A Carousel

Today I have another Disneyland layout for you. This week marks a year since our trip and I really am not done scrapping it.....! But I have been working on it again this week, so that's a plus.

With this page, I remembered an old 6x6 pack of carousel themed DP I owned, and sure enough- it was a great match! That's all it is- some DP and photos! And I think it's a pretty page just like that!

Carousel:
Paper: Pool Party, Cupcakes & Carousels DP
Journaling Font: Chalk-hand-lettering

Bookmarks!

At church this year, I teach the children who are reaching the age when they can choose to be baptized. My teaching partner and I were trying to think of a simple gift we could give to recognize them, but not be a huge commitment through the year. And then I saw this new stamp set that I think is gorgeous, and it was a perfect match! 
About 17 years ago I bought a pack of bookmarks that Stampin' Up! carried at the time. I have been packing them around all this time and I knew that would make a perfect gift....but now they are lost somewhere in my craft room... So I ended up having to make my own, lol. It worked out tho, and here are the first round I have made. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Rejoice In Him
Ink: Memento Black

Paper: Basic White, Soft Seafoam, Petal Pink, Balmy Blue, So Saffron
Accessories: 1/8" hand punch
1. Stampin' Blends: Dark Petal Pink, Bronze; Seaside ribbon original, White Grosgrain ribbon

2. Stampin' Blends: Light Petal Pink; Sweet Sorbet Accessories Twine, White Grosgrain ribbon, Copper cord

3. Stampin' Blends: Light & Dark Balmy Blue, Ivory; 1/8 Silver ribbon, White Grosgrain ribbon 

4. Stampin' Blends: Ivory, Light Daffodil Delight, Light Smoky Slate; 1/8 Daffodil Delight ribbon, White Grosgrain, Crushed Curry twine

To do a decorative top, I used one of the scalloped Circle Dies, but only ran it thru the machine half way. Don't go too far- I had to cut another one after the first try. 

And then to top them off, I just used an assortment of retired ribbons, two or three each. I have a lot... 

Then I wrote a little note on the back and that was that! 

A little sunshine!

Happy Monday to you! 

Last Sunday morning (Jan 29), around 1045 it started snowing, and the snow fell for at least 30 hours. My family shoveled three different times, even tho there wasn't a ton of accumulation. Spots varied from 5-10 inches, in my own yard. But we had snow on the ground before it started, so its hard to say just how much we got. And then when the storm stopped, the temperatures tanked. Tuesday morning it was -4* on the drive to school. Everyone was posting on social media just how cold it was at their house, and it was crazy. Yes, it gets that cold here and sometimes we've had a week stretch of extremely cold temps, but this was the most significant drop we've had this winter, and the first it's gone below 0* this winter for sure. 

So when I was thinking of a friend who needed a birthday card, I figured it was a great day to break out Waves of Inspiration and go warm! I haven't used this bundle as much as I thought I would, and this is the first time I used both wave dies on one card, and I gotta say, I love it!
The sunshine mask/stencil came from a Paper Pumpkin kit I think last March? I also used a Blending Brush to pull Daffodil Delight across the whole sky, and Tahitian Tide into all of the water. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Waves of Inspiration
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Tahitian Tide, Starry Sky
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Basic White, Starry Sky card stocks, Gold & Rose Gold Metallic paper
Accessories: 2022-24 In Color Decorative Dots, Waves dies, Blending Brushes, Glue Dots, PP Kit stencil, big shot

And, the birthday girl loved it, which is of course the most important part! 
And if you wondered, it started snowing yesterday (Sunday) around noon and hasn't stopped again, haha.... Still wintertime here! 

September 2023 Calendar Pages

Back again with a couple more calendar pages for your Saturday! I usually love the September pages because I do a little back to school sprinkled in. This time I used some fun pics from a photo session I did to get my kids' portraits for the year. 

And for my parents, I just do one pic of each grandkid, in birth order, which is fun. Lots of back to school, but of course not everyone goes to school yet, haha...

I hope you get to make something this weekend! 

Owls again!

Happy Friday! Today I've got a couple more almost-matching birthday cards for my stash. This time I used the sketch from The Paper Players and kept them simple one layer cards.
I didn't realize til I linked it just now, that I swapped the position of the owls.... but it does work better with their line of sight, so it's probably fine.... 

(Winter afternoon sunlight is tricky to photograph with... my phone kept casting a shadow, and the snow drifts did too... hence the super funky angles in these shots. I promise the cards are the usual rectangle...!)

First up, this happy yellow owl, and these were colored with Stampin' Blends.

Supplies:

Stamps: Adorable Owls

Ink: Memento Black, Balmy Blue

Blends: Light Daffodil Delight (body), Light Pumpkin Pie (beak/talons), Light Balmy Blue (eyes), Light Old Olive & Light CHerry Cobbler (hat) Light Pumpkin Pie (body), Dark Daffodil Delight (beak/talons), Dark Balmy Blue (eyes) 
Paper: Daffodil Delight & Basic White card stocks

Accessories: Red & Green Pearls

And then this bolder, blue card, I colored the owls with the Watercolor Pencils and Blender Pens. Both ways look good to me! 

Supplies: 

Stamps: Adorable Owls

Ink: Stazon Black, Pacific Point

Watercolor Pencils: Cajun Craze (body), Granny Apple Green (eyes), Crushed Curry (beak/talon), Coastal Cabana, Night of Navy (hat), Pumpkin Pie (body), Daffodil Delight (beak/talon), Old Olive (eyes)
Paper: Pacific Point & Basic White card stocks

Accessories: Classic Matte Dots 

Two more cards to mail out soon! Yeay! What are you making? 

Rosey Birthdays

Most of the time when I pull things out to make cards, I check a number of blogs and websites looking for a new sketch or other challenge to play with. I have found this helps me make a card I'm happy with. I need a ton of birthday cards right now (at least 12 for February - and this is the short month!) so of course I was going to use other people's ideas as a jumping off point. Earlier this week, I saw the latest CAS Colours & Sketches challenge and I really love the sketch idea. I actually own all of the suggested ink colors, but for a long while, all of my retired product moved to my mom's craft room, two hours away, and those are still there. So first I just used the sketch and made this fun card.

Supplies:

Stamps: Happiness Abounds

Ink: Memento Black, Tahitian Tide
Blends: Dark & Light Flirty Flamingo, Dark & Light Old Olive

Paper: Basic White & Flirty Flamingo card stocks

Accessories: Blossoming Happiness Dies, Dimensionals, big shot

Then I decided I really did like it so much that I made a version with similar shades to the color part of the challenge. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Happiness Abounds

Ink: Memento Black, Flirty Flamingo, So Saffron
Blends: Dark & Light Melon Mambo, Dark & Light Old Olive

Paper: Basic White & Flirty Flamingo card stocks

Accessories: Blending Brush, Blossoming Happiness Dies, Dimensionals, big shot

And that gets me two cards closer to my goal! 

And! if you like this... this stamp and die bundle, and a pack of Dimensionals would earn you a Sale-A-Bration freebie! 

We Create Blog Hop: Sale-a-Bration Sweetness

Happy February to you! Every month we hold a fun little blog hop to help inspire your creativity! 

This month we're focusing on Sale-A-Bration! If you don't know, this is Stampin' Up!'s biggest promotion! For every $50 (US) you spend, before tax and shipping, you can choose an item for FREE. Many are exclusive, but today, Stampin' Up! announced additional freebies you can choose from! You can view the entire selection by clicking HERE. And it's only available until products sell out, or until February 28! 

For my projects today, I used the new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, and some fun, exclusive Sale-A-Bration products that arrived yesterday! This new stamp set, Scenic Garden, is free to those who host a workshop that reaches $300 (that's 6 people placing a Sale-A-Bration order!) or if you place an order over $300, you'll get it too! The DP strip on my cards is also an exclusive Sale-A-Bration item you can choose with an order of $100 or more. The prints are happy and fun and I'm excited to play with it more! I only featured one sheet of DP today- but you can see both sides! And here's what I made!  

This one is super simple and almost entirely monochromatic. It might be just a bit too plain, but that's okay. The greeting came from Ranunculus Romance and I felt like it was a good match. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Scenic Garden (Sale-A-Bration only), Ranunculus Romance 

Ink: Petal Pink, Smoky Slate

Paper: Petal Pink card stock, Dandy Designs DP (Sale-A-Bration only)

Accessories: Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon

Supplies:

Stamps: Scenic Garden (Sale-A-Bration only), Ranunculus Romance 

Ink: Memento Black, Smoky Slate, Fresh Freesia marker 

Stampin' Blends: Light Smoky Slate, Dark Petal Pink, Dark & Light Old Olive, Ivory 

Paper: Petal Pink & Basic White card stock, Dandy Designs DP (Sale-A-Bration only)

Accessories: Classic Matte Dots, Lovely Labels Pick A Punch, Dimensionals

Supplies:

Stamps: Scenic Garden (Sale-A-Bration only), Ranunculus Romance 

Ink: Memento Black, Smoky Slate, Fresh Freesia marker 

Stampin' Blends: Light Smoky Slate, Dark Petal Pink, Dark & Light Old Olive, Light Daffodil Delight

Paper: Petal Pink & Basic White card stock, Dandy Designs DP (Sale-A-Bration only)

Accessories: Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon, Lovely Labels Pick A Punch, Dimensionals

And here they are all together! 

Now, hop along over to Tricia's blog using the button below, and see what she's made for you. 

Then continue on and see what everyone has made to inspire you today! Let us know what you think of our work. And then I hope you get to make something pretty today too! 

We Create Blog Hop February 2023 Blog Roll
Kimberley Morris
Tanya Harvey
Tricia Butts
Cheryl Curtis
Libby Fens

But don't forget- if you love any of the Sale-A-Bration items, you'll want to place your order soon so you don't miss out! 

Anna & Elsa

When planning our trip to Disney, and in trying to make it as happy as possible, we asked the kids what kinds of things were their top priorities. Was there a specific ride they'd heard of or a treat they wanted to try or a character we really hoped to find...? My husband hoped to try and do everything, but we wanted to make sure the "important" things were done first. Our youngest wanted to meet EVERY character, but Anna and Elsa (from the movie Frozen) most of all. Anna has always been her favorite princess.

On our second day, we spied them here and RAN down the road to not miss them. She was happy to wave to them (which was all we could do anyway...) and stand for a picture but I felt they were really not friendly and were really kind of rude. Kind of like saying hello or congrats or something to that really cool girl at school who is way too full of herself... But my daughter didn't notice so I didn't really say anything.... And we joked that she was set, we could go now. HA.

Supplies:
Stamps: The Snowflake Spot
Ink: Whisper White craft 
Paper: Coastal Cabana
Accessories: White embossing powder, Heat tool
Journaling Font: Frozito

Then on our very last day, we caught a parade, start to finish. This bus was carrying a number of princesses and Minnie Mouse, but Anna spied our youngest, wearing the same dress she was (our daughter has an Anna dress up dress), from a fair distance off, and continued to wave right to her and blow her kisses and gush about her dress and it was SO amazing!!! I was crying happy tears, haha, and I might be right now typing this too... One of my teenagers was taking video and you can hear all of us making sure our little one knew that Anna saw HER. haha... This was easily one of the best moments of the whole trip. 

(One thing that was amusing to me was when we were texting family and friends pictures and how amazing that was, my husband and both teenagers all stated that we thought the other Anna and Elsa were snotty and rude, but no one wanted to complain. mmhmm. They seriously were. Not cool ladies, not cool.)

Later that same day we watched this Frozen parade...which really was just this one float, haha. But once again, that same amazing Anna from a few hours earlier saw our daughter, still in her dress up, and once again, enthusiastically waved just to her. Then Elsa noticed that our girl matched her sister, haha, and she also waved and blew kisses. 

When we left the park super late that night, for the last time this trip, I told the man at the gate that the Anna and Elsa that were in the parades at this park today were INCREDIBLE and should get a raise. And don't you worry, I also let him know that just maaaaybe the girls from the other day at the other park should find a different line of work............ I wasn't any more blunt than that, because I didn't want to affect my daughter's opinion. But seriously. Polar opposites. And the ladies in the parade were truly some of the best moments of the entire week.

MDS Supplies:
Anna:

Colors: Baja Breeze, Brilliant Blue, Rich Razzleberry, Basic Black
Font: Frozito

Frozen parade:
Stamps: Snowburst snowflake, Lemonade Stand snowflake 
Colors: Baja Breeze, Whisper White

Font: Frozito

August 2023 Calendar Pages

Happy Saturday to you! 
Today I've got the August calendar pages, from the Christmas gift we give our parents every year. 

First the page for my inlaws, which just has our own little household:

and then the page for my parents and siblings, with as many of them on there as I can fit!

Obviously I went with hot colors for these pages. Is it hot at your house?? It's not here! We had a few little snow storms come thru yesterday and it's supposed to snow most of the weekend. 

Stay cozy, friends! And make something pretty! 

Sale-A-Bration scrapping!

I hope your Friday is off to a great start! I am working on scrapbooking today. I've gotten three pages done so far today for three different books so I am excited! And this time, the page I made is 100% current product (What?!) so I have to share it, hahaha!

In spite of all current product, these pictures are almost twelve years old, which is crazy, but there you go. My daughter has recently discovered she loves the look of lavender plants and this paper is kind of perfect for that, thus, a page was born! It also worked out perfectly for a challenge to use the newest-to-you products! 
Bonus tip - if you bought the supplies to recreate this exact page, that would qualify for the free DP!   

It's a bit snowy out, so the photo of the page isn't great, but that's what I can do. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Alphabest
Ink: Blackberry Bliss ink & marker
Paper: Fresh Freesia, Dainty Flowers SAB DP
Accessories: Brushed Brass Butterflies

Black & White!

I got a little crafty time, and decided to play with the current SUO Challenge which was to make a black and white project! Glancing over my stamps, I decided this map of the world was pretty much perfect for that!
And then when I linked it here, I noticed it says to have black and white be the "predominant" colors. That could change things.....! But for now I have this, ha! 

Supplies:
Stamps: Watercolor World, Inspired Thoughts

Ink: Memento Black

Paper: Basic White, Basic Black card stocks

Accessories: Red & Green Pearls, Dimensionals

Disney Churros!

This was a fun page to make, even if it was not my favorite treat. Since it was digital, I could easily "stamp" white and brown specks all around the page to resemble the cinnamon and sugar on churros. I also liked recording the cost of things as part of the "real" side. 

MDS Supplies:
Colors: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White Pool Party
Font: It Started With a Mouse, Candy Round