Monday, November 30, 2020

Friends & Family

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  We still have tons of food :) and somehow I managed to have everything ready right on time!  Prepping the pies and casseroles a day or two early definitely helped me not feel stressed on Thanksgiving Day.  Our neighbors came over to eat with us and we had a good time.

So, now for today's scrapbook layout!


The pictures span fall 2010 right on up to Christmas, but I used fall colors because I loves them.  I adore the Into the Woods DSP and somehow I did *not* use the coordinating Thankful Forest Friends stamp set on this layout, which is a surprise since I dearly love it ;)  I did have it out on my table but I decided that it would be too much to add anything else considering I have three different patterned papers going on here already.


Today's color palette:  Concord Crush, Daffodil Delight, Tangelo Twist, Old Olive, and Whisper White.  The page base (Concord Crush) is a super deep dark PURPLE, not black; it's not in the patterned papers but I thought it played well with all the other colors.

December starts tomorrow (WHAT) and I have quite a few Christmas layouts ready to share.  See you soon, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Larger Than Life Alphabet
Ink:  Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Concord Crush marker
Paper:  Concord Crush, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Tangelo Twist DSP, Into the Woods DSP
Accessories:  None

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

SUO Challenges: Christmas Coo

Hey hey stampy friends!  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!


I know Thanksgiving is this week (if you're American), but we're looking forward to Christmas!  Show us your Christmas cards :D

Since I have, unfortunately, not had much time in my craft room of late, I have lots of Christmas stamps that haven't seen ink and lots of gorgeous patterned papers that I haven't used on anything yet.  I used this opportunity to ink up Yuletide Pasture for its maiden voyage:


Aaaaahhhhh it's a Highland Coo!  It is 100% Helen Read's fault that I bought this stamp set; awhile back she shared several cards she had made with Yuletide Pasture and wouldn't you know, it just sneaked on my next stamping order after I saw what she made.  Oops.  But this Highland Coo and his friends the cat and the sheep are super cute so I'm glad they're in my stash.  Now I just need time to actually USE all the stuff I have...

So now it's your turn.  I hope you'll use this challenge as a reason to ink up some of your holiday stamps too!  Don't forget to share on the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Yuletide Pasture
Ink:  Cinnamon Cider, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Bumblebee, Cinnamon Cider, Thick Whisper White, Plaid Tidings DSP
Accessories:  In Color Enamel Dots, Dimensionals, Nature's Thoughts Dies


Monday, November 23, 2020

Ops Group Thanksgiving

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Since Thanksgiving is this week, I have to share a Thanksgiving layout today!  I made this one earlier this year, though the pictures are from 2009...I, uh, have to work hard not to have pictures that are over 10 years old still waiting to be scrapped. #needmorescrappingtime


Pretty sure this is the Thanksgiving that I was first introduced to sweet potato casserole and I absolutely fell in love.  Hubs and kiddo aren't very big on sweet potatoes, but I'm still planning to make a casserole for myself this week just because I can.  Anywha, for the layout, I pulled out some old, old patterned paper called Autumn Vines and the longtime favorite scarecrow stamp from Happy Fall Y'all to make this.  The thing that took the longest was coloring the scarecrow.


Today's very retro color palette includes More Mustard, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, and Whisper White; every single one of those colors is retired except, of course, for the white.

We have a teeny-tiny oven in this house, so I need to strategize my Thanksgiving plans.  I think it's just going to be the three of us, but I'm still planning to do it up right...at least I'm limiting myself to only two pies.  And of course sweet potato casserole.  But I did get both turkey and ham...

Have a great holiday, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Brushwork Alphabet, Back to Basics Alphabet, Happy Fall Y'all
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Sage Shadow, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Soft Sky, Buckaroo Blue, Versamark
Paper:  More Mustard textured, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Thick Whisper White, Autumn Vines DSP
Accessories:  Clear EP

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Polly, Put the Kettle On

Hey y'all!  Wonder of wonders, I actually made a card today, my very first one since we moved to Germany.  I got up early this morning to do my workout, and by the time I finished that the hubs was already in the shower but Ryan wasn't up yet so I snatched a few minutes in my craft room and made this:


The teacup stamp set (A Nice Cuppa) is retired, but I had to use it (or one of its other tea-related friends) because of the Global Design Project theme challenge:


The inside of the card says "You are tea-riffic", but I chose a birthday sentiment for the front of the card to fit in the Retro Rubber Challenge:


The birthday sentiment is from Blossoms in Bloom, which is only six months old; it was just the first birthday sentiment that I came across that fit my card design.  A Nice Cuppa is nice and retro though, it's four years old.  I even dug up the matching Have a Cuppa DSP!

Aaaaaaand now I need to go make myself some tea.  Have a great day, peeps.

Supplies, all SU! (many retired)
Stamps:  A Nice Cuppa, Blossoms in Bloom
Ink:  Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Thick Whisper White, Have a Cuppa DSP Stack
Accessories:  Cups & Kettle dies, Dimensionals, glitter enamel dots

Monday, November 16, 2020

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Hey y'all!  How's your Monday going?

Today's layout is actually the very first one I made after arriving in Germany, after not getting to stamp or do any paper crafting for about three months.  If you ever have a spell like that where you can't stamp or scrap, do you feel like you need to do a warmup layout or card or something?  Because I feel like this is kind of a warmup layout for me.


I mean, I like it.  I love these pictures from Slovenia (read about our day trip here) and that patterned paper is one of my all-time favorites.  But since this was my first time scrapping in so long, I turned to my very favoritest most trusty sketch to put my layout together.  More on that in a minute.


Today's color palette includes Basic Black, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Always Artichoke, and Whisper White; all the colors are retired except black and white.  And honestly why did SU! get rid of black 12x12 cardstock?! So technically it's retired too.  Brown might be more expected for a fall layout, but I felt like the photos just needed that start black backdrop.
 
Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet Upper & Lower, Make a Difference, My Paper Pumpkin (leaves)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Always Artichoke, More Mustard, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Basic Black, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Thick Whisper White, Autumn Traditions DSP
Accessories:  None

Okay so back to that sketch thing.  I own this Becky Higgins book of sketches, I bought it in 2008 according to Amazon and I use it all the freaking time when I scrap.  There are some sketches that I doubt I'll ever use, and there are some that I've used two or three times, and then there's my very favorite sketch.  I'm not sure what makes this sketch so special, but I've used it a lot.  Because I was curious, I went through all my pictures of past layouts just to see how many times I've used this same sketch.  (Honestly I thought I'd done more!)  Since I typically scrap whatever strikes my fancy rather than chronologically, I can use this sketch several times in a row even and know the layouts won't be all together in my books.  But here, for your viewing pleasure, is a parade of layouts using the same sketch :)


This was one of the first layouts I did when we moved to Japan!  And I think it might have been the very first time I used this sketch.  America Town is a place in Okinawa.


Here's a trip to Amsterdam...


Oh look, same sketch in Wales...


Another Japan layout but it's in a different album from the first one.


Old pictures but I think I made this layout earlier this year or maybe last year.  I've been on a kick of using the Taffy Alphabet stamps.


Another Japan layout, I was extremely proud of this one at the time (I still like it).  It took a looooong time to hand-cut those letters for the title.


Hey, here's one from our honeymoon cruise in 2005.  But it gets its own album so won't be with that December 2005 layout above.


Here's a layout from St. Petersburg in Russia, and now that I think about it, it will go in the same album as the Beaumaris one from Wales.  But there's still lots of pages in between.


Aww, here's the little church that was half a block from our house in England.


Ooh hey, a Thanksgiving layout and another fall patterned paper that I adore.


As soon as I see the picture in the top left corner on this layout, my brain starts singing the Indiana Jones theme because that's the church they go in where X marks the spot in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.


Last one because I uploaded these alphabetically, I was surprised to discover I only used the sketch once in my China albums.

I did find a few more where I might have started out with something similar to the sketch, but then moved things around so it wasn't as recognizable.  But this was a fun excuse to look at the pictures of all my past scrapbook layouts.  Hope you enjoyed it as well!

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

SUO Challenges: Thanksgiving

Hey y'all!  It's time for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!


This time we're doing a theme:  Thanksgiving!  You know how much I love making cards in fall colors, and honestly Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday (even over Christmas).  I think it's all the pumpkin baked goods ;). Here's what I made:


The Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP is gorgeous and features both gold and copper foil.  I chose a pattern with gold on it and paired it with some gold foil paper and a gold embossed sentiment.  I'm glad that Gather Together came back for another fall season, I love this stamp set.

Upload your Thanksgiving project at the SUO Challenges blog and we'll save you a piece of pumpkin pie.  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gather Together
Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Mango Melody
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP, Gold foil
Accessories:  Clear EP, Gold EP, Gathered Leaves dies, Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals

Monday, November 9, 2020

Leaf Walk, Part 2

Mornin' y'all, and happy birthday to my brother Adam, who doesn't read this blog but I'm saying it anyway :)  I did get a little bit of time in my craft room over the weekend, but I have yet to make a single card since we moved here--I'm focusing on scrapbook pages.  I'm about six or eight layouts away from my goal for the year, and since my crafting time has been limited that's what I'm aiming for.

So for today I have the second layout from my fall in Virginia photos.


I kept the Early Espresso page base and the chevron patterned paper, but I changed up most of the other colors:  Lovely Lipstick, Pumpkin Pie, and Crushed Curry instead of Cajun Craze, Delightful Dijon, and Soft Suede (I did use Granny Apple Green and Very Vanilla on both).  And this time I made the mats all the same color, but the leaf accents are multicolored, which is the opposite of what I did on the first layout.  They look like they go together without being exactly the same.


As I mentioned, here's today's palette:  Early Espresso, Granny Apple Green, Lovely Lipstick, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, and Very Vanilla.  Lovely Lipstick is such a bold color that I'm always surprised when I use it on scrapbook pages, it really does play nicely with other colors.  I've been using a lot of bold, bright colors on the pages I've worked on lately too.  It makes me happy.

Have a great week, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Lighthearted Leaves, Touch of Nature
Ink:  Early Espresso, Granny Apple Green, Lovely Lipstick, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Versamark
Paper:  Early Espresso, Granny Apple Green, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Leaflets dies, clear EP

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Leaf Walk, Part 1

Mornin', y'all!  Before we left North Carolina, I set up a lot of blog posts to cover for a while until we got settled in Germany.  I just realized that I ran out of Scrappy Monday scheduled posts this week, and of course we finished Ryan's baby book too :)  Well, we're here, and pretty settled in (you can see pics of our new house and some travels around Germany on my other blog) but I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time in my new craft room yet.  My hubs kindly took Ryan out for a while on Sunday so I got a few hours that day, and I've been working on new scrapbook pages rather than cards.  I need to take pictures of the layouts I've done so far, but for today I thought I'd share a seasonally appropriate layout from fall in Virginia.


It looks black, but I promise the page base is deep, dark Early Espresso (brown).  I thought it made the colors in my leaf pictures pop.  Where I grew up in Texas, "fall" consists of all the leaves spontaneously turning dull brown and then falling off the trees overnight.  We don't get the fun colors, so I enjoyed fall in Virginia.  Fall in Germany has been pretty glorious too!  We're past peak colors now, but it's still pretty out there (when it's not raining buckets). 

Anyway, back to today's layout, I used retired favorite Lighthearted Leaves for my page accents.  I didn't particularly like the die for the one on the right page (the die set was originally designed for Vintage Leaves, but fit the stamps from this set as well) so I ended up fussy-cutting it a bit.  And just for funsies, I used three different colors for the photo mats.  I inked the leaves with Versamark, then colored ink, and stamped, then embossed with clear EP.  That let me watercolor the leaves without the ink running.


And here are my colors:  Early Espresso, Granny Apple Green, Cajun Craze (deep orange, it looks red in this picture), Delightful Dijon, Soft Suede, and Very Vanilla.

Well, it's cloudy right now but not raining, so I'm going to take Ryan out to a playground for a bit.  I'm getting a lot of reading done while he's on the playground, but I don't know how long I'll be able to do this...I'm not going to sit outside slowly turning into a popsicle when it gets really cold!  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Notable Alphabet, Lighthearted Leaves
Ink:  Early Espresso, Granny Apple Green, Cajun Craze, Delightful Dijon, Versamark
Paper:  Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Granny Apple Green, Cajun Craze, Delightful Dijon, Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Leaflets dies, clear EP