Traditional Valentine

Mornin' y'all!  Ooh, I'm actually getting a post done in the morning, yippee for me.  Still haven't busted out any of my new stamps yet, but I did get some things done yesterday, including this Valentine:

The Shopping Our Stash challenge right now is to use something old with something new, so I paired the new Valentine DSP with old dies (Hearts Collection Framelits) and an old stamp set (Country Bouquet).  The only Valentine stamp set I've bought this time around is the Valentine Kisses one with the bears, 'cause you know I love bears, so I used some older heart things already in my stash.  Anyway, I paired all my Valentine goodness with the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

Their sketch prior to this one was really fun too and I'm sad I didn't get to participate, but sometimes challenges get away from me.  I had fun with this sketch though.

So my plan today, after I eat breakfast and take Daphne for her walk, is to actually bust out at least one of my new stamp sets : )  I have some design team work that I need to do and I have some ideas swirling for that.  And I need to do Ryan's laundry; I did four loads of laundry yesterday but that was all my clothes and some towels, didn't get to Ryan's yet.  Super fun times.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Country Bouquet
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo, Versamark
Paper:  Real Red, Flirty Flamingo, Bubble Bath, Made with Love DSP
Accessories:  Hearts Collection Framelits, Mini Dimensionals, White Opaque Gems

Just My Cuppa

Afternoon, y'all!  I can't seem to get ahead this week--I didn't end up getting anything made in my craft room yesterday after driving the hubs to his appointment, though I did get a nice fat box of SU! goodies unpacked.  Okay it seems like half of it was empty stamp cases to put my newly unmounted stamps in, but still, I do have some new stamp sets to play with.

So what did I do today?  Pulled out a stamp set that's been retired for years : )

I was very intrigued by the color challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

I read it as Concord Crush, Peach Pie, and Basic Beige; the first two are long-retired In Colors and I particularly love that super-dark purple.  I was thinking about these colors a lot yesterday but couldn't get them to work in my brain with any of the current sketch challenges, so enter the new Freshly Made Sketch:

And then my card came together very quickly, go figure.  Once again I stamped directly on DSP (a Basic Beige pattern from Peaceful Garden) and then the rest of it was just playing with the colors and the patterns in an old In Color DSP stack.  A few rhinestones that have probably been in my stash for like ten years and it's done.

Ryan has STEM club after school today which means extra crafty time, so I'd better go use it since he's got early release on Friday and I haven't done this week's Nancy Drew cards yet.  Back up to the craft room I go.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tea Party
Ink:  Concord Crush
Paper:  Basic Beige, Concord Crush, Peaceful Garden DSP, In Color 6x6 DSP Pack
Accessories:  Layering Ovals dies, Dimensionals, rhinestones

Mini Frosty Duo

Mornin' y'all!  How's your Tuesday going?  My hand is now green *and* purple instead of just purple from my fall on Saturday, but my shoulder and arm are hurting less so I think that's an improvement.  And if I'm careful, I can still stamp, though I haven't tried stitching yet.  I'm even still working out, though I'm not using weights and I'm skipping anything that involves putting weight on my right hand, at least I'm still doing it.

So CAS on Fridays wants to see a snowman, and I've got a mini-sized one to share today, times two:

One anniversary year, SU! did 12 "Best of" sets where they brought back images from previous stamp sets, and this little dude is a miniature version of Frosty, which was a hugely popular stamp set when I first started stamping and of course I have him.  I paired him with the colors from CAS Colours & Sketches:

I made the card on the left first, but then I thought it was too much Secret Sea and not enough of the other two colors, so I made the card on the right.  What do you think?  The only embellishment I did is to go over the "Enjoy" on each card with Wink of Stella for a bit of subtle shine.

I need to finish my tea and take Daphne for her daily walk; this afternoon I have to take the hubs to an optometry appointment (he's getting his eyes dilated so can't drive himself), so that will cut short crafty time today.  Which just means that I need to be efficient this morning : )  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Snow, Heartfelt Hellos
Ink:  Secret Sea, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Stampin' Blends in Secret Sea, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Smoky Slate, one of the neutral browns for his carrot nose
Paper:  Secret Sea, Basic White
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Wink of Stella

Bear Hugs

Afternoon, y'all!  My hand is feeling better, though it's still purple; my right shoulder and arm are what bother me more, really.  Be careful when you're walking around where it's icy!  I was Very Careful when I took Daphne out this morning.  I just saw her slip a bit on ice on our back patio when I let her out a minute ago, but she managed to stay on her feets so she does better than I do.  She does have twice as many feets though.

