A-Team Baby Book: February

Well, with all the distractions of my little man Vader being injured again, I forgot to get this posted this morning.  Behold, the February layout for my niece's baby book:

Her mama is a TCU horned frog, so I used purple for the page base and a cute little frog for the main image:

I think this was the very first layout I started for this book.  And can I say I'm pretty proud of my shading on Ms. Frog here.  My Prismacolor pencils have gotten a workout this year.

Can't leave off a cute little something on the journaling block.

And some hearts, in case you missed that this is a Valentine's layout.

And here's the color palette for today:  Orchid Opulence, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Whisper White.  I should pull out cardstock swatches of Orchid Opulence and see how it compares to Sweet Sugarplum

I'm off to the basement to go spend some more time with my little doglet.  Cheers, y'all.

Supplies:
Stamps:  I {Love} Love, I {Heart} Hearts, Whipper Snapper frog
Ink:  Basic Black, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss
Paper:  Orchid Opulence, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, PTI White, Raspberry Tart DSP
Accessories:  Sizzix alphabet, Prismacolor Pencils

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

Foxy Smiles

When I saw today's sketch on CAS(E) This Sketch, I knew I had to make something with it:

I love a solid, simple sketch.  And I hadn't used my new Foxy Friends stamp set since I made the Cheshire Cat, so here's what I came up with:

I had some trouble inking up the fox...my Calypso Coral ink pad is way, way juicy, so I tried an ink spot I got in a past Paper Pumpkin kit, but that looked pretty terrible.  So I got out my super-juicy ink pad and a sponge, and sponged the color onto the stamp, and that worked out fairly well for me.  Not perfect coverage, even stamping on top of a piercing mat, but much better than the first two I tried.  I paired my fox with a sentiment from Love & Affection because I love that font and the sentiments are sweet, and I also used the foxy paper stack (A Little Foxy!) because I bought it and hadn't used it before.  I'm not thrilled that the thick Whisper White card base makes the patterned paper look a little dingy but what can you do.

Anyway, I need to run out to the store and pick up dog food.  It's a glamorous life, but one of my dogs just has to eat every single day twice a day (more if he can manage it...the other one doesn't care much at all if she eats every other day!).  So off I go.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Foxy Friends, Love & Affection
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Basic Black, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Pool Party, A Little Foxy DSP Stack
Accessories:  None

Pinky the Dinosaur

My friend Tiana informed me that wee little girl children like dinosaurs just as much as boys do, so I made today's card for her daughter's birthday later this month.

Dinosaurs can be pink!  I just got the gold and silver metallic shapes that replaced Candy Dots, and if you've heard that you can't really move them once they touch the paper then I can tell you that's true.  The top one scooted a little bit, but the bottom one just would NOT move so it's crooked, but really is a newly-minted 8-year-old going to notice?  I think not.

Pinky the Dinosaur started with the flamingo-licious color combination from Cupcake Inspirations:

I actually just got Pop of Paradise that has a flamingo in it, but I couldn't resist stamping a pink dinosaur today.  You'll get to see the flamingo soon enough, I'm sure.  I've been struggling with color combinations for Flirty Flamingo just as much as Sweet Sugarplum, but I really liked this combination.  To SU-ify it, I used Pool Party and Cucumber Crush with the aforementioned Flamingo.

Next up is today's Freshly Made Sketch:

I made my card a standard A2 rather than square, I don't do square cards much.

Anyway, I need to get to the post office and the grocery store...and maybe some lunch too.  Ta-ta for now, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  No Bones About It
Ink:  Cucumber Crush, Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Cucumber Crush, Pool Party, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Metallic Enamel Shapes, Lots of Labels Framelits, 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

Alnwick Castle

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your weekend?  Hubs and I went to the National Aquarium on Saturday, and then yesterday I worked on several scrapbook layouts from when we went to the Harry Potter studio tour near London.  And today's layout is kinda-sorta related to Harry Potter too:

See the original pictures here.  Alnwick Castle was used for some of the exterior shots in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (like when Oliver Wood teaches Harry about Quidditch) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  The big wide courtyard was also in the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

I used a Sizzlits alpahbet to cut out the title; I like Framelits SO much better than Sizzlits because they do much cleaner cuts, but I just needed this alphabet for today's layout.  I picked up that owl and books stamp at a big box store because doesn't it just scream Harry Potter to you?

Today's color palette:  Lovely Lilac, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, More Mustard, So Saffron that I forgot to put in the picture, and Whisper White.  To me, purple is the most magical color so it's what I always think of first for doing any HP-related scrappin'.  So yep, the layouts I'm working on now are all purple.

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Priceless, Teeny Tinies, non-SU owl
Ink:  Basic Black, Lovely Lilac, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Lovely Lilac, Smoky Slate, More Mustard, So Saffron, Thick Whisper White, Afternoon Daydream DSP
Accessories:  Sizzix alphabet

A-Team Baby Book: January

Mornin, y'all!  Hubs and I are about to head out to the National Aquarium but I thought I'd get this post up real quick before we leave.

I miss the old Color Coach.  I never would have put Baja Breeze (sadly retired, I'm still mad) and Island Indigo together without it--and the third color on that combination was Rich Razzleberry which really does make for a great combination.

I wouldn't mind having a new stamp set with some swirls like we had in Priceless.  Love those things.

Snowman!

And of course mittens.

So here are today's colors:  Baja Breeze, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry, and Whisper White.  I think this might have been the fastest layout I made for this entire book, and I like it!

Okay, we're off to look at the fishies.  Have a great day!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Festive Flurry, Priceless, Weather or Not, Priority Mail
Ink:  Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Snow Festival DSP
Accessories:  Festive Flurry Framelits, circle & scalloped circle punches, Sizzix alphabet