Gus Says Hello

Mornin' y'all.  We're supposed to leave in less than ten minutes to take Ryan to school and he's upstairs just...yelling.  Making noise.  Wish me luck getting him out the door on time.

In the meantime, let's revisit yesterday's Paper Players color challenge from Ann:

I pulled out a couple of undersea stamp sets before I decided to go with Sea Turtle for yesterday's card, and while I had Sea of Textures out I had to make another card:

It's been a while since Gus last got out to play, so here he is.  Gus is a chameleon octopus, he can be any color(s) he wants to, and today he chose Calypso Coral and Petal Pink.  The Lost Lagoon DSP was the scrap I had left over from yesterday's sea turtle card.  I liked the balance of the colors on yesterday's card better and that's why I chose it for the Paper Players challenge.

Okay, Ryan's got five minutes and the noise seems to have died down somewhat...oh no wait, I typed too soon.  Hopefully he's getting ready to go whilst making so much noise.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea of Textures, Four You
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Mossy Meadow, Petal Pink, Thoughtful Journey DSP Stack
Accessories:  Under the Sea dies, Dimensionals, Pearls of Beauty

Turtle-y Cool Colors for The Paper Players

Mornin' y'all!  It's Sunday and that means it's time for a new challenge from The Paper Players!  This week the amazing Ann has a beautiful color palette for us to play with:

As soon as I saw the colors, I thought they would be perfect for something floral, but I like to be quite contrary in the style of Mary Mary, so I had to do something different.  Here's what I came up with, nary a flower in sight:

I was actually having a hard time coming up with an idea for this card until I made my Shello card earlier this week for a different challenge, and I realized these colors are perfect for an under the sea card too.  I pulled out my Sea Turtle stamp set and kept the same "hello" I used on the Shello card because it was already out and I'm lazy ; )  The Sea Turtle stamp set is reversible, so to start with I used the "shadow" side of the stamp and used sponges to apply both Mossy Meadow and Lost Lagoon ink, stamped it, and then turned the stamp over and stamped the turtle in full-strength Mossy Meadow ink on top.  I used both Petal Pink and Calypso Coral on my paper strip behind the turtle and I think my Calypso Coral ink pad needs re-inking, but I like the weathered look to the starfish for this card.  Some watery Lost Lagoon DSP from the Thoughtful Journey stack and a couple of retired Tinsel Gems finished off the card.  And I had so much fun making this card that I made another one with these colors, which you'll see very soon.

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!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea Turtle, Four You
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Lost Lagoon, Petal Pink, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Petal Pink, Thick Basic White, Thoughtful Journey DSP Stack
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Lost Lagoon Tinsel Gems

Shello

Mornin' y'all!  We got some snow last night, about an inch or two, and Ryan was disappointed that he didn't get at least a two-hour delay today : )  But he's safely at school and he has STEM club today so extra crafty time for me!

So here's my card for today:

Lots of layers today!  I was inspired to go beachy by the Just Add Ink challenge:

I read the colors as Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry (I think it's closer to Darling Duckling or the retired So Saffron, but the patterned paper I wanted to use has Crushed Curry so that's what I went with), Crumb Cake, Pool Party, and Lost Lagoon.  And I got all my layers from the Atlantic Hearts sketch:

I have TEN layers on my card since each panel has a mat around it.  I'll have to weigh it before I mail it out to make sure it doesn't require extra postage.

Daphne is napping adorably in her chair instead of poking me with her nose, so I think I'm going to make a second cuppa tea for myself before I take her for a walk in the snow.  She'll be excited about that, our little Colorado doggo loves playing in the snow.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  By the Tide, Four You
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Pool Party, Lost Lagoon, Thick Basic White, Inked Botanicals DSP Stack, Crumb Cake DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Faux Glass Dots

Hello Fall

Hey y'all, how's it going?  It's a cloudy, dark day over here and I'm channeling Morticia Addams and absolutely loving it.  Fall is coming!

It arrived in my craft room on September 1 : )  And I have another fall card today!

I didn't buy this year's leaf stamp set (or last year's, even), so I pulled out Gorgeous Leaves from 2021 to play with, it is one of my favorite ever leaf stamps.  Check out this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Boho Blue, Night of Navy, and Crushed Curry for my colors.  The Boho Blue card base is coming across as more gray than it really is, but I promise it's blue.  And here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I immediately thought snowman when I saw the sketch, but I really really wanted to stick with fall so I could play along with the irresistible Retro Rubber Challenge:

Fall is by far my favorite season so of course I have to participate in this challenge!  As I said before, Gorgeous Leaves is two years old, but I went extra super retro for the sentiment, Four You is at least 10 years old.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Not sure if I'm going to go up to my craft room, or watch another episode of Smallville before I take my car in for an appointment later this morning.  Either way it'll be fun!

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Four You
Ink:  Boho Blue, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Boho Blue, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Rhinestone Waves Basic Jewels, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Fruit Stand

Happy Friday, y'all!  I just finished up my Flashback card, and as soon as I go back downstairs I'm going to clean off my stamping table.  I don't *think* my girl dog Sadie gets up there to have fun with my craft supplies, but somehow her hair does--I've long suspected it is self-aware and also independently mobile.  But I've been needing to clean off my table for eons so I'm gonna do it TODAY.

On to the Friday Flashback!  Today's retired stamp set is Fruit Stand, a set of three stamps from 2008 and wouldn't you know, I happen to have cards with each stamp in the set.

Also features Amazing to Zany

I admit, the peaches are my least favorite stamp, but that might be because when the set was released, there was a huge discussion on Splitcoast about the peaches' resemblance to a certain male body part.  o.0

Also features Stippled Stencils

I do like the grapes, though.

Also features Short & Sweet

And the raspberries are my favorite, though I suppose they could be blackberries too.  This card has the most comments in my entire Splitcoast gallery thanks to a little prank my Mothermark. I later sent her a card with like 85 buttons on it.

So anyway, here is today's new creation:

I had to go with the raspberries because they're my favorite, and also because of today's FabFriday color combo:

The colors might make you think of Christmas but I'm a rebel so I did something else.  I get kind of annoyed at those people who like to pretend fall doesn't exist and start dragging out their Christmas stuff before Halloween (I have a cousin who's planning to have her kids pose in their Halloween costumes next to the Christmas tree.  NOOOOO!) so I like to wait until at least November to think about Christmas stuff.  Thanksgiving deserves its own time in the holiday spotlight if you ask me.

Anyway, Christmas colors aside, I figure a fruit stand (and fruit in general) is a summertime thing, so I'm entering over at Retro Rubber:

And staring at that fruit stamp is kinda making me crave a piece of triple berry pie.  With ice cream because of course ice cream.  Anyway, as I said Fruit Stand came out in 2008, so it's now 8 years old, and the Four You sentiment is 3 years old.

I also used this week's Retro Sketch:

I turned the sketch on its side, and instead of having the three small circular elements clustered around the image, I lined up some Candy Dots in the corner of my card.

Okay kids, I'm off to clean up my stamp table and maybe organize a few things.  Then I can start my next scrapbook layout with a clean slate.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Fruit Stand, Four You
Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Blushing Bride, River Rock
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Very Vanilla, Bella Rose DSP
Accessories:  Clear EP, Neutrals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Best of Sale-a-Bration

A rainy Friday morning to you, friends!  Seriously, I'm going to need a boat to get to the gym today, and my little girl dog is going to be very sad when she realizes we're not going for a walk in the wet.  But you're not here for a weather report, you're here for the Friday Flashback.  And today's stamp set is Best of Sale-a-Bration, which shoulda been called Best of Flowers Part 2 because every image but one is a flower.  I was a total lemming and bought all 12 of the Best Of sets a few years ago.

Also features Petal Parade, Four You

So the Best of Sale-a-Bration stamp on this card is the smaller red flower (and there's my favorite Fresh Prints of Bel Air paper!)

Also features Petal Parade, Banner Blast

Same stamp on here.  It was actually a smaller version of a flower in Petal Parade, which was a SAB offering that same year the Best Of stamp sets came out.

Also features Morning Post Alphabet, Rain or Shine, Papillon Potpourri, Artistic Etchings

And here's the labels I made for my cross stitch projects because I'm a dork :)  The flower stamp on the Quarry label is the Best of Sale-a-Bration stamp on here.  Each one of the images has something to do with the cross stitch picture I'm working on:  Rain Blossoms is a scene of people in kimonos with Japanese parasols walking across a bridge; Eilonwy is a fairy with a crown of butterflies; the Quarry is a sort of Impressionist scene with lots of bluebonnets; and the Accolade is a famous Pre-Raphaelite painting of a lady knighting a man who is kneeling before her.

