This Isn't Poison!

It's extract...of LLAMA!!!

More fun pinks and purples!  This is my last card for Emperor's New Groove week, but I still have quite a few quote stamps that I haven't used yet so don't be surprised when this pops up again : )  I really did have so much fun making all six of these cards...and it's going to be even more fun to send them out!

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Poison from The Ink Road
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Polished Pink, Stampin' Blends in Highland Heather, Balmy Blue, Polished Pink
Paper:  Polished Pink, Thick Basic White, Gorgeous Grape DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, In Color rhinestones, Dimensionals

Boom Baby!

We continue our appreciation week for the Emperor's New Groove with Emperor Kuzco!

YASSS I love it.  I looked Kuzco up online to make sure I got the colors right, gotta love it.  One of those matte dots totally went MIA while I was working on this card, it got detached from the adhesive and it took me forever to find it.  But I got it done!  And I used up a couple of scraps of older DSP, too.  Woo!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Boom Baby from The Ink Road
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Tahitian Tide, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Tahitian Tide, neutrals
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Thick Basic White, Real Red DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, In Color Matte Dots, Dimensionals

You Really Should Have Thought of That

Before you became PEASANTS!  Behold our favorite evil advisor to the emperor...

Hahaha YESSS.  I know exactly who is going to get this card, she will laugh when I address it to you PEASANT.  I really had so much fun playing with all the pink and purple on the Yzma cards!

See you back here tomorrow for more Emperor's New Groove goodness.  If you're getting tired of it then clearly you haven't seen the movie often enough, so you should go do that ; )  Cheers, peasants!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Poison from The Ink Road
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Highland Heather, Fresh Freesia, Polished Pink
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Thick Basic White, Polished Pink DSP
Accessories:  Opaque Dots, Stylish Shapes, Dimensionals, White EP

SUO Challenges: CASE Files

Second post of the day and get ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges, 'cause it's coming at you now!

This time we're doing a CASE the Catty challenge, so check out page 22 of the Occasions Catalog:

There's five different projects to inspire you!  Fun, right?  I went with the card on the far right, and here's what I made:

I did a similar layout, though I moved my circles downward because it made more sense to have clouds in the sky above the fox : )  And she's a quick brown fox in her smart pink rain gear and cheery yellow umbrella.  I've been working on my shading with Blends.  Like the original card, I used two different patterns for the circle elements and then stamped the background of the card.

Now it's your turn!  Open your own CASE file (what, I think I'm funny) and share your creation at the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Playing in the Rain
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Balmy Blue, Whisper White
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Thick Basic White, Rain or Shine DSP
Accessories:  Playing in the Rain dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Don't Tell Me

Emperor's New Groove Love Fest continues!  And here's our favorite llama:

The inside says "Bring it on."  : )  I have this image of Kuzco on a needle minder for my cross stitch projects too.

Stay tuned for this week's new SUO Challenges card, coming up soon!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Boom Baby from The Ink Road
Ink:  Cinnamon Cider, Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Ivory & Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Early Espresso, Thick Basic White, Crushed Curry DSP
Accessories:  In Color Enamel Dots, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Looking for THIS?

Scrappy Monday is on hold this week because it's Emperor's New Groove week!  And today's card is my FAVORITE out of the whole batch!

I flippin' LOVE Yzma!  I cackled mightily while making this, I had so much fun.  Oh man I need to watch this movie again PDQ.

Have a great Monday, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Poison Kitty from The Ink Road
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Fresh Freesia, Highland Heather, Balmy Blue, Polished Pink
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Thick Basic White, Polished Pink DSP
Accessories:  Opaque Gems, white EP, Dimensionals

Ya Got Me.

Surprise Sunday post!  There's a great new sketch at the Paper Players and I just couldn't wait to play with it!

Okay, y'all know I'm like a 99% Stampin' Up! purist, but every once in a while I do buy from other stamp companies.  I did a rather large order around Black Friday last November and I finally got them last week and LOOK WHAT I DID!

It's Kronk from the Emperor's New Groove!  Aaaaahhhhh I love it!  And I had so much fun I made FIVE MORE CARDS so this is Emperor's New Groove week at Snapdragon Stamps!!!  I'm so excited.  I have two friends who are also big ENG fans and they're going to be happy to get these in the mail!

