Spotlight on CAS

Mornin' y'all!  I had to go grocery shopping after I dropped Ryan off at school and I can report that the apple pie à la mode Oreos are actually okay.  I usually try to avoid buying Oreos because I have zero self control when it comes to cookies, but sometimes I just have to try the limited edition flavors.  I'm keeping an eye out for the pumpkin spice Oreos.

Anyway, I wasn't real sure what to work on yesterday (lacking focus) but I finally came up with this:

I used last week's Color Throwdown colors:

Which I interpreted as Melon Mambo, Petal Pink, and Garden Green, but of course there aren't any Blends for Garden Green so I used the lighter Shaded Spruce Blend for my leaves and stems.  I got the layout from AAA Cards Challenge:

My oval and image ended up being larger than what's on the sketch, so I changed the sentiment I had planned to use so I'd have more white space.  I did add some Rainbow Dots because it just felt unfinished until I did that.

Anyway, I got a few new things yesterday (okay, five packs of DSP...clearly I need an intervention when it comes to paper hoarding) so I hope that I'll be a bit more focused today on what to make.  It's always fun to play with new stuff, right?  And this order is a lot more interesting than the last one that was just white cardstock, envelopes, and Dimensionals.  Ha!

Have a great Tuesday, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spotlight on Nature
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Petal Pink, Stampin' Blends in Melon Mambo & Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies (used as a mask), Rainbow Dots

Interlaken

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Hope you had a good weekend.  We went to see the latest Fantastic Four movie yesterday, I liked it okay.  Not my favorite superhero movie, but a good way to spend some time on a Sunday.

Anyway, I'm still working through my Switzerland layouts, and here's the next one:

We took the train from Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken and kinda tooled around the town for a bit.  We had fun watching the paragliders come in for a landing at a nice park and check out the mountain views!  Those were even better from the top of the Ferris wheel.

Today's color palette:  Sweet Sorbet (I still love this color), Lucky Limeade, Marina Misty, Basic Gray, and white.  Bright and fun, I think.

That's it for now, I'm going to enjoy a piece of pumpkin coffee cake and then get started on my projects for the day.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Fabulous Flowers
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Marina Mist, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Sweet Sorbet, Pebbled Path, Marina Mist, Basic White, International Bazaar DSP
Accessories:  None

Blackberry Greeting

Mornin' y'all.  Per kiddo's request, there's a pumpkin coffee cake in the oven for breakfast today but my card is all about the blackberries:

I wasn't sure at first what to do with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

But then I decided to pair it with the colors from Hand-Stamped Sentiments:

And the Inspired By... challenge:

Obviously that's where I got my blackberries, but I also added a subtle woodgrain to the Basic Beige postal shapes with some Versamark ink.  I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out when I started, but I think I like the end result.

That's it for now, peeps.  Wish me luck as I try to get Ryan to do his homework...there was a major tantrum about it last night.  Ugh.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello Kiwi, Hardwood
Ink:  Versamark, Fresh Freesia, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Pool Party, Basic Beige, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Mini Dimensionals, Translucent Dots

The Whispering Statue

Happy Saturday y'all!  We have survived Ryan's first week of school and now it's time for a new Nancy Drew Challenge.  Let's investigate The Whispering Statue!

There's the OT on the left and the RT on the right.  Starting with #8, Nancy's Mysterious Letter, a lot of the RT versions feature cover art that's more a collage style rather than an illustration of a scene from the book.  This pair is another one that the two versions basically share a title and Nancy but almost nothing else.  Let's take a look!

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are staying in a seaside town while Carson is working on some kind of law case.  Nancy spends a lot of the book trying to locate Miss Morse, whom she had met on the train to Sea Cliff, to warn her that the young man they met on the train is trying to con her out of a large sum of money.  Nancy also visits the Conger estate near Sea Cliff to see a statue of a whispering girl who looks like her.  Miss Morse is the long-lost daughter of the deceased owner of the estate, which has slowly been crumbling into the sea, and it turns out that Miss Morse had been a con artist in her youth and the young man on the train was her son, whom she had given up for adoption in hopes that he wouldn't follow in his parents' perfidious footsteps.  In the climax of the book, both Nancy and Miss Morse are trapped in the building when it finally falls into the sea.  They get rescued by the Coast Guard and Nancy foils a plot to steal the whispering girl statue.  Also, this book introduces Nancy's dog Togo, who's a pretty major character in this version.

I had to dig By the Bay out of my "To Sell?" boxes because I just had to make a card inspired by the Conger mansion crumbling into the sea.  That part of the book was wild, I want to reread this one.

I based my colors on the book cover, what do you think?

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  By the Bay
Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso, Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon, Cajun Craze, Basic Beige, Garden Green, Gray Granite, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Early Espresso, Thick Basic White, Nests of Winter DSP
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals, clear EP, Milky Dots

Next up is the RT:

Case file:  Mrs. Merriam has given a large number of rare books to a man to sell for her, but she suspects that he's not giving her the money from the sales and she asks Carson to investigate.  He's busy, so he sends Nancy, Bess, and George to Waterford to investigate and Nancy goes undercover with a wig and sunglasses as Debbie Lynbrook.  Nancy lands a job at the bookseller's shop and soon finds that he IS swindling Mrs. Merriam and he's also selling fake reproduction artwork.  The yacht club where the girls are staying is also home to the whispering statue, which had been stolen and didn't whisper anymore when it was recovered.  Nancy discovers the statue is a fake and recovers the real one, which still bears an uncanny resemblance to her.  (Togo is also in this book, but only one teeny mention.)

This book also features what has to be the silliest Scooby-Doo moment of any of the books so far:

They're hiding from someone by pretending to be paintings.  Hilariously absurd!  I love it, it's so silly.

Here's my card:

The girls go sailing several times in this book and only sink a boat once ; p  I had to buy Uncharted Territory on eBay to make a card for this book.  I decided to stick with blues for my card to coordinate with the book cover:

I had already done the sailboat and greeting for this card when I went hunting through my scraps for a bit of DSP, and that Everyday Skies scrap matched my card perfectly.  Love it when that happens!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Uncharted Territory
Ink:  Versamark, Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Azure Afternoon, Balmy Blue, Everyday Skies DSP Stack
Accessories:  White EP, Textured Notes dies, Clear Ribboned Dots

If you would like to play along, just drop a comment on this post with a link to your card, I would love to see!  You can also check out my other blog, Hey Nancy Drew, for more in-depth commentary on the books--it's a bit behind where I am for this challenge but I am having all the fun writing it.  Be sure to check back here next week when we investigate The Haunted Bridge!

Tub Time

Mornin' y'all!  We're having a bit of a lazy start today since Ryan doesn't have his regular school schedule; I've got to take him in later for an elementary assessment thing that will only last an hour and a half.  But tell that to Daphne, who has been telling me to get up and moving for an hour (even after she got fed her breakfast).  The concept of sleeping in is lost on dogs, probably because they can sleep anytime.  Lucky them.

Anyway, on to today's card!

I found that super cute stamp in my stash when I was looking for something for a different project, and I thought it would be perfect for this week's Paper Players challenge:

And would you believe that I had never used that stamp even though it's so cute?  I'm so glad the Paper Players gave me a reason to ink it up!  I also used the inspo list from the Festive Friday challenge:

I used black (the image and greeting are both stamped in black ink), yellow (Lemon Lolly), enamel dots, die cuts, and flowers--I chose that Fresh Freesia pattern because it made me think of wallpaper.  Also I tried blending the colors of the alcohol markers, does that count as ink blending?

Time to make Daph-Daph happy and do our daily walk.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Image from Whipper Snapper, sentiment from Blueberry Bunches (SU!)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in neutrals, Lemon Lolly, Timid Tiger, Pool Party, Fresh Freesia, Bubble Bath
Paper:  Lemon Lolly, Fresh Freesia, Thick Basic White, Pool Party DSP, Lovely Garden DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Rainbow Dots, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Tranquil Tiger

Mornin' y'all!  Had to take a brief pause to start my morning tea brewing.  But now I'm ready to share today's card:

I've only used the Along These Lines stamp set twice and both times it's the tiger, but honestly the tiger is the whole reason why I bought this stamp set.  Anything tiger-related reminds me of my friend Neelu, who loved tigers and was one of my very favorite people ever, and she's the reason why my Facebook profile pic is a tiger and why I wear a tiger necklace every day.  Yay tigers.

Sooo today's tiger was inspired by the TGIF Challenges color palette:

I only added a bit of black because a tiger has to have black stripes.  At first I was thinking about adding some more Peach Pie to the tiger by coloring with Blends, but I decided I liked him in his simple majesty on the patterned paper.  

I paired the colors with the CAS Colours & Sketches sketch:

That one's a classic, love it.

That's it for me today, peeps.  I'm going to finish my tea (Adagio's vanilla this morning) and go write up my review of a Nancy Drew book for my other blog.  Right after I let Daph-Daph outside for the twentieth time today.  I think it's a game to her, to see how many times she can make me get up to let her in and out the back door.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Along These Lines, Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Shy Shamrock & Peach Pie DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies (retired), Dimensionals, Neutrals Matte Dots

Fintastic Fishes

Mornin' y'all!  I think we're getting into the swing of school days here, and since it's still pretty warm out there I started taking Daphne for her daily perambulation at around 6:30 in the morning and doing my workout before taking Ryan to school.  Day 3 of 3rd grate is now underway and I think he likes it so far.  Third grade was my favorite year of elementary school, I had a great teacher.

Anyway, we're going retro for today's card!

Anyone else remember Fishy Friends and Fintastic?  I pulled them both out for the Retro Rubber sketch:

I didn't get Fishy Friends when it first debuted, but I did buy it several years ago on eBay so I've had it for 4 years.  I bought Fintastic on the Splitcoast BST boards (it has a mermaid in it!) and it has been in my collection for something like 14 years now.  I've been using my retired stamps a lot this year and I only bought two new stamp sets when I did an order yesterday...I'm ready to dive into fall and Halloween cards!

I digress.  For today's card, I couldn't resist the color challenge from Color Dare: 

I used Night of Navy for my neutral, and Balmy Blue, Pumpkin Pie, and Daffodil Delight for the colors.  I dug out some iridescent pearls for accents, not sure how I like those but they're stuck down now.

I think it's about time for a second cuppa tea and then I have some projects to work on.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fishy Friends, Fintastic
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Balmy Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Dandy Designs DSP, Pumpkin Pie DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, 3/4" circle punch, Countryside Corners dies, Iridescent Pearls, Mini Dimensionals

A Sketchy Duo for SUO Challenges

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

And it's one of my favorites, a SKETCH!

Oh who am I kidding, I love color challenges and inspo challenges and all kinds of challenges.  So let's see what I did with the sketch:

I made this card with a cute Halloween duo and then found out that my teamie Tammy had made a similar card with the same DSP, and since I like to be different I made a second card at the eleventh hour:

I looked at everyone else's cards before I made this one to make sure I didn't duplicate anything else : )  I started out with the larger drinks on there but just couldn't make them work, so I had to cut out some smaller drinks.  Who knew that Scenic Adventure would pair so well with the Celebratory Sips DSP?  Well, me, since I've done it a couple of times, ha!

We hope you'll join us over at the SUO Challenges blog with your own sketchy creations.  Or if you're extra inspired, multiple sketchy creations.  Have fun!

Supplies, Halloween card:
Stamps:  Spooky Halloween
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Petunia Pop, Granny Apple Green, Daffodil Delight, Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Spooky Sweet Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Spooky Halloween dies, Foam Stars, Mini Dimensionals

Supplies, adventure card:
Stamps:  Scenic Adventure
Ink:  Old Olive, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Old Olive, Thick Basic White, Celebratory Sips DSP
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Starburst Sequins

Saint Beatus Caves

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  And it's my favorite Monday ever because it is Ryan's first day of school : )  The house is all nice and quiet...or it would be except I started some music so I am enjoying Chicago's If You Leave Me Now while I drink my tea.  Love that song.

Anyway, I just figured out this morning that I've been sharing the Swiss-capade layouts in the wrong order but whatever, they're all from the same trip.  And here is today's layout:

We do tend to like doing underground touristy things.  We had to wait in line a while before we got to go in the caves, which were pretty cool and we took the opportunity to teach Ryan to be a responsible and respectful tourist and keep his grubby little fingers off the rocks because that damages them (which we know because we've been to caves in several different countries now).  Then we had lunch at a restaurant next to the monastery started in St. Beatus' honor, and we had a PHENOMENAL view of Lake Thun--can you believe that picture in the lower right corner?!  It was a quick snap I took with my cellphone!  I think I need to print that one out giant size and frame it...if only I had more open wall space, ha!

Today's color palette:  Island Indigo, Starry Sky, Sweet Sorbet, Garden Green, and white.  Normally I wouldn't think to pair those two blues together, but I was pulling colors from the photos and I think they work together pretty well here.  I haven't worked on scrapbook pages in a long time since I've been busy with having Ryan home for the summer and working on other projects, but I'm starting to get the itch to get back to scrappin'.  Should be easier to make that happen now that he's back in school.

For right now, I think I'll brew a second cuppa tea and go write out some cards to go out in the mail, then get to work on something crafty.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Blossoms in Bloom
Ink:  Island Indigo, Starry Sky, Sweet Sorbet, Garden Green
Paper:  Island Indigo, Starry Sky, Garden Green, Basic White, Blooms & Bliss DSP
Accessories:  none

Pumpkin Spice is BACK!

Mornin' y'all!  We had to be up early today for an event so here I sit in a DRESS with MAKEUP on and that usually happens about once a year.  I actually bought this dress over 10 years ago and it's the first time I've worn it, and I managed to find jewelry on Amazon that coordinates with it pretty perfectly : )

Anyway, now that we're in August, pumpkin spice is back and I'm going to start manifesting fall weather as much as I can.  So here's a pumpkin spice card:

I love the Timeless Plaid DSP stack, I love me a good plaid!  I had to pick one for the Just Add Ink challenge:

Because of that plaid blanket on the bottom.  I've got a coffee and a little bitty pumpkin too, but what's funny is I don't drink coffee.  Pretty much everyone else I know does though (well, not the hubs) so I know I won't have trouble choosing someone to send this to.  I usually don't even drink pumpkin spice tea because I've found I don't like teas with loads of cinnamon and spice in them--I love a good breakfast tea and I like dessert teas but more along the vanilla or chocolate flavor profile.  I keep my spices in my baked goods : )

Anyway, I also used the most recent Freshly Made Sketch:

That's it for now, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  More Than Autumn
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Stampin' Blends in Ivory, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Basic Beige, Old Olive, Thick Very Vanilla, Timeless Plaid DSP Stack
Accessories:  More Than Autumn dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Mini Dimensionals, Swirl Dots, Chocolate Chip twill ribbon

The Mystery of the Ivory Charm

Welcome to a new Nancy Drew Challenge!  This time we're looking into The Mystery of the Ivory Charm, which is the thirteenth book in the series and definitely unlucky.

You can tell from the OT cover on the left that this time, we're going to the circus and I will be honest, this is my least favorite Nancy Drew book up to this point and by a wide margin.

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George see a circus unpacking while waiting for their train to River Heights and a circus worker named Rai, an Indian man, gives Nancy an ivory elephant charm for good luck.  The man's supposed son, Coya (who works with the elephants), stows away on the girls' train so Nancy just decides to keep him and let him do chores around the house (the HECK).  A weird lady comes to see Carson about selling some land she owns, and in the course of investigating where Coya came from and how he ended up with not-his-real-dad Rai, she discovers that the weird lady and Rai had colluded to rob Coya of his inheritance as a maharajah in India and installed someone else on the throne.  This one is just bizarre as well as being rife with racial stereotypes.  One star.

So here's my card for the OT version of The Mystery of the Ivory Charm:

And it's proof that I can make a card I really like that was inspired by a book I really dislike!  I decided on three simple blocks of color to mimic the colors on the book cover and of course I had to have an elephant.  At first I tried to do this as a vertical card, but the color blocks looked like a stoplight no matter what order I put them in.  I really like what I ended up with though.

Rai gives Nancy the ivory charm because she's brave and doesn't panic when an escaped circus snake (that's a thing, I guess?) drops out of a tree on her and tries to squeeze her to death.  I was tempted to make a snaky card but my stamp collection is pretty light on snake images, so I pulled out one of my elephants instead.  I chose that "hello" because the font makes me think of the circus, is that weird?

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  A Little Wild, Happy Greetings
Ink:  Versamark, Pebbled Path, Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Soft Sky, Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  clear EP, Little Loves Framelits, Squares Collection Framelits, Dimensionals

On to the RT version!

Revised case file:  This one follows the plot of the OT fairly closely, except that the Indian boy is renamed Rishi and Nancy discovers that his biological father is living in River Heights; the dad had been told that Rishi was eaten by a tiger years earlier.  Usually they tried to tone down the racism when they revised the texts, but this time they took out a scene where Nancy is invited to the White House to have lunch with the First Lady and pretty much left in all the racist stereotypes.  One of my best friends growing up was Indian and I can only imagine what she would have thought of this book--I wish I could ask her, but she passed away of cancer over ten years ago.  I'm sure she would have hated this though.  Or laughed herself silly.  Perhaps both at the same time.

Here's my card:

I bought Balmy Breezes on eBay a while back and this is the first time I've used it and I love it.  Of course I picked it for the elephant image, and I tried to stick close to the colors of the book cover.  There weren't any palm trees in the book but they go with the elephant image, right?

I used the Deckled Rectangles dies and a generous amount of sponging to mimic the book cover, and this time I decided to ignore Nancy's bright hair and just went with the greens.  She gets to keep the ivory charm as a souvenir; she gets a lot of jewelry from solving mysteries.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Balmy Breezes
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Basic Beige, Mossy Meadow, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, linen thread, Faux Glass Dots, Dimensionals

I'd love to see what you come up with for this book, drop me a comment below (no time limit).  Next up, we'll be investigating The Whispering Statue!  And if you want to deep dive into the books, check out my other blog at Hey, Nancy Drew.  Cheers!

Fright Night Halloween

Mornin' y'all!  We went school supply shopping for Ryan yesterday and got to meet his teacher last night.  I really like her, she's very structured and won't let Ryan win arguments with her : )  Excited for him to start school on Monday!

I also got a bit of craft room time last night for the first time in about a week so that's always a good thing.  Here's my card for today:

I bought ALLLLL the Halloween stuff when it showed up in the online exclusives and this is the first time I've used the Fright Night stamps (I did use the dies once before).  I thought this week's Creative Colour Challenge was the perfect excuse for a Halloween card:

I love the look of the stamped image on the Timid Tiger DSP, super super easy and it looks cool.  I used this week's sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

Well, maybe it's a modification of the sketch, I'm counting the words and images on the big stamp as the floral elements on the sketch.  I think it's close enough that you can still see how the sketch was my starting point.

And yesterday I opened up the world's most boringest Stampin' Up! order ever.

But somehow I had totally run out of Stamin' Dimensionals (no!!), so I got a bunch of those, a couple packs of envelopes, and three packs of white cardstock.  The most boring order ever, but necessary staples.

Time to take Daph-Daph for a tour of the neighborhood.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fright Night
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss, Garden Green, Versamark
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Thick Basic White, Timid Tiger & Blackberry Bliss DSP
Accessories:  Fright Night dies, white EP, Mini Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls

Totally Buggin'?

Mornin' y'all!  For the next 15 minutes where I am, anyway.  We were out of town for a few days on a trip to California and I got to fulfill a bucket list item and see the redwood forests!  It was awesome.  We were unsure if we were going to go or not because of Ma's heart surgery, but she and my dad insisted that we go and she came through the surgery fine so we went.  She's still doing well and hoping to be out of the hospital in the next couple of days.

We got back home after midnight last night and I didn't have a post scheduled to go up today before we left.  Well, we all got to watch movies on our second flight yesterday and I chose...Clueless!

This movie is still awesome, I love it.  Can't hardly believe it had its thirtieth anniversary this year!  The stamps are retired Ink Road stamp sets and of course I had to have plaid on this card since so many of Cher's outfits feature plaid.

Anyway, I just took Daph for a walk and now we need to go school supply shopping for Ryan as he meets his new teacher tonight.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Buggin' & As If from Ink Road Stamps
Ink:  Versamark, Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Melon Mambo, Thick Basic White, Plaid Tidings DSP Stack
Accessories:  White EP, Dimensionals

Charming Hello

Mornin' y'all!  I got a new pack of DSP and I just had to cut into it for today's card:

I thought the current Paper Players sketch allowed for several patterns:

I stuck with the circle on the sketch rather than doing a different shape and let the patterned papers be the star of the show.  The only stamping is on the greeting and I finished off with some Blackberry Bliss dots.  Can't wait to play with this paper some more!

Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Berry Burst, Thick Basic White, Floral Charm DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Perennial Postage dies, Dimensionals, Blackberry Bliss Dots

Hulk SMASH

Y'all, I have been looking for an excuse to use some superhero stamps I bought from *coughcough* NOT Stampin' Up! and LOOK HOW CUTE HE IS!

In fact, Hulk and his three companions are so cute I accidentally bought this stamp set twice.  I also have another set that includes Wonder Woman, I almost went with her but I could not resist inking up the Hulk for the TGIF challenge:

Supplies:
Stamps:  Universe by C.C. Designs
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Basic Black, Old Olive, Highland Heather, Pretty in Pink
Paper:  Highland Heather, Thick Basic White, Highland Heather & Old Olive DSP
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Neutral Matte Dots, Dimensionals