Nachos: Very Merry Everything

Happy Tuesday morning, Nacho fans!  It's time for another great sketch from Nacho Average Challenges, so check out this beauty:

I had quite a few ideas for this one, but it's definitely time to buckle down and make some Christmas cards!  So here's my slightly nontraditional card:

I loved last year's winter DSP that had lots of Bermuda Bay in it and thought I could make that work with this year's All Is Calm DSP.  I tilted the DSP panel just for funsies, and I really wanted Bermuda Bay Candy Dots to put on the bottom but I'm out of that color and no matter how often I put on mood music and turn down the lights in my craft room, my remaining Candy Dots flatly refuse to get together and make new little baby Candy Dots for me.  So I used white Candy Dots instead and added a teensy border of torn Bermuda Bay cardstock, which turned out better than I'd anticipated it would.  Yay.

So you know what's next:  it's your turn!  Visit the Nacho blog for more eye candy and then make your own project for us to ooh and ahh over.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Merry Everything
Ink:  Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, All Is Calm DSP
Accessories:  Note Tag punch, Neutrals Candy Dots, Dimensionals, white organza ribbon

Three Dimensional Thinking

Ok, if you've been a regular visitor here at Snapdragon Stamps (hi Mom!) you know I pretty much stick to flat paper crafting--cards and scrapbook pages, not 3D items.  But every once in a while I want to try something new, so today I'm sharing a gift card holder box I made.

My friend Karyn's birthday is coming up next week, and I'm giving her a gift card, so this seemed like the perfect time to try out Qbee's Pop-Up Gift Card Box Tutorial.  The tutorial is easy to follow (I had it up on the iPad while I was at my craft desk) and the box isn't hard to make, but there are a few things I learned on the way that would make a second box easier.  For example, after you do the score lines and cut the tabs, next time I would fold along all the score lines and put the adhesive on the OTHER side of the cardstock.  I basically had to fold the cardstock the opposite direction that I'd scored because I put the adhesive on the "inside" side (that would make sense to you if you were trying to make this box, I think). 

Here's the inside, and that's a pack of Rolos because you know you get hungry when you're shopping if you do it correctly.  Here's another thing I learned:  maybe I made the slot for the gift card a little too wide, because it was kind of tilting so that the edge of the gift card was at the edge of the box and it didn't stand up straight.  So I stuck a Dimensional down in the bottom of the box and made sure that the gift card was put with the edge in front of that Dimensional and voila!  No more tilting.

So anyway, I'd say this little project definitely qualifies for the challenge at Create with Connie and Mary.

And I also used the fun color combination from Just Add Ink:

You're probably wondering, where's the Real Red?  To be honest, I don't like hot pink and red together, I think they clash :) but I *did* use Real Red ink to sponge the edges of the rose petals.  Now, pale pink and red I think is totally fine ;)  But just so you know, I DID use all the challenge colors on here.  And champagne glimmer paper, because it's fun.

So, would I make a box like this again?  Yeah.  Am I going to make a regular habit of it?  Probably not, I'm lazy and I'm used to thinking two-dimensionally ;)

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Shoppe Alphabet (retired), Label Love
Ink:  Real Red, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, Strawberry Slush, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Champagne glimmer paper, retired Wild Wasabi DSP
Accessories:  Spiral Flower Bigz Die, Autumn Accents Bigz Die, Note Tag Punch, Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack (heart), Decorative Label Punch, Artisan Label Punch, Hexagon Punch, Dimensionals, hot glue & Sticky Strip to adhere everything together

Friday Flashback: Tags Til Christmas

Happy Friday, peeps!  It's time for this week's Friday Flashback, and this time around it's a pretty short one.  We're taking a look at Tags Til Christmas...well, one stamp from that set anyway :)

Also features More Merry Messages

That's my single solitary card using this set.  And I didn't look through my photos to see what I'd done before I made today's new card, so I used the ornament stamp again and even did it the same color!

Well, what can you do.  I do like the CAS feel of this card though, I like it better than I expected to.  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the current Pals Paper Arts color challenge:

DANGIT I just realized I did Crumb Cake instead of Baked Brown Sugar!  It's close enough I hope?  I added a smidge of Early Espresso for the sentiment, too but it's all still food colors.  And now I'm kinda hungry.

Hubs and the pups are all currently napping on the floor in my craft room, which presents a bit of an obstacle course when I'm trying to get to certain stamps and cardstock.  But hey, at least we're all hanging out together.

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Tags Til Christmas, Snowflakes, Four the Holidays
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Ornament punch, Pearls, Dimensionals

Celebrate the Season

Ok, I'm feeling much better today than yesterday :)  I laid down for a bit, then when the hubs got home we took the dogs for a walk and I felt better after that, and we did indeed order pizza for dinner.  And then we went to bed kinda early and I was even lazy this morning so I'm now headache-free and feeling pretty good :)  And I got a card made today!

I was working on something with this sketch yesterday that ended up in the trash so I'm glad it worked out today.  And it fits in several challenges, like this one from Around the World:

And this sketch from As You See It:

I was on the nose with this one, I even used a tree.  And finally, I tic-tac-toed with the Paper Players:

Go down the right side of the board, and I used white, snowflakes (stamped in my oval), and my favorite kind of glitter--the type that's not at all messy:  shimmery white cardstock.  It DOES have a sheen to it although it's hard to catch on camera.

And now I'm off to the store so we can have tacos for dinner tonight.  And maybe do some Christmas shopping :)  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Endless Wishes, November 2014 My Paper Pumpkin (snowflake stamp)
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Pacific Point, Night of Navy, Mossy Meadow, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Shimmery White
Accessories:  Oval Framelits (used as a mask)

Getting Organized

I really wanted to share a card with you today, Mom.  But I didn't get one made yesterday, I was gone all morning with my stitching group, and now I have a headache and all I want to do is lay down...I actually started a card, but then it got messed up with ink everywhere it wasn't supposed to be and I just don't have it in me to start another one, OR finish the scrapbook layout I started yesterday.

So instead, I bring you these pictures from a month or two ago when I set out to organize my cards.

Yep, I've got a lot of cards, for almost every occasion imaginable (or no occasion at all).  You know those photo storage boxes they sell at the big craft stores?  I have a jillion of those (can't help it, every time I see them on sale more of them come home with me!) so I put them to use.  I divvied up my cards by general themes and then separated them into boxes.  Here were some of my themes:

• Birthday
• Thank you
• Thinking of you and Friendship
• Christmas and winter
• Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving
• Love and anniversaries (includes Valentines)
• Miscellaneous holidays (Mother's Day, Father's Day, 4th of July, etc.)
• Kids and babies
• Happy (I had lots of cards that say Happy Everything or even just happy, so I went with it)
• Sympathy
• Blank cards that could be used for any occasion

There were more but I can't remember off the top of my head what they all were.  So here's what that stack looks like now:

Be still my heart, how I love organization!  I wrote what kind of card was in each box on the little tab that goes on the front of the box.  The four all-white boxes on the bottom shelf are actually full of photos and so are two of the boxes on the shelf above that, but the rest are all cards.  Yeah, some of them may only have two or three cards in them, but at least now if I need a card for a specific occasion I don't have to wade through fifty random cards before I find a birthday card.

I'm off to lay down for a bit.  I was going to do the grocery shopping this afternoon, but we might just be ordering pizza for dinner instead...

Cheerful Nachos

Happy TOOSday!  Anyone else get their online shopping done yesterday for Cyber Monday?  I totally couldn't resist ordering a bit of Bath & Body Works shower gel :)  Merry Christmas to ME, haha.  Anyway, it's Tuesday and that means it's time for another Nacho Average Challenge!  Check out this color combo:

Those three colors just happen to be in the All Is Calm specialty DSP in the holiday catalog, but you don't *have* to make a holiday card.  But I did!

It's hard to tell in the photo but all the snowflakes are stamped in Soft Sky; the first part of the sentiment is stamped in Smoky Slate and you can tell that "cheer" is Pear Pizzazz.  I think we should get rid of Soft Sky and bring back Baja Breeze, Soft Sky is just not saturated enough for me.  At least the ink.  But anyway!  I was one of the last people to get Endless Wishes last year....I ordered it, and by the time I got it in my hot little hands, it was sold out so I never used it before now.  I think SU! was smart to bring it back in the holiday catalog this year :)

So.  Christmas tree is up, Paul McCartney is singing about wonderful Christmastime, and it feels wintry inside my house this morning even if it's pretty warm outside.  Happy December, y'all!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to a.) be of good cheer, and b.) participate in the Nacho color challenge.  Check out the Nacho blog for more goodies and get to stampin'!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Endless Wishes (photopolymer)
Ink:  Soft Sky, Smoky Slate, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Shimmery White, All Is Calm DSP
Accessories:  Rhinestones

It's a Wonderful Life

With a title like that, you'd think that I'd be posting a Christmas card today, wouldn't you?  Nope.  Like Mary Mary, I like to be quite contrary, and today's card features one of those cockleshells Mary had in her garden.

But no silver bells.  When I was little, I don't know why, but I thought "cockleshells" was a bad word.  Anyway, I love that sentiment stamp from Perfect Pennants and I'm so glad I got Gorgeous Grunge, even if I waited about a year after everyone else bought it before I jumped on the stamp wagon.  I also love me some purple, so I was happy to see the palette provided by Colour Me...!

Not just one, but TWO purples, and Coastal Cabana to boot.  Be still my heart ;)  My coral stamp is inked in Perfect Plum and rock 'n' rolled in Elegant Eggplant, and I used Candy Dots in both colors too.  Because I love Candy Dots.  Man, this card is just full of things I love.

Speaking of that, here's one of my favorite sketch challenges, Freshly Made:

I think the thing that took the longest in making this card was fussy cutting the seashell.  Other than that, easy peasy!

Well, I've got a laundry list of things to do today so I'd better get with it.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  By the Tide, Gorgeous Grunge, Perfect Pennants
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Perfect Plum, Whisper White
Accessories:  Regals Candy Dots, white baker's twine, Dimensionals