Have a great week, peeps.  I'll have posts scheduled while we're on Ryan's spring break.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Poison from The Ink Road
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Orchid Oasis, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Orchid Oasis, Highland Heather, neutrals
Paper:  Orchid Oasis, Thick Basic White, Crushed Curry DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, In Color Matte Dots, Dimensionals

On A Dark Desert Highway

Happy Friday, y'all!  The hubs is off work and Ryan is off school today, so I may not get much craft room time, but I'll get to spend time with my two favorite dudes.  And I did have a *really* good time in my craft room yesterday, so there's that : )  Here's one of my creations!

Umm how much am I in love with Starry Sky.  It's amazing.  The colors aren't quite right in my photo, but it's the best I could do with yesterday's super gloomy skies.

I rotated this week's Freshly Made Sketch to make a landscape card:

And I paired that with the Color Throwdown:

I used Starry Sky, Soft Suede, and Cajun Craze for my colors, isn't this a fun palette?  I like it.

Okay, I need to go start finalizing our itinerary for spring break.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Desert Details, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Starry Sky, Soft Suede, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Starry Sky, Soft Suede, Thick Basic White, Delicate Desert DSP
Accessories:  Desert Details dies, In Color Matte Dots, Dimensionals

The Sweet Life

Do you ever have a day where your creativity just doesn't want to get with the program?  I was having a bit of trouble with that earlier this week--I had the time to work in my craft room but I just couldn't seem to settle down and make a card.  So instead I got out some photos and started on a scrapbook layout, and then it jump-started an idea for a card and I made this!

(I'll finish up the scrapbook pages later today.)  But this card makes my little heart happy!  How do I love these colors from Sunday Stamps:

I used Orchid Oasis, Pool Party (which isn't quite as good a match as the other colors, but let's move along), Parakeet Party, Gray Granite, and Sweet Sorbet.  Um, can I say *again* how much I love that crop of In Colors!  These bright colors are my jam, for sure. And every single piece of paper I used on this card (other than the card base) was a scrap--don't forget to share your own scrappy cards at the SUO Challenges blog!

I also used the sketch from Global Design Project:

And really, I started out with the Festive Friday challenge for today's card, but Blogger has its own peculiar ideas on what order to post pictures in.  So last but definitely not least, the Festive Friday challenge:

I used bright colors, patterned paper, and squares on my card, and I was inspired to make oddly colored ice cream because my kid will always always always go for the not-found-in-nature blue ice cream when we go to Baskin-Robbins.  And my life is definitely sweeter with him in it : )

This is my last day to work in my craft room for a bit, Ryan is off school tomorrow and all of next week for spring break.  So we'll be taking pictures for future scrapbook pages!  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Share a Milkshake
Ink:  Orchid Oasis, Gray Granite, Sweet Sorbet, Parakeet Party
Paper:  Parakeet Party, Orchid Oasis, Thick Basic White, DSP in Sweet Sorbet & Pool Party
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Share a Milkshake dies, retired sequins, Dimensionals

Sympathy Ginkgo

Mornin' folks, how's your Wednesday going?  I'm actually excited to go to work today--I got an art print for a friend, and I'm picking out the frame for it today.  Very excited to see how it will look when it's done because I know my friend is gonna be thrilled!

I did spend some time in my craft room yesterday and *finally* took pictures of a mountain of scrapbook pages--TWENTY-TWO layouts!  I always have to wait for a day that's overcast but not rainy or windy to take pictures, and luckily I hit that yesterday.

And then I made a couple of cards, including the one for today.

Okay, I've had Ginkgo Branch for a while but hadn't made anything with it until yesterday.  Believe it or not the color variation on the flowers (and I have no idea what color real life ginkgo flowers are) was an accident--I hadn't cleaned my stamp off well enough for that tall stem in the middle and it ended up darker.  And then the shortest ones just kinda stamped weird when I inked them up with a marker.

Anyway, I love this soft and pretty color combination from Hand Stamped Sentiments:

Isn't that just delightful?  I need to stock up on Fresh Freesia, I do love that color.  Anyway, I paired that with the CAS Colours & Sketches sketch:

I thought the thin stems in the Ginkgo Branch stamp set would be a good stand-in for the striped element on the sketch, and I added a blended rectangle so I could incorporate the blue too.  I decided on the sympathy sentiment because I don't *need* a sympathy card right now, and I hate making them when I actually do need them, so it's good to have a few in the ol' card stash.  I used a few white Milky Dots and some Wink of Stella for accents.

Still waiting for spring to, ya know, spring here...we've got the teeny daffodils but no tulips yet.  I look at the blumen field every time I drive past...maybe a few more weeks?  In the meantime, I can enjoy paper flowers.  Those ones at least I can't kill!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ginkgo Branch
Ink:  Fresh Freesia, Pear Pizzazz, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Milky Dots, Stitched Rectangles dies (to make a mask)

Wisteria & Bluebonnets

Hey y'all, how's your week going so far?  I didn't get as much done in my craft room as I wanted to yesterday (do I ever?), but I've got most of the day today until Ryan gets off the bus so it's a new day to tackle my goals.  I did make two cards yesterday though:

I was inspired by the Paper Players challenge and one card just wasn't enough : )

I made the wisteria card first:

I was inspired by the Just Add Ink challenge to pull out my Wisteria Wishes set, take a look:

Add black and these are prime Halloween colors, but I toned them down a bit and made them more summery.  Yeah wisteria blooms in late spring/early summer, so I had to have another go for a more springtime flower:

Bluebonnets!  I have lots of friends and family in Texas, and I've already started seeing some bluebonnet photos pop up on Facebook.  I need to play with this stamp set some more, it's so pretty!  And I do love how you can do the flowers in either direction.  Think I need to try some Indian paintbrushes next time.

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, wisteria card:
Stamps:  Wisteria Wishes, Biggest Wish
Ink:  Mango Melody, Granny Apple Green, Gorgeous Grape, Gray Granite
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Wisteria dies, Layering Circles dies (to make a mask), Mini Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Supplies, bluebonnet card:
Stamps:  Wisteria Wishes, Biggest Wish
Ink:  Balmy Blue, Blueberry Bushel, Pear Pizzazz, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Wisteria dies, Mini Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Castle Acre Priory (Invasion)

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I think I am *finally* starting to feel better after being a human pancake for a solid month.  I went to the doctor on Friday and it turns out I've had pneumonia!  At least now I don't feel like a weakling who couldn't shake a cold.  I've got antibiotics and steroids and like I said, I feel like I'm finally on the upswing now.  Which means hopefully I'll be back on track with scrapbooking very soon, I've got two layouts on my table right now, and a giant stack I need to take photos of.

For now, here's one of my recent finishes:

More pics from the "Invasion" in 2013, during the Britain part of their trip.  The hubs and I took everyone up to Castle Acre Priory so they could kinda get a taste for the kinds of things that we typically did over the weekends, and we had a lovely cream tea at a local tea room afterwards.  I put a couple of bee accents on these pages because beekeeping sounds like something the monks might have done when this was a working religious house.  After all, monks all over Britain brewed beer and did stuff like that, so why not bees.  I don't know if they actually did keep bees but I like 'em on my pages anyway.

Today's palette is a bit unusual I think:  Fresh Freesia, Certainly Celery, Terracotta Tile, and Basic Gray.  It's a triadic color scheme (purple - green - orange) and the Terracotta Tile isn't that molten orange like it looks in the picture.  I think it works pretty well though, I like it.

Gotta go do some grocery shopping and then hopefully lots of work in my craft room. Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Classic Alphabet, Postage Collection
Ink:  Basic Gray, Terracotta Tile
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Terracotta Tile, Certainly Celery, Thick Basic White, Certainly Celery DSP
Accessories:  None

Little Bunny

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  And happy birthday to my mom's uncle Pat : )  Ryan has asked several times "Hey, when's that day when I get to pinch people?!"  So yeah, you'd better be wearing green if you're local to us.

Today's card is in no danger of being pinched as I used *lots* of green!

D'awww, this bunny is adorable.  Thanks to the Color Throwdown for featuring my favorite color, green!

And naturally I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And that's all she wrote for today.  I've got several things I want to work on today, so I'd better make like a bunny and hop to it : ) Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Easter Bunny
Ink:  Soft Suede, Garden Green, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake and Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Thick Very Vanilla, Garden Green, Soft Suede, Garden Green DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Layering Circles dies, Essentials Enamel Dots, Dimensionals

Triple Decker Sweet Life

Mornin' y'all, how's your day going?  I have another card to share that I made this past Tuesday:

Yay for using Share a Milkshake again!  I thought it would be a good fit for the super summery Paper Players color challenge:

And I happened to have a polka-dotty scrap of retired Granny Apple Green DSP in my drawer, so hooray for using up a scrap too (don't forget our current challenge at SUO Challenges!)