Anyway, since I am feeling okay (if a bit sore), I got in my craft room today and made a few things, including a card to share this afternoon:

Y'all KNOW I love anything with bears!  I got the Valentine Kisses bundle in...November I think?  But I hadn't done anything at all with it yet, not even stamping an index sheet for it until today.  Which means I can share this at Inspire. Create.:

I didn't want to let last week's CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch go by without playing along:

And last up is the new Color Care Challenge:

This seemed like the perfect excuse to cut into my new Made With Love DSP, so I hit the top row of colors with Bubble Bath, Flirty Flamingo, and Real Red, plus a dose of Pecan Pie and Ivory for my kissy-face bear.  There are lots of fun patterns in this DSP, I will have to play with it some more, love it.

Anyway, I've got just over an hour until I need to leave to pick Ryan up from school, so I'm going to go back up to my craft room and see what I can make for tomorrow.  Side note:  the cookie dough Oreos that just came out are dangerously good, which I should have known already because I seriously love Oreos (except anything that's like java or mint, ick), but they only had a couple of packages of them at my grocery store so if you, too, love Oreos, be on the lookout for those.  That is my Public Service Announcement of the day.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Valentine Kisses
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Stampin' Blends in Bubble Bath, Flirty Flamingo, Pecan Pie, Ivory
Paper:  Bubble Bath, Real Red, Thick Basic White, Made With Love DSP
Accessories:  Valentine Kisses dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Dots for Days

A Rockin' Color Challenge from The Paper Players

Happy Sunday and welcome to the first Paper Players challenge of the new year!  The lovely LeAnne is starting us off with some fun colors:

Now, these would be perfect for a fun wintry card, but of course I had to go in a different direction.  Here's what I made:

Try as I might, I could not get a true-to-life photo of this card, but I promise that the card base and DSP are Misty Moonlight, the ribbon and greeting are Night of Navy, and the disco balls and stars are silver.  I blame Jaydee for this, she's always making cards with wonderful dies and it's 100% her fault that I ended up buying a bunch of Spellbinders dies during their year-end sale.  Why did I want disco ball dies?  Not a clue, but as soon as I saw them I *needed* them, ha!  So I had to break them out for this challenge.

Don't forget to check out what the other Paper Players made with this fun combo:

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

you are here --> Christy Stanford

And then upload your card at the Paper Players blog!  Keep in mind a few simple rules:
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL
4.  Have fun!

I might be quiet for a few days; yesterday when I took my girl Daphne out for a walk, we were almost back home when I hit a patch of ice and fell down.  I hit my right hand pretty hard, which is unfortunate because I'm right-handed, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to do much with that hand for a few days.  I can move everything so I'm pretty sure at least that I didn't break anything, it's just swollen and bruised, and my right arm and shoulder are sore today.  So I'll be relaxing with a cuppa tea and a movie if you need me.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Starstruck from Verve Stamps
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Silver Foil, Silver Glimmer, Misty Moonlight DSP
Accessories:  Disco Ball dies from Spellbinders, bordered Night of Navy ribbon

The Scarlet Slipper Mystery

Happy Saturday and welcome to a new Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we're investigating The Scarlet Slipper Mystery, Nancy's thirty-second adventure.

Both covers today are by Rudy Nappi.  On the left we have Nancy in a lovely scarlet shirt, examining a painting with George and Ned behind her.  I think this is meant to be a scene at a cabin belonging to Ned's parents, and nice to see Ned get onto a cover.  Believe it or not, this is Ned's first cover appearance, at least of all the editions I own.

On the right is the RT, and once again we have Nancy examining a painting, but this time by herself and also I really want her shirt.  I like that we see more of the painting in this one and I'm already biased towards the green/blue end of the spectrum, so when you add in Nancy's awesome shirt that means the RT cover is my favorite for this set.

Let's take a look inside:

Case file:  Nancy befriends Henri and Helene Fontaine, brother/sister dance school owners who have received threatening messages telling them to leave River Heights.  Nancy stashes them at a lakeside cabin owned by Ned's parents and then runs the dance school with Bess while trying to figure out who's after the Fontaines.  We have jewel smuggling and political intrigue for the fictional communist-controlled country of Centrovia, the Fontaines' homeland, and Nancy and her friends almost die in a fire set by the bad guys (oops).

Here's my card:

Did I buy ballet-themed stamps just for this book challenge?  Obviously.  I had to make a card featuring the titular scarlet slippers.  While Henri and Helene had a real pair of scarlet ballet slippers worn by their mother, the important ones in the mystery are on a painting Henri did of Helene which was then used by the bad guys for international jewel smuggling, which is pretty creative if you ask me.

I took my card colors of of what we can see of the painting on the right side, so I used So Saffron and Cherry Cobbler.  The slippers might look lighter than Cherry Cobbler, but that's what I used, and then I watercolored them a little bit too.  I used some Charming Shimmer Faceted Dots as accents to go with the jewels in the story.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  En Pointe, Ballet Beauty
Ink:  Versamark, Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  So Saffron, Butterfly Bijou DSP Stack, Regal Winter DSP, So Saffron DSP
Accessories:  Clear EP, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, Charming Shimmer Faceted Dots

Next up is the RT:

No major changes for the revised text, though I will say I think a weak point of this book is that there are too many characters.  We have Nancy's usual Drew Crew plus the Fontaines, an entire ring of bad guys, Nancy's ballet students, and several others to keep track of.  Anyway, I still love Nancy's shirt and here's my card:

I actually got TWO ballet stamp sets for this ; ) and I wanted to use one of the dancer images on this card, so I chose the one that most closely matched the painting on the cover of the book.

I also kept a moody Pretty Peacock background like on the book cover, but I chose to stamp the dancer on some Delicate Desert DSP to give me a range of peachy pinks (and also, I have really enjoyed stamping directly on DSP lately, have you noticed that?).  Once again, I chose rhinestones to accent the image to coordinate with the jewels in the book (ever notice how many Nancy Drews involve jewels?  The answer is many many).  I also used the same dies so these cards look to me like the coordinate even without the books.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ballet Beauty
Ink:  Secret Sea, Petal Pink, Stampin' Blends in Petal Pink & Calypso Coral
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Thick Basic White, Delicate Desert DSP, Regal Winter DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Noble Peacock Rhinestones, Dimensionals

This is the first book since The Mystery of the Ivory Charm to include political intrigue for a foreign country, and once again I think The Scarlet Slipper Mystery is loads better than Ivory Charm.  I give it four stars, the dancing and painting aspects were fun but it was a lot of characters to keep straight.  If you're inspired to make a card for this challenge, leave me a comment here.  And check back next Saturday, when we puzzle out The Witch Tree Symbol!

Something Beautiful

Mornin' y'all!  It is a snow day here in Colorado and I think that Winter has been saving up all the snow for this snowstorm because we'd had almost nothing all winter and them BAM.  For reals, we had absolutely nothing on the ground when it started snowing yesterday morning, and when Ryan, Daphne, and I went out this morning, there were some places with drifts up to my KNEES!!

They were having the time of their lives, they both love it.  I should have taken pictures once we got to the big open green space, they both had so much fun running around.

I took this pic yesterday afternoon and we have far more snow today than we did then.  I think I shall be content to stay indoors with a lovely giant cuppa tea (more likely several in succession), the kids can enjoy the snow without me!

Anyway, I do have a card to share today:

Okay I told you I love that new Nature Walk DSP, I already ordered a second pack of it so I can have one pack to hoard and one pack to make pretty things with.  The deer and the trees are from the new Outdoor Adventure (I haven't seen other stampers do much with this yet, but I love it), and I chose a greeting from the long-retired Beautiful Thistle because it seemed right on this card.  The deer and trees are both stamped directly on DSP, the deer is on a different piece that has a bit of a grid pattern on it in a more Crumb Cake color, and then I did the greeting on Very Vanilla sponged with Pecan Pie.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Lots of wide-open space for creativity with that sketch, love it.

Okay, now I really need that cuppa tea.  The hubs is out shoveling the driveway (I did it yesterday before he got home, but this morning it looked like I never even touched it), or at least that's what he was doing when Ryan, Daphne, and I came back from our walk through the snowdrifts.  I think Ryan is trying to sled down one side of the driveway.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Outdoor Adventure, Beautiful Thistle
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Pecan Pie, Very Vanilla, Nature Walk DSP
Accessories:  Outdoor Adventure dies, Deckled Rectangles dies, Faux Glass Dots