Stuck On You

You know, I've got several brand-new stamp sets that I haven't even inked up at all yet, plus several more that I've only played with once, so what do I do?  I make cards with retired stamp sets.  I can't help it, sometimes I see a challenge and I'm like OOH I have the perfect stamps for that and there sit my new stamps like what about us???  Yeah yeah, I'll get to you, I promise.  (I hope.)

Anyway.

As soon as I saw the Inspired By Nature challenge, I knew I had to break out one of my retired cactus stamp sets--I have both Cactus Cuties from last year and Flowering Cactus from the year prior, so for this card I used Cactus Cuties with the DSP stack that coordinated with Flowering Cactus.

I used the sketch as a jumping-off point too, though I didn't follow it strictly:

And I was inspired by the colors from The Card Concept:

I think my card kind rides the line between CAS and clean and layered, but since most of the "white space" is patterned paper it probably leans to clean and layered.  I have a friend who is moving to Arizona this summer, so I know she'll be getting this : )

Don't forget about the Go Green challenge at SUO Challenges too, you can use current or retired SU! stuff for that one, just show us shades of green.

Hope you have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cactus Cuties
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Early Espresso
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Thick Very Vanilla, Flowering Cactus DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, Rustic Metallic Dots

Sunny Cactus Hello

Hey y'all!  Man, it's almost noon here already and I haven't gotten up to my craft room yet, had some things to take care of this morning.  But here I am now with a sunny card to share!

How d'you like my sunny cacti?  I made this for the new Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

I used Magenta Madness, Mango Melody, and Garden Green for my colors.  I think Tangerine Tango would have been closer to the orange on the picture, but when I found that sun print in the Sunshine & Rainbows stack from the most recent Sale-a-Bration, I just *had* to use it with my cacti.  I had originally stamped and die cut the sentiment that says "Hope your day is on point", but it was too large for where I needed it to go on the card...so I stuck it on the inside : )

Hope your day is sunny and bright!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cactus Cuties
Ink:  Versamark, Mango Melody, Magenta Madness, Garden Green
Paper:  Magenta Madness, Thick Basic White, Sunshine & Rainbows DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Stitched Rectangles dies, white EP, Dimensionals

Pointed Remark

Mornin', y'all!  How's it going today?  I did spend time in my craft room yesterday, but I only made two cards before I went back to stitching instead.  I'm down to the very last page on my current (giant) stitching project and I just want to be DONE with it.  So here's one of the cards I made.

I was going to put a thin mat of Polished Pink around the main image panel which is when I noticed that the rectangle isn't plum--it's turning into a parallelogram!  The die didn't look warped but the shape it cut out definitely is.  I'm chalking it up to the charms of handmade paper crafts :)  Also, I put two flowers on top of my cactus because it reminds me of the pompoms on a winter hat my hubs bought me.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

I used Smoky Slate, Polished Pink, and Granny Apple Green for my colors.

Gotta get my workout done and get ready to go for the day.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cactus Cuties
Ink:  Polished Pink, Granny Apple Green, Smoky Slate, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Thick Basic White, Sunshine & Rainbows DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Levitating Tulips

Mornin' y'all!  I was supposed to be at work today, but my boss switched my schedule around so now I'm off today and working on Friday.  I have laundry to do (ALWAYS) and things to do in my craft room :) So let's get started!

Had some fun on Sunday playing with the new Cactus Cuties set, though this looks like a pot of tulips to me.  I was silly too, I stamped and cut out all the images and then ended up sticking them all on a white circle, ha.  Anyway, I popped up the two flowers and I'm sorta tempted to draw stems for them but on the other hand I just kinda like the floating tulips look.  What do you think?

I used the sketch from Fusion:

The inspiration pic looks good enough to eat, but I also wanted to use the color challenge from As You See It so no chocolate cupcakes for me today.  Here's the color challenge:

Okay so now I want to snatch a cupcake (or two) from the Fusion inspo pic and crawl into the AYSI picture and curl up with the cat, cupcakes, and a good book.  Looks cozy!  I had fun with these colors.

I'm off to my craft room for now to have some fun in between loads of laundry.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cactus Cuties
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen, Thick Basic White, Crumb Cake & Soft Succulent DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Floral Gallery dies, Dimensionals, In Color rhinestones

Minty Fresh

Mornin', folks.  Do you ever craft in the middle of the night?  I did on Monday night...not my plan, but that's what happened.  Ryan woke up around midnight and started throwing up, so the hubs and I both got up to take care of him--get him cleaned up, strip the bed, etc.  Got Ryan settled back in, he'd fall asleep for about 10 minutes and then throw up again, poor kid.  So I ended up staying up until about 2 until he went back to sleep and stayed that way (and also I waited until the washer finished so I could put things in the dryer).  So I ended up with about 20 minutes in my craft room in the middle of the night.  Not what I wanted to be doing, but I did make something:

I tried to resist Cactus Cuties, really I did--I have last year's Flowering Cactus medley and I still love it but somehow Cactus Cuties came to my house anyway.  The font on the sentiments just screams 80s to me but I can't think specifically of what it reminds me of.  Anyway, this is Cactus Cuties' initial outing in my house and I'm participating in two challenges.  First up is the Global Design Project CASE the Designer challenge:

Admittedly I was going off of what I remembered from the inspo picture and it was the middle of the night, but I was trying for a similar layout (and still plant-related) but in a different style to go with the cactus stamps, so DSP layers instead of the soft watercolor look.  I wanted to use pastel colors but I thought I'd give the Cupcake Inspirations color challenge a whirl:

Happily the new Abstract Beauty DSP has both pink (Blushing Bride) and mint (Just Jade, though it looks like a darker shade of Mint Macaron).  I bought Abstract Beauty expressly with the idea of using it with Cactus Cuties, I don't know why but they seem to go together in my head.  Oh, one more thing--the card base is actually Thick Basic White, but I thought it made the DSP look a little dingy, but I'd already stuck everything down, so I took the light Mint Macaron Blend and carefully colored around the card base.  Voila, green card base and I didn't have to redo anything.

Hope your day (and night) are free of gastrointestinal pyrotechnics!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cactus Cuties
Ink:  Mint Macaron, Cinnamon Cider, Memento Tuxedo Black, Mint Macaron Stampin' Blends
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Abstract Beauty DSP Stack
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals, Gold Glitter Enamel Dots