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Hey y'all, how's it going?  I think we're adjusting okay to having Ryan in school, though he does NOT like getting up so early in the morning : )  He's been big smiles when he got off the bus for the first two days, so far so good.  I've been spending time in my craft room this week but man, yesterday I had the TOUGHEST time settling in to make anything!  I wasted at least 3 hours just trying to figure out what to do and then finally got my act together when I only had about two hours until getting Ryan off the bus.  But I made a card for my dog-loving friend Krissy's birthday at last!

Couldn't help it, I had to use Ruff Day again (she also got the last card I made with this stamp set!).  And I used up some of my Fresh Prints scraps for this, I just love that paper.  I still have at least one more pack that hasn't even been opened yet but I'm parsimonious about using even my scraps.  (Unabashed paper hoarder here.)

Thank you to the Retro Rubber Challenge for giving me the jump start yesterday to actually make something!

Ruff Day is quite retro at 15 years old.  This card reminded me once again that we do not have Coastal Cabana Stampin' Blends and really, the Bermuda Bay ones are not that great of a substitute.  We need Blends in alllllll of the colors, SU!  The tag die I used is from last year's Sweet Little Stockings bundle, it was just the right size for my retro stamps.

I'm also entering this at the Shopping Our Stash challenge where the theme is Animal Antics.  My first time playing along there!

We've got workmen here at the house today who are replacing our heating system.  That means I have to stay at the house all day until they're done...guess I'll just have to go back in my craft room ; )  Hopefully my creativity will be a bit more cooperative today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ruff Day
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Real Red, Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Thick Basic White, Fresh Prints DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stockings dies, red rhinestone, Dimensionals

Bone-Jour!

Hey stampy friends!  I'm chuffed to be playing along with the Festive Friday challenge today.

I was sad to have missed playing in the previous challenge for International Owl Awareness Day, I have some cool owl stamps that would have been perfect for it.  So I can't let International Dog Day pass me by!  I dug out a very old stamp set for this one:

Meet one of the pups from Ruff Day!  I've had this stamp set in my stash since 2007.  I paired it with the Playful Pets DSP, which coordinates with the Pampered Pets stamp set but I had somehow never cut into it after I bought it.  Anyway, from the Festive Friday challenge, I incorporated a dog, bones, paw prints, spots, and neutral colors (with a bit of Real Red thrown in).

And there's the inside of the card, you know I love a silly pun!  This one is already in the mail to my friend Krissy, who just might be even more dog-crazy than I am.  I didn't think that was possible until I met her ; )  We took a weekend trip to Paris together in March and it was almost a contest to see who could point out the most dogs everywhere we went.

I'm also entering this at the Retro Rubber challenge:

As I said, my stamp set is FIFTEEN years old, so very retro ; )  I'm always willing to ink up an old stamp set!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ruff Day
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Cinnamon Cider, Ivory, Real Red, Gray Granite
Paper:  Cinnamon Cider, Real Red, Thick Basic White, Playful Pets DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

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

Friday Flashback: A Little Love

Happy Friday, peeps!  You know why I love the Friday Flashback?  It lets me dig back in my stash of retired SU! stamps and revisit some old favorites, and maybe make some new "old" favorites :)  Like today's set, A Little Love!  It's a cute little set of 12 bite-size images, so let's flashback!

Also features Ruff Day and All-Year Cheer

That little baby onesie with the "yeah, baby" sentiment under it is my FAVORITE stamp in this set.  I don't know why, but it makes me giggle every time I look at it.

Also features Loads of Love & Accessories and Something to Celebrate

I used the umbrella with the "showers of love" sentiment to make a background for this baby shower invite.  I think it can be difficult to come up with card ideas for such small images where they really take center stage instead of being more background elements like in those first two cards, so for today's new stuff I tried to really shine a light on the super-cute teeny stamps.

This quick little card was inspired by a couple of cards that Mary Fish posted not too long ago.  If the colors in the photo are off, I apologize--we won't get our new graphics card in for the Mac until next week, and sometimes I can't tell if a picture looks right on the laptop.  The card base of this one is Pink Pirouette and I stamped the little umbrella with Elegant Eggplant ink and then added a bit of color with markers.

When I saw the little candy machine stamp I thought hey, I have the perfect patterned paper to go with that!  So I had to make a bonus card for today's Friday Flashback.  Maybe I'll get crazy and make a few other cards with this set and next week will be A Little *More* Love?  Who knows!

Have a great weekend, peeps!

Supplies, last two cards:
Stamps:  A Little Love
Ink:  (first card) Elegant Eggplant, Pink Pirouette, Wisteria Wonder; (second card) StazOn Black, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Smoky Slate
Paper:  (first card) Pink Pirouette, Wisteria Wonder; (second card) Pool Party, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White, Sweet Shoppe Specialty DSP
Accessories:  (first card) what's the name of the punch pack in the current catalog?; (second card) 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" circle punches, scalloped circle punch, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Tag Time

Welcome to another edition of the Friday Flashback!  Today's randomly-chosen retired stamp set is Tag Time, which has lots of images in a variety of styles.  Ready to flash back?

Let's be honest:  I totally got this stamp set for that tiny 4-leaf clover.  I mean, really.  It said "good luck" under it in teeny-tiny letters, but I cut them apart so I could use the clover by itself.  And this card is one I made pre-SAMJ!  I can tell because I'm too OCD to have crooked clovers post-SAMJ.  The cute pupster is from Ruff Day, harlequin background is Print Pattern, and the sentiment is from Tiny Talk.

I've used that tiny clover over and over (teehee, that sounds funny) on baby book layouts, but I'll just share this one 'cause they're all pretty similar to this.  The larger clovers are from Pinch Proof.

And that's pretty much it for past projects, so here's the new card, hot off the stampin' table:

It's September, so I think we can officially start with the Halloween projects.  This card still seems a bit on the plain side to me but what can ya do.  I thought about adding some Midnight Muse ribbon, but I wanted to keep this easily mailable.  The Old Olive pattern is from a retired Halloween DSP pack (don't ask me which, I don't know), and then I stamped the pumpkin from Tag Time all over More Mustard CS in More Mustard and Whisper White ink.  I lined the inside with Whisper White CS and stamped a pumpkin on that too for good measure.  Think I'll send this to my friend Sarah because Halloween is her favorite holiday.  She even had her daughter on Halloween :)

Thanks for joining me for today's Friday Flashback, and have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Tag Time
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Old Olive, More Mustard, Baked Brown Sugar, Blushing Bride
Paper:  Midnight Muse, Old Olive, More Mustard, Whisper White, retired Halloween DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals