Friday Flashback: Ageless Adornment

It's Friday Flashback day!  Today's retired stamp set of choice is Ageless Adornment, which was a purple rubber hostess set way back when.  There are four images (butterfly, pear, holly, and calla lily) plus three fancy-font sentiments.  So let's take a look, shall we?

I know, this is the absolute *worst* picture, but the original card was pretty.  The background is polished stone (wish SU still carried glossy white cardstock just for this technique) and I colored the butterfly to match.

Also features Roses in Winter, Script, and Filigree

Here's the butterfly again, and this card is...less than successful.  Sadly the part I like the least is the Ageless Adornment butterfly :(  So since this card is disappointing, I tried to make something mo bettah today, and this is what I came up with:

I knew I wanted to use a stamp that wasn't the butterfly ;) but I didn't realize beforehand that I hadn't used *any* of the other images.  But the pear seemed like a good choice with this week's Color Throwdown combo:

I interpreted the colors as Lavender Lace (hoping for another purple when the new In Colors are introduced this summer), Summer Starfruit, Cool Caribbean, and Barely Banana, all of which are retired.  So today we're featuring retired stamps *and* retired colors, though happily for me, Chocolate Chip is still current.  Do NOT take away Christy's chocolate if you want to live.  I stamped the pear with Chocolate Chip craft ink (which is retired) and then embossed with clear EP so I could watercolor without smearing ink everywhere.  Everything else is pretty self-explanatory.

Anyway, I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I did a plain border around my circular element instead of the scallops as shown on the sketch, and I think my banners are a little fatter,  but I followed the sketch pretty closely.

So that's it for me this week, peeps.  Have a fantabulous day!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Ageless Adornment, Happy Harmony
Ink:  Chocolate Chip (craft and classic), Cool Caribbean, Lovely Lilac, Barely Banana, Summer Starfruit
Paper:  Cool Caribbean, Chocolate Chip, Barely Banana, Lovely Lilac, Whisper White, Summer Starfruit DSP scrap
Accessories:  Circle Framelits, clear EP (really, I didn't even use Dimensionals this time!)

This One's For Missy

I'm late posting again today, but this time it's because I went shopping with a friend before I got my card completely finished.  Oh, and Sadie seems to be doing better today; she was asking to go for a walk and I was like hahahahNO, you're still moving kinda slow and I don't want to hurt you more.

But anyway, there is a stamp set in the Occasions catalog that I love.  My friend Missy....does not.  And I don't know why, because I think it's awesome and hilarious and fun and different and so when I got it yesterday (birfday present to me!) I had to make a card to send to her featuring....

A lumberjack!

Heeee's a lumberjack and he's okay, he sleeps all night and he works all day!  Oh wait, that's a whole 'nother song.  Anyway, how could you not love this lumberjack?  He's awesome!  And I broke open the first of my new firm foam ink pads to stamp his Garden Green shirt (green for Baylor, obviously, also why his hat is Crushed Curry).  And I used some of my new Blendabilities, but I didn't, you know, blend them.  Anyway, I used a slightly modified version of the sketch from Retro Sketches:

The lumberjack image was big enough that I couldn't make this a 4.25" square card, and I didn't want to do a 5.5" square and have to pay extra for postage, so I stretched the sketch to an A2 size.

Anyway, it's pretty much dinnertime so that's it for me today.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wood You Be Mine?  (buy iiiiiit Missy!)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Garden Green; markers in Blush Blossom (I know it's retired but it's less pink than Blushing Bride), Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral; Blendabilities in Crumb Cake and Smoky Slate
Paper:  Garden Green, Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Gold Soiree DSP
Accessories:  Itty Bitty Accents punch pack

Sunshine Rose

Sounds like a hippie baby name, doesn't it?  But what else would you call a card that looks like this:

I started out with the rose and smaller flowers using the color combo from Colour Me...! and then the sunshine sentiment just seemed like a natural fit.

I also used the sketch from the Paper Players:

As it happens, I *just* got the Confetti Celebrations DSP today, so yay for new stuff!  I also got three stamp sets and my new firm foam ink pads, but those haven't been opened up yet since I'd already done all the stamping for this card by the time Mr. Brown showed up.  We get UPS deliveries after 5:00 here, why can't we have 'em at 9:00 a.m.?

Anyway, this post almost didn't happen...had to take both the doglets to the vet this afternoon.  I took them out this morning for our usual walk, and Sadie was going really, really slow (which she never does), and after we got back she was limping pretty good.  We think it might possibly be arthritis in her shoulder, poor baby.  She wasn't a fan of the way the vet manipulated her leg and shoulder.  Vader was a good sport about everything, probably because he got treats and Sadie had the more disagreeable end of the deal.

So that's it for me today.  I'm going to go chill out with my doglets.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms, Ray of Sunshine
Ink:  Tangelo Twist, Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Tangelo Twist, Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Confetti Celebrations DSP
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, Dimensionals

Happy Nacho Day!

It is time once again for another fabulous color combo from Nacho Average Challenges!  So here it is:

All three of those colors happen to be featured in the Flashback Designer Series Paper, so I used that to create my Nacho card this week:

Easy peasy!  I think what took the longest was deciding which two patterns I wanted to use, everything else came together lickety-split.

So now it's your turn to make something purty with Crushed Curry, Pool Party, and Real Red, and then share it over on the Nacho Average Challenges blog :)  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Starburst Sayings
Ink:  Real Red, Pool Party, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Real Red, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla, Flashback DSP
Accessories:  Starburst Framelits, Regals & Subtles Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Olympia, Greece

Monday morning again already!  I had a good weekend though; Saturday was my birthday, and I will not deny that the weekend involved ice cream for breakfast and birthday cake for dinner.  And lots of tacos in between : )

Anyway, Monday morning means it's time to share a scrapbook layout!  So here it is:

The photos are from our 2013 Mediterranean cruise, and you can see them up close and personal here and here.  It was hotter than a two-dollar pistol (as my mother would say) in Olympia the day we were there, so I wanted to use bright orange for my page base.  Hellooooo, Tangelo Twist.  I found some retired DSP that had an interesting pattern on it that I thought went well with the carving featured in the pictures, and of course I used a couple of different alphabets to do a mixed-font title.

And here's the color palette I used for my layout:

Tangelo Twist, the long-retired Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery (which looks much limey-er in the photo than in real life), and Basic Gray.  So, even though there's not any orange in my photos, I think that the colors set off the photos nicely with all the blues and grays of the sky and stonework, respectively.  Proof that you don't have to use only the colors that are in your pictures to make a nice scrapbook layout.

Anyway, I'd better go get my run on.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet Upper, Spencerian Alphabet Lower
Ink:  Apricot Appeal, Tangelo Twist, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Tangelo Twist, Apricot Appeal, Whisper White, Shades of Spring DSP
Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits

Friday Flashback: Ruff Day

Happy Friday!  It's time for another Friday Flashback, and today's randomly-chosen retired stamp set is Ruff Day.  Let's get to it!

Also features All-Year Cheer I, A Little Love

Why is it that for baby clothes, all the boys' clothing has dogs on it and the girls' has cats?  Oh well, I thought this puppy made for a cute baby shower card anyway.

Also features Background Basics, It's Your Birthday

Here's a kick up your heels birthday card.

Also features Print Pattern, Tag Time, Tiny Talk

And a St. Patrick's Day card.  I bought Tag Time specifically for that tiny four-leaf clover.

Also features And Everything Nice, Background Basics

One more baby card that I made a couple years ago for a friend, who loved it and said it reminded her of a song in Labyrinth where David Bowie sings about snips and snails and puppy dog tails.  Love Labyrinth : )

So here's today's brand new creation!

I knew without even looking that I hadn't used this dog in the beret yet so he was a natural choice for today's card.  And I did take French for, like, seven years; when I was in high school, we used to speak French with an intentional (and terrible) Texan accent just to make our teacher holler at us.  So bone jour, y'all!

I used the colors from Colour Q:

Though I added quite a bit of black, and the only Chocolate Chip is on the dog's spots.  I used retired Watercolor Wonder Crayons to color in the dog, and then watercolored the beret and the "ground" with ink pooled in the ink pad lid.  I miss WWC!

I also used the fabulous sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

Wonderful sketch, right?  Super easy to work with.

Anyway, I think maybe it's stopped raining so I should take my pups out for a walk.  Otherwise we will have a Ruff Day :)  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Ruff Day, paw print from ?
Ink:  Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush
Paper:  Basic Black, Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Accessories:  Chalk Talk & Circles Framelits, Neutrals Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Neutrals Candy Dots, Black EP, Dimensionals

Thinking of...Hawaii

It's not even 6:00 p.m. here in 'Bama, but it's pitch black outside and it feels a lot later than it really is.  So for today's card, I'm gonna channel some nice island breezes and bright colors...

Yep, that's good stuff.  I even know exactly who I'm going to send this to, and I'm gonna try to get it out in the mail tomorrow.

