The Clue in the Jewel Box

Happy Saturday y'all and welcome to a new Nancy Drew Challenge!  This time we're attempting to unravel The Clue in the Jewel Box.

I think it's fun how the OT and RT covers have the creepy dude, Nancy in pink, the old lady, and NOT the titular jewel box on the cover.  We'll get to that last part in a minute.  Nancy is feeling VERY 60s on both covers and they're both by Rudy Nappi so maybe that's why they are so similar.  I like them both quite well.

Case file:  Nancy becomes acquainted with Madame Marie Alexandra, the deposed queen mother of a never-named European country (Russia, obvs) who is searching for her grandson, the only other member of the royal family to survive the revolution.  This is Anastasia with a boy instead of a girl.  Nancy finds a man who has some bona fides, but his uncouth manners make Nancy doubt that he really is the lost prince.  The Easter egg with the nightingale in it (and that piece is consistently referred to as an Easter egg, not a jewel box) sings instructions to look for the clue in the jewel box, which is shaped like Madame Alexandra's favorite footman from the palace.  Nancy finds the real prince and also smashes a pickpocket ring operating in River Heights.

Here's my card for the OT:

I knew from the jump that I wanted to use the Bird Ballad DSP because it has the same colors as the book cover and it's got birds, which calls back to the nightingale in the Easter egg.  I let the DSP be the star of the show here, the only stamping is the greeting.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Free as a Bird
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Basic white, Bird Ballad DSP
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, Dimensionals, Solid Faceted Gems

And here's the RT:

Case file:  The story remains the same as the OT, the only obvious changes I can think of are that Helen is married to Jim Archer in this one instead of having Buck Rodman as her date.  Also I think the OT is the first reference to Dave and Burt, who turn into Bess and George's regular dates for the rest of the hardback Nancy Drews.  Anyway, basically the same story and still the cover doesn't have the jewel box on it.

Here's my card:

I still used the Bird Ballad DSP but I brought in the Winterly Tree Tops stamp set, which coordinates beautifully with Bird Ballad and Free as a Bird, a stamp set that predates this one by a couple of years and was released with the Bird Ballad DSP.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Winterly Tree Tops
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pool Party, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Petal Pink, Pool Party, Thick Basic White, Bird Ballad DSP
Accessories:  Winterly Tree Tops dies, Dimensionals, Petal Pink Foil Gems

Side note:  My favorite part of these books (this happens in both) is that Nancy and her father Carson go to a daddy-daughter picnic thing where a judge drops his daughter's compact and complains that women's clothing doesn't have pockets.  PREACH, JUDGE!  Why is this still a problem in 2025?!

So there you have The Clue in the Diary, which is a great addition to the ND lineup.  Five stars.  Leave me a comment if you want to make your own card for the challenge, I would love to see if you're also inspired by Nancy!  As always, you can read (lots) more at Hey, Nancy Drew, where my most recent post is a deep dive into The Message in the Hollow Oak.  Next Saturday on this blog, we'll be working to uncover The Secret in the Old Attic, another great one!

Paper Players: Springtime Colors

Hello stampy friends!  I'm excited to be back again as Guest DT for The Paper Players!  Get ready for some springtime colors...

Aren't they pretty together?  My first thought was to stamp a springtime bouquet but I am stubborn and contrary so I decided to make a card with these colors where flowers aren't the main image.

I chose this springtime songbird lineup and okay yes, there are still some flowers on the image ;)  I thumbed through my Stampin' Up! catalog for some inspiration for a layout, and I ended up loving a card on page 44 using the Wild Cats stamp set.

See the card on the top left?  That's what I used as my jumping off point.  Stamp catalogs are a great source of inspiration when you get a bit stuck!

We hope you'll take these colors for a spin and share your card on The Paper Players blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Free as a Bird
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Pale Papaya, Calypso Coral, Just Jade, Cinnamon Cider, and Gray Granite
Paper:  Just Jade, Pale Papaya, Calypso Coral, Thick Basic White, Hand Penned DSP
Accessories:  Nature's Thoughts dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, white EP, In Color rhinestones, mini Dimensionals

Thanks, Chickadee

Hey y'all!  With being out of town for the holiday weekend and then working Tuesday and Wednesday, today was my first chance to stamp in a week.  I only got one card made, but I think it turned out nicely and it's for four different challenges, so that ain't too bad!

