Friday Flashback: Garden Silhouettes

Good morning, everybody!  It's Friday Flashback time, and this week's randomly chosen retired stamp set (RCRSS?  Nah, that doesn't work) is Garden Silhouettes, which is kind of a companion set to Stem Silhouettes (or at least, I often use them together).  So let's take a peek in the archives, shall we?

Ah, the shaving cream technique background.  Fun, right?  You put a layer of shaving cream on a paper plate and then add a few drops of ink refill and swirl them around, then smoosh glossy cardstock in it.  Scrape off the shaving cream and you're left with this neat swirly background.  I should do this again...oh yeah, use the cheap white foam shaving cream for this, not some fancy-dancy gel stuff : )  Sentiment on this one was from Hugs & Wishes.

I made this one for one of those "color" challenges that makes me roll my eyes, where there's only one color and two neutrals.  Not that I mind doing cards like that from time to time, but when you do that for six weeks in a row it gets old.  I think color challenges should have multiple colors in them, not neutrals. *steps off very colorful soapbox*  Sentiment from Fabulous Flowers.

Ooh, purple.  I miss Almost Amethyst, Lavender Lace and Lovely Lilac.   Sentiment on this one was from Fancy Flexible Phrases.

Here's another one color/two neutrals card, very simple because I think I was making Mother's Day cards at the last minute.  That sounds like me.

So here's today's brand new creation:

The colors are this week's SCS color challenge (now with multiple colors!):  Soft Sky (bring back Baja Breeze!!), So Saffron, and Summer Starfruit.  When I first read that, I thought EWWW and couldn't imagine what to do with them.  Then I got the cardstock colors out and what do you know, the So Saffron turns the Summer Starfruit into a green color, hmm.   So I actually liked that color combo a whole lot more than I thought I would.  I kept wanting to add more stuff to this card but it insisted that it was done like this, so I said okay.

I used last Friday's Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch:

I think I love this sketch.  I've got some ideas to use it again.  Anyway, for today's card I moved the banner flaggy thing over to the right side because otherwise all the Summer Starfruit would have been on the same side of the card and I thought it just worked better with my design to have it on the other side.  I used up some DSP scraps too, that Starfruit strip was straight out of the scrap pile, all I did was flag the end.  Yay for using up a small scrap!

Anyway, that's enough yammering for me today.  Since it is our tenth wedding anniversary today (yay us!), hubs and I are heading out to Liverpool for the weekend.  Wonder if he'd mind listening to the Beatles the whole way there...

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, last card only, all SU!
Stamps:  Garden Silhouettes, Noteworthy
Ink:  Summer Starfruit, Soft Sky
Paper:  Soft Sky, Whisper White, retired So Saffron & Summer Starfruit DSP
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, I forget the name of the butterfly Embosslit thingie

Leaves Everywhere!

Guys, I think I need an intervention.  I can't stop making fall leaf cards.

On second thought, let's skip the intervention.  I'm having too much fun.  : )  And fall leaf cards never hurt anyone...except I guess if you got a papercut.  That might hurt.  I might be addicted to the Candy Dots too, I love having those in so many colors.

So, I sat down last night to make one card but for some reason I stamped out two leaves and I figured that I had enough patterned paper scraps on my table to make a second card so why not?  I used the latest challenge at As You See It, I think I'm gonna have fun with their challenges.

Just realized that I forgot to do a scalloped edge on that one bit...okay so it's a bit of a liberal interpretation of the sketch, but I was in the Zone last night.  Once I got started making the cards I didn't even look at the sketch again I think.

The colors are from Dynamic Duos, with the addition of Chocolate Chip:

And just for funsies I'm also going to enter this one at the new Around the World challenge site to make a fall card (or two, if you're me).

I also really like their inspiration pic there.  The one for spring is really cute too (hit the link above to visit their site), that dog is totes adorbs.

When did I start saying "totes adorbs"?

Anyway, I'm off to drink enough caffeine to take over the world, starting with taking my "totes adorbs" doglets for a walk.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gently Falling, Four You
Ink:  So Saffron, Calypso Coral, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, retired Calypso Coral DSP & Parisian Summer DSP (I think that's what the Saffron plaid is from, I found it in my scrap pile and I love plaid)
Accessories:  corner rounder punch, Subtles Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Floral Fall

I've been so busy tearing through The House of Hades that I almost forgot to do a blog post today.  Oops.  So here's a nice fall card I made not too long back.

The flower was inked up with Summer Starfruit and then rock 'n' rolled in Cajun Craze, and then I used a Q-Tip to take the ink off the stem and colored it with a Soft Suede marker.  I also thumped more Cajun Craze in the middle of the bloom but oddly it doesn't show up nearly as much as I thought it would.  But I like having multiple colors on the flower.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blooming with Kindness, Six-Sided Sampler
Ink:  Summer Starfruit, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede
Paper:  Summer Starfruit, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Comfort Cafe DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Oval & Scalloped Oval punches, Regals Candy Dots, Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon, Dimensionals

Nachos: With Sympathy

It's time for another fabulous Nacho challenge, and this week it's a lovely sketch:

Lots of possibilities for this sketch, but for today I opted to go with a simple sympathy card.

I don't need any sympathy cards right now but it's always good to have a few in your card cache I think.  Instead of the bow on the sketch, I used three Old Olive Candy Dots to separate the bird image and the sentiment.  Then all I needed was a bit of sponging and I was done.

So now let's see what you can do with the sketch.  Join in the fun at the Nacho Average Challenges blog!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Sketched, En Francais
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Old Olive
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Brights Candy Dots

Melissa's Wedding

I have been scrapping a bit, though mostly I've been sharing cards of late as I've been a faithful little challenge chaser : )  But here's a scrapbook layout for today, lookie:

These photos are from April of 2006, when my friend Melissa got married (and also back when I had long hair).  I think I've mentioned before how I'm terribly far behind on my scrapbooks, right?  This layout shows off my continuing insanity with cutting out stamped images; it took a LONG time to cut out all those bitty flowers, but I really liked the results so I'll probably do it again sometime ; )

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms, Four Frames
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Wisteria Wonder, Coastal Cabana, Concord Crush marker
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz textured CS (retired), Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, retired Wisteria Wonder DSP
Accessories:  Decorative Label punch

Friday Flashback: Googly Ghouls

*singsong voice* Friday Flashback!!  Today's randomly-chosen retired stamp set is Googly Ghouls, appropriate for October, no?  Let's do the Monster Mash as we flash back!

I figured these not-at-all scary monsters would be good for baby books, so last year I used them for two books.  Same layout, just different DSP.  The one above was for a girl, and the next one was for a boy:

Because Basic Gray is more manly than Rich Razzleberry, or so I hear.

Frankie here made an appearance not that long ago for a Nacho challenge; I'm really surprised that I haven't used Googly Ghouls more than I have.  Maybe I just got it late in the season last year...sometimes it takes me a while to glomp onto a stamp set and by the time I get it, the holiday is past.  Oops.

Here's today's new card:

Well, I think it's all right but just not as awesome as it was in my head.  Hmm.  Grateful Greetings was last week's Friday Flashback and I just couldn't resist using it again for my ghoulish lineup.  I thought it would be fun to stamp the ghouls in colors instead of stamping in black and coloring in bits of them (the fact that this is so much faster than coloring bits has nothing to do with that decision).  I'd already stamped the ghouls when I went to look for a good Halloweenie paper to go with them, so the stripe is actually Cajun Craze as opposed to Tangerine Tango but I think it still kinda works.

Thanks for joining me for today's spooky Friday Flashback!  Have a great weekend.

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Googly Ghouls, Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, Wicked Fun Specialty DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Dimensionals (under the bat)

Starry Birthday

So, astrologically speaking, I'm an Aquarius, as is my husband.  Aside from other Aquarians, Aquarius is supposed to get along very well with Libra, which explains why I've got so many birthday cards to make in October for all my friends : )

I've kinda been enjoying this peekaboo thing with Framelits lately, haven't I?  This one went out to my little brother Mark, whose birthday was on Tuesday, so I hope it's non-girly enough.  I like the colors together--Pool Party, Island Indigo, and Crushed Curry.  Of course, Pool Party and Island Indigo always look good together so it's not hard to find a third to go with them.

I used this sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping:

It's been too long since I made a card with one of their sketches.  I quite like this one.

Anywha, I used SU's retired star punches to punch out all three stars, though it wouldn't be too hard to snip 'em with scissors.  I find it somewhat amusing they still come out with stamp sets that coordinate with retired punches, but I like that 'cause I've got the retires punches ; )

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Stars, Banner Greetings
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Island Indigo
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Pool Party, Whisper White, Simply Sent DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Circle Framelits, retired star punches, Dimensionals