Lilacs Abound

Mornin' y'all!  I had the house all to myself last night other than Daphne, and she's kind enough to let me choose what we watch on TV, so I *finally* finished season 3 of The Mandalorian!  I loved it, I had to put down my stitching project to pay more attention to the show.  We didn't finish that until 9:30 last night and then I once again stayed up too late reading...I am flying through the Penny Parker mysteries which were written in the 1930s and 1940s by Mildred Wirt Benson, the first of probably many ghostwriters using the name Carolyn Keene to write Nancy Drew books.  These ones were written and released under her own name and I have been having a ball with them; I think I started on Friday and I've finished the first three.  Suffice it to say I was up past my bedtime.  Also they're free on Kindle and I like free stuff.

Anyway!  I have made quite a few cards of late so I do have not one, but two to share today.  Here's the first one:

I am fully aware that lilacs grow the other direction (pointing up) but let's just call this artistic license, shall we?  There was a house in our neighborhood in England that had lilacs in their front yard, and another one with lavender.  Lots of flowers in that neighborhood which made daily walks with the doggos more interesting as the seasons progressed.  Anyway, the colors from CAS Colours & Sketches had me thinking floral:

I must admit that I don't think Blackberry Bliss and Gorgeous Grape go together at all, so I solved that problem by stamping the lilacs in various strengths of Gorgeous Grape and then stamping the greeting in Blackberry Bliss, which came out so dark it looks almost black anyway.  I paired that with the sketch from AAA Cards Challenge:

I liked the lilacs bursting forth from the left side of the card and for some reason I'm not really feeling the urge to make 4th of July cards this year, so flowers instead of fireworks are the order of the day.  This card did take two tries though; the first time I started by stamping the stems first rather than starting with the flowers and this happened:

They ended up taking over more of the card front than I really wanted them to for the sketch, so I stopped working on this one and made the first card instead.  But then I decided that there was no reason not to finish out this card, and I frequently send similar but not identical cards to my friends Lori and Toby so here's my second card.  All the supplies are the same except I used Gorgeous Grape for the greeting instead of Blackberry Bliss.

I am going to do a nice restorative yoga session this morning before I take Daphne out for her walk, and then I need to do some straightening up around the house before I start crafting today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blossoms Abound, Happy Greetings
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Garden Green, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Garden Green, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Nothin' but a Stamp-a-ma-jig, these are CAS cards y'all

The Mystery at Lilac Inn

Welcome to another Nancy Drew Challenge, which has pretty much become my favorite blog post every week because I am still having the bestest time with Nancy and her shenanigans.  This week, we're taking a look at The Mystery at Lilac Inn!

Case file:  Nancy and Helen canoe down the river (as you do) to Lilac Inn, which their friend Emily Willoughby and her fiance are renovating and plan to open soon after their wedding, but strange doings are afoot so she asks Nancy to investigate.  At the same time, Nancy discovers she has a doppelganger who has stolen her charge plate (credit card) for a River Heights department store.  Emily has a bunch of diamonds she plans to sell to finance the restoration of the inn but they get stolen, then replaced with fakes; a mysterious glowing girl is seen flitting about the inn's grounds at night and finally a bomb goes off and destroys the cottage Nancy and Helen were staying in.  Nancy investigates mostly with the help of John, an Army guy who's besties with Emily's fiance, and they take several trips to go skin diving (snorkeling) in the river because Nancy and Helen hit something when they canoed down the river at the start of the book.  More snooping ensues and eventually Nancy is captured by the bad guys, including her doppelganger who is also a waitress at the inn; the doppelganger is a former actress who likes to steal things and is affiliated with several men who steal Army gadgets and move about with the help of a tiny submarine in the river (no, it doesn't really make much sense).  The submarine and the bad guys' boat both sink conveniently; Nancy is rescued by river patrol and then has to convince her dad that she's the real Nancy Drew (come on, Dad).  After the baddies are arrested, she goes diving again with John and they recover Emily's stolen diamonds hidden in a tube of the doppelganger's lipstick just in time for the wedding, and Emily gives Nancy a pin made from some of the diamonds in the shape of a spray of lilac.

Notes:  This one is like The Hidden Staircase in that it's a big old building with a secret room and lots of Nancy skulking about the extensive grounds looking for clues, and that's all fun times yes please I love that.  She dresses up as the "ghost" with little flashlights in her sleeves at one point and that's the scene depicted on the cover of the book (Nancy is actually the one with dark hair as she was wearing a wig at the time).  Nancy is so good at skin diving that she has her picture in the paper, which seems a bit silly to me (must have been a slow news day), but she uses her heretofore unmentioned diving skills to investigate the mini sub at several points in the mystery, and since she helped John figure out who was stealing Army tech, she gets a commendation from the Army.  Several other elements of the mystery are outlandish, like the actress being so good at makeup that even Mr. Drew is fooled for an instant, or even worse the fact that a bomb goes off in Nancy's cottage but everyone is cool with her continuing to investigate.  But I put on my Suspenders of Disbelief and had fun with the whole thing anyway.  Also for once this mystery has a red herring where the social director of the inn is super unpleasant to Nancy, but it turns out she's not a bad guy (mostly just cranky), so that was a nice misdirection.  Four stars.

Here's my card for The Mystery at Lilac Inn:

I knew immediately what stamp set I wanted to use for this one, this is a real oldie called Blossoms Abound and it's been ages since I used it (I actually made this card before I made the pink lilacs one).  At first I put some pearls on the card but quickly realized they needed to be rhinestones to go with the diamonds featured in the mystery.

I took the colors Pretty Peacock, Highland Heather, and Gorgeous Grape from the cover; the Pretty Peacock background is from the Lily Impressions DSP that went with some Sale-a-bration stuff a few years ago, and I used a scrap from Perennial Lavender for the purple pattern.  And check out the old skool dies I used!  Been a minute since Apothecary Accents came out to play, but the largest shape worked perfectly for my lilac spray.

If you'd like to join in the fun, drop me a comment and I'd love to see what you make (or even if you just like Nancy Drew books too!).  Next up:  The Secret of Shadow Ranch, and a bonus!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blossoms Abound
Ink:  Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Garden Green, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, Thick Basic White, Lily Impressions & Perennial Lavender DSP
Accessories:  Apothecary Accents dies, rhinestones, Dimensionals

Pink Lilacs

Mornin' y'all!  The hubs had a weird work schedule yesterday so he got home after ten last night and I woke up and was so confused that I said "Ryan, what are you doing?" when he came in : )  Ryan had an episode of sleepwalking last week (his first one ever) so that's why mostly-asleep me thought it was Ryan and not the hubs.  My little brother used to sleepwalk when we were kids so at least I have some experience with that.

Anyway, I broke out some old, old stamp sets for today's card:

I had just done a Nancy Drew card with Blossoms Abound (I have been having so much fun with those and I'm working ahead) so it was on my mind when I saw the Paper Players color challenge:

I'm contrary so I wanted to do a non-floral card with these colors, and I did, but I didn't really like how it turned out, so I made this one instead.  I also used the new sketch from CAS Colours & Sketches:

I stamped my flowers on a 3x3 piece of cardstock, then cut it into 1.5" squares and sponged the edges.  I had started with the flowers pointing upwards but after I cut them apart I decided to have them point to the side and that's when I stamped my sentiment.  What would this be called, it's not really a mosaic but I like the effect.

Ryan has his extracurricular class today so I get an extra-long day to do fun things in my craft room and maybe do a little laundry.  But first it's a beautiful morning and Daphne is ready to go for her walk.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Blossoms Abound, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Ink:  Bubble Bath, Berry Burst, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Bubble Bath, Lost Lagoon, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Purple Shimmer Gem in Berry Burst

Friday Flashback: Blossoms Abound

Mornin', folks!  Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback.  Today's not-so-randomly chosen stamp set is Blossoms Abound, and when you get to the end of the post you'll see why I couldn't resist picking this stamp set today (usually I draw names at random).  Let's flash back!

So I first got this stamp set during the first year that SU! had In Colors, and this uses Cranberry Crisp which is a fantastic name for a color.

And here it is again in Vintage Violet.

Trying something different here with the lacing up the side.

And here's some kinda nonstandard colors...I think I like this better in blues, purples, and pinks.

Oh hey look, it's blues, purples, and pinks!  I quite like these two.

And now for today's card, let's make it a giant picture:

I'm mixing old and new here; this is the maiden voyage for Label Love.  I sponged the flower panel though it's hard to see in this picture.  The sketch is Freshly Made Sketches' 100th challenge, which is a repeat of their very first sketch:

And the color combo is from the Color Throwdown:

And now you can see why I so wanted to use Blossoms Abound today!  I love this color combo and that inspiration pic is gorgeous.

Happy Friday friends, and have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Blossoms Abound, Label Love, Teahouse
Ink:  Pale Plum, Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Pale Plum, Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz, Very Vanilla, Cottage Wall DSP
Accessories:  Artisan Label punch, Dimensionals