This would have been a fairly quick card if it weren't for fussy cutting the bird image.  Coloring it in took a little time too, but it was definitely the cutting that made this time consuming :)  Check out this week's Color Throwdown:

I used So Saffron/Crushed Curry, Smoky Slate, and Memento Tuxedo Black for my colors, with a little bit of Ivory, Petal Pink, and Soft Sea Foam on the bird image.  I went with a thank you sentiment for the Inspire. Create challenge:

One can always use more thank you cards, am I right?  I chose the birds for the Global Design Project theme challenge:

Plus I thought the birds would stand in nicely for the three diamond shapes on this week's Freshly Made Sketch since they kinda overlap a bit:

At first I was trying to put the sentiment underneath the birds, but in the end I decided it worked better above and to the left a bit.  I cut out the cloud border from the Basic Borders dies and used it as a mask for some subtle clouds behind the birds; it actually looks a bit better in real life than in the photo (I could not get it to show up right in a picture).  The birds are popped up on Dimensionals, but this will still go through the post office machines no problem, which is always a plus.

Hope you're having a good week, peeps.  I'm going to see if I can get anything else done before I have to pick up the spawn...cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Free as a Bird, Stacked Stone
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Smoky Slate, Crushed Curry, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, So Saffron, Petal Pink, Soft Sea Foam, and Ivory
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Basic Borders dies

SUO Challenges: Mark It Up

Mornin' y'all!  Can you believe it--already time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time, the challenge is to use markers or Blends on your card creation!  I decided to go super CAS with my card and let the Stampin' Blends really do the talking.

Two stamps, one layer, zero embellishments, but still colorful and pretty thanks to the Blends (colors listed below).  I'm going to call these chickadees but I have zero idea what kind of bird they really are...or if my coloring job actually corresponds to any real-life birds ;)  I had intended to do a light wash of blue behind the bird image but I forgot, oops.  I still think it's pretty.

Don't forget to upload your creation at the SUO Challenges blog!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Free as a Bird
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Crushed Curry, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, So Saffron, Just Jade, Flirty Flamingo, and Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  None

CAS Doesn't Mean Quick

Have you ever had a project that just WOULD NOT COOPERATE for anything?  That was today's card.  I worked on it for a solid hour and then decided to toss everything I had done and start it all over.  I was trying to do the multi-step stamping for the flowers from All Things Fabulous and no matter what I did I couldn't get the images to turn out how I wanted.  So then I had a look through my stamp sets and decided to use Free as a Bird instead, even with having to fussy cut the images.

So here's the card that I finally ended up with:

 
I was going to say it's the cause of all the frustration, but THAT card is in the trash.  Other than thinking I shouldn't have had the dots go through the middle of the circle element, I like what I ended up with but good GRAVY was it a journey to get here.  I'm telling you:  CAS doesn't mean quick.  Or easy.  Sometimes it's harder than a card with a bunch of layers and fancy techniques.

Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

I used Flirty Flamingo, Grapefruit Grove, and Just Jade for my colors, with some Cinnamon Cider thrown in because I love it.  So the flowers are pink (Flamingo) and the dots in the background are orangey/coral (Grapefruit Grove).  Couldn't get a photo to show the difference in the colors better, but if you look you CAN actually see the Wink of Stella on the flowers.

I think I need a nap since I had the second Covid vaccine this morning...but I have to go pick Ryan up in 15 minutes.  At least I have all day tomorrow off...cheers y'all, and I hope your creative time is less frustrating than mine was!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Free as a Bird, Comfort & Hope, Waterfront
Ink:  Cinnamon Cider, Grapefruit Grove, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Flirty Flamingo, Just Jade, & Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Wink of Stella, Dimensional (yeah, just one)

Bird Ballad Blooms

Mornin' y'all!  I didn't get to stamp yesterday, but I did get a box of new goodies!  Demonstrators got to start ordering from the upcoming mini catalog at the beginning of July and my order *finally* got here.  I only bought one stamp set from the mini catalog, but I got a bunch of papers and some other fun stuff, so I hope to bust some of that out this afternoon.

