Chic Thanks

Happy Thursday y'all!  Thursdays are my days to relax at the Y...my barre instructor had a baby (and she's moving), and there's no other fitness class that I want to take right now, so for the past few weeks I've been taking my stitching to the Y to work on while Ryan is in the nursery.  Making some progress on that so there's a happy thought for today!

And here's another happy thought:

I'm always tickled when I have the featured stamp set to participate in the What Will You Stamp? challenge.  Tropical Chic was one of my first purchases from the catalog last year, always fun to play with.  (By the way, my last Tropical Chic card won an honorable mention at CAS(E) This Sketch!  Woo!)

I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I love the color palette from Color Throwdown:

I used Night of Navy, Calypso Coral and Grapefruit Grove (I wanted a bit of color variation in my flowers), Bermuda Bay, and Very Vanilla.  Plus a bit of gold because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Have a lovely day, friends!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tropical Chic
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy, Grapefruit Grove, Calypso Coral, Versamark
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Rectangle Stitched Shapes dies, Tropical dies, Dimensionals, Gold EP

Bright Birthday Bloom

Mornin' y'all!  Okay, so yesterday was the last day of the old annual catalog and the Occasions catalog, but I just really wanted to play with Bloom By Bloom again so that's what I did!

Still loving those word dies too, though the dots for the I's are hard to keep track of.  I may always use sequins or glitter dots or something instead of the die cut dots!

I made this for the Global Design Project challenge:

I used a similar (but not identical) layout, and I used the colors that Charlett did with the addition of Granny Apple Green because I wanted some leaves on my card.  I used Pineapple Punch, Poppy Parade, and Coastal Cabana for the other colors.  At first I was going to use some Coastal Cabana patterned paper, but it just seemed too busy with the flower panel so I went with plain cardstock instead.

That's it for me today, kids.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bloom by Bloom
Ink:  Pineapple Punch, Coastal Cabana, Poppy Parade, Granny Apple Green, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pineapple Punch, Coastal Cabana, Poppy Parade, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Well Said dies, Glitter Enamel Dots

Myrtle Beach

Scrappy Monday!  Dude, I need to take pictures of my more recent layouts.  I have 40+ draft posts of scrapbook pages, but most of those are either wintry or for Ryan's baby book, and I'm kinda waiting until I finish Ryan's baby book to start posting the pages from it.  But I did scrounge up a beach layout!

And I think these pictures were actually taken in October ;)  I let the postcard (top of the right page) work for my page title, and busted out some loooooong-retired stamps--I think I got Stippled Shells in my first year of stamping.  This was a pretty quick layout to put together but I think it turned out okay.  Pretty sure I made this not too long after the color refresh that introduced Balmy Blue!  I love that color, we need lots more DSP with it and if SU! released a pack of 12x12 Balmy Blue I would buy lotsssss.  I hate having to buy the family packs that only have two sheets of each color.  I'm currently out of Balmy Blue because I already used it for two layouts, so I'd have to buy another family pack to get more, and I have tons of lots of the other Subtles already.  Whaddya do.

Today's color palette includes Blushing Bride, which I don't use very often but it seemed to work here (I was inspired by the pinks and reds in the postcard), the aforementioned Balmy Blue, retired Pistachio Pudding, and Whisper White.

Hope your week is off to a great start, friends.  Try not to melt in the heat!  (Really, it's the humidity that makes me want to lay on the floor and have a tantrum!)

P.S.  HAPPY NEW SU! CATALOG DAY!  I probably won't do another SU! order for a couple of weeks, but I still have To A Wild Rose to play with.  And I'm working on FIVE layouts with the luscious Garden Lane DSP.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Shells
Ink:  Balmy Blue, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White, Tranquil Textures DSP
Accessories:  postcard

Butterfly on Black

Happy Friday y'all!  Got any fun weekend plans?  I'll be trying to make some more progress on my scrapbook pages :D

But for now, a card!

The theme challenge from Global Design Project was the perfect excuse to bust out the Beautiful Day butterfly again (as if I need an excuse, haha!)

I paired that with the sketch from Inspire. Create.

Then I just picked some fun, bright colors of Blends and went to town.  And then I discovered that alcohol ink will kinda stain clear embossing powder. *shrug*

Have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Day
Ink:  Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Bermuda Bay, Mango Melody, Blackberry Bliss, and Basic Black
Paper:  Basic Black, Bermuda Bay, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  white baker's twine, Dimensionals

Timeless Country Greetings

Hey y'all!  Happy Thursday.  I lucked out yesterday:  I was super tired so I took a nap when my kiddo went down for his nap, but he stayed asleep long enough that after I woke up, I got this card made before he started making noise.  Yay naptime crafting!

I wouldn't want to mass produce this card just because of the fussy cutting, much less the coloring, but I do like how it turned out.

Challenge time!  Let's start with Freshly Made Sketches:

Hey, I stayed pretty close to the sketch this time!  Next up is the color challenge from Color Throwdown:

I used Berry Burst (just a teensy bit), Highland Heather, Mint Macaron (Old Olive was my first choice, but I don't have the Old Olive Blends yet so I went with Mint Macaron instead), and Crumb Cake.

Finally, check out the What Will You Stamp? challenge:

I used two stamps from Timeless Textures for the horizontal strips under the main image; I thought they really helped with the rustic look on this card.  I had a scrap of Mint Macaron patterned paper so I just snipped off a 1/2" strip for the left side of the card.  Easy peasy!

That's it for me today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Country Home, Timeless Textures
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Berry Burst, Mint Macaron, Crumb Cake; Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Mint Macaron, & Highland Heather
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Thick Whisper White, Tranquil Textures DSP
Accessories:  None

Mermaid in a Bottle

Hey y'all!  How's your week going?

I decided to pull out some retired stamps for today's card.  Check out the challenge from Cupcake Inspiration:

Both my stamp sets, Message in a Bottle and Seaside Shore, retired last summer but I just couldn't resist pulling them out for this challenge.

I also used the sketch from the Paper Players:

And I know who this card should go to, so I'm going to try to get it in the mail by the end of the week.  I need to actually MAIL more of the cards I make :)

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Message in a Bottle, Seaside Shore
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Call Me Clover, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Petal Pink, Basic Black, Real Red, & Call Me Clover
Paper:  Real Red, Thick Whisper White, Fresh Prints Stack
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Geared Up for Father's Day

Mornin' y'all!  It's time once more for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time around we're making masculine cards, so ya know, a REAL challenge ;) But I have Geared Up Garage and the coordinating DSP stack, so for once making a man card was easy!

This is a card I planned out in my head while I was doing something else and then when I got in my craft room it only took about 15 minutes to make, and really what made it take that long was going through all the patterned papers and choosing which ones I wanted to use.  The three background strips are each 1.25" wide by 5" tall, and if you line them up so they touch, you get a 1/4" border around them on your card front.  The Tranquil Tide strip was a scrap so I don't know offhand how wide it was, it just looked right on the card.  At first I stamped the "Happy Father's Day" stamp in plain Tranquil Tide on Whisper White, but it seemed *too* plain so I did it again in Memento Tuxedo Black and added a bit of Tranquil Tide (letters) and Smoky Slate (background).  Last of all, I added three silver sequins.  You will never convince me that men don't like shiny things as much as women...after all, CARS are shiny.  If you get them washed regularly, at least.  I need to get my car washed this week...

Anyway, check out the SUO Challenges blog and make a masculine card for us to ooh and ahh over.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Tranquil Tide, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Tranquil Tide, Thick Whisper White, Classic Garage DSP Stack
Accessories:  Garage Gears Thinlits, Dimensionals, metallic sequins