The Moonstone Castle Mystery

Happy Saturday and welcome to the fortieth Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we are investigating The Moonstone Castle Mystery:

I do have a matte cover of this as well, which you'll see in the pics with the cards.  I'm not sure if Nancy's dress is yellow or edging towards chartreuse, it looks more greenish in person.  We're doing all primary colors here with Bess in blue and George in red, with a very interesting sunset sky behind the titular castle.  This is similar to the covers for Old Stagecoach and Golden Pavilion with the girls looking away from us, except this time we see their entire bodies instead of just from the waist up.

Case file:  Carson asks for Nancy's help with a missing persons case, which leads her, Bess, and George to Deep River to find out what happened to Joanie Horton, who disappeared after her grandmother died fifteen years ago.  Nancy receives a moonstone in the mail with a mysterious note, and upon arriving in Deep River (original name:  Moonstone Valley, which is way cooler) she investigates a mysterious castle (why does my town not have a castle?!) and spends a lot of time getting all the hot goss from an old lady at a tea room called the Brass Kettle.  The case ends up pretty dark though, between kidnapping, theft, and elder abuse, but Nancy gets all the bad guys behind bars in the end.

Here's my first card:

Nancy is always cruising around in her convertible and actually she goes through quite a few cars over the course of the series, I think Carson has bought her at least two new cars so far and she's had her car stolen or wrecked several times as well.  So anyway, it was high time to make a card based on Nancy's wheels.  Carson bought her a yellow convertible in The Haunted Showboat, but we don't have Crushed Curry Blends (still a little irked about that, Stampin' Up!) so I made a red convertible to go on the map background.

I chose red for George's dress and the yellow more for the sunset sky than Nancy's dress, which like I said looks a bit more chartreuse to me.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Classic Convertibles, Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Crushed Curry, Stampin' Blends in Real Red, Smoky Slate, Pool Party
Paper:  Real Red, Crushed Curry, Thick Basic White, Classic Garage DSP
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems

I couldn't stop there, so here's my second card:

When I sat down to make cards for this book I discovered a very surprising dearth of castle images in my stamp collection.  There's one in Chase Your Dreams but it is Neuschwanstein in Bavaria and I cannot see it as anything else; there's a turret in Provencal but I already used that for another book and I can't think of any more castles in my collection.  So I ordered this Build-a-Castle die from La La Land Crafts.

I chose a sky pattern from the Everyday Skies DSP Stack, they didn't have a yellow one like on the book but I chose a Balmy Blue pattern to go with Bess's dress and it still has some warm colors in it.  I wanted something sparkly to go with the moonstone theme of the book so I used silver glimmer paper.  I scrunched up some plastic wrap and used that to ink up the Garden Green card base just to give it some extra texture.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Chase Your Dreams
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Garden Green
Paper:  Garden Green, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Everyday Skies DSP Stack, Silver Glimmer
Accessories:  Build-a-Castle dies from La La Land Crafts, Dimensionals, Wonderful Gems

Then I was like wait a minute, don't I have white glimmer paper?  I want to use that to look more like moonstone.  And I bought a *second* castle die so this time I have three cards and here's the third one:

Somehow the picture turned out looking very pink and I still don't have a Mac to edit the photos properly but trust me, the castle is white glimmer paper.  I got the die on Amazon.  

I thought the colors in the Tea Boutique DSP Stack matched the cover pretty well, and though I didn't use any of the tea-related patterns, Nancy and her chums do spend a lot of time at a tea room in Deep River asking the old lady to spill the tea on the town and its inhabitants.  And also there's a boating accident in this book because Nancy is forever having boat accidents.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Magical Mermaid
Ink:  Sweet Sorbet
Paper:  Sweet Sorbet, Garden Green, Basic White, Tea Boutique DSP Stack, Myths & Magic Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  castle die from Tnyvm?,  Layering Ovals dies, Sparkle Dot Essentials, Dimensionals

I think The Moonstone Castle Mystery is an enjoyable addition to the Nancy Drew series, though like I said the crimes she uncovers are pretty dark (we have elder abuse like in The Password to Larkspur Lane and kidnapping a child).  Overall I give it three and a half stars because I'm disappointed they never explain why there's a castle in Deep River/Moonstone Valley and that is the number one thing I wanted to know going into this book.  If you're inspired to make a card for this book, leave me a comment below, and come back next Saturday when Nancy investigates The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes.  Cheers!

Happy Father's Day!

Mornin' y'all!  We went to the movies last night; the boys saw the live action How to Train Your Dragon and since I have zero interest in seeing that, I saw an anniversary screening of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which was awesome.  The hubs and Ryan enjoyed their movie and I had a blast watching Indy and his dad take on the bad guys.

It's Father's Day here and I have a few cards to share.  I was helped out by this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And here's the card I made for the hubs:

It says "Happy Father's Day" on the inside, I need to get Ryan to write in it.  The hubs is still asleep though and the card is in the next room so I don't want to wake him up.

Now here's the one I made for my dad:

I had never used the Sale-a-Bration Trusted Toolbox DSP from last year but I like it here.

Last up, I made a card for my brother who has two kiddos:

I still have quite a bit of that Classic Garage DSP so this was a good way to use some of it.  Adam and my dad both love orange since they're graduates of Oklahoma State University, so I made Adam's card orange.  Didn't use the same paper on Dad's card since I had just recently sent him a card with it.

The mouse batteries are about to give out, so I'd better charge it and take Daphne for her walk.  She's extra crazy this morning.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, plane card:
Stamps:  Adventurous Sky
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Darling Duckling
Paper:  Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Take to the Sky DSP
Accessories:  Adventurous Sky dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, tool card:
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Trusted Toolbox DSP
Accessories:  Garage Gears Thinlits, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Supplies, steering wheel card:
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Classic Garage DSP Stack
Accessories:  Garage Gears Thinlits, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Technik Museum Sinsheim

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  We had a pretty relaxing weekend and didn't really do much, and sadly my French toast casserole experiment yesterday didn't turn out all that great (way too eggy).  But I'll look for other recipes and see if I can find one we do like.

Since Father's Day is this weekend (and oops, I haven't made cards for it yet), I thought I'd share a manly man layout today:

This museum was an hour or an hour and a half from where we lived in Germany, and even I, not a car nut at all, enjoyed it.  Ryan got bored because 4-year-olds don't like to just look at things, no matter how cool the things are.  They had quite a collection of cool cars and also several planes that you could tour, including a Concorde.  One plane perched on top of the museum has a three-story slide in it so you can slide down from the plane to the first floor of the museum, so that's pretty cool and definitely fun for little dudes.

Today's color palette is in the Man Rainbow, though that light blue might be pushing it ; )  The Man Rainbow is gray, black, navy blue, and khaki and admit now that the wardrobes for the guys you know are 90% those colors.  The colors I used are Boho Blue, Smoky Slate, Night of Navy, Basic Gray, and white.

That's it for now.  The hubs is working some later shifts this week which means he's here to walk Daphne with me, so that's what we're going to do as soon as I finish my cuppa.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Back to Basics Alphabet, Metro Type Alphabet, Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Boho Blue, Smoky Slate, Night of Navy, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Boho Blue, Night of Navy, Basic Gray, Thick Basic White, Take to the Sky DSP
Accessories:  Garage Gears dies

New Car

Not for me, I love my car, I've had it for over 10 years now and I hope to have it forever : )  My dad, on the other hand, trades out cars pretty frequently, and he got a new-to-him car earlier this week (he doesn't buy brand new cars because that would make this hobby ridiculously expensive).  Can't fault him for this one though; he bought it because my mom had problems getting in his old car (a giant SUV).  So he got this one to make it easier on her to get in and out of because ain't no one going road trippin' in Ma's VW Bug.  So anyway, I made them a card.

I left the car white because the actual car is dark blue and that didn't match the Classic Garage DSP.  Dad keeps track of all the cars he's owned (and my mom's too) in a spreadsheet.  Umm, I'm on my fifth car and the only reason it's that many is because of us going overseas to Japan and the UK back to back so that accounts for 40% of my cars.  Anyway, Tanya reminded me that I should make a car celebration card, so thanks Tanya!

I also worked in a couple of challenges, starting with Festive Friday:

I used masculine colors, cars, geometric design, and a masculine sentiment (that counts as a masculine sentiment, right?).  I actually started the whole card with the scrap of (geometric) road signs on the left, it dictated the size of my DSP panels and I went from there.  I also used this week's sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

Funny how Atlantic Hearts and the Paper Players both posted triptych sketches this week.

Anyway, Daph-Daph is running around like a crazy dog even though I did take her for a walk this morning even though it was misting.  She's pretty funny to watch though and I am still soooooooo ridiculously happy to have her here.  I missed having a dog for over 4 years and it was way too long.  So I'm going to go play with Daphne : )  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Tranquil Tide
Paper:  Tranquil Tide, Thick Basic White, Classic Garage DSP Stack
Accessories:  Garage Gears dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals

You're a Classic...Car

Hey y'all!  With Ryan staying at his grandparents' house this week, I have been filling up as much time as I can in my craft room, working on stitching, or reading books (I'm doing a series reread because my favorite author has a book coming out in a couple of weeks).  It's fun but I still miss my kiddo : )

Anyway, I have a Father's Day card to share today.

I just recently used Geared Up Garage on a scrapbook layout, so I had it on the brain when I saw the Retro Rubber sketch:

Geared Up Garage is five years old, so it definitely counts as retro.  The only stamping on the card front is the greeting, which was a PAIN to cut out, and I put the Happy Father's Day stamped greeting on the inside of the card.  My dad has been the recipient of multiple Geared Up Garage cards featuring orange, 'cause he loves cars and wears a lot of orange to rep his college teams (Oklahoma State).  Anyway, once again I let the DSP do the heavy lifting on the card front--the cars are cut from one pattern and I used three others for the rest of the card.

Okay, I have to go to the store to get some groceries and then it's crafting time, y'all.  I'm enjoying it as much as I can since we pack up later this month for our move.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Tranquil Tide
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Classic Garage DSP Stack
Accessories:  Garage Gears dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Mini Dimensionals, retired Crushed Curry glitter dots

Baby Luke: First Page

Hey y'all!  Today is my nephew's first birthday, so I thought I'd start sharing the pages from the baby book I made for him before he was born :) So here goes!

My brother and SIL are both car nuts and Luke has a lot of car-themed stuff in his room, so I chose Geared Up Garage to start off the book with.  I just pulled colors from the Classic Garage DSP for the rest of the layout and I really need to use colors like Tranquil Tide more often.  I love that color (retired now) but somehow I forget to use it much.

Anyway, there's the start of Luke's baby book, to be continued next week sometime.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Real Red
Paper:  Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Tranquil Tide, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie DSP, Classic Garage DSP Stack
Accessories:  Sizzix letters, Layering Circles dies, Garage Gears dies

Dune Buggy

Hey y'all!  Didja miss me?  I've been concentrating on scrapbooking this week--I'm working on a whole bunch of pages from our Thanksgiving 2018 trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and they've been taking up all my stamping time this week.  But I took a break yesterday to make something to share here.

Pedal to the Metal is in the Occasions catalog and I don't think I've seen more than one card made with it among all the blogs I follow.  Well, I bought it for Baby Luke's baby book since my brother is such a car nut, and this is the first time I've made a card with it so there you go.

I love this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

And I was inspired to pull out Pedal to the Metal by the challenge from the Paper Players:

Though I must say I think my card is a bit more CAS-plus.  There's white space, but also some layers on there.  (How do you like the oil splats from Geared Up Garage?)

Finally, I used the colors from CAS Colours & Sketches:

I almost did the monochromatic color challenge from Color Throwdown, but in the end I decided a cherry-red dune buggy was the way to go :)

We have rain, rain, rain for the third day in a row here, wish me luck keeping Ryan entertained.  We've got an 80% chance of thunderstorms for the rest of the day.  Stay cozy, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pedal to the Metal, Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Basic Gray, Crushed Curry marker, Coastal Cabana marker, Smoky Slate & Cherry Cobbler Blends
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Smoky Slate,  Crushed Curry, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Emboss Like a BOSS

Hey hey Stampin' Up! fans!  It is time once again for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time we're asking you to break out the embossing--use embossing powder, embossing paste, or dry embossing.  I decided to break out the Shimmer Black Stampin' Emboss Powder to make this:

As always when a card involves something sparkly, it was hard to get a good picture of this.  The truck image is embossed with the shimmer powder, and the die cut words are covered in it as well so this card shines IRL.  For embossing letters like this, I find it works best to cover half the word with Versamark and the embossing powder, hit it with the heat gun, and then do the other side.  That gives you something to hold on to (the side you're not heating) and if you get two layers of EP on the middle of the word, it's not enough to be noticeable.  And I always lose the dot for the "I" so I used one of the Monster Bash Enamel Shapes from last year's holiday catalog.

My dad owns an orange truck and his favorite color is blue, so that's why I chose the colors I did.  I used the oil stain stamp from Geared Up Garage to make my own patterned paper under the die cut words.  This card is I think 3 1/2" tall by 6 1/4" wide, I measured it to fit in a regular office envelope I had.  I needed it wide enough for both words to go across the front.

Okay, show us how YOU emboss like a boss!  Upload your card at the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pedal to the Metal, Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Versamark, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie, Balmy Blue, Basic Black
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Well Written dies, Shimmer Black EP, Monster Bash Enamel Shapes

Classic Car for Dad

Happy Saturday, y'all!  I don't usually post on Saturdays, but I missed yesterday and I just could NOT let the Color Throwdown color challenge pass me by.  My dad's birthday is coming up later in July, so I made him a card:

And here's the Color Throwdown that I couldn't pass up:

I used Blueberry Bushel, Pumpkin Pie, and both Smoky Slate and Basic Gray for my colors.  My dad's favorite color is blue, and most of his wardrobe is orange because he's an Oklahoma State grad (and rabid fan), so these colors together were perfect.  He also loves cars, so yeah, this was easy to put together!

Here's the inside of my card:

I'd love it if SU! came out with MORE car sets like this since my dad, brother, and 2-year-old son are all obsessed with cars.  The Cars movies are on pretty constant rotation in our house thanks to kiddo, who can name almost every single character if they say his name during the movies.

So there's my little Saturday card.  As soon as my tea finishes steeping, I'm going to go in my craft room and work on some scrapbook pages!  Woo!  I was thinking about my next layout when I went running this morning.  I like to plan paper crafts while I run because I'm a weirdo and I don't want to think about running :p

Have a great weekend, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage, Itty Bitty Birthdays
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Blueberry Bushel, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Blueberry Bushel, Thick Whisper White, Classic Garage DSP Stack
Accessories:  Garage Gears dies, Dimensionals, Tailored Tag punch

Geared Up for Father's Day

Mornin' y'all!  It's time once more for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time around we're making masculine cards, so ya know, a REAL challenge ;) But I have Geared Up Garage and the coordinating DSP stack, so for once making a man card was easy!

This is a card I planned out in my head while I was doing something else and then when I got in my craft room it only took about 15 minutes to make, and really what made it take that long was going through all the patterned papers and choosing which ones I wanted to use.  The three background strips are each 1.25" wide by 5" tall, and if you line them up so they touch, you get a 1/4" border around them on your card front.  The Tranquil Tide strip was a scrap so I don't know offhand how wide it was, it just looked right on the card.  At first I stamped the "Happy Father's Day" stamp in plain Tranquil Tide on Whisper White, but it seemed *too* plain so I did it again in Memento Tuxedo Black and added a bit of Tranquil Tide (letters) and Smoky Slate (background).  Last of all, I added three silver sequins.  You will never convince me that men don't like shiny things as much as women...after all, CARS are shiny.  If you get them washed regularly, at least.  I need to get my car washed this week...

Anyway, check out the SUO Challenges blog and make a masculine card for us to ooh and ahh over.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Tranquil Tide, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Tranquil Tide, Thick Whisper White, Classic Garage DSP Stack
Accessories:  Garage Gears Thinlits, Dimensionals, metallic sequins

Geared Up

Hi y'all!  Okay, how many of you have cut yourself with a paper trimmer?  'Cause I was working on a scrapbook layout yesterday after I finished this card, and I tried to chop off the end of my left index finger because I am a dum-dum.  Just wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing.  At least I have fun Star Wars Band-Aids?

Crafting can be perilous, y'all.  But I did make this card before I injured myself:

I "colored" the car with the oil stain stamp from the same stamp set (Geared Up Garage) and that might be my new favorite way to color in line art images.  I looove it.  Also, the die cut rectangle wasn't quite long enough for what I wanted, so I chopped off the end, and the strip of paper with the street signs covers the gap.  I used the CAS(E) This Sketch from last week:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees since the car image is too wide to work with a vertical orientation of the sketch.  I chose the car image because of the What Will You Stamp? challenge:

I have a son, a brother, and a dad who are all obsessed with cars, so buying this stamp set was a no-brainer for me.  Maybe next time I'll make a card without using the car image...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage
Ink:  Tranquil Tide, Crushed Curry, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Thick Whisper White, Classic Garage DSP
Accessories:  Rectangle Stitched Shapes Framelits

Hot Wheels Birthday

Mornin' folks!  Hope you're having a good week.

I inked up another new stamp set!

I needed a birthday card for a 4-year-old boy who's obsessed with Matchbox cars, so Geared Up Garage to the rescue!  Love the coordinating Classic Garage DSP too; I used three prints for this card.

And here's the inside, with a simple greeting from Itty Bitty Birthdays.

I used the sketch from Fusion:

I love the inspiration picture too, but butterflies wouldn't work so well for the card I needed :)  I'm also entering this at Just Us Girls:

Cars move, and little boys never stop moving, so I think I'm covered on this one :)

Have a great day y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Geared Up Garage, Itty Bitty Birthdays
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Stampin' Blends in Real Red, Smoky Slate, and Pool Party
Paper:  Real Red, Thick Whisper White, Classic Garage DSP
Accessories:  Garage Gears Thinlits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals