The Triple Hoax

Happy Saturday y'all, and welcome back to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  I'm posting a bit late today because Ryan wasn't feeling well this morning and snuggling with my kiddo will always be more important than pretty much anything else.  He's fine, just needs to take it easy today.  So anyway, here we are with the kickoff for the Nancy Drew digest paperbacks, #57, The Triple Hoax:

Let's talk covers!  The one on the left is a Wanderer arch cover (we get these up to I think #78), and oddly enough I would say that this particular edition of The Triple Hoax is the easiest paperback Nancy Drew to find at used book stores--I found copies in at least three of the stores I visited in Texas.  Anyway, the Wanderer covers have never been my favorites just from a design standpoint, but I do have to say that they have some pretty fantastic charcoal illustrations inside.  So for this cover, we have some lovely purple hues and Nancy looking pensive in front of a group of probably nefarious magicians.

The other two are what I call the checkerboard covers for the little checkerboard between the Nancy Drew name and the title of the book, the pink one is another Wanderer edition and the teal one is a Minstrel.  Style-wise I keep thinking that pink cover should be the newest one because Nancy's shorts are more fashionable ; ) and I think it's my favorite of the three, it's got more action than the other two and I like those colors.

The third cover is a similar scene to the second one and also has some great colors, but my goodness Nancy, those shorts!  This is the first of many, many opportunities to mock fashion on the Nancy Drew book covers, I tell you.  But let's talk contents.

Case file:  Aunt Eloise (yay!) invites Nancy, Bess, and George to New York to investigate when one of her friends is swindled out of several thousand dollars.  Nancy quickly becomes suspicious of The Hoaxters, a magic act performing in town, so of course she follows them to Mexico City when they clear out of NYC in a hurry, and then follows them to Los Angeles before she's able to bring them to justice.  We have lots of travel, theft, fraud, kidnapping, poison, arson--this book is a RIDE, let me tell you.

Here's my first card:

What with all the travel, Nancy spends a LOT of time making long-distance and/or international phone calls and I couldn't resist making a phone card.  I believe this card takes the cake for the most stamp sets used on a single card, I used five old Paper Pumpkin stamp sets plus five other stamp sets for a grand total of ten!  It took some time to stamp-a-ma-jig all those hellos on the front but I like it.

I had to do an arch for our first Wanderer arch cover, but when I finished I wished I had used a darker purple for the card base to match the colors better; I was so excited to make this that I just ran right ahead to stamping instead of comparing purples.  Oh well, I still like it.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Timeless Talk, Elementary Elegance, Heartfelt Hellos, Blossoms in Bloom, A Dozen Thoughts, My Paper Pumpkin (multiple sets)
Ink:  Highland Heather
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, So Saffron, Basic White
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, So Saffron Candy Dot

Despite the different colors, the text of the books is all the same but we're going to have fun with the multiple covers for quite a few books.  So here's my card for the second book:

The girls visit the Pyramid of the Sun near Mexico City and that's where they are on the cover scene:

I pulled out Flores Misticas because it has that fun pattern that looks like the carved stone of the pyramid, and I chose Watermelon Wonder, Crushed Curry, and Highland Heather for my colors.  I love Watermelon Wonder and I am hoarding the small amount of cardstock I have left in that color.  I used blending brushes to add some lighter color on the yellow and purple bits, and I embossed the butterflies with Iridescent Ice embossing powder so now everything upstairs is covered with glitter.  I added some foil gems for more glitz, too.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flores Misticas, Make a Difference
Ink:  Watermelon Wonder, Crushed Curry, Highland Heather, Basic Gray, Versamark
Paper:  Watermelon Wonder, Basic White
Accessories:  Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Iridescent Foil Gems, Dimensionals

And for the final book cover:

The girls fly to Mexico City, but due to an airline strike, they rent a car to get to Los Angeles.  On the trip, which takes several days, they come across an indigenous community that doesn't speak Spanish, but they manage to communicate that they're looking for breakfast.  One of the older women, thinking that Bess wants an extra-fresh egg, catches a chicken and has it lay an egg in Bess's hand, which just made me laugh so much that I knew immediately this incident would be the basis for one of my cards.

To match the cover and color in my fabulous chickens, I used Pretty Peacock, Purple Posy, Rococo Rose, So Saffron, Fresh Freesia, and Golden Glow.  The Tinsel Gems are technically Berry Burst, but they match the Rococo Rose cardstock pretty well, and I was quite tickled to find that sunrise-looking pattern in my stash in one of my chosen colors.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hey Chuck
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Pretty Peacock, Purple Posy, Fresh Freesia, Golden Glow, So Saffron, Rococo Rose
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Rococo Rose, Basic White, Playing with Patterns DSP Stack
Accessories:  Hey Chuck dies, Perennial Postage dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems

When I was a kid, I didn't particularly care for this book and reading it now I have no idea why I didn't like it more back then.  We have lots of adventures in this book with all the travel and it was fun to do some sightseeing in Mexico, plus that incident with the chicken is hilarious.  I give it four and a half stars.  This book was the first Nancy Drew published under a new publisher, and I think they did a very good job of making it feel like a continuation of the old series.  I could seriously have done without the fat-shaming that George subjects Bess to, I wish they hadn't kept that element of the original series, but almost everything else was very fun.  If you're inspired to make a card based on this book, leave me a comment below, and I will see you next week when Nancy investigates The Flying Saucer Mystery.

Katzweiler

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I was scrolling Facebook last week (as you do) and I saw a post from Bonanza Ranch, which was about two blocks away from where we lived in Germany for a few years and so I thought I'd share a Germany layout today.

The top left picture was actually taken at the fence in our yard, the neighbors behind us occasionally turned out their horses in the small yard that adjoined ours which I loved.  The other horse pics were taken at Bonanza Ranch, and the top two on the right page were both taken close to the parkplatz that we could see from our front door, which is where they would do festivals several times a year.  Handy for us since we could walk over there easily.

The pics were all taken in the fall, so my autumnal color palette is Wild Wheat, Moody Mauve, Misty Moonlight, Copper Clay, and Very Vanilla.  I actually found a way to use Wild Wheat on a scrapbook layout!  Will wonders never cease.

Have a great week, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Bareback, Wanted
Ink:  Moody Mauve, Wild Wheat, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Wild Wheat, Copper Clay, Misty Moonlight, Thick Very Vanilla, Earthen Elegance DSP
Accessories:  None

Maine: Cape Elizabeth

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  I am honing in on the last few layouts for my Maine album (which isn't an album yet, I haven't assembled it yet) so here we go!

Who knew I'd be needing that lobster stamp from By the Tide : )  We visited the lighthouse here and then went to a nearby park and got lunch from a food truck.  Most of the adults got lobster rolls (hence the lobster on my page), but I don't like seafood so I had a grilled cheese sandwich.  Not even joking, that was the tastiest grilled cheese I've ever had!  Ryan only ate like two bites of his so I snarfed his down too : )

Today's color palette:  Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Really Rust, Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, and white.  I really miss Wild Wasabi, I used it a lot for scrapbook pages.  It's a great grass color.

That's it for me today, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, By the Tide
Ink:  Wild Wasabi, Really Rust, Sahara Sand, Early Espresso
Paper:  Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Sahara Sand, Thick Basic White, Fall Flowers DSP
Accessories:  None

Maine: Cadillac Mountain Sunset

Well, today has not gone as expected.  Ryan said he had a sore throat yesterday but seemed fine at bedtime last night...nope he had a fever this morning so he's staying at the house with me today.  And we both conked right back out until 11am!  He's got an appointment this afternoon to check for strep and he's currently cocooned on the couch with my super-soft Baby Yoda blanket and a piece of toast.  Meanwhile I'm eating gummy dinosaurs my friend Krissy sent me :)

Anyway, I need to finish up the last few layouts for the Maine scrapbook, so that's my plan for the next few Scrappy Mondays.  Today I have sunset on top of Cadillac Mountain.

Okay for reals, that Western Sky DSP has been in my hoard stash for over 15 years I am sure, probably close to 20.  I think I started stamping in 2005 and I got this DSP not that long afterwards.  I don't have a whole lot of it left now but it did seem to work for this very clean and simple layout.

Today's color palette is from the DSP:  River Rock (I never thought I'd miss that color, but I really did use it for scrapbooking), Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Old Olive, and White.  I used the very old stamp set Wanted which coordinates with the paper and has a great Western feel to it.  This isn't my favorite Maine layout, but it gets the job done and not every one can be your favorite.

That's it for me today.  I'm going to go chill out with the kiddo until time for his appointment.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Rough Edges Alphabets, Wanted
Ink:  River Rock, Blue Bayou, Old Olive, Versamark, Not Quite Navy marker
Paper:  River Rock, Blue Bayou, Old Olive, Thick Basic White, Western Sky DSP
Accessories:  white embossing powder, scalloped circle punch

Maine: Bar Harbor Head Lighthouse

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I hope you had a good holiday last week if you celebrated Thanksgiving.  We were thrilled to have my hubs here for a couple of days, though it was super tough on Ryan when he had to leave again on Saturday.  Starting today, Ryan will be getting back into the school routine and I think that will help until we get to see the hubs again for Christmas.

In the meantime, I have another Maine layout today!

So the hubs and Bennet had gone to this lighthouse on a previous day to take pictures at dawn (see that layout here), and then we all six went out during the day to check it out.  We didn't go inside the lighthouse itself (I'm not sure they allowed people in at all?) but we did clamber around the rocks next to the lighthouse for a while, which Ryan enjoyed because he thinks he's indestructible.  I paired the still-current Nature's Prints stamp set with Seaside Notions, they seem to fit together pretty well style-wise.

Today's color palette:  Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake, and white.  I chose Pretty Peacock for this layout a while before we found out that it was rejoining the SU! color lineup, so now I don't have to hoard my Pretty Peacock 12x12 cardstock quite so much ; )

Almost time to get Ryan up to get ready for school...hope he's not too angry since he was going to bed late for all of last week.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Rough Edges Alphabets, Seaside Notions, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Crumb Cake, Sweet Sorbet, Stampin' Blends in Pretty Peacock, Crumb Cake, and Petal Pink
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Night of Navy, Crumb Cake, Thick Basic White, Pretty Prints DSP
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies

Maine: Wonderland Trail

Scrappy Monday, y'all, and happy Thanksgiving week!  I baked two batches of cookies on Friday and burned two pans arguing with the ovens--yeah, I was all excited about having two ovens to use for Thanksgiving prep, but the temperature fluctuates wildly (I have oven thermometers so I can check).  After some experimentation, I've started setting the temperature in both ovens to 25 degrees hotter than the recipe calls for, and that gets close enough to bake correctly.  I baked four batches of cookies on Saturday and not only did I finish them all by two in the afternoon, I didn't burn any!  So now I have cookie gift bags ready for our Thanksgiving guests this week.  And a full schedule of things to make for the feast : )

But for now, it's Scrappy Monday and I have two layouts to share from our Maine adventures.

The Wonderland Trail is yet another part of Acadia National Park and this one was closer to the water.  Also I think that is the best picture of Missy ever, she looks beautiful : )

The beach is all rocks so of course all of the guys had to throw rocks into the water and also destroy someone else's rock tower before building their own.  Boys.

Today's water-inspired color palette:  Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis, Gray Granite, and Whisper White.  I'm glad that these In Colors were released before I did these pages because I am in LOVE with Starry Sky and Orchid Oasis with these pictures.  IN.  LOVE!  The 2022-2024 In Colors as a group are my favorite assortment that we've ever had; I've already started stockpiling cardstock and ink refills before they retire next summer.  In contrast, the 2023-2025 In Colors were my least favorite set on first look, but to my surprise I've been using them for some scrapbook pages lately.  Wild Wheat is still my least favorite, but I even managed to use it for a page base on a layout and liked it.

Anyway, I have to get the kiddo ready to go to his grandparents' house, he's staying with them until Wednesday so I can do Thanksgiving prep and not have to entertain him at the same time.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Nature's Prints, Seaside Notions
Ink:  Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis, Gray Granite Stampin' Blends
Paper:  Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis, Gray Granite, Thick Basic White, Sun Prints DSP
Accessories:  Natural Prints dies

Maine: Ocean Trail

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  And today's layout is one I particularly liked from the Maine book, take a peek:

I think Baja Breeze might be my favorite ever SU! color, I was so bummed when they retired it.  The Ocean Trail was yet another area of Acadia National Park with some gorgeous views out over the water.  I think Missy used one of these pics for her Christmas cards that year.  I think the hubs and I have already picked a photo for this year's cards : )

Today's color palette might be a little less obviously fall-inspired, but I still love it:  Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss (I think I bought three packs of that Bella Rose DSP!), Elegant Eggplant, Riding Hood Red, More Mustard, and white.  All of the colors are retired except white...which I guess is technically retired too since we switched from Whisper White to Basic White.

Ryan is feeling good this morning so he's definitely going to school, which makes me happy after he missed two days last week.  My big plans for the day?  Plotting out my lineup of Thanksgiving recipes!  I know there will be at least four pies involved...cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Gorgeous Leaves
Ink:  Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, More Mustard, Concord Crush marker
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Elegant Eggplant, Riding Hood Red, More Mustard, Kiwi Kiss, Thick Basic White, Bella Rose DSP
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies

Maine: Ranger Walk

Scrappy Monday, y'all.  As soon as I drop Ryan off at school, I'm going to pick up some cough medicine for myself--I was up most of the night coughing : (  Other than that I'm feeling a little better though!

So, scrapbook pages for today!  Continuing with the Maine album, I have two layouts.

For some reason my pictures of these layouts both ended up really dark on the left side.  We went back into Acadia National Park and did a walk with a park ranger, who told us about the history of the park and the different flora and fauna who live there.

Of course Ryan, being a toddler, wasn't interested in all that, but he did enjoy being carried on the shoulders of whoever he could cozen into lifting him up.  He looks like he was checking the hubs for nits, haha!  Ryan absolutely loved his honorary uncle Bennet, who would lift him up and sling him around like a sack of potatoes.

Another fall color palette taken straight from the Apple Cider patterned paper (which, coincidentally, I just used on another scrapbook layout!):  Really Rust, More Mustard, Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa, River Rock, and Very Vanilla.  All the colors except Very Vanilla are retired.  I bought more than one pack of the Apple Cider DSP because I loved it so much, and the leaf stamps from Gently Falling have been long-time favorites too.

Off to get Ryan ready for school.  Cheers!  And stay healthy, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Gently Falling
Ink:  Really Rust, More Mustard, Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa
Paper:  Really Rust, More Mustard, Wild Wasabi, Thick Very Vanilla, Apple Cider DSP
Accessories:  None

Maine: Making S'mores

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Ryan and I had a busy day yesterday--we went to the last day of the Texas State Fair with my brother, SIL, and their two kids.  I hadn't been to the fair probably since before the hubs and I got married, so it was like a whole new experience!  Ryan played games and went on a ride or two and we ate all the super unhealthy fried fair foods.  I will admit though, I had a red velvet funnel cake and then my body noped out on trying the fried brownies.  Or fried Oreos.  Or fried Twinkies.

And to continue the sweet treats theme, today's Maine layout is all about the s'mores!

And in my vast scrapbook supply hoard, I have some old stickers of chocolate bars and Hershey's Kisses, so I used some of those on here.  This is maybe my least favorite of the Maine pages, but it gets the job done.

Today's somewhat unusual color palette:  Pale Papaya, Poppy Parade, Shaded Spruce, Chocolate Chip, and white.

Okay y'all, I've got to do my workout and start trying to counteract all of yesterday's poor diet decisions.  But that funnel cake was tasty.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Rough Edges Alphabet
Ink:  Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Pale Papaya, Poppy Parade, Shaded Spruce, Thick Basic White, Expressions in Ink DSP
Accessories:  stickers from Creative Imaginations

Maine: Witch Hole Pond

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Ugh, waking up this morning was tough--Ryan was off school all of last week so we were both enjoying the opportunity to sleep in a bit in the mornings.  But we're going to have to get back to the regular routine now...at least until he gets *another* week off for Thanksgiving!

Anyway, I'm still chugging through the Maine pages and I really should put the album together.  Um, I've started one single scrapbook layout since we moved to Texas and it's been halfway done for WEEKS.  Need to get on that.  But here are some completed pages!

Witch Hole Pond is a part of Acadia National Park, we explored several areas of the park and I would go back to Maine in a heartbeat, it's gorgeous.  I made two layouts for Witch Hole Pond and still had a lot of pictures left over that I really liked.  Maine is definitely picturesque.

We used that family picture for our Christmas cards that year.  I wish I had bought more than one pack of the Into the Woods DSP too, I love it and I've been hoarding it to use on scrapbook pages.  And of course I adore the Thankful Forest Friends stamp, the bear and the fox have been featured on quite a few scrapbook pages and cards.  (The bunny doesn't get used as much, sorry bun-bun.)

Today's fall palette is from the DSP:  Tangelo Twist (I only have one piece of 12x12 cardstock left in this color, waily waily!), Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, and white.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Thankful Forest Friends, Love of Leaves
Ink:  Tangelo Twist, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Early Espresso
Paper:  Tangelo Twist, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Rich Razzleberry, Thick Basic White, Into the Woods DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Leaves dies, Stitched Shapes dies

Maine: Carriage Ride

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Ryan has this entire week off school for fall break, so for today's adventure we're driving down to Waco with my parents to show him Baylor University (where the hubs and I met).  We have something planned for every day this week, even if it's just Ryan's tae kwon do class.

But let's start the week with a couple of scrapbook layouts, shall we?

I'm continuing with the Maine pictures.  Missy arranged for us to take a ride in a horse-drawn carriage on the carriage roads of Acadia National Park and it was great!  We got to the stable early, so we spent some time watching the horses (and taking pictures).

The ride was about an hour long and the scenery was beautiful, definitely a lovely way to spend some time on a gorgeous fall day.  And at the end of the ride, Ryan gave one of the horses a kiss to say thank you for taking us around, isn't that adorable?

Another fall-inspired palette for today:  Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, and Soft Suede.  I'm going to continue my fall theme with pumpkin coffee cake for breakfast : ) Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, For All Things
Ink:  Soft Suede, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Thick Basic White, Thick Very Vanilla, Color Me Autumn DSP, Country Lane DSP
Accessories:  None

Maine: Dawn at the Lighthouse

Mornin' y'all!  I need to get this post written quickly and then go get ready--it's parent/teacher conference day at Ryan's school.  So here we go with more Maine pages!

Missy had included a dawn trip to a local lighthouse on her itinerary, but of course two small children would have strenuously objected to such a thing, so just Lee and Bennet went out that early to take pics for us.  Not too bad, right?

Today's color palette:  Seaside Spray (appropriate), So Saffron, Garden Green, Evening Evergreen, and Whisper White.

Happy OCTOBER and have a great week!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Rough Edges Alphabets
Ink:  Garden Green, Seaside Spray, Evening Evergreen marker
Paper:  Seaside Spray, Garden Green, Thick Basic White, Sand & Sea DSP
Accessories:  None

Maine: Feeding the Animals

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I'm back with more Maine pictures.

After exploring the corn maze, we all had a picnic lunch of PBJs (still Ryan's favorite) and then we got to go on a tractor ride and feed the animals.  As we were still at Homewood Farm, I kept the same Pacific Point page base and the corn-inspired patterned paper.

Same color palette as last time:  Pacific Point, Crushed Curry, Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade, Cucumber Crush, Soft Suede, and Very Vanilla.

