29 Again, Part 1

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your weekend?  I've been battling, but I think I am finally succumbing to the cold my husband so kindly shared with me :p  I have a feeling that the Kleenex box is going to be my best friend for a while.

Buuuut I do have a scrapbook layout to share today!  I wanted to share this last month when I turned 40, but I was still waiting to get some reprints of photos in the mail.  Better late than never, right?

This was my 30th birthday...I stayed 29 for several years ;)  At this time, we were living in/on Okinawa (seriously, do you live in an island or on it?) and I was working at the OG.  My friend Connie, the other secretary, has a birthday a few days before mine, so that's her birthday flowers on the left.  She was responsible for getting me "the geekiest cake she could find" for my birthday--Star Trek!  And then my hubs showed up and put up an Elmo pinata and a sign...not sure why my turning 30 necessitated beating up a super-annoying Muppet, but we did.

Today's color palette includes Pacific Point, Cameo Coral, Real Red, Summer Sun, Basic Black, and Whisper White.  I've got more layouts from this birthday to share next week.  In the meantime, hope you're staying healthy!  Cheers.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  A Greeting for All Reasons, Number of Years
Ink:  Real Red, Cameo Coral, Summer Sun, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Pacific Point, Cameo Coral, Summer Sun, Thick Whisper White, Pink Flamingo DSP
Accessories:  Circles Collection & Starburst Framelits

Friday Flashback: Paint Prints

Happy Friday, peeps!  This week's Friday Flashback stamp set is the awesome Paint Prints, which was a Sale-a-Bration set back in 2005 when it was still Sell-a-Bration.  Are ya ready?

Also features All Holidays

All the stamps in Paint Prints are kinda watercolor/distressed looking.  I think I got a little carried away with this card, it's kinda busy.

Also features Happy Everything

And here is incontrovertible proof that you can take two stamp sets you really like and still make a hella ugly card.

Also features Lovely Letters Alphabet

Ah, a unicorn chaser in the form of some scrapbook pages.  The Paint Prints flowers are stamped all over the page base around the photo blocks; click on the pic to see it bigger.  And marvel at my photographic skillz in taking pictures of all those lotus blossoms.

Here's another super old baby book layout.

Also features A Greeting for All Reasons

And a very old card, but I still kinda like this one.

Here's some kinda manly colors, and you can see the block and the "delight" stamp also in the set.

Also features All-Year Cheer

 Bopping right along...

Also features Sincere Salutations

I like the colors on this one but I think they're almost all retired.

Also features Whimsical Alphabet, Amazing to Zany, Paisley

 I like the rounded corners on the main image panel, I should do that again and update this card.

Non-SU sentiment

My great-grandmother used to tell me to drink orange juice because "it will put sunshine in your day" and this card makes me think of her.  So that's the end of the Flashback, here's the new card on the block:

Haha, block, and it's a colorblock card.  That wasn't particularly on purpose but it amused me when I thought about it for a second.  Anyway, this card's layout is courtesy of Freshly Made Sketches, gotta love a good colorblock.

 

And the colors are courtesy of me, because I wanted to use Elegant Eggplant, Pink Pirouette, Pale Plum, and Pistachio Pudding.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

And there's the inside of the card.

Well folks, that's it for me this week.  I'm off to go do some more crafting.  Cheers!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Paint Prints
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, Pink Pirouette, Pale Plum, Whisper White
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Pink Pirouette, Pistachio Pudding, Pale Plum, Whisper White
Accessories:  white baker's twine, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Bold Basics

Mornin', peeps, and welcome to this week's Friday Flashback!  This week the randomly chosen retired stamp set is Bold Basics, which is one of those sets I got the first year I started stamping but still somehow didn't use a whole lot.  So let's go!

Also features Simply Spring, Bunch o' Bugs, Whimsical Alphabet

You saw this layout pretty recently when we did the Whimsical Alphabet Friday Flashback.  The flowers on the right page are from Bold Basics.

Also features Tiny Talk

Who doesn't love a red, white, and blue Valentine?  How do you like the split mat on the main image?

Well, that was it for the Flashback part, so here is today's all-new creation:

As soon as I saw this week's Color Throwdown I knew I wanted to use it with these flowers from Bold Basics.  I really wanted to use the bright and fun (and retired) Summer Sun, and I was looking through my old ribbon for some black grosgrain when I found the yellow and I thought PERFECT!  The greeting is from A Greeting for All Reasons, which just seemed to match the tone of the Bold Basics blossoms.

So here's the challenge swatch from the Color Throwdown:

Fun and cute.  I kinda wish I had used a pattern on the bottom of my card that had more black in it, but I liked the houndstooth so whatever.  Anyway, that's it for me this week, so I'd better get my last run in and then maybe I can treat myself to the movies this afternoon :)  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Bold Basics, A Greeting for All Reasons
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Summer Sun
Paper:  Whisper White, Night & Day DSP
Accessories:  Maize grosgrain, corner rounder punch

Friday Flashback: Sweet Treats

It's the first Friday of the new year and that means the first Friday Flashback of 2015!  So today's stamp set is a real oldie, Sweet Treats, which retired in 2006.  Let's take a look back, shall we?

Also features Filigree

Please pardon the terrible picture, this card actually looked much better IRL than in this photo.  The filigree background was embossed with Iridescent Ice, as was the entire panel with the cake on it, so it was very sparkly.

Also features Teeny Tinies and Beyond the Basics

There are people who call the long-retired Orchid Opulence color Fairy Puke Purple, but I actually liked it and set out to make a card with it to try to make other people like it too.  Not sure if I changed anyone else's mind, but I enjoyed the challenge.

Also features Background Basics and Whimsical Alphabet

And here's the third stamp in the set, which now has me wishing I had ice cream.  And also one of those cool dishes to put an ice cream sundae in.

Also features Whimsical Blossoms wheel and A Greeting for All Reasons

Last but not least, this was the card I made for the first swap I ever participated in, not too long after I started stamping.  I do have a collection of wheels, but very rarely did I ever use them except when they were current.  Well, there were a few that I cut up and made into individual stamps, so I used those a bit more often.

Anywha, here's today's brand new creation:

January is my birthday month so I thought I would make a birthday card today.  Someone else is having a birthday too:

The color challenge at Colour Me...! is to pick one of the previous challenges, so I got some scrap paper to write down a couple of the challenges that I liked.  Then I ended up writing down about 2/3 of them, so I could probably do a Colour Me card every day for the rest of the month ;)  But here's the one I picked for today:

Nommy picture, and I do love the colors together!  So that's that.

It's raining in Alabama and I'd been hoping to take the dogs for a walk today.  Guess I'll have to do laps around my house until we leave to go see Night at the Museum 3 at the theater?  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Sweet Treats, Birthday Wish (single stamp)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Bermuda Bay, Real Red, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Basic Black, Whisper White, scraps of Big Top Birthday & Fresh Prints (of Bel Air!) DSP
Accessories:  Banner Framelits, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Stars & Swirls

Guess what?  Today is my first blogiversary here at Snapdragon Stamps.  Yay!  With that in mind, I thought for today's Friday Flashback that it would be fun to feature the very first Stampin' Up! stamp set that I ever bought, Stars & Swirls.  So sit back and relax with a cuppa if you so desire, because today's Flashback is going to be longer than most as I love this stamp set : )

You might guess from the name that this little stamp set has both stars and swirls in it, though I admit I use the stars more than the swirls.  Like my mom, I'm a sucker for all kinds of papercrafty things featuring stars (and plaid, but probably not together).  This one also features Happy Everything which is one of my all-time favorite sentiment sets.

Ok, so this one is old-old-old from not long after I started stamping and before I discovered sketch challenges so I only had like three layouts for cards : )  I do still love polished stone though...greeting from A Greeting for All Reasons.

It's a license plate!  I thought it was cool for a Father's Day card.  Letters from Well-Worn Alphabet & Numbers.

I think I made a bunch of these for stamp club not long after I became a demonstrator.  Look, it opens up:

Fun, right?  Other stamp sets used are Letterpress Alphabet, Swirling Stars jumbo wheel, and one of the All-Year Cheer sets (what, they blend together).

Here's one with the swirl!  This layout also features my favoritest-ever scrapbook layout sketch.  I love it so much that I have to try to limit myself to using it ONLY once in any given album.  

More stars on a baby book!  Other stamps from House of Haunts.

And here's a layout from the first-ever baby book I ever made; also features Star-Spangled Banner.

Here's some gold embossing on gold cardstock and some gold Pearl-Ex on the card base, and again a sentiment from AYC.  I never much got into Pearl-Ex so I wasn't sad when SU! quit selling it.  I think this might be the only time I used it...and the only reason I had any was because someone else gave it to me.

So that's it for the vault, here's today's new creation:

I used this week's SCS sketch and three of my favorite colors:  Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green, and Raspberry Ripple.  I quite like those three colors together, I'll have to try that again sometime.

Thanks for joining me for this week's special blogiversary Friday Flashback!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Stars & Swirls, Happy Everything
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green, Raspberry Ripple, Whisper White craft
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green, Raspberry Ripple, Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensionals