Cocok's Toes 2010

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today's scrapbook layout is the very LAST of the Cocok's toe photos from when we lived in Japan, so if you're foot averse then that's good news for you :D

I always took photos of my friends' toes as well as my own when we got our super fancy pedicures, so the white circles have the initial of whichever friend those toes belong to (all the toes pointing upwards are mine, because that's how my toes look when I look down, heh).

These were all the toe photos for 2010 minus what I had on the Last Call at Cocok's layout.  Also, I'm glad I bought the Number of Years stamp set and matching Framelits, I've been using those and the coordinating (and still current) Letters for You alphabet pretty regularly since I bought them.

This was another layout that I did when I was on my Barely Banana streak, but this time I didn't pair it with Poppy Parade.  Today's color palette includes Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Cool Caribbean, Lavender Lace (looks funky in that palette picture), and Whisper White.  That Petals & Paisleys DSP (the Cool Caribbean polka dot strip) is one of the earliest DSP packs I ever bought from SU!  Actually a lot of things I used on this layout are pretty old, like the Simply Said stamp set.  This is why I hold onto stuff though, never know when it will turn out to be just the thing for a scrapbook layout.

I'm going to go tackle the mountain of leftover waffles from yesterday (I'm sure you feel sorry for me, haha!) and then tiny child and I are going to the gym.  Hopefully he won't lose his marbles like he did on Saturday; I didn't get to do yoga because I had to come get him when he wouldn't stop crying.  So here's hoping today is better.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!

Stamps:  Number of Years, Sweet Shoppe Alphabet Upper & Lower, Beautiful Peacock, Simply Said

Ink:  Pretty in Pink, Cool Caribbean, Lavender Lace

Paper:  Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Cool Caribbean, Petals & Paisleys DSP, Berry Bliss DSP

Accessories:  Large Numbers Framelits

China: Mountain Descent

Happy Sunday, y'all!  Our friend and her girls just left so the house is (relatively) quiet and I'm still making waffles because I did a double batch and apparently when one batch makes about 8 waffles, a double batch makes 8,472 waffles.  Good thing I like waffles.

So!  More China pictures, and another layout that I somehow FORGOT to take a picture of when I put the books together.

I wanted to use Poppy Parade since I had used that as an accent color on all the other mountain pages, and I found this Sahara Sand pattern with blue accents and it was just PERFECT for what I wanted.  It's hard to tell, but the photo mats are Night of Navy, so they're slightly darker than the Midnight Muse letters on the title.

Today's color palette:  Poppy Parade, Sahara Sand, Midnight Muse, Night of Navy, and Very Vanilla.  This is one of very few layouts (in fact, it might be the only one) in the China books where I used Very Vanilla.  Guess Whisper White is my default.

After we finished our tour in the mountains, we drove back into town and went to Elephant Trunk Hill.  This layout is a rerun:

But I'm posting all the layouts in order on Sundays so here it is again.  Ooh!  The very last waffle just finished cooking.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, Mountain Descent layout:
Stamps:  Asian Artistry, Rough Type
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Night of Navy, Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla, Blueberry Crisp DSP
Accessories:  Lettering template

Birthday Balloons

Happy Friday, y'all!  It's been a busy week and kiddo has been highly uncooperative with naptimes and my crafting and I had to get this card done really fast and I wish I could have taken more time on it.

I did a watercolor wash on the background and sprinkled it with salt, then dried it with my heat tool.  I don't think the salt really worked how I thought it would but it did bring out a green undertone in the Coastal Cabana ink.

I'm entering this at Inkspirational:

And I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Blueberry Bushel, Coastal Cabana, and Smoky Slate for my colors.  I feel like I could have done a much better job with this color combination (and the sketch) if I'd taken longer than 20 seconds to think about it.  Oh well.

Have a great weekend y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lift Me Up
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Blueberry Bushel, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Thick Whisper White, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Up & Away Thinlits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Greatest Dragonfly

Mornin' y'all!  It's a bright shiny morning here and we've got friends visiting and the house is loud :). How about a fun tropical card?

I'm entering this at SUO Challenges, where the challenge is to use your favorite Stampin' Up! stuff from the new catalog.  Tropical Chic and the Tropical Escape DSP were two of my favorite things in the new catalog and I couldn't wait to get them in my hot little hands!  Dragonfly Dreams and the Wink of Stella pen are two long-time favorites :)

I also used this week's color challenge from the Paper Players:

Very fun!  I love that the Tropical Escape DSP has a lighter version of Granny Apple Green in it.  I stamped off the flowers in Highland Heather to kinda match the saturation of the patterned paper and let the greeting shine.

Last up is this week's sketch from Retro Rubber:

Of course Tropical Chic is new, but the star of today's card is Dragonfly Dreams, which I've had for a year and a half.  I thought that dragonfly paired well with the tropical theme.

That's it for me today.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Dragonfly Dreams, Tropical Chic
Ink:  Granny Apple Green, Highland Heather, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Lovely Lipstick, Tropical Escape DSP
Accessories:  Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Hello Orchids

Mornin' y'all.  Man, kid has been doing his best HULK SMASH this week and I'm worn out.  Here's hoping that today goes better than yesterday.

So let's start the day with a card and new stamps!

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with the Varied Vases stamp set (and coordinating punch, although I didn't use it for today's card).  I had to use a Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the scalloped "shelf", but other than that I was able to eyeball everything since it's a photopolymer stamp set.  And there's my Magical Mermaid speckles again, which I used here because I've seen (and owned) orchids with freckles.

I used the Fab Friday sketch:

I think my Tranquil Tide ribbon is retired, but oh well.  Everything else is current and I just needed something on that side of my card (I was going to skip the ribbon right up until the end of the creative process).

I also played along with this week's Just Us Girls trend:

I did a quick watercolor wash on watercolor paper and then hit it with my heat gun to dry it because I have no patience and I also have a 1-year-old who wakes up at the least opportune moment while I'm crafting.

Last up is the Sunday Stamps color challenge:

I read it as Basic Black, Tranquil Tide, Crumb Cake, and So Saffron.  I guess the last color would be a cross between Gray Granite and Whisper White but I concentrated on the other colors.  I also added a teeny pop of Berry Burst because my orchids needed it, and I've discovered that my Berry Burst ink pad is succumbing to the Dreaded Gold Sheen.  Dang it.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Have a good 'un!  And also happy birthday to my dad, who doesn't read this blog anyway :p

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Varied Vases, Magical Mermaid
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Tranquil Tide, So Saffron, Crumb Cake, Berry Burst
Paper:  Basic Black, So Saffron, Thick Whisper White, Watercolor paper
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits, retired Tranquil Tide ribbon, Dimensionals

Farm Livin'

I used to watch Nick at Nite a LOT when I was a kid.  Green Acres, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Patty Duke Show, Dobie Gillis...but my favorite was Mister Ed.  I was a horse-crazy little girl so no wonder.  Anyway, the stamp set Bareback was one of my early purchases in my stamping career.

I put this card together in no kidding ten minutes, but I still think it looks pretty good?  Everything on the card is retired other than the Very Vanilla cardstock and the adhesive.  Bareback has been retired for years and years, and Blue Bayou was I think in the second year we had In Colors?  Vintage stamping stuff here I tell ya.  At first I was going to make this a birthday card, but that horse has always looked kinda contemplative to me, so I went with "thinking of you" instead.

I used this week's Fall-To Layout:

Great sketch, and also why I was able to put my card together so fast.  Plus I'd kinda planned it out in my head when I was running yesterday morning (I'm not the only one who plans out cards and scrapbook layouts in her head while doing other things, am I?).

Next up, and the reason I chose the horse image, is the Global Design Project theme this week:

Guess what else I discovered when I checked out the GDP blog yesterday morning?  My lemon card was a winner for their last challenge!  Squee!

Anyway, I was trying to think of country and farm life images while I was running yesterday, and somehow using Lemon Zest again did not occur to me, but that horse image from Bareback popped into my head so that's what I did.  But I feel like I didn't put enough effort into that card since it was done in under 10 minutes (we were almost late to kid's swim lessons yesterday) so as a bonus, here's a scrapbook layout that I recently finished and finally got photographed yesterday!

I've been working a lot on pictures from the last time we lived in North Carolina, about 10 years ago or more, and this is one of the layouts from that time period.  I think it was October of 2007?  Indigo Farms is pretty much on the border between North and South Carolina and these pictures are so old they were taken on a non-digital camera with FILM.  Haha!

My color palette is straight from the Orchard Harvest DSP, which I loved and bought like six packs of when it hit the clearance rack and I'm hoarding it.  Anyway, the colors are almost all retired now, and include More Mustard, Raspberry Ripple, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso (I know it looks black), and Very Vanilla.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Gotta go to the gym and start cleaning up the house to get ready for some friends to get here on Wednesday!  Cheers!

Supplies, Bareback card:
Stamps:  Bareback, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Thick Very Vanilla, Blue Bayou DSP
Accessories:  retired Candy Dots

Supplies, Indigo Farms layout:
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Perfectly Preserved
Ink:  Island Indigo, Raspberry Ripple, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  More Mustard, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Thick Very Vanilla, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories:  Cannery Framelits

Hotel for Dogs

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I have a simple layout for you today that I actually made last year.  I'm terribly far behind on taking pictures of the layouts I've been working on more recently because the lighting in our house is such that it's best to take the pictures in the morning.  Somehow I never think to do it until the afternoon, when I know the pictures won't turn out well, and so now I've got a good dozen layouts waiting to be photographed.  But anyway, on to today's layout!

These pictures are from when we lived in Japan; during one month we watched two different dogs for some of our friends and we have two of our own.  Since three of the dogs are black and one of them is white, I kinda had free rein to choose colors for my layout, and I ended up with the In Colors from a few years ago:  Strawberry Slush, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, and Baked Brown Sugar.  I did like all of those colors, but if only one can ever come back I'm glad it was Coastal Cabana ;)

I made this not long after I acquired the Taffy Alphabet (still love it).  I wanted the title pieces to all be the same height, so I had to do the "g" this way instead of the standard way.  A bit unusual from a typographic standpoint, but it didn't bother me on the finished layout so I'm calling it a win.

My paw print accents were simple to make from an upside-down hear punch and four punched ovals.  Simple but so cute!

I already talked about the color palette, but there it is anyway, along with black and white for the doggos.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Strawberry Slush, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, DSP in Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding & Coastal Cabana
Accessories:  retired heart & oval punches