Captive Witness

Happy Saturday, y'all, and welcome back to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today's book is #64, Captive Witness:

Once again we have FOUR different covers and what a contrast between the first two and the last two!  Nancy's outfit changes in this book include a big fancy historical ballgown and a wetsuit so you know this book is going to be bonkers, I can hardly contain my glee.  I think I might like the second cover best for the dress, but I have a soft spot for the last two because I think my library had both of those when I was a kid.  Let's get to the bonkers part!

Case file:  Nancy Drew...secret agent?  While on a school trip to Germany and Austria with an Emerson College group ("She doesn't even go here!"), Nancy discovers that the professor in charge has a clandestine mission to smuggle ten children out of Hungary into Austria and on to Britain and America because Communism.  Not making this up.  Nancy's other mission is to find a stolen documentary film called Captive Witness about the horrors of Communism.  You know I love me some bananas shenanigans!

Here's my first card:

Naturally it is Nancy who comes up with the plan to get the children to safety, and it involves George masquerading as Nancy while wearing a big straw hat so here's George.

I will say that the cover colors did make me really have to think on more than one of these cards!  I went with Pebbled Path, Golden Glow, Real Red, and Cloud Cover for this one.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Going Out In Style, Favorite Thoughts
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Golden Glow, Stampin' Blends in Pebbled Path, Golden Glow, Real Red, Cloud Cover, Petal Pink, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Pebbled Path, Golden Glow, Basic White, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Dimensionals, Delightful Decorative Dots

On to the second card:

Ned and Nancy split from the tour group to go to Vienna to investigate the missing film, and Nancy lectures Ned about how coffee was introduced to Austria by the invading Ottoman Empire.  And there's a scene where it's early morning and Nancy is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and Ned wonders how she does it, so I think she's mainlining coffee like Lorelai Gilmore.

For this one, I used Primrose Petals, Midnight Muse, and Very Vanilla, with a smidge of Raspberry Ripple and Summer Starfruit in the DSP.  Nancy's wearing a brown wig with her fancy dress and also performs an operetta in public which was somehow necessary to her master plan.  I almost did another music card since we have the operetta and also there's a tour bus driver who is hilariously obsessed with Mozart, but I thought the coffee idea was fun too so that's what I went with.  And like the Scholastic cover for last week's book, they added "Mystery" to the title.  Odd.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Like It A Latte, Morning Cup
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Primrose Petals, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Primrose Petals, Very Vanilla, Print Poetry DSP Stack
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Okay, card #3:

Ned and Nancy unintentionally get a tour of the Austrian Alps when she accepts a ride to Vienna from the bad guy (bad choice, Nancy--she even knows he's the bad guy and still does it).  The bad guy has this car that must have been an early electric car because it runs super quiet and also it's related to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because it can float too.  (Chitty Chitty does float on the water like a pontoon boat, right?  I know it flies...)  Anyway, here's my card ode to the Austrian Alps.

Colors are Baked Brown Sugar, Orchid Oasis, Basic Black, and some touches of Starry Sky and Wild Wheat.  I really need to ink up my Starry Sky ink pad.  There are a LOT of layers of cardstock on this one to make the mountain scene.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Scenic Adventure
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Starry Sky, Baked Brown Sugar, Wild Wheat, Orchid Oasis
Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Orchid Oasis, Basic Black, Basic White
Accessories:  Scenic Adventure dies, Layering Circles dies, Circles Collection Framelits, In Color Dots

And for the final card:

The professor who is supposedly in charge of smuggling the kids out from behind the Iron Curtain is repeatedly described as having an owlish expression, so here's my card for Professor Bagley.  I had picked out a different owl stamp but then I saw a card by Amanda Mertz with the Adorable Owls stamp set and I had to use it instead.

For this one, my colors are Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis, Calypso Coral, and Golden Glow, with some Pecan Pie for the owl.  I had fun with this one, that owl is so cute, and I always love using Starry Sky and Orchid Oasis.  Those were some of my all-time favorite In Colors.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Adorable Owls
Ink:  Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Pecan Pie, Golden Glow, Calypso Coral, Orchid Oasis
Paper:  Starry Sky, Calypso Coral, Basic White, Orchid Oasis & Calypso Coral DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Matte Ombre Decorative Dots, Dimensionals

Y'all know I love the truly bananas books and this one delivers bushels and bushels of bananas, between the whole spy story, the Mozart-obsessed bus driver (it's really hilarious), the wannabe Bond villain with the magic car, and Nancy's over-the-top rescue plan at the end.  Five stars, no notes.  Obviously this book is a product of its time with all the references to Communism and requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, but it's a romp.  So much better than last week's failed fashion experiment.  If you're inspired to make a card based on the story or any of the book covers, please leave me a comment!  And I'll see you next week when Nancy investigates The Mystery of the Winged Lion.

A Hot Chocolate Kinda Day

Mornin' y'all!  It is literally freezing here--colder, actually, and I think Daphne might just have to skip her daily neighborhood tour in favor of staying warm and cozy in the house.  We have some snow flurries right now and the wind chill is -7.  You know what, I think my threshold for walking Daphne is zero, if it's in the negatives for wind chill that's a no from me, dawg.  Apparently my birthday this year will resemble Arendelle after Elsa lost control of her powers ; )  At the moment, Daphne looks quite content on her chair, so maybe she won't argue with me too much.

So how about a sweet card to send some warm thoughts?

This coordinates with yesterday's espresso card (I even used the same patterns), but today it's a cuppa hot chocolate with whipped cream on top.  Last Sunday, while my boys were skiing at Keystone, I holed up in a mac 'n cheese restaurant and had a hot chocolate with a breakfast sammie while I read Anne of the Island (third in the Anne of Green Gables series).  That hot chocolate was really good and LOTS of whipped cream on top!  Anyway, today's card is for this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I'm also going to enter this at Retro Rubber:

Like It A Latte has been in my stamp collection for roughly TWENTY YEARS and the DSP I used isn't much newer, I think it dates back to 2008 which doesn't seem like it was that long ago but time is weird.  Anyway, for some reason I always associate that stamp set with that DSP pack, and for today's card I dug out a Taken With Teal marker and used it for the mug.  It comes out pretty streaky using a marker on a solid stamp like that, but then a lot of it was covered up with the Regal Rose heart and I'm just going to call it extra visual texture.

I just picked up my mug (Salem's Original Witches with cartoons of the Sanderson Sisters) and to my dismay it is empty, so I'm going to go make another cuppa and watch the flurries come down while I enjoy being cozy inside my nice warm house.  I do have hot chocolate and marshmallows if I want to switch up my hot beverage game later, ha!  Have a great day, peeps.  And don't forget to come back tomorrow to check out the Nancy Drew Challenge, I made my cards yesterday and I love them!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Like It A Latte
Ink:  Taken With Teal, Regal Rose, Close to Cocoa
Paper:  Regal Rose, Taken With Teal, Thick Basic White, Loves Me DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Espresso Love

Mornin' y'all!  I think it's going to be a long one, I was up for hours last night and couldn't get back to sleep.  Good thing my favorite breakfast tea is caffeinated?!

Also caffeinated is my card:

I bought Espress Yourself sometime last year on the 'Bay, and I've had Like It A Latte (the greeting) and the Loves Me DSP for many many many years.  I think Espress Yourself was in a lot with some other stamp sets, and it works just as well for other hot beverages as it does for coffee.  I pulled out my very old Taken With Teal ink pad to match the DSP, but even after freshening up the ink pad it looks more like Not Quite Navy than it does Taken With Teal, sadly.  So for this card I used Bermuda Bay instead, I figured that was the closest match.

I thought I'd give this week's Atlantic Hearts sketch a whirl:

I have another coordinating card made but I don't know if I'll be posting it later today or tomorrow...depends on if I get another card made for tomorrow or not, and I have my Nancy Drew books for this week's challenge sitting on my craft table too so lots to do when I'm sleepy.  Think I'll brew myself another cuppa caffeine.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Espress Yourself, Like It A Latte
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Regal Rose, Close to Cocoa, Versamark
Paper:  Taken with Teal, Regal Rose, Thick Basic White, Loves Me DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, key tag punch, clear EP, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Like it a Latte

It's Friday Flashback day, yay!  And today's featured stamp set is a real treat, a set I like a lot and should use more often even if it is retired:  Like it a Latte.  Let's get going!

I think that pack of patterned paper was some of the first DSP I got from Stampin' Up!  And now I've got about a zillion pounds of paper.  Just ask my husband:  when we were getting ready to move out of our house in England, he told our movers to double the estimated weight of our stuff just because of my paper.

Ok, ok, so doubling the initial estimate turned out to be just about right, but still.  Don't encourage him.

Also features Short & Sweet

Here's a kickstand card for ya, those are fun to do occasionally.

And back to the same paper pack from the first card, but I did a good job of switching out the toppings on the mug right?  And this is the only card in today's post where I did *not* put the heart on top of the mug.  So that's it for the Flashback part, here's today's all-new card:

And not a bit of patterned paper to be seen!  I've been itching to try the color combination from ColourQ this week:

I kinda sorta want those rain boots.  I don't need them, but man, they're pretty!  I also used the new sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

For the pink circle elements on the sketch, I busted out a marker and just drew some hearts and freckles and tried not to overthink where I put them.  Sometimes you've just gotta go with it.

So that's it from me for today!  At least, on the blog.  I think I'm going to continue messing around in my craft room for a while, I want to get back in the habit of spending more time in there and gettin' my muse on!

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:

Stamps:  Like It a Latte, For All Things (the swoosh behind the cup, I love that stamp)
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Blackberry Bliss, Summer Starfruit, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Whisper White
Accessories:  Calypso Coral baker's twine, Dimensionals