Burg Thurant

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Birthday celebrations are done, for me at least--the hubs, Ryan, and Daphne all have their birthdays in February.  We had a busy weekend doing All The Things like the Pikes Peak cog train on Saturday and the ice castles near Cripple Creek yesterday.  I need to take a look at all the photos from the weekend and they'll be future scrapbook pages : )

For today's scrapbook layouts, I have another German castle.  We went to Burg Thurant on the same day we visited Burg Eltz, so these pages will be next to each other in my scrapbooks.

I actually liked Burg Thurant better than Burg Eltz; it's much smaller and cozier, and while Burg Eltz is still intact and inhabited, Burg Thurant is neither.  But I got a good vibe off it and we enjoyed our very short visit since we arrived like 30 minutes before they closed.

I was having fun taking some detail shots around the castle and Ryan got to hold a sword.

Today's color palette was inspired by the flowers all around the castle grounds:  Fresh Freesia, Daffodil Delight, Grapefruit Grove, Gumball Green, Pebbled Path, and Whisper White.  It felt a bit out of the ordinary for me, but I thought they worked well with the photos.

Time to get Ryan to school and for once there's no delay or anything, hurrah!  I was halfway expecting a delay or cancellation today because we got several inches of snow over the weekend, so I'm glad that I was wrong because that means after I go to the grocery store and walk Daphne, I get some crafty time.  Woohoo!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Back to Basics Alphabet, Letters for You, Carte Postale, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Grapefruit Grove, Gumball Green, Thick Basic White, Watercolor Wonder DSP
Accessories:  1" and 1 1/4" square punches

Burg Eltz

Scrappy Monday, y'all, with an emphasis on MONDAY.  I was about to get Ryan out the door for his first day of soccer camp and we discovered a giant roach in the house.  So I took care of that, dropped Ryan off, and went to Walmart to buy Sphaghetti-Os because Ryan thinks they're a food group and we were almost out.  I was walking towards the store, minding my own business, when a big black bird whacked into my head!  (I don't know if he's a raven or a crow, but something like that.). I yelled "REALLY?!  WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" while the bird strutted off, supremely unconcerned by my indignation.  So I bought Star Wars Oreos to soothe my ruffled feathers (pun intended) and on the way back to my car THE SAME DANG BIRD DID IT AGAIN.  And that is why I am eating Oreos for breakfast.

Anyway, I did finally take pictures of a giant stack of scrapbook layouts last week so for today I have two layouts from that batch.  Here's the first one:

Unlike most of the castles we visited in Europe, Burg Eltz is privately owned by the Eltz family to this day and they still live there.  It was about a two-hour drive from our house to the castle, which is situated in a forested valley so you pretty much can't see it until you're super close to it.

Ryan paid attention to the tour guide's spiel and asked a question or two about the castle that showed he really was listening, which surprised the tour guide (and to be honest, the hubs and I were wondering what was going to come out of his mouth when his hand shot up to ask a question).  We got some snacks in the castle's cafe before we left, and we decided to hike back to the parking lot so we got more pictures of the castle from the surrounding forest.  It was pretty cool and obviously I had a lot of pictures I liked and I couldn't narrow it down more than this, so two layouts it is.

Today's color palette:  Pale Papaya, Balmy Blue, Pear Pizzazz, Grapefruit Grove, Gumball Green, and Whisper White.

Okay, I have just over an hour and a half left before I have to go pick Ryan up, so I'm going to work on my last batch of scrapbook layouts before I get things ready to move--packers will be here next Monday!  Eek!  But maybe I'll eat one more Oreo first.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Back to Basics Alphabet, Letters for You, Carte Postale, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Pale Papaya, Grapefruit Grove, Gumball Green, Thick Basic White, You're a Peach DSP
Accessories:  1" and 1 1/4" square punches

Ryan: December

Howdy y'all!  Ready for another baby book layout?

Since I used the traditional Christmas colors on Ryan's 10-month layout, I wasn't worried about doing that for this layout.  I chose Baked Brown Sugar to coordinate with the bear onesie in the top picture, and that led me to the Retro Fresh DSP.  I love that pattern with the multicolored squares so I was happy to use some of it on here.  The bottom three pics on the right are all from Ryan's first trip to Texas; he got to take a bath in his Mimi's kitchen sink.  He's way too big (and wiggly) to fit in a kitchen sink now.

