Lavender Hello

Mornin' y'all, I'm running a little slow this morning but happily I was able to get Ryan off to school with much less drama than yesterday, *and* he has STEM club after school so I get an extra hour of crafty time today : )  So I'm going to type up this post, take Daphers for her tour of the neighborhood, and go get my stamp on.  So here is today's card:

Can't help it, whenever I see purple on a challenge I immediately think of Painted Lavender.  Here's the Inkspirational mood board:

I wonder if I have a hyacinth stamp anywhere in my collection...I don't think there's a stamp set that focuses on hyacinths, not like the ones for lavender and roses and even snapdragons : )  Oh, maybe I should use the snapdragon stamp set with this challenge too!  Anyway, I also had a go at the 500th challenge for CASE-ing Tuesday Sketches:

And here's the original card from the cover of the mini catalog:

I don't have that pocket die and really it's the only thing out of that suite that I might want, so I substituted one of the Everyday Arches dies instead and that made me happy.  The greeting is from the Everyday Arches stamp set and I recently inked up my Gorgeous Grape ink pad and it's a little extra juicy lately.  Maybe I'll attack it with a plastic spoon later today.

I finished my tea and Daphne is giving me side-eye because she knows it and she wants to go, no matter how cold it is outside.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Everyday Arches
Ink:  Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Thick Basic White, Perennial Lavender DSP
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, Everyday Arches dies, linen thread, Tinsel Gems, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Lavender Fields Forever

Hey y'all!  I'm off to a lazy start this morning but as soon as I finish this blog post, I'll be taking Daphne out for a walk and then doing grocery shopping.  So let's get to it!

I made this card for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I just missed the cutoff for the last challenge so I got my card done early this time!  Painted Lavender just turned a year old so just barely retro, and Winterly Tree Tops isn't retro yet, so the really retro part of this card is the DSP!  That's Enchanté, which is many moons old because it features Pale Plum and Perfect Plum.  I went with the first three colors in the palette, which I translated to Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, and Elegant Eggplant, and the last one, Very Vanilla.

I used this week's CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch:

I really have been having a fabulous time doing those challenges since the beginning of the new year.  One more challenge for good luck, check out Just Add Ink:

I used glittery gems, brass butterflies, and Wink of Stella on the stamped flowers.

Time to take my sweet girl out for a walk in the snow.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Winterly Tree Tops
Ink:  Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant
Paper:  Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Very Vanilla, Enchanté DSP
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, I forget which glitter gems, brass butterflies, Wink of Stella, Dimensionals

Lavender Note

Hey y'all, happy Saturday!  And it WILL be a happy Saturday, I finally got to do my first order from the holiday mini catalog and it's supposed to arrive today.  After I do some yoga this morning and then run some errands (that grocery shopping ain't going to do itself...) I can reward myself with some new stamping toys!  : )

I promised that I would have a Color Throwdown card to share this week and here it is:

And here's the challenge:

I went with Bermuda Bay, Gorgeous Grape, and Shaded Spruce for my colors, which just begged for me to get out Painted Lavender and have some fun.  I had started out with a white card base but then decided to just go for it and do lots more purple.  The thing that took the longest on this card?  Placing the die-cut sprigs behind the lavender bunch.  A simple "just a note" from Musical Jamboree and there's my card.

Okay, I'm going to get started for the day and hopefully my nice fat SU! box will be here by the time I'm done running errands.  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Musical Jamboree
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, Shaded Spruce, Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Shaded Spruce, Bermuda Bay, Thick Basic White, Butterfly Brilliance DSP Stack
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Purple Shimmer Gems, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Lavender Thoughts

Hey y'all, all of a sudden I'm having computer issues this morning--I uploaded two pictures from my phone onto my computer, then decided that I wanted to take another pic and now my phone can't find my computer to share pictures with.  The heck?  It could find the computer two minutes ago!  Urgh.  So anyway, here's the pic I have for today's card:

And I made this for the Festive Friday challenge:

Okay, the weirdness continues--my computer just spontaneously restarted.  Hope this chills out because I am not great with troubleshooting technology.  Anyway, from the list, I chose purple, pearls, and thinking of you.  I actually had put some purple gems on at first because I forgot I needed pearls from the list.  Also I borrowed the sketch from Mary Fish.

Anyway, I think I'm going to step away from the computer before anything else weird happens, and I have other things to do anyway.  Have a great Friday, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Feathered Flight
Ink:  Pretty Peacock, Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather
Paper:  Highland Heather, Pretty Peacock, Shaded Spruce, Thick Basic White, Perennial Lavender DSP
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, Countryside Corners dies, linen thread, In Color pearls, Dimensionals

Purple Floral Fusion

Hey y'all!  My Tuesday is starting off with a literal bang--we've had severe weather rolling through off and on since last night and it's really been going since about 5:30 this morning.  (Thunder and lightning, very very frightening ME! Not really, I'm not scared of thunderstorms, but I do love me some Queen.)  It seems like it's slacking off a bit now, but it was raining pretty good when I dropped Ryan off at karate camp, I thought I was going to have to blow-dry my hair a second time when I got back to the house.

Anyway, on to today's card.  I still have a handful of brand-new stamp sets that I haven't played with yet, so what did I do yesterday?  I pulled out a set that's been retired for a while and made this:

Wisteria Wishes was a natural choice for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

Isn't that a pretty picture!  When I used to take my doggos for walks in England, we walked past a house that had a big patch of lavender out front and my boy dog would always pee on it, blithely ignoring the bees buzzing all around there.  I kept warning him that he was going to get stung in a very uncomfortable place, but it never happened.  Anyway, our England house also had wisteria growing on the front of the garage and I loved it.  Wisteria Wishes only retired last year (seems like it was longer ago??) but it's been in my stash for about a year and a half so it counts as retro.

I couldn't pass up the Paper Players sketch:

I decided on the Perennial Lavender DSP for my background elements and used Berry Burst as an accent color on the butterflies and the gem embellishments.

I've been scrapping away on pictures from 2021, but after this challenge I wish I had pics printed out from when we visited the lavender fields in Provence in 2022 so I could scrap those.  I'll get around to it one day : )  I am making lots of progress on scrapbook pages so that makes me happy.

It looked like the rain was slacking off but I just saw some more lightning, so I think I might turn off the computer for a while and unplug it just in case there's a lightning strike nearby.  A few weeks ago there was one close to us and while it didn't do anything to my house, my neighbor said it zapped their refrigerator and dryer, and fried the modem of the guy next door to him.  Gotta love spring weather in Texas.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wisteria Wishes, Painted Lavender
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Fresh Freesia, Gorgeous Grape, Berry Burst
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Thick Basic White, Perennial Lavender DSP
Accessories:  Wisteria dies, Painted Lavender dies, Mini Dimensionals, Purple Gems, Wink of Stella

SUO Challenges: Favorite Florals

 Hey hey y'all, it's time for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

And our theme for this challenge is...

SU! always has a LOT of flower stamps, so we're excited to see what you come up with!  If I counted all my retired stamps, I could use a different floral stamp set every day for months for this challenge, but for this challenge, I had to use my favorite product suite from the Occasions catalog...

Oh yeah, I'm in love with the whole Perennial Lavender suite, it was the number one thing on my wish list when the Occasions catalog was released.  This time I used the Painted Lavender stamps and dies, Perennial Postage dies, and a couple of pieces from the January Paper Pumpkin kit that was designed to coordinate with the Perennial Lavender suite.  One of these days I'll branch out and try a few other colors with these stamps, but for now it's all about purple power : )

Can't wait to see what your favorite florals are!  Don't forget to upload your card at the SUO Challenges blog, and most important, have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Lavender
Ink:  Highland heather, Gorgeous Grape, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Thick Basic White, Perennial Lavender DSP, January 2024 Paper Pumpkin kit
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, Perennial Postage dies, Dimensionals, Purple Fine Shimmer Gems, Wink of Stella

Slimline Valentine & Lavender Bonus

Hey y'all, how's your day going?  Apparently I am extra inspired this week because I have another double card post for today.  Here's the first card:

Okay I realize I am a minority of one but I don't like making slimline cards, they make me grumpy.  I like A2 cards because that's half of a sheet of paper, which is economical, and slimline cards don't work like that.  But slimline it is for this week's Paper Players sketch:

And I paired that with the Festive Friday challenge:

From the list, I have red, purple, slimline (reluctantly), and hearts.  I know it's fun to pull out the newest stamps to play with, but this time I used last year's Country Bouquet for my Valentine.  Don't forget about the new Valentine challenge at SUO Challenges too!

Anyway, like I said, slimline cards make me a little grumpy, and when I was trying to go to sleep the other night I was turning over ideas in my head about how to turn that sketch into an A2 card.  Then of course I had to make this when I got in my craft room yesterday:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees and happily for me, one of the Perennial Postage dies fits on a standard card front five times.  This was a good excuse to use one of the vertical sentiments from Vertical Blooms too, and I need to send out some thank you cards so this one will be going out today or tomorrow.  Win!  And after I made this card, I made several other ones that I really liked, I was on fire in my craft room yesterday (not literally, that would have been messy).  Honestly I'm procraftinating because I haven't started my wedding album yet.  I haven't done any new scrapbook pages yet this year!  Gotta fix that.

Anyway, have a great day, peeps.  I'm hoping to get some more quality crafting time today and start that wedding album.  It's got to be done.  Cheers!

Supplies, slimline card:
Stamps:  Country Bouquet
Ink:  Real Red, Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Most Adored Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Country Bouquet punch, Dimensionals

Supplies, lavender card:
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Vertical Blooms
Ink:  Orchid Oasis, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Orchid Oasis, Thick Basic White, Perennial Lavender DSP
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Painted Lavender dies, Iridescent Foil Gems, Dimensionals, Orchid Oasis baker's twine

Lavender Bouquet

Happy Friday, y'all, hope your week has gone well and you're looking forward to a good weekend.  I should finish up my current stitching project today so I'm excited about that, and yesterday I had a good session in my craft room and made this:

As soon as I finished this, my first thought was that I should send it to my friend Beth, but her memorial service is tomorrow.  I sent her a card every week for the last couple of years, so it's going to be a long time before I don't think of her first when I make something especially girly.  So our friend suggested that I send it to Beth's mom instead, and even got me her address, so I'm going to do that instead.

Let's take a look at some challenges, shall we?  Starting with a fun challenge from Just Add Ink:

And the Inspire. Create. challenge:

Flowers plus the spring/summer catty definitely equals the Perennial Lavender suite for me.  I added in the Global Design Project challenge too:

I kept the same basic layout, adding some stamped flowers and switching out the DSP and greenery dies.  I think I'll have to get an extra pack of that Perennial Lavender DSP, it's so pretty.

Almost time to get Ryan to school, and then I'm going to work on that stitching project for a bit this morning.  I've had project fatigue with it so I am excited to just get it done...and then immediately start another project : )  And then some stamping this afternoon.  Also I have a large stack of scrapbook layouts that I need to take pictures of.  Suffice to say I will not be bored today!  Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Perennial Postage
Ink:  Pretty Peacock, Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon, Thick Very Vanilla, Perennial Lavender DSP
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Purple Fine Shimmer Gems, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Pink Lavender

Mornin' y'all, who else is cold this morning?  It's not any colder today than it was yesterday but I'm wearing a full set of thermals and a fleece, sitting wrapped up in a cozy blanket, and drinking a cup of tea and still my fingers are cold.  Maybe it should be a bigger cup of tea.

Anyway, card for today.

I'll be honest, this is not my favorite.  Here is the new Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

I chose Polished Pink, Orchid Oasis, and Garden Green for my colors, though my picture isn't the best.  The rhinestones are Gorgeous Grape but seemed to blend well with the Orchid Oasis IRL.  Not sure why they look black in the picture.  I may have to give this color combo another try, I really do like it.

Anyway, that's it for me today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Inked & Tiled
Ink:  Polished Pink, Orchid Oasis, Garden Green
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, Perennial Postage Dies, Gorgeous Grape rhinestones, Mini Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Sparkling New Year

Happy New Year, y'all, and let's start off with a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

And here it is....

We're starting the new year off sparkly, so anything that glitters--rhinestones, glimmer paper, Wink of Stella, anything along those lines.  I had to try out some new stuff, so here's what I made:

I used products from the new Perennial Lavender suite, which is my favorite out of the soon-to-arrive Occasions catty.  The glimmer paper is in the Online Exclusives in the SU! store, and I have Tinsel Gems in Pretty Peacock and Purple Fine Shimmer Gems in Highland Heather, plus I coated the stamped lavender with several layers of Wink of Stella for extra sparkle.

Make your own sparkly card and share it on the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Perennial Postage
Ink:  Highland Heather, Shaded Spruce, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Shaded Spruce, Thick Basic White, Perennial Lavender DSP, Three Color Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems, Purple Fine Shimmer Gems, Wink of Stella






Just in case anyone is reading down this far, I do have some sad news to share.  I made this card several weeks ago and sent it to my friend Beth, who has been waging war on stage 4 metastatic breast cancer for the last four years.  I don't know if she's even seen it, as I think by the time it arrived at her house, she had already left for the hospital in Houston, and she will not be going home from there.  I'm typing this post on December 30 and scheduling it for January 2; today we're dropping my hubs off at the airport, Ryan is going to his grandparents, and I am driving down to Houston again to be with Beth and her family.  She asked me to come and sit with her, so I am going.  I have mailed at least one card a week to Beth ever since I found out about her diagnosis, and this is the last one.