Appel Happel

Scrappy Monday, y'all, and welcome to SEPTEMBER which kicks off my favorite time of the year, fall!  Squeeeee!  I'm so excited for cooler temperatures and autumn colors and many, many cups of tea and also apples.  I love today's layout!

In 2021, we went apple picking at a place called Appel Happel in Germany despite having two apple trees in our own yard, and I wish we had done it every year because it was fun.  I made pie and muffins and my first-ever attempt at homemade applesauce and I love that picture of Ryan just stretched out at his leisure in the wheelbarrow.  Love love love love love.

Today's color palette is courtesy of the Orchard Harvest DSP, one of my favorites and one of the first that I can remember SU! having on the clearance rack after it had retired.  Like, when the clearance rack was introduced, this paper was on it and I happily snagged several packs of it because I had already used most of my first pack (which rarely happens, I buy DSP faster than I use it even with how much stuff I make).  Anyway, the colors are Raspberry Ripple, More Mustard, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Early Espresso, and white.  I had a mishap while creating this layout though; I wanted to ink up my Island Indigo ink pad and I accidentally used Pacific Point ink instead.  Since then I've been using a Stampin' Spot (like a mini ink pad), but I do have a full-size one in my eBay cart to replace the one I messed up.  Harrumph.

I have a bag of apples on my counter right now, I think some apple muffins would not go amiss to celebrate the beginning of September.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Big Deal Alphabet, Perfectly Preserved
Ink:  More Mustard, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Raspberry Ripple, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Basic White, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories:  Cannery Framelits

Harvest Blessings

Hey y'all!  Did you have a good long weekend?  Ryan had both Friday and Monday off of school, but with the hubs mostly out of commission while we await a surgery date, we just hung out at the house.  I did take Ryan to the pool at the local rec center yesterday though.

I am SO HAPPY that it's Pre-October (a.k.a. September) now.  The temps are still in the 80s but I'm wearing a cozy sweatshirt anyway and today's card is cozy too!

Bringing back some old favorites today!  The stamps, DSP, and most of the inks and cardstock are all retired but that doesn't stop me enjoying them anyway.  Check out the Festive Friday challenge:

I used fruity colors (Lucky Limeade, Raspberry Ripple, More Mustard...okay mustard isn't a fruit but anyway), gingham, scalloped edges, and fruit.  Perfectly Preserved came out when die sets for SU! stamp sets were pretty new, so the dies are a lot simpler than what we get nowadays but it is still one of my favorite bundles ever.  I also busted out the Stitched So Sweetly dies for the nice scalloped edge.

Next up is As You See It:

And believe it or not, this was my time:

I went through my Orchard Harvest DSP scraps and picked out my pieces (I only had to trim down the mustard gingham pattern after I started the timer, I used the others as they were) and got all the stamps and ink pads lined up and ready to go before I started the timer.  After I finished and stopped the timer, I thought my card needed something else, so I added some long-retired Candy Dots:

The sentiment is stamped in Island Indigo so I wanted to bring more of that color in.  What do you think, dots or no dots?  Even if I add an extra minute to the timer to get the dots on there, I'm still well under 10 minutes.  Speedy McSpeederson here.

Time to get Ryan off to school even if he's complaining about it.  And then we're having a contractor come out here to start ripping out the floor in our shower, hooray!  Can't wait to have that replaced.  Have a good day, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, Country Home
Ink:  Raspberry Ripple, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Early Espresso
Paper:  Lucky Limeade, Thick Very Vanilla, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories:  Cannery dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, Island Indigo Candy Dots

Maine: Feeding the Animals

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I'm back with more Maine pictures.

After exploring the corn maze, we all had a picnic lunch of PBJs (still Ryan's favorite) and then we got to go on a tractor ride and feed the animals.  As we were still at Homewood Farm, I kept the same Pacific Point page base and the corn-inspired patterned paper.

Same color palette as last time:  Pacific Point, Crushed Curry, Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade, Cucumber Crush, Soft Suede, and Very Vanilla.

Busy week ahead, starting with picture day for Ryan today.  As expected, he's chosen a red Spider-Man shirt to wear.  : )  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Rough Edges Alphabet, Perfectly Preserved, Jack of All Trades
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Cucumber Crush, Peekaboo Peach, Poppy Parade, Soft Suede, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Pacific Point, Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Thick Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Cannery Framelits

Maine: Corn Maze

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Hope your week is off to a good start.  I'm starting with another Maine scrapbook layout : )

So next up on our Maine adventure, we went to a place called Homewood Farm, where the boys had a great time running around in a (rather muddy) corn maze.  It was a little drizzly that morning, so we had the place to ourselves.  The boys particularly liked getting their hands stamped at various stations in the corn maze (and also getting muddy, because boys).

I knew I wanted to use this particular corn-y patterned paper, so I chose a Pacific Point page base to set off the yellows and oranges in the DSP.  So today's color palette is Pacific Point, Crushed Curry, Peach Parfait, and touches of Poppy Parade, Cucumber Crush, Soft Suede, and Very Vanilla.  I've done similar things on fall pages before, where I used a blue page base to make the warm colors pop.  I think it works, and in this case, the blue ties in to Ryan's blue jacked in the pictures.

Okay, it's just about time to get Ryan off to school.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Rough Edges Alphabet, Perfectly Preserved, Jack of All Trades
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Cucumber Crush, Peekaboo Peach, Poppy Parade, Soft Suede, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Pacific Point, Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Thick Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Cannery Framelits

Perfectly Retro

Mornin' folks!  I had a bit of an unplanned blogging break this week...on Sunday I knocked over my water bottle and got water on our wireless keyboard, which as you can imagine wasn't particularly good for the keyboard.  The hubs took it and let it dry out for a few days on a radiator (turned very low) and we crossed our fingers.  Well, now it works!  Color me relieved.

I made a few cards over the weekend that I had intended to share this week so here we go with a retro card!

The colors look a bit off in the photo; the card base is green (Kiwi Kiss) and the apples are Raspberry Ripple on the Mango Melody plaid paper.  I was inspired by the Retro Rubber challenge:

I know it's pumpkins but apparently I still have apples on the brain from all those apple recipes I made recently.  So I mixed the elements from the photo:  my plaid is orange(ish) and my fruit is red, but my background is still green.  My stamp sets are both very retro:  I've had both Perfectly Preserved (the apples) and Perfectly Penned (the sentiment) since 2012 and I frequently use them together, maybe because I got them just a couple months apart.

Ryan is not at daycare today so I'd better get off the computer and go entertain him before he takes over the world and covers it in googly eyes.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Raspberry Ripple, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Kiwi Kiss, Thick Basic White, Perfectly Plaid DSP Stack
Accessories:  Cannery Freamelits, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Thanksgiving Apple...Pie

I love to bake, but most of the time I make cookies and muffins.  Generally I only make pies about twice a year, one of those times being Thanksgiving and I *always* make an apple pie for my husband.  And a pumpkin pie for me ;) So today I bring you...Thanksgiving apples.

Up to now, I've tried to mostly stick to current Stampin' Up! stamps and papers for the cards I share (though my scrapbook pages frequently feature retired items).  Since my customer base has pretty much dried up altogether, and there's absolutely no one policing what I put on my blog, I've decided that if I want to make something with retired stamps, then by golly I'm gonna make it.  So for today's card I pulled out two retired stamp sets that are nice and retro for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

Perfectly Preserved (from whence the apples came) is six years old, and Lighthearted Leaves (source of the sentiment) is three years old.  I looked at this picture yesterday morning and then didn't take another peek before I made my card so I didn't realize there are no apples on it.  But I did remember seeing a whole lot of yellow, so that influenced my choice of patterned paper.  And I had to use apples because of the Paper Players challenge:

Okay, so my card is a bit on the slightly busy side of CAS, but the design is uncluttered and it's the gingham patterned paper that makes it look busier than it really is.  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

So there's today's retro apple card.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, Lighthearted Leaves
Ink:  Early Espresso, Raspberry Ripple, Lucky Limeade
Paper:  Thick Very Vanilla, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Cannery Framelits, Dimensionals

An Apple for Teacher

Well kids, we've done all the prep so now we're hunkering down and waiting for Florence to show up to the party.  I hope that it won't be too bad.

In the meantime, I sneaked into my craft room during yesterday's nap time to make this card.

I'm entering this at both Global Design Project and Retro Rubber since their challenges are the same.  I'm amused at posting this today because the local school district cancelled school for the rest of the week here.

Perfectly Preserved is now six years old, so definitely counts as retro.  I chose the apples, the green chalkboard, and the wood desktop for my inspiration but the colors came from elsewhere which I'll get to in a minute.

First check out the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

I like that sketch, it's cool!  And finally, here's the color challenge from the Paper Players:

Calypso Coral is my extra color.  Somehow I ended up with Blackberry Bliss only on the sentiment.  I tried two different color wash backgrounds for the card base and neither attempt worked AT ALL so I dug up a pattern from one of my favorite ever packs of DSP, Best Year Ever.

Cheers, y'all.  Hope I'll be back with more cards here...I just don't want the power to go out!!!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved (retired), Tree Rings
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss, Mint Macaron, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Mint Macaron, Crumb Cake, Best Year Ever DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals

Farm Livin'

I used to watch Nick at Nite a LOT when I was a kid.  Green Acres, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Patty Duke Show, Dobie Gillis...but my favorite was Mister Ed.  I was a horse-crazy little girl so no wonder.  Anyway, the stamp set Bareback was one of my early purchases in my stamping career.

I put this card together in no kidding ten minutes, but I still think it looks pretty good?  Everything on the card is retired other than the Very Vanilla cardstock and the adhesive.  Bareback has been retired for years and years, and Blue Bayou was I think in the second year we had In Colors?  Vintage stamping stuff here I tell ya.  At first I was going to make this a birthday card, but that horse has always looked kinda contemplative to me, so I went with "thinking of you" instead.

I used this week's Fall-To Layout:

Great sketch, and also why I was able to put my card together so fast.  Plus I'd kinda planned it out in my head when I was running yesterday morning (I'm not the only one who plans out cards and scrapbook layouts in her head while doing other things, am I?).

Next up, and the reason I chose the horse image, is the Global Design Project theme this week:

Guess what else I discovered when I checked out the GDP blog yesterday morning?  My lemon card was a winner for their last challenge!  Squee!

Anyway, I was trying to think of country and farm life images while I was running yesterday, and somehow using Lemon Zest again did not occur to me, but that horse image from Bareback popped into my head so that's what I did.  But I feel like I didn't put enough effort into that card since it was done in under 10 minutes (we were almost late to kid's swim lessons yesterday) so as a bonus, here's a scrapbook layout that I recently finished and finally got photographed yesterday!

I've been working a lot on pictures from the last time we lived in North Carolina, about 10 years ago or more, and this is one of the layouts from that time period.  I think it was October of 2007?  Indigo Farms is pretty much on the border between North and South Carolina and these pictures are so old they were taken on a non-digital camera with FILM.  Haha!

My color palette is straight from the Orchard Harvest DSP, which I loved and bought like six packs of when it hit the clearance rack and I'm hoarding it.  Anyway, the colors are almost all retired now, and include More Mustard, Raspberry Ripple, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso (I know it looks black), and Very Vanilla.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Gotta go to the gym and start cleaning up the house to get ready for some friends to get here on Wednesday!  Cheers!

Supplies, Bareback card:
Stamps:  Bareback, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Thick Very Vanilla, Blue Bayou DSP
Accessories:  retired Candy Dots

Supplies, Indigo Farms layout:
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Perfectly Preserved
Ink:  Island Indigo, Raspberry Ripple, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  More Mustard, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Thick Very Vanilla, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories:  Cannery Framelits

Apple Pie

Happy 4th of July, y'all!  I still haven't posted a scrapbook layout for this week, but I discovered I don't have any 4th of July ones in the hopper anyway so this morning I've dressed the kiddo in the most obnoxiously stars and stripes outfit I could put together and we're going to take some pictures today.

In the meantime, I made a card!

And it's as American as apple pie! :)  Apparently this is my week to do white card bases and maybe I should have ordered more thick Whisper White cardstock.  I run through that pretty fast.

Anyway, I made this for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I decided to go with the red, white, and blue color combination and the food theme.  When am I going to need a card that says "There's no such thing as too much pie"?  No idea, but whenever that occasion arises, now I will be prepared.  Haha!  Anyway, the apples are from the stamp set Perfectly Preserved, which I got in 2012, and that sentiment is from a fall 2014 My Paper Pumpkin kit, so all the stamps are more than a little retro.  I used Real Red for the apples, Granny Apple Green for the stems (appropriate, no?), and Pacific Point for the sentiment.  I need a Pacific Point ink refill.

I'm off to play with the kiddo until the hubs wakes up, and later today I imagine we're going to be setting off fireworks in the backyard.  I'll take pictures!  And also, I'm going to make an apple pie.  Because reasons.

Cheers, y'all! And happy Independence Day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Pacific Point, Granny Apple Green, Real Red
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  None

Friday Flashback: Perfectly Penned

Hey kids.  My Friday started off with a bang--my little boy dog Vader injured himself again.  He was trying so hard to run up the stairs to get breakfast faster and he's busted his left knee this time.  So I'm stressed out and feeling bad that he's hurt and he's stuck up on the middle floor of the house until the hubs can get home and carry him downstairs.  Hope he doesn't have to tinkle...

Anyway, here I am with today's Friday Flashback, and I'm going to have to be quick because I need to be out of the house in under 10 minutes.  So here we go!

Also features Perfectly Preserved

I think I have at least three stamp sets with apples in them.  No wait, four.  I must like apples :)

Also features By the Seashore

Perfectly Penned is one of my favorite sentiment stamps ever ever ever, so I just picked out some favorites for today's post or else we'd be here until next Friday.  And I started to notice something...

By the Seashore again :)

I also really like By the Seashore, and...

Also features Stippled Blossoms

A lot of my favorite cards are in fall colors.

Also features Gently Falling

Also features French Foliage

See what I mean?  Ooh, I love the copper brads on this one.  I still have quite a stash of those.

one more time for By the Seashore

Haha, more seashells, which I had so much trouble typing the word "seashells" you'd think I was trying to stumble through saying "She sells seashells by the seashore" six times fast.

Also features the All Dressed Up Framelits which were pretty cool

One last happy yellow card and I would totally wear that if it were a real dress.  Now for today's new card:

My friend Missy (a.k.a. Baylor bear extraordinaire) had a birthday earlier this week and I musta been sticking my head in the sand because I DIDN'T SEND HER A CARD and I'm very distraught about this, so I made a Baylor bear card.  But I do feel a bit guilty because this one came together really fast so maybe I should spend some more time in my craft room tomorrow and really make her a masterpiece.

Anyway, I revisited this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I switched the main image panel to the left side so the bear would be looking into the card rather than off the side, I think about these things (comes up even more in scrapbooking).  And to add a bit of glam, I painted the balloon with clear Wink of Stella.

Okay, I've got two minutes to get out the door.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Perfectly Penned, Thankful Forest Friends, My Paper Pumpkin (balloon)
Ink:  Basic Black, Garden Green, Daffodil Delight, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, Garden Green DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, black taffeta (retired), Dimensionals, clear Wink of Stella

Friday Flashback: Perfectly Preserved

Hey, kids!  How's your Friday the 13th going?  No bad luck, I hope.  Today's retired stamp set is Perfectly Preserved, which I totally love, so without further ado let's get to the Flashback!

Also features Sweet Essentials

I love the Orchard Harvest DSP, such fun colors.  Anyway, before I got this set, I was talking to my friend Missy and she mentioned some really old stamp set that was like the first one she ever got and it had a jar, and she *never* used it.  And then we said we wouldn't buy Perfectly Preserved because we'd never use the jar.  And then a week later I bowed to the power of Stampin' Up! psychic resonance and I bought it.  So I made Missy this card.  With the jar, obviously.

Also features Perfectly Penned

I do love these apples :)

Also features Pursuit of Happiness

You've seen this one recently, the only time I've used the corn stamp.  But you never know when you might need a corn stamp, so it's a good thing I held onto it ;)

Also features One Smart Cookie

The Friday Flashback for One Smart Cookie wasn't that long ago so you've seen this recently too.

Yay more apples.  I haven't checked back on my Raspberry Ripple ink pad to see how it's doing now after I tried to wash all the gold sheen off.  But I now know that my Bravo Burgundy ink pad has it even worse.  I should take a picture of it so you can see what I mean.

Also features A Word For You

I love a good pun:  you're a perfect pear.

Also features Fall Fest, My Paper Pumpkin

I love that "there's no such thing as too much pie" stamp from one of last year's My Paper Pumpkin kits, I just kinda wish it was in a more easily readable font.  Picky picky.

So there's the Flashback, wasn't that fun?  I have to tell you I'm a little late getting this post up because I've been doing a lot of work on scrapbook pages, and for some reason I find it difficult sometimes to move from scrapbooking to card making.  It's like they're parallel tracks in my brain but it's hard to cross from one to the other.  But then I did and I got TWO cards done for today, plus another one you'll see next week.  So here's the new creations:

I had to use the jar, just to prove I *can* use the jar, and I really wanted to use the flowers since I'd never done that before.  And it took forever for me to find a sentiment for this card, but in the end I went with Perfectly Penned because a.) it's awesome and b.) it's right next to Perfectly Preserved in my stamp cabinet.

The sketch is courtesy of TGIF Challenges:

And since I had the other half of that piece of thick Whisper White cardstock on my table, I figured I might as well make another card with it:

Same sketch, just horizontal.  And I pulled out One Smart Cookie again because it's cute with these apples.  The colors are from Colour Me...!

Red and green might say "Christmas" to you, but like Mary I am quite contrary so I like my red and green apples.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, peeps!  I'm back to working on those scrapbook pages if I can get my train of thought onto the other track.  Cheers!

Supplies, flower thank you card:
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Marina Mist, Smoky Slate, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Berry Blossoms DSP
Accessories:  white baker's twine

Supplies, sweeter than pie card:
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, One Smart Cookie
Ink:  Real Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Old Olive DSP
Accessories:  Real Red taffeta