Mistress of All Evil

Mornin' y'all!  I have several things on my to-do list today so I am on my second cuppa and ready to get going on this blog post to start off with.  I made today's cards last week and I'm pretty pleased with it : )

It's Maleficent!  She is my favorite Disney villain because she can turn herself into a DRAGON and it doesn't get any more awesome than that!  And also she's not afraid to call people fools when that's what they are.  (My second favorite villain is Yzma, and third is Ursula.  My mom's favorite is Cruella but I can't get past the dog fur coat thing.)  Anyway, I made this for the Color Hues Challenge:

And I will be ticketed by the Challenge Police because Maleficent had to have a red lip (she insisted) and her staff's topper had to be a poisonous chartreuse.  Sorry, I just had to.  I broke out the PrismaColor colored pencils because there wasn't a grayish green that worked for Maleficent's skin tone in my Crayolas, it's been a long time since I got the Prismas out so that was fun.  And thanks to Stef whose Halloween kitty card convinced me that I should do something not floral with these colors, I had so much fun inking up Maleficent for the first time (and I've had that stamp set for at least a year, probably several!).

Anyway, I was going to go with a Halloween card like Stef, but then I saw this challenge from AAA Cards Challenge:

And my brain yelled MALEFICENT so that's how my card was made.  My brain yells at me.  Anyway, I'm glad that I finally inked up these stamps, I know I got the greeting stamp last year when I was shopping for Halloween goodies and like I said I don't know if the villains stamps are a year old or even older.  Kindred Stamps are not really my artwork style, but they do have stamps in several subjects that no one else seems to so I have several of their sets (most of which have not seen ink yet, but someday...).

Anyway, I need to finish my tea and take the Daphinator for her walk and then get to work on the rest of my to-do list.  I have to make some phone calls today, ugh.  But on the plus side, I should be getting some new Halloween stamps in the mail today, so that will be fun.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Villains by Kindred Stamps, Desdemona by Sweet November
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Soft Succulent
Paper:  Lavender Lace, Soft Succulent, Basic White
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Wink of Stella on her staff

Fat Bear Week with The Paper Players

Gooooood mornin' y'all and happy Sunday, which means it's time for a new Paper Players challenge to drop!  We had a fun and fabulous color challenge from LeAnne last week, and now it's time for a CAS challenge from yours truly!  Check out our theme:

I'd be willing to bed that everyone has at least one or two bears in their crafting stash and I want to see them!  Your bear could be teddy, gummy, grizzly, polar, koala (technically not a bear, but is bear-shaped), panda, Silly Old, or Care, and that's just what I thought of off the top of my head.  I graduated from Baylor University (sic 'em!) so naturally I gravitate towards bear things and I have quite a few bears to choose from in my paper crafting hoard.  And as an added bonus, there's this:

Fat Bear Week starts on September 22, where we can all cheer on our favorite chonkers as they prepare for a long winter's nap, which is what social media is supposed to be for in my opinion.  I recommend a quick Google search if you're not familiar : )  I could not have timed this challenge if I tried but I love that it worked out this way.  Also, I recommend following the National Park Service on Facebook, their team deserves all the cookies for their fantastic posts.  Anyway, in honor of Fat Bear Week, I decided to use a grizzly bear for my card:

This bear is from a long-retired set called Yukon, which features some lovely art of various animals including Mr. Chonk here.  I stamped him in Early Espresso + Versamark, finished with clear embossing powder, and then watercolored.  I chose Peaceful Pine as my card base because it's such a lovely green and I feel like I haven't used it enough.

Check out the other design team creations on the Paper Players blog, and you can hop through their individual blogs to leave some comments too:

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

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!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Yukon, Elegant Leaves
Ink:  Versamark, Peaceful Pine, Elegant Espresso, Pecan Pie, Wild Wasabi, Crumb Cake, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Peaceful Pine, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Stylish Shapes dies, clear EP, Dimensional

Race Against Time

Good mornin' y'all and welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today's book is one of my favorites, #66, Race Against Time:

I think it's obvious which cover is my favorite if you've been around here for a bit : )  Okay we have some action scenes on the first and third one between the fire and the horse behaving badly, but that middle cover!  It's like a movie poster and I love it.

Case file:  This time Nancy is back on her home turf in River Heights, investigating the theft of a racehorse named Shooting Star from his home on Rainbow Ranch while also starring in Ned's film club movie despite the fact that a.) she doesn't go to the school the film club belongs to and b.) she's not part of the film club itself, she's just smooching the director (but only on the cheek because this is a kids' book).  The film club is shooting a vampire comedy at a rundown mansion in the area, but strange things keep happening there.  Nancy also finds time to befriend a small child, film several TV commercials, and deal with a jealous girl who wants her role in Ned's vampire movie.

Here's my first card:

Since the stolen racehorse is named Shooting Star, I had to break out some star stamps.  I did think about doing a rainbow for Rainbow Ranch, but I stuck to the cover colors and just did Marina Mist, Pumpkin Pie, and Lemon Lolly.

There's a small subplot with an opal that also belongs to the ranch owner, so I had to make sure to get some gems on my star card.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Everyday Arches, Be the Star
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie, Lemon Lolly
Paper:  Marina Mist, Pumpkin Pie, Lemon Lolly, Basic White, Marina Mist DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Textured Notes dies, Stars Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, Rhinestones

On to card #2:

You know I'm always super chuffed to use Vlad (or his pals Agnes and Frankie) from my very favorite Halloween stamp set ever, Best Fiends!  I had so much fun with this one : )

I used Brocade Blue, Fresh Freesia, Basic Black, Basic Beige, and just a bit of Golden Glow for my colors.  I stamped and embossed the bats on the black layer, that's the shiny bits behind Vlad and the sentiment.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Just Between Fiends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Fresh Freesia, Golden Glow, Ivory, Basic Black, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Brocade Blue, Basic Black, Basic Beige, Toadstool Garden DSP Stack
Accessories:  Black EP, Nested Essentials dies, Black Rhinestones

I actually have two copies with this cover:

The one on the right is in better condition, but a previous owner of the one on the left (which I've had since at least high school, if not longer) drew vampire bite marks on Nancy's throat and that just makes me laugh so I can't get rid of it.  Also, Ned's vampire movie is a comedy, and this book was released in 1982 while Leslie Nielsen's movie Dracula:  Dead and Loving it was released in 1995 so I think they stole the movie idea from this book.

Anyway, on to card #3:

In this book, Nancy's horse Black Prince is mentioned and I think this is the only time that it's said that she owns her own horse.  She also rides several other horses over the course of the book.

I wish I could find a copy of this cover that doesn't have marks on it like this one, but the only one I've been able to find in the last year is a part of a lot of five books that are listed for almost $80 on eBay and that is just a bonkers price so no thank you.  Anyway, for this card I knew I wanted to use Pretty Peacock and Old Olive, and the new Mosaic Garden DSP has those colors as well as Crisp Cantaloupe which was a good match for Nancy's shirt.  I always love the horsey mysteries so this was fun to make.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bareback, Friendly Words
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Old Olive, Hydrangea Hue
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Basic White, Mosaic Garden DSP
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Moody Palette Glossy Dots, Dimensionals

This book is one of my favorites because I always love the horsey books AND this one has the vampire film going for it, it's just an absolute romp and so much fun.  Five stars just for the plot of Ned's vampire movie, it sounds hilarious.  If you're inspired to make a card based on the book or any of the covers I've shared here, drop me a comment so I can see!  And I'll see you next week when Nancy takes on The Sinister Omen.

Dropping In

Evening, y'all!  Surprise post because I just HAD to squeeze in a quick card this afternoon before Ryan's football practice and I couldn't wait anymore to share it so here it is:

I do love Merry Merlot and I'm still sad that it's a retired color, but I still have a fair bit in my stash.  I had to use it when I saw the new Inspired By... Challenge:

And CAS on Friday wants fall cards, and those two challenges are a great excuse to get out a couple of old favorite stamp sets for tonight's card.  I used Merry Merlot, Golden Glow (still loving that color), Pecan Pie, and Early Espresso with Very Vanilla for my colors.

We've got a thunderstorm rolling through and I think I'm going to curl up with Daphne and read a book while I listen to the rain.  Have a good evening, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wonderfall, Acorny Thank You
Ink:  Golden Glow, Pecan Pie, Early Espresso, Merry Merlot
Paper:  Merry Merlot, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Acorn punch, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Happy Fall-Ways

Mornin' y'all and happy Friday!  I am so very happy that this week it's (finally) starting to actually FEEL like fall, at least in the mornings.  The leaves are juuuuust starting to turn here and I plan to enjoy the heck out of this fall.  My appendix can't ruin it for me this year : p  If you don't remember, my appendix went nuclear at the end of September last year and I mostly slept through October while I recovered from surgery, I was very sad to miss my favorite season.

Anywhooodle, how about a happy fall card?

YESSSS I finally got to play with Elegant Leaves!  Actually I have made another card with this bundle, but it's for a future design team card so you won't see that one for a bit.  I chose the Autumn Opulence DSP and this week's Atlantic Hearts sketch for my card:

I had actually pulled a floral stamp set to use with this sketch and planned to use the Color Hues pair of purple and artichoke, but then I saw Stef's card for that color challenge and decided that she is 100% correct, we can do something more interesting than florals with those colors.  So you'll see my purple and artichoke creation on Monday (I'm quite pleased with it), and today I went with fall leaves in Golden Glow (loving this yellow), stamped-off Cajun Craze, Pecan Pie, and some accents in Blackberry Bliss.  I need to play with the Elegant Leaves bundle some more, it's got two-step stamping and fun dies to go with it.

Once again I have an appointment this morning and then some errands to run, but one of those is buying floss for my next stitching project so at least that's fun.  I was watching Scooby-Doo last night while I stitched and every time they said "Daphne" on the show, I said it to Daphne our doggo and finally she gave me this look that said "You've made your point and it's not funny anymore, Mahm."  I love my sassy pupper.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Elegant Leaves
Ink:  Golden Glow, Cajun Craze, Pecan Pie, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Golden Glow, Pecan Pie, Blackberry Bliss, Very Vanilla, Autumn Opulence DSP
Accessories:  Elegant Leaves dies, Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals, Painted Patch Dots

Pink Pumpkin Club

Mornin' y'all!  Well, despite my paper crafty intentions yesterday, I only got one card made in the afternoon...but I have made a lot of progress on my current stitching project so I was still being crafty, just in a different medium.  So here's the card I made:

Continuing to make good on my threat to make these pumpkins in a rainbow of colors, here they are in pink : )  Flirty Flamingo and Crumb Cake, to be precise.  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Combined with the Creative Colour Challenge:

I used the stencils and blending brushes to color my pumpkins, and then I used another blending brush to apply Lemon Lime Twist ink to white cardstock and used the leafy and viney dies to cut those bits out so they'd match the pumpkins.  That plaid is from the Timeless Plaid DSP stack that's now retired but none of my regular card recipients would know (or care) if my supplies are current or not so I can use whatever I want in my warcraft room.  I found one scrap of that ribbon in one of my ribbon boxes and used about half of it for today's card, I wish I had more as I like that ribbon.  It's odd that I just have the ribbon scrap and not the original roll that I assume it came on.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Pumpkins
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Flirty Flamingo, Lemon Lime Twist
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Basic White, Timeless Plaid DSP Stack
Accessories:  Painted Pumpkins stencils & dies, Dimensionals, Dots for Days (I think), LLT ribbon

And here's my current stitching project:

All I have left to do is the words, it will say "It's just a bunch of Hocus Pocus" on the bottom : )  Probably won't take very long, I've done a lot of work lately while watching episodes of Scooby-Doo so that's fun.  I am already trying to narrow down what my next project will be...fall, Halloween, or maybe Christmas?  So many choices.  Cheers, y'all!

HOoOowl

Mornin' y'all, hope your Wednesday is off to a good start.  I had a very busy day yesterday and once I picked Ryan up from school, I absolutely hit a brick wall and conked out for a bit and thus never got any crafting done yesterday.  Not a literal brick wall, you know what I mean.  So then I had to make a card this morning to share today and here it is:

Is my wolf levitating?  Yes.  Do I care?  Nope, I think he's cute even if he's levitating.  I used the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

And the color palette from As You See It:

I was looking at a werewolf stamp set that I want to get, and the idea for today's card popped in my head but obviously I don't have those werewolf stamps (yet) so I used the wolves from Lawn Fawn instead.  And my little wolfy fits with the Inkspirational challenge:

Supplies:
Stamps:  Wild Wolves, Wolf Before & Afters from Lawn Fawn
Ink:  Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Smoky Slate Blends
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Basic White, Lights of Aurora DSP Stack, Simply Marbleous DSP Stack
Accessories:  Lawn Fawn dies, Layering Circles dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Shimmery Stars Foam Stickers

I only have two errands to run today so hopefully I'll get some crafty time later this morning.  I do still have a few more cards to share today, as I am the lucky recipient of THREE cards from the UK and New Zealand!  The first two are from Joanne and the last one is from Jan, who are both my teamies on the Paper Players design team.  Take a look:

I wish I had gotten an extra pack or two of that Delightful Floral DSP, isn't it gorgeous!  Also Joanne is the one who "made" me get the Words of Beauty bundle so I think of her every time I use it.  (She's responsible for my purchasing several other things too!)

Joanne said she hoped that Daphne didn't mind the kitties on this card too much and I will say that Daph kinda gave it the side-eye a bit : )  I don't think I've used the kitties from the Cutest Crew stamp set yet and I know I haven't used the birds, I always go for the puppers.

And here's a beauty from Jan, I like how she cut the patterned paper into strips and then popped every other strip up, it's such a neat effect.

Okay, I have just enough time to finish my cuppa and take Daphne for a walk before I have to hit my first appointment.  Cheers, y 'all!

CASEing Jennie for SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all!  It's time once again for a new challenge from SUO Challenges, and this time we are CASEing the one, the only...Jennie Maier!  She frequently plays along with us and we are so pleased to be featuring her today.  Here is her card:

So I don't have the stamps or the paper that she used, so after having a bit of a think about it I elected to go with something that has a similar "feel" to it and here's what I made:

I started with the patterned paper and chose a pattern somewhat similar to what Jennie used, and it's fall (shut up calendar, I say fall starts on September first and the leaves are changing colors already so that means I'm right) so I went with leaves.  Also these leaf stamps are nice, solid shapes like the ones she used on her card.  I tried to stick to a similar color combination too, including a bit of Pool Party to go with all the warm colors.  I love a nice blue or purple for contrast with the more typical fall colors.

I hope you'll play along with us at upload your card at SUO Challenges!  Don't forget to keep it to only Stampin' Up! products (that's what we do, after all) and most importantly, have fun.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Leaves
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Golden Glow, Pool Party, Early Espresso
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Golden Glow, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Sunflower Fields DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Radiant Gems

Friendly Sunflowers

Mornin' y'all!  Hope you had a good weekend, 'cause I sure did.  Daphne and I watched Practical Magic on Friday night and then I went to see the new one on Saturday while my dudes were out camping with the Cub Scouts, and then we went out to dinner with friends last night (HI LYNN!).  Plus I made some great progress on my current Hocus Pocus stitching project and I made several cards, so a very happy weekend as far as I'm concerned.  There was even pumpkin coffee cake for breakfast yesterday, Ryan's favorite.

So anyway, here is today's card:

Since I didn't use the sunflower dies on yesterday's Paper Players card, they had to come out to play today especially with the new challenge at The Card Concept:

I like it.  I used Daffodil Delight, Peaceful Pine, Basic Black, and a wee bit of Pecan Pie for my card and finally used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches from last week:

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Radiant Sunflowers
Ink:  Peaceful Pine, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Pecan Pie, Basic White, Moonlit Flora DSP
Accessories:  Radiant Sunflowers dies, Spotlight on Nature dies, Dimensionals

And here's a picture of some real-life sunflowers that I took yesterday:

I saw these when Daphne and I were out for our morning tour of the neighborhood, they're growing in the green space but right next to someone's back fence.  When we lived in Germany, we'd see sunflowers at the blumenfeld that were HUGE, like the flowers were the size of your head!  These ones aren't nearly that big but they're still pretty and I see them growing in people's yards too.

Have a great day, y'all!

Red Gate Farm for The Paper Players

Happy Sunday, y'all!  I hope you enjoyed Joanne's candle-centric challenge last week, and that you are ready for a new Paper Players challenge today!  LeAnne has some fun seasonal colors for us:

Since I was busy making what felt like eleventy-billion cookies last week, I didn't get my card done until late in the week and that was after I had already made three or four different ones in my head before I finally got up to the warcraft room to make one for real life.  I had initially been planning to use watercolor paper and do something like I used on a few cards here, but this is what actually happened:

I borrowed a page from Jaydee's book and went to town with my dies.  I had used the pumpkin stamps and the stencils in the Painted Pumpkins bundle, but I had not yet used the pumpkin dies that don't go with a stamp and I saw the gate and fence dies and my Nancy Drew-obsessed brain said RED GATE FARM because #6 is The Secret of Red Gate Farm and then I *had* to make a red gate.  I was planning to use both the pumpkins and some die-cut sunflowers, but in the end I went pumpkins only and used the Sunflower Fields DSP in some neutral browns to ground my scene, and my greeting is from Radiant Sunflowers.

This went out with a package to my pal Krissy yesterday...I had gotten some fall decor and showed her pictures and she really liked what I got so then I had to get her the same things because she needs some postal sunshine right now.  I told her I got her one little figurine that's got a doggo with a pumpkin and a sunflower, but I had a real "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" moment and ended up getting her like six different things so that will be a surprise for her.

Check out the other design team creations on the Paper Players blog, and you can hop through their individual blogs to leave some comments too:

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

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!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Radiant Sunflowers
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red
Paper:  Early Espresso, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla, Sunflower Fields DSP
Accessories:  Painted Pumpkins dies, Perennial Postage dies, Dimensional for the tiny pumpkin

Mystery of the Winged Lion

Happy Saturday and welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we're taking a look at Nancy's 65th adventure, Mystery of the Winged Lion:

On the first book cover, we have Nancy in a bright-yellow shirt and a totally vacant expression, not my favorite cover.  I do like her outfit on the middle cover and I'm trying to remember if my childhood library had the second one or the third one, or maybe they had both but I can't remember for sure.  The third one I think is my favorite, I like the arched shapes behind Nancy and George and the colors are the most fun out of the three options.

Case file:  Immediately following the events in Captive Witness, Nancy, Bess, and George are in Venice for a vacation from their vacation when they get the news that Ned, Burt, and Dave flew in to surprise them and landed in jail.  They're accused of stealing a glass horse figurine found in Ned's bag which the customs officials conveniently smashed to smithereens but the boys are in jail anyway.  And then a Venetian noblewoman contacts Nancy for help in finding her missing nephew so once again, Nancy misses out on a restful and uneventful vacation.

Here's my first card:

Weirdly, my stamp collection does not include a winged lion BUT I have this happy little guy from Inspiration Squad and the wings from Valentine Kisses, so I was able to give him wiiiiiings like a Red Bull.  Of course I had to incorporate the arch shape for the arch cover:

I thought it looked rather like a portico on a building, and I chose a pattern with birds on it because there are approximately eleventy-million birds in St. Mark's Square in Venice, at least all the times I've been there.  I used Shaded Spruce, Pool Party, Golden Glow, and Cinnamon Cider for my colors; I had pulled Cherry Cobbler to match the cover but was at a bit of a loss as to where to incorporate it, so the lion has some red highlights.  He enjoys going to the salon.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspiration Squad, Valentine Kisses
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Golden Glow, Cinnamon Cider, Cherry Cobbler, Pool Party
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Pool Party, Basic White, Design a Daydream DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Dimensionals, Rhinestones

On to the second cover:

This time I used the stamp set Travel Sketchbook and that image has a gondola, the duomo of a church, AND if you look in the upper left corner there is a winged lion on the pillar.  So I was incorrect, I DO have a winged lion stamp in my collection!

I used Basic Black, River Rock, and some hints of Soft Suede, Bashful Blue, and Marina Mist to color the image with Watercolor Wonder Crayons.  Anyone remember those from way before we had alcohol markers?  My set is a bit the worse for wear, some of the crayons have melted a bit as we've moved over the years, but they still work!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Travel Sketchbook
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Basic Black, River Rock, Very Vanilla, Brocade Backgrounds DSP
Accessories:  some kind of label punch, Dimensionals, Watercolor Wonder Crayons

And on to the third book cover:

Nancy comes up with a risky plan near the end of the book to go confront the bad guys with just Ned as backup, and when Bess and George are understandably reluctant to allow this due to perfectly valid safety concerns (they had all been kidnapped and held overnight against their will inside St. Mark's, for Pete's sake), Nancy flippantly says she'll send a seagull with a message if she gets in trouble.  So of course I had to get out Friendly Seagulls for this card.

I used Pacific Point, Summer Starfruit, Calypso Coral, and quite a lot of Pool Party on my card even though the book cover doesn't really have Pool Party on it, but I love that wave patterned paper so I had to use it.  Since Nancy said she'd send a message via seagull, I went with my Perennial Postage dies for this card.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Friendly Seagulls
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Wild Wheat, Pool Party
Paper:  Pacific Point, Summer Starfruit, Calypso Coral, Basic White, High Tide DSP
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Dimentsionals, Blue Gems, Pacific Point Watercolor Wonder Crayon

In general I like the books where Nancy visits other countries, but I think this one reminds me more of Greek Symbol than the wacky hijinx of Captive Witness despite numerous callbacks to that one.  I do like the Venetian setting especially since I've gotten to visit Venice since the last time I read this book as a child, and that's always fun.  I just don't think the mystery was as engaging.  Fun fact:  at the end of Captive Witness, it says that Nancy's next adventure will be The Gondolier's Secret which is a really cool title but somewhere between that book and this one they changed it to Mystery of the Winged Lion, which is also a good title.  Anyway, I give this one two stars, maybe two and a half.  If you're inspired to make a card, leave me a comment below!  And I'll see you next week when Nancy has A Race Against Time.

Something Strange in Your Neighborhood

Goooooood mornin' y'all and happy Friday!  The weather is finally starting to cool down just the tiniest bit (I wore a sweatshirt outside last night and it was great) and I've started watching the spooky sweet movies.  Already watched both Hocus Pocus movies and I watched the first half of Casper last night; tonight I need to watch Practical Magic because I'm going to see the sequel tomorrow.

And there's one more movie (well, series) that I am happy to watch at any time of year but it's especially good during spooky season...

OF COURSE I have Ghostbusters stamps!  (But they're retired, so you can't get them, sorry.)  Shopping Our Stash wants to see people, so I chose the Ghostbusters in all their ghostbusting gear.  And I had to try out the sketch from Retro Rubber:

I made my first Ghostbusters card two years ago, I'm pretty sure I'd had the stamps for a while before that but in any case they count as retro.  I really ought to make cards just as soon as I get a new stamp set so I know how long I've had it but let's not talk about the brand new stamps I bought last month that I haven't used yet and nobody tell my hubs, kay?  Kay.  Definitely don't mention the ones that I got in the mail on Wednesday or the ones I ordered on Thursday.

Anywha, I also have a Ghostbusters cross stitch that I did several years ago but I haven't ever done the words I wanted to add on it and I should get on that.  I'm working on the Sanderson Sisters right now, Winifred and Sarah are done and I'm stitching Mary, then I need to do "It's just a bunch of Hocus Pocus!" underneath them and then the real trick is actually getting it framed.  I have an entire stack of stitches that I've done and not gotten framed yet, including at least two very large full-coverage pieces.  Maybe I should make that a goal for next year, get at least one piece framed every year.

Anyway, that's it for now.  I will be making cookies for most of the day because the hubs asked me to make "some cookies" for the Cub Scouts event this weekend and of course I heard "We need thousands of cookies" so I made a double batch of chocolate chunk cookies and a batch of oatmeal white chocolate cranberry cookies yesterday; today it's double chocolate crinkles and lemon crinkles and then I need to deep-clean my kitchen this weekend.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Slime by The Ink Road, Ghoulish Grunge, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Ink:  Versamark, River Rock
Paper:  Basic Black, River Rock, Basic Beige
Accessories:  Black EP, White EP, Dimensionals

Pumpkin Blues

Mornin' y'all!  I was having a bit of trouble in my craft room yesterday, I had several sketch and color challenges and I was trying to figure out how to combine any of them.  I had made a choice and then the stamp set that I wanted to use would NOT cling to the blocks so I had to put some Aleene's Tack It Over & Over on it and of course that won't be ready to use until probably this afternoon (gotta make sure it's really dry).  Then I was about to put up a few stamp sets and I saw the Painted Pumpkins bundle and aha!  Finally an idea came to me.

I did say I was going to do these pumpkins in all kinds of colors, so how about blues?  I used the latest color challenge from Color Dare:

I chose Lost Lagoon, Pool Party, and Soft Sea Foam for my colors and managed to stick to just those and white for everything.  Next up is this week's Atlantic Hearts sketch:

I did make my card in slightly different proportions than the sketch, but I still think I followed it reasonably closely.  At first I was going to do the Pool Party plaid for the circle element but then I saw the pumpkin vine stencil and went for that instead, and added the plaid to the background layer.  Wonder what colors these pumpkins will be next?

Aright, got to get Ryan ready for school and then I'm off to an appointment.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Pumpkins
Ink:  Pool Party, Lost Lagoon, Soft Sea Foam, VersaMark
Paper:  Pool Party, Lost Lagoon, Soft Sea Foam, Basic White, Painted Patch DSP
Accessories:  Painted Pumpkins dies, Circles Collection Framelits, white EP, Dimensionals, Painted Patch Dots

Purple Octopus

Mornin' y'all, how's your Wednesday going?  I had a Very Productive Day yesterday and I'm hoping to have another one today, I have two more batches of cookie dough to make up today and then I'll be baking cookies tomorrow and Friday.

But for now, a card:

CAS on Friday wants to see sea-related cards, and I paired that up with the TGIF Challenges color palette:

I will say it's a lot of layers for a CAS card, but I kept a lot of white space around my main focal point so I think it still counts.  I did stop myself from adding any embellishments other than some Wink of Stella on the octopus though.  Do octopi come in purple?  In my craft room they do, I don't know about in the ocean.

That's it for now, peeps.  Have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Message in a Bottle, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Fresh Freesia
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Fresh Freesia, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Mini Dimensionals, Wink of Stella