Hello Bear

Mornin', y'all!  After you come back from a vacation (even a short one), do you feel like you need some time to get back in the stamping groove?  Because I snatched a couple of minutes yesterday to work on a card and it just seemed like my brain didn't quite want to engage.  But eventually I got here:

I started out wanting to make a card with the current stamp set Baby Bear, but three tries went in the trash and I switched Baby Bear for my favorite ever Stampin' Up! bear from Thankful Forest Friends.  Because this week's Cupcake Inspirations challenge is all about da bears!

I've seen those cupcakes before, and in fact I made a version of them with cream cheese frosting and yogurt-covered pretzels to make polar bear cupcakes for my polar bear-loving friend Sarah.  The ones I saw were billed as reindeer cupcakes but I thought they looked more like bears :)

So I paired my bear with the Global Design Project sketch:

And I chose my sentiment after seeing the word prompt challenge at Inkspirational:

My big "hello" stamp is from a retired Sale-a-Bration stamp set called....Hello.  I kinda like the effect of stamping it on the patterned paper; where the paper was white, the stamp came out darker so the words have a floral pattern too.  Fun.

Well, I need to bundle Ryan up and leave for the gym in ten minutes, so I'd better hurry up with my breakfast.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Forest Friends, Hello, Love & Affection (all retired)
Ink:  Basic Black, Garden Green, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, So Saffron & Basic Black DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Layering Circles Framelits

2016 Showcase, Part 1

Mornin', y'all.  I have entered the phase of pregnancy when I'm tired all the time but CANNOT SLEEP more than 3 hours a night.  I swear this kid kicked me around 4:30 this morning so hard that I heard a noise when he did it.  Not even exaggerating.

Happily for me, it's time to do the annual look back at favorite projects from the year.  Most challenges are on hiatus until January and I haven't spent much time in my craft room so this is a great time to not worry about making something new :)  So today let's take a look back at cards from January through April.

This card was for my SIL's baby shower in January; my niece's nursery is decorated with ladybugs but I did this card with the colors we used for her Cinderella baby shower.

I loved this card from February, I don't use big bold sentiments like that too terribly often and this one just speaks to me.

For March, this punch art bear wins the prize for my favorite card of the month.  I actually just sent this one to my friend Missy a few weeks ago, how I managed to hold onto it for 9 months before I mailed it to her I really don't know!

And last up for today is this card from April, which was inspired by the color palette of a bathroom in Disneyland.  Inspiration is everywhere!

I'm off to the gym.  Hubs and I made sticky toffee pudding on Monday night and I feel like I need to live at the gym for a week to offset that.  Cheers, y'all!

Bear Book: June

Well, yesterday's Friday Flashback didn't happen....I went downstairs to work on something, and then couldn't find something in my craft room and got distracted trying to clean out things and organize and then I got a little frustrated so I went back upstairs without actually making anything.  But I do have a bear book layout today!

Nice and summery when we're having Polar Vortex Weekend.

Uh, so I need more summery stamps...the only reason I did a yellow background behind this ice cream-lovin' bear was because I used a little sun stamp on the left-hand page.  Because I don't have any ice cream stamps.

See, I couldn't have just ONE spot of yellow.

But I do have several cherry stamps.

Today's color palette:  Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party, Daffodil Delight, and Whisper White.  Now I'm going to go finish organizing that craft room so I can get back to the fun part!  Wish me luck.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Haagen-Dazs Bear from Whipper Snapper, Fruit & Flowers, Hello
Ink:  Basic Black, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party, Sweet Shoppe DSP
Accessories:  Ovals & Lots of Labels Framelits, circle & scalloped circle punch, Sizzix alphabet, Prismacolor Pencils

Just Hanging Around

Ya know, sometimes I get an idea stuck in my head and I just have to make it as soon as possible.  And sometimes that idea turns into a bear hanging out on a card.  Like this.

I don't hardly ever do punch art, but I got the idea for this bear and it just wouldn't leave me alone, and when I saw this week's color challenge at Create With Connie and Mary, I couldn't resist making a black Baylor bear card.

Well, it doesn't have green, but I think Hello Honey is close enough to gold :)  Basically I pulled out every single SU! circle punch I have and just experimented with different sizes for my bear.  The black part of the eyes is actually a Word Window punch cut in pieces to fit on the smallest circle punch I have, and then the toes are made with a little hole punch.  I'm kind of in love with the hearts for the  nose and feets.  I wanted to use Hardwood for the background, but I didn't want it to be overpowering, so I used a sponge to ink up the stamp and that worked out way better than I even thought it would so yay.

The sketch at Fab Friday was actually what gave me the idea for the bear, but I'm too late to link up over there:

And my bear is a bit of a stretch on the sketch anyway, but I do still have elements above and below the horizontal strip.  Ah well, I love how my bear turned out and I hope you liked her too :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello, Botanicals for You, Hardwood
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Hello Honey, Whisper White
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Cajun Craze, Hello Honey, Basic Black
Accessories:  multiple circle punches, Word Window punch, hole punch, Itty Bitty Punch Pack heart

Jazz Hands!

Hey, y'all.  Sharing is caring, but NOT when you have a cold.  Not sure if it was my mom or my hubs that shared with me, but I'm ready to get rid of it.  All I wanna do is sleep, but yesterday I was pretty productive in the ol' craft cave so I do have a card to share today which is really what you're here for and not me whining about my cold.

Let's take a minute to talk about this card.  I bought Picture Perfect because of the beautiful hummingbird and what have I NOT used yet from that set?  Uh-huh.  But that starfish.  I feel like I could draw a face on the top arm and this is an interpretive dancing starfish.  Jazz hands!  It just seems to have Attitude to me.  Maybe it's the cold meds talking.

Anyway, I used this week's Global Design Project sketch:

I had originally planned to put the seahorse from By the Tide in the lower right corner, but it just didn't look right so Candy Dots to the rescue (how do I love Candy Dots, let me count the ways!).  The color combination is from The Colour Tree:

I stamped the starfish with Crushed Curry (stamped off once) and Hello Honey on top, though really I think those two are practically the same color anyway.  I also added some Smoky Slate because for some reason I am really drawn to blue-yellow-gray color combinations lately.

Well, now I have to decide if I want to go back to sleep for a bit or work on the scrapbook layout I started yesterday.  Which will also be blue-yellow-gray, because if it ain't broke...well, you know.  Peace out, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Picture Perfect, Hello
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Hello Honey, Night of Navy, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Night of Navy, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Hello Honey DSP
Accessories:  Regals Candy Dots

Hello, My Friend

I'm up early this Thursday morning to take my car into the dealership, so it's still dark as I type this.  However, it's supposed to be sunny today, just colder than...something...really cold.  I had no idea where that sentence was going when I started it.  Oh, I've got it:  it's supposed to be colder than Hoth!  Actually no wait, I asked my phone and the high today is 48.  On *Monday* it will be colder than Hoth because the temperature isn't supposed to get above freezing, which was how it happened yesterday.

You know what?  I'm bored of talking about weather.  Let's go for a nice sunshiney card.

Yeah, I got some new stuff yesterday :D  The advantage of ordering a bunch of cardstock and stuff for this baby shower is that since it's Sale-a-Bration, I'm getting lots freebies.  The patterned paper and the sentiment stamp set on this card?  Both free, which is pretty awesome.

Even with new goodies to play with, I was feeling a little stumped until I remembered this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I just loved the Color Throwdown:

I used Garden Green, Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, and Smoky Slate for my interpretation of the colors here.  And my card turned out kind of Baylor-y so I think I know who's going to get it ;)

Anyway, it's just about time for me to leave for the car dealership.  Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello, Picture Perfect
Ink:  Garden Green, Cucumber Crush, Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Garden Green, Tangerine Tango, Thick Whisper White, Perfectly Artistic DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals