A Llama?!

Mornin' y'all!  My mom came through her surgery okay and is in the ICU for a few days to recover.  Hope that all goes smoothly for her.

I have a CAS card to share today:

I'm not sure how much I like my coloring job but I did like the color combo from Creative Colour Challenges:

I decided to have another hack at the Freshly Made Sketch for this week and keep it more CAS this time:

Because the CAS on Friday challenge is to make a card featuring an animal, so of course my first thought was this adorable llama.  I just went with die cut letters for the greeting because I wanted to keep that strip pretty narrow.

That's it for now, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Long Time No See
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Gray Granite, Petunia Pop, Pool Party
Paper:  Gray Granite, Pool Party, Petunia Pop, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  alphabet dies, Dimensionals

The Message in the Hollow Oak

Welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today's book is number twelve, The Message in the Hollow Oak.

This time, the revised text is completely different from the original and both of them are a trip.  Let's take a look at them, starting with the original text.

Quick side note:  I love the horse playing peekaboo by Nancy's hip, I didn't notice him at first and now he makes me giggle every time I look at the cover.  Peekaboo!

Case file:  Nancy wins a radio contest and the prize is the deed to some land in a super remote part of Canada, so she, Bess, and George head for the border with an older lady to chaperone them.  They're involved in a pretty serious train accident but keep on going anyway, only to discover that unscrupulous men are digging for gold on Nancy's land.  She manages to trick the thieves and ends up with a bag of gold and along the way she saves a kidnap victim and reunites two people who had been separated by a misunderstanding years before.  Those two used the titular hollow oak as a letter drop to pass notes to each other.  Lots happening here.

Here's my card for the OT:

We have lots of big, burly lumberjack and gold prospector types in this book, but I was thinking of the one whom Nancy reunites with his long-lost sweetheart when I made this card.  And it was a great excuse to bust out my Wood You Be Mine stamp set!  I put some Cajun Craze Faux Glass Dots on there for accents but they kinda fade into the background. 

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wood You Be Mine?
Ink:  Early Espresso, Old Olive, Stampin' Blends in Old Olive, Neutrals, Pretty in Pink, Cinnamon Cider, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Gray Granite, Boho Blue
Paper:  Bumblebee, Old Olive, Boho Blue, Beauty of the Earth DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Faux Glass Dots

Now let's look at the revised text:

Case file:  Aunt Eloise's PI friend dares Nancy to solve an old mystery that he and his buddies couldn't crack on their vacation--find a message left by a French missionary in a hollow oak tree and follow the clues to find a treasure.  She stays with Ned's cousin as part of a university archaeological dig and not only does she do some digging with them, she does find a series of hollow oak trees and finds the treasure despite another treasure hunter harassing her.  No gold prospectors in this one but it's still pretty wild.

Here's my card:

The cover of this one looks super spooky and Halloween-y, but the book isn't set around Halloween and the only skulls in it are the fragments that the archaeological dig find.  Still, I couldn't get the idea of a skull card out of my noggin so I made this one.  I did cover up the jack o' lantern on this stamp with a flower that's meant to represent Nancy on the cover.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  From the Crypt, Thoughtful Expressions
Ink:  Versamark, Island Indigo, Timid Tiger, Whisper White
Paper:  Island Indigo, Basic Beige, Beauty of the Earth DSP, Beautifully Penned DSP
Accessories:  Thoughtful Expressions dies, black EP,, Dimensionals

Since the book doesn't really have much to do with skulls despite the cover illustration, I made a second card:

Pretty sure that's Nancy's family motto right there.  I happened to see Textured Timber when I got out Thoughtful Expressions for the first card and I just had to use the tree images for a second card.  Still have orange flowers for Nancy though.

What's funny is that when I first sat down to make a card for this book many weeks ago, I hit a creative block and couldn't figure out what to do.  That's about when I snapped up the OT versions of the books and went back to reread from the start, gave it a few weeks and when I came back to this one I ended up with TWO cards for the book that was giving me a block.  Hooray!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Textured Timber, Thoughtful Expressions, Feathered Flight
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pecan Pie, Island Indigo, Stampin' Blends in Old Olive & Timid Tiger
Paper:  Island Indigo, Pecan Pie, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige
Accessories:  Thankful Labels, Thoughtful Expressions dies, Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls

I'd be delighted to have you play along, just drop a link in the comments to your Nancy Drew inspired creation.  You can check out Hey, Nancy Drew for more chatter about the books, and stop by next week for lucky #13, The Mystery of the Ivory Charm!

A Thousand Well-Wishes

Mornin' y'all, I have a special card to share today as I'm sending it to my mom for her heart surgery which happens today.  Here it is:

I *just* got Crane of Fortune (I found it for a good price on Facebook and couldn't resist since I already had the coordinating paper) so I had to use it for the current challenge at Cupcake Inspirations:

And I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I kinda...added a few more layers to it.  (Unlike yesterday's card when I made the sketch more CAS.) It took a while to choose patterns from the coordinating Symbols of Fortune DSP but putting the pieces together actually went pretty fast.  I added some Iridescent Foil Gems and put some Wink of Stella on the crane to add a bit of sparkle (my ma likes sparkly things).  And now I just wait by the phone to hear how she does in surgery today.

Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Crane of Fortune
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Soft Succulent, Crumb Cake, Thick Basic White, Symbols of Fortune DSP
Accessories:  Good Fortune dies, Textured Notes dies, Mini Dimensionals, Iridescent Foil Dots

Hello Sunshine

Mornin' y'all!  I've already taken Daphne for her morning walk and she's happy about that.  It's a beautiful morning here too.  Ryan starts school at the beginning of August (hooray!!!!) so we're enjoying the last of summer, and I have a summer card today too:

I was looking for a non-floral stamp set to use for the CAS Colours & Sketches color challenge:

Call me Mary Mary for I am quite contrary and I like to go with something different for floral color combinations just to prove that they don't *have* to be floral.  Make what you will of what that says about my personality.  Even the Atlantic Hearts sketch has flowers on it:

I did take out a couple of layers to make it more CAS for the other two challenges I'm entering today, but I think you can still clearly see the sketch influence on my card.  And the reason the gingham doesn't go to the card edges?  I was using a scrap that was 4 inches wide so I made it work.  And it only just now as I am typing this occurred to me that I have an entire PACK of gingham patterns that I could have used and they're even Daffodil Delight but oh well.  Last up is the AAA cards challenge:

I suppose my card could fit in with both activity and colors.  This is actually the first card I made:

But I decided that the card base and the DSP both needed to be Daffodil Delight so I made the other one, which I like better.  I had to toss another one when I dropped the greeting stamp--inked up, of course--on my card front and got black smudges all over it.  Ugh.  Some days are just like that, am I right?  But here's what today looks like:

I think these are weeds but I liked the rusty red color on them and the sky was particularly blue early this morning.

Hoping to find some zen in my craft room today.  My mom is having major surgery tomorrow and I'm stressing about it a bit, so all prayers and good vibes appreciated.  Now I'm going to finish my cuppa gingerbread tea and manifest calm.  Wish me luck.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sunny Splash
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Garden Green, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Floral Delight DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Strawberry Slush Gems

Roman Holiday

Mornin' y'all!  Daphne is eager to go for her morning perambulation so I need to type fast : )  Here's my card for today:

Check out the Paper Players challenge:

I don't have any current stamps featuring wheels, so I went through my retired stamps for a likely candidate and settled on the Vespa from On the Grow, which always makes me think of the movie Roman Holiday.  Since I was using an older stamp set, I decided to go with the color palette from Retro Rubber:

I've had On the Grow since 2011, so it's definitely retro.  I checked my archives and apparently I've only ever used this stamp set one other time?  (Here's that card if you want to see.)  There's a really pretty little bouquet stamp in the set too, so I should use that one sometime.  Anyway, I read the colors as Night of Navy, Lemon Lolly, Daffodil Delight, Shy Shamrock, and Mossy Meadow, and I used alllll of them on my image plus a bit of Gray Granite.  Since the Paper Players challenge is CAS, I didn't add any embellishments, just a few die cut pieces under the main image piece sponged with ink on the edges.  Simple.

Time to go take my crazy girl for a walk.  As far as she's concerned, this is shaping up to be the best day ever--the hubs fed her this morning and then Ryan fed her again, so she got TWO breakfasts.  Ha!

Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  On the Grow
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Shy Shamrock, Lemon Lolly, Daffodil Delight, Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Gray Granite, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Night of Navy, Lemon Lolly, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Choose Your Own Adventure

Mornin' y'all!  It is already time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

And this one is super easy:

Anything goes, so long as you use Stampin' Up! products!  For this challenge, I decided to CASE Tammy's card and now I have another sorta patriotic card for next year's July birthdays.  Here's what I made:

I loved how Tammy used the Painted Stripes background for her card and I just had to do it too.  I don't have the Mixed Florals bundle, so I chose the large and in charge hydrangea from Thankful Garden and added a few retired Tinsel Gems because I love those things.  I will admit it took me a few tries to get the stripes to look how I wanted them to; I think what I ended up doing was inking up the stamp with a sponge instead of pressing the ink pad on it, which makes the stripes a bit softer and a better match for my sponged/stenciled flowers.

Your turn!  Anything goes so long as it's SU! products.  Don't forget to upload your creation on the SUO Challenges blog and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Garden, Painted Stripes, Year of Flowers
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Balmy Blue, Soft Sea Foam, Real Red
Paper:  Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Balmy Blue
Accessories:  Thankful Garden masks & dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Tinsel Gems, Dimensionals

Piz Gloria

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I'm back with another Swiss-capade scrapbook layout today:

Since we didn't get great mountain views on our first visit to the summit of the Schilthorn, so we went back the next day and actually DID see some mountains.  We also visited Piz Gloria, the restaurant at the top of the mountain, and all the James Bond stuff up there.  Ryan liked the helicopter simulator : )

I chose Tangerine Tango for my page base because of Ryan's fox jacket, Dapper Denim for the hubs' jacket, and a cool pattern from the Sycamore Street DSP just because I liked it with the pictures.  Today's color palette is Tangerine Tango, Dapper Denim, Sahara Sand, and Whisper White.  What do you think, does the orange work with snow photos?

I was super nice and gave Ryan the last of the waffles for breakfast this morning so he'd better appreciate it : p  He starts his last summer camp this afternoon--another robotics one.  He starts school two weeks from today, isn't that crazy?!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Artfully Folded
Ink:  Dapper Denim, Sahara Sand, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Tangerine Tango, Dapper Denim, Sahara Sand, Basic White, Sycamore Street DSP
Accessories:  3/4" and 1" circle punches