Busy week ahead, starting with picture day for Ryan today.  As expected, he's chosen a red Spider-Man shirt to wear.  : )  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Rough Edges Alphabet, Perfectly Preserved, Jack of All Trades
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Cucumber Crush, Peekaboo Peach, Poppy Parade, Soft Suede, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Pacific Point, Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Thick Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Cannery Framelits

Maine: Corn Maze

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Hope your week is off to a good start.  I'm starting with another Maine scrapbook layout : )

So next up on our Maine adventure, we went to a place called Homewood Farm, where the boys had a great time running around in a (rather muddy) corn maze.  It was a little drizzly that morning, so we had the place to ourselves.  The boys particularly liked getting their hands stamped at various stations in the corn maze (and also getting muddy, because boys).

I knew I wanted to use this particular corn-y patterned paper, so I chose a Pacific Point page base to set off the yellows and oranges in the DSP.  So today's color palette is Pacific Point, Crushed Curry, Peach Parfait, and touches of Poppy Parade, Cucumber Crush, Soft Suede, and Very Vanilla.  I've done similar things on fall pages before, where I used a blue page base to make the warm colors pop.  I think it works, and in this case, the blue ties in to Ryan's blue jacked in the pictures.

Okay, it's just about time to get Ryan off to school.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Rough Edges Alphabet, Perfectly Preserved, Jack of All Trades
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Cucumber Crush, Peekaboo Peach, Poppy Parade, Soft Suede, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Pacific Point, Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Thick Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Cannery Framelits

Maine: Acadia National Park

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  And it looks like it's going to be a rainy Monday, too, which is all to the good if you ask me--the high temperature today is 88 degrees, the first time it's been under 90 in I don't know how long!

So anyway, I'm continuing the Maine adventure for today's scrapbook pages.  Take a look:

I love that Beauty of the Earth DSP, I had to buy another pack of it when it hit the clearance rack as I had used up almost all of the first pack.  (I am a DSP dragon, my hoard is vast!)  When I make a theme album or a series of pages that all go together, I like to use the same alphabet stamps for page titles, and sometimes I use the same DSP pack so the pages feel like they fit together.  I used the Beauty of the Earth DSP and the Make a Difference alphabet on the title page of the album and again on the two layouts today.

I also worked hard to squeeze in as many pictures as I could on my pages, and even cramming in the max number I had a hard time narrowing down my choices.  On our first full day in Maine, we went to Acadia National Park and just had a great time walking around on all the trails, letting the boys run around and enjoying a spectacular fall day.  This was such a great trip.

Today's fall palette is, once again, taken straight from the DSP:  Bumblebee, Cajun Craze, Merry Merlot, Misty Moonlight, Mossy Meadow, Early Espresso, and Whisper White.

Have a great day, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Nature's Harvest, Make a Difference, Rough Edges Alphabet
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Misty Moonlight, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Bumblebee, Cajun Craze, Merry Merlot, Mossy Meadow, Early Espresso, Thick Basic White, Beauty of the Earth DSP
Accessories:  None

Bar Harbor, Maine

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  And if you're in the US, I hope you're enjoying the extra day off.  Ryan and I invited my brother and his family to come over this afternoon, so we're going to take the kiddos swimming at the neighborhood pool and have dinner here at the house.  Ryan always loves hanging out with his cousins!

Once September first hits every year, I am READY for fall!  I always make a pumpkin coffee cake the first weekend in September and I look forward to cooling temperatures and all things fall.  Sweaters.  Tea.  Pumpkin everything.  With that in mind, I'm starting a new Scrappy Monday series today, it's all about our October 2019 trip to Bar Harbor, Maine, with our friends Bennet and Missy.  Over the course of a week, we took well over a thousand pictures and I printed off hundreds of them and in the end, I had enough pages to make this a whole separate scrapbook album.  Let's dive into some fall colors, shall we?

So here's the title page for the album; I used the Make a Difference alphabet throughout the book.  I bought myself a sweatshirt with a moose on it while we were there, so when it came time to scrapbook the pictures, I scoured eBay to find a couple of retired sets with moose images.  And then you know what I did?  I FORGOT TO USE THEM ON THE SCRAPBOOK PAGES!!!!  Okay yes, there's a moose (and a bear) on this page, but it is the very last Maine page I made!  D'oh!  Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself.  Anyway, the three pictures I used on this page (sorry for the glare) were extras from elsewhere in the album.  We had so MANY pictures that I loved!

Today's color palette is the epitome of autumn:  Cajun Craze, Bumblebee, Merry Merlot (I didn't use this color a lot, but now that it's gone I'm sad, I think it had a lot of potential and it just wasn't featured in enough DSP to really take off), Early Espresso, and white.

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Pines
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Early Espresso
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Bumblebee, Merry Merlot, Thick Basic White, Beauty of the Earth DSP
Accessories:  None

Manor Houses

Scrappy Monday!  And I do plan to get my scrap on today, but I also have to go grocery shopping and get my hair cut.  So I'll have to manage my time well.  Yesterday I went through a lot of my scrapbook page blog posts and it was so fun to look back through the pages, especially Ryan's baby book, and it just made me even more excited to make more scrapbook pages.

Today's layout is one of my more recent ones, it's from two different manor houses that we visited in England.  Obviously I was more interested in taking pictures in the gardens than anything related to the houses ; )

There's so much green in the pictures that I kept trying pretty much every other color under the sun and in the end I decided that what it needed was EVEN MORE GREEN, so I did a green page base, green patterned paper, and green photo mats and whaddya know, the flowers pop pretty well in that forest of green.

Today's color palette includes Evening Evergreen, Just Jade, Shaded Spruce, and Whisper White.  Lots of green.  But hey, green is my favorite color so I am 100% okay with this ; )

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference
Ink:  Shaded Spruce; Stampin' Blends in Just Jade & Purple Posy
Paper:  Evening Evergreen, Shaded Spruce, Just Jade, Thick Basic White, Expressions in Ink DSP
Accessories:  None

Maine

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I've been able to carve out little bits of time recently to work on scrapbook pages, and yesterday I took pictures of a few recent layouts.  I've got two to share today!

In October of 2019, we took a week-long trip to the Bar Harbor area of Maine with our friends Bennet and Missy and their kiddo.  We lucked out in that the week we were there was peak fall foliage so we took *hundreds* of pictures, and then I printed out hundreds of pictures because I liked so many of them.  I ended up making an entire album's worth of scrapbook pages from this trip and I still had a giant stack of pictures left over, so I decided to make two layouts to go in the chronological book too.  So yeah all the pictures on these pages are the ones that *didn't* make the cut for the main book.  The main Maine book.

Funny story:  over the past year or two, I've acquired a number of stamp sets on eBay, and I bought a couple of different sets with moose images thinking hey, I'll use these for the Maine pages.  And then I FORGOT TO USE ANY MOOSE for the entirety of the Maine book!  When I finally remembered, I only had the first and last pages for that album yet to do, so I put a moose on that, and then I made these two layouts so I made sure to include a moose here too.

Today's color palette:  Merry Merlot, Cajun Craze, Mossy Meadow, Cinnamon Cider, and Whisper White.  And now I'm out of Merry Merlot 12x12 cardstock and I really miss the days we could get full packs of a single color.

Have a great week, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Vintage Leaves, Yukon
Ink:  Versamark, Merry Merlot, Cajun Craze, Mossy Meadow, Cinnamon Cider, Soft Suede, Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Merry Merlot, Cajun Craze, Mossy Meadow, Cinnamon Cider, Thick Basic White, Beauty of the Earth DSP
Accessories:  Leaflets dies, clear EP

Kenilworth Castle

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Today is a holiday for us so I think we're going to try to get out and DO something--maybe tour a small castle.  Like ya do.  Today's scrapbook layout also features a castle.

You can see lots more pics here and here.  If we take 100 pictures, I usually blog about 25-30, print 15-20, and actually scrap 8-10.  I'm never going to catch up even if I only scrap about 10% of the pictures we take.  At least I'll never be bored!  Once I decided to use the Fine Art Floral DSP, I had to use the coordinating Art Gallery flowers as a stamped accent.  We did spend quite a bit of time exploring the castle's gardens, so that's appropriate.  I love when I find DSP/stamps that perfectly accent