Eiffel Tower Encore

Mornin' y'all!  I did not let Ryan ride his bike or rollerblades to school this morning as it's supposed to be rainy and SNOWY this afternoon.  Like my dad says, does Colorado know it's May?  Ryan only has two more weeks of school after this one and we have snow in the forecast.  Wild.

Anyway, I have another Eiffel Tower card to share today:

Do I have at least four SU! stamp sets featuring the Eiffel Tower?  Yes.  Did I buy this Eiffel Grunge stamp set from Unity last week anyway?  Also yes.  Do I have impulse control issues?  Probably.  But come on, that's a cool Eiffel Tower!  I stamped it in my newly inked up Basic Gray ink pad, die cut it, and added some color to the flowers with a blender pen as well as Wink of Stella on the tower, which doesn't show up in the picture because it's shy like that.

I've hit all the ingredients for the As You See It recipe challenge:

One word sentiment:  Bonjour!  Die cut:  four dies from three different sets.  Flowers:  on the stamped image and the patterned paper.  Frame:  patterned paper around the main image panel.  Shades of pink:  Pink Pirouette (I love this pink, I have been playing with it again recently) and Pretty in Pink.  I tried a Regal Rose card base but I didn't like it, so I stuck with two shades of pink.

For the filigree pattern behind the tower image, I tried stamping it with Pink Pirouette ink but it came out blotchy, so I flipped the cardstock over and stamped it in VersaMark and embossed with clear powder.  That means my card counts for the Inspire. Create. Challenge:

You can't tell from the picture, but the filigree looks shiny if you look at it from an angle, the tower is subtly sparkly, and I added Pretty in Pink sparkle gems.  So yeah, this card also fits in perfectly with this week's Paper Players challenge:

And to go along with my Eiffel Tower cards of late, I recently started reading a book about an early medieval French and English queen.  I listened to several episodes of You're Dead to Me over the weekend, which is a history podcast produced by the BBC and it's really entertaining and informative, and one of the episodes was about Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Listening to that reminded me that I was pretty sure I'd bought a book about her at some point, and as I had just finished a book, I did a search on my Kindle.  I was wrong, I have SIX books about Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Ha!  Okay, one is about her daughters, but still.  I picked one of the biographies and got started on Sunday night, it's really interesting.  Eleanor is the only woman to have been queen of both France and England, she went on crusade with her first husband, she's the mother of Richard the Lion-Heart and the dastardly Prince John of Robin Hood fame, and her second husband locked her up for over a decade because she wouldn't do what she was told.  She still outlived him I think.  Fascinating lady.

I've just finished my tea so I should take Daphne for a misty and cold walk around the neighborhood; the rain and snow is supposed to start after noon so this is the time to go.  Cheers...or should I say, ciao!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Eiffel Grunge by Unity Stamps, Filigree, Carte Postale
Ink:  Basic Gray, Pink Pirouette, Soft Sea Foam, VersaMark
Paper:  Pink Pirouette, Basic Gray, Thick Basic White, Pretty in Pink DSP
Accessories:  Eiffel Grunge die by Unity Stamps, Rectangles Stitched dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, clear EP, Dimensionals, Pretty in Pink Gems

Mystery of the Tolling Bell

Happy Saturday and welcome to the latest Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week's book is #23, (The) Mystery of the Tolling Bell, and I have three different covers for this one.

The Russell Tandy cover on the left features Nancy in her signature blue, I like her pleated skirt and that hairstyle is SO 1940s.  I wonder why this is the only one that has "The" at the start of the title; the second book is the same text as this one but the title slightly changed.  Hmm.

Next we have Rudy Nappi's first cover for this one, which is clearly based on Tandy's but now Nancy has her signature 1960s flip hairdo and I really love that pink and red outfit.  10/10, would wear.  Also, this is the very first original text book I ever bought!

Last up we have Nappi's revised cover, which is kind of a combination of the collage style and also features the same scene as the first two versions but Nancy's outfit is far less interesting than either of the original text covers.  This one is my childhood copy.

I'm choosing the middle one as my favorite cover, both because of the awesome pink outfit and also it makes more sense for Nancy to have her trusty flashlight rather than carrying a clutch purse with her.  So let's take a look at the story!

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are in the seaside town of Candleton to help Carson with a case; his client Mrs. Chantrey was duped into buying worthless stocks in a cosmetics company.  In addition, there's a mysterious cave in the seaside cliffs from which emanates the sound of a tolling bell and the locals think it's haunted.  Naturally, Nancy solves both mysteries and catches all the bad guys with Ned's help as strongman.  This one is like The Whispering Statue in that it's set in a seaside town, and perfume is a major plot point like in The Secret of Red Gate Farm.  But Tolling Bell also has some really whackadoo elements, like when Nancy gets drugged and has a dream that she's carried away by two elves.  It's bonkers.  And Carson gets drugged this time too.

Here's my card for the first cover version:

I just *had* to buy Fanciful Fragrance on eBay just so I could make a card for this book, and who knows how many other Nancy Drews feature perfume as a major plot point so really it was an investment, ha.  Anyway, I do love this image with the fancy perfume bottles and the set has some nice sentiments and some other fancy images too.

I ended up with Baja Breeze and Tranquil Tide to try to color match to Nancy's outfit on this one.  The brownish strip is the Earthen Toned Metallic Specialty Paper but it wasn't reflecting much when I took my photos.  I used champagne-colored rhinestones to make this card a bit fancier, and also that lovely Filigree background stamp, love it.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fanciful Fragrance, Filigree
Ink:  Tranquil Tide, Baja Breeze
Paper:  Tranquil Tide, Baja Breeze, Thick Basic White, Earthen Toned Metallic Specialty Paper
Accessories:  Squares Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, Champagne Rhinestones

On to the next cover!  This one is the original text again.

And here's my card:

The flimflam cosmetics company is Mon Coeur, which means "my heart" in French, so I wanted to do a heart image for this book to coordinate with Nancy's pink and red outfit on the cover.  As soon as I came across Living Large, I knew I had to use it.  Look, the stamped girly even has Nancy's signature 'do!

Once again I tried to work in the colors on the cover, so I ended up with Cloud Cover, Polished Pink, Cherry Cobbler, and Pebbled Path for my neutral.  I love that Wild Hearts background, this was a great excuse to break it out along with Living Large.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Living Large, Wild Hearts
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Polished Pink, Stampin' Blends in Polished Pink, Timid Tiger, Petal Pink, Cherry Cobbler, Cloud Cover
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Polished Pink, Thick Basic White, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Rhinestones, Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin Ribbon, Wink of Stella

And now for the revised text:

The story is the same as the original text, just condensed a bit with no major changes that stood out to me.  And if you've been wondering how I could make multiple cards for the Mystery of the Tolling BELL without using any bells, well, here you go:

Midway through the book, the crooks decide that the Mon Coeur name is getting too hot with Nancy and Carson on their case, so they plan to change the brand name to Sweet Chimes with a logo of bells.  I had to look through my To Sell? stamps to find these bells in Best of Brides & Babies.

Once again I used Pebbled Path as my neutral, and I used So Saffron for the warm colors of Nancy in the center of the illustration.  There are some hints of blue in the rocks around her, so I chose Boho Blue for my card base, and hey, blue goes with a wedding card, right?  No one gets married in this book, though Ned definitely has it on his mind and Nancy politely ignores it because she's more interested in solving mysteries than canoodling.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Brides & Babies, Occasional Quotes
Ink:  Versamark, Pebbled Path, So Saffron, Peach Pie, Boho Blue
Paper:  Boho Blue, Pebbled Path, So Saffron, Thick Basic White, Bella Bleu DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Circles Collection Framelits, Mini Dimensionals, Clear EP, Pearls

I hope you enjoyed (The) Mystery of the Tolling Bell, this was another one I really liked from my childhood and still enjoyed a lot on this read through.  Four stars for all the bananas elements of the story (I rather enjoy it when the Nancy Drew book is a bit off the rails).  If you're inspired to play along (hooray!), just leave me a comment below!  I'll be back next week to search for The Clue in the Old Album.  Cheers!

Friday Flashback: Sincere Salutations

Thank goodness it's Friday, kids.  Not my best week ever.  I will neither confirm nor deny that I ate brownie batter for breakfast today.  Is it weird that I like brownie batter better than actual brownies?  Don't answer that.  Also, I laugh in the face of salmonella.

But anyway, I bring you today's slightly late Friday Flashback.  Today's retired stamp set of choice is Sincere Salutations, and I remember how excited we stampers were when it first came out--eight sentiments in a pretty classy mixed-font format, what's not to love?  So again, this flashback would take a week if I put up every single project I ever made with this stamp set.  Let's just select a few, shall we?

Also features Baroque Motifs

And right off the bat this one might be my favorite of the bunch.  I like the color combination :)  And of course Baroque Motifs can do no wrong.

Also features Natural Beauty

My long-ago SU! upline used to do that thing like on this card where a smaller-than-A2 card is folded and then backed up with a piece of colored cardstock; not really my thing but it did let me do a nice bow on the side of this card.

Also features Pretty Peony

Some pretty purple peonies for a birthday...

Also features Roses in Winter

And Christmas roses.  Yeah, Sincere Salutations has got you covered for most events.

Also features Stippled Stencils, Weathered

The sentiment showed up better IRL on this card than in the scan (and this was so long ago that it was a scan rather than a photo)--it's embossed in gold.

Also features Wonderful Wings, Filigree

One last card featuring one of the gorgeous butterflies from Wonderful Wings, and also last week's Friday Flashback set of Filigree.  And now for this week's new creation:

I'm pretty pleased with it.  I used the color challenge from ColourQ:

And apparently I was influenced by the picture in the challenge graphic too, because I think that's what made me reach for Medallion.  I also used this week's Retro Rubber Challenge sketch:

In the spirit of the challenge, I've had Sincere Salutations for I suppose 11 years because I think I got it when it came out; Medallion dates from 2011 so five years, and True Friend I've had for 9 years.  Yeah, I think I got the "retro" part of the challenge covered this time ;)

Well, hubs just got home and he's taking me out to dinner so that's it for me.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Sincere Salutations, Medallion, True Friend
Ink:  Marina Mist, Pear Pizzazz, Tangerine Tango, Night of Navy
Paper:  Marina Mist, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Accessories:  Circle punches, Regals Candy Dot, Tangerine Tango ribbon from Sale-a-Bration a couple of years ago

Friday Flashback: Filigree

Happy Friday!  This week's Friday Flashback stamp set is Filigree, which was one of my favorite background stamps for a very long time...oh who are we kidding, I still love me some Filigree.  But I don't want you to spend all weekend trying to make it through the entire Flashback, so I just picked out a few favorite older projects with Filigree.

Oh wow, I just saw in the Splitcoast gallery that Filigree retired in 2005!

Also features Roses in Winter, Hugs & Wishes

Wow, way back in the archives for this one:  that's Vintage Violet!

Also features Best of Brides & Babies

Here's a wedding card with one of the "Best of" sets they did a couple years ago.  Filigree is stamped with Versamark and embossed with clear EP; it also looks pretty fabulous done in metallic EP or Iridescent Ice.  Which is on the retiring list, to my great surprise.  I love that stuff!

Also features Land That I Love

Here's a patriotic eagle card.  Oy, back in the day when all I had was cheap big box store ribbon.  I don't have much current SU! ribbon, but I do have a laundry basket full of retired stuff :)

Also features Petal Prints, Happy Everything

Aww, this one's sweet.  I miss Regal Rose sometimes.

Also features Coast to Coast, Sincere Saluations

You know what?  I think a lighthouse makes for good symbolism on a thinking of you or sympathy card.

Also features Print Pattern, Wonderful Wings, Sincere Salutations

Okay, one last one with the kissing technique and a fabulous butterfly.  Of course you recently saw a Filigree-kissed sun on my Here Comes the Sun layout this Monday.

So that's all I'm sharing from the archives today, otherwise you'd be here until next Friday.  Here is today's new creation:

Today's colo(u)r combo is from ColourQ:

It's been a really long time since I busted out the Cool Caribbean, I still have quite a stash of 8.5x11 cardstock which makes me happy.  Sadly, the year that Cool Caribbean was an In Color I wasn't scrapbooking much at all so I never got any 12x12 in the In Colors.

I also used this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

I had a Goldilocks moment with the gold circle element--I wanted to use one of the gold doilies I have, but the smaller size was too small and the larger size was too big, so in the end I just die-cut a plain circle and it was juuuust right.

Hope y'all have a wonderful weekend, peeps.  I think we're supposed to get thunderstorms today and tomorrow, so that means it's a good opportunity to stay home and work in my craft cave!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Filigree, Stippled Blossoms, Thank You Kindly
Ink:  Cool Caribbean, Calypso Coral, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Cool Caribbean, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Gold Foil
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, Hexagon punch, Dimensionals

Here Comes the Sun

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  How was your weekend?  I got a bit of work done on some scrapbook pages, but nothing ready to share here quite yet.  So today's layout is one I made before we left for Disneyland!

These pictures are from our last spring in England--I loved taking the doglets for walks around the village because we'd see tons of flowers all spring.  Snowdrops (top left corner) would appear in January, crocuses in February, and by March daffodils had sprung up all over everything--even smack in the middle of our lawn.  I also saw lilacs, lavender, wisteria, tulips, climbing roses, and more flowers that I don't know the names of.  So since I knew it was my last spring in England, I took my camera out several times to take pictures of the flowers with this specific layout in mind.

How do you like my sun?  The center part is kissed--ink up the solid circle stamp, then ink up the retired Filigree background and stamp the sun on the Filigree before stamping on cardstock.  Then it was just a matter of Stamp-a-ma-jigging all the rays on there and cutting it out.  Took some time but I like how it turned out.

The layout title is, of course, the title of my favoritest-ever Beatles song written by George Harrison.  (Strawberry Fields Forever is my favorite Beatles song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.)  So for the journaling, I used the lyrics to the song.  There's a second layout (which you'll see next Monday) with more pictures and journaling about the village and the flowers and such, but I liked this one with the song lyrics.

Today's color combination:  Whisper White, Garden Green, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, and a wee bit of Delightful Dijon (where the sun got kissed).

Speaking of the sun, it took me several tries before I got one that I liked.  I tried kissing with a clean Filigree stamp, then with Crushed Curry (both too faint), then Melon Mambo (way too much!), then finally with Delightful Dijon, which finally worked for me.

Hope you have a great week.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Ray of Sunshine, Filigree
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Delightful Dijon, Garden Green marker
Paper:  Whisper White, Garden Green, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Melon Mambo DSP
Accessories:  Butterflies Thinlits, Itty Bitty Punch Pack flower, hole punch, Sizzlets Alphabet

Friday Flashback: Watercolor Garden

Happy Friday, y'all!  Looks like it's going to be a nice day where we are today, and the trees are starting to bloom so it looks like spring.  And so does today's Friday Flashback!  Today's featured stamp set is Watercolor Garden.  Let's check it out!

Also features Fancy Flexible Phrases

I made this card for my stamp club way, way back in 2007 and I still love those rock'n'rolled flowers.

Also features Background Basics, Warm Words

Ya know what, looking back at some of my very old cards (this one is from 2006), for a long time there I wasn't using *any* patterned paper.  And now I've got a ton of it!  But sometimes it's nice to go back to the basics of nothing but ink and paper and stamps.

Also features Terrific Tulips, Season by Season

The flowers on this one aren't from Watercolor Garden, just the stems and leaves.  And it's sad that this set has apparently been collecting dust since I made this card in 2008!  Well, I broke it out for today's new card:

Apparently I was feeling old skool so no patterned paper...I got this idea to use only Whisper White (well, Thick WW) cardstock and stamp each panel with something different, but I wanted soft pastel colors.  The Filigree background I did by sponging the ink on the stamp so it came out lighter, and pretty much everything else but the sentiment was stamped off once.  There are some Pink Pirouette butterflies on the bee panel but they're really, really light.

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

And the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I figured that the spring flowers counted as Easter-y, after all isn't there a flower called an Easter lily? ;)  Anyway, I've had Watercolor Garden for at least 10 years (whoa!), same for Filigree, and Fancy Flexible Phrases for 9 years.  Hadn't really thought about it but I suppose I have been a stamper for over a decade now.  Craziness!

The challenge over at Just Add Ink is to Just Add E--I think my Easter card qualifies.

Hope you have a good weekend, stampy folks.  I'm off to the gym (again!) and then I've got some spring cleaning to do.  Bleargh.  But then it's date night with the hubs tonight so that makes it better.  Cheers!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Watercolor Garden, Filigree, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Ink:  Perfect Plum, Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Soft Suede
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Upsy Daisy

Happy Friday, peeps!  Are you ready for a Friday Flashback?  This time it's a short one; the stamp set today is Upsy Daisy and while it's super cute, somehow I only have one card in the archives.  Not sure how that happened.

Also features Heard from the Heart

The flower silhouette image is the only image in the set; it also has three sentiments.  So yep, that's the Flashback card, and here's today's brand new creation:

I stamped the image with Mint Macaron ink, then sponged the panel, and then stamped the image again with Versamark and heat embossed to give it a little extra interest.  I didn't get the second image lined up perfectly though, you can see it if you look especially on the right side, but I kinda like the effect so I'm okay with that.  I kept thinking I should add some pearls or some paper piecing, but I couldn't figure out where or how to do that so I left it as-is.

I flipped this week's Freshly Made Sketch 90 degrees for my card:

I also extended the strip in the background so it went to the edges of the card front, that was just to hide the edge of the background stamp since I didn't get it completely straight.

I also used this week's Pals Paper Arts color challenge:

This challenge was interesting to me, but I'm not sure how much I like Mint Macaron and Pool Party together.  Seems to me they're a little bit too close in color for my tastes but hey, I gave it a shot.

Hope you enjoy your Friday afternoon!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Upsy Daisy, Filigree
Ink:  Mint Macaron, Pool Party, Tip Top Taupe, Versamark
Paper:  Mint Macaron, Pool Party, Whisper White, Cherry on Top DSP Stack
Accessories:  Clear EP

Friday Flashback: Watercolor Minis

Happy Friday, peeps!  It's Day 2 of the Snapdragon Stamps move-a-thon, but luckily I made a card (two, actually) for today's Flashback earlier this week.  Starting next week I'll be going to a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday post schedule until we get to the next house and I get my craft room set up again.  But for today, let's check out Watercolor Minis!

Also features Sage Advice

I remember that this one was super-fiddly when I made it, trying to get all the quilt blocks on the edges trimmed exactly right.  I liked the effect, but I never made another card like this ;)

Also features Filigree and Sincere Salutations

Also features Filigree and Sincere Salutations (again)

Ok, for some reason I can't manage to get any text in between these two cards but they're the same except for colors anyway.  I still miss Eggplant Envy; it was a couple shades lighter than the current Elegant Eggplant.  I love Elegant Eggplant, but sometimes it comes off so dark that it's hard to distinguish from black.

Also features All-Year Cheer and Roses in Winter

I liked using the roses in Watercolor Minis as the tiny version of the roses in Roses in Winter, as you can see here.  And that's the Flashback, so here are today's two new cards:

I knew I had used the rose a lot, but maybe not the tulip, so I decided to do a kinda CAS design with the tulip stamps.  But after I made this one on Sahara Sand, I wasn't sure I liked how the colors turned out on top of the colored cardstock, so I made a second one with a Whisper White card base.

Just a little brighter, and doesn't muddy up the tulip colors.  Once again I used an older layout from Clean & Simple Stamping:

And that's all she wrote this week.  Have a great weekend, peeps!

Supplies, last two cards only:
Stamps:  Watercolor Minis, Elegant Cheer
Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Strawberry Slush, Old Olive, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Something Borrowed DSP
Accessories:  Blackberry Bliss ribbon