Rain Boots

Mornin' y'all! Guess what....THE MAC IS BACK, JACK!  The hubs managed to set it up just like our last Mac, though there are some differences--mostly I haven't been able to get AirDrop to work right, I need to ask him about that.  But I'm glad to be off the laptop and back on the Mac!

And I have a cheerful rainy day card to share today.

Personally, I love rainy days, especially when I don't have to go anywhere.  I started with the new challenge from The Card Concept:

I didn't match the colors exactly, but that was dictated by the Pleased as Punch DSP and I figured that it fit the theme so well that I could get a pass for using Balmy Blue as opposed to the more turquoise Coastal Cabana.  I think I got the other three colors though, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, and Polished Pink which I miss a lot.  I also used last week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Have to say this one was a bit of a head-scratcher for me and I'm not 100% sure about what I ended up with, but I gave it a shot.  I think I just don't like the placement of the umbrella, but I can't unstick it now.

Anyway, Ryan is on spring break for the next two weeks and why didn't I ever get two weeks for spring break when I was in school???  Lucky duck.  Anyway, have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Under My Umbrella
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Polished Pink, Pumpkin Pie, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Polished Pink, Thick Basic White, Pleased as Punch DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Everyday Arches dies, Stylish Shapes dies, umbrella punch, Dimensionals, Shiny Sequins

Spring Flowers for The Paper Players

Mornin' y'all!  And happy Sunday, which means it's time for a new challenge from The Paper Players!  This week the lovely Jaydee has a lovely CAS challenge for us:

So my "problem" with this challenge is that I have SO MANY FLOWERS from which to choose!  I think I pulled like a dozen stamp sets and I had lots of different ideas for what to make.  What won out is a very old stamp set...

The row of flower vases is from Simply Sweet, which dates back to 2003 for a release date, and the greeting is from the welcome kit that Paper Pumpkin used to do when you first subscribed, I love the mixed fonts on this greeting and have used it a number of times.  I simply stamped the image and the greeting in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, colored the flowers and vases with watercolor pencils, and added the ribbon across the front.  I did use an AquaPainter to smooth out the blue in the vases, but the areas on the flowers are so small to color that I didn't bother to paint over the watercolor pencil.  I wanted a softer look than markers, what do you think?

Check out the other design team creations on the Paper Players blog, and you can hop through their individual blogs to leave some comments too:

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

you are here --> Christy Stanford

And then upload your card at the Paper Players blog!  Keep in mind a few simple rules:
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL
4.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Sweet, My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Daffodil Delight 3/8" taffeta, watercolor pencils

The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes

Happy Saturday and welcome once again to The Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we are heading for bonny Scotland to investigate The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes:

Oh yeah, you can tell we're traveling from the cover with Nancy wearing traditional Scottish dress.  While I have some Scottish heritage if you go back far enough in my family tree, I don't know enough to speak on the accuracy of Nancy's outfit but it sure is a fun cover with Ben Nevis in the background.

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are off to Scotland with Carson to meet Nancy's maternal great-grandmother, Lady Douglas, and search for a lost family heirloom.  Before she leaves River Heights, Ned challenges Nancy to unravel the mystery of disappearing sheeps (yes I said sheeps because I like to say sheeps, I could go full Nac Mac Feegle and call them ships) while she's in Scotland.  Like Fire Dragon, Golden Pavilion, and the Haunted Showboat, the mystery in this one kind of takes a back seat to the setting, so we get to learn about Scotland as Nancy and her friends do all the touristy things and you know what?  It's fun.  (Mostly.)

So here's my card:

Of course I had to do sheeps and plaid for this!  I pulled Counting Sheep out of my to sell? boxes and used all three sheeps because I couldn't choose between them.  I went through all the patterns in Wrapped in Plaid and chose the one that was closest to Nancy's outfit on the cover.

The family heirloom that Nancy is looking for is a topaz and diamond brooch, so I added some gold Low Profile Dots for that (and also the plaid has gold in it).  I chose a Baja Breeze card base to go with the beautiful mountain scene behind Nancy.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Counting Sheep
Ink:  Basic Gray, Stampin' Blends in Pebbled Path & Ivory
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Thick Basic White, Wrapped in Plaid DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Low Profile Dots

I will warn you if you want to read this book that the sheep thieves are not kind to the sheeps they're stealing, and they're also responsible for the death of Lady Douglas' dog before Nancy gets involved.  I mean, people attempt to murder Nancy on the regular and that's fine, but usually we don't have this level of animal cruelty.  Anyway, I think all the information about Scotland is very fun (and I've been there!  Several times even, kid Christy would never have guessed I would get to go to Scotland) even if the mystery is secondary to the setting, so I give it four stars.  Leave me a comment below if you'd like to play along, I would be delighted!  And come back next Saturday when Nancy searches for The Phantom of Pine Hill.

Big Bold Birthday Rose

Mornin' y'all!  Bit late with posting but it's been a busy morning of running errands.  Daphne was just shoving my elbow with her nose, she knows it's past her normal walk time, but I had things I needed to do first and that includes writing this blog post.  So here's my card for today:

I was inspired by the current challenge at Time Out Challenges:

The first big, bold flower in my stamp collection that came to mind after seeing this challenge was the one from Rose Wonder, so I went with that.  There are two very similar color challenges out there right now featuring pinks and greens but I think I managed to choose colors for my rose that don't exactly fit either of those challenges, dangit!  Ah well, I think this card will go to my sister this summer, it just looks like an Adrienne card.  I embossed the image with gold EP and then colored with Blends, two shades of pink and two shades of green.  This is what the back of the paper looked like when I was done:

I just thought it was interesting.

Okay, I'd better go take the Daphinator for her walk so I can come back and whip up some cookie dough.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rose Wonder, Nature's Symphony
Ink:  Versamark, Berry Burst, Crumb Cake, Stampin' Blends in Granny Apple Green, Mossy Meadow, Polished Pink, Berry Burst
Paper:  Polished Pink, Basic White
Accessories:  Gold EP, Gold baker's twine, Dimensionals, Brushed Metallic Dots

Regal Birthday Wishes

Mornin' y'all!  How's your day going?  The hubs says that our new Mac will *finally* be here today so Daphne is on high alert for the delivery driver (the next door neighbor just got something delivered).  The hubs will have to set it all up tonight since I am severely tech challenged : )

It should come as no surprise that I have a card to share today.

I really liked the color combination from Creative Colour Challenges this week:

Which I was able to combine with this week's sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

I have many many scraps from the Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack, one of my all-time faves, and it includes all three of the challenge colors.  Then I just die cut a label from the Stitched So Sweetly dies and added some flowers and foliage from Regal Flora.  Done!

That's it for now, peeps.  Have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Regal Flora, Branching Out
Ink:  Bubble Bath, Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Bubble Bath, Pretty Peacock, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Regal Flora dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Blue Faceted Gems, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Spring Greetings

Mornin' y'all, and a sleepy one.  I had the lights out at nine o'clock last night and still didn't get enough sleep--Daphne asked to be let out at 11:30, and two hours later, Ryan came in saying that one of his ears hurt (I think he got water in it at swim practice).  But I have my morning cuppa (Lady Grey this morning, which is funny because I like Lady Grey and cannot stand Earl Grey tea no matter what Captain Picard says) and a lemon muffin, so let's get to it today.  Here's my card:

As soon as I saw the palette from Sunday Stamps, I knew I would be busting out the Lovely Blossoms DSP that Joanne made me get.

I went through the papers a couple of times to choose patterns, and ended up using all the colors except for Crumb Cake.  I noticed that the Petal Pink floral pattern matched up with the Cloud Cover floral, so I had to line them up on my card, which took some finagling and made a bunch of paper scraps but my new year's goal is to just Use The Paper so I'm okay with that.  I added a sentiment from the retired Sunny Sentiments because nothing in my tiny collection of current-but-for-how-long stamp sets was working for me.  Some Cloud Cover dots and done.

That's it for me today, folks.  I'm going to brave the cold weather (seriously, it's 20 degrees colder today than yesterday, but tomorrow it will go right back up to 65) and take my Daphne girl for a walk.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sunny Sentiments
Ink:  Secret Sea
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Old Olive, Thick Basic White, Lovely Blossoms DSP
Accessories:  Tags & Labels Framelits, Dimensionals, Muted Palette Dots

Garden Fresh

Mornin' y'all!  I hate Daylight Savings but I am enjoying a beautiful Colorado sunrise this morning, how's your Tuesday going?

Without further ado, here's my card for today:

The only stamping is "fresh", which is from a stamp set called Farm Fresh that's been in my collection for probably close to twenty years but apparently I had never shared anything made with it here on the blog.  Let's check out some challenges, shall we?  Starting with the sketch from CAS on Friday:

I actually followed this sketch pretty much exactly, whee.  Next is the color challenge from Color Dare:

I had those two challenges swirling together in my brain, but what brought my card together was the Addicted to CAS theme challenge:

My brain yelled VEGETABLE GARDEN and I remembered the To Market DSP that I have in my stash and had hardly cut into at all before it retired.  It features both Pumpkin Pie and Garden Green, so that ticks the boxes for the color challenge, and I just fussy cut some veg from one pattern and combined it with a couple others from the pack.  I kept my card front mostly white (haha, my white space is actually white for once) and refrained from adding embellishments since two of my challenges are specifically CAS and someone tell me why I suddenly cannot type correctly on the laptop keyboard??  My fingers are getting tongue-tied.  Our new Mac should arrive sometime this week,  I am looking forward to having my normal setup (and keyboard) again.  Or maybe it's because my fingernails are growing out a little and I am used to having them very short.  Hmm.

Anyway, as I said before, Farm Fresh has been in my collection for yeeeeaaarrrrs and it seemed like a good time to use one of the stamps from it.  That set has artwork in the style of old-fashioned fruit crate labels, I may have to keep it out and make something to show off one of those stamps.  But for now, it's time to get Ryan off to school.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Farm Fresh
Ink:  Garden Green
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Basic White, To Market DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Dimensionals