I was happy to see that this week's sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday had a nice big panel for my triple decker Dole Whip:

Ever had a Dole Whip at Disneyland?  It's kinda like pineapple-flavored soft serve ice cream.  Anywha, I was a bit more liberal with my take on the sketch this time, I used the sentiment panel in place of the three stars and instead of putting more accents at the top, I scattered some glitter enamel dots on the main DSP panel.  But I think you can see that the sketch was my jumping off point.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Share a Milkshake
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Tahitian Tide, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Tahitian Tide, Thick Basic White, Granny Apple Green DSP
Accessories:  Share a Milkshake dies, Timeless Labels dies, Glitter Enamel Dots, Dimensionals

Tulip Trio

Hey y'all, how's it going?  I got some work done in my craft room yesterday (hooray!) so I have a card to share today.

I was inspired by the Inspired By... challenge (funny how that works).

In particular, I was intrigued by the combination of colors, so I made my card with Pale Papaya, Sweet Sorbet, Gorgeous Grape, and Garden Green (because green is nature's neutral, you heard it here first).  I don't think I would have ever put those three colors together without this inspiration pic, so there you go.  I now have a set of pictures on my table awaiting the scrapbook treatment, and Gorgeous Grape will feature on those pages : )

I'm also entering this at Retro Rubber:

Flowering Tulips is one year old, so not quite as retro as I frequently do for this challenge but it counts!  Wonder when we'll see the tulips coming up around here?  I saw a few wee daffodils yesterday.

Have a great day, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flowering Tulips
Ink:  Pale Papaya, Sweet Sorbet, Gorgeous Grape, Garden Green
Paper:  Pale Papaya, Sweet Sorbet, Gorgeous Grape, Thick Basic White, Gorgeous Grape DSP
Accessories:  Tulips dies, Stitched Rectangles dies, Opaque Gems, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: A Feast on Scraps

Hey hey, stampy friends!  It's time for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

The challenge this time is to make a card using scraps.  We all have them, right?  Little pieces of patterned paper, extra stamped images, pieces of cardstock left over from other projects...okay so this challenge might be a little self-serving because I came up with it and I always have a ton of scraps.  I'm a leeeetle bit of a hoarder when it comes to craft supplies (haha), and every time I get a new pack of DSP, I make up one of these:

It's a regular sheet protector and I put on a label with the name of the DSP and the colors featured in it.  I put in a sheet of cardstock and for the 12x12 DSPs I'll put scraps in the back that are still 12" long and thus usable for borders on scrapbook pages, everything shorter than that goes in front of the cardstock.  So for this challenge, I decided to focus on the Tea Boutique DSP stack because I had a bunch of scraps from it (and also I just like it).  And then I made three cards!  Every single bit of paper on these cards (except the card bases) started out as a scrap left over from something else.  Take a look:

So here's the first card I made:

Those three strips of patterned paper were already all the same size; two of the teapots were already fussy cut from another piece of paper.  A quick stamped sentiment on a little scrap of Fresh Freesia and a run through the die cut machine and voila, my first card.

Here's card #2:

I noticed those two Crushed Curry patterns and thought they'd go nicely with that one floral.  I cut down one scrap of the floral pattern to fit my card front (this is kind of CASEd from a previous challenge), and then I flipped the other piece of that scrap over and cut the three circles from it to go behind the Sweet Sorbet teapot.  The scrap wasn't big enough to make a big circle to go around the teapot, so that's why I did three smaller ones, and I think it works.

Final card:

For this last card, I used a couple of the larger scraps.  I cut about 3/4" off the Fresh Freesia scrap and left the other one as it already was, then put together a quick sentiment panel with another fussy cut teapot.  I know the color in this pack is Parakeet Party, not Pear Pizzazz, but Parakeet Party felt too bright for this card so I switched it out for the tamer green.

So in the end, I used up quite a few of my Tea Boutique scraps, but not all--I think I still have three more teapots awaiting cards.  This was a fun exercise for me; besides using up scraps, it made me think creatively about how to use the pieces I had without cutting out anything extra.  So I hope you'll give our scrap-tastic challenge a shot and post your card(s) over on the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cup of Tea
Ink:  Starry Sky, Garden Green
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Fresh Freesia, Petal Pink, Pear Pizzazz, Tea Boutique DSP Stack
Accessories:  Teacup dies, Stylish Shapes dies, In Color Matte Dots, In Color baker's twine, Dimensionals

March 2020

Scrappy Monday, y'all, and the start of Week 4 of the Cold That Would Not Go Away.  Still miserable.  Both the hubs and the kid are feeling better, at least, it's me that can't kick this thing.

Anyway, I have one of my more recent layouts to share today:

Pics are all from March of 2020, which is when the Covid lockdowns really started in the States, at least where we were.  I almost always angle stripey paper like that so it points upwards, because it seems more cheerful to me, but this time I chose to make it go downwards (and this is part of the Flowers & More DSP that's in the Occasions catalog, I love it!).  So most of the journaling block is about Covid, but I did some short captions on most of the pictures for what Ryan was doing.  Like how he chose is own all-red outfit.  I think that the 2022-24 In Colors might be my favorite batch so far for scrapbooking, I think I've used all of them as page bases already and I bought another pack of 12x12 cardstock (actually my last order was almost all 12x12 cardstock, I bought more from each color family).

Today's In Color palette:  Parakeet Party, Orchid Oasis, Starry Sky, and Sweet Sorbet.  There's just a bit of Tahitian Tide on the patterned paper, too.

Stay healthy, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Full Calendar
Ink:  Versamark, Starry Sky marker
Paper:  Parakeet Party, Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis, Sweet Sorbet, Thick Basic White, Flowers & More DSP
Accessories:  White EP, Beautiful Shapes dies

Oh, Beehive

I'm going to blame that terrible pun on either too much cold medicine, or not enough.  It's one of those two.  I sent Ryan to school today for the first time all week (he was Most Displeased and told me so at top volume several times, but he went) and I am doing my best to stay vertical and do some laundry.  While I'm waiting for the next load to come out of the dryer, I made this:

Hexagons everywhere.  I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I started out by cutting a whole lot of hexagons with the Beautiful Shapes dies, and then just piling them on my card front until I liked it.  I'm also entering this at Festive Friday:

I used green, gold (it's very subtle, but the Genial Gems I used have gold glitter in them and for some reason I just really liked them with the bees), and luck.  And a punny sentiment if you count my blog post title.

Next up is the Color Throwdown:

I used Pool Party, Daffodil Delight, and Parakeet Party.  All my hexes were cut from scraps of DSP in my stash, yay!

Finally, here's the Cupcake Inspirations challenge:

Which is what kind of brought the other three challenges together for me.  The Color Throwdown was good bee colors, the stamp set has a good luck sentiment in it for the Festive Friday challenge, and the hexagons worked with the Freshly Made Sketch.

Time to switch out the laundry.  Stay healthy, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Honeybee Home
Ink:  Basic Gray, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Pool Party, DSP in Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Parakeet Party
Accessories:  Beautiful Shapes dies, Honeybee dies, Genial Gems, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Hippity Hoppity

Well, someone has put a curse on our house; all three of us are sick to one degree or another.  Ryan hasn't been to school all week, I've called in sick to work two days, the hubs is sick but had to go on a business trip anyway.  The doctors keep telling us it's just a cold, but man, this one just won't give up!

But today I managed to get in my craft room for a little bit while Ryan was watching cartoons and I made this:

Easter Bunny is one of my newer acquisitions that hadn't been used yet, so I'd better hurry up before Easter is over for this year.  (I got it because I have some Easter pics from last year and this will be perfect when I do those scrapbook pages.) (I also did another SU! order for today, but for once, it had zero stamps on it.  All cardstock, mostly 12x12 because as soon as I can sit up for longer than an hour without the room spinning, I will be back to scrapbooking.)

And of course Easter Bunny is perfect for the challenge at the Paper Players:

And I thought the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge this time around is a great collection of Easter colors:

And the Hand Stamped Sentiments sketch is nice and CAS too:

So the only two things that took a bit of time for my card were fussy cutting the rabbit's flower garland and trying different things to change the shape at the top of the Daffodil Delight DSP.  I ended up going with one of the Basic Borders dies and it kinda sorta looks like a house so I'm going with it.

Hope Ryan has picked a cartoon that I like because I'm going to go lay on the couch for a while.  Cheers, and stay healthy y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Easter Bunny
Ink:  Soft Suede, Highland Heather, Stampin' Blends in Highland Heather, Daffodil Delight, Parakeet Party, Crumb Cake, Polished Pink
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Daffodil Delight & Parakeet Party DSP
Accessories:  Easter Bunny punch, Stitched Rectangles dies, Basic Borders dies, Dimensionals