Sweet Day

Hey y'all, how's it going?  I've got to type fast; Ryan is supposed to be napping right now but instead he's talking to the monitor :p

So, card!

It's pretty overcast here so the colors are a bit off in my photo, but here's the color challenge from Fab Friday:

Fun fun fun.  I paired them with the sketch from Clean & Simple:

Aaaand I'd better go get the baby.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cool Treats
Ink:  Lemon Lime Twist, Melon Mambo, Flirty Flamingo, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Melon Mambo, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  None!

Driftwood Anniversary

Happy Toooosday, y'all!  I've got a happy baby bouncing right next to me.  At least he can't reach the keyboard from where he is right now ;)

So here's today's card.  I'm in looooooove with Emerald Envy, what about you?  I had a good excuse to use it too, what with the current photo inspiration from Inkspirational:

Oooh pretty.  I don't have the new So Many Shells stamp set or I would have been tempted to use it today; instead I pulled out the brand-new-to-me Oh So Eclectic for the greenery on my card.  I tried using the matching Framelits to cut it out, but I discovered that the matching Framelit is not an exact match for this stamp, it works better with the *other* sprig of greenery.  So I ended up fussy cutting the two for my card to get the look I wanted.

I chose the sentiment to go along with this week's theme challenge from Global Design Project: 

So there you have it, that's my card for today.  Hope to get in some more stamping sometime later today once Ryan tires himself out in his bouncer :)  I literally have a bouncing baby boy.  Ha!

Cheers, y'all!  Happy stampin'!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hardwood, Oh So Eclectic, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Emerald Envy, Soft Suede, Whisper White
Paper:  Emerald Envy, Sahara Sand, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals

Dolwyddelan

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  Today has started out a little rough, but some of yesterday's leftover waffles with strawberries and whipped cream is definitely making it a bit better :)

Today's scrapbook layout is one I finished a few months ago but today seems like a good day to share it.  Pics are from the one castle we visited in Wales that's actually Welsh as opposed to a castle built by the English king Edward to subdue the Welsh (pics here).  This is a really small castle, more like a tower house...it's possible that the townhouse I live in now is about the same size.  Maybe slightly smaller.  But the views from Dolwyddelan are definitely better than what I've got in Virginia ;)

There's some subtle background stamping going on (sorry for the glare on the sheep photo).

Today's color palette:  Soft Sky, Night of Navy, Smoky Slate, and Sweet Sugarplum.  Not what I was planning to use when I got these pictures out, but that's what I ended up with :)  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Jayne's Type Alphabet, Touches of Texture, Watercolor Minis
Ink:  Soft Sky, Night of Navy, Smoky Slate, Sweet Sugarplum
Paper:  Soft Sky, Night of Navy, Smoky Slate
Accessories:  Circle punches

Honeymoon Cruise, Part 8: St. Thomas

Saturday already?  Guess then it's time for more honeymoon album pages!

St. Thomas was our second port of call on the cruise.  We didn't do a shore excursion this time, just wandered around the island a little bit on our own and had lunch in town (mostly what I remember is these AWESOME ham and cheese sandwiches on croissants).  Didn't even take a whole lot of pictures.  And this layout was SUPER annoying--I had it almost ready to go and I dropped an inked-up stamp on the left page where the journaling is, so I had to redo that page.  Arrrrgh.

Ummmm after I finished this I showed it to my husband and we think some of these departure pictures might have been from when we left Florida at the beginning of the cruise, not leaving out of St. Thomas.  Oops.  I didn't label the pictures very well when we first went on this cruise.  The only other thing I remember about St. Thomas is that as we sailed away, we saw a family get on a motorboat and chase the cruise ship.  Yeah, they're serious when they say to be back aboard ship by a certain time...bet that motorboat owner made a pretty penny from them!

Today we're in the Wild Wasabi section of the book.  That means just one more section left!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies for the whole album:
Stamps:  Tall Tales Alphabet, Island Blossoms
Ink:  Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi, Orchid Opulence, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Whisper White, Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi, Orchid Opulence
Accessories:  Scallop border punch, Mickey Mouse punches

Sunshine Tulips

Mornin', y'all!  It's been a busy day here already and it's just eight o'clock.  But my little squirt took a good long nap yesterday afternoon (because he skipped the morning one, oy vey) so I had time to do some stamping!

I loved the color inspiration photo at Retro Rubber (and they've been so very nice asking me to be a guest designer! and they've said such very nice things about me that I've been blushing for days) that I had to make another card for the challenge:

This time I used current colors, so Old Olive for the green along with Daffodil Delight and Real Red.  I do have to confess that today's stamp sets are not nearly as retro as my first attempt; Sunshine Sayings is one year old and Tranquil Tulips is....one day old.  I couldn't help it!  I got it YESTERDAY and I had to bust it out! *guilty look*

Anyway, I paired it with the new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

I thought this sketch was really intriguing, and I couldn't wait to play with it.

I painted the die cut word with Wink of Stella, and this is my totally ineffective attempt to show the sparkle.  Trust me, IRL it is very sparkly and pretty and awesome.  Oh!  The yellow background was kind of an experiment.  I tried first spritzing the cardstock with some water and then using an Aquapainter to add some Daffodil Delight ink, but it didn't hardly show up and I got a few very dark spots.  So I inked up a small acrylic block with DD ink and kinda smeared it over the watercolor area, and this is what I ended up with.  I wouldn't try it with red because I think that would make it look like some kind of serious skin rash ;) but the Daffodil Delight I thought was interesting.  The thick Whisper White card base is slightly warped from the water, but not too bad.

Okay, baby is calling.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sunshine Sayings, Tranquil Tulips
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Real Red, Early Espresso
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Delightful Daisy DSP
Accessories:  Sunshine Wishes Thinlits, Wink of Stella pen

Birthday Fishes

Mornin', y'all!  How goes it?  I'm all hunky-dory :)

Speaking of Dory, how about a fish card...

That segue was totally unplanned, it just happened as soon as I typed hunky-dory :D  Even though this fish doesn't look like Dory.  Whatevs.  The inside has the sentiment from Seaside Shore that says "Hope your day goes swimmingly!" which I figure works fine for a birthday card, and pretty much any other kind of card for that matter.  All purpose.  All porpoise? 

Moving on.  Not-Dory is a quadruple challenge card!  First up is the SUO Challenge to make a birthday card; check.

Next up is the Cupcake Inspirations challenge to make a beachy card:

Hubs and I had a discussion about if an under-the-sea card like mine counted as beachy, and hubs decided that yes it does count, so check on this one too.

Next up is the Global Design Project sketch:

I turned the sketch on its side because making the sentiment sideways like that was making my brain itch, but check.

And finally, the Paper Players tic-tac-toe challenge:

I did the diagonal from lower left to upper right:  blue, enamel dots, and birthday.  Easy peasy mcsqueezy!  And also check.

Well, looks like the little one is maybe starting to wake up...either that, or he kicks his feet even when he's asleep (which wouldn't surprise me, future karate champion in da house).  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Seaside Shore, Sunshine Sayings
Ink:  Night of Navy, Soft Sky, Peekaboo Peach
Paper:  Night of Navy, Watercolor paper, Naturally Eclectic DSP
Accessories:  linen thread, Dimensionals

Happy to Go Retro

Guess what, y'all?  A while back, my Beach Wedding card was the top pick over at Retro Rubber Challenges, and they asked me to be a guest designer for them!  Wheeeeee!  So here's the new Retro Rubber Challenge:

How pretty is that picture?!  So for my color inspiration, I went with the long-retired Green Galore, a bit of Daffodil Delight, and some Real Red, and came up with this:

Since this is a Retro Rubber card, I've had Petal Prints since 2006 so it's nice and really retro; Yippee-Skippee! is a bit newer and is 3 years old.  The background technique is an old favorite, polished stone with Green Galore and Daffodil Delight ink refills, and then the doily is actually a metallic gold one that I turned over and sponged with Daffodil Delight ink.  For the flower, I inked it up with markers, then misted it with a bit of water to make the colors bleed just a little bit, which helped blend the yellow and red ink on the flower.  I dug some retired Real Red taffeta out of my ribbon stash to finish it off, along with a silver metallic enamel shape on the flower.

So hop on over to Retro Rubber and have a look at some beautiful cards, then give this color inspiration challenge a shot yourself.  It's fun, I promise!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Petal Prints, Yippee-Skippee!
Ink:  Green Galore, Daffodil Delight, Real Red
Paper:  Green Galore, Real Red, Whisper White, Glossy White
Accessories:  metallic doilies, retired Real Red taffeta, Metallic Enamel Shapes, Dimensionals