The Strange Message in the Parchment

Happy Saturday, y'all, and welcome to this week's Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week Nancy is puzzling out The Strange Message in the Parchment:

We got a color break last week with The Sky Phantom, but now we're back to mostly warm browns like Forgotten City.  Why are so many Nancy Drew covers mainly brown?  This one is a more collage style like some of the Drews in like the teens.  It's okay, but not my favorite; Nancy almost looks like she's sleeping here.

Case file:  Nancy's friend Junie Flockhart (whom we have never heard of before and never will again, I reckon) invites Nancy to her family's sheep farm to see if she can figure out the story behind a piece of artwork done on parchment that her father bought (there are four images, seen on the cover of the book).  Nancy manages to find the original artist, reunite a kidnapped child with his mother, and expose Junie's mean neighbor as a villain.  And she visits a sheep slaughterhouse o.O

Here's my card:

Junie introduces Nancy to one of the shepherds on her family's farm, Ezekiel (who goes by Eezy), who likes to drop Bible verses constantly in conversation.  One of the panels on the parchment features angels, so I made an angel card with a Bible verse on it.  I stamped the angel on Creamy Caramel cardstock, which has been retired for a very long time but it's been coming in handy of late with all these brown book covers, and then used my handy dandy 100-pack of Crayola pencils to color her in.  I found that Cinnamon Cider pattern and the interlocking circles made me think of halos, so that works.

I think the pencil strokes where I colored in the angel coordinate pretty well with the cover art, what do you think?

Supplies:
Stamps:  Angels of Peace, Blessings from Heaven
Ink:  Early Espresso, Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Cinnamon Cider, Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla, Flowers for Every Season DSP Stack
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals, Crayola colored pencils

And I have one more card:

We spend a lot of time with sheeps in this book (hey, check out Whistling Bagpipes for more sheeps), so I wanted to make a card with a sheep on it and I happened across the stamp set Nursery Times which I haven't used in aaaaaaaages.  Is she Little Bo Peep or Mary Had a Little Lamb?  Well, Mary's lamb had white fleece so I'm saying Bo Peep for my card, which reminds me of Velvet Mask because Bo Peep is Bess's costume of choice for the masquerade parties in that book.

I went with brighter colors on this one, focusing on the color of Nancy's shirt and her lips are kinda pink, but I still have Cinnamon Cider on there.  Hey, I had a scrap of that paper left over from the first card so why not use it here.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nursery Times, Once Upon a Time, Hearts a Flutter
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pretty in Pink, Stampin' Blends in Coastal Cabana, Cinnamon Cider, Pretty in Pink, Petal Pink, Ivory, Neutrals
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Pretty in Pink, Basic White, Flowers for Every Season DSP Stack
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Hearts a Flutter Framelits, Dimensionals

This one is a bit unusual as Nancy is investigating with just Junie for most of the book; the rest of the Drew Crew shows up in just the last couple of chapters.  I mean, the boys do that a lot but usually she's with Bess and George for the whole adventure.  I read reviews on Goodreads for this and a lot of people say this book is anti-vegetarian propaganda, and I do have to say the parts where they visit the slaughterhouse are weird and jarring for a Nancy Drew book.  We do have one instance of sci-fi weirdness that has characterized these books in the 50s as well, this time with mechanical attack birds.  I'm giving this one two and a half stars.  If you're inspired to make a card based on this book, leave me a comment so I can see!  And come back next week when Nancy tackles the Mystery of Crocodile Island!

Friday Flashback: Clockworks

Howdy, kids.  Today's Friday Flashback is even more time-oriented than usual because the stamp set is Clockworks!  So let's flash back.

Also features Best of Birthdays

I made this for one of those super-annoying no-color "color" challenges.  I like colors.  Lots of colors.  Not just neutral blahs.

Also features Teeny Tiny Wishes

Something CAS...

Also features Blessings from Heaven

And something not CAS at all.

Also features Teeny Tiny Wishes

I think this one is my favorite; I used the long-retired Brushed Copper cardstock and copper brads to make this one.  So that's it for the archives, here is today's new creation:

The main character in Doctor Who is an alien called a Time Lord, so I figured there was never a more appropriate time (teehee) to use Clockworks.  I convinced the hubs to take me to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff when we were in Wales in 2014, even though he thinks that Doctor Who is the weirdest show ever put on television.

After I stamped all the pocket watches and gears, I realized that I had lined up the numbers so the I is at the top of the clock face instead of the XII.*  #DUH.  I'm just going to pretend that's what a Time Lord's watch looks like.  Oh, for the DW logo, I just Googled for an image of it and printed out one that was line art, then I stuck it on top of Very Vanilla cardstock with removable adhesive and cut it out with scissors.  It's a little crooked but hey, handmade.

*I just looked back through the cards and I did the same thing on Card #3.  #DoubleDuh.

Today's color palette:  Very Vanilla, Brilliant Blue (for the TARDIS, naturally), Early Espresso, Baked Brown Sugar, and a fair bit of embossed copper.  All the watches and some of the gears are copper EP, which I still have from the last time SU! sold it so hey, I'm one up on the trend.

Okay kids, time for me to go back down to the basement.  Got some projects I need to work on.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies, scrapbook layout only:
Stamps:  Clockworks, Sense of Time, Rough Type
Ink:  Versamark, Brilliant Blue, Early Espresso, Baked Brown Sugar
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Brilliant Blue
Accessories:  Copper EP

Friday Flashback: Secret Garden

Hey y'all, happy Friday.  This week's Friday Flashback stamp set is Secret Garden.  So let's hop to it!

Also features Perfectly Penned, Positively Chevron

 Let's start off with some shiny gold chevrons, shall we?  I think the Strawberry Slush flowers really pop against the lighter colors and the gold.

Also features Simple Stems, Blessings from Heaven, Gorgeous Grunge

And here's a less successful card; there are matching Secret Garden Framelits and the stamp set Simple Stems works with them too.

Also features Sweet Serendipity

And for the last part of the Flashback, I made this one for the Sweet Serendipity flashback a little while back.  So that's it for digging around the archives, and here is today's brand new card:

This time I hand-cut the flowers instead of using the Framelits because my little girl dog parked herself right behind my chair and I couldn't get up (I'm absolutely certain she does that on purpose).  I need a birthday card for my MIL, so I turned to this week's Create with Connie and Mary color challenge:

I did only use SU! products, though the stamps are retired; they don't specifically say that's against their rules but if it is then they can throw paper scraps at me.  I love it when Elegant Eggplant shows up in color challenges, which happens next to never so I had to play along.

I also really liked this week's CAS(E) This Sketch:

So that's it for me today, folks.  I need to go vacuum the house (hopefully the vacuum won't try to knock me down the stairs this time) and get my Thanksgiving shopping list ready.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Secret Garden, Happy Everything
Ink:  Island Indigo, Versamark
Paper:  Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Gold EP, Dimensionals

Because I needed more flower stamps?

Every year, it happens.  There's a stamp set or two in the SU catalog that I haven't given a second glance all year long, but when it goes on the retiring list, all of a sudden I *must* have it.  Because I am a lemming.  So this lemming jumped off the cliff and got the Secret Garden bundle *and* Simple Stems from the Occasions catalog.  I think I must have seen some card or project somewhere with one of those items on it that made its way into my subconscious and prompted me to buy them, but I have no idea where that might have been so I'll just blame the Internet in general.

So anyway, here's a card with some new toys that are now retiring--and in the case of the Secret Garden bundle, I'm pretty sure it's already sold out.  Probably because of lemmings like me.  We travel in packs.  Wait, pack of lemmings?  Herd of lemmings?  After an exhaustive 5-minute Google search, I came across the suggestion that it be called a plummet of lemmings.  And also found out that lemmings are usually pretty solitary and they don't jump off cliffs of their own accord, so this whole paragraph is a waste of space except for that first bit.

I digress.  Peekture!

I tried embossing that flower on So Saffron cardstock with Pool Party EP and it just didn't do anything for me, so Pool Party on Basic Gray wins.  This card took me forever to make, it was just a pill from beginning to end but I think it ended up okay.  I picked the hexagon embossing folder only because I hadn't used it yet.

My colors are courtesy of the last-ever challenge at Dynamic Duos:

And I used the sketch from the Paper Players:

Sooo I didn't put the sentiment in the same place as it is on the sketch.  Oh well!  I'm going to move on to something that's less persnickety with me today.

Thanks for stopping by.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simple Stems (largest flower), Secret Garden (smaller flower around sentiment), Blessings from Heaven, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink:  Versamark, Smoky Slate, So Saffron
Paper:  Pool Party, Smoky Slate, So Saffron, Basic Gray, Whisper White
Accessories:  Pool Party EP, Secret Garden Framelits, Hexagon EF, Subtles Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Blushing Friend

I keep saying I don't much care for Blushing Bride, but then I see color challenges that make it look pretty good and that makes me just a little bit grumpy 'cause I don't really want to like Blushing Bride but on today's card I do:

I had no real intention of doing this week's Dynamic Duos challenge but then I saw the challenge on Still Addinktive to use Summer Silhouettes and I still hadn't done a card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge and then this card kinda just happened.  What's really surprising (besides the Blushing Bride thing) is that this card capped off a pretty long stamping session as I worked on baby books, and usually after a couple hours I'm feeling kind of drained creatively speaking, so yay me.  (And also, I'm really close to finishing up those baby books and the shower isn't for another 12 days, so double yay me!)

Here's the Dynamic Duos graphic:

And the sketch too:

Ok seriously, when I sat down I had all the best intentions of actually doing the little flaggy bits on the bottom of the main image but then I remembered I had that Finishing Touches Edgelit and it just kinda happened.  And also I have no baker's twine that matches the challenge colors so I went with some classy Very Vanilla taffeta instead (and seriously, taffeta is my favorite ribbon...they should make it in every color ever invented, I'm just sayin').

Thanks for stopping by today and have a stellar week!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blessings from Heaven, Summer Silhouettes
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Soft Suede, Early Espresso
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Finishing Touches Edgelits, Very Vanilla taffeta, pearl, Dimensional

Heavenly Butterfly

Ya know what?  I think it's been too long since my last giant butterfly card.  Let's fix that.

Man, it is SO EASY to make really striking cards with this stamp!  I admit though, my first plan was to emboss the butterfly with Melon Mambo EP but then I discovered I don't have any.  Whaaaaat?  Clearly I don't have enough stampy stuff yet and must buy more.  But I kinda like my backup color combo, which is Gumball Green and Calypso Coral with Basic Black.  Come to think of it, this woulda been good with Pool Party and Basic Gray too, so maybe I'll do that next time.

This easy breezy beautiful sketch is from Unscripted Sketches:

Happy stampin', folks!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Swallowtail, Blessings from Heaven
Ink:  Versamark, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories:  Gumball Green EP (was in the Holiday Catalog, can't remember offhand if it's still available), Apothecary Accents Framelits, In Colors Designer Printed brads, Calypso Coral baker's twine