BE YOU (TIFUL)

One of my favorite photo sessions with my grand daughter to date was on this warm fall afternoon as we took her for a walk in our vintage radio flyer wagon. She was wearing little denim bib overalls and she was so happy being pulled around and taking it all in with her big wide eyes.

I used the retired Flower Patch stamp set and dies along with Painted Autumn DSP.

These photos are so cute I didn't want to crop them or add too much to them. They are just matted to fit into the pockets and a bit of the DSP was added to the corner of one photo. I plan to create a two page 12x12 layout in the future using these same photos. That way I can add more embellishments and some journaling to the pages.

Thanks for visiting.

Blooming Flower Patch

Bright, fun colors and the super cute Flower Patch stamp set come together to create this happy card.

The Flower Patch stamp set and it's coordinating Flower Fair Framelits are one the retiring list, so if you don't already have them, I'd highly recommend getting them. The photopolymer stamps in this set are super easy to layer to create all sorts of fun flowers.

I stamped these flowers using Flirty Flamingo, Watermelon Wonder, Peekaboo Peach, Pool Party and Bermuda Bay. The leaves are Cucumber Crush. Both Watermelon Wonder and Cucumber Crush are retiring In Colors.

Flower Patch Blooms Pages

I scrapped some photos of my family from this past Mother's Day this week. I used a sketch challenge from the Stampin' Up Scrapbooking Global group in Facebook. It's a very inspiring group, and if you like to scrapbook with SU! products...then you should join! Here's my two page layout...

Here's the sketch...

I didn't follow the sketch exactly because I did not want to crop down my photos too much, but this sketch really helped me get started with my layout.

I knew I wanted to use Sweet Sugar Plum 12x12 as my base along with Blooms & Bliss DSP to compliment the flowering crabapple tree in the background of my photos. I cut my title using my Silhouette Cameo and printed my journaling from the computer. This ended up being a royal PITA! **insert terribly angry face here**. After numerous attempts I finally got it cut out and like the end result, BUT it shouldn't have been that difficult and time consuming! I need to get a new sticky mat, so that should help save my sanity next time!

I used the Flower Patch stamp set and the coordinating Flower Fair Framelits to create some simple embellishments for my pages. The Flower Patch set and it's framelits are on the Retiring List along with my favorite DSP...Blooms & Bliss, so if these are items you would like please place your order soon.

Everyone who places an order with me this month and uses the Hostess Code: ZMUUCXE6 will receive a card kit with supplies to create 3 cards.

Baby's 1st Year Album

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! We had a lovely few days with family here in Michigan. I've been pretty busy the past few weeks working on Christmas projects and haven't had a chance to share anything here. One of the projects I had been working on is a 6x8 scrapbook to record the highlights of our grand daughters first year. (she's due to arrive very soon!)

I wanted a small leather album (in pink of course!) that will hold up to little hands flipping through the book over and over when she's old enough. (my boys always loved looking at their albums of baby pictures) Unfortunately SU! doesn't offer the album I had in mind so the one I used is from Simple Stories. Here's a look at some of the pages...

I used a combination of SU! products - current and retired mixed with Echo Park Bundle of Joy papers.

I used some photos from her gender reveal party...

as well as from the baby shower.

I used temporary adhesive to hold the embellishments in place until we have photos to add.

I did some paper piecing on the house and trees. I love the way they turned out. I also used the Flower Patch stamp set along with the coordinating Flower Fair Framelits.

Then for each month there is a spot for her monthly photo as well as other cute photos,

and cards to journal those highlights.

I used the Layering Circle Framelits, retired Little Number Framelits and the Labeler Alphabet to create the little badge for each month.

For the 8 month page I used a new Sale-a-Bration set called Delicate Details to create the border along the bottom. Here's a closer look.

The Echo Park Bundle of Joy papers have several colors that are a good match to SU! colors. So I used Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose & Sage Shadow throughout the album. Good thing I still had those retired colors in my  stash!

As you can imagine, we are very much looking forward to the arrival of our first grandchild! I'm sure I will be posting many scrapbook pages featuring her in the future!

Hello In Colors!

Color me HAPPY...I've got five brand new In Colors to play with! Yes, I was the kid who was happy with a box of 64 crayons and a coloring book vs more expensive toys!  I've been having so much FUN playing with this set of new colors and the Flower Patch stamp set that I created a set of five cards...each one focuses on each of the new In Colors.

I really love the new set Thoughtful Banners and it's coordinating Duet Banner punch! I'm sure I will get a lot of use out of both.  Each background for these 4-1/4" square cards is embossed using the Elegant Dots EF and is embellished with White Organza Ribbon & a Basic Rhinestone.

There is pretty 3/8" Ruched Ribbon that comes in each of the new In Colors, but I only purchased one spool to see how I like it. (LOVE it! So I'm sure the other colors will make their way to my house soon!)

Dapper Denim...So far, I think I like this color the best...maybe because it reminds me of a cross between Not Quite Navy and Midnight Muse? Whatever the reason, it's just a good blue that is a nice contrast with the three more pastel shades included in this new set of colors.

I start to have 80's/90's flashbacks when I see some of these next colors...

Sweet Sugar Plum...my bridesmaids wore a similar color for our wedding in 1985. Check it out..

I even had a couch similar to this color...still can't believe my hubby agreed to that!

Anyways...Sweet Sugarplum is a nice purple-pink color which is much darker, and nicer than the old Mauve Mist  or Pale Plum that SU! used to have when I first started stamping.

Peekaboo Peach is dusty peach color that is really true to the fruit it's named after. Again, I remember wearing lots of clothing in the late 80's that were lighter shades of peach.

The closest color comparisons I can think of are Peach Parfait  which as you can see is darker and Apricot Appeal,which didn't photograph well here, but you can see is much lighter.

Flirty Flamingo reminds me of a nicer shade of Cameo Coral which was a shade when I first started with SU!. I think this is going to look really pretty with Watermelon Wonder and Blushing Bride. This color also makes me think of  the pastel colored t-shirts Don Johnson wore under his white suit on Miami Vice. A quick Google search, and YES! Don Johnson was a Flirty Flamingo fan!

I used to LOVE that show...and of course Sonny Crockett and his partner Ricco Tubbs! I'm sure he wore Peekaboo Peach and Sweet Sugarplum shirts as well!

As you can see with this color comparison, Flirty Flamingo is quite close to Cameo Coral. I think it will work well as a companion to Watermelon Wonder.

Emerald Envy...I look at this color and it takes me back to a favorite pair of tennis shoes I had in the early 90's. They were LA Gear and they were white with Emerald Envy and purple trim. They came with two different colored shoe laces that you could weave together or use one of each!  I thought I was pretty cool in those shoes! LOL I found this image online...maybe not the exact shoes, but same brand & color combo...so see, I wasn't imagining it! They are a pretty close color match don't you think?

Here's how it looks with some previously retired colors...

It's a little more subtle, than Glorious Green with a bit of blue, but obviously not as much blue as Forest Foliage. I think it may play nice with Bermuda Bay or Island Indigo...will have to check that out to see for certain.

Do you have a favorite In Color yet?

Flower Patch of NEW In Colors

I'm excited to finally receive my pre-order for the upcoming new catalog! That means five brand new In Colors to play with! I LOVE color...but never quite know how I feel about the colors until I get them in my hands and try them in person. Flower Patch is a good set to use when experimenting with color...here's my first card I made while playing with the new colors...I used each and every new In Color on this card!

While I'm sad to see this years rich, beautiful colors go, I'm happy to say that there are a couple new colors that I just love and the rest I like quite a bit. Sometimes there is at least one that I don't care for and have a hard time using...but this time I can see using them all and I rather like how they work together. They are fun, happy colors!

The base of the card is Peekaboo Peach, the matting layer is Dapper Denim, the ribbon is Sweet Sugarplum Ruched Ribbon, the leaves are Emerald Envy (both stamped off, and full strength) and finally, Flirty Flamingo was used on the flower centers. Which of these new In Colors do you like the best?

I also used a new stamp set called Thoughtful Banners. This is a great set that contains 46 different words that can be combined to create your perfect sentiment plus several shapes. The BEST part is that there are two new coordinating punches that go with this stamp set as well! One is a label shape (shown above) which was not available to pre-order. (I had to hand cut for this card)  The other punch is called Duet Banner and I can already tell I'll be using it a LOT! I'll be getting the other one in June on my first new catalog order for sure.

Check back tomorrow when I will have a set of five cards using each of the new colors.

Flower Patch Gift Set

I just loved the adorable little journal shown on page 155 of the now retired 2014-15 catalog, but it took me a while to actually make one! The little grid journals are now retired, as well as a few of the other things I used, but there are always current products available to recreate something similar.

The little journal and card fits perfectly inside the decorated Chevron Gift Bag...these little bags are still available but they are now only available in plain kraft...ready for you to stamp any design you wish. These little bags are actually part of this weeks Weekly Deals offering.

The coordinating birthday card uses one of my favorite new embossing folders...Elegant Dots.

Colors used: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay & Pear Pizzazz.

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Share the Fun!

Look what showed up at my house yesterday afternoon!!!

It's my pre-order from the upcoming new catalog! Look at all these awesome new goodies...can you guess what I played with first???

The first thing I grabbed was the new In Color inks to see the true color stamped on Whisper White. I am never sure if I am going to like the new In Colors when they are only visible online. I ordered them all and after seeing them in person I'm happy to report that I like all the new colors. That's three years in a row now that I've really liked all the In Colors.

Say hello to Stampin' Up!'s 2015-17 In Colors...

The base of the card and the leaves are Mint Macaron, which was over stamped with Cucumber Crisp for the leaf detail. The Hardwood stamped panel and center of the flower are Tip Top Taupe. The largest layer of the flower is stamped in Watermelon Wonder and the "HELLO" greeting is stamped on the coordinating card stock. The medium sized flower is stamped in Delightful Dijon.

The delicate lace down the center of the card is one of the new In Color accessories called 1" Dotted Lace Trim. It is available in all five colors.

Don't you just love having new colors to play with!? Which one is your favorite? Any guesses on which new color is my fav?