So, This Happened.

That's what my craft room looks like right now.  Somehow, I think it will be a couple of days before I can actually make anything in there (other than a mess, making a mess is a process I have down pat).

We got our household goods delivered yesterday, and the hubs declined the movers' offer to unpack the boxes because they were eying our stuff rather covetously.  We are going to get rid of a lot of stuff, but we want to sell it, not have it stolen ; )  So yesterday and this morning, my project has been the kitchen, but the new kitchen has half the cabinet space as the old kitchen and this is a Problem.  And I'm tired of trying to wrestle with it right now, so I'm going to go to the *other* room that accounts for the largest percentage of boxes:  the craft room.

If you don't hear back from me soon, I've probably been buried alive in boxes.  Send help.

Hardwood Floral Thanks

Apparently I'm on a floral kick this week.

I got dinner in the oven last night and figured I might have time to make a card while dinner was baking, so this is the card that resulted.  I started with the colors from As You See It:

Just the names of those colors make me hungry.  Actually, we went to a friend's house for dinner Sunday and there was a fruit platter that included strawberries and blackberries, both of which I sampled, and I'd brought cookies that had vanilla, so....I actually did eat things inspired by this color challenge too : )

Anyway, lots going on today with the delivery of our household goods (yay!) so that's it for me.  Peace out!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Shop, Petite Petals, Hardwood, Lots of Thanks
Ink:  Sahara Sand, Strawberry Slush, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Strawberry Slush, Blackberry Bliss, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Pansy & Petite Petal punches, Dimensionals, Rhinestones

Nachos: Hello Sunshine

Happy Tuesday, Nacho fans!  This week Nacho Average Challenges brings you a lovely sketch:

I love sketches like this because there are so MANY possibilities!  So here's what I came up with:

I accidentally smudged the green lattice I stamped on the patterned paper, but I'm going to pretend I did it on purpose.  It's a little hard to see in the photo, but there are rhinestones in each of the flower centers.

Call me crazy, but I almost like the inside of the card even better than the front of it:

I don't know, it makes me happy :)  I used a marker to ink up just the word "sunshine" on a stamp from Feel Goods, and then added the little "hello" from A Dozen Thoughts.  And I like the little flower and how the center of the flower lines up just right with the swirl on the end of "sunshine" :)

So now it's your turn!  Check out the Nacho Average Challenges blog to see the beautiful creations from the rest of the design team, and then post us a link to your own card so we can ooh and ahh over it :)

Peace out!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Petite Petals, Summer Silhouettes, Feel Goods, A Dozen Thoughts
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Garden Green, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Garden Green, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, All Abloom DSP Stack
Accessories:  Petite Petals punch, rhinestones, Dimensionals

Overwhelming Awesomeness

I'm baaaaaaack!  Ok, so, for a while all the blog posts here have been of projects I made while we were still in England; I had posts scheduled out until last week.  But today I can share the first card I made after we got to Alabama!  And none too soon, since I was out of scheduled posts :)

Yeah yeah, I got the greeting on there crooked, but we all know that pretty much everything I do is a teensy bit crooked :)  I was trying to start off easy so I used a CAS card sketch to focus on the pretty colors, which I got from the Colour Me Card Challenge:

I wanted to do something with fall leaves, but I only have a limited number of stamp sets with me at the moment and none of them are leafy I don't think.  I got the Flower Patch stamps and Framelits right before we packed out in England so I hadn't had a chance to play with them at all yet, so that was a good reason to choose them for my first card.

So for the moment, I have a makeshift tiny stamping space in the closet of my future craft room:

(Everything in this house is brown.  I so wish I could paint it all.)  It's a little claustrophobic...that table is actually a sewing machine that I inherited from my great-grandmother (I own at least two sewing machines and I don't know how to use them!).  The work space is so tiny that every time I use the paper trimmer, the trimmed paper falls on the floor--the top of the sewing machine table is *just* big enough for the paper trimmer and my grid paper, that's it.  After I made this card, I pulled out the sewing machine into the room so it feels less claustrophobic, but then I don't have all my blocks right next to where I'm working either so I have to keep getting up to get things from the closet and I've got stuff strewn all over the floor.

