The Secret in the Old Lace

Happy Saturday, y'all, and welcome back to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week we are on book #59, where Nancy investigates The Secret in the Old Lace:

So, the arch cover is my least favorite of this trio, but I like Nancy's outfit the best out of all of them.  We have a moody gothic cover with a Captain Hook dude staring down at Nancy from a wall with a sinister cloaked figure behind him, but I just don't like Nancy's face and hairdo on this cover.

Next up is the pink checkerboard, we have Nancy and George confronting a phantom in what looks like a dungeon but WHAT in the 1980s is Nancy wearing??  I like the girls' shoes but Nancy's outfit is definitely mockable.

The fashion doesn't get much better on the orange checkerboard cover, this time we have Bess and Nancy.  Bess, why would you put a purple top with maroon pants?  Nancy, what are you smuggling under that ginormous blouse?  The bit with the painting described in the book is good, though.

Case file:  Nancy enters a magazine contest where she writes a fictitious ending to a real-life mystery of a Belgian nobleman who disappeared in I think the 19th century, and Bess conveniently pops up with a present-day mystery for Nancy to solve in (you guessed it) Belgium.  Nancy has to figure out who the present-day heir is to some jewelry discovered in an old house in Bruges, and along the way she really does solve the mystery of the missing nobleman.  Alas, there were no waffles.  Opportunity missed.

Here's my first card:

So upon perusing my stamp collection, my options for lace were surprisingly slim pickins.  At last I landed on using both Tasteful Touches and Touches of Texture and once again I managed to incorporate an arch for the arch cover, it's becoming a game to design cards around that shape.

My color palette is Purple Posy, Petal Pink, and Concord Crush so even though the card looks like it's got black on it I promise it's very dark purple.  And I included just a touch of Golden Glow to match Nancy's hair; I used it on the flower center.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tasteful Touches, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Purple Posy, Concord Crush, Petal Pink
Paper:  Purple Posy, Petal Pink, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Dimensionals, In Color Opal Rounds (they're Fresh Freesia, but they looked good with the Purple Posy on my card)

Here's my card for cover #2:

Before the girls take off for Europe, a criminal breaks into Nancy's house.  She calls Chief McGinnis who rushes right over and then she pulls out her own fingerprinting kit (yeah, I have one of those in my hall closet too, Nancy) and he comments that he'd never seen her dust for prints before.  And that was the PERFECT opportunity to use True Crime Vol. 2 from The Ink Road.

I kept this one a very simple design and went with Melon Mambo, Basic Gray, and Cloud Cover for my colors and we're just ignoring Nancy's outfit now.

Supplies:
Stamps:  True Crime Vol. 2 from The Ink Road
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray
Paper:  Melon Mambo, Basic Gray, Cloud Cover, Basic White
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Glitter Enamel Dots

And on to cover #3:

So there's a bad guy who pretends to be a ghost running around this house that Nancy, Bess, and George are investigating, but Nancy notices the "phantom" is wearing boots and later she finds a guy wandering around Bruges wearing cowboy boots and of course he's the rightful heir to the jewelry.  So anyway, boots are a recurring clue in this book.

This one was the hardest of the three to come up with a card for some reason.  Super bright and possibly not coordinating colors (sorry Bess, I am not digging your outfit), but I went with Mango Melody, Sweet Sorbet, Tahitian Tide, and stamped the boot image in Night of Navy.  So hopefully that color combo feels cohesive on my card?  Well, not every card can be my favorite.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions
Ink:  Night of Navy, Mango Melody Blend which should probably be tossed
Paper:  Mango Melody, Whisper White, Sweet Sorbet & Tahitian Tide DSP
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Hydrangea Hue glitter pen, Dimensionals, In Color Matte Dots

This book is another travelogue and we learn a few things about lace making along the way.  I had forgotten that this one takes us to Belgium and you know what?  I've been to Bruges!  I did not visit the same museums as the girls did, nor did I foil any nefarious criminal plots, but I can imagine where they were in the book.  Still, I think this one is a middle-of-the-road Nancy Drew book, not terrible but not great either, so I'm giving it two and a half stars.  If any of these book covers (or the story) inspire you, pretty please leave me a comment!  And stay tuned next week when Nancy takes on The Greek Symbol Mystery.

Friday Flashback: Bootiful Occasions

Happy Friday, y'all!  Today's Friday Flashback retired stamp set is Bootitful Occasions.  There are four main stamps in the stamp set and I thought for a hot second that I had actually used every stamp in the set, but the little "happy boot day" stamp has never been used.  Oh well, onward!

Each one of the four main boot stamps has an image of a boot along with a sentiment, but for this one I cut the two elements apart.  And this is one of those weird sketches from Splitcoast.

Also features Extreme Elements

If winter boots aren't your thing, perhaps a cowboy boot?

Here's what I need right now, some rain boots (a.k.a. Wellies).  I've been using my snow boots as rain boots for the past couple of weeks and they're covered in mud.  So is my basement.  Again.

Also features Make a Mitten and Snow Swirled

For this one, I just used the winter boot's sentiment with some images from other stamp sets.  See, multi-functional!

And possibly my favorite boot in the set, the witch's boot : )

The background on this card was fun (and messy) to create and involved finger-painting.  And that's the end of the flashback, so here is my new creation:

My dad asked me to make a thank you card for him that had boots on it, so this is what he got.  I stamped the boots on Thick Whisper White, sponged on Really Rust ink, then fussy-cut them and put them on an oval of Very Vanilla.  The boot on the left is popped up on Dimensionals.

I texted Dad a picture of the stamp set One Big Meaning so he could pick his particular thank you stamp and this is what he chose.  This card is large, 5x7 instead of a regular A2 card size, because that's what he wanted.  And also because everything is bigger in Texas.

Well, I'll see you tomorrow for another baby book layout, and in the meantime, cheers y'all!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions, One Big Meaning
Ink:  Basic Black, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Really Rust, Very Vanilla, Thick Whisper White, Outlaw DSP
Accessories:  Ovals Framelits, Neutrals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Spring Wellies

Hey, peeps!  Betcha thought I forgot to do today's post, right?  I didn't, I was just busy this morning with my stitching group.  But I got my act together this afternoon to make a spring card!

We've had a LOT of rain lately, and I think we're in for more in the next few days.  And it's in the 70s today, but it's supposed to drop 30 degrees overnight:  definitely spring weather.  I'm already not looking forward to summer heat and humidity.

Anyway, I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

And I used the color challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

And (and!) my card just happens to fit the inspiration challenge at Paper Players:

Triple challenge.  BOOM.

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions
Ink:  Night of Navy, Coastal Cabana
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Lucky Limeade DSP
Accessories:  Labels Framelits, Best Year Ever buttons, white baker's twine

Friday Flashback: Make a Mitten

I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving yesterday!  Sweet potato casserole makes for good breakfast food :)  Anyway, it's time for a Friday Flashback, and now that Thanksgiving is over we can concentrate on Christmas cards!  Today's featured stamp set is Make a Mitten.  As usual, I think I need to use this cute stamp set more often!

Also features Snow Swirled

So let's start out with a baby book layout just for funsies.  These cute mittens are perfect for any winter-themed project, including a January layout.

Also features Snow Swirled & Bootiful Occasions

There are two different stamps that are patterned mittens, but the set also includes several stamps you can use to decorate your own mittens any way you want so that's what I did here.  I really need to use the adorable tiny reindeer stamp!  So here's today's brand new project:

I had planned to use the reindeer on this one but it didn't fit!  Oh well.  I found a scrap of that patterned paper in my stash and thought they, that's perfect!  I wanted to use some bright, fun colors today and it doesn't get brighter and funner than Tangerine Tango.  I used the sketch from The Paper Players:

That's it for me today...it's time to take the doglets for a walk and then get cleaned up to go to the movies.  Have a great Black Friday, everyone!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Make a Mitten, Snowflakes
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Pacific Point
Paper:  Soft Sky, Old Olive, Whisper White, Frosty Day DSP
Accessories:  Mitten punch, Banner Framelits, white baker's twine, button, Dimensionals

Fabulous Footwear

Ya know, I'd be the coolest witch on the block with boots like this:

Don't you think?  :)  I had pulled out Bootiful Occasions a day or two ago but then ended up doing something different, and then today I decided that it was time to ink it up after all.  I used the colors from the Color Throwdown:

With the addition of Basic Black and Whisper White, obviously.  I interpreted these as Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, and Rich Razzleberry.  Elegant Eggplant would have been closer to the swatch, but I had a Glimmer Brad in Razzleberry and not Eggplant so it won.

The layout is from Sketch Frenzy Friday, haven't played along with their challenge in a long time:

And with those two challenges in mind, my card came together PDQ.  Yay!

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions
Ink:  Versamark, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Whisper White, All Abloom DSP Stack
Accessories:  Brights Glimmer Brads (retired), Banners Collection Framelits, Chevron EF, Black EP, Dimensionals

Nachos: Kick Up Yer Heels

Howdy, Nacho fans!  It's time once again for a sketch from the Nacho Average Challenges team, and here it is:

I won't lie, this one didn't come easy to me, but here's what I've got:

The hardest part of this was getting the triangle panel the way I wanted it....let's just say there are several other triangle scraps now in with my Strawberry Slush cardstock.  The next hardest bit was that I decided to add the Kaleidoscope DSP layer *after* I'd already adhered that Strawberry Slush triangle and the ribbon to the card front.  Oops.  But I just couldn't leave it plain.

So now it's your turn to take on the challenge!  See a few more inspiration pieces on the Nacho blog and then get yer stamp on, ha!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions, Extreme Elements
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Basic Black, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Strawberry Slush, Basic Black, Whisper White, Kaleidoscope DSP
Accessories:  Crushed Curry chevron ribbon, white baker's twine, Brights Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Inky Fingers!

Think we've got a bit of a Halloween thing going this week, so let's just keep it up shall we?

I made this one a while back for a combo SCS sketch/color challenge.  For the background, I embossed plain ol' Whisper White cardstock and then fingerpainted the ink on the embossed chevrons--it was messy and oh, so fun!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, retired DSP in Rich Razzleberry, Midnight Muse & Gumball Green
Accessories:  Chevron EF, Dimensionals

Warm Winter Mittens

I was fairly productive over the weekend:  I got all the cardstock cut for our personal Christmas cards this year and made a few other cards (because I am that good at procrastinating, I ignore the stuff that I have to do on a deadline).  I always say I'm going to do those early and here it is, already December and I haven't made them yet.  Oops.  That HAS to happen this week, but in the meantime I have a fun winter card for you : )

Lookie there, I re-inked my Whisper White ink pad!  Looks so much nicer now though it takes a long time to dry.  When I first had the idea for this card, I was going to do the mittens in Real Red, but then I changed my mind and went with Tangerine Tango.  I'm diggin' that bright pop of orange, what do you think?  And prior to this year, I'd only used Snow Swirled, like, once, and I think this is the third card I've made with it in a week.  Guess it was just biding its time.

I got the layout from a recent Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch that I didn't get to the week it was posted:

And for once I think I stuck to the sketch pretty darned closely!  : )  It's possible that I had "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music stuck in my head while I made my card, particularly that line about "warm woolen mittens".  Personally I think wool is scratchy, I'll stick with my Isotoner gloves.

Thanks for stopping by, hope your week is off to a great start!

Supplies (all SU):
Stamps:  Make a Mitten, Snow Swirled, Bootiful Occasions
Ink:  Whisper White, Island Indigo, Pool Party
Paper:  Island Indigo, Pool Party, Whisper White, In Color DSP Stack
Accessories:  Mitten Builder Punch, Pool Party baker's twine, Dimensionals