The Double Jinx Mystery

Mornin' y'all and welcome to the FIFTIETH Nancy Drew Challenge!  I am still just having the best time entertaining myself over here, both reading the books and making cards for them, and I hope you're enjoying the journey with me.  So today, Nancy takes on The Double Jinx Mystery.

Once again we have a mostly brown cover (see also 99 Steps and Crossword Cipher), but this time Nancy is wearing a pretty cool 70s orange collared shirt with a fun pattern (this book was first published in 1973, still some years before I was even born).  Not sure why Nancy looks extra worried on this one, but hey, we get another Ned cover!  I had some fun using this cover for inspiration, as you'll see in a minute.

Case file:  Carson asks Nancy to help investigate a case where a town is considering tearing down a family-owned zoo and aviary to make way for a high-rise apartment complex.  Someone is trying to convince the owners of the zoo/aviary that they're being jinxed, so there's quite a lot about superstitions and it's very clear that Harriet Stratemeyer Adams gives superstitious people short shrift.  Nancy and Ned both contract ornithosis (different from bird flu according to Google, but it sounds similar) while investigating and Nancy gets kidnapped by one of the most bizarre villains ever, a mentally unbalanced male ballet dancer.  A bonkers ballerino, if you will.

Here's my card:

A lot of this book has to do with birds, and one of the characters is a foreign exchange student from an unnamed Eurasian country who brings along her pet wryneck woodpecker while studying in the States, like you do.  I don't have any wryneck stamps, but I figured a feather would do, and I had a good (and messy) time making the background with watercolor paper, ink refills, and salt.  I dripped the ink on wet watercolor paper, then spritzed more water to get the colors to run, and when you sprinkle salt on and let it dry, it kinda gives you freckles, which I liked.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fine Feathers, Sincere Salutations
Ink:  Peach Pie, Pecan Pie, Early Espresso
Paper:  Early Espresso, Basic Beige, watercolor paper, Autumn Toile DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels dies, In Color Dots, Dimensionals

I was having SUCH a good time with my background that I ended up with several more pieces, and I thought I could make a better card than the first one, so here is attempt #2:

I do like this one better with the fussy-cut feathers, and I feel like it lets more of the fun background show.  I chose the good luck greeting for both of these cards since so much of the book has to deal with people thinking they're jinxed or getting bad luck from all kinds of things, which reminded me of the peacock-induced bad luck from The Hidden Window Mystery.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fine Feathers, Sincere Salutations
Ink:  Peach Pie, Pecan Pie, Early Espresso
Paper:  Early Espresso, Basic Beige, Very Vanilla, watercolor paper, Autumn Toile DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Pecan Pie Ribboned Dots, Dimensionals

And then I liked the second card so much that I just had to keep going and make a third:

I had to do a get well card since Nancy and Ned both come down with ornithosis in this book, it just made me giggle.  And this time I found a piece of DSP with a great circle pattern that matches Nancy's shirt!

As soon as I found that pattern in the Gathering Together Specialty DSP I knew I would use it.  The watercolor bit is a leftover piece from my first watercolor background so I kind of had to build the rest of the card around it.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wildlife Wonder, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Peach Pie, Pecan Pie, Early Espresso
Paper:  Pecan Pie, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, watercolor paper, Gathering Together Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Circles Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, Earthy Matte Dots

This book and its focus on superstitions and bad luck is just a little weird to me, and that's even before we get to the bonkers ballerino, so I'm giving it two and a half stars.  I think several books in the 50s go a bit off the track but sometimes the really bananas ones are the most fun (the high-water mark for bananas shenanigans is still a tie between Brass-Bound Trunk and Moss-Covered Mansion, and I really love those), but this one just feels weird without the extra fun.  Anyway, I hope it inspires you to make something and if so, leave me a comment!  And make sure to tune in next Saturday when things get *really* weird (again!) for Mystery of the Glowing Eye.

Eagle's Nest

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Hope you had a good weekend.  Ours was good up until we went on a bike ride yesterday and Ryan took a spill; he skinned one knee pretty good.  So then we spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch and watched a movie together.

Anyway, how about a scrapbook layout for today?

I put together all my Alpine Adventure layouts and then went back and added the titles, embellishments, and journaling.  When I first put together this one, I had intended to do a beer glass for the embellishment to go with the pic of the hubs and Ryan with the beer, but I forgot and ended up doing feathers to go with the Eagle's Nest page title.

Today's palette:  Dapper Denim, Garden Green, Delightful Dijon, Soft Suede, and white.  The patterned paper I used is from the Painted Christmas DSP, I liked the pine branches to go with all the trees in the pictures.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Hope your week is off to a good start!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Alphabest, Fine Feathers
Ink:  Garden Green, Soft Suede, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Dapper Denim, Garden Green, Delightful Dijon, Thick Basic White, Painted Christmas DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies

Hogwarts Express

Scrappy Monday!  I spent a lot of time yesterday uploading more pictures to print out for yet more scrapbook pages--I ordered a year and a half's worth of pics yesterday.  I think it's safe to say I won't be catching up on my scrapbook pages anytime soon, but I do enjoy the process anyway!

Today's layout is another one from our first trip to Scotland.

Check out the original pictures here.  We got to ride the Hogwarts Express over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, which is where they filmed the super-famous train shot from the first Harry Potter movie.  We also had a Harry Potter trivia game which I won ;)

Today's color palette:  Midnight Muse, Kiwi Kiss, Cherry Cobbler, and Whisper White.  I must have taken the photo on a super-cloudy day because no matter what I do everything ends up kinda bluish-gray.  Well, what can ya do.

Have a great Monday, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Classic Alphabet, Fine Feathers
Ink:  Midnight Muse
Paper:  Midnight Muse, Cherry Cobbler, Kiwi Kiss, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  None

Favorites Showcase 2013, Part 2

2013 is almost over, so here we are with the second half of the 2013 favorites showcase.  Let's go!

Here's one of my picks for July, I love this card.  Always good to have some masculine cards on hand.

My second July pick; July is when I really started to get back into scrapbooking and had loads of fun with it.  I can't wait to dive back in once my exam is over on January 13th!

Here's another scrappy pick for August, from when hubs' truck got squished almost 10 years ago.  It wasn't fun at the time, but I get a kick out of looking at this layout now.  The title makes me giggle every time.

My choice for September was this awesome leafy card, I love those colors together!

Another scrappy layout for October with lots of blues for my mama!

Another great color combo for November's card, love the aquas and purple together.

And we'll finish it up with my favorite December card, this Wedgwood-inspired poinsettia creation.  Once again, I've linked up the original posts for each card or scrapbook layout if you want to see more.  Tomorrow is Nacho Average Challenges day and then we're in to 2014!  Seems like I just got used to writing 2013...

Feathered Thanks

I am a challenge queen today:  I combined four challenges for today's creation.  Here it is:

And here are the challenges.  First up is the Stampin' Celebration November challenge:

The owl mug made me think of Fine Feathers, so I strayed from my normal fall leaves : )  I've been looking at their challenges for months now but this is the first time I've gotten to participate.

Next up is the fun sketch from Around the World:

As advertised, my card was "simple et rapide" : )  Ooh, I didn't put the sentiment in exactly the same place as the sketch, but otherwise I stuck to it pretty good.

I got the colors from Fab Friday, which lucky for me kinda dovetailed with the Stampin' Celebration inspiration pic:

And finally, the current SUO Challenge is to use a favorite sentiment.  Four You has turned into my go-to sentiment stamp set since Curly Cute is retired, so there you have it!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fine Feathers, Four You
Ink:  Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla, a scrap of some retired Christmas DSP but I don't remember which one but yay I used a scrap!
Accessories:  Early Espresso taffeta (this is retired?!), corner rounder punch

Surprise!

I usually don't post on Sundays, but I can't wait to share this...I've been scrappy!

I'm rather excited to share these pages : )  This was from my mom's birthday in 2005...so lemme tell you the story.  Mom taught me how to cross stitch when I was 8, and since she's got a bit of a thing for peacocks, she always told me how she wished she could find a cross stitch pattern for a peacock with its tail fanned out.  For some reason, there are *lots* of patterns with the tail down, which makes no sense to me but whatever.  So while perusing a British cross stitch magazine one day, I came across a picture of this beautiful peacock stitching, but it was from a past issue.  It took me 4 months of stalking eBay before I found the back issue of the magazine, and then I had to stitch like the wind since I knew I wanted to have it framed in time for Mom's birthday.  I even had to quit going to the gym for about 6 weeks so I would have more time in the evenings to work on it.

So in June of that year, hubs and I went home to Texas for my brother's wedding (we lived in North Carolina at the time) and I was able to sneak down to the local cross stitch and framing shop and pick a frame for the finished peacock.  There's a wonderful couple that does all our cross stitch framing for us, they're the grandparents of a guy I went to high school with, and even though they've retired they still do some framing for select customers like Mom and me.  So anyway, this was when they still had the shop, and they were happy to be in on the secret for Mom's birthday.  When the day arrived, my new sister-in-law Adrienne managed to get her out to the shop none the wiser by some ruse, and then when Mom went in to the store, the finished framed peacock was brought out as a big surprise.  I'd left a letter with the shop owners to give to Mom as well, and then you can see in the upper left corner how she's calling me on her cellphone : )

So about the pages...I stamped the feathers on Island Indigo cardstock with Versamark and embossed with clear EP; I thought it would be more subtle than it is but I still like the way it looks.  And the dot on the i was really tiny and got flicked off to who knows where when I tried to peel it up from the Big Shot cutting platform, so I actually ended up using the inside part from the letter e instead.  It worked.

Yay for two more scrapbook pages done!  I'm at 54 non-baby-book scrapbook pages done for the year, so I'm gonna have to hustle to get to my goal of 100 pages.  I think I can, I think I can...

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Fine Feathers
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Night of Navy, Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay, So Saffron, Whisper White
Accessories:  clear EP, Funky Brush Sizzlits alphabet by Sizzix

Good Feathers

ACK!!!  This day has totally gotten away from me and I almost forgot to post something on here today.  Soooo this is all I've got for now:

Again, another combo SCS sketch/color challenge...though I don't like that one lone fussy cut feather so much.  Oh well.  As Scarlett says, tomorrow is another day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Fine Feathers, French Foliage (retiring, get it fast!), Pursuit of Happiness
Ink:  Certainly Celery (retiring), Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Certainly Celery (retiring), Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Bird on a Branch

Salutations and greetings, welcome to this week's edition of the Friday Flashback!  Today's retired stamp set of choice is the elegant Bird on a Branch.  So let's see what I've got:

I sent this one to my mom a couple years ago (duh, it's a Mother's Day card!).  It was a combo SCS color/sketch card and dang I still miss that swirly floral paper I used in the background.  So that was today's short little flashback, and here's the new project:

More pages for Karyn's baby books!  I figured I could get away with doing these layouts ever-so-slightly girly since Mother's Day is the big day in May.  Well, that and Memorial Day, but I go all stars-and-stripes for July.  Actually this layout was kind of a surprise to me; when I went through all my DSP just to refresh my memory as to what all I have, I found that feather paper and thought hey, I can work with that.  Karyn likes to do things like putter around the garden so I went with a very green color combo here because it seemed to "fit" her personality:  Garden Green, Certainly Celery in the DSP, Tempting Turquoise, and Crisp Cantaloupe which I'm surprised I like so much :)

Thanks for joining me for today's Friday Flashback, have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies, scrapbook layout only:
Stamps:  Bird on a Branch, Fine Feathers
Ink:  Soft Suede, Crisp Cantaloupe, Tempting Turquoise
Paper:  Garden Green, Tempting Turquoise, Crisp Cantaloupe, Whisper White, Flock Together DSP
Accessories:  old Sizzix alphabet

Print Poetry Peacock Feather

Howdy, folks!  I finally have a card done for today's blog post.

I suppose the card is okay, but for some reason it's just not quite doing it for me today.  Probably a result of not sleeping well last night...I woke up at 3:45 and didn't really get any restful sleep after that.  Insomnia sucks.

Anyway, today's card was based on the current Retro Sketch, though I'm afraid I failed to do it justice.  I had all these ideas for this sketch earlier this week but those ideas seem to have fled for the moment.

Well, as Scarlett O'Hara says, tomorrow is another day.  Have a good one, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fine Feathers, Fabulous Phrases
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Wisteria Wonder (hard to see on the feather, but it is in there, and on the sentiment too), Gumball Green
Paper:  Gumball Green, Whisper White, Print Poetry DSP
Accessories:  Wisteria Wonder baker's twine

Iridescent Feather

How about a bright and sparkly friendship card for today?

For some reason that Daffodil Delight patterned paper always makes me think of feathers, so that's why I picked it for this card.  I colored in the feather with markers and stamped it, but it seemed to need a bit more oomph so I covered it in Iridescent Ice EP.  Insta-fun...and also insta-mess, because I just cut off all my fingernails and I had a hard time picking up the oval out of the EP and made a mess.  Now my craft room carpet is a bit more sparkly, but that's okay.  My dogs might be a bit more sparkly too but they don't seem to mind.

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Fine Feathers, Sweet Essentials
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, VersaMark
Paper:  Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Floral District DSP
Accessories:  Oval Framelits, Iridescent Ice EP

Fabulous, Darling

I love the feathers!  (I know you read that to yourself in the Genie's voice, right?)

When the current SU! catalog first arrived, of course there was a "what are you getting first" thread on the demo side of Splitcoast, and Fine Feathers seemed to be on a lot of people's to-buy lists (mine included).  Judging from this set's tiny gallery, though, most of us couldn't figure out what to do with it once we had it in our hot little hands.  Well, I like this one, anyway!  I had to re-ink my Gumball Green ink pad after I did the feathers (rock'n'rolled with Island Indigo)...I love the ink coverage with the new ink pads but hate having to re-ink them so often.  I had a hard time squeezing the Gumball Green ink refill hard enough to get the ink out, what's up with that?

Anyway, this is based on Retro Sketches #38 and I think maybe I should start printing out the sketches I want to use because this is the second time in a row I've gotten the basic elements on there but not *quite* in the same places as on the sketch.  Love this sketch though :)

Thanks for stopping by, happy Tuesday!

Supplies (all SU):
Stamps:  Fine Feathers, Fabulous Phrases
Ink:  Gumball Green, Island Indigo
Paper:  Whisper White, Gumball Green, Island Indigo
Accessories:  Square Lattice EF, 1/2" circle punch, In Color Printed Designer Brads