Winter Bear

Hey y'all, happy Thanksgiving!  We are spending our Thanksgiving once again with Bennet and Missy and their family, so it's a bunch of Baylor bears.  So I have a bear card to share today!

I am a massive sucker for any stamps featuring bears : )  I love Woodland Scenery (which is where the bear and the trees came from) and somehow this is the first time I've used it despite owning it since like September.  Oh yeah, appendix : p  This is also the first time I've inked up any of the stamps in Delicate Pines, I haven't even made a single pine-flake yet!  I did, at least, cut into the Elegant Pine Snowflakes DSP for this card.

So, this started out with a CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch:

But somewhere along the way, I took a bit of a left turn and my card doesn't really reflect the sketch.  I still like it though and I want to cut into more of those gorgeous papers!

Okay, I'm off to feast like a beast for the rest of the day.  Hope you have a great celebration if you're doing Thanksgiving, otherwise I wish you a great Thursday.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Woodland Scenery, Delicate Pines
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Secret Sea
Paper:  Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Elegant Pine Snowflakes DSP, Festive Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Textured Notes dies, Speckled Dots

Reindeer Wishes

Mornin' y'all!  Hope your Turkey Day week is going well!  I've tried to stall as long as possible but I think it's time to start making winter Christmas cards in earnest...I try to stay with fall for as long as possible because it's my favorite season and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I flatly refuse to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but I'll let a couple of cards slip in early I suppose.  All that to say, hey look reindeer!

I absolutely love last year's Reindeer Fun suite and I had to bust out the DSP for the new Festive Friday challenge:

I hit Christmas colors (traditional red and green), warm wishes sentiment, and reindeer.  I actually fussy cut two reindeer from the DSP, but when I started playing around with parts and pieces I ended up only using one of them.  You know that means I need to make another reindeer card, can't leave her out in the cold!  Anyway, the only stamping on here is the greeting from Above It All, and I didn't even have to cut the jingle bells and holly patterns I used for the backgrounds.

That's it for me today, peeps.  We're having a honey baked ham for dinner tonight, which has been a tradition in my family for the last several years--the hubs and the kid like ham better than turkey, but I flatly refuse to skip turkey for Thanksgiving, so we have ham the day before Thanksgiving and they can have leftover ham if they want and I get my Thanksgiving turkey.  (And pies!) Hope you have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Above It All
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Garden Green, Real Red, Reindeer Days DSP
Accessories:  White EP, Mini Dimensionals, Gold Swirl Accents

SUO Challenges: Cheers to Leilani!

Mornin' stampy friends!  It is time once again for a challenge at SUO Challenges!

And this time around, we are CASE-ing Leilani!  Check out her blog here, lots of pretties to choose from!

I chose to case this card, and here's what I came up with:

I chose to keep the drinks theme and the purple as the main color, but went with a different DSP.  Actually, two different DSPs:  the drinks are fussy cut from Celebratory Sips, the floral pattern is from that pack too, and the purple pattern is from the Everyday Skies pack.  Is that one still on the clearance rack?  I haven't looked, but that purple pattern seemed to coordinate pretty well with the Celebratory Sips pieces I used.  Once again I turned to Scenic Adventure for a "cheers" greeting to go with the Celebratory Sips drinks.  I don't drink alcohol ever so I tend not to buy the alcohol stamp sets.  A few retired Lemon Lime Twist Tinsel Gems and it's done!

Hope you have a great time perusing Leilani's blog for stampy inspiration, and then upload your creation at the SUO Challenges blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Scenic Adventure
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss, Old Olive
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Thick Basic White, Celebratory Sips DSP, Everyday Skies DSP Stack
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems

BEARlin

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  We have our first frost this morning--last night Ryan looked out the back door and said it was raining snow, which sounds funny but looked like an accurate description of the weather to me.  He's disappointed that we haven't had any snow up to now, he enjoyed having so very many snow days off of school last year.  Maybe it's just getting a late start this year.

Anyway, for today's scrapbook layout, we're continuing our Berlin trip pics but this time it's all about the bears!  We discovered that there are bear statues all over everywhere in Berlin so we had Ryan get a picture with every one that we passed.

This is how I designed the layout, but when I went to take a picture of it I put the pages like this:

Do you have a preference?  I still think I like the top one better.  I had the pictures printed out 2x3 inches when I was working at the arts & crafts center in Germany, I was able to show my coworker what I wanted and she printed them out just how I needed to fit in a whopping EIGHTEEN pictures on this layout.  That might be a personal record.

I pulled in the Night of Navy, Call Me Clover, and Crushed Curry from the Funny Faces layout that goes right before this one, adding in Calypso Coral, Blueberry Bushel, and Bermuda Bay for my full palette on today's layout.  What took the longest on this layout was deciding which mat color should go with which picture, and then where each picture should be on the layout, I fiddled with picture placement for quite a while before I started sticking things down but I really like where I ended up.

I really want to get back into scrapbooking, I haven't made any pages in months as I've been concentrating on the Nancy Drew stuff (which has also been great fun).  Just never enough hours in the day to make (and read) everything I want to!  In related news, my newest stitching project is looking pretty good already : ) I wasn't feeling good over the weekend and so I put in a lot of stitching time while watching the first two Lord of the Rings movies, which was great fun and didn't require much energy.

That's it for me today, peeps.  I've got quite a few things to do today, we're starting Thanksgiving prep, I have errands to run and cards to write and a Daphne to walk.  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Brushwork Alphabet, Geometric Menagerie from Altenew
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Night of Navy, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Call Me Clover, Bermuda Bay, Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Flowerpot DSP
Accessories:  None

Delivering a Sketch from the Paper Players

Mornin' y'all!  It's Sunday, which means it's time for a new Paper Players challenge!  This week we have a super fantastic sketch from the equally super fantastic Ann!

Here's my card:

So far I've only made a few Christmas cards this year, but I had to showcase the very cool North Pole Delivery Specialty DSP for this one.  The doggo in the cute sweater was die cut from the reverse side of the letters patterned paper.  I should have played with the dimensions of the rectangles using scrap paper before I cut into the DSP though, I ended up cutting into quite a bit of the patterned paper before I found the proportions I needed.  But I think I got there in the end and the only stamping on this is the greeting.  A few quick Garden Green Dear Dots and it's done : )

Head on over to the Paper Players blog to see what my teamies made, or visit their blogs below and leave a comment.  Don't forget the challenge 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!

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

you are here --> Christy Stanford

And most importantly, have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Jolly Delivery
Ink:  Garden Green
Paper:  Petal Pink, Poppy Parade, Thick Basic White, North Pole Delivery Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Jolly Delivery dies, Textured Notes dies, Dear Dots, Dimensionals

The Ghost of Blackwood Hall

Happy Saturday and I'm happy it's time for a new Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week's book is great too, take a look at The Ghost of Blackwood Hall:

Let's talk about the OT cover on the left and WHY does it look like Nancy is delivering a singing telegram?!  Also Bess and George seem to both have dark hair.  This book is actually pretty spooky so this cover seems like it doesn't fit, though someone in a Nancy Drew fan group on Facebook said this was their favorite book cover.

I like the RT cover on the right better, I think it fits the spooky vibe much better with the ghostly organist.  Nancy's hair is a weird shade of orange (as in Flaming Hot Cheeto orange), I'll give you that, but at least we can tell Bess and George apart.  I think Bess looks totally adorable on this one.

So let's take a look inside!

Case file:  Nancy meets widowed Mrs. Putney, who thinks her deceased husband is contacting her and believes everything the ghost says until she discovers that a box of jewels she buried in the woods per the ghost's instructions has been substituted with fakes.  Nancy's investigation takes her, Bess, and George to New Orleans, and we get seances and all kinds of suspicious characters.  Nancy doesn't go to the titular Blackwood Hall until a bit late in the book, but we get a haunted house too!  Nancy exposes a group of fake mediums who have hoodwinked people out of lots of money and finds Mrs. Putney's missing jewels too.

Here's my card:

I think the OT cover is a little bit silly with the singing telegram of it all, so I made a silly card to go with it.  Mrs. Putney and several other characters believe that they're being contacted by deceased loved ones and I could not resist this funny image of the ghost on the telephone.

I used blue for Nancy's shirtwaist (that is a shirtwaist, right?  Or is it just a vest?) and green for the overgrown plants in the background.  Had to get the woodgrain pattern because a lot of this book takes place at Blackwood Hall or in the woods nearby.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Boo-la-la and Hey Boo from The Ink Road
Ink:  Versamark, Basic Black, Stampin' Blends in Pecan Pie, Shaded Spruce, Pool Party
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Pacific Point DSP
Accessories:  Tinsel Gems, white EP

On to the RT!

I think after #18, The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion, the revised texts stay very close to the originals other than condensing the plot from 25 chapters to 20 chapters, and that is the case here.  But I still made a second card, here it is:

I think the RT cover is pretty spooky so I made a spooky card to match the vibes.  I started by using blending brushes on some white cardstock for my blue and green background, then spritzed with a bit of water and let it dry.  For the haunted house, I embossed shimmery black embossing powder on black cardstock, then die cut it out so it's sparkly and fun.  I hunted through my dies and punches until I found this old something-label punch (I forget its name) that matched the ticket corners on the main image die cuts.

I have green and blue for George and Nancy's outfits, and a bit of deep orange for Nancy's Cheeto hair and maybe sorta Bess's shirt...well, it's a bit more red but whatever.  Good color choices on all three girls, no one looks like they shopped in Steve Irwin's closet this time.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  The Raven
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Azure Afternoon, Granny Apple Green, Garden Green
Paper:  Garden Green, Granny Apple Green, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Spooky Night DSP
Accessories:  Scary Silhouettes dies, ? label punch, Earthy Matte Dots

So there is The Ghost of Blackwood Hall.  I read these both in October and the spooky vibes were spot-on for Halloween season, five stars for both books.  Absolutely loved this story!  If you're inspired too, leave me a comment so I can see what you make!  Next time we''l be searching for The Clue of the Leaning Chimney.  See you then!

Thankful For Color Throwdown

Mornin' y'all!  Well, I was able to make two different desserts yesterday, get Ryan to school on time, take Daphne for a walk, and get the desserts delivered to the hubs at his work before 11:15 yesterday.  Pretty successful morning if you ask me : )  This morning I'm struggling to get Ryan to put on his clothes and brush his teeth, we need to leave in under five minutes and he'd rather make loads of noise than get ready.

Here's my card for today:

I'm a little sad because this card is for the last challenge of one of my longtime favorite challenge blogs, Color Throwdown:

I used Crushed Curry, Timid Tiger, and Garden Green for my colors, and one last time I had to pair this challenge with Freshly Made Sketches:

So, to the team at Color Throwdown, thank you for so many years of great color challenges.  I will miss playing along with the fun color palettes.

Okay, I need to hustle the kid out the door.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gathering Moments
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Thick Basic White, Nests of Winter DSP, Timid Tiger DSP
Accessories:  Gathering Moments dies, Textured Notes dies, Perennial Postage dies, Mini Dimensionals, Delightful Decorative Dots