Maine: Witch Hole Pond

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Ugh, waking up this morning was tough--Ryan was off school all of last week so we were both enjoying the opportunity to sleep in a bit in the mornings.  But we're going to have to get back to the regular routine now...at least until he gets *another* week off for Thanksgiving!

Anyway, I'm still chugging through the Maine pages and I really should put the album together.  Um, I've started one single scrapbook layout since we moved to Texas and it's been halfway done for WEEKS.  Need to get on that.  But here are some completed pages!

Witch Hole Pond is a part of Acadia National Park, we explored several areas of the park and I would go back to Maine in a heartbeat, it's gorgeous.  I made two layouts for Witch Hole Pond and still had a lot of pictures left over that I really liked.  Maine is definitely picturesque.

We used that family picture for our Christmas cards that year.  I wish I had bought more than one pack of the Into the Woods DSP too, I love it and I've been hoarding it to use on scrapbook pages.  And of course I adore the Thankful Forest Friends stamp, the bear and the fox have been featured on quite a few scrapbook pages and cards.  (The bunny doesn't get used as much, sorry bun-bun.)

Today's fall palette is from the DSP:  Tangelo Twist (I only have one piece of 12x12 cardstock left in this color, waily waily!), Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, and white.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Thankful Forest Friends, Love of Leaves
Ink:  Tangelo Twist, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Early Espresso
Paper:  Tangelo Twist, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Rich Razzleberry, Thick Basic White, Into the Woods DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Leaves dies, Stitched Shapes dies

Oklahoma, Part 2: Oooooklahoma!

Scrappy Monday!  As promised, I'm back with another Oklahoma layout.

I did five layouts for this trip, and I used the same alphabet for all the page titles, and I used patterned papers that all have that kinda watercolor look to them (though not all from the same pack).  This one has the same polka dots pattern I used on the first Oklahoma layout.

Today's color palette:  Garden Green, Granny Apple Green, Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Cinnamon Cider, and Whisper White.  Granny Apple Green and Poppy Parade carried over from the first layout.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pure & Simple Alphabet, Thankful Forest Friends
Ink:  Cinnamon Cider, Poppy Parade, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Garden Green, Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Berry Delightful DSP, Brights DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies

Nana & Papa

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I'm happy to report that on Friday, I actually DID some scrapping!  Managed to start and finish a layout on the same day, even.  Wish I could have worked on the next one but the hubs ended up having to go into work this weekend so I had to entertain the spawn instead.

So for today's layout I'm going way back to when the spawn was a wee little squirt and just one month old.

This was his first meeting with his paternal grandparents, and he also got to meet his honorary Aunt Missy and Uncle Bennet.  Bennet refused to hold Ryan until Ryan was screaming about something, because Bennet said then there was no way he could make it any worse :D

Today's color palette:  Pool Party, Soft Suede, So Saffron, Shaded Spruce, and Whisper White.  And one stamped bear because I have to have a bear for Missy and Bennet...and Ryan was wearing a Baylor onesie in those pictures.

Have a great Monday, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Notable Alphabet, Thankful Forest Friends
Ink:  Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Shaded Spruce marker
Paper:  Pool Party, Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White, Color Me Autumn & Flock Together DSPs
Accessories:  None

Here Comes Trouble!

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Man, we had a GORGEOUS weekend here in southern Germany.  It's still pretty cool in the mornings, but for the last two days it's been sunny and in the 60s in the afternoons--perfection!

So the hubs and Ryan made breakfast yesterday morning (waffles with strawberries and cream) and we both noticed how much Ryan has grown.  He's over 40 pounds and he's gotten so much taller!  We keep saying we're going to stop feeding him so he won't grow anymore.  So let's enjoy some pictures from before Ryan grew so much:

D'awwww.  He had just started walking when we took these pictures.  Ryan looks so different now, but he does still have that same potbelly, haha!  It's adorable.  Anyway, the polka dot pattern is from the retired Coffee Break DSP, which I bought even though I don't drink coffee--yeah one or two patterns are coffee-related, but the rest of them can be used for just about anything and I adored the color combination of Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Suede, and Soft Sky.  I used Crushed Curry for my page base because my mind always defaults to green + gold because I'm a Baylor Bear :D  And I had to use my favorite bear stamp from Thankful Forest Friends on here too.  I am currently drooling over a long-retired stamp set called Wilderness Reserve that has a gorgeous bear stamp in it, but I haven't yet convinced myself to pay $50 for it.  I did snatch up a different stamp set with a polar bear though.

Anywha, there's the color palette:  Crushed Curry, Garden Green, Soft Suede, Soft Sky, and Whisper White.

Wishing you a lovely sunny week, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Whimsical Alphabet, Thankful Forest Friends
Ink:  Garden Green, Soft Suede, Memento Tuxedo Black, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Garden Green, Soft Suede, Thick Whisper White, Coffee Break DSP, Into the Woods DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Dies

Ryan: Nine Months

Today's baby book layout features one of my favorite outfits from when Ryan was a baby.  Before I had him, I guess I liked foxes okay, but man, once I saw all the cute foxy baby clothes...yep, every time I saw a fox outfit, I bought it (and also bears, but that's only to be expected since the hubs and I are both Baylor Bears).  So naturally I had to use the fox onesie for a monthly photo shoot.

This photo shoot was done in two parts; we started taking pictures in the orange long-sleeved onesie and Ryan got angry about something, so he ended up taking a nap during which he messed up that onesie so I redressed him in a coordinating fox onesie for the other pictures.  And since our dogs Sadie and Vader are both gone now, I'm glad I have a few pictures including them here and there in Ryan's book.  I miss those puppers.

Anyway, orange was a given thanks to Ryan's onesies, and I pulled out my favorite Thankful Forest Friends and the coordinating Into the Woods DSP to make this layout.  The page base is Taken with Teal, but all the other colors are taken straight out of the paper:  Tangelo Twist, Mossy Meadow, Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, and Whisper White.

Cheers, folks!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends
Ink:  Tangelo Twist, Soft Suede, Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Taken with Teal, Tangelo Twist, Mossy Meadow, Thick Whisper White, Into the Woods DSP
Accessories:  1 3/4" circle punch

Foxy Friday

Happy Friday!  Have you uploaded an animal card at the SUO Challenges blog yet?

I'm back with another animal card to inspire you!  And today I'm going retro with one of my favorite ever animal stamp sets:

Thankful Forest Friends!  The bear has made LOTS of appearances over the years on both cards and scrapbook pages, and the fox has been inked up a lot too.  (For some reason I don't use the bunny as much.)  I wasn't sure what to do for a sentiment on the card, but then I saw the May Paper Pumpkin kit stamps and ding ding ding!  LOVE ose big bold word stamps!  The outline on "hey" started out as an accident--I recently re-inked my Daffodil Delight ink pad so it's ridiculously juicy right now, and when I stamped the "hey" the edges were a little blotchy because I had puddles of ink on the stamp.  So I got my blender pen and started smoothing out the edges and I got an outline effect.  Happy little accidents, y'all!

I used the Into the Woods DSP on a scrapbook layout last week, and it was made to coordinate with Thankful Forest Friends, so I pulled my colors from that DSP though the pattern I chose only has Mossy Meadow in it.  The Rich Razzleberry panel is from another DSP pack, International Bazaar; I used it instead of another piece of Into the Woods paper because I had a scrap the right size and I didn't want to cut into a new sheet of paper.

I'm entering this at Retro Rubber:

Thankful Forest Friends is five years old, so nice and retro for their challenge :)

Hope you enjoyed this week's Creature Feature!  I had lots of fun with it, and of course I have lots and lots of animal stamps I didn't use this week so...maybe I'll do it again!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends, My Paper Pumpkin May 2020 kit
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry, Tangelo Twist
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Whisper White, Into the Woods & International Bazaar DSP
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, Dimensionals

China: Han Tombs & Great Wall

It's China Sunday!  All the layouts I'm sharing today are ones that I've shared before, but there are six of them in a row so we're just doing a rerun post today.  Hope you enjoy!

This was one of the earlier layouts I did for the China books (original blog post here).  The page base is Elegant Eggplant, and some of the photos are matted with Perfect Plum.  This was the very last thing we did in Xi'an before boarding the plane to Beijing.

And our first activity in Beijing was going to the Great Wall!  I will never say no to an opportunity to look at these pages :)  (original blog post here).

We had SO MANY pictures from the Great Wall and I just didn't want to leave any out if I could help it, ha!

This is one of my favorite layouts ever (original blog post here).  I need to look around online and see if I can find more Handsome Hunter cardstock in both 8.5x11 and 12x12.  It was the perfect Baylor green and I'm almost completely out.

We've been teasing Missy for years about her affinity for lots of stairs but I think the Great Wall will forever hold the record for most stairs in a single day (original blog post here).

And there's the last Great Wall layout (from this day, anyway).  Hope you enjoyed this scrappy flashback.  Have a great Sunday!

Hello Bear

Mornin', y'all!  After you come back from a vacation (even a short one), do you feel like you need some time to get back in the stamping groove?  Because I snatched a couple of minutes yesterday to work on a card and it just seemed like my brain didn't quite want to engage.  But eventually I got here:

I started out wanting to make a card with the current stamp set Baby Bear, but three tries went in the trash and I switched Baby Bear for my favorite ever Stampin' Up! bear from Thankful Forest Friends.  Because this week's Cupcake Inspirations challenge is all about da bears!

I've seen those cupcakes before, and in fact I made a version of them with cream cheese frosting and yogurt-covered pretzels to make polar bear cupcakes for my polar bear-loving friend Sarah.  The ones I saw were billed as reindeer cupcakes but I thought they looked more like bears :)

So I paired my bear with the Global Design Project sketch:

And I chose my sentiment after seeing the word prompt challenge at Inkspirational:

My big "hello" stamp is from a retired Sale-a-Bration stamp set called....Hello.  I kinda like the effect of stamping it on the patterned paper; where the paper was white, the stamp came out darker so the words have a floral pattern too.  Fun.

Well, I need to bundle Ryan up and leave for the gym in ten minutes, so I'd better hurry up with my breakfast.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends, Hello, Love & Affection (all retired)
Ink:  Basic Black, Garden Green, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, So Saffron & Basic Black DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits

Return of the Baylor Bear

Mornin', y'all!  It's not yet five in the morning here but I suppose I keep odd hours with the wee babe in the house.  At any rate, I got to sneak down to my craft room yesterday to make a card!  (I kinda started on a scrapbook layout too but who knows how long it will take me to finish that!)

I found myself in need of a bear-themed thank you card so of course my bear from Thankful Forest Friends was the first stamp to come to mind.  (I'm still in love with this bear, even if he's retired.)  I used last week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Just because of the direction the bear is facing, I basically did a mirror image of the sketch because that looked better to me (if I'd done the sketch exactly as drawn, with the bear {smaller butterfly element} on the right and the sentiment on the left, it would have looked like he was pooping words!).  I had originally *planned* to do just a simple one-layer card (well, with the bear popped up) but I messed up the yellow splats the first time I stamped it, so I ended up cutting that card front up and flipping the paper over to salvage it.  I do like the extra layers though, those striped make me happy :)  Plus that got a bit more green on my card, and I love green.

In other bear news, here's our little polar bear and his first snow from earlier this month:

Those polar bear jammies are one of the few clothing items that I've bought for Ryan :)  We didn't have him outside for very long; he seemed pretty unimpressed with the snow but since it's his first one we had to take a few pictures.  See how the tree is blooming here?  After the cold snap and the snow, all those blossoms went DED.  Like, they all turned brown and are hanging off the trees like little bats.  The trees are still getting a few leaves on them, though.

Well, baby polar bear has had a bottle and is going back to sleep, so maybe I can do the same!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends (retired), Touches of Texture, Swan Lake (sentiment)
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Early Espresso
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Whisper White, Garden Green DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Brights Candy Dots (retired)

Bear Book: November

Happy Saturday, y'all!  I'm here with another bear book layout, and we're back to another one I like a lot.  Check it out:

I tried to work in green and gold on as many layouts as I could, and can I just say how much I love Blackberry Bliss with the more traditional fall colors?  It just makes me happy.

There's my favorite SU! bear stamp from Thankful Forest Friends.  I looooooove that stamp set and wish it had continued in the big catalog, but regardless it's got a permanent place in my collection.  The leaves are from a much older set called Falling Leaves, and I seriously love that stamp set too.

More leaves on the journaling block.

And the color palette today:  Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, and Whisper White.

On another note, as of today I am officially 39 weeks pregnant; February 4 is my due date.  We're taking guesses as to when Sodapop will actually arrive, and in the meantime I am still trying to work on some scrapbook pages :D  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends, Falling Leaves
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Mossy Meadow, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Soft Suede
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Thick Whisper White, Color Me Autumn DSP
Accessories:  On Film Framelits, Sizzix alphabet

Merge and Squish!

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today is something slightly different--a couple of scrapbook pages that I made and framed and sent to Missy and Bennet as a belated Christmas present.  I didn't take pictures of them in the frames because the glass makes such a glare, so here's the two pages I made:

For Bennet, a commemoration of the running joke that will never die.  So on our trip to China in 2010 (wow that long ago!!!), we went to a McDonald's for lunch one day and somehow Lee and Bennet accidentally switched drinks.  No big except Bennet had a cold so then Lee got it.  And then Bennet started calling it The Merge and we actually have not one but TWO Merge street signs in our house now.  So I made a special one for Bennet with one of the pics from McDonald's where The Merge happened.  For the M, I just Googled "golden arches" and printed off one on regular computer paper, then attached the image to cardstock with removable adhesive and cut it out.  Peel off the computer paper and voila, cardstock golden arches.  P.S.  Notice that the patterned paper is skull & crossbones!!

For Missy I chose this picture of the four of us squished into a little cubby to sleep at the eighth station on Mount Fuji.  What is it about the four of us and excessive togetherness? ;)  Since it was for Missy, of course I used green and gold for the main colors (I actually used that same patterned paper for all the Fuji pages in my own scrapbooks).  What tripped me up was the color to do for the letters...I stamped them first in Marina Mist, cut them all out and then thought it looked too gray.  So then I stamped them in Pacific Point and cut them all out but it still didn't look quite right on the Garden Green cardstock.  So I stamped them a THIRD time in Tempting Turquoise and that finally worked.  Then I added the Thankful Forest Friends bear because again, it's Missy.  Green + gold + bear = Missy.

A couple of black frames and they were done.  Although since my mom has given me a complex about how navy blue and black don't go together, Bennet's page kinda made my eye twitch after I got it framed.  Oops.  Well, not everyone has the same color hang-ups that I do, and I know that almost all of the frames in their house are black so I was going for something that would match what they already have.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, Merge page:
Stamps:  None
Ink:  None
Paper:  Night of Navy, More Mustard, So Saffron, Rockabilly DSP
Accessories:  Lettering template

Supplies:  Fuji Squish page:
Stamps:  Big Deal Alphabet, Thankful Forest Friends
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Early Espresso
Paper:  Garden Green, Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Haiku DSP
Accessories:  Oval punch

Scrappy Showcase, Part 2

Afternoon, y'all, and happy new year.  I thought I would get this done in the morning, but then I made waffles with my new BB-8 waffle maker and then it seemed imperative that I take a nap :)  So anyway, it's part 2 of the scrappy showcase!  The layouts are basically in the order in which they were first posted here on the blog, not in order of how much I might like 'em, but we're in the middle of my 12 favorites for 2016.

First up is the layout from the Silver Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan; once again it's the color combination that makes it a favorite for me.  Color is the absolute number one thing I notice about scrapbook pages, cards, clothes, etc.  If I can get a color combination to work with my pictures then I am a happy camper and more likely to be happy with the end results.

Next up for today is this layout from the Great Wall of China; while I do love the colors (Handsome Hunter for the win, and I'm almost out of it now) what I love best about this one is that picture on the left page.  It's one of my favorites of all time.

And here's the first layout I did for the Harry Potter studio tour, I love the title my friend Tiana cut out for me with her Silhouette.

Last up for today is the giant panda layout from our China trip.  I love the colors (Baja Breeze will always be one of my favorites), but the other thing I love about this layout (aside from the memories it documents) is that I found some bamboo-print paper that turned out to be the perfect color for my photos. It's always exciting when I've had a particular pattern in my stash for a long time and then I find the perfect layout to use it on.  The hubs thinks I get excited about weird things but I don't even care :p

Hope your new year is off to a great start!  Hubs and I are starting to get things washed and organized for the nursery.  Fun times.  Cheers, y'all!

Friday Flashback: Perfectly Penned

Hey kids.  My Friday started off with a bang--my little boy dog Vader injured himself again.  He was trying so hard to run up the stairs to get breakfast faster and he's busted his left knee this time.  So I'm stressed out and feeling bad that he's hurt and he's stuck up on the middle floor of the house until the hubs can get home and carry him downstairs.  Hope he doesn't have to tinkle...

Anyway, here I am with today's Friday Flashback, and I'm going to have to be quick because I need to be out of the house in under 10 minutes.  So here we go!

Also features Perfectly Preserved

I think I have at least three stamp sets with apples in them.  No wait, four.  I must like apples :)

Also features By the Seashore

Perfectly Penned is one of my favorite sentiment stamps ever ever ever, so I just picked out some favorites for today's post or else we'd be here until next Friday.  And I started to notice something...

By the Seashore again :)

I also really like By the Seashore, and...

Also features Stippled Blossoms

A lot of my favorite cards are in fall colors.

Also features Gently Falling

Also features French Foliage

See what I mean?  Ooh, I love the copper brads on this one.  I still have quite a stash of those.

one more time for By the Seashore

Haha, more seashells, which I had so much trouble typing the word "seashells" you'd think I was trying to stumble through saying "She sells seashells by the seashore" six times fast.

Also features the All Dressed Up Framelits which were pretty cool

One last happy yellow card and I would totally wear that if it were a real dress.  Now for today's new card:

My friend Missy (a.k.a. Baylor bear extraordinaire) had a birthday earlier this week and I musta been sticking my head in the sand because I DIDN'T SEND HER A CARD and I'm very distraught about this, so I made a Baylor bear card.  But I do feel a bit guilty because this one came together really fast so maybe I should spend some more time in my craft room tomorrow and really make her a masterpiece.

Anyway, I revisited this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I switched the main image panel to the left side so the bear would be looking into the card rather than off the side, I think about these things (comes up even more in scrapbooking).  And to add a bit of glam, I painted the balloon with clear Wink of Stella.

Okay, I've got two minutes to get out the door.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Perfectly Penned, Thankful Forest Friends, My Paper Pumpkin (balloon)
Ink:  Basic Black, Garden Green, Daffodil Delight, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, Garden Green DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, black taffeta (retired), Dimensionals, clear Wink of Stella

A-Team Baby Book: November

It's Saturday once again and that means time for some baby book pages!  Welcome to November.

I don't typically use a whole lot of Crumb Cake on my scrapbook layouts (both my own and for baby books) but it just seemed to work here.  And I still love and adore Thankful Forest Friends; even though it didn't make the big catalog this year and is now retired I shall keep it in my stash forever and ever.

Because it's just so CUTE.  I did refrain from using the bear on this layout though since my brother and his wife are very rah-rah with their respective schools and give me the side-eye when I put bears (my mascot) on stuff for them.

So bunnies and foxes it is.  Speaking of bunnies and foxes, we got Zootopia the other night and that's a cute movie.

And there's some fall leaves for the journaling block.

Today's perfectly fall-ish color scheme includes Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow, and Whisper White.  And the Cajun Craze and Blackberry Bliss are kinda like darker versions of baby girl's parents' school colors (Oklahoma State orange and Texas Christian purple).  See, I am nice to them.  Well, I did sneak some Baylor green on there...

Supplies:
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends, Fall Fest
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Mossy Meadow, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow, Color Me Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Sizzix alphabet, circles & scalloped circles Nestabilities