Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween Collage

Happy Halloween!  When SU! introduced the Halloween photopolymer stamp set Bite Me, I had to get it because I often say "bite me!"  So here's a Bite Me card only somehow I didn't use the stamp that actually says bite me...oops!


I stamped the splats with Summer Starfruit ink, they're monster splats.  And because you can see through photopolymer stamps, I didn't even use a SAMJ to make this card--easy peasy to get the images exactly where you want them!

Have a great Halloween and eat lots of chocolate.  I bought a bag of mixed candy several weeks ago and somehow all the Baby Ruths have disappeared, no idea how that happened ; )

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bite Me (photopolymer)
Ink:  Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Starfruit, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla, Witches' Brew DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The Tower

So last week I was supposed to be doing housework, but instead I did a scrapbook layout.  Check it out!


You can see the pictures better if you check out my other blog here and here.  I wanted a raven on here because of the legend about how if the ravens ever abandon the Tower of London, then England will fall...somehow, the only raven stamp I have is from Toxic Treats but that ornate gate he's on looks right at home on this layout.  The big crown on the upper left is to represent the Crown Jewels, and the three smaller ones are for the three English queens who were executed at the Tower--Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and Jane Grey (the Nine Days Queen).  So my layout is all symbolic and stuff!

I am SO excited to be back in the scrappin' groove, and actually I've been creating things faster than I can post them (even doing 5 posts a week).  And because I am SUCH a dork (dorkicus maximus, that's me) and I enjoy drawing random names out of a hat for the Friday Flashback post every week, I wrote down all the events I still need to scrap on little bits of paper to do a scrapbook random draw too.  I think that choosing the pictures to scrap was slowing me down because I'm so far behind, so the random draw makes that part much easier and I like the element of surprise about what I'm doing next.  Whee!

Cheers, peeps!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Carry On (larger crown), Elementary Elegance (smaller crown), Letterpress Alphabet, Rough Type Alphabet, Toxic Treats
Ink:  Night of Navy, Basic Gray
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  SAMJ

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Appley Thanks for the Nachos

It's Tuesday and that means it's time for a new Nacho challenge!  This week it's an awesome sketch:


And here's what I made:


I love Perfectly Preserved : )  A friend of mine gave me a giant colander full of apples (she went apple-picking at Sandringham, which is the estate where the royal family usually stays for Christmas) so I made this for her.  And I used the apples to make apple bread (two different recipes, trying to see which one's better) and pumpkin apple muffins.  Yay fall baking!

Go check out what the other Nachos have done with this sketch, and then join in the fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved (retired), Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Marina Mist
Paper:  Raspberry Ripple, Marina Mist, Very Vanilla, Print Poetry DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Cannery Framelits, hexagon punch (to do the flagged end on the sentiment), Dimensionals

Monday, October 28, 2013

Christmas Rose

Honestly, I don't want to think about making Christmas cards yet; I'm having too much fun with fall cards.  But last week's SCS color challenge was definitely Christmasy so here it is anyway.


Dude, I think that picture is practically life-sized.  I'd stamped a couple roses tone-on-tone with Cherry Cobbler ink when I thought hey, I wonder how this would look with the 2-step stamping done with gold EP?  So here's the answer, and I still have a pair of cherry-red roses waiting for the next project to come along.

The sketch is courtesy of the folks over at Freshly Made Sketches, I love sketches like these with lots of room for the imagination.

So there you have it, an early Christmas card.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms, En Francais, Christmas Messages
Ink:  Sahara Sand, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, VersaMark
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Season of Style DSP
Accessories:  Gold EP, Dimensionals

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Surprise!

I usually don't post on Sundays, but I can't wait to share this...I've been scrappy!


I'm rather excited to share these pages : )  This was from my mom's birthday in 2005...so lemme tell you the story.  Mom taught me how to cross stitch when I was 8, and since she's got a bit of a thing for peacocks, she always told me how she wished she could find a cross stitch pattern for a peacock with its tail fanned out.  For some reason, there are *lots* of patterns with the tail down, which makes no sense to me but whatever.  So while perusing a British cross stitch magazine one day, I came across a picture of this beautiful peacock stitching, but it was from a past issue.  It took me 4 months of stalking eBay before I found the back issue of the magazine, and then I had to stitch like the wind since I knew I wanted to have it framed in time for Mom's birthday.  I even had to quit going to the gym for about 6 weeks so I would have more time in the evenings to work on it.

So in June of that year, hubs and I went home to Texas for my brother's wedding (we lived in North Carolina at the time) and I was able to sneak down to the local cross stitch and framing shop and pick a frame for the finished peacock.  There's a wonderful couple that does all our cross stitch framing for us, they're the grandparents of a guy I went to high school with, and even though they've retired they still do some framing for select customers like Mom and me.  So anyway, this was when they still had the shop, and they were happy to be in on the secret for Mom's birthday.  When the day arrived, my new sister-in-law Adrienne managed to get her out to the shop none the wiser by some ruse, and then when Mom went in to the store, the finished framed peacock was brought out as a big surprise.  I'd left a letter with the shop owners to give to Mom as well, and then you can see in the upper left corner how she's calling me on her cellphone : )

So about the pages...I stamped the feathers on Island Indigo cardstock with Versamark and embossed with clear EP; I thought it would be more subtle than it is but I still like the way it looks.  And the dot on the i was really tiny and got flicked off to who knows where when I tried to peel it up from the Big Shot cutting platform, so I actually ended up using the inside part from the letter e instead.  It worked.

Yay for two more scrapbook pages done!  I'm at 54 non-baby-book scrapbook pages done for the year, so I'm gonna have to hustle to get to my goal of 100 pages.  I think I can, I think I can...

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Fine Feathers
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Night of Navy, Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay, So Saffron, Whisper White
Accessories:  clear EP, Funky Brush Sizzlits alphabet by Sizzix

Friday, October 25, 2013

Friday Flashback: Stars & Swirls

Guess what?  Today is my first blogiversary here at Snapdragon Stamps.  Yay!  With that in mind, I thought for today's Friday Flashback that it would be fun to feature the very first Stampin' Up! stamp set that I ever bought, Stars & Swirls.  So sit back and relax with a cuppa if you so desire, because today's Flashback is going to be longer than most as I love this stamp set : )


You might guess from the name that this little stamp set has both stars and swirls in it, though I admit I use the stars more than the swirls.  Like my mom, I'm a sucker for all kinds of papercrafty things featuring stars (and plaid, but probably not together).  This one also features Happy Everything which is one of my all-time favorite sentiment sets.


Ok, so this one is old-old-old from not long after I started stamping and before I discovered sketch challenges so I only had like three layouts for cards : )  I do still love polished stone though...greeting from A Greeting for All Reasons.


It's a license plate!  I thought it was cool for a Father's Day card.  Letters from Well-Worn Alphabet & Numbers.


I think I made a bunch of these for stamp club not long after I became a demonstrator.  Look, it opens up:


Fun, right?  Other stamp sets used are Letterpress Alphabet, Swirling Stars jumbo wheel, and one of the All-Year Cheer sets (what, they blend together).


Here's one with the swirl!  This layout also features my favoritest-ever scrapbook layout sketch.  I love it so much that I have to try to limit myself to using it ONLY once in any given album.  


More stars on a baby book!  Other stamps from House of Haunts.


And here's a layout from the first-ever baby book I ever made; also features Star-Spangled Banner.


Here's some gold embossing on gold cardstock and some gold Pearl-Ex on the card base, and again a sentiment from AYC.  I never much got into Pearl-Ex so I wasn't sad when SU! quit selling it.  I think this might be the only time I used it...and the only reason I had any was because someone else gave it to me.

So that's it for the vault, here's today's new creation:


I used this week's SCS sketch and three of my favorite colors:  Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green, and Raspberry Ripple.  I quite like those three colors together, I'll have to try that again sometime.

Thanks for joining me for this week's special blogiversary Friday Flashback!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Stars & Swirls, Happy Everything
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green, Raspberry Ripple, Whisper White craft
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green, Raspberry Ripple, Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Thursday, October 24, 2013

'50s Style

I think A-line dresses with pretty prints and pearl necklaces are very '50s, what do you think?


If only I could use the Dress Up Framelits to make new clothes for me.  Well, I don't wear dresses all that often, but maybe I would if the Framelits could make me-sized clothes : )  I think the flourish stamp behind the dress is kinda wallpapery, I think it works with the '50s vibe.

The photo isn't that great color-wise (it's REALLY sunny today!) but I used the colors from Create with Connie and Mary:


It would be more awesome with Baja Breeze : p  I miss my Baja Breeze!  But I love the Raspberry Ripple, so there's that.  I used last Friday's challenge from Sketch Frenzy Friday:


And hey, whaddya know, I *didn't* do leaves today!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Four You, Best of Shelli
Ink:  Soft Sky, Raspberry Ripple
Paper:  Soft Sky, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Birthday Basics DSP
Accessories:  Dress Up Framelits, Finishing Touches Edgelits, Petite Curly Label punch (on the end of the Very Vanilla strip), Basics Pearls

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

A Million Leaves

You're not tired of leaf cards yet, are you?


'Cause I'm not, and I still have a few more birthday cards to make.  This one will be for my brother, so I used his college colors.  I liked the thought of one bright orange leaf standing out among the crowd with that sentiment, continued on the inside:


So yep.  It's a pain to cut that leaf image out but I've done it a few times because I'm crazy like that.  The sketch is from Unscripted Sketches, modified slightly:


And conveniently for me, Dynamic Duos is currently featuring Oklahoma State's colors:


Quick and easy-peasy card to put together, hope you like it.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Autumn, One in a Million
Ink:  Versamark, Basic Black, Tangerine Tango
Paper:  Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, retired Basic Black DSP
Accessories:  Tangerine Tango EP, Dimensionals

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Nacho Tea Party Bouquet

Happy Tuesday!  It's time for another fabulous color challenge from the Nachos.  Check it out!


I love Daffodil Delight, it's so sunny and cheerful.  Here's my take:


I just got Tea Party so I decided to use it for this card.  I used markers to ink up the bouquet stamp, which I wouldn't advise if you're mass-producing, but it looks pretty for a one-off card.  I left the layout really simple to let the image and sentiment take center stage.

Hope you join the Nachos for this week's challenge.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tea Party, Fabulous Phrases
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Daffodil Delight, Primrose Petals, Gumball Green
Paper:  Primrose Petals, Midnight Muse, Whisper White, Quatrefancy DSP
Accessories:  none...just a SAMJ to line up my stamped images

Monday, October 21, 2013

Best of Serendipity

Howdy, folks!  I hope you had a good weekend.  Hubs and I went to Liverpool and had our picture taken on Penny Lane and at Strawberry Field and listened to lots of Beatles music, so that was pretty awesome.  I'll work on posting some Liverpool pics on my other blog (link at right).

Then we got home last night and I saw this sketch from As You See It:


...and I thought hey!  I can do serendipity squares with that.  Behold!


The rectangles are done with the serendipity squares technique (though obviously you don't *have* to make it squares).  I first learned this technique in the Splitcoast Dare to Get Dirty challenges several years ago, and it's fun and freeform and kind of chaotic.  So here's how I did it this time.

Step 1.  Choose your colors.  I wanted to use the Sweater Weather DSP, so I went with Chocolate Chip, Crushed Curry, Sahara Sand, Soft Sky, Tangerine Tango, and Very Vanilla.  Anything goes here, just pick whatever colors appeal to you.


Step 2.  Smoosh some ink pads around on plain ol' Very Vanilla cardstock.  You could do just one or two, but I did three (Crushed Curry, Sahara Sand, and Soft Sky).  I'd stick with the lighter colors for this step or else your stamping won't show up as much.  I stuck my ink pads on the paper and then kind of twisted them, but you could just drag them across the paper or sponge on color or however you want to do it.  It's like improv stamping!


Step 3.  Start stamping in a random pattern.  Generally, I'd advise working with your largest stamp first, which in this case was the ledger stamp from The Open Sea, and then work your way to the smallest stamp.


Step 4.  More stamping, this time I added the leaf from Best of Autumn.   The last stamp I did was the teeny harlequin pattern from Best of Shelli to fill in any bare patches.  If at this point you're thinking you turned a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock into a piece of powerfully ugly cardstock, you're doing it right.


Step 5.  Cut it up or punch it (hexagons would look cool!) or use die cuts, whatever you like to make smaller pieces.  Important safety tip:  when using a guillotine-style paper trimmer, keep track of where your thumb is as you cut.  I totally tried to cut my thumb off today, but luckily I was unsuccessful.  I like my thumbs and prefer to keep both of them firmly attached to my hands.


Step 6.  Sponge the edges.  You could skip that part if you wanted to, but I like the look so I did it (the un-sponged pieces are at the top if you want to see the difference).  Then you just mix up your serendipity pieces and use them on cards.  You could do just one little piece and then cut it up so it's more like a triptych and you can tell it was all one piece, but I like to make lots of pieces and then choose random ones so the pattern doesn't carry over from one piece to the next.

