Trains!

To say that my son has been obsessed with trains his entire life is a gross understatement. My youngest tends to like a lot of the same things he likes and we have seen a lot. of trains. in our time, ha. As soon as I saw this train I wanted it, but I think between my mom and I, we own every single train Stampin' Up! has released in the 20 years I've been a demonstrator...and there is a similar one to this particular train. So similar in fact, that I pulled out my old train stamps to compare, and my son told me not to worry about it, ha! Buuuut...... I really kind of love it..... sooo here it is! Ready for classes! HA. And lots of scrapbooking!! 

Anyway, my first card today comes from the latest Color Throwdown. This is the one we'll make at my upcoming class. The colors are slightly Christmasy on my card but I think also autumnal and that's what I'm going for right now. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Greatest Adventure

Ink: Copper Clay

Paper: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler & Basic White card stocks

Accessories: Transparent Adhesive Dots

This second card uses the already ended TGIF Challenge colors. But I like the pop of Berry Burst with the train. I thought I had Berry dots, but I guess not...so I used these clear ones instead.

Supplies:

Stamps: Greatest Adventure

Ink: Night of Navy, Berry Burst

Paper: Crumb Cake, Berry Burst, Basic White card stocks

Accessories: Transparent Adhesive Dots

Coral Flowers

We made it to Friday! But I have a packed weekend coming up so it isn't a break, haha....

I've got another card for my upcoming class. Simple but pretty.
And this one totally fits the latest challenge from Inspire.Create.Challenges- to make something "floral"! 

Supplies:

Stamps: Spotlight on Nature

Ink: Calypso Coral, Wild Wheat

Paper: Calypso Coral, Basic White card stocks, Country Woods DP

Accessories: Brass Butterflies

This was the one I actually designed first. I like the idea, but this particular stamp is too thin of a line image to work on this wood grain DP. And, the Stampin' Spots didn't work out as nicely as I'd hoped and these classes are not about teaching, they're about getting their five cards done, ha, so I decided against it for now. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Spotlight on Nature

Ink: Calypso Coral, Garden Green

Paper: Calypso Coral, Country Woods DP

Accessories: Brass Butterflies

Class Time!

With school back in session, I have been looking forward to holding card classes again. I missed out this spring... I got sick for a month and then life was just way too busy to fit in classes! But now it is time! (altho life is still really. busy!) That means I spent some time putting cards together, and thank goodness for challenges to kick my creativity into gear! 

This card is really simple, but I find my people like to come, get it done, and get on with life, ha, so this is perfect. I used the color challenge from CAS Colours & Sketches, and I love the rich shades they suggested. Altho they're a bit too dark in this photo, to really tell.

Supplies:

Stamps: Encircled In Nature 

Ink: Mossy Meadow, Blackberry Bliss & Misty Moonlight

Paper: Basic White, Mossy Meadow card stocks

Accessories: Tinsel Gems Three Pack, Encircled In Nature Dies, Dimensionals, big shot

Fireflies!

Happy Friday!

Fireflies are not common in my area at. all. I had been told they don't live here, and I absolutely believed it until about three years ago when I heard they were at a small nearby lake... I saw some as a kid, when my family took a vacation to Illinois, but not here. Not ever.

My husband's co-worker owns a farm about 20 mins from our home and she has fireflies in her field! So she does little tours and asked him if he'd like to bring his family. I told him YES HE WOULD, ha, so we went!
We learned that one reason they are so rare here is the ground has to stay moist and not freeze for the bug's life cycle under ground, which takes two years. Yeah, that's not a thing around here, ha. Each of our kids got to catch a firefly, and watching them blink across the field was really cool. It was definitely a special family night. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Lighting the Way, Skinny Mini Alphabet

Ink: Mossy Meadow, Daffodil Delight, Evening Evergreen, Soft Succulent 

Paper: Soft Succulent, Basic White card stocks

Accessories: Lighting the Way Dies, big shot

Journaling Font: Moon Flower Bold

This firefly set that retired this spring was perfect for this page. And this page is easily in my top 10 favorites ever. I stamped the grassy-ness, and then stamped and die cut the fireflies. And I really love the result. 

A Haircut

Another scrapbook layout for you today! 
I have seen this idea a lot lately, with the strips of DP as the background and thought these photos worked well for that. Everything is very long retired, which is my favorite way to scrap, haha... 

Supplies: 

Stamps: Its a Girl Thing (2004), Girlfriend Accessories (2002), Just Perfect Alphabet (2010)

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Orchid Oasis

Paper: Flowers for You DP (2006)

Accessories: Subtles Candy Dots

Journaling Font: Jennifer Lynne

I hope you are making something pretty too! 

Birthday PlayTime!

Time is going faster than I think... I thought I had time to make this, but it needed to go out before I made it, darn it. But I made it and it's on it's way! 

I used the sketch from Inspire.Create.Challenges. And I used the now ended Color Throwdown, altho it might be hard to tell.... that blue water takes up some space! Usually I choose colors as close as possible to the challenge image, and this time the shades aren't exact matches, and there's more than one shade for each color. But I promise the birthday girl will never notice. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Kiddin' Around

Ink: Memento Black, Berry Burst
Stampin' Blends: Dark & Light Flirty Flamingo, Dark & Light Granny Apple Green, Dark & Light Balmy Blue, Dark Daffodil Delight, Light Petal Pink, Light Basic Black, Dark Smoky Slate, Bronze, Ivory, SU800
Paper: Lemon Lolly, Basic White card stocks, Bright & Beautiful DP

Accessories: Dimensionals, Kiddin' Around dies, Subtles Candy Dots (retired), big shot (retired)

Cars!

I had a decent day of scrapbooking last week that I'm happy about. I managed to do at least one layout for all three of my kids, a couple got more.

One fun thing was that I scrapped both of my kids' first car purchases. They both bought their first car about seven months apart, ha. 

This boy of mine loooves the color orange. He has a full set of dressier shirts for work that are orange and way more than a full set of every day orange shirts. He also has an orange jacket for days when he wants to wear something that isn't orange, ha. My mom has made him two orange-based quilts and my MIL made him one too. One wall in his room is orange. So it was NO surprise that he was thrilled to find an orange car. I am not actually a fan of printing photos thru Shutterfly, but I have, and the envelopes are a bold orange color with this little quote on the back. And this is the second scrap layout he has with this strip on it, HA. 

Supplies:

Paper: Basic White card stock, Just Add Cake DP (long retired)

Accessories: 2016-2018 In Color Enamel Shapes (retired), scrap from Shutterfly envelope

So then it was really funny that this girl who tends to choose bright, happy colors, was wearing black when she brought home her black car. HA. But it makes scrapping easier, doesn't it?

Supplies:

Stamps: Just Perfect Alphabet (retired)

Ink: Memento Black

Paper: Basic Black card stock, True Love DP (retired)

Accessories: White Perfect Accents (retired)

Also, gotta say, I was excited to finish off those White Perfect Accents with this page. Not sure how old they are, but at least 4 years... Yeay for using up stash!!