CreativeCrew: Yellow Sundress

A little while back, I was surprised to get a private message on Splitcoast inviting me to join the CreativeCrew, which is a group of demos who do monthly demo-only challenges on Splitcoast and try to gently brainwash people into using more Stampin' Up! stuff ;)  This is the first time I've ever been on a design team kinda thing, so I'm excited!  Just hope my stuff is up to snuff, so here's my first card for the Crew!

Ok seriously, that feathery Daffodil Delight print I used on the dress is perhaps my favorite patterned paper in the current catalog.  Like, a lot.  Part of the challenges for this month was to look at this website and pick a party to use as inspiration, so today's card was inspired by the Elegant Butterfly party:

Love that butterfly cake!  Perhaps I got a little carried away with the yellow on my card, but I think it feels sunny and cheerful :)  You can play along in the CreativeCrew challenges here!

Happy stampin'!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Raspberry Ripple
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Sahara Sand, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Floral District DSP, Brights & In Color DSP Stacks

Accessories:  Dress Up Framelits, Bitty Butterfly punch, rhinestones, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Festive Paper Piercing Pack

Purple Peacock

Ya know what?  It's time to make Mother's Day cards. And since my mom checks out this blog from time to time, I don't think she'll be surprised when this card arrives in the mail soon.

Mom has a thing for peacocks and purple :)  The layout is based on the latest Retro Sketch:

And the color combo started out being the palette provided by Nacho Average Challenges:

I kinda forgot the Basic Gray.  Ok, so I didn't so much forget it as it just didn't quite work with the rest of my card...I meant to stamp the sentiment in Basic Gray but I forgot and did it in Elegant Eggplant, and then the Eggplant button just looked much better on there to my eye than a Basic Gray one and then there was no other place for the Basic Gray so it got left out.  But the Nacho challenge was still what gave me the idea to do a purple peacock so I'm still gonna count it.

Have a fabby-dabby Tuesday and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  World Treasures, All Holidays (retired)
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Regals DSP Stack
Accessories:  Wisteria Wonder baker's twine, Regals button, Dimensionals

Washington Apples

Just when I thought I might actually get some of my own personal scrapbooking done, one of my friends announced that she's pregnant.

With TWINS.

So I'm back to doing baby books instead of scrapbooks for me and hubs...I'm so far behind.  I haven't even gotten halfway through our time in Japan, China will be an album by itself, and I haven't printed off hardly any pictures from after we moved to England.  So yeah, I will never be bored when it comes to scrapping.

But anyway, let's get back to the baby books.  I'm doing two books, one for each twin (both boys), and I always do baby books in multiples but this is the first time I've made books for twins.  These two books will put me at 13 baby books made total--always in pairs except one time I did three.

I usually start with whatever layout I have the first idea for, and yes at this point I copy myself quite a bit.  I go back to the older baby book pics and sketch out all the layouts and notate what stamps I might want to use.  This one is very much like an earlier September layout I did in 2010, but this time I used Perfectly Preserved and the Orchard Harvest DSP from last year's holiday catalog.  Is it weird that I have three different stamp sets with apples about that same size?  (Tart & Tangy, Fruit & Flowers, and Perfectly Preserved, if you're curious.)  And then for the journaling block, I used the teeny apple from One Smart Cookie and I totally bought that stamp set JUST for this purpose, luckily right before it retired.  And this layout is doubly appropriate since the mommy-to-be hails from Washington State.

While I was sticking down the letters on one of the layouts, I dropped the R and it landed adhesive side up (so, not stuck to the paper) and as that is a violation of the laws of physics I expect there's a rip in the space/time continuum now.  Because if you drop something with adhesive on it, there's a law that says it has to land adhesive side down.

Have a great Monday, and if you see that rip on the space/time continuum, report it to the nearest temporal police officer.  :D

Supplies:
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, One Smart Cookie (retired)
Ink:  Real Red, Lucky Limeade, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Bashful Blue, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories:  Cannery Collection Framelits, old Sizzix alphabet

Friday Flashback: Because I Care

Happy Friday and welcome to this week's edition of the Friday Flashback!  Today's featured stamp set is Because I Care, which was a pretty little hostess set a little while back.  For some reason SU! sent it to demos for free but I forget why.  Let's take a trip back in time to see what I've done with the stamps before today *cue time travel sound effect* {it sounds like the TARDIS}

Um.  Well.  That was a short flashback!  In case you missed it, the little flower to the right of the sentiment is from Because I Care, and that's it.  I'm really not sure how it's possible that I hadn't used this stamp set more, I love hydrangeas!  Well, here's a new card for you:

I'm kinda digging that color combo, what do you think?  It's Wild Wasaaaaabi, Marina Mist, and Wisteria Wonder.  I was pleasantly surprised with how vibrantly the markered image showed up when I stamped it.  Thought I'd use some of that Marina Mist ribbon that's in the Occasions catalog because I don't think I'd used any of it till now.  And how did I make cards before the Big Shot and Framelits came along?!

Today's card is brought to you by Freshly Made Sketches:

Another lovely and endlessly flexible layout, gotta love that.  I only tweaked a teensy bit so you could see more of the ribbon and of course my main image panel is shaped.

Thanks for joining me for today's Friday Flashback, and have a great weekend!

Supplies, today's card only:
Stamps:  Because I Care
Ink:  Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist, Whisper White, In Color DSP Stack
Accessories:  Labels Collection Framelits & coordinating paper piercing template, Marina Mist ribbon from the Occasions catalog, Dimensionals

Happy Hummingbird

The weeks are just flying by, aren't they?  Can't believe we're almost at the end of April.  But here's another springy card for today:

Thought I'd give some other soon-to-retire stamp sets some lovin' today, so I chose Elements of Style and Pursuit of Happiness.  I *am* bummed that they're retiring Pursuit of Happiness, I've used that set a LOT.  I really like Elements of Style too but haven't used it much of late.  This was going to be a Mother's Day card until I settled on that "grateful" sentiment from Pursuit of Happiness; it shows up against the background better IRL than it looks like on the picture.  And the ribbon matches the hummingbird better too, even though I've got some natural light in my craft room the colors in the pic seemed to be a tad off.

This layout is courtesy of Retro Sketches:

Kind of an unusual layout to my mind but I kinda like how my card turned out.  I saw a card earlier today (I think it was in the new SU! catalog, demos can see it online now which I just figured out this afternoon, DUH) that had the reverse masking technique so I thought I'd give that a whirl today.

Hope you have a fantastic day and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Elements of Style, Pursuit of Happiness
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze (sniffle! is there a petition to replace Soft Sky with Baja Breeze, 'cause I'd sign it!), Crumb Cake
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Twitterpated DSP
Accessories:  Baja Breeze seam binding, Labels Collection Framelits, Dimensionals

Just Imagine!

Howdy everyone!  Hubs and I got home from Amsterdam yesterday evening, we had a fun trip.  Then when I got up this morning the Stampin' Up! retirement lists had just been posted...I have I think 36 stamp sets on that list, which is less than in years past, and I'm not terribly upset over any of the ones on the list (mostly 'cause they didn't mess with By the Seashore and Perfectly Penned, ha!).  So today I thought I'd make a card with the retiring stamp set Word Play:

I like that sentiment.  I like to imagine possibilities.  My favorite Shakespeare quote is "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."  It's exciting to me to think of all the stuff we don't know about yet.  Ooh hey, look at me here getting all philosophical.  The card is based on the current Nacho sketch:

I punched my butterflies out of scraps of DSP...only the Tempting Turquoise one is retired right now, though the rest are now on the chopping block, which means all-new monochromatic DSP in the new catalog!  At least, I hope that's what it means, I like having DSP in every single color.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Word Play
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Pacific Point, Whisper White, Brights & In Color DSP (Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Gumball Green, Tempting Turquoise)
Accessories:  Argyle EF, Elegant Butterfly & Bitty Butterfly punches, rhinestones

Parisian Anniversary

Is it weird that I like the word "Parisian"?  I just think it sounds neat.

I thought a happy anniversary sentiment would go well with my Eiffel Tower image on this card, made for last week's SCS sketch and color challenges.  I liked this simple sketch and didn't really gussy it up much so the focus is still on the image and the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by today and happy stampin'!

Supplies, all SU!:
Stamps:  Artistic Etchings, A Word for You
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, River Rock, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, River Rock, Whisper White, Brights DSP Stack
Accessories:  rhinestone, Dimensionals