I told you I wanted to do another card for the Nacho sketch challenge this week:

Having the smaller panels be a flower and a leaf was actually my first idea with this sketch, so it makes me happy.  The color combination from the lovely peeps at the Color Throwdown also makes me happy:

I interpreted this as Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Pink Pirouette (though Pretty in Pink might technically be closer, but I was using all current colors) and Wild Wasabi.  That inspiration photo is gorgeous too :)

That's it for me today; the hubs is about to start dinner, which is a frozen pizza so nothing complicated.  I just wish I could say it was a Hawaiian pizza ; )  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Patch, Perfect Pennants
Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Strawberry Slush, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Best Year Ever DSP
Accessories:  Flower Fair Framelits, Neutrals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Sunshine Butterfly

Well, apparently I'm in the mood for sunshine this week.

I didn't think about it until I was almost done making this card, but I just did a sunshine birthday card yesterday.  Oh well, who wouldn't want to get one of these in the mail?

Actually I need this to go off in the mail today anyway :)  I used the bold, bright, and beautiful color combination from Create with Connie and Mary:

I can't help it, I'm a sucker for Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry.  Add in another bright color and I'm all over it.  I also kinda-sorta used the sketch from Retro Sketches:

My intention had been to use the sketch but adapt it to a landscape card instead of portrait, but I kinda moved around the elements so I'm not 100% it counts as using the sketch now.  I do have all the same elements on my card though.

Anyway, we've got book club at my casa tonight, so I need to get started with cleaning up a few things (read:  make it not smell like this house is overrun by dogs, even though it is) and make a coffee cake.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Swallowtail, Feel Goods, Bring on the Cake
Ink:  Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Best Year Ever DSP (Sale-a-Bration exclusive)
Accessories:  Banners Framelits

Nachos: Birthday Sunshine

Morning, peeps!  Hope y'all had a good 3-day weekend and that you're ready for another most excellent Nacho sketch challenge!

I have to say I really, really like this sketch and I think I may need to use it again this week.  Here's what I made for today though:

Still having some fun playing with Occasions Mini stuff :)  Do you like the bright colors?  I went with colors from the Painted Blooms DSP though the pattern I used is just the Daffodil Delight/Whisper White stripe.  I had everything done on the card except the sentiment and that one from Ray of Sunshine just seemed to be perfect for my card.

So enough of my yammering, it's your turn now!  Check out the Nacho blog for more goodies and post your own card creation there.  Happy stamping!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Petals, Ray of Sunshine
Ink:  Rose Red, Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point
Paper:  Pacific Point, Rose Red, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Painted Blooms DSP
Accessories:  Bracket Tag punch, Banners Framelits, Dimensionals

Han Dynasty Tombs

My scrappin' streak continues!  I have a couple of other layouts that I made before this one, but I was talking recently about using Ancient Asia on a scrapbook layout so I have to share it first.  Here it is:

Click to embiggen.  This is my second completed layout for my China scrapbooks, woohoo!  This was the last thing we saw in Xi'an before we left for Beijing, you can see the original photos here.   I was awake one night last week and thinking about scrapbooking (what, you don't do that?) and I got the idea for this color combination.  Luckily I still remembered it the next morning :)  Here's my color palette:

Elegant Eggplant (which looks black in the photo, but it's not), Perfect Plum, Marina Mist, Sahara Sand, and Very Vanilla.  Loves me some purple.

Seems like we always have a lot of pictures that I want to squeeze into every layout, and I don't like to crop them down too much since we've gotten better at photography and composing our shots.  So that means a lot of my layouts look kind of blocky, but what can ya do?  I still like this one, it's got clean lines and still has a few embellishments.

Anyway, I'm off to go do something not on the computer.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Ancient Asia, Rough Type
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant (ink pad and marker), Sahara Sand
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Marina Mist, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, retired Marina Mist DSP
Accessories:  non-SU lettering template

Friday Flashback: Pretty Amazing

Happy Friday, folks!  It's time for the Friday Flashback, and today's randomly-chosen retired stamp set is Pretty Amazing.  Y'all know I have a thing for hummingbird stamp sets :)  Let's rock and roll!

Also features Amazing to Zany

There's one ruby-throated hummingbird for you.

Also features Pretty Petals

The background stamp Pretty Petals coordinates fabulously with Pretty Amazing, so I use those two together a lot.

Also features Pretty Petals and Sweet Serendipity

That tiny hummingbird is a bit of a pain to cut out, I will admit.

Also features All Holidays

But it looks so good when it's fussy cut!  So there's the flashback part of the Friday Flashback, so now it's time for today's new creation:

And I fussy-cut the hummingbird again :p  And used Pretty Petals with it.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it, amirite?  I used the color challenge from Colour Q:

Quite the lovely inspiration picture there.  I also used the sketch from As You See It, but I'm too late to enter this over there:

So that's it for this week on Snapdragon Stamps.  Hope you have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Pretty Amazing, Pretty Petals, Simply Sketched
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Night of Navy, Marina Mist, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Wisteria Wonder, Night of Navy, Marina Mist, Whisper White
Accessories:  Banners & Circles Framelits, rhinestone, Delicate Dots EF, Dimensionals

Swirly-Twirly Gumdrop Flower

I love this one flower in the Crazy About You stamp set where the petals kinda curve around and it makes me think of Buddy the Elf talking about swirly-twirly gumdrops and I bet these are the kind of flowers that would grow on gumdrop trees.  (And if I'm misquoting Elf, it's because I didn't get to watch it this Christmas.)  What do you think?

I just inked up my Sahara Sand ink pad, and it made some kinda fun patterns on the leaves when I stamped them (I stamped them off once first).  That was a happy accident, but I'm still looking forward to upgrading my ink pads to the firm foam ones.  My Sahara Sand is quite old and kinda dips in the center.  And if you look closely, you might see that I put some Dazzling Details glitter glue on the center of my gumdrop flower.

Anyway, I used the color challenge from the Paper Players, with the addition of Basic Black:

And the sketch is from Retro Sketches:

That's it for me today, it's raining outside so I'm going to go spend time in my craft room and make something pretty.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Crazy About You, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Crisp Cantaloupe, Sahara Sand, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Basic Black, Whisper White, All Abloom DSP Stack
Accessories:  Scallop circle punch, hole punch, Lost Lagoon ribbon, Dazzling Details, Dimensionals

Patriotic Promotion

I need more hours in a day!  I've gotta get this blog post written up real fast so I can go to the store to get stuff to make an apple pie to take with us to a potluck dinner tonight.  So let's get moving!

My little brother is being promoted to major next month so I made this for him.  Happily for me, the color combination at Colour Me...! lends itself perfectly to a patriotic card:

And in another bit of serendipity, the sketch posted today at Freshly Made Sketches worked with my giant star:

The sentiment stamp is from the retired Service & Sacrifice set, but everything else on here is current.  Oh, the button is SU! but it's retired also.

Ok, must dash!  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bright & Beautiful, Service & Sacrifice
Ink:  Versamark, Pacific Point
Paper:  Whisper White, Pacific Point, Real Red
Accessories:  Stars & Circles Framelits, Hexagon punch, Lucky Stars EF, white baker's twine, white EP, retired button, Dimensionals

Nachos: Many Thanks

Morning, Nacho fans!  It is time once again for another fabulous Nacho Average Color Challenge.  So without further ado, here it is:

I haven't used Hello Honey very often, unless it's in combination with Blackberry Bliss, because I love that combination :)  I was in the mood to do some watercoloring, so here's my card:

The matryoshka dolls are from the set Today & Everyday, which has three images in it that are just prime for watercoloring.  Or Blendabilities, but I don't have any of those...YET.

So, now it's your turn!  Take a look at the Nacho blog and post your own Nacho-riffic creation for us to ooh and ahh over :)

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Today & Everyday
Ink:  Marina Mist, Old Olive, Hello Honey, Baked Brown Sugar, Blushing Bride, Smoky Slate, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Marina Mist, Old Olive, Basic Black, Whisper White, Lullaby DSP
Accessories:  Delicate Dots EF, corner rounder punch, Brights Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Cliffs of Dover

Sooo, I was thinking.  I've really been enjoying myself working on my scrapbooks since the New Year, so perhaps I should make Mondays my day to post scrapbook pages...whaddya think?  Here's one for this week:

Once again, not a great picture of the layout, but you can see the original photos here and here.  I think I've figured out a better way to take photos of my scrapbook layouts but I didn't retake this one, but next week the photo will be much better : )

For this layout, I used the same sketch as on the Dover Castle one, but I did it mirror-image on the right page this time.

 And here is my color palette:

I started out wanting to use Smoky Slate for the page base, but then I remembered this lovely Bordering Blue, which is sort of a blue-tinged gray, and I happen to have quite a bit of it in 12x12 cardstock.  Plus then I got to use some of the lovely Bella Birds DSP.  Doesn't look like much in the photo above, but it's pretty IRL.

I'm off and running this week, so I'll see you tomorrow with another great Nacho Average Challenges card.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Letterpress Alphabet, Spencerian Alphabet (lower only)
Ink:  Midnight Muse (ink pad and marker)
Paper:  Bordering Blue, Handsome Hunter, Midnight Muse, Bella Birds DSP
Accessories:  None