Friday Flashback: Express Yourself

Happy Friday, peeps!  This week's Friday Flashback stamp set is Express Yourself, a collection of sentiment stamps that was a hostess set in the 2013-14 catalog.  A lot of times I don't use hostess sets a whole lot, but I do love this one so let's go!

Also features Hello Lovely

Something CAS to start off with; I think that Eastern Elegance DSP was one of my all-time faves.

Also features Falling Leaves

This was for one of the crazier Splitcoast sketches; I haven't done one of their challenges in a long time actually.

Oops, I chose the pic that doesn't have the entire card front on it but you get the idea.  Made this for the hubs for our 10th anniversary a couple years ago.

Also features Hearts a Flutter

Another CAS creation...

Also features Best of Autumn

And here's another fall card.  I like that leaf, it's a pretty image.

Also features Serene Silhouettes

I loved how the color wash looks on the silhouette image panel, and then right when I was finishing up this card I got a smudge on it.  Oops.

Also features Lovely as a Tree

Are you seeing a trend with the sentiment stamp yet?  The other sentiments are perfectly good too but I seem to be drawn to that "always thinking of you one".  And for my next trick:

Yup, I used the same sentiment on today's new card.  I do love how this one turned out though, I used the color challenge from Colour Q:

Those colors just screamed FALL to me so I went with it (though I do have some flower stamps that look like the images on that phone case).  Fall is my favorite time of year; I'm looking forward to cooler temperatures, sweaters and scarves without being absolutely frozen solid, and of course fall baking.  Because Thanksgiving.  And I just love baking.  Washing the dishes afterwards, not so much :p

I based my card layout off of this older Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch, but the linky is closed for it.

That's it for me this week, have a great weekend.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Express Yourself, Gently Falling, Sanded
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal, Rich Razzleberry, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Early Espresso, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Autumn Meadows DSP
Accessories:  Wide oval punch, Dimensionals

CAS Silhouette

Aha!  I found a draft blog post that's a card rather than a scrapbook page.  This one's a CAS CASE...I loved this card I saw on Splitcoast, so I had to make my own version.

I just had to get the Tempting Turquoise embossing powder when it hit the retiring list, I have fun playing with the colored embossing powders :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Serene Silhouettes, Gorgeous Grunge, A Dozen Thoughts
Ink:  Versamark, Certainly Celery, Soft Suede
Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White
Accessories:  Tempting Turquoise EP

Watercolor Wash

Happy Monday, folks!  We are officially under a week until the baby shower I'm hosting on Saturday, so I've got to get my rear in gear and finish up a couple projects for that.  The biggest two are done though so yay!

Anyway, I got to try out a new-to-me technique for today's card called watercolor wash.  I found the instructions here on Angie Leach's blog, and here's how mine turned out:

This was a very messy technique...or I'm a very messy stamper...and I was really careful about not getting the wet ink everywhere until the VERY LAST MINUTE and I got a splotch of Elegant Eggplant ink on the left side of the card.  DRAT!  I left it on there because I'm calling it handmade charm (work with me, people!).  The watercolor piece was my first attempt where I didn't stamp off the ink on the block before spritzing and smearing it on the watercolor paper so the colors are extra saturated (my new In Color ink pads are almost ridiculously juicy).  I had another piece that I did stamp off a bit and it was much softer, but then I messed it up when I stamped the image--I hadn't re-inked my Elegant Eggplant ink pad and the image didn't come out dark enough, and then I didn't get it exactly lined up right to stamp over it the second time.  So I inked up the ink pad and then stamped it on this piece instead.

The layout is one of those gonzo old SCS sketch challenges that I think is overly complicated, but the color inspiration came from this gorgeous picture at Just Add Ink:

I used Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, and Elegant Eggplant as my colors based on the picture, though perhaps the darker Bermuda Bay would have been a closer match to the photo.  But I love Coastal Cabana so I had to play with that and did you SEE that scrumptious pattern from the Eastern Elegance DSP?  Love that!!

Ok, enough rambling from me today, I've got work to do.  Have a fantabulous day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Serene Silhouettes, Express Yourself (new hostess set!)
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Elegant Eggplant, Versamark
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Elegant Eggplant, Watercolor paper, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  White EP, tiny pearls, Dimensionals