Earth Day

Hey y'all, how's your week going?  I worked three days in a row so today I am enjoying my day off.  Crazy thing though, it's been SNOWING all week!  It's been a good 10 degrees too warm for anything to stick at all, but that hasn't stopped it from snowing like it's midwinter.  But today it's all sunny and a bit warmer than it has been :)

I just finished a card to share today, so it's hot off the presses:

I was inspired to bust out a couple of long-retired stamp sets for this one because of the current challenge at Festive Friday:

I used green, blue, earth/globe (there's the map background image and the globe on the sentiment), and clean & simple.  I also used this week's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

This sketch kinda threw me for a loop when I saw it yesterday, but I mulled it over a bit before I fell asleep last night and decided to use a background stamp for the middle part and let it play peek-a-boo under cardstock.  Really the card came together pretty fast when I sat down to stamp it today.

Hope you have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  World Map, Word Play
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Mint Macaron, Seaside Spray
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Mint Macaron, Seaside Spray
Accessories:  Stitched Nested Labels dies, In Color Faceted Gems

Friday Flashback: Simply Stars

Happy Friday, peeps!  I hope lots of you have this Friday off to make for a long Independence Day holiday weekend.  Today's Friday Flashback is themed appropriately:  I grabbed a whole handful of stamp set names for the next 20 Flashbacks or so, and I was happy that Simply Stars was one of them so we get to be starrily festive today!  My sister-in-law and both my parents have July birthdays, and they all love stars and stripes, so this just worked out all around :D  Let's get started!

Also features Perfectly Penned

Uh, you know you're going to see a whole lot of red, white, and blue today.

Also features July Fourth

And some turquoise!  Because fun.  This was a layout from the last set of baby books I made, which was two years ago.  I'm about to start another set, which is also for twin boys.

Also features Perfect Pennants

 I love bright orange and blue together :)

Also features Banner Greetings

Pretty sure this was for a sketch, and I like using the negative shape from the circle Framelit so the patterned paper peeks out.  I should do that more often.

Also features Words of Courage

One more stars and stripes card...

Also features Perfect Pennants, Positively Chevron

And last (and probably also least), this one that has way too much Soft Sky.  I dunno, Soft Sky just kinda looks dirty to me sometimes.  So are you ready for today's new creation?  Here it is!

Now I just need to decide which of my July birthdays gets this card, I think it would work for all three of them :)  Oh, see the striped paper?  Originally it was horizontal stripes (or vertical, depending on how you hold the paper) but I wanted angled stripes, so I did a little creative paper trimming.  Just what I was looking for!

I used this week's monochromatic color combo from Colour Me...!

And I used last Saturday's Retro Sketch:

Though of course I replaced the bow on the sketch with my star element.  Oops, I just noticed that the ribbon was supposed to extend to the edges of the card.  Too late now...

That's it for me this week, peeps.  Have a wonderful holiday!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Simply Stars, Word Play
Ink:  Real Red, Early Espresso, Tip Top Taupe
Paper:  Real Red, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Cherry on Top DSP Stack (what?  It's the only current DSP I have)
Accessories:  large star punch (retired), Early Espresso taffeta ribbon (retired), rhinestone, Dimensionals

Just Imagine!

Howdy everyone!  Hubs and I got home from Amsterdam yesterday evening, we had a fun trip.  Then when I got up this morning the Stampin' Up! retirement lists had just been posted...I have I think 36 stamp sets on that list, which is less than in years past, and I'm not terribly upset over any of the ones on the list (mostly 'cause they didn't mess with By the Seashore and Perfectly Penned, ha!).  So today I thought I'd make a card with the retiring stamp set Word Play:

I like that sentiment.  I like to imagine possibilities.  My favorite Shakespeare quote is "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."  It's exciting to me to think of all the stuff we don't know about yet.  Ooh hey, look at me here getting all philosophical.  The card is based on the current Nacho sketch:

I punched my butterflies out of scraps of DSP...only the Tempting Turquoise one is retired right now, though the rest are now on the chopping block, which means all-new monochromatic DSP in the new catalog!  At least, I hope that's what it means, I like having DSP in every single color.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Word Play
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Pacific Point, Whisper White, Brights & In Color DSP (Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Gumball Green, Tempting Turquoise)
Accessories:  Argyle EF, Elegant Butterfly & Bitty Butterfly punches, rhinestones

Wish Big

Hey, it's Thursday already!  One more day till Friday.  Today, I've got a birthday card to share, based on yesterday's SCS sketch challenge:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to use the strip as a candle.  I'd actually gotten out some other stamps for something completely different and while I was looking for a sentiment, I noticed the "wish big" from Word Play and the candle idea popped in my head so that's what I went with.  Believe it or not, the candle flame is made with the smallest heart in the Hearts Framelits; I just cut it in half and then added some shadows with a Daffodil Delight marker.

I got this color combo from Nacho #34:

I admit, my first thought when I saw the colors was SUPERMAN!  I have a thing for superhero movies.  But anyway, it seemed like those would be perfect colors for a birthday card, and I think this would work for just about anyone from 3-year-old kid to senior citizen.  Unless it's someone who doesn't like red, like my MIL, I'd just make this with different colors for her ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Word Play
Ink:  Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight marker, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Black, Brights & Subtles DSP Stacks
Accessories:  Hearts Framelits, Dimensional (under the candle flame)