Groovy Lava Lamp

It's a gray Monday here in England and I think my mojo is still on vacation...or else I need more chocolate, which is possible, because I *always* need more chocolate.  But I did get a card made to post today...

I chose Crazy, Mixed-Up Love as a freebie set because I am a lemming and I got all 12 "Best Of" stamp sets so I got to choose two freebies.  It's been sitting on my craft table for a bit because I still haven't put it in my personal stamp catalog yet but I thought it would be perfect for the color challenge at Dynamic Duos:

I used Smoky Slate as my neutral because I love Smoky Slate and I'm trying to remember to use it more often because it's awesome.  I used an SCS sketch flipped 90 degrees too, so the card came together pretty quick although I don't think it's my best work.  Alas, not every card can be my favorite.  And tomorrow's card is much mo' bettah than this one : )

Thanks for stopping by.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Crazy, Mixed-Up Love
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, scrap of retired Tempting Turquoise DSP and yay for using up scraps
Accessories:  Oval & Apothecary Accents Framelits, Delicate Dots EF, Brights Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: A Word for You

Hello and welcome to today's very late Friday Flashback!  It was a crazy day today, we're trying to get our dogs' travel arrangements worked out since we're moving from England back to the States in a few months.  It's a mess.  But anyway, I have a long flashback today featuring the sentiment stamp set A Word for You.  So let's get started!

Here's a fun, bright anniversary card...

One for baby boy...

...and one for baby girl....

And another boy.  Of all the pregnant or recently pregnant ladies I know, and that's a LOT, there's only one girl in the bunch!  What's up with that?

Some nice fall leaves...

...and another anniversary, this time at the Eiffel Tower.

This card makes sense if you're a big Friends fan and know about Phoebe and the lobster theory.

And we'll finish up the flashback with yet another anniversary card, this one for the perfect pear.

So here's today's new card:

Ok, I cheated since I just used this punch art cupcake on Wednesday, but it was perfect with this sentiment stamp too!  I also used a very old Splitcoast color challenge on this (I have less than a dozen to do before I'm caught up!) and this week's Retro Sketch:

It's been a long day involving six hours in the car for a round trip to Heathrow Airport, so that's all she wrote today.  Have a good weekend, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  A Word for You
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, Melon Mambo
Paper:  So Saffron, Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, retired DSP in So Saffron, Melon Mambo, and Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  Cupcake builder punch, hexagon punch (to do the flagged ends on the sentiment), Dimensionals

Heartfelt Sympathy

A dear friend of mine lost one of her dogs a few days ago, so I found myself in need of a sympathy card.  I think I first saw the idea for this punch art paw print on Mary Fish's blog, but it was quite some time ago so I'm not going to search for the exact post.

I think that sympathy cards should be pretty straightforward and simple, in muted, soothing colors:  this isn't the time to try out the latest complicated technique or use bright colors and lots of embellishments.  So I kept it very simple.  The color challenge at Fab Friday was perfect:

I sponged around the oval and hearts of the paw print with Baked Brown Sugar ink, and then lightly sponged Pistachio Pudding on the Very Vanilla panel to tone it down a bit and give it a softer look.  This one is going out in the mail to my friend today.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Simply Sketched
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  3 punches--Full Heart, Small Oval, & Corner Rounder

Baby Cakes

I had a stamping serendipity moment today.

A friend of mine is well-known for her cupcake-making skillz, and she's pregnant right now with a baby girl, so of course I wanted to make a baby card with a cupcake on it.  I was looking for a baby sentiment stamp to go with it and found this "baby cakes" stamp I'd totally forgotten I even owned and I was like crown me queen of the stamping universe!

Because some days you just have to pat yourself on the back, right?

So I stamped the card base with Positively Chevron, and despite using a brayer to apply the ink I ended up with this kind of mottled look so I'm going to pretend it was on purpose to add visual texture.  The cupcake is punched out of some scrap paper and assembled on top of a small Labels Collection Framelit shape because that made things easier and I thought I needed a little something to keep the cupcake from getting lost on the busy background panels.

I used today's hot-off-the-presses Freshly Made Sketch:

I spent some time procrastinating this morning (because sadly, I am just as good at procrastinating about getting crafty as I am about unpleasant things like doing the dishes) but now I'm in the Zone so I'm gonna go try to work on some more schtuff before I have to leave for the gym so my friend the tiny fitness instructor can abuse me.

Cheers, peeps!  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Banner Greetings, Positively Chevron
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Pink Pirouette, Pear Pizzazz (on the cherry stem)
Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Pool Party, Whisper White, Basic Black, Sweet Sorbet DSP, retired Crumb Cake DSP
Accessories:  Cupcake builder punch, Labels Collection Framelits, Dimensionals

Happy Nautical Nachos!

Happy Tuesday, Nacho fans!  This week, we have a sketch for you at Nacho Average Challenges.  Behold!

My first thought for the three skinny bits was birthday candles, but then this happened.

This card kind of makes me want to sing "We all live in a yellow submarine!" at the top of my lungs.  As usual, I could not resist buying Every. Single. Patterned. Paper. in the Occasions catalog.  I have an overflowing shelf full of DSP and I still keep buying more, so clearly I have a problem.

I'm okay with that though.

Go check out the other Nachos' creations on the Nacho blog, and then let's see your take on the sketch!  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfect Pennants
Ink:  Calypso Coral
Paper:  Pacific Point, Whisper White, High Tide DSP
Accessories:  Banner Collection Framelits, Subtles Candy Dots, Dimensionals.  Wacky Beatles song karaoke optional.

Rhinestone Peacock

Howdy, folks!  Once again, I'm a bit late with my post since it's almost 3 p.m. here.  I blame it on a variety of factors:

1.  British Daylight Savings Time.  Can we just get rid of this concept forever and ever amen?  Because it's stoopid.
2.  Saturday night insomnia.  I was going to stamp yesterday, but then due to middle-of-the-night insomnia and DST, I didn't actually get out of bed until after 11 a.m. and that just kinda threw my plans out of whack.
3.  Yesterday afternoon it seemed very important that I watch The Avengers instead of stamping.  We saw Captain America:  The Winter Soldier on Saturday, and you have my permission to be jealous because it was released in Britain already and you guys in the States still have to wait.  Bwahahaaaa!  I want to go see it again.

But I finally made a card today!

My stamping muse is being a little temperamental still after her little hiatus thanks to tea party and test taking up almost all of March.  She changed her mind about six times as to what stamps we were going to use with the sketch I picked before we agreed on the peacock.  And now I sound like a crazy person, but if you know me in real life you know I really am crazy.

So here's the sketch I picked, courtesy of Freshly Made Sketches:

Today is the last day of Sale-a-Bration so I was kinda planning on using one of the SAB stamp sets but then that didn't happen so I used a bit of the SAB Sweet Sorbet DSP instead and look at me and all the TLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms).  I know what I'm sayin' even if no one else does.

Cheers, peeps!  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  World Treasures, Occasions
Ink:  Night of Navy, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Night of Navy, Whisper White, Sweet Sorbet & International Bazaar DSP (and after today, both of those will be retired)
Accessories:  Rhinestones, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Madison Avenue

Happy Friday and welcome to this week's slightly late Friday Flashback!  My mom emailed me and asked why I didn't have a card up earlier today...well, I just didn't get around to getting my craft room back in order from all the craziness of the past couple of weeks until today.  And since it's been a couple of weeks since I spent much time in my craft room, I got off to a slow start.  Got there eventually though so here's today's Flashback!  Our randomly-chosen retired stamp set for today is Madison Avenue, one of last year's Sale-a-Bration options.

I like free stamps, but unless the stamp set is really, really, REALLY cool, I don't seem to use the SAB stamps very much.  Looks like I'm not the only one, either--the Splitcoast gallery for this set is pretty small.  Oh well, here's my new card:

Thought it might be fun to combine last year's SAB stamps with this year's SAB paper (plus the Sweet Sorbet colors were this week's Splitcoast color challenge).  I'm so rusty on stamping that I had a hard time getting my flowers stamped straight even *with* the Stamp-a-ma-jig, so I actually cut out the flower heads and popped them up over the stems where I wanted them.  The center parts are still kinda crooked but I sort of hid that part with some Candy Dots :)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope your weekend is bloomin' marvelous!  We're hoping to go see the new Captain America, so yay!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Madison Avenue, Bloomin' Marvelous
Ink:  Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Summer Starfruit, StazOn Black
Paper:  Pool Party, Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Whisper White, Sweet Sorbet DSP
Accessories:  Oval & Scalloped Oval punches, Dimensionals, Subtles Candy Dots