It's all going to get better on Wednesday though:  we're finally getting the rest of our stuff!  We've been in this house almost exactly a month, sleeping on an air mattress and using two uncomfortable metal folding chairs, so I am super excited to get a real mattress and our couch back.  Not to mention my craft table...never thought I'd miss a cheapo plastic table, but I do!

Anyway, I've got to run...I've got to clean up the craft room so I can fit all the furniture in there when it gets here on Wednesday :)  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, Big News
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Tangelo Twist
Paper:  Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories:  Flower Fair Framelits, rhinestone, Dimensionals

Calton Hill

Ok, so it's been a lot of scrapbook pages lately here on Snapdragon Stamps, but I have to say that I love this layout that I'm sharing today.

The photos were taken in Edinburgh in November of 2011.  I love how the Really Rust page base brings out all the warm tones in the photos.  I was searching through my patterned paper for something to go with this, and as soon as I found that Always Artichoke plaid I thought YES.  Because Scotland!  It has to have plaid on it :)  I love a good plaid.

How do you like my title block?  That yellowy color is the long-retired Marigold Morning, from the first year that SU! had In Colors.  It's been forever since I used that color so it was nice to see it again.  Also love the alphabet stamps; I bought them a while back just before they retired, and they were just waiting for the perfect scrapbook layout to shine.

That's it from me today.  Peace out, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet, Noteworthy
Ink:  Really Rust, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Really Rust, Marigold Morning, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Manchester DSP
Accessories:  Oval & Deco Label Framelits

Chamonix

I think I might melt in this summer heat, Alabama is a lot warmer than England!  So today's layout is helping me think cool thoughts.  First of all though, check out the color palette!

I know I've talked about it before, but I made myself a book with cardstock swatches of every single SU! color (including the retired ones), and when I work on a new scrapbook layout, I like to pull out the pictures and lay out some color swatches until I get a combination I like.  So up above is the color palette for today's scrapbook pages, and here's the finished product:

Whee!  I like it.  I saw someone else's scrapbook page with pink as the main color for a snowy layout, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I've never been overly fond of Blushing Bride, but it's growing on me.  I did like how it looked with the "cool" colors of Tempting Turquoise, Pear Pizzazz, and Smoky Slate.

Close-up of my title and some white snowflakes.  I could have left that spot plain, and I do like white space, but it felt trapped there in the center of the layout so I did the snowflakes.  I have a tendency sometimes to fill every available bit of space with *something* to look at.

And there's one of the snowflake medallions, which covers up if my photos don't meet exactly straight right there ; )  Maybe I'm a little OCD, but the layout did need a few accents so that accomplished two objectives at once.

Thanks for stopping by, and think cool thoughts!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lovely Letters Alphabet, Mixed Medley
Ink:  Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Smoky Slate marker
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  Artisan Label punch, 1 1/4" scalloped circle punch

Nachos: Hello, My Name Is...

Greetings, Nacho fans!  It is time again for an awesome color combo courtesy of Nacho Average Challenges.

I kind of want an outfit in these colors, is that weird?

So before I show you today's card (unless you're scrolling right past all this blah-de-blah to get to the good stuff), I should tell you that I love to quote movies in everyday conversation.  My absolute favorite quotable movies are Ghostbusters and The Princess Bride.  So you might know where this is going already...

I couldn't help it, the idea popped in my head when I was looking at the "Hello My Name Is" stamp from Starburst Sayings, and I just HAD to make it!  And I laughed the whole time I was working on it.  I can't be the first person to have thought of this (after all, Starburst Sayings has been out for a while) but I haven't yet seen another card where someone else did the Princess Bride quote.  I also stamped more words on the inside...

I think I'll send this one to my dad.  I know, it says "You killed my father" on the front, but Dad loves that movie too and he'll totally get it and I betcha money he'll say "Prepare to die!" just reading the front of the card, which is why I put "You know the rest!" on the inside.  The letters are from the new Alphabet Rotary stamp, which is pretty nifty that you can spell out words or phrases by twisting the rotary stamp.  I had to practice a bit before I got the letters to stamp out all the way--I kept not getting the bottom of the letters to show, you have to rock the stamp up and down a bit to make sure you get the whole letter to stamp at once.

My little brother has a plain white T-shirt that has one of those "Hello, My Name Is" stickers printed on the chest of it, with Inigo Montoya written on it.  So you know, clearly this movie is a family favorite.

Hope you have as much fun with this color combo as I did!  Be sure to post your creations on the Nacho blog for us to ooh and ahh over :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Starburst Sayings, Alphabet Rotary, Gorgeous Grunge, Positively Chevron
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Pool Party, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Paper:  Tangerine Tango, Pool Party, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Accessories:  Starburst & Circle Framelits, Hexagon punch, Regals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Beth's Wedding Reception

So last time I shared a layout from Beth's wedding ceremony, and here's the other half:  the reception.

And the invitation, because it's pretty.  Don't you love Beth's wedding dress?  The flowers are hand-painted on it.  The frog picture is a piece I cross stitched for the couple on Beth's request (she collects frog things).  A few shells from By the Seashore and it was done!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  By the Seashore
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Basic Gray
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Raspberry Ripple, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Pool Party DSP
Accessories:  small heart punch (now retired)

Beth's Wedding Ceremony

Seems like I've done a lot of wedding pages for my scrapbooks this year!  And today I've got another one to share.

This was my dear friend Beth's wedding in Corpus Christi in 2004.  I've had that sand dollar accent since pretty much as soon as I had the photos printed out!  I kept the layout very, very simple to keep the focus on the photos...the bonus part of that is that it didn't take me very long to finish it once I'd decided to just lay out the photos in a strip.  I made a little boo-boo on the journaling but for now I'm not going to rewrite it.  If it still bothers me in a few months, I can always redo it later.

Thanks for stopping by.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Lovely Letters Alphabet
Ink:  Island Indigo, Basic Gray
Paper:  Soft Sky, Island Indigo, Whisper White, retired Pear Pizzazz DSP
Accessories:  sand dollar accent from who knows where, it's been sitting in a page protector with these photos for 10 years

Nachos: Just For You

Mornin', Nacho fans!  I hope you enjoyed last week's 100th Nacho challenge, and this week the Nacho Average Challenges ladies are back with another great sketch:

I just realized that sometimes I don't always copy the sketches quite as accurately as I might...I scribble them down in a notebook and carry it in my craft room since I don't have a computer in there (I like to unplug when I'm crafting...except my iPod, which is always on).  So I didn't copy this one down quite right...all the pieces are there, but the proportions are a bit off.  But here it is anyway!

I think maybe I should have done some thin Blackberry Bliss mats around the two smaller panels?  Too late now.  I'll admit I'm getting a little tired of the Moonlight DSP stack...right now it's the only new DSP I have in my hot little hands!  Looking forward to getting just about every other pack of DSP in the catalog as soon as I can ;)

So now it's time to head over to the Nacho Average Challenges blog (if you haven't been there already) to see the other DT goodies, and then give the sketch a try yourself!  And hey, if the Nachos haven't kicked me out yet for not following the sketch exactly, I'm sure they'll all be perfectly nice to you too ;)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Label Love
Ink:  Hello Honey
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Blackberry Bliss, Whisper White, Moonlight DSP Stack
Accessories:  Artisan Label & Modern Label punches, Dimensionals

30th Birthday

Howdy, folks!  Today I'm going to share a scrapbook layout that highlights my favorite person:  my sweet hubs!

This was hubs' 30th birthday a few years ago, and the crazy package my mom sent which included "I'm Too Sexy" boxers (Mom has this weird tradition of buying boxers for my husband, I don't know how that started).  If you are interested, you can see most of these pictures up close and personal here.

I showed the hubs the colors I was planning to work with for this layout, and he picked the blue for the page base so I used red, black, and white for the other accent colors.  I wish I had a huge hoard of all the retired cardstock colors, I'm going to be sad when I run out of colors like Ballet Blue.  Happily, I do have quite the stash of Baja Breeze so I'm safe there for a while ; )

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies:
Stamps:  None
Ink:  Basic Black
Paper:  Ballet Blue, Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black, Kaleidoscope DSP
Accessories:  Heart Framelits