Today's Retro Fresh color palette is Baked Brown Sugar (apparently I was confused when I took the palette picture, I used Soft Suede), Tangerine Tango, Call Me Clover (which is not in the DSP but the color seemed to jive with the rest of the color palette), Coastal Cabana, So Saffron, and Very Vanilla.  Not at all traditional Christmas or winter colors, but I like it.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Letters for You, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Call Me Clover, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Call Me Clover, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, Retro Fresh DSP
Accessories:  Retro Fresh Accents & Stickers

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Scrappy Monday!  I'm back with another Europe layout; today we're in Italy!

Check out the original pictures here. I said a while back that I used Dusty Durango on several layouts in a row, behold the evidence!  I've done a lot of layouts with castles and other buildings that are primarily gray, so it's always been a personal challenge to make the layouts look different from each other and play with different colors.  For this one, there were some orangey accents on the not-Leaning-Tower buildings, so that led me to Dusty Durango, and I "cooled it down" with greens and gray taken directly from the pictures.

So here's today's palette:  Dusty Durango, Smoky Slate, Pistachio Pudding, Garden Green, and Whisper White.  What do you think?

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Letters for You, Make a Difference, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Garden Green, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Dusty Durango, Pistachio Pudding, Garden Green, Thick Whisper White, All Is Calm DSP
Accessories:  None

Germany, Part 4: Hohenschwangau

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  We're up to Germany layout #4, which was our tour of Hohenschwangau.

See the pics here.  I have to say, I would never ever put Mossy Meadow and Mint Macaron together on my own, but somehow the Garden Lane paper makes it work.  There's tiny little dots of Pear Pizzazz on the patterned paper as well, but they're so small and Pear Pizzazz has enough yellow in it that they read more yellow with the addition of Delightful Dijon photo mats.

As discussed above, today's color palette includes Mossy Meadow, Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron, Night of Navy, and Whisper White.  Next Monday will be the final Germany layout...for now ;)  Auf wiedersehen, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Hello Lovely, Tim Holtz Christmas Alphabet
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Delightful Dijon, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Garden Lane DSP
Accessories:  7/8" square punch

China: JC Mandarin (Shanghai)

It's China Sunday again!  So after we finished up at the gardens, it was teatime.

I've shared this layout before, and I still love it.  I should bust out the Pale Plum more often.  And everything I used on this layout is now retired.  (Doesn't mean I can't still use it for my scrapbooks, obviously!)

So here is today's new layout:

This is the only time I've ever used Rose Red as a page base, I'm not sure why.  I do really like the color but I think it was more fun to work with before they retired Regal Rose because those two paired so nicely.  And now they're both retired and can hang out by the pool together.  Anyway, this was our hotel in Shanghai and that foyer is pretty grand.  Missy always takes pictures of her hotel rooms so every China hotel layout is her pictures :). Of course usually there's only a couple of pictures, so it's kind of fun to do a layout every once in a while where I'm not trying to cram in as many pictures as I can possibly fit on two 12x12 sheets of cardstock.

Today's color palette is Rose Red, Bermuda Bay, Sahara Sand, So Saffron, Basic Gray, and Whisper White.  It's a LOT of color but I think I made it work?  And I should definitely try some Rose Red page bases again in the future.

Breakfast should be coming out of the oven in a few minutes, so cheers, y'all!  Have a great Sunday.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Hello Lovely
Ink:  So Saffron, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Rose Red, So Saffron, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Thoroughly Modern DSP
Accessories:  lettering template, square punch

Copenhagen

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I've got a LOT of scrapbook layouts waiting to be shared which means I've gotten a lot of pages done :) So how about one I finished up just last week?

Copenhagen was the last stop on our Baltic cruise; we got a hotel room so we could spend a full day there before we went back home (check out all the pictures here).  For this one, I used Mindy Backes' favorite color combination of Tranquil Tide, Lemon Lime Twist, and Calypso Coral.  Are you squinting to see where I used Lemon Lime Twist and thinking I made some mistake?  It's there...the patterned paper strip that goes across both pages used to be a Tranquil Tide pattern on Whisper White, but I sponged it with LLT.  I wanted to tone down the white a little so it wouldn't compete with the journaling block, and that did the trick!

I stamped my title directly on another piece of patterned paper in the Delightful Daisy pack.  I liked the watercolor feel of the patterns and thought they went well with the Little Mermaid statue in the photos.