In the meantime, I have two more cards that I made a while back while I was playing with Free as a Bird and the Bird Ballad DSP:

(See my other card here.)  SU! has SO many gorgeous patterned papers, it's fun to make cards like this that really show them off.  I was just playing around so I did the same card, same DSP, but different cardstock colors for the card base and sentiment panel.

I'm going to introduce Ryan to the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie (the one from the 90s) so that's what we're doing until the splash pad opens.  Hope he likes it, it'll be fun for me to watch that blast from the past again!

Cowabunga, dude!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Free as a Bird
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pool Party, Petal Pink, Old Olive, Thick Whisper White, Bird Ballad DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Nested Labels dies, Dimensionals

Wild Rose Hello

Mornin' stampers!  It's Friday, though I'm not sure how much that matters with the continuing quarantine.  Not much has opened up yet in North Carolina.

I spent some time in my craft room yesterday and made a card and worked on a couple of scrapbook layouts.  So here's the card:

Looking at this picture, I think I should have trimmed the patterned paper a bit more so that more of the Petal Pink card base showed, but it's all glued down now.  That paper is retired but it was just what I wanted for this card, so I went with it.  I used both Shimmer Black EP and Wink of Stella on the rose so it's nice and sparkly, don't know why they're retiring the shimmer embossing powders.

Anywha, I used the color challenge from Cupcake Inspirations:

As I mentioned, I used Petal Pink for my pink color, and Basic Black and Very Vanilla for the neutrals.  I also used the Global Design Project sketch:

That's it for me today, peeps!  Have a great Friday, even if it doesn't seem much different than any other day right now :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  To a Wild Rose, Free as a Bird
Ink:  Petal Pink, Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Petal Pink, Thick Very Vanilla, Modern Medley DSP
Accessories:  Shimmer Black EP, Wild Rose dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

SUO Designer's Choice: The Bird & the Keys

I thought of that pun and just couldn't resist.  Let me tell ya 'bout the bird and the keys and the flowers and the trees :D  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This one is super simple:  Designer's Choice.  Make any card or other project using only Stampin' Up! products, and share it with us at SUO Challenges.

A while back, I got an email from SU with pictures of three card samples.  The samples were very CAS with just solid cardstock and a black ink pad, but I CASEd the layout from one of the cards to make this:

The Rectangles Stitched dies are on the retiring list, but they're also in the new catalog with a different item number, so for all intents and purposes they're not being retired (you'd have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands anyway, I love those).  So I used the stitched rectangles to cut pieces of the DSP (which really is retiring) and then fussy cut the flowers and the bird image.  I didn't even use Dimensionals on this card--it's totally flat so will be easy to mail.  I need to mail more cards out!

So there's mine, what will you make?  Share it at the SUO Challenges blog!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Free as a Bird
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Calypso Coral, Smoky Slate, Pool Party, and So Saffron
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Whisper White, Bird Ballad DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched Dies

Chinchillin' Like a Villain

Happy Friday, y'all!  Hope you've had a good week.  I got a scrapbook layout finished yesterday and then had time to make a quick card with a new stamp set!

I love Witty-cisms from the Occasions catalog!  I loves me a good pun :)  This is a great all-occasion stamp set too, with stuff for graduation, retirement, baby, thank you, and more.  But I decided to start with this chinchilla after seeing the Fusion challenge:

I used a critter stamp and the colors of brown (Crumb Cake), yellow (Pineapple Punch), and green (Call Me Clover).  I colored with Stampin' Blends and voila!  Quick card.  I stamped a small flower from Free as a Bird on the Pineapple Punch stripe because of the flower in the inspiration pic.

Check out the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch:

Brian King talked about how his card was an optical illusion; all three stripes were the same height, but the middle stripe looked much shorter than the top and bottom.  Well, my yellow stripe is actually 1/4 inch TALLER than the green stripes, and it still looks shorter!  Weird, huh?

Okay, Ryan and I have an errand to run and then we're off to the Y.  I never miss yoga day if I can help it!  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Witty-cisms, Free as a Bird
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pineapple Punch, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Call Me Clover, & Pineapple Punch
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Call Me Clover, Pineapple Punch, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

More Mermaids, Please

Hey y'all!  I'm on Day 3 of my new workout/diet regimen and I accidentally loaded the wrong workout and did lower body instead of upper.  It's okay though, I still worked out and so far I'm doing okay on the program.  And this is two days in a row that I haven't needed an alarm to wake up...well, I am frequently awake around 5 a.m. even when I don't want to be.

Yesterday was a tough day with Ryan, who was being extra super spectacularly two (I had to go have a talk with him in the nursery at the Y because he wasn't behaving, then after we got home he spilled chocolate milk all over the couch and then intentionally locked me out of the house), so when naptime arrived I was extra super spectacularly glad to have a break :)  After I set up dinner in the crockpot (which I was then too tired to eat last night), I went in my craft room and made this:

I know I just did a mermaid card recently (and I even mailed that one out yesterday, one day after my friend's birthday, oops) but I had to use that stamp again because of the challenge at Fusion:

Most of the time I jot down challenge information in a little notebook and then take that back to my craft room, and for this one I only wrote down "pastel mermaid" and I thought I remembered a lot of purple so that's what I went with for my card.  This is the first time I've used the mermaid tail upside down :)

I combined that challenge with the Global Design Project sketch:

And I can also enter this at Retro Rubber:

Magical Mermaid is just over two years old; Free As a Bird (the sentiment) was just released this past summer when the new catty came out so it's not retro yet.  I was looking through my stamps for a sentiment that would fit on my card, and I just thought that one was so amusing with the mermaid tail that I had to go for it.  For a bit more retro-ness, I busted out some fancy scissors for my waves!  Dude, I've had those scissors for over twenty years.  Also, you can't tell from the photo because it was so dark out by the time I took it, but I sponged Balmy Blue ink on the background of the mermaid's tail, and then I used Balmy Blue Blends to color in some clear rhinestones.  First time I've ever tried that and I like it :)

Ryan is already awake as I type this, but I refuse to get him up before 7 a.m. just on principle so I'm going to go relax for a half hour.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU! except the scissors
Stamps:  Magical Mermaid, Free As a Bird
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Balmy Blue, Mint Macaron, Stampin' Blends in Highland Heather and Balmy Blue
Paper:  Highland Heather, Balmy Blue, Mint Macaron, Thick Whisper White, Tranquil Textures DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, rhinestones, Dimensionals, patterned scissors from Fiskars

SUO Challenges: CASE

Good morning, stampers!  It is time once more for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time, we're CASE-ing a card from the catalog!  Did this cute dino card on page 98 catch your eye like it did mine?

I love it.  I love the Dino Days stamp set and the coordinating DSP, but for my card I decided to use a different suite that I love:  Free as a Bird!  I used the stamp set, the coordinating Stitched Nested Labels Dies, and the Bird Ballad DSP to make this:

I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to color in my birdies, so I took some inspiration from another sheet of the Bird Ballad DSP and by following that as a template it looks like I actually knew what I was doing when I colored in my birds!  Amazing ;)  I used almost all Stampin' Blends; I don't have Old Olive and Calypso Coral (YET) but my collection is growing.

We hope you'll play along with this new challenge!  If you're curious, I made my paper strips for the background 3/4" tall and 5" wide, so there's a 1/4" border between each strip and on the edges of the card.  My main image panel is I think 2 1/2" wide by 4 1/4" tall.  Just in case the measurements help :)  Don't forget to upload your new card to the SUO Challenges blog!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Free as a Bird
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Old Olive, Calypso Coral, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Petal Pink, Smoky Slate, and Pool Party
Paper:  Petal Pink, Pool Party, Thick Whisper White, Bird Ballad DSP
Accessories:  Nested Stitched Labels dies, Dimensionals, Basics Self-Adhesive Sequins