Joyful Cardinal

Mornin' y'all!  I am tired this morning, Daphne has been getting me up three times a night for the past couple of nights so she can go outside.  Hope her tummy feels better soon.  Anyway, I got a bit of crafty time yesterday after running errands and writing in cards, so here is my card for today:

I had to dust off my long-retired stamp set A Cardinal Christmas for the Hand-Stamped Sentiments challenge:

I also couldn't resist the plaid, I love me a good plaid!  Or two : )  I used up several scraps of the Wrapped in Plaid DSP Stack for this card, thanks to the layer-iffic sketch from As You See It:

I didn't want to cover up my cardinal image, so instead of the wide strip for the sentiment, I used some gold cord and stamped the greeting on the circle.  And I just now realized that I copied down the sketch a bit incorrectly, that plaid pattern on the right should be narrower, but oh well.  I think it's obvious that I was using this sketch anyway, despite the vagaries of my creative process.  I think maybe I could have added some gold accents on this, but it's already out in the mail so too late now.

I've got a giant cuppa tea this morning and Daphne is waiting impatiently for me to finish it so she can do her daily tour of the neighborhood.  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  A Cardinal Christmas, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Ink:  Night of Navy, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Wrapped in Plaid DSP Stack
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, gold cord, watercolor pencils

Friday Flashback: Eastern Influences

Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback!  Today's featured stamp set is another one of my very favorites:  Eastern Influences.  Let's flash back!

Also features Bella Toile and Cardinal Christmas

This was our Christmas card one year when we lived in Okinawa.

Also features Floral

This one was a swap card I made when Eastern Influences debuted in the catalog.

A red rose this time with what is possibly my favorite-ever DSP, Bella Rose.

Also features Full of Life

And another Bella Rose for good measure : )

Also features Bella Toile and Thank You Kindly

I think this was an after-Christmas thank you card.

Also features Bella Toile and Cardinal Christmas

I tried out a few color combos for my Christmas cards that one year :)

The Baja Breeze one at the top won out because I love that color.  I had fun playing with the other colors though.

So that's it for the Flashback part, and for the brand-new project I have a scrapbook layout!

The pictures are of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan.  I had to have all my photos reprinted because the first time they came out too dark...they looked so much better the second time around!  And I'm kind of in love with the color combo:  Baja Breeze, Crushed Curry, Garden Green and Chocolate Chip.  The stamping is done in Lost Lagoon, which is like a slightly darker version of Baja Breeze.  LOVE IT.

There you can see Lost Lagoon in action on Baja Breeze.

And one more time.  I was lucky on this; when I punched the patterned paper, the place where I wanted the birds was pretty much as far down as the punch would go on the paper so it was easy peasy.  I just punched half the shape out, adhered the DSP to my page base, and stamped the birds in the negative space.  I think this is one of my favorite scrapbook layouts ever :)

So that's it for me today!  Thanks for joining me for the Friday Flashback.

Supplies, scrapbook layout only:
Stamps:  Eastern Influences
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Crushed Curry, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  Curly Label & Decorative Label punches