Speedy Spring Blossoms

Okay dude, I swear that ever since they "upgraded" the Blogger interface it is MUCH more difficult to upload several pictures and have them actually show up in the order I want them.  I started and trashed this post twice already, so here's hoping that the third time is the charm!

I spent a LOT of time in my craft room yesterday and I'm about to embark up on a project to go through all my retired stamps, so expect to see a lot of cards using older stamp sets :)  In fact, I chose two retired stamp sets for today's card:

I made this in 7 minutes, 54 seconds, and I timed it because I'm entering this in As You See It's speed stamping challenge:

I have cherry blossom stamps that I love, but I picked tulips because I've seen them in bloom near me.  We had freezing temperatures earlier this week and even a whole lot of snow (none of which stuck) so I hope the tulips and hyacinths survive the weather craziness.  I like tulips and flowers in general but I have two black thumbs.  We have three orchids in my kitchen because I adore them and my husband has figured out how to keep them alive ;)

Anywha, back to my tulip card!  I used the palette from this week's Color Throwdown challenge:

I used Crumb Cake, Mossy Meadow, Bumblebee, and Flirty Flamingo.  Side note:  Stampin' Up!, why on earth didn't you name it Busy Bumblebee or something like that?  All your other colors are at least two words and it BUGS me (pun intended) that this one isn't!  Anyway.  I had trouble incorporating the Crumb Cake into my card, so in the end I just sponged a bit of it on the tulip panel.

I'm also entering this at the Paper Players:

There's going to be a new suite of products featuring pansies in the next SU! catalog...

Anyway, I'm off to spend more time in my craft room.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tranquil Tulips, Suite Sentiments
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Mossy Meadow, Bumblebee, Flirty Flamingo, Early Espresso
Paper:  Bumblebee, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Tasteful Labels dies, Dimensionals

Enjoy Your Retirement

Hey kids!  How's your week going so far?  Ryan is doing swim lessons, and for some reason it feels just SO MUCH busier with that 30-minute lesson added into our day.  At least it was just for last week and this week...I'd prefer one or two lessons a week for several weeks rather than 4 lessons in 4 days.  Oy!

Anyway, I got in my craft room yesterday and I was feeling the vintage vibe pretty hard, so here's what I made:

Oh, we're pulling out all the retired stuff for this one!  Retired stamps, retired paper, retired ink.  Here's my inspiration pic:

This is the current challenge at the new-to-me Library Challenge.  I must admit I've never read any Jules Verne; I saw an image floating around Facebook last week that was a comparison of the tallest structures in the world, and "Books I intend to read" was like twice as tall as everything else ;)  Definitely related to that one!  Anyway, since I've never read the book, I took inspiration from the image on the front cover.  Even though my card doesn't *say* anything about retiring on it, I think this would be a great "congratulations on your retirement" card.  I bet a lot of people want to travel when they retire, though probably not by hot air balloon ;) and I liked the idea of a bunch of postage stamps for that reason.

This idea sprang forth fully formed Athena-style when I saw the sketch from Global Design Project:

Fun.  I like it when an idea for a card actually works out on paper more or less the way it looks in my head.

Well, we've got lots to do today, so peace out, friends.  Enjoy your day!

Supplies, all SU! (lots retired)
Stamps:  Postage Collection, Suite Sentiments
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Primrose Petals, Delightful Dijon, Soft Suede
Paper:  Primrose Petals, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Print Poetry DSP
Accessories:  postage stamp punch, Dimensionals, linen thread

Retro Rubber Tropical Friend

Hey y'all!  I was asked to be a guest designer for Retro Rubber this week, so exciting!  And it's a tic-tac-toe challenge:

And here's my card:

I did the diagonal from top left to bottom right:  die cut, green, and leaves.  The sentiment is from Suite Sentiments (1.5 years old) and the flower is from Bodacious Bouquet (11 years old) so nice and retro.  I paired them with the brand-new Tropical Chic (the border stamp) and Tropical Escape DSP (my favorite!).  I saw that sentiment stamp a week or two ago when I was looking for something else and I thought hey, I should use that sometime soon.  So here it is.

Go check out the Design Team's work on the Retro Rubber Challenge blog and give it a try!  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Suite Sentiments, Bodacious Bouquet, Tropical Chic
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Lovely Lipstick, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Lovely Lipstick, Granny Apple Green, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Glitter Enamel Dots, Dimensionals

Pool Party Papillon

Hey y'all!  It's another rainy day here, but I got the kiddo down for a nap so hopefully that means some good crafty time as soon as I finish washing dishes.  In the meantime though, I have a card for you!

The card base is the brand new Lemon Lime Twist, which is super bright and I'm a little surprised how popular it's been with other demos.  I mean, I love it, but I love bright colors and green in particular.  Looking forward to exploring some color combinations with this one.  Oh, if you click on the photo to see it larger, you can see that I stamped the sentiment in both Lemon Lime Twist and Basic Gray, offset from each other just a smidge to get a shadow effect.  Can you call it a shadow effect if the "shadow" is Lemon Lime Twist?

Anyway, I turned to this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I wish I'd made my square element a little smaller; sometimes it's tough to find the line between letting a sentiment breathe and having it get lost on a panel that's too big for it.  Dangit.  I didn't have time to redo it yesterday because Ryan was waking up from his nap as I was finishing this card.

There's a butterfly on it, so once again I can enter this over at the Paper Players:

I still have some layers on my card, but lots of open space on the card front.  I intentionally left the card base un-stamped to make it more CAS.

The color combo is from Retro Rubber:

I used Lemon Lime Twist, Wisteria Wonder, and Pool Party for my colors, since I thought those would be closest to the photo.  Maybe Baja Breeze would have been closer for the blue color, but I was using all current colors.  So for my "retro" part of this challenge, I've had both Papillon Potpourri and Petite Petals since 2012 or so I think.  Suite Sentiments is, of course, from earlier this year but I think the other two make up for it ;) plus I just wanted to use it at least once more before it retires.

Okay kids, time for me to get to work in the craft room.  The hubs says he'll be home from work early today, and he has tomorrow AND Monday off, so maybe I'll get lots of crafty time in the next few days since someone else is here to help with bottle feedings and diaper changes, haha!  Hope you have a great weekend, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Papillon Potpourri, Petite Petals, Suite Sentiments
Ink:  Lemon Lime Twist, Wisteria Wonder, Pool Party, Basic Gray
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Wisteria Wonder, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Elegant Butterfly Punch, Petite Petals Punch, Dimensionals

Enjoy Life

Hey kids!  I had the idea for this card yesterday, but I ran out of time to make it...turns out when you're 8 months pregnant, a day that includes walking the dogs, going to the post office, doing 30 minutes on the elliptical at the gym, and grocery shopping will pretty much wipe you out :)  I just have to accept the fact that I'm not going to be able to post (or make) as many cards and scrapbook pages now that Baby Sodapop is almost here.  But I still got the card made today.

I let the Cupcakes & Carousels paper stack do the heavy lifting here; the only thing stamped is the "Enjoy life and have fun" piece, and that stamp is from Suite Sentiments.

The sketch is courtesy of Fab Friday:

I think this makes a good birthday card, though the sentiment is ambiguous enough that it could be used for other things too.

I'm going to skedaddle back down to my craft room and work on some scrapbook pages before I have to leave for a haircut appointment.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Suite Sentiments
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Peekaboo Peach
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Peekaboo Peach, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Cupcakes & Carousels DSP Stack
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Perfect Dragonfly

Okay I finally got in my craft room for the first time all year!  :D  Sometimes it's good to take a little break and recharge the batteries a bit though, and it was fun to take a look back at my paper craftiness for 2016.  But now it's time for brand new craftiness!

Speaking of brand new, the sentiment is from Suite Sentiments which debuts in the Occasions Catalog starting tomorrow.  I can't wait to get the dragonfly bundle from that catalog, but in the meantime Awesomely Artistic does have a great smaller dragonfly.

I started with this week's Global Design Project CASE the Designer Challenge:

Obviously I kept the same color combo (Night of Navy, Watermelon Wonder, and Crumb Cake), but there are a few more subtle callbacks to this card as well:  my Crumb Cake layer has spots on it (though mine are speckles rather than true polka dots), I've got a horizontal Watermelon Wonder layer, and my Night of Navy panel is a vertical element.  I suppose I coulda found some balloons but I was just feeling the dragonfly today.

I paired that challenge with this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

And that was that!  The card came together pretty fast once I decided on colors for each of the elements of the sketch.  Not too bad a start for 2017 I think.  Of course, Baby Sodapop is due one month from tomorrow so who knows how much I'll actually get to stamp this year...we'll see if I can work it in between diaper changes and baby cuddles.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Awesomely Artistic, Suite Sentiments
Ink:  Night of Navy, Watermelon Wonder, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Night of Navy, Watermelon Wonder, Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals