Getting Cozy

Mornin' y'all!  I did get spend quite a bit of time in my craft room yesterday and it was lovely and I'm going to do it again today : )  I made several cards and I've got a scrapbook layout halfway done on my table right now.  So before I get back to it, I'm sharing a cozy card today.

The latest Inspired By... challenge caused me to break out some old retired stamps, namely Flannel Plaid (isn't that a cozy-looking background?!) and Hug in a Mug.  Here's the challenge graphic:

I chose Seaside Spray as my main color from the challenge graphic and just went from there.  Tea is my hot beverage of choice, but I do enjoy a good cuppa hot chocolate on occasion as well.  Because it would be a bit weird to put marshmallows in a mug of tea.

Anyway, I'm off to my craft room to finish up that layout and have some fun.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hug in a Mug, Flannel Plaid
Ink:  Seaside Spray, Early Espresso, Misty Moonlight, Stampin' Blends in Bronze, Ivory, & neutrals
Paper:  Seaside Spray, Thick Basic White, Early Espresso DSP scrap
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: It's Your Birthday

Happy Friday, y'all!  We are currently prepping for Snowmageddon, which is slated to start this afternoon.  But in the meantime, I have a Friday Flashback for you!  Today's stamp set is It's Your Birthday, and who doesn't need a great set of birthday greetings?  In fact, I'd used this set so much that I only picked about half of what I had in my archives to share otherwise we'd still be doing this flashback *next* Friday.  So let's giddyup!

Also features Bronc Buster, Paisley

First is a birthday card I made for my brother a few years ago.

Also features Floral, Roses in Winter

And here's one for my mother's great aunt...

Also features Baroque Motifs, Embrace Life

Honestly I don't know who I sent this to, it's a rare square card.

Also features Bloomin' Beautiful

This "someone like you should be celebrated every day" stamp is done in the same font as the "happy birthday" above so you could use them together.  Or just use this one for a card and it doesn't have to be birthday-specific.

Also features Dream Gardens

 I do love my Oriental stamps :)

Also features Pun Fun

Here's a cute little one I did for my mom, who loves hippos.

Also features Mixed Bouquet

I made this one for one of my favorite people in the world, who has sadly passed away.  Miss you, Neelu!

Also features Petal Prints

Let's be honest, this is one of my favorite cards.

Also features Wing It, Flannel Plaid

And one more kinda masculine card to round out the group.  Are you ready for today's new creation?  Here it is:

My friend Tiana (who doesn't read this blog, so I'm not giving away any birthday secrets) came out to visit at the beginning of the month and mentioned when we were out shopping that she wanted some super-soft comfy pajama pants.  And since her birthday is next week, I found her some ridiculously cute ones at Kohl's, they're black and have foxes on them and look kinda like this card :D  The jammies are more of a raspberry color than coral, but I only have Calypso Coral embossing powder so I went with that.  I loved these so much I ordered some for myself, and I also got her a set of Star Wars jammies because awesome.  The Star Wars ones have purple in them so this card kinda matches both.

Anyway, I used a sketch from the Retro Rubber challenge site, my very first time to play along over there!

If I got both It's Your Birthday and Fox & Friends when they first came out, then I've had It's Your Birthday for TEN years and Fox & Friends for 6.  And I still love them both :)

Ok, I'd better get moving before Snowmageddon starts.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  It's Your Birthday, Fox & Friends
Ink:  Basic Black, Versamark
Paper:  Basic Black, Lavender Lace, Lucky Limeade & Calypso Coral DSP
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, retired heart punch, Calypso Coral EP, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: True Friend

Happy Friday, peeps.  For this week's Friday Flashback, our retired stamp set is True Friend which came out in the 2007 holiday mini catalog so this one's quite the oldie.  Grab your cuppa tea and let's Flashback!

Also features Hugs & Wishes

Starting off with a cute and simple set of cards that you could do in any color.  I like 'em.  (Mom, something like this might be good for your Christmas card project...)

Also features Priceless, Polka Dot

A fun and bright birthday card...

Also features Happy Everything & Boho Friend Wheel

And one more for good measure.  Can ya tell I like that big flower.

And here's a few of the other stamps in the set.  I do like the "true friend" sentiment but I haven't used it much.

Also features Wonderful Favorites, Flannel Plaid, Itty Bitty Backgrounds

Not my favorite card, it was for a combination SCS sketch and color challenge and this sketch just didn't do anything for me.

Also features Paisley, Warm Words

And the last card of the Flashback has lots o' layers.  I miss the ticket corner punch.

So for today's new project, I bring you a scrapbook layout:

Yay me getting more pages done.  This is the first layout I've made with pictures from this year; these were taken last spring in Alabama.  I wish I'd gotten the spacing a bit better on the stamped part of the title, and really the purple letters show up better IRL than they do in the picture (it was very overcast and kinda dark when I took the photo).  I do love the color combination I used:

Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, and Lavender Lace.  This layout came together pretty fast once I'd picked the patterned papers I wanted to use.

And that's all she wrote this week, peeps.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, Spring layout only:
Stamps:  True Friend, Sweet Shoppe Alphabet
Ink:  Rose Red, Chocolate Chip marker
Paper:  Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette, Lavender Lace, Bali Breeze DSP, Pink Pirouette DSP
Accessories:  non-SU lettering template

Friday Flashback: Sweet Serendipity

Happy Friday, stampers!  It is time once more for a Friday Flashback, and today's stamp set is Sweet Serendipity, a set of six cool sentiment stamps plus a few little images.  Let's go!

Also features Bronc Buster and Flannel Plaid

 I'd say riding a bucking bronco would be an adventure, wouldn't you?

The Sweet Serendipity stamp I used on this layout says "Live each day with laughter/enthusiasm" which seemed perfect with the picture of my friend Sarah on a carousel in Florence.

Also features Pretty Amazing and Pretty Petals

You saw this one earlier this year in the Pretty Amazing Friday Flashback.

Also features Happiness Always

And this one was in last week's Happiness Always Friday Flashback.

Also features Fabulous Flowers, Sanded, Paisley

 Oh hey, Fabulous Flowers had a Friday Flashback already too.  This is still one of my favorite cards.

Also features Snow Burst and Paisley

The sentiment says sparkle, and this card delivered!  The whole top panel is covered in Iridescent Ice EP, which is hard to photograph but looks awesome and sparkly in real life.

Also features Pretty Peony and Sanded

This was the first card on the Pretty Peony Friday Flashback, and it's another of my old favorites.  I love that Sanded background stamp.   That's it for the flashback part of today's post (and the flashback to prior flashbacks, if you followed all the links), it's time to see what's new!

I had Sheltering Tree out on my table for a different project so I thought I'd use it for today's post too.  I used the Fall-To Layout #22 from Clean & Simple Stamping:

And the softer color combination from Colour Me...!

But since I was on a roll in my craft room, and there was a whole 'nother color challenge on there, I had to try the bold combination as well:

I added a bit of Sahara Sand to both color combinations, I couldn't help it :)  For this one, I also used the sketch from the Paper Players:

Hope you enjoyed today's extra-long Friday Flashback.  Have a great weekend, peeps, we're painting again!

Supplies, Sheltering Tree card:
Stamps:  Sweet Serendipity, Sheltering Tree
Ink:  Tip Top Taupe, Blushing Bride, Wisteria Wonder, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Tip Top Taupe, Blushing Bride, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder DSP
Accessories:  Oval & Scalloped Oval punches, Dimensionals

Supplies, Secret Garden card:
Stamps:  Sweet Serendipity, Secret Garden
Ink:  Night of Navy, Whisper White
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, Whisper White
Accessories:  Secret Garden Framelits, Spring Flowers EF, ticket corner punch, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Bareback

Happy Friday, peeps!  It's time for the Friday Flashback, and this week I bring you Bareback.  I was one horse-obsessed kid growing up--when we moved to Texas, 7-year-old me thought we'd have a horse in our backyard and I'd get to ride to school.  When I found out that wasn't the case, I packed a bag and tried to walk back to California ;)  All that to say, of course I bought this horsey stamp set!

Also features Flannel Plaid, Many Merry Messages

This was my Christmas card right before we moved to Japan, because we were in Texas for a few months.  My mom said it wasn't Christmasy enough; I said whaddya mean?  It says Merry Christmas big as day, how much more Christmasy can you possibly get ;)

Also features Flannel Plaid, A Word for You

This one was a fairly recent creation, but not really one of my favorite cards ever.  It's my least favorite of the cards on today's post...I do like how the white markings on the horses' faces turned out, though.

Also features Flannel Plaid, Wanted, Full of Life

And now I realize that I *always* use Bareback with Flannel Plaid, but luckily today I did something different :)  Behold the new card on the block:

I even know who this is going to:  a friend of mine bought a horse a few months ago and takes riding lessons on the regular.  I'm totally jealous, I've always wanted a horse :)  Anyway, knowing her, I figured that sentiment from You're a Gem was perfect on this card.  It's going in the mail today--I'm trying to mail out more of the cards I make instead of just storing them.

The colors are from The Color Throwdown:

I interpreted this as Night of Navy, Cajun Craze, Soft Sky, and Always Artichoke.  The sketch is from CAS(e) This Sketch:

There's something about this one that I just reeeeally like, even all that white space isn't making me nervy.  I like it!

So anyway, today I'm leaving on a jet plane to go back to the land of no-you-don't-have-a-horse-in-your-backyard because my brother's promotion ceremony is on Sunday.  Woohoo!

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Bareback, You're a Gem
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Night of Navy
Paper:  Soft Sky, Night of Navy, Wintergreen DSP
Accessories:  None

Friday Flashback: Best Fiends

Happy Halloween, folks!  I had randomly drawn the name of another, non-Halloween stamp set for today's Friday Flashback, but since it's Halloween I couldn't resist:  I had to feature my favorite Halloween ghouls, Best Fiends!  So let's take a Friday Flashback with Frankie, Drac, and Agnes.

That trick-or-treat bag wasn't easy to fussy cut but I loved how it looked on Frankie's card here :)

Also features Rough Edges Alphabet and Flannel Plaid

I have a friend whose birthday is today so this was his birthday card one year.  I love the bats on this one--I stamped them in Basic Black on Vintage Violet paper (this was back when we had Vintage Violet as an In Color) and then colored in their eyes with white gel pen.

This was a first birthday party invitation for my friend's daughter, who was also born on Halloween.

Also features House of Haunts, From the Crypt, and Background Basics

And now we're up to baby book pages!  One of the stamps in Background Basics is a pattern of circles with little dots inside them, and I love that for these pages because it kinda sorta suggests eyeballs without actually being eyeballs.

Also features House of Haunts and Background Basics

This was the baby book layout for the little girl whose birthday is on Halloween.  It took FOR.EV.ER. to color in all three Best Fiends, but since her mama is a total Halloween nut I just had to go the extra mile on this layout.

Also features House of Haunts, From the Crypt, and Background Basics

One more baby book layout that's pretty much the same as the first one on this post, but different colors.  The spider stamp is from Best Fiends but I never gave him a name.  The pumpkin from House of Haunts would be Jack, obviously.  So on to the new card creation for today!

I couldn't help it, I had to choose Agnes.  And I knew exactly what patterned paper I wanted to use on here too, I love the Perfect Plum worked into the Cast-a-Spell DSP.  You can't tell from the photo but I sponged some Soft Sky behind Agnes, it looks good IRL.  But what really makes me smile about this card is the inside:

Bwahahahaaaaa!  I've seen people do cards with Agnes and this sentiment from Edgy Eloquence before, but I never put them together my own self until now and I love it.  I think this card will give the recipient a giggle even if I'm not sending it off until today (my bad).  I used the sketch from Create with Connie and Mary:

It kinda seemed like a lot of layers at first but when I saw the design team's work with the sketch I thought hey, I can do that.  I kind of wish I'd done the sketch as a mirror image because there's some blank space under the front of Agnes' broom but oh well.  It wasn't big enough to put the bat in there (who also doesn't have a name, man did I drop the ball) so it had to stay blank.

Anyway, that's it for me this week.  Have a wonderful Halloween, everyone!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Edgy Eloquence
Ink:  StazOn Black (someone remind me to get an ink refill for this!), Pumpkin Pie, Perfect Plum, Old Olive, Basic Gray, Soft Sky, Whisper White
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Cast-a-Spell DSP
Accessories:  Oval Framelits, Word Window & Modern Label punches, Regals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Horses for You

Wow, I did not think I was going to get my card posted today.  I haven't completely organized my stamps yet and I was searching for one particular "for you" stamp and could NOT find it anywhere so I decided to start taking the stamps out so I can alphabetize them.  Yep, my craft room currently looks like this:

Don't tell the hubs, that's only half the stamps.  I found the stamp set I was looking for halfway through my sort here.  So then I was able to finish up my card in about ten minutes!

I have a ton of Saddle Club books (horsey books for preteens) that I am giving to my friend Vicki's granddaughter, so of course I needed a horsey card to go along with the books.  (I want to make a bookmark too, but one step at a time.)  I used the latest sketch from Retro Sketches:

Since this card is going inside a package I figured I could go crazy with the jumbo button--no idea who made that one, it was one I found in my non-SU button stash.  The two smaller buttons are SU though, long-retired.  And all the stamps are retired too.

Anyway, the hubs is taking me to Panera for dinner (I'm a lucky stamper), so I'd better get moving.  Plus I still have to pull out the other half of the stamps and get to alphabetizing...

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU! (though half of them are retired)
Stamps:  Bareback, A Word For You, Flannel Plaid
Ink:  Versamark, Garden Green, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Marina Mist, Whisper White
Paper:  Soft Sky, Garden Green, Crumb Cake, Trim the Tree DSP stack
Accessories:  Top Note die, buttons, Early Espresso EP