Navy Bouquet

Hey y'all!  I DID enjoy my day off yesterday.  I watched an episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and then I made 8 cards.  I took pictures of a bunch of scrapbook layouts but I was having a terrible time with getting pictures to look good yesterday--I didn't retake the scrapbook layouts yet, but I did take pictures of the cards THREE TIMES before I got a set I thought was acceptable.  So here's one of the cards I made yesterday:

Wrapped Bouquet is a super cute stamp set (with coordinating dies) that will be retiring at the end of the month when the Occasions catalog expires.  I used the brand now Color Throwdown palette:

Which I interpreted as Smoky Slate, Coastal Cabana, and Night of Navy.  I paired that with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I picked out the two challenges before I decided what stamps to use, and for some reason this combination really took me a while to wrap my brain around.  I almost did something with snowflakes even though the image on the CTD palette is definitely summery ;)  I inked up the main bouquet stamp with Versamark and Night of Navy ink, stamped, and then embossed with clear EP so I could watercolor it.  Took me three tries to get a good image--my Night of Navy ink pad is pretty juicy and it kept getting excess ink in some of the fine details of the stamp, so on the third try I inked it up and then pounced a sponge on top of it to take off some of the extra ink.  One of my favorite stamping tricks :)  I inked up the newspaper stamp with Versamark and stamped it on the card base for a bit of subtle background texture.

Summer has finally arrived in Germany and now I'm questioning the wisdom of not getting an AC unit for our bedroom at night...we've been sleeping with the windows open, but German birds never sleep and one of our neighbors has chickens.  Guess it helps me get up early to work out!

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wrapped Bouquet
Ink:  Versamark, Night of Navy, Coastal Cabana
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Coastal Cabana, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Wrapped Flowers dies, Nature's Thoughts dies

A Cup of Cheer

Hey y'all, how do?  I thoroughly enjoyed my day off Monday, and fully intend to do the same today!  I mean yeah I have to work Saturday, but it's been SO NICE getting to play with paper and ink and I did finish up those scrapbook pages!!  I love how they turned out and I can't wait to start on some more.

Anywha, here is my card for today:

Tomorrow my husband is doing a going-away thing for his right-hand man, who is moving back to the States with his family, and the hubs asked me to get some kind of farewell gift for the guy's wife.  Well, the very first thing I want to do when I go back to the States after a long time overseas is to hit up Target! So instead of getting some kind of German souvenir that would only collect dust (plus they've been here longer than we have and I'm sure they got their own souvenirs before Corona shut everything down), I got her a Starbucks gift card and a Visa gift card to use at Target (only because they didn't have Target gift cards here).  So now as soon as Liz arrives in America, she can take her gift cards to get the beverage of her choice and have a nice wander around Target : )

Gift cards in hand, I sat down to make her card, and I saw the theme challenge at Global Design Project:

And it got my brain ticking.  The stamps I used are from an old Paper Pumpkin kit, aren't they cute?  I wish the greeting was a teensy bit smaller so it would actually fit in the cup though.  Anyway, a succulent in a teacup is for sure a teensy tiny garden, but probably the biggest one that I should be responsible for--it's a good thing they don't arrest you for accidentally killing houseplants, because I'd be in jail forever.  Hubs takes care of the orchids in our kitchen, which I adore but they would definitely die if I were responsible for them, so I tend to stick with flowers rendered in paper and ink.  Can't kill 'em, and they stay in bloom forever!

Have a superfantasticawesomelywonderful day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Mint Macaron, Shaded Spruce, Pink Pirouette Stampin' Blends
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Thick Basic White, Shaded Spruce DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Potted Succulents dies, Wink of Stella, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Mark It Up

Mornin' y'all!  Can you believe it--already time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time, the challenge is to use markers or Blends on your card creation!  I decided to go super CAS with my card and let the Stampin' Blends really do the talking.

Two stamps, one layer, zero embellishments, but still colorful and pretty thanks to the Blends (colors listed below).  I'm going to call these chickadees but I have zero idea what kind of bird they really are...or if my coloring job actually corresponds to any real-life birds ;)  I had intended to do a light wash of blue behind the bird image but I forgot, oops.  I still think it's pretty.

Don't forget to upload your creation at the SUO Challenges blog!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Free as a Bird
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Crushed Curry, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, So Saffron, Just Jade, Flirty Flamingo, and Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  None

Super 'Do

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  We had a good weekend even though it rained a lot.  On Saturday, we crossed the border into France and went shopping at a couple of junk shops--they sell antique furniture, but also a huge array of home decor things and all kinds of stuff, it was fun!  Then last night we watched Raya and the Last Dragon and I loved it :)

The hubs cut Ryan's hair yesterday so I just had to choose this layout to share today!

Somehow I missed these pictures when I was doing Ryan's baby book, so I put them on a layout in my chronological album instead.  Yeah, that wild hairdo on the right?  That was my mother's handiwork.  She wanted to try using hair gel on Ryan and I said fine as long as you wash it out afterward.  She was trying to give him a Superman curl, haha!

Today's color palette is straight from Superman's costume:  Pacific Point, Summer Sun, Poppy Parade, and a bit of Basic Gray and Whisper White.  I got to use some old Superman stickers from my stash, and I could not have asked for a more perfect layout to use them on!

Today is my first weekday off (other than Memorial Day, which doesn't really count) in two weeks, so I'm going to ENJOY it.  Got all my laundry done on Saturday, we cleaned up the house yesterday, so I can play in my craft room with zero guilt.  I have one card I have to make for someone, and then I am GOING to FINISH the five scrapbook layouts that have been languishing in my craft room for MONTHS waiting for me to journal them.  But first I'm going to enjoy my morning cuppa tea : )

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Letters for You
Ink:  Poppy Parade, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Pacific Point textured, Poppy Parade, Summer Sun, Thick Whisper White, Good Morning Sunshine DSP
Accessories:  Large Letters Framelits, Superman stickers by Sandylion

Baby Luke: January

Just two more baby book posts to go after this one!

I thought that winter pictures would probably have a lot of rosy cheeks, and since most of the pink will be covered up by the photos it doesn't look TOO girly :)  Love the Coastal Cabana with all the snowflakes, that DSP pack was pretty awesome.

We're going to hop across the border into France today, maybe look at some antiques and hit up the big bakery while we're there.  Au revoir!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Snowman Season, Merry
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Blueberry Bushel, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo, Blueberry Bushel, Thick Whisper White, Let It Snow Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Sizzix letters, Snowman Builder punch

Embossanova

Hey y'all, happy Friday!  Last night after kiddo went to bed, I had an idea for a card that I just HAD to get out on paper so I locked myself in my craft room for a bit and made this:

ALL THE COLORED EMBOSSING POWDER!!!  Stampin' Up! used to have a bunch of different colors of embossing powder.  I bought a lot of them and I'm pretty sure that before now I hadn't used Tempting Turquoise or Melon Mambo.  But I'm pretty tickled with how this turned out!

I had to have another go at this week's Color Throwdown:

The inspiration photo made me think of the shoes in Epic Celebrations, and like I said last time these colors just scream eighties to me so I leaned into that with my card.  Anyone else grow up in the '80s and have those weird background in your school photos that looked like lasers or something?  Just me?  Okay.  I wonder if I could dig that picture up...anyway, I used the Sanded background stamp with Tempting Turquoise EP to kinda mimic that feel and the bottom half of the ice cream punch gave me a great triangle shape for behind my sentiment stamp.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

It was fun once again doing a deep dive in my retired products for this one.  And of course I can't think of the '80s without thinking of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because my brother got the original movie on VHS for his birthday one year and watched it at least once a day over the entire Christmas break and I still have a lot of the dialog memorized.  I was trying to think of a title for this blog post last night and "Embossanova" popped in my head and really made me laugh so I have to share my word silliness with you :)

Have a great Friday!

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  Epic Celebrations, Really Retro, Sanded
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories:  Melon Mambo EP, Tempting Turquoise EP, White EP, Window Frames dies, Word Window punch, Ice Cream punch, Dimensionals

Guest Designer...Radical!

Hey hey, y'all!  Fun news for today...my sympathy card was chosen as the winner of that week's Color Throwdown challenge, which means I get to be a guest designer today!

And here is the super-radical color palette for this week:

I won't lie, these colors immediately scream EIGHTIES to me and I love it :) I used Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, and Basic Black, with the addition of Smoky Slate for my background to make this:

I hadn't used Butterfly Brilliance recently and what's more fun and colorful than butterflies?  I was going to do colored embossing powder on black cardstock but I decided to go for white EP on colored cardstock instead, maybe I'll try the other way 'round if I get a minute this week.

I also used the Sunday Stamps sketch for this week:

Such a fun sketch, I like it!

Hope you join in the fun at Color Throwdown this week!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Butterfly Brilliance, Stacked Stone, All Things Fabulous
Ink:  Versamark, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  White EP, Clear EP, Brilliant Wings dies, Dimensionals, retired Glitter Enamel Dots