So there's my color palette, as I mentioned:  Tranquil Tide, Lemon Lime Twist, Calypso Coral, Night of Navy, and Whisper White.  I had fun with these colors together so thanks to Mindy for the combination!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spencerian Alphabet, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Night of Navy, Calypso Coral, Lemon Lime Twist
Paper:  Tranquil Tide, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Delightful Daisy DSP
Accessories:  None

Castell Coch

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I've got a busy day ahead:  have to clean up the house and bake a few things because I'm hosting book club tonight.  So why did the hubs and I choose to take apart the couch yesterday, clean the cushions and restuff them?  Whoops.

So anyway, today's scrapbook layout is one that took like two weeks to finish for no particular reason.  It just took forever for me to get from the start to the end, but I like how it turned out.

Photos here.  Castell Coch means "Red Castle" in Welsh; we heard it was because a former owner of said castle had red hair, though Wikipedia thinks that it's because the sandstone used to build it is kind of reddish.  Either way, I had to use Ruby Red for my page base because reasons.

I've been using Jayne's Type Alphabet (usually along with Rough Type) for the titles on all my Welsh pages.  I've done ten Wales layouts and I still have five to go.  We saw a lot of castles in Wales.  Anyway, my Ruby Red pad is pretty old (obviously, since the color retired quite a long time ago) so I hit it with some ink refill before I stamped the title and it worked like a champ.  Oh, part of the reason why it took so long to finish this layout:  I stamped the square embellishments and punched them out with a 5/8" square punch.  Did I have a 3/4" square punch to mat with?  Noooooo.  I tried cutting 3/4" squares with my paper trimmer, but I always got them a little lopsided and my crafty OCD was not okay with that.  This is why Amazon Prime is a really, really dangerous thing for me.  Got the punch two days later and voila!  Finally finished.

Today's color combo:  Ruby Red, Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi, Basic Gray, and Whisper White.  Sometimes I get stuck on one color and use it on several layouts in a row; this time it was Ruby Red and I did SIX layouts with it over three different places/events.  I also used the Ginger Blossom DSP on all of them too.  The other five layouts are going in my China albums though.

That's it for me today.  I'm off to bake an apple cake because happily the hubs has the day off work so HE can watch the baby while I bake.  Then we have to put the couch back together.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Jayne's Type Alphabet, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Ruby Red, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Ruby Red, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Ginger Blossom DSP
Accessories:  Square punches

Making of Harry Potter

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today is J.K. Rowling's birthday (and also Harry Potter's), so that means today is the perfect day to share pages from the Harry Potter studio tour!

I've already shared the layouts from our second visit; this was the first time that hubs and I went (the second time we went with my family when they visited us in England).  You can see those layouts here, here, and here.  And if you look at those, you'll notice that I always do PURPLE when it's Harry Potter related.  Not that I think purple is necessarily Harry's favorite color or anything, but purple just seems like the most magical color to me.

Detail shot of the accents I stamped.  I love these kind of stamps, where it's a pretty design like you might find on tiles or something, to use on my scrapbook pages.  (This one is from the retired stamp set Hello Lovely.)

And here's my second layout.  I did FIVE for the other trip to the studio tour, but this time when we went we only took the little camera and I was more focused on looking at the things on display than I was on taking pictures of them.  And even so I couldn't squeeze everything into one layout ;)

Today's magical color palette consists of Sweet Sugarplum, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, and Whisper White.  Those first three color names sound like a really weird salad.

Okay, it's about time to get the wee bairn off to bed for a nap.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello, Lovely
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Blackberry Bliss marker
Paper:  Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Whisper White, Cast-a-Spell DSP, Rich Razzleberry DSP
Accessories:  1" square punch, postage stamp punch

Notre Dame

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your weekend?  Yesterday was my first (human) Mother's Day...after all, I've been a dog mama for over a decade ;) But this was the first year I've had a tiny human child on Mother's Day.  So the hubs and Tiny Human Child made me waffles for breakfast (yum!), then I got to go get a massage and a facial (which I found out about 10 minutes before I got there!), and then the hubs and I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 while Tiny Human Child entertained some friends.  Pretty awesome first human Mother's Day, I think.

Anyway, it's time for a scrapbook layout!  Coincidentally, today's pages are from our first trip to Paris, which was also a surprise to me...although this time I found out about it about a week before we left.

See the pictures up close and personal here and here (we went to Notre Dame on two different days, hence the blue, blue sky in one photo and the overcast skies in all the other pics).  I did this layout either right before or right after the Nijo Castle one, remember how I said I tend to use a color several times?  More Elegant Eggplant, right here.  I paired it with Kiwi Kiss and Cameo Coral from the Raspberry Tart DSP (one of my all-time favorite packs), and some Bordering Blue mats on the photos.

I've used the Empire Alphabet and that Eiffel Tower image from Artistic Etchings on all my Paris pages from this trip, so they all look like they go together without having to be all the same colors or anything.  And take a closer look at that patterned paper, isn't it GORGEOUS :D

As I mentioned above, today's color palette includes Elegant Eggplant, Cameo Coral, Kiwi Kiss, Bordering Blue, and Whisper White.  And the middle three colors are now all retired.  I do use a LOT of retired stash in my scrapbooks...that's why I have it, right?

Okay, Tiny Human Child is now asleep, so I'm going to do some dishes and maybe sneak down to the craft room while he naps.  I'm working on a big project right now and I've got 7 layouts left to do, but I'm getting a little unmotivated because it's a very limited color palette and I kinda wanna work on something else for a hot minute.  So maybe I'll do one layout of something else and then come back to this project...hoping to start unveiling it in the next week or two.  I WILL finish it by the end of the month!  #goals

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Empire Alphabet, Artistic Etchings, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, Bordering Blue
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Bordering Blue, Whisper White, Raspberry Tart DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits

Friday Flashback: Express Yourself

Happy Friday, peeps!  This week's Friday Flashback stamp set is Express Yourself, a collection of sentiment stamps that was a hostess set in the 2013-14 catalog.  A lot of times I don't use hostess sets a whole lot, but I do love this one so let's go!

Also features Hello Lovely

Something CAS to start off with; I think that Eastern Elegance DSP was one of my all-time faves.

Also features Falling Leaves

This was for one of the crazier Splitcoast sketches; I haven't done one of their challenges in a long time actually.

Oops, I chose the pic that doesn't have the entire card front on it but you get the idea.  Made this for the hubs for our 10th anniversary a couple years ago.

Also features Hearts a Flutter

Another CAS creation...

Also features Best of Autumn

And here's another fall card.  I like that leaf, it's a pretty image.

Also features Serene Silhouettes

I loved how the color wash looks on the silhouette image panel, and then right when I was finishing up this card I got a smudge on it.  Oops.

Also features Lovely as a Tree

Are you seeing a trend with the sentiment stamp yet?  The other sentiments are perfectly good too but I seem to be drawn to that "always thinking of you one".  And for my next trick:

Yup, I used the same sentiment on today's new card.  I do love how this one turned out though, I used the color challenge from Colour Q:

Those colors just screamed FALL to me so I went with it (though I do have some flower stamps that look like the images on that phone case).  Fall is my favorite time of year; I'm looking forward to cooler temperatures, sweaters and scarves without being absolutely frozen solid, and of course fall baking.  Because Thanksgiving.  And I just love baking.  Washing the dishes afterwards, not so much :p

I based my card layout off of this older Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch, but the linky is closed for it.

That's it for me this week, have a great weekend.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Express Yourself, Gently Falling, Sanded
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal, Rich Razzleberry, Sahara Sand
Paper:  Early Espresso, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Autumn Meadows DSP
Accessories:  Wide oval punch, Dimensionals

2014 Showcase, Part 2

Welcome back for Part 2 of the 2014 Showcase here at Snapdragon Stamps!  Let's go.

Eastern Influences

My pick for May is this scrapbook layout of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan.  Some great pictures that I'm so glad are immortalized on a scrapbook layout, and a great excuse to use some of my favorite colors :)  However, I couldn't pick just one project for May, so here's a bonus:

Hello Lovely, Nacho card!

This card took under 5 minutes to make and I still love it.  That patterned paper is workin', y'all!  Proof that a really cute card doesn't have to take forever.

Wanderlust, World Map, The Open Sea, Nacho card!

June's pick is this travel-inspired card, which I immediately sent to a friend who travels so much that she makes me and the hubs look like shut-ins.  In three years, she and her hubs visited 50 countries!

Stippled Blossoms, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Nacho card!

My July pick is yet another Nacho card, this time anniversary roses.  I do love those roses.

Starburst Sayings, Alphabet Rotary, Gorgeous Grunge, Positively Chevron, Nacho card!

And finally, my August pick could be none other than this Princess Bride-inspired Inigo Montoya card.  I giggled like crazy the whole time I was making it and I know it gave my dad a chuckle when he opened it up, too.

One more part of the 2014 Showcase coming up, but first...ya know tomorrow is Nacho Average Challenges day :)

Hello, Lovely Nachos!

That title pretty much says it all today :)  We've got a fun sketch for you today from Nacho Average Challenges, check it out:

Ok, let me just tell you that I almost feel EMBARRASSED about how fast my card came together!  Like, five minutes.  Probably would have been three but I didn't get a good image the first time I stamped, so I had to do it a second time.  So here's my creation:

Kind of seriously in love with this.  That lovely patterned paper pretty much does all the work; just one stamp and a couple pearls and it's done!  LOVE IT.  See, cute cards don't have to take forever...this was waaayyyy less time than it would have taken me to choose a card in a store ;)

So get ready for some speed-stamping...check out the Nacho blog and then let's see what you create!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello Lovely
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Wisteria Wonder
Paper:  Wisteria Wonder, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla, Afternoon Picnic DSP
Accessories:  Decorative Label punch, pearls, Dimensionals

Rock of Cashel

Since today is St. Patrick's Day, it seems an appropriate time to share a scrapbook layout from our trip to Ireland a few years ago, don't you think?  Behold!

You can see my original blog post on these pictures here.  I still have lots of Ireland pics to scrapbook, and my plan is to use a shade of green as the base for every layout.  I used the long-retired Handsome Hunter on this layout and just a few pops of yellow.

Happy St. Paddy's Day, hope you're wearing green!  Erin go bragh!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Lovely Letters Alphabet, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Handsome Hunter, So Saffron
Paper:  Handsome Hunter, Very Vanilla, non-SU DSP
Accessories:  Non

Glastonbury Abbey

So I've got one more week from today until I take that dreaded comprehensive exam, urgh!  I haven't studied all weekend either, so it's time to hit the books.  But next week I can start posting all-new stuff again instead of dipping into my draft post pile :)  So here's a scrapbook layout (click to embiggen):

In 2011, hubs and I took a road trip to Cornwall and then up to Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon; Glastonbury Abbey is kind of between Cornwall and Warwick and is supposedly where King Arthur and Queen Guinevere are buried (according to one very PR-savvy monk who used the tale to raise lots and lots of money to rebuild the abbey after a disastrous fire).  You can see my original blog posts (and lots more pictures of the abbey ruins) here and here.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Four Frames, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Night of Navy, Summer Starfruit, Marina Mist, Garden Green
Paper:  Night of Navy, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Sycamore Street DSP
Accessories:  Decorative Label punch, Oval Framelits

Happy Hexagons for the Nachos

Happy Tuesday!  Are you ready for another awesome Nacho Average color challenge?

Well, I suppose I coulda done some non-traditional fall leaves or something, but instead I went with hexagons:

Just a bit of fun with Six-Sided Sampler : )  This would have been even easier if I'd just punched the hexagons out of patterned paper, but I liked the mix of hexagon stamps and the bold sentiment stamp from Hello, Lovely.

So now it's your turn!  Post your creation on the Nacho Average Challenges blog and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Six-Sided Sampler, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Marina Mist, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Early Espresso, Whisper White
Accessories:  Hexagon punch, Dimensionals

Amazing You

Howdy folks!  Finally got my card done for today :)  I think I need to quit procrastinating!  Or, y'know, quit doing the dishes or something, 'cause that sucks up a lot of time...or maybe it only seems like it sucks up a lot of time because I procrastinate about doing the dishes too.  Hmm.

I combined today's SCS color challenge with the current sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch for a very CAS card.  The Crushed Curry images (whadya call those anyway?) are popped up on Dimensionals and I put rhinestones in the centers for a little bling.  A bit of patterned paper and a sentiment, and this card was finished in record time.  Why did I choose that "amazing you" sentiment?  No idea, I just liked it :)

Here's the sketch:

Lookit that, I actually did pretty much exactly the same as the sketch.  Yay me.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a lovely day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello, Lovely; Express Yourself
Ink:  Crushed Curry
Paper:  Whisper White, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  rhinestones, Dimensionals