Friends Like You

Happy Friday, y'all!  Ryan woke up late yesterday morning so I grabbed a few minutes in my craft room and made a quick card.  It actually took me three tries to get it how I wanted it, but I like what I ended up with:

I busted Timeless Textures out of retirement for the background on this Freshly Made Sketch:

My elements are larger than what's on the sketch, so I had to scooch the sentiment down to the bottom.  I paired that with the color challenge from Inspire. Create.:

I used Terracotta Tile as my third color, though it was hard to narrow down my choices.  My first thought was to use the fern stamp from Positive Thoughts with Mint Macaron ink, but it's even bigger than the flower so I stuck with the smaller image.  You can't tell from the photo but I painted the flower with Wink of Stella for a bit of sparkle.

Hope y'all have a great Friday!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Positive Thoughts, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Night of Navy, Crumb Cake, Terracotta Tile
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Nature's Thoughts dies, Happiness Blooms Enamel Dots, Wink of Stella, Dimensionals

St. Giles Cathedral

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I had a productive weekend; I'm up to 6 pages for this year so far and I've got another layout on my table already halfway done.  Working on those 2020 goals!

Today's layout is another one from a 2012 trip to Scotland with my hubs, my parents, and Bennet & Missy.

See the original pictures here.  I reallyreallyreally wish we could buy single color packs of 12x12 cardstock because I neeeeeed more Shaded Spruce!  And Balmy Blue.  I would use both of those for a LOT of layouts if I had an unlimited supply.  I keep running out of Mango Melody too.  Anyway, this is yet another example of a page with Missy on it where the primary colors are Baylor green and gold.  Apparently I can't help myself.

Today's color palette:  Shaded Spruce, Crushed Curry, Ballet Blue (long retired but I still love it), Early Espresso (not black, I promise), and Whisper White.

I'm ready to start this week off right--going to HIIT class at the Y this morning.  How's your morning looking?  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spencerian Alphabet Upper & Lower, Rough Type, Timeless Textures, Bella's Bloom
Ink:  Early Espresso, Ballet Blue
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Early Espresso, Ballet Blue, Crushed Curry, Thick Whisper White, Country Lane DSP
Accessories:  Circle punches

Timeless Country Greetings

Hey y'all!  Happy Thursday.  I lucked out yesterday:  I was super tired so I took a nap when my kiddo went down for his nap, but he stayed asleep long enough that after I woke up, I got this card made before he started making noise.  Yay naptime crafting!

I wouldn't want to mass produce this card just because of the fussy cutting, much less the coloring, but I do like how it turned out.

Challenge time!  Let's start with Freshly Made Sketches:

Hey, I stayed pretty close to the sketch this time!  Next up is the color challenge from Color Throwdown:

I used Berry Burst (just a teensy bit), Highland Heather, Mint Macaron (Old Olive was my first choice, but I don't have the Old Olive Blends yet so I went with Mint Macaron instead), and Crumb Cake.

Finally, check out the What Will You Stamp? challenge:

I used two stamps from Timeless Textures for the horizontal strips under the main image; I thought they really helped with the rustic look on this card.  I had a scrap of Mint Macaron patterned paper so I just snipped off a 1/2" strip for the left side of the card.  Easy peasy!

That's it for me today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Country Home, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Berry Burst, Mint Macaron, Crumb Cake; Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Mint Macaron, & Highland Heather
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Thick Whisper White, Tranquil Textures DSP
Accessories:  None

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!

Wonderful Dragonfly Friend

Sooo we got some snow last night.  Not, like, a ton of snow, but enough that hubs is on a two-hour delay for work.  So he goes out to shovel the snow out of the driveway in case kiddo and I want to go anywhere later today and then...the garage door won't shut.  He was able to manually shut it, but now it won't open again so even with the driveway shoveled, I won't be going anywhere.  He's been working on it for the last ten minutes and...well it sounds like now maybe it works?  I probably still won't go anywhere just in case!

So.  On to today's card!

You may notice I haven't been using anything from the brand new Occasions catalog or Sale-a-Bration...well, I didn't do the preorder.  I did order some things yesterday, so I can start playing with new schtuff in about a week.  In the meantime, I still love the stamps I already have and this dragonfly is pretty awesome.  And hey look!  You can kinda tell that I put Wink of Stella on his wings!

Here is this week's Fall-To Layout from Clean & Simple Stamping.  It's sort of similar to yesterday's Freshly Made Sketch but this layout is such a classic.

The challenge from Inkspirational right now is to just use stamps, ink, and paper--no fancy dies, or patterned paper, or stuff like that.  Oooookay I just remembered that I used a bit of linen thread and the aforementioned Wink of Stella, but based on their design team's cards I think mine will be allowed.

Okay, time to get the kiddo up.  Y'all stay warm.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Dragonfly Dreams, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Pool Party, Tranquil Tide
Paper:  Pool Party, Tranquil Tide, Crumb Cake, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Linen thread, Wink of Stella pen, Dimensionals

Falling for Brights

Mornin', y'all!  How's it going?  I've got a cranky kid today.  At least, he was cranky until he started shoving cereal puffs in his mouth and if he's cranky now at least he's quiet about it :p  He was really cranky last night too.

But anyway, since this week is Thanksgiving, I just had to make at least one more fall card.  And oddly enough, I picked three colors in the Brights family to make it.

I cut out the leaves with the Seasonal Layers Thinlits, then stamped each with a stamp from Timeless Textures to give them...a little texture ;)  And how much am I addicted to the Stitched Shapes Framelits lately?  Like, a lot.

Check out this sketch from Sunday Stamps:

I didn't want to cover up my leaves, so I kinda combined the sentiment strip and the three round embellishments into one row.  Rhinestones FTW!

And here's the latest challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

In other Cupcake Inspirations news, they chose my monochrome fall card from last week as one of their challenge winners, woohoo!

Okay, kiddo is getting all talkative so it's time to take Mr. Cranky McCrankyPants to the gym so he can burn off some energy in the daycare while I work out.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Timeless Textures, One Big Meaning
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Seasonal Layers Thinlits, Rhinestones

On Wednesdays, We Wear Pink

Tee hee :)

My card today is definitely wearing pink.

I really haven't done a whole lot with Flirty Flamingo...it's not that I dislike the color, I just can't quite figure out what to pair it with.  However, I do rather like it here with Pool Party and Wild Wasabi.  I didn't have DSP in colors and patterns that I wanted to use with my fussy-cut flower (because I stamped that before I figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of the card), so I just cut some panels out of Thick Whisper White and then I dragged an inked up sponge across until I liked the effect.  I did a bit of extra sponging at the edges, and then I stamped a repeating design on each one--a fleur de lis from Timeless Textures on the Pool Party panel, and the fern stamp from Painted Harvest on the Wild Wasabi panel.  I do like how those turned out.  Also, no sentiment on this card...when I want to send it, I can always stamp whatever I need on the inside.  So this card could be for a birthday or thank you or thinking of you or anything really.  Except a masculine card.  It's not at all dude-like.

So anyway, I started my card with a pink flower because of the challenge at Fusion:

I used the sketch and the inspiration pic gave me my pink starting point for the flower, though I do love tea and teacups :)

But the flowers also worked well with the challenge at Cupcake Inspirations:

Also pink :)  I did stamp another flower with Flirty Flamingo and Sweet Sugarplum together, which I liked, but for this card I just wanted to go with the pink by itself.  So we'll see if I bust out that other flower somewhere else.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Harvest, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo, Pool Party, Wild Wasabi, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensionals & Mini Dimensionals

You're Cool, Popsicle

Happy Saturday, y'all!  Usually I post layouts from my honeymoon album on Saturdays (at least lately), but since I missed a couple of days this week of posting cards that means there's several challenges I wanted to get to and hadn't done yet and time's a-runnin' out.  So popsicles!

I'm hoping the splat stamps on the background give the impression of popsicle drips :)  I stamped the sentiment on the inside, which says You're Cool.  I started with the color challenge from Color Throwdown:

I used Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Real Red, and Bermuda Bay for my colors.  They seemed like good popsicle colors (Green Apple, Lemon {or Banana I suppose}, Cherry, and Blue Raspberry!) so I had to bust out Cool Treats, which is this week's set at What Will You Stamp:

Fa reals, y'all, I had trouble figuring out what to do with this stamp set right after I got it, so it gathered dust for several months before I finally made something with it.  Sometimes you just gotta go for it and if you don't like what you make, it's okay.  Eventually I usually figure out *something* that I like.

Ryan is in his bouncer and making lots of noise, so I'm off to play with Tiny Tot.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cool Treats, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Bermuda Bay, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Speed Stamping

May I present to you the five-minute wonder card:

Okay, let's be honest--this would have been a two-minute wonder card except I kept stopping to stuff my face with Teddy Grahams while making it.  (And if you had a box of Teddy Grahams on *your* craft table, you would have been doing the same thing, am I right?)  So anyway, my hubs' birthday is ON Valentine's Day, which he hates, but maybe he'll forgive me for making him a Valentiney birthday card this year.  I thought about adding more details to this card, but in the end I think it works the way it is.  Dudes don't need a lot of froofy details, or at least my dude doesn't.

I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Then I thought of the Retro Rubber Challenge to use hearts:

Their rules are that you use at least one stamp that's older than a year, and sure my heart isn't a stamp BUT I've had Teeny Tiny Wishes since 2009, so it's very retro (I think the only current set I have that's older---maybe the ONLY current set that's older!--is Lovely as a Tree).  I got Timeless Textures last summer so it's not quite a year old yet but hey, average it out :)

Last up is the color challenge from Color Throwdown:

I used Real Red, Pink Pirouette, and Chocolate Chip for my SU! colors.  This card could not have been faster unless I put the Teddy Grahams down.  But for now I'm going to go back downstairs and work on another scrapbook layout and eat some more Teddy Grahams.  Because yum.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Timeless Textures, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Real Red
Accessories:  Sunshine Wishes Thinlits

2016 Showcase, Part 1

Mornin', y'all.  I have entered the phase of pregnancy when I'm tired all the time but CANNOT SLEEP more than 3 hours a night.  I swear this kid kicked me around 4:30 this morning so hard that I heard a noise when he did it.  Not even exaggerating.

Happily for me, it's time to do the annual look back at favorite projects from the year.  Most challenges are on hiatus until January and I haven't spent much time in my craft room so this is a great time to not worry about making something new :)  So today let's take a look back at cards from January through April.

This card was for my SIL's baby shower in January; my niece's nursery is decorated with ladybugs but I did this card with the colors we used for her Cinderella baby shower.

I loved this card from February, I don't use big bold sentiments like that too terribly often and this one just speaks to me.

For March, this punch art bear wins the prize for my favorite card of the month.  I actually just sent this one to my friend Missy a few weeks ago, how I managed to hold onto it for 9 months before I mailed it to her I really don't know!

And last up for today is this card from April, which was inspired by the color palette of a bathroom in Disneyland.  Inspiration is everywhere!

I'm off to the gym.  Hubs and I made sticky toffee pudding on Monday night and I feel like I need to live at the gym for a week to offset that.  Cheers, y'all!

Hello Fall

Okay, so I am enjoying being back in my craft cave...I made a card yesterday and got started on a new scrapbook layout which makes me happy :)  So here's my card for today:

Still experimenting to find the best place to use my iPhone to take pictures, so far ain't nothin' looking too good.  This was on my craft table under my Ott Light and still not a good pic.  Anyway, today's card ended up being a kind of weird combination of clean lines with some grungier elements...I wanted some way to use the colors on my white card base and I'm not sure I chose the right thing.   But I do love the colors, which I got from Cupcake Inspirations:

Red and green might immediately say Christmas to you instead of fall, but what can I say, I'm a rebel :)  I used sponges to ink up the leaf stamp with Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green ink, which turned out looking pretty cool if I say so myself.  Might have to try that with a few fall-y color combos.

The sketch is from Global Design Project:

I substituted the leaf for the square element, and my greeting is larger than shown in the sketch, but I have every element of the sketch on my card.

Finally, the Paper Players' CAS challenge is perfect for this time of year:

I think fall cards are my very favorite type to make.  I know lots of people with fall birthdays and I just love all the brightly colored leaves and cooler weather and yeah, it's my favorite time of year.  Almost makes up for the Virginia heat and humidity trying to kill me for four or five months of the year :p

Okay kids, I have an errand to run and then a date with a scrapbook page.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Vintage Leaves, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler DSP
Accessories:  Leaflets Framelits, Hello You Thinlits, Dimensionals

Triple Challenge Butterfly Birthday

Hey kids, how's it going?  I got up early today and took my doggos for a walk before it got too hot to move, Sadie loved that.  :)  And now I can be lazy for the rest of the day!  Or work in my craft room, that's a good option too.

Anyway, here is my card for today:

I liked the sketch from Fab Friday so much that I had to have a second go at it:

I combined that with the CASE the Designer challenge from Global Design Project:

I kept the large butterfly, texture-stamped background, and a few scattered rhinestones, but I switched out the colors for the palette provided by the Paper Players:

Et voila!  Triple challenge.  I'm still struggling a bit with Sweet Sugarplum, so it's nice to have someone else come up with a color combination to try.  I like the color okay, I'm just not sure how to best use it yet.

Okay kids, I've got some more scrapbook pages to finish up today.  Have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Butterfly Basics, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Mint Macaron, Island Indigo, Sweet Sugarplum
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Sweet Sugarplum, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Butterflies Thinlits, Rhinestones, Dimensionals

Shabby Thanks

Hey y'all, I'm finally here with today's card.  Ever since our AC went out, even though it was replaced on Tuesday, I'm just having a hard time finding the motivation to get down in the craft cave and do some stamping.  But I'm going to keep trying.

I kicked around ideas for today's card while I was at the grocery store (anyone else love Wegmans as much as I do?) and this is what I made when I got home.  After I put up groceries and ate an entire container of watermelon chunks, because that's how I roll.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown color challenge:

Ya know what, a frozen banana split skewer like that sounds pretty darn good right now.  Anyway, for my SU! colors I used Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Real Red, and Crumb Cake.

When I first stamped the flower (the one on the far right was the first one) I figured out pretty quick that my Real Red ink pad was way too juicy, so I squished it with a plastic spoon to work the ink in a bit more and tried it again (middle flower).  Still not quite where I wanted it, but instead of going back at the ink pad with the spoon, I just inked up the stamp again but this time I made sure to only tap it lightly on the ink pad (far left).  Just what I wanted!  I needed that shabby texture to show up on the flower so it would go with the center panel that I hit up with Timeless Textures.

That's it for me today, y'all.  See you back here tomorrow for the Friday Flashback!  Oh wait, one more thing:  if you look really closely at the stamps in Flower Shop, one of the petals has an extra little divot in it (look at the bottom petal, towards the right side).  That's the only one with two divots on the stamp and the matching punch, so today I finally gave my stamps a close examination and put a mark with a Sharpie on the bottom of the stamp that coordinates with that petal, which also happens to be the bottom one on the punch (and I marked my punch too).  Definitely makes it easier to tell which way to punch out the flowers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Shop, One Big Meaning, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Real Red, So Saffron, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Pansy punch, Dimensionals

Spanish Steps and Boca de Veritas

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your weekend?  Ours was very low-key.  I think I spent at least 75% of it on the couch watching movies and Pushing Daisies.  Which makes me want pie.  Lots and lots of pie.

So today's scrapbook layout takes us back to Rome, which is one place I'd love to be right now because it's amazing.  I only had two pictures each from the Spanish Steps and the Mouth of Truth (remember that from Roman Holiday?) so I combined them on one layout.  I used Island Indigo as the accent color on the left, and Elegant Eggplant on the right.

Hand-stamped titles on patterned paper.

Yeah, they took a while to do, but I liked how it turned out.

Today's hot color combo:  More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla.  And that's it for me today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU! but a bunch retired:
Stamps:  Well-Worn Alphabet, Rough Type, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Early Espresso, Cajun Craze
Paper:  More Mustard, Early Espresso, Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories: a sponge :)