness would have been too much.

Okay, your turn!  Upload your lovely card over on the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Posted for You
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Petal Pink, Stampin' Blends in Just Jade, Petal Pink, Magenta Madness
Paper:  Just Jade, Magenta Madness, Petal Pink, Thick Very Vanilla, Forever Greenery DSP
Accessories:  Rectangular Postage Stamp punch, Painted Labels dies, Layering Circles dies, Dimensionals, retired sequins

 

Disney Cruise: Key West

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Once again I managed to do some sorting on photos yesterday, so I'm 3 for 3 on Sunday mornings for this year.  Woo!  I've also made some scrappy progress, I am currently at 10 pages completed for the year so far.  Of course the first four layouts were mostly finished last year and I just finished the embellishments and journaling on them, but yay I'm making progress.

Time for today's layout!  Our first port on the Disney cruise:

Bright, fun colors, right?  I seem to be using a lot of Lucky Limeade lately.  Key West is known for Key lime pie (of which we did partake) so Lucky Limeade seemed to be a natural choice for my page base, and I pulled the bright orange and pink from Ryan's and my shirts.  And how many citrus stamps do I own?  Enough to have limes in two sizes on here, at least.

So there's the palette:  Lucky Limeade, Tangelo Twist, Pixie Pink (wow has that been retired for a long time), Dapper Denim, and Whisper White.

We actually got a decent amount of snow over the weekend, so I think later today we're going to take Ryan out sledding.  Cheers, y'all, and stay toasty!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Lemon Zest, Cute Fruit
Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Dapper Denim
Paper:  Lucky Limeade, Pixie Pink, Tangelo Twist, Thick Whisper White, Tangelo Twist DSP
Accessories:  Circle punch

Disney Cruise: Cruisin'

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Despite a killer headache yesterday, I did manage to do a little bit of work on photo organization, so that's two weeks in a row.  It's going more slowly than I want it to, but at least it's going.

Germany is on a very strict lockdown right now so we're just dreaming of the days when we can travel more than 15 kilometers from the house (yeah, that's the rule right now).  So today I'm sharing the first layout from the Disney cruise we took right after Ryan's second birthday.

I have had that Mickey punch for yeeeeeaaarrrrssss and it always gets used when we go to a Disney park or on a Disney cruise (I used it A LOT on our first Disney cruise album).  I have a ton of Disney stickers and stuff but somehow those almost never get used *shrug*  Anyway, we had a couple of pictures from the airport and plane to Miami, then they do the "welcome aboard" pictures when you board the ship, so there you have it for the first layout.  Oh, you might be able to see it if you click on the picture of the layout to make it bigger--Ryan's shirt has Mushu (from Mulan) on the pocket and it says "Travel-size for your convenience."  Bahahaaaa!  So I'm wearing a coordinating "Dishonor on your cow" shirt.

Today's color palette is your basic Superman with blues, yellow, and red:  Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Riding Hood Red, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, and Whisper White.  While I was working on these layouts I decided to try to use a whole rainbow of colors for the page bases so get ready for some COLOR for the next few Scrappy Mondays.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Pacific Point, Riding Hood Red, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Birthday Bonanza DSP
Accessories:  Mickey punch by All Night Media (I think)

SUO Challenges: Designer's Choice

 Hey y'all!  Are you ready for the first challenge of the year from SUO Challenges?

We're doing something nice and easy for our theme this time:  Designer's Choice :) That means you pick anything you want to make and as long as you use only Stampin' Up! products, then it counts for our challenge.  So here's my card:

I will be sending thinking of you cards to my mom all year as she undergoes chemotherapy, so here's the first one of the new year.  This is one of those cards that doesn't look like much on the computer screen but is really lovely in person--after I stamped the sentiment, I painted over it with Wink of Stella and that just makes this card so much prettier IRL!

Hope you'll join us to kick off another great year of SUO Challenges.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Friendship, Rooted in Nature
Ink:  Soft Sea Foam, Petal Pink, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Soft Sea Foam, Thick Whisper White, Peony Garden DSP, Regals DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, retired Basics Sequins

January 2019

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I am happy to report that I DID work on going through pictures yesterday while eating apple cinnamon pancakes for breakfast.  Now I just need to make it a weekly thing :) The hubs took Ryan out of the house for a bit too so I got to work in my craft room just a little.  Didn't totally finish the layout I was working on, but that's okay because it involves a lot of fussy cutting and that just takes time.

On to today's layout!  Since I've shared all of Ryan's baby book here, I feel like I can share other post-Ryan layouts.  I mean, it's my blog and there aren't any rules, but in my head I had to wait until I posted all of his baby book here.  So anywha!  Here's a layout from two years ago.

I love that diamond patterned paper but I think I only have teeny scraps of it left after doing this layout.  It's a good thing that I stocked up on Blueberry Bushel cardstock because I use it a LOT on Ryan layouts.  Like, constantly.  I've done quite a few monthly roundup layouts post-Ryan; we just take random pictures of him all the time so these types of roundup layouts are the best way to share the pictures, though it sometimes makes color combinations a bit tricky.  I have to giggle at the pictures of him in his wolf costume--I told him to grab something warm to wear when we were on our way to the Y one day, and he brought me the costume.  It really WAS something warm to wear, so I let him, and man was he the most popular dude at the Y that day.  Ha!

I really need to figure out a good place to take pictures of my scrapbook pages and color palettes in this house.  I mean, I took these pictures in NC and they're too dark but I have the same problem here.  Anyway, today's color palette is Riding Hood Red (still a favorite of mine, it seems to play a bit nicer with other colors than Real Red does sometimes), Bashful Blue, Smoky Slate, Blueberry Bushel, and Whisper White.

Hope your week is off to a great start.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Morning Post Numbers, My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Riding Hood Red, Blueberry Bushel, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Riding Hood Red, Blueberry Bushel, Smoky Slate, Thick Whisper White, Frosty Day DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Stars dies

Ryan's First Snow and New Year Goals

That most benighted year 2020 is finally OVER!  Let's all work on making 2021 extra super totally amazing and fun, k?  There's a lot of superstitions that what you do on January first sets the tone for the whole year so you shouldn't do things like laundry or take out the trash.  So far today, I've done a yoga workout with a focus on BALANCE (I think that might be a word to focus on this year), and I bought a couple of books because I just can't stop doing that.  So let's start the new year off right here and have a look at a scrapbook layout:

Aww, Ryan was so tiny!  The pictures were taken in March 2017, when he was just a month old.  That polar bear onesie was one of my favorite things I bought for Ryan clothes-wise and he only got to wear it a couple of times, so I'm glad I have these pictures to remember it.  I used my all-time favorite SU! color, Baja Breeze, and the longtime favorite Ski Slope DSP.  I bought like a zillion packs of it and love it every time I find a place to use it in my scrapbooks.  The letters on "snow" are from the Mod Alphabet, which I've had forever but rarely use because even a short title takes up a lot of space, but I liked it on here and it inspired me to do my journaling in a circle on the other page.

Today's color palette:  Baja Breeze, Real Red, Whisper White, and Early Espresso.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Back to Basics Alphabet, Festive Flurry, Mod Alphabet
Ink:  Early Espresso, Real Red, Baja Breeze
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Early Espresso, Thick Whisper White, Ski Slope DSP
Accessories:  circle punch, Festive Flurry Framelits

Okay, so, on to the goals portion of today's blog post!  I posted my 2020 goals here, so let's revisit those and set some intentions for 2021. 

1.  2020 goal: make 200 pages (100 two-page layouts).  Later I amended this to 100 pages, thinking that we were supposed to get to Germany in April and I'd get a job, but then the pandemic hit and everything when haywire.  In the end, I DID achieve my original goal and finished the year with 208 finished pages.  Woo! 

2021:  I have a tentative job offer for the arts & crafts center here, but it is currently shut down because we're in lockdown until I think mid-January.  So I'm going to leave this goal TBD for now until I can get started on the new job and establish a schedule and figure out what might be reasonable here.

2.  2020 goal:  organize and pare down pictures...once again a fail.  I am consistent with not reaching this goal, so there's that.  I did fairly well with organizing as we took new pictures throughout the year, but I did not go back and work on older photos.

2021:  I almost always make something fun for breakfast on Sundays (muffins, waffles, what have you), so every time I do that, I'm going to take my fun breakfast in the computer room and spend 30 minutes or more working on organizing the pictures.  If I can do just that little bit of time once a week, then I should be able to make some good progress by the end of the year.  Wish me luck.

Reading:
2020:  no goal for reducing the size of my TBR pile (good thing, because it grows ever larger), so I just tracked what I did read.  I read 86 books and 2 novellas; I did not track the zillions of kids' books I read to Ryan at bedtime every night ; )  My favorite book from 2020 was Liza Mundy's Code Girls; it was an incredibly fascinating look at the role women played in WWII and it inspired me to read several other nonfiction books about the war, especially female British agents working in occupied France.  I also read two books about WWI because I didn't really remember much about it from my history classes and I'm a giant nerd.

2021:  I liked what I did last year, just tracking what I was reading and not trying to pressure myself into shrinking my TBR pile, which seems to grow no matter what.  So I'm going to do the same thing this year.

Cross Stitching:
3.  My goal was to get to 40% done on my huge Scarlet Quince project.  By the end of December, I had actually just passed FIFTY PERCENT on it!

I'm thrilled with the progress I made on this one.  I also finished several other small cross stitch projects, and I managed to get to 50% even with putting this aside for a couple of months while we moved.  So my goal for 2021 is to get to 65%.  I recently bought a whole bunch more SQ patterns but I'm making myself wait to start any of those until this one is finished.  Better get to stitchin'!

Fitness:
2020 was my first full year of doing Missy's fitness cult and I have lost over 30 pounds since November 2019.  I did gain a couple of pounds at Thankgsiving that I have yet to work back off, but I'm still in a lot better shape than I was and pretty happy about it.  My one specific 2020 fitness goal was to do a full chaturanga (like a slow tricep pushup) and guess what?  I CAN.  I did one during my yoga workout this morning.  There's still room for improvement, and I'm going to work on that, but I CAN DO IT!  So I think my 2021 goal is to continue to improve that chaturanga and maintain my weight loss.  Get rid of that bit of Thanksgiving fluff ; ) but otherwise just maintain.  Doable!

So that's my start for 2021.  Best wishes to you for the new year!