Really, you could vary this technique just about any way you can think of with all kinds of background techniques.  Do polished stone on glossy white cardstock and stamp on that.  Throw some heat embossed stamping on there.  Use painter's tape to make stripes or something.  Got a kitchen sink?  Throw that in there too.  It's very forgiving, and generally I think my whole piece of paper looks really ugly and then somehow it all works once it's cut into smaller pieces : )  For this one, I kinda wished my leaves had shown up a little better on the serendipity, so I just added a leaf to the sentiment piece.

So there you have it!  Now I kinda want to do a more girly serendipity, or maybe a nice wintry snowflake one.  The sky's the limit here, have fun : )  And let me know if you try this technique 'cause I wanna see!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Autumn, Best of Greetings, Best of Shelli, Morning Post Numbers (the frame around my sentiment), The Open Sea
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Crushed Curry, Sahara Sand, Soft Sky, Tangerine Tango
Paper:  Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Sweater Weather DSP
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, Dimensionals

Friday, October 18, 2013

Friday Flashback: Garden Silhouettes

Good morning, everybody!  It's Friday Flashback time, and this week's randomly chosen retired stamp set (RCRSS?  Nah, that doesn't work) is Garden Silhouettes, which is kind of a companion set to Stem Silhouettes (or at least, I often use them together).  So let's take a peek in the archives, shall we?


Ah, the shaving cream technique background.  Fun, right?  You put a layer of shaving cream on a paper plate and then add a few drops of ink refill and swirl them around, then smoosh glossy cardstock in it.  Scrape off the shaving cream and you're left with this neat swirly background.  I should do this again...oh yeah, use the cheap white foam shaving cream for this, not some fancy-dancy gel stuff : )  Sentiment on this one was from Hugs & Wishes.


I made this one for one of those "color" challenges that makes me roll my eyes, where there's only one color and two neutrals.  Not that I mind doing cards like that from time to time, but when you do that for six weeks in a row it gets old.  I think color challenges should have multiple colors in them, not neutrals. *steps off very colorful soapbox*  Sentiment from Fabulous Flowers.


Ooh, purple.  I miss Almost Amethyst, Lavender Lace and Lovely Lilac.   Sentiment on this one was from Fancy Flexible Phrases.


Here's another one color/two neutrals card, very simple because I think I was making Mother's Day cards at the last minute.  That sounds like me.

So here's today's brand new creation:


The colors are this week's SCS color challenge (now with multiple colors!):  Soft Sky (bring back Baja Breeze!!), So Saffron, and Summer Starfruit.  When I first read that, I thought EWWW and couldn't imagine what to do with them.  Then I got the cardstock colors out and what do you know, the So Saffron turns the Summer Starfruit into a green color, hmm.   So I actually liked that color combo a whole lot more than I thought I would.  I kept wanting to add more stuff to this card but it insisted that it was done like this, so I said okay.

I used last Friday's Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch:


I think I love this sketch.  I've got some ideas to use it again.  Anyway, for today's card I moved the banner flaggy thing over to the right side because otherwise all the Summer Starfruit would have been on the same side of the card and I thought it just worked better with my design to have it on the other side.  I used up some DSP scraps too, that Starfruit strip was straight out of the scrap pile, all I did was flag the end.  Yay for using up a small scrap!

Anyway, that's enough yammering for me today.  Since it is our tenth wedding anniversary today (yay us!), hubs and I are heading out to Liverpool for the weekend.  Wonder if he'd mind listening to the Beatles the whole way there...

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, last card only, all SU!
Stamps:  Garden Silhouettes, Noteworthy
Ink:  Summer Starfruit, Soft Sky
Paper:  Soft Sky, Whisper White, retired So Saffron & Summer Starfruit DSP
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, I forget the name of the butterfly Embosslit thingie

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Leaves Everywhere!

Guys, I think I need an intervention.  I can't stop making fall leaf cards.


On second thought, let's skip the intervention.  I'm having too much fun.  : )  And fall leaf cards never hurt anyone...except I guess if you got a papercut.  That might hurt.  I might be addicted to the Candy Dots too, I love having those in so many colors.

So, I sat down last night to make one card but for some reason I stamped out two leaves and I figured that I had enough patterned paper scraps on my table to make a second card so why not?  I used the latest challenge at As You See It, I think I'm gonna have fun with their challenges.


Just realized that I forgot to do a scalloped edge on that one bit...okay so it's a bit of a liberal interpretation of the sketch, but I was in the Zone last night.  Once I got started making the cards I didn't even look at the sketch again I think.

The colors are from Dynamic Duos, with the addition of Chocolate Chip:


And just for funsies I'm also going to enter this one at the new Around the World challenge site to make a fall card (or two, if you're me).


I also really like their inspiration pic there.  The one for spring is really cute too (hit the link above to visit their site), that dog is totes adorbs.

When did I start saying "totes adorbs"?

Anyway, I'm off to drink enough caffeine to take over the world, starting with taking my "totes adorbs" doglets for a walk.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gently Falling, Four You
Ink:  So Saffron, Calypso Coral, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, retired Calypso Coral DSP & Parisian Summer DSP (I think that's what the Saffron plaid is from, I found it in my scrap pile and I love plaid)
Accessories:  corner rounder punch, Subtles Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Floral Fall

I've been so busy tearing through The House of Hades that I almost forgot to do a blog post today.  Oops.  So here's a nice fall card I made not too long back.


The flower was inked up with Summer Starfruit and then rock 'n' rolled in Cajun Craze, and then I used a Q-Tip to take the ink off the stem and colored it with a Soft Suede marker.  I also thumped more Cajun Craze in the middle of the bloom but oddly it doesn't show up nearly as much as I thought it would.  But I like having multiple colors on the flower.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blooming with Kindness, Six-Sided Sampler
Ink:  Summer Starfruit, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede
Paper:  Summer Starfruit, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Comfort Cafe DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Oval & Scalloped Oval punches, Regals Candy Dots, Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon, Dimensionals

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Nachos: With Sympathy

It's time for another fabulous Nacho challenge, and this week it's a lovely sketch:


Lots of possibilities for this sketch, but for today I opted to go with a simple sympathy card.


I don't need any sympathy cards right now but it's always good to have a few in your card cache I think.  Instead of the bow on the sketch, I used three Old Olive Candy Dots to separate the bird image and the sentiment.  Then all I needed was a bit of sponging and I was done.

So now let's see what you can do with the sketch.  Join in the fun at the Nacho Average Challenges blog!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Sketched, En Francais
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Old Olive
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Brights Candy Dots

Monday, October 14, 2013

Melissa's Wedding

I have been scrapping a bit, though mostly I've been sharing cards of late as I've been a faithful little challenge chaser : )  But here's a scrapbook layout for today, lookie:


These photos are from April of 2006, when my friend Melissa got married (and also back when I had long hair).  I think I've mentioned before how I'm terribly far behind on my scrapbooks, right?  This layout shows off my continuing insanity with cutting out stamped images; it took a LONG time to cut out all those bitty flowers, but I really liked the results so I'll probably do it again sometime ; )

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms, Four Frames
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Wisteria Wonder, Coastal Cabana, Concord Crush marker
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz textured CS (retired), Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, retired Wisteria Wonder DSP
Accessories:  Decorative Label punch

Friday, October 11, 2013

Friday Flashback: Googly Ghouls

*singsong voice* Friday Flashback!!  Today's randomly-chosen retired stamp set is Googly Ghouls, appropriate for October, no?  Let's do the Monster Mash as we flash back!


I figured these not-at-all scary monsters would be good for baby books, so last year I used them for two books.  Same layout, just different DSP.  The one above was for a girl, and the next one was for a boy:


Because Basic Gray is more manly than Rich Razzleberry, or so I hear.


Frankie here made an appearance not that long ago for a Nacho challenge; I'm really surprised that I haven't used Googly Ghouls more than I have.  Maybe I just got it late in the season last year...sometimes it takes me a while to glomp onto a stamp set and by the time I get it, the holiday is past.  Oops.

Here's today's new card:


Well, I think it's all right but just not as awesome as it was in my head.  Hmm.  Grateful Greetings was last week's Friday Flashback and I just couldn't resist using it again for my ghoulish lineup.  I thought it would be fun to stamp the ghouls in colors instead of stamping in black and coloring in bits of them (the fact that this is so much faster than coloring bits has nothing to do with that decision).  I'd already stamped the ghouls when I went to look for a good Halloweenie paper to go with them, so the stripe is actually Cajun Craze as opposed to Tangerine Tango but I think it still kinda works.

Thanks for joining me for today's spooky Friday Flashback!  Have a great weekend.

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Googly Ghouls, Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, Wicked Fun Specialty DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Dimensionals (under the bat)