But anyway.  That's it for the Flashback, here's the new card:

Heyyy, I managed to use one of the stamps in the set that hadn't been used before!  Woo.  I used this week's Create with Connie & Mary sketch challenge:

And the Color Throwdown:

I used Pretty in Pink (though it might have worked a little better with a more saturated shade), Bashful Blue, Tangelo Twist, and Peach Parfait.  I can't wait to get the new In Colors in my hot little hands next week--there's a new peach color but what has me really excited are the new green and blue and purple.  And there's a pink.  I'll bust 'em out next week.

That's it for now, y'all.  Have a great weekend and stay dry.

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Best of Sale-a-Bration, Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink, Peach Parfait, Tangelo Twist
Paper:  Peach Parfait, Tangelo Twist, Thick Whisper White, Bashful Blue DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella glitter pen

New Colors! Squeeee!

So I finally got my new catty preorder yesterday!  But Mr. Brown delivers late in this area, so I got it around 4:30 (which is actually early for UPS at this house) and then I was working on two different scrapbook layouts and I had book club last night and basically I didn't get to play with any of the new colors until this morning.  So feast your eyes!

The two new colors here are Cucumber Crush and Watermelon Wonder, and that patterned paper is from the new Cherry on Top 6x6 paper stack.  LOVE IT.  I'm mixing the incoming colors with some outgoing stamps, both Mixed Bunch and Four You are retiring.

My quick and easy card is thanks to this wonderful Freshly Made Sketch:

And of course the blossom punch that coordinated with my flower stamp.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

I'm off for a Skype date with Missy and then more quality time with these new In Colors.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Mixed Bunch, Four You
Ink:  Watermelon Wonder, Bermuda Bay, Cucumber Crush
Paper:  Cucumber Crush, Whisper White, Cherry On Top DSP Stack
Accessories:  blossom punch, 1" circle punch, Dimensionals, rhinestone

Hawaiian Flower Patch

If you can't stamp or work on scrapbooks for several days or a week, is it hard for you to get back in the swing of things?  I didn't craft hardly at all last week, and then yesterday I had to put my craft room back together (we'd moved the table out for the garage sale, and everything was in disarray) but even once I was all set back up I just kinda sat there and stared at everything, wondering where to start.  Happily, once I got started I was okay, and I made this:

The greeting is from Four You, a little stamp set of four greetings that I just love and it's retiring.  On the bright side, there are lots of new greeting sets in the new catalog that are just waiting to become my new favorites ;)

My mojo got a jump start thanks to Retro Sketches:

And I got my color combo from a brand new challenge, TGIF:

Love those colors together.  Except maybe Coastal Cabana would be even better ;)  I think we should replace Soft Sky with Coastal Cabana.  Or maybe Baja Breeze.  That would be a tough call, I love both of those colors way more than Soft Sky...

I digress.  I've got a busy day ahead so I'm going to get to it.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, Four You
Ink:  Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Pool Party, Crushed Curry, Whisper White
Accessories:  Chevron EF, button from Best Year Ever accessories pack, Crushed Curry baker's twine

Nachos: Tangerine Hello

Happy Nacho day, peeps!  Yep, it's time once again for a Nacho Average Sketch Challenge:

Fun, right?  I think so.  And here's what I made:

I went pretty literal this time and even used the exact same flower shape from the sketch :)  I started with a piece of patterned paper that I really liked and let it dictate the colors:  the flower is Tangerine Tango, the card base is Night of Navy, and the sentiment is Lost Lagoon.  But I thought maybe I needed more Lost Lagoon, so I made this version:

Now it doesn't look so white-on-white, though maybe I could have used some white EP on this one ;)

So which one do you like better?  The white or Lagoon?

Go check out the Nacho blog for more pretties, and then make one of your own and post it over there so we can see it.  Have fun, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Mixed Bunch, Four You
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Lost Lagoon, Whisper White
Paper:  Night of Navy, Lost Lagoon, Whisper White, Flower Pot DSP
Accessories:  Oval Framelits, Blossom punch, hexagon punch, Dimensionals

2014 Showcase, Part 3

It's the final part of the 2014 Showcase :)  Let's take a look.

Fall Fest, Four You

For September, I love this pumpkin birthday card that I sent to a good friend of mine.  Plus the color combo of orange, green, and purple is just fantastic.

Perfect Peacock, Work of Art

October's pick is this golden peacock because I love the colors and all the gold.  And also peacocks make me think of my mom, who has quite a bit of peacock stuff in her house.

Bright & Beautiful, Gorgeous Grunge, A Dozen Thoughts

For November, I had another tie and this Northern Lights card was one of them.  I thought that my background wasn't going to work at all right up until I actually finished it, and then I loved it!

Fall Fest, Perfectly Preserved, My Paper Pumpkin

And the other November fave is this pie-riffic Thanksgiving card.  That sentiment stamp is just SO me.  And I do love both apple pie and pumpkin pie.

Santa Stache, Nacho card!

Last but not least, I couldn't resist this Santa and his oversized mustache.  This card just makes me smile :)  Not a bad way to end the year.

So starting tomorrow is a whole new stampy adventure!  Happy New Year, friends!

Floral Birthday Wishes

Much as I love fall (and I really, really do), a stamper cannot live on leaves alone.  So today we're mixing it up a bit with some flowers.

I used the Flower Fair Framelits to cut out some Pink Pirouette blossoms, and then stamped on them with Strawberry Slush ink and added a Night of Navy Candy Dot in the flower center for good measure.  I even decorated the inside:

No Candy Dot there though, I didn't want the texture to warp the card front when it gets mailed.

I used the beautiful color palette provided by the Color Throwdown:

Nice to have a little break from all the fall and Christmas color combinations lately, and that hat is super-duper cute.  I don't even wear hats and I kinda want one.  A friend of mine was crocheting a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hat yesterday (it has the face mask with eye holes!!!) and I kinda wanted one of those too, but the hubs would definitely pretend he didn't know me when we were out in public if I wore one of those.

Anyway, I also used the Pals Paper Arts sketch:

Just a little bit tweaked on my card.  I think you can still see all the elements of the sketch, though.

That's it for me tonight, peeps.  The hubs and I are going to catch up on Agents of SHIELD!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, Four You
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Pear Pizzazz, Night of Navy
Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Pear Pizzazz, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Accessories:  Delicate Dots EF, Flower Fair Framelits, Regals Candy Dots, hexagon punch, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: World Treasures

Happy Friday afternoon, peeps!  It's time for another Friday Flashback, and grab a cuppa tea (or coffee, if you prefer) and settle in because this one's a long one.  Let's take a look back at the very awesome stamp set (and more recent retiree) World Treasures!

Also features Fabulous Phrases

I think you're going to figure out very quickly which stamp in the set is my favorite.

Also features Four You

 For a while, it was even available as a single stamp.

Also features Vintage Verses

Because it's that awesome.

Also features Sweet Essentials

Haha, snuck one in here without the peacock on it!  But the flowers are from World Treasures too.

Also features Curly Cute

This one might be my favorite card with World Treasures, I just love that bright blue and orange together.

Also features All Holidays

The fun thing about stamps is that peacocks can be any color you want.

Also features Pursuit of Happiness

Or multi-colored.

Also features Occasions

Though I admit, perhaps I am lacking in imagination for usually sticking with the blues, greens, and purples for my peacock.  Or maybe those are just the colors I'm drawn to.

Still, the sky's the limit for peacock colors here.  And that's the flashback part of the Friday Flashback, so now it's time for a brand new creation!

I decided to be contrary and make a World Treasures card *without* the peacock.  I mean, I love that peacock, but these flowers are perfectly lovely too, and I was suddenly curious this afternoon as to how Crushed Curry embossing powder would look on Blackberry Bliss cardstock.  Answer:  awesome.  But use your Embossing Buddy, the first time I had powder all over everywhere.  The sentiment is from World Treasures too, I took a marker to the sentiment stamp in the set and only inked up "friend".  Tip:  make sure your stamp is very, very clean and DRY or you'll get a ghost image around the part you ink up.  And Halloween is over.

So the color combination for today's creation is from Fab Friday:

Another awesome fall color combo, amirite?  Might have to use that one again!  Y'all know how much I love Crushed Curry and Blackberry Bliss.  And they work great together.

The sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches:

So even though it took me a long time to settle down enough to actually make something today, once I sat down the card came together in, like, ten minutes.  Woohoo!

And that's it for today's Friday Flashback, I hope you enjoyed it.  Happy weekend, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  World Treasures
Ink:  Versamark, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Blackberry Bliss, Very Vanilla, Comfort Cafe DSP
Accessories:  Banners & Labels Framelits, Crushed Curry EP, Very Vanilla seam binding, Regals Candy Dots, Dimensionals