Hello, Goodbye

Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.  (No one is going anywhere!)  Hello, Goodbye is just the name of my scrapbook layout for today!

Pics on the left are from when a friend returned home from deployment; pics on the right are from when another friend got ready to leave for his next assignment.  I didn't want to do two separate layouts so this seemed like a good way to combine the two.

Today's color palette includes Bashful Blue, Melon Mambo, Concord Crush (how I wish I had gotten an ink refill for this one!  Somehow I missed getting ANY In Color refills that year), Lucky Limeade, and Whisper White.  The patterned paper is from Cheerful Treat, which I haven't used a lot but I loved it here!  I've been digging into some old, old DSP lately and having fun with it.

Well, Ryan just asked if he can please get up and since it's almost 8 a.m. I suppose that's okay ;) Hope your week is off to a good start, peeps.  Cheers!

ETA:  I was going to talk about color some more...I've been doing a lot of pages with Ryan on them, and the bright colors on kids' clothes means that my color palettes have been getting bolder.  It's a fun change, but I still have lots of older pics to scrap that will require colors not in the Crayola Bold Brights collection ;)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, True Friend
Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Melon Mambo, Concord Crush
Paper:  Bashful Blue, Concord Crush, Lucky Limeade, Thick Whisper White, Cheerful Treat DSP
Accessories:  Circle punch, Circles Collection Framelits

Ryan: Two Months

Mornin' y'all.  I was hoping to have some nice quiet time early this morning before Ryan and Sadie got up, but I only got about 10 minutes because Ryan wanted to get up early.  Well, what can ya do?

Here's the next layout in Ryan's baby book:

The layout colors are taken directly from the baby blanket he's laying on and his onesie with the monsters on it.  I got a non-SU stamp set to put some monster accents on the left page too.  That 5x7 picture on the right page is the hubs' favorite picture of Ryan as a baby; it's on the front of the baby book too.  And now this tiny little babe is running around the house screaming at the top of his lungs because he's excited that everyone else is awake now.  Heh.

So here's the color palette for today:  Chocolate Chip, Pear Pizzazz, Balmy Blue, and Whisper White.

Okay, I'm off to attack the day.  Personal challenge:  see if we can go all day without watching a single minute of Paw Patrol.  Think we can do it?

Supplies:
Stamps:  monsters from Clear Snap?
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pear Pizzazz, Balmy Blue, Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Early Espresso, Balmy Blue, Thick Whisper White, Nursery Nest DSP
Accessories:  None

Zoo Pals

Hey y'all!  I didn't get to do anything in my craft room on Tuesday, so no card yesterday, but I did manage to get one made during yesterday's quiet time.  Here it is:

 I started with the theme challenge from The Paper Players:

I was thinking about using a retired set for this challenge, and I opened my personal stamp catalog to look through my animal stamp sets, and then I didn't get past Animal Outing :)  I haven't used this stamp set in a YEAR so it was past time to ink it up.  The sentiment was from the very first My Paper Pumpkin kit, and it just seemed perfect for these zoo pals.  The flower and leaf stamps are from the recent SAB set Thoughtful Blooms because I hadn't inked it up yet and it seemed like a good idea with everything else.

I loved the bright colors for this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Pumpkin Pie (the giraffe's spots), Granny Apple Green (I used the darker Blend for the frog, lighter for the leaves, and then used Versamark to stamp the leaves on the Granny Apple die cut layer), Melon Mambo (sentiment, because who doesn't love a pop of pink), and Daffodil Delight (I think you can guess where this is).

Last up is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I think I own some non-SU diamond dies, but I didn't feel like digging them out so I just used the Stitched Nested Labels dies for the diamond shape (and the sentiment, for that matter).

Hope y'all have a great day.  I need to get this card in the mail...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Animal Outing, Thoughtful Blooms, My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Pumpkin Pie, and Soft Suede
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Stitched Nested Labels dies, Mini Dimensionals, retired Glitter Enamel Dots

Elvis' Rain Boots

Hey stampy friends!  I actually made a card yesterday, whaaaaaaat!  We'll see if I make one today too, or finish those scrapbook pages and start the next set.  But first, card:

D'awww.  I wasn't going to get the Under My Umbrella bundle at first, but for some reason it snuck on my big March order and I'm glad it did.  That sentiment makes my brain sing Elvis' "Always on My Mind" and also makes me want to watch Practical Magic (if you've seen the movie, you'll understand the connection).

My card is a triple challenge card, starting with the colors from Cupcake Inspirations:

I used Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, and Balmy Blue for my card.  I paired that with the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

I flipped the sketch 90 degrees to the right and ended up making my card more symmetrical than the sketch, although the umbrella overhanging the sentiment panel keeps it from being totally symmetrical.  I had originally wanted to use a completely different sketch, but I really wanted the rain boots with the sentiment, so I switched to this one instead.

Finally, here's the Global Design Project theme challenge:

I don't really make a lot of Easter cards, so I went with a spring theme instead.  My parents said it's been raining cats and dogs where they are in Texas, but we've had nothing but lovely weather lately.  Which means lots of social distance-appropriate walks for me and the kiddo ;)

Hope you have a lovely day, folks, rain or shine!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Under My Umbrella
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Balmy Blue, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight & Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Balmy Blue, Thick Whisper White, Pleased as Punch DSP
Accessories:  Umbrella punch, Dimensionals

Dilapidated Shacks

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  And today I've got a layout that I made last week.  The pictures are from 2010, but the layout itself is hot off the presses, as it were.

Check out the original pictures here.  These pics are from the area of North Carolina where we live right now (we lived here from 2004 to 2007, and the hubs had to come back for a few months in 2010, we all moved back in 2018); there's a lot of farmland around us, and a LOT of old barns and houses that look like they're in imminent danger of falling over.  So in 2010, the hubs and I did a photo safari to take pictures of them, just because we could.  We used to joke about which shack was going to be our next house, and the two sepia-tone pictures we took just make me think of the Wizard of Oz.

Well, I was working on these pages last week, and I could NOT think of any stamp sets to use for embellishments on here.  I had the title done, but I needed something on the left page.  I went through all my SU! stamps and...nothing.  And then I remembered...I have Wizard of Oz stamps!  I got them years ago as a sheet of unmounted rubber, no clue who the manufacturer was.  So I used Dorothy and Toto for my stamped accents, and if you click the photo to enlarge, you'll see that Dorothy has the caption "There's no place like home."

I crack myself up.

A lot.

I don't care if anyone else thinks I'm funny, I know I'm hilarious.

Today's color palette is Marina Mist (blue for Dorothy's dress, which was a lovely coincidence since I had most of the layout put together before I got out the Dorothy stamp), Summer Starfruit, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, and just a smidge of Very Vanilla.

I've got two layouts that are about 85% done, and then my YTD total will be 98 pages.  Woohoo!

Hope your week is off to a good start, y'all.  We spent some time cleaning up yesterday and I'm feeling better about the world having a clean house.  Weird, huh?  I'd better do the dishes now though, the sink is already filling up again...cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Rough Type, Well-Worn Alphabet, Wizard of Oz stamps (unknown)
Ink:  Marina Mist, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Marina Mist, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Patio Party DSP
Accessories:  None

Ryan: March

Oooops I just realized I forgot to publish this blog post this morning!  Okay, we're doing it now.  I had a bunch of pictures from March so I did two layouts...hey, it's my baby's baby book, I can do what I want.

I did Garden Green for the page bases because March = St. Patrick's Day and also green is my favorite color.  And then it turned into yet another green-and-gold color scheme, with bears.  There's Ryan's first meetings with his Nana and Papa and his Aunt Jill, plus his first snow (he was unimpressed by it all).

Ryan spiked a high fever when he was 3 weeks old and ended up admitted to the hospital for a few days, that's the pictures on the left.  All the ones on the right were just too cute and/or funny to be left out of his baby book.

Today's Bayloriffic color combo is Garden Green, Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Smoky Slate, and Whisper White.

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Letters for You, bears from Whipper Snapper
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Garden Green, Smoky Slate, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP, Urban Oasis DSP
Accessories:  Large Letters Framelits, Labels Framelits, Watercolor Wonder Crayons

April Showers

Happy Friday, y'all.  I have been working in my craft room this week, but instead of making cards, I've been working on scrapbook pages.  I think that paper crafting is helping with my emotional well-being during quarantine, so I'm making a concerted effort to get in my craft room when Ryan does quiet time.  I have a small stack of new layouts that I need to take pictures of, but for now, I thought I'd share one I finished last year.

I took pictures at my friend Sarah's baby shower in Japan, and my mom went to my friend Melissa's baby shower in Texas, both of which happened in April so I couldn't resist the title April Showers.  Might be hard to see unless you click on the photo to embiggen.  I made baby books for both Sarah and Melissa; Sarah had a boy and Melissa had a girl.  I figured Barely Banana was a good neutral baby color, so that for the page base, and Wild Wasabi for all the photo mats.  Sarah's page on the left got a cute starry Bermuda Bay pattern, and Melissa's page on the right got the super-girly purple flowers (Mel's favorite color is purple, so I worked it into her book as much as I could).

So a very long time ago, not too long after I started stamping so like probably 15 years ago, I got the Alphahearts stamp set. 

And then...I never used it.  Until this layout.  It just seemed like a good fit for the baby shower layout.  Wheeeee for finally inking up a stamp set!  Now I just need to use the coordinating Alphaheart Numbers :)

Today's color palette is Barely Banana, Bermuda Bay, Wild Wasabi, Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Pretty in Pink, and Whisper White.  I just did another layout with Barely Banana for the page base, after not using that color for years I seem to be reaching for it more often lately.  It's less muddy than So Saffron.

Hope you have a great Friday, y'all.  I told the hubs we need to decide which restaurant we're driving by for dinner tonight since we can't actually eat in restaurants right now.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Alphahearts, Baby Bundle
Ink:  Pretty in Pink, Bermuda Bay, Wild Wasabi, Orchid Opulence, Basic Gray
Paper:  Barely Banana, Wild Wasabi, Pretty in Pink, Thick Whisper White, Bubbles & Fizz DSP, Cottage Wall DSP
Accessories:  None