Swiss Capade 2

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Daphne woke me up in the middle of the night making weird noises so I can already feel that today is going to be one of those days when I'm tired but wired.  But let's make the best of it and get started with some scrapbook pages:

Here's the first of the waterfalls we visited in Switzerland : )  I think this one is the best known in that particular valley, and you just walk through a tunnel and then up a trail to the top of the waterfall.  Gorgeous!

Today's nature-inspired color palette is Seaside Spray (waterfall spray), Misty Moonlight, Certainly Celery, Garden Green, and white. 

I haven't worked on scrapbook pages in a while since I've been obsessed with the Nancy Drew stuff, and it's a little harder to get crafty time with Ryan home for summer.  Most of his camps are only three to four hours a day but I do what I can.  Time to get him out the door for farm camp!

Cheeeeeeeeeers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thoughtful Expressions
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Certainly Celery
Paper:  Seaside Spray, Misty Moonlight, Certainly Celery, Garden Green, Basic White, Certainly Celery & Garden Green DSP
Accessories:  Thoughtful Expressions dies, Stylish Shapes dies

Pocket Friend

Mornin' y'all!  I'm here trying to figure out how to type with a plate of lemon blueberry scones in front of me : )  It was my turn to pick Sunday breakfast and I had a bag of lemons and some frozen blueberries, so I chose lemon blueberry scones.  Yum!

I'm still finding it a bit difficult to focus in my craft room, don't know what's up with that, but I do have a card to share today:

Pocket Silhouettes is an old, old, OLD stamp set but it's still so cute and it was the first thing that popped into my head when CAS on Friday asked for a botanical card.  I thought I could pair that up with this awesome inspo pic from Just Add Ink:

I love that, it makes me think of Santorini.  Love the crisp blue and white with touches of green, so I found a scrap of Pacific Point DSP and went from there.  I was going to put on a white ribbon but then I found the Pear Pizzazz taffeta and I liked that effect.

As soon as we finish breakfast, the hubs and I are going to start painting--this time we're tackling the entryway, up around the stairs, and the hallway and loft area upstairs, which are all going to be pale blue.  We'll see how far we get, it's a lot of real estate to cover.  We taped everything off yesterday so we'll be ready to go...after I finish my scone and tea : )  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pocket Silhouettes
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Pacific Point
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Pacific Point DSP
Accessories:  Pear Pizzazz taffeta ribbon

Nancy's Mysterious Letter

Welcome to another Nancy Drew challenge, I love posting these every week : )  Let's take a look at #8, Nancy's Mysterious Letter:

There's the original text (OT) on the left and revised text (RT) on the right.  The RT version was one of the earlier members of my collection and for some reason I got some purple glitter on the back of it, don't remember how anymore.  

Case file:  Nancy invites her elderly mail carrier inside for some cocoa and his mailbag gets stolen.  Nancy investigates and uncovers that the mail carrier's much younger half-brother is running a Lonely Hearts Club scam and is also trying to con a young lady who has the same name as Nancy.  My favorite part of this version is that the mailman's post-retirement plan is to raise guinea pigs.

So here's my card for the OT version of Nancy's Mysterious Letter:

I love the bright colors on the cover, and I decided to go with Nancy's coat and hair as my two main colors and the Lonely Hearts scam plot point dictated the image and greeting I used.

I added the pearls because I thought a 1940s book deserved pearls : )  Nancy is wearing a powder-blue coat on the cover, but in the text she wears a raccoon fur coat and there's detailed descriptions of her going shopping for outfits for a weekend at Emerson College to watch her man play football.  The university colors are purple and orange and somehow she manages to make that stylish in the book, ha!  I actually like the descriptions of Nancy's outfits in these books, I know other readers don't but I think they're fun.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stamped with Love
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Balmy Blue, Cherry Cobbler, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Thick Basic White, Attic Boutique DSP, Cherry Cobbler DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, pearls, Dimensionals

Now let's take a look at the RT version:

The plot for this one is similar to the OT, but the bad guy has more henchmen and the other Nancy Drew has a habit of quoting Shakespeare all over the place.

Here's my card for the RT version:

Once again, I went with a postal theme but a little more abstract with the postage stamp image.  I found a pack of very old DSP in Bravo Burgundy, Pink Pirouette, and So Saffron which I thought was a good match for the cover colors.  I stamped the postage stamp in a brighter pink to match Nancy's outfit.

Nancy apparently did not get the memo from Anne Shirley that redheads shouldn't wear pink, but that's a pretty smart skirt suit, I like it.  Hope you enjoyed a little glimpse at both versions Nancy's Mysterious Letter, and if you are so inclined play along and drop me a comment.  

Next up is one of my favorites, The Sign of the Twisted Candles!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fresh Vintage
Ink:  Merry Merlot, Rococo Rose
Paper:  Merry Merlot, Thick Very Vanilla, Parisian Summer DSP
Accessories:  Postage Stamp punch, Dimensionals, Share What You Love Artisan Pearls

Spooky Sweet Boo

Mornin' y'all!  I'm still experiencing something of a creative block in my craft room, but you know what helps sometimes?  New stuff.  ; )  So here's my card for today:

June isn't too early for a Halloween card, is it?  I don't care if it is.  There is no stamping on this card at all, but I used the new Spooky Sweet Specialty DSP (my three characters are fussy cut from the DSP) and the BOO! is from the Fright Night dies, which coordinate with a super cute Halloween stamp set.  Both of those will be in the Online Exclusives starting in July.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I really like this sketch but for some reason I couldn't wrap my brain around doing it with any of the current color challenges.  I do like the Halloween card though : )

Daphne practically climbed in my lap because she thinks it's time to go for a walk, so I'd better take care of her.  After that, Ryan and I are going to see the new Disney movie, Elio.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  None
Ink:  None
Paper:  Petunia Pop, Granny Apple Green, Spooky Sweet Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Fright Night dies, Shiny Sequins

Hey Birdie

Mornin' y'all!  At least for another hour here, anyway.  I've got my first pan of cookies in the oven; I made double batches of two kinds of cookie dough yesterday (lemon crinkle and chocolate chip) and I'm baking today for the hubs to take into work tomorrow.  But I managed to carve out enough time yesterday to make a quick CAS card:

Let's start with the one-layer challenge from the Paper Players:

And I got my colors from CAS Colours & Sketches:

You know that even for CAS cards I like to do colored card bases, so the Bubble Bath worked nicely for that and you can still see the other colors.

Last up is the AAA Cards Challenge:

Gotta love anything goes!  And I think I did the optional twist too since my HEY is large and in charge.  You can't really tell but I coated the HEY in Wink of Stella for a bit of shimmer.

Okay, first batch is about to come out of the oven, so I'm on cookie duty.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bird's Eye View, Saying Hey
Ink:  Secret Sea, Azure Afternoon, Highland Heather, Stampin' Blends in Bubble Bath, Highland Heather, Azure Afternoon
Paper:  Bubble Bath
Accessories:  Wink of Stella

Cherry Goodness

Mornin' y'all!  Running a little later today and I have things to do so Imma type fast : )  Yesterday was the first time I'd stamped anything in a few days and while my first effort didn't pan out, I did like where this card ended up:

I quite like the Atlantic Hearts sketch this week:

Which I paired with the Festive Friday challenge:

I used brown, cherries, and a sweet sentiment.  I think I'll have to go back and do this one again and focus on chocolate ; )  

To round things out for today's card, here's the Inspired By... challenge:

I used the colors Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, and Shy Shamrock based on the photo, and the gingham pattern and fruit motif as well.

Alright, we're off to walk Daph-Daph and then go to the store and then I'm making cookie dough, hopefully before it's time to drop Ryan off at camp.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweetest Cherries, All Boxed Up
Ink:  Poppy Parade, Shy Shamrock, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Thick Basic White, Gingham Gala DSP Stack, Bloom Impressions DSP
Accessories:  Cherry builder punch, Everyday Arches dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls

SUO Challenges + New In Colors

Mornin' y'all!  Are you ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges?

This time we're using the new In Colors!

Pick a couple or use them all, this is your excuse to play with the new colors.  I did manage to use all five on my card:

I made this just before the end of school and I needed a card for Ryan's teacher.  The pencil had to be yellow (Darling Duckling), and the apple had to be pink/red (Strawberry Slush), so I used Timid Tiger for the backpack, Secret Sea for the greeting, and Cloud Cover for the books.  A simple card layout and a few flat pearls and done.

We hope you'll play along and share your In Color creation at the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  School Days
Ink:  Timid Tiger, Secret Sea, Cloud Cover, Darling Duckling, Strawberry Slush
Paper:  Darling Duckling, Secret Sea, Thick Basic White, Strawberry Slush & Timid Tiger DSP
Accessories:  In Color Flat Pearls, Mini Dimensionals

Swiss Capade 1

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I keep forgetting that I have several layouts done that I need to take pictures of, but today I thought I'd start a series of scrapbook pages from our first trip to Switzerland.  So here's the first layout of what I called the Swiss-capade : )

We took the train (several, actually) to Lauterbrunnen, which is in the Valley of 72 Waterfalls.  We did not see all 72, but we did see several!

Today's springy color palette:  Lavender Lace (how's that for an old color?!), Garden Green, Evening Evergreen, Polished Pink, and white.

I'm going to start a workout and see how far I can get before Ryan wakes up.  His camp this week is Lego engineering, but it's in the afternoons so he can sleep in.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Hydrangea Haven
Ink:  Evening Evergreen, Stampin' Blends in Polished Pink, Highland Heather, Evening Evergreen
Paper:  Lavender Lace, Evening Evergreen, Polished Pink, Basic White, Peaceful Prints DSP
Accessories:  Hydrangea dies

Texas Bluebonnets

Mornin' y'all, how's your Sunday going?  I think I'm going to need a nap today.  But first I do have a card to share:

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I really wanted to be contrary and do something other than flowers but I kept coming back to them for the Color Throwdown:

I used Darling Duckling, Granny Apple Green, and Azure Afternoon for my colors, with Blueberry Bushel for the outline on the flowers and the greeting.  My Granny Apple Green ink pad got re-inked not too long ago so it's still very dark.

That's it for now, peeps.  Have a good Sunday!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pretty Florals, Thankful Garden
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Azure Afternoon, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Darling Duckling, Thick Basic White, Floral Impressions DSP
Accessories:  Pretty Florals dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems

The Clue in the Diary

It's my favorite day of the week which means it's time for another Nancy Drew challenge.  I'm actually thinking about starting a blog just for the book analysis part of this and then just sharing my cards here with the book covers and a short blurb, because if I have a separate book blog I can blather on all I want and just share the cards here.  Because it seems like I have more and more to say about each book as I go along : )  Anyway, for today today we're tackling #7, The Clue in the Diary!

Yes, I now own three copies of this book and they all have the same cover.  The one on the left is the OT version (with dust jacket) that I just got in the mail earlier this week, the middle one I bought a few weeks ago hoping it was an OT but it's not, and the one on the right is the RT that's been in my collection for years.

Case file:  The OT and the RT for this book are very similar so one synopsis will do.  Nancy, Bess, and George witness a country mansion explode and burn down, and learn that the mansion belonged to a shady businessman who supposedly died in the explosion.  Nancy becomes involved in exonerating an inventor who has been accused of murdering the shady businessman because he fleeced the inventor and many others out of money.  She proves that the shady businessman faked his death; in the OT his wife didn't know that he was really alive, but she was still happy to implicate the inventor in her husband's death, while in the RT the shady businessman was going to have his wife collect his life insurance money, so we get to learn about fraud.   Also, Nancy meets Ned Nickerson who is destined to be her main man through many more mysteries.  Ned is adorable in this book, he has such cute interactions with Nancy and that's my favorite part.

So here's my card for The Clue in the Diary:

My vast stamping hoard is curiously deficient when it comes to images of burning buildings.  Weird.  So instead I picked out the colors of Nancy's outfit for the main colors of my card, and I chose the greenery images because of the bushes on the cover of the book into which the innocent-but-looks-guilty inventor is fleeing.  I chose a Cajun Craze strip for the color of the roof behind Nancy.

The Splendid Autumn DSP Stack continues to be a gold mine for patterns to coordinate with the Nancy Drew book covers.

Drop a comment below if you'd like to participate, I would be delighted to find more Nancy Drew card-making friends out there.  I am so very tickled that Tracy was not only inspired to read her very first Nancy Drew book, but she made a card for The Secret of the Old Clock!  I just love that.  If you'd like to play along too, feel free to play along for any of the books I've covered thus far (no time limit), and next up is Nancy's Mysterious Letter!  And if you want a spoiler of what the covers look like, you can check out this website.  I'd love to see if you're inspired to make a Nancy Drew card.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Prints
Ink:  Old Olive, Garden Green, Azure Afternoon
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Thick Basic White, Splendid Autumn DSP Stack
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies, Matte Decorative Dots, Dimensionals

Shells on a Shelf

Mornin' y'all!  Daphne dragged me out of bed at 5:30 this morning but I did (eventually) get to go to sleep for a while before she made me get up AGAIN, this time aided by Ryan who wanted me to get him breakfast.  How old does he have to be before he can get cereal for himself?  But we have a lazy day ahead of us except for Ryan's baseball game tonight.

For the past couple of days I haven't been super thrilled with what I've been making in my craft room, I just seem to be having a block when I sit down to stamp, but here's one of the things I made:

I got Earthen Textures (the vase on the right) when it hit the retirement list last year I think; Stippled Shells and All-Year Cheer have been in my collection since pretty close to the beginning of my stamping career.  I put them together for the challenge at The Card Concept:

This is the first time I've used Earthen Textures and I'm just not sure I'm pleased with it.  I wish I had put the "shelf" lower or...something.  I don't know.  Anyway, I think my card falls into the clean and layered category which is mostly where I live.

Instead of trying to force things to happen in my stamp room yesterday, I brought out a cross stitch work in progress and stitched on that for a while; maybe if I stitch for a few days my stampy mojo will reappear.  Worth a shot anyway.

Gotta go let Daphne outside for at least the tenth time this morning.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Earthen Textures, Stippled Shells, All-Year Cheer I
Ink:  Pecan Pie, Night of Navy, Wild Wheat, Boho Blue
Paper:  Pecan Pie, Very Vanilla, Timeless Plaid DSP Stack
Accessories:  Earthen Textures dies, Stylish Shapes dies

Crustacean Crew

Mornin' y'all.  Yesterday afternoon Ryan was playing with some other kids in the neighborhood and they found a wolf spider, and then Ryan woke us up TWICE last night because he was having nightmares about giant spiders in his room.  So none of us got a good night's sleep last night except possibly Daphne.

Anyway, I had some quality craft room time last night and I have a couple of cards to share today that I made with Ocean Friends.  Is that still on the Last Chance List or is it gone?

I stamped a colorful lobster for the Color Dare Challenge:

I used Pumpkin Pie, Berry Burst, and Pretty Peacock for my colors.  I chose a watercolor pattern for behind my lobster so I could enter this at Inspire. Create.:

And then I didn't want the crab to feel left out so I had to make another card:

This time I used the colors from Color Hues:

I used Groovy Guava and Blueberry Bushel for my colors, with some Calypso Coral for a darker peach on the crab.  I think maybe I should have used Pale Papaya instead, apparently my Groovy Guava ink pad was still plenty juicy because ol' Crabby came out darker than I expected.  I also used the sketch from As You See It:

I made the three panels larger since I had to accommodate Crabby behind the greeting banner but I think they'll forgive me for altering the sketch a bit.

Okay, time to go get Ryan up and ready for his last day of engineering camp.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, lobster card, all SU!
Stamps:  Ocean Friends
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Berry Burst, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Ocean Friends dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, crab card, all SU!
Stamps:  Ocean Friends
Ink:  Groovy Guavy, Calypso Coral, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Ocean Friends dies, Dimensionals, Calypso Coral twine

Crazy Quilt

Mornin' y'all!  Once again, I stayed up way too late last night reading a book (I will never learn my lesson on that score), and then Daphne got me up to go outside somewhere around 4am and I just kinda started the day a bit discombobulated.  But Ryan is at his engineering camp until 3:30 this afternoon so I'm going to take Daph out for a walk as soon as I write this and then go work on some projects in my craft room.  Maybe do laundry.

So here's today's card:

Which I made for this week's Atlantic Hearts sketch:

I didn't worry about following the sketch exactly, I just built my collage with the scraps I had on hand and I could probably do three or four more cards just with the Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack because I have a lot of scraps of it.  This was a great way to use up the littlest scraps too, and the long skinny strips.  I had my card front all done and then I had to figure out what greeting to put on it...well, what would go better with a crazy quilt type card than a quilt-related sentiment?  And believe it or not I have two different stamp sets with quilty sentiments, so for this card I chose Christmas Quilt and a flower from that set.

Okay, Daphne is more than ready for her tour of the neighborhood so I'm going to go take her.  She does make sure I get out to enjoy the beautiful Colorado weather almost every day whether I want to or not...okay we didn't go yesterday because it was raining, but almost every day we go!  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Christmas Quilt
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Berry Burst, Bubble Bath
Paper:  Bubble Bath, Berry Burst, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Quilt Builder dies, Mini Dimensionals, Opaque Gems

A Pear of Fruity Puns

Actually there are no pears on today's cards but I couldn't resist an extra layer of pun.  I made two CAS cards yesterday:

I have a lot of that Fruit Salad DSP Stack left and it's just perfect for the current challenge at the Paper Players:

I have a variety of stamp sets I could have used too, but the paper won out.  Here's my first card:

Those two patterns are the same sheet, just different sides, and I had a couple of smallish scraps of it and I couldn't resist doing a watermelon tag.  Second card:

There was a Paper Pumpkin kit a while ago that was all food-related puns and I HAD to have it and this might be the first time I've used any of the stamps.  This was simple, I just die-cut the banana paper and found a good place to put my a-peel-ing pun : )

Time to get Ryan to engineering camp, how can it take him this long to get ready??  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cute Fruit, My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Early Espresso
Paper:  Pool Party, Pecan Pie, Thick Basic White, Fruit Salad DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Nested Essentials dies, sequins, Dimensionals

June 2021

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I got Ryan off to camp this morning (engineering camp this week) and it's basically the same length as a school day from now until Thursday, which means more crafty time for me!  And I can go to the grocery store without "help", ha.  Hope he has a good time with that camp this week.

Anyway, I do have a layout to share today:

This is a monthly catch-all layout and I had to go with red, blue, and lime green for the shirts that Ryan and I are wearing in a couple of the pictures.  Sometimes it's tricky to come up with a color scheme for this type of layout since the pictures are taken on different days throughout the month, but I think it works here.  And even though it's a June layout and not July, I still added stars for accents because I like stars.  And striped paper.

There's my bright, summery color palette:  Pacific Point, Parakeet Party, Real Red, Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise, and white.

Time to take Daphne for her tour of the neighborhood and then get crackin' with the craftin'.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  My Paper Pumpkin, Be the Star
Ink:  Pacific Point, Versamark, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Pacific Point, Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Thick Basic White, Flowers & More DSP
Accessories:  White EP, Stars dies

Happy Father's Day!

Mornin' y'all!  We went to the movies last night; the boys saw the live action How to Train Your Dragon and since I have zero interest in seeing that, I saw an anniversary screening of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which was awesome.  The hubs and Ryan enjoyed their movie and I had a blast watching Indy and his dad take on the bad guys.

It's Father's Day here and I have a few cards to share.  I was helped out by this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And here's the card I made for the hubs:

It says "Happy Father's Day" on the inside, I need to get Ryan to write in it.  The hubs is still asleep though and the card is in the next room so I don't want to wake him up.

Now here's the one I made for my dad:

I had never used the Sale-a-Bration Trusted Toolbox DSP from last year but I like it here.

Last up, I made a card for my brother who has two kiddos:

I still have quite a bit of that Classic Garage DSP so this was a good way to use some of it.  Adam and my dad both love orange since they're graduates of Oklahoma State University, so I made Adam's card orange.  Didn't use the same paper on Dad's card since I had just recently sent him a card with it.

The mouse batteries are about to give out, so I'd better charge it and take Daphne for her walk.  She's extra crazy this morning.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, plane card:
Stamps:  Adventurous Sky
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Darling Duckling
Paper:  Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Take to the Sky DSP
Accessories:  Adventurous Sky dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, tool card:
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Trusted Toolbox DSP
Accessories:  Garage Gears Thinlits, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, steering wheel card:
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Classic Garage DSP Stack
Accessories:  Garage Gears Thinlits, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals