Watercolor Wildflowers

Hey y'all.  Yesterday was a looooooooooooooong day because Ryan woke up at 3:00 throwing up, and then didn't want to go back to sleep until about 9 a.m. and then was only down for about an hour.  He seems like he's feeling better now, so here's hoping there are no further relapses into last weekend's stomach bug.  I went and bought a new bottle of laundry detergent yesterday because we're going through it so fast :p

Ryan DID take a nap yesterday afternoon, so I got to make this:

And yes, watercoloring that panel took FOR.EV.ER!!!  I thought to myself why didn't I decide to make a 3x3 card??  But I liked how it turned out.  I stamped the big flower from Beautiful Day (I bought that set on a whim and I freakin' LOVE IT) in Sahara Sand ink (stamped off once) and then just went to town watercoloring around it.  Does this count as no-line watercolor if I watercolored the lines back on?  The ribbon is retired, but it's what I have on hand and no one is policing that on my blog anyway so I can do whatever I want. :p

I was inspired by the challenge graphic from Retro Rubber:

I love that green bottle; kinda wish my card idea had ended up with a much more saturated green but my stamping muse said watercolor so I watercolored.  Obviously I used the main colors from the picture on my card.  Beautiful Day is just one year old, but Touches of Texture I've had for at least two and a half years...and the word die is brand spankin' new because like I said before, Imma be using that set of dies a lot.  They're fun.  But do be careful to grab the dots for your "I"s...I had to dig through the trash to find the one for my bridal shower card earlier this week.  Oops.

I also used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

Very simple sketch, I like it a lot.  Lots of scope for imagination, as Anne Shirley would say.

Cheers, y'all!  Stay healthy.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Day, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Tranquil Tide, Mint Macaron, Garden Green, Flirty Flamingo, Berry Burst, Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Tranquil Tide, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Well Written Framelits, retired ribbon

Bridal Rose

Hey y'all!  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

Today we're sharing spring cards, including Mother's Day if you're late (like me).  I *almost* made a Mother's Day card, but then the card insisted it was a bridal shower card instead.  Lookie:

I got my new catalog preorder late on Thursday but last week was so hectic that I didn't get to play with the new schtuff until the weekend.  Well Said and the coordinating dies are in the Occasions catalog but I just now got them because I didn't want to miss out on the 10% discount bundle pricing.  I can tell those are going to be favorites for me. 

Brand new stuff alert!  To A Wild Rose is a new stamp set with coordinating dies, and I stamped my rose with the new In Color Rococo Rose.  The DSP is new too, it's called Garden Lane and it's my favorite new DSP even though there are LOTS of great new DSPs.  This reminds me of the old, old set Wintergreen, which I've used on my scrapbook layouts a lot.  I was actually thinking maybe I should try to find some more on eBay or something because I don't have much of it left, and then Garden Lane came along.  It's all in shades of green (my favorite color) and I LOVES IT.

So now it's your turn to show us some spring on your papercrafting project!  Add your linky at the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To A Wild Rose, Well Said
Ink:  Rococo Rose, Merry Merlot, Mint Macaron, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Merry Merlot, Thick Whisper White, Garden Lane DSP
Accessories:  Wild Rose Dies, Well Written Framelits, Dimensionals

Whale Watching

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Hope you had a good Mother's Day weekend.  Ours was exhausting and barfy on Ryan's part, unfortunately.  He woke up at 11:00 on Saturday night throwing up and hollering for Mama, and then we all spent the next hour and a half trying to comfort Ryan while he was sick, cleaning up everything he was sick on, and changing clothes.  Ryan, the hubs and I all went through at least two outfits each.  Then poor Ryan alternated between saying he wanted to go to bed or watch Cars, so in the end we took his mattress out to the living room and he laid on that and watched Cars 2.  Twice.  The whole movie.  When it ended again a bit after 2 a.m., Ryan asked to put it on again and I was like nooooo we're going to sleep.  So Ryan slept on his mattress in the living room, and I tried to sleep on the couch next to him, and at 6:30 yesterday morning, Ryan woke up all chipper, poked me and said, "Cars on TV?"  So I started the movie again, and at 7 I tagged out with the hubs and tried to go to sleep for a bit in my own bed.  Meanwhile, hubs took Ryan to the store to get stuff for breakfast, and Ryan insisted on buying flowers for Mama, so when I woke up again I got cherry turnovers and a dozen red roses.  Awwwww.

Anywha, all that barfiness made me think of this layout so I have to re-share it today:

Hubs and I went on a whale watching tour in 2007 when we lived in Okinawa, and I didn't see not ONE STINKING WHALE because I got seasick for almost the entire time we were on the boat.  Actually, although I was the first to succumb, by the end of it there were only three people on the boat who had NOT gotten sick, including my hubs and the captain of the boat.  All the rest of us were miserable.  Don't know that I'll ever voluntarily go on a whale watching expedition again.

Hope your weekend involved much less barf and laundry than ours did.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!

Stamps:  Ocean Commotion, Big Deal Alphabet

Ink:  Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White

Paper:  Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Haiku DSP

Accessories:  None

Hello, Beautiful Butterflies

Mornin' y'all!  Ready for a bright springy card?

I've had a lot of fun playing with Butterfly Gala since I bought it, so when I saw this week's What Will You Stamp? challenge of course I had to join in.

I combined that with the CASE the Designer challenge from Global Design Project:

I kept the same layout with the rectangles and the pattern behind the main image panel (though I stamped mine rather than using DSP), and I kept my card springy but with different colors.  Speaking of colors, check out the fun palette from As You See It:

I added a bit of black and white but otherwise only used those three colors.  I stamped off every other butterfly so there are light and dark pink ones, but they're all Lovely Lipstick.

Well, I've got a very busy day ahead so I'm going to hop to it.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Butterfly Gala, Post Script
Ink:  Pineapple Punch, Lovely Lipstick, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Pineapple Punch, Powder Pink, Basic Black
Accessories:  Rectangle Stitched Framelits, Butterfly Duet Punch

Hot Wheels Birthday

Mornin' folks!  Hope you're having a good week.

I inked up another new stamp set!

I needed a birthday card for a 4-year-old boy who's obsessed with Matchbox cars, so Geared Up Garage to the rescue!  Love the coordinating Classic Garage DSP too; I used three prints for this card.

And here's the inside, with a simple greeting from Itty Bitty Birthdays.

I used the sketch from Fusion:

I love the inspiration picture too, but butterflies wouldn't work so well for the card I needed :)  I'm also entering this at Just Us Girls:

Cars move, and little boys never stop moving, so I think I'm covered on this one :)

Have a great day y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage, Itty Bitty Birthdays
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Stampin' Blends in Real Red, Smoky Slate, and Pool Party
Paper:  Real Red, Thick Whisper White, Classic Garage DSP
Accessories:  Garage Gears Thinlits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals

Sympathy for Cleo

I was talking to my dad this weekend and he said this has not been a good year for dogs.  First my Vader died in February, my friend Amber's senior dog died a few weeks ago, and a week ago my almost-sister and her husband had to put down their dog because of kidney or liver problems.  Then on Friday my sister-in-law got home to discover that their dog Cleo had been attacked by another dog--no idea how the other dog got in their backyard, but she rushed Cleo to the animal hospital immediately. Sadly, the damage was too extensive and she died on Friday night.  Poor Cleo was a 13-year-old dog with just 3 legs.  I feel so badly for my SIL and brother.  And of course Cleo.

Hey, I used the dog stamp instead of just the punch.  I watercolored the dog in about the same color that Cleo was (though paper Cleo has four legs instead of three).  I know she frequently wore a purple color because that's SIL's favorite color, so that's how I chose Highland Heather.  Smoky Slate just seemed to go with the other two colors.

I used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

The elements in the corner of the sketch reminded me of All Adorned, which was a later Sale-a-Bration offiering this year.

I'm also entering this at Just Add Ink:

I hate making sympathy cards, and I'd much rather do it when I don't need one rather than having to make one for a specific thing.

Poor little Cleo.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Happy Tails, All Adorned
Ink:  Basic Gray, So Saffron, Highland Heather
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Highland Heather, Thick Whisper White, Watercolor paper
Accessories:  Dog punch, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Labels Collection Framelits (retired)

Mother's Day Pictures (2005)

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your weekend?

We're going waaaayyyyy back to 2004 (I think?) for today's layout:

And also some non-SU paper *shocked face* I used to put photos in the page protectors of a scrapbook album along with whatever paper I wanted to use, so when I finally made these pages I just pulled out the paper I'd stuck in there years ago.  I did use some Stampin' Up! colors for the mats.  We had these pictures taken for my mom for Mother's Day that year, so I thought this week would be a good time to share them.

Today's color palette includes a color that looks sorta like Pink Pirouette, along with actual Strawberry Slush, Lavender Lace, and Whisper White.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  None
Ink:  Lavender Lace marker
Paper:  non-SU pink, Strawberry Slush, Lavender Lace, Whisper White, patterned paper by Sonburn
Accessories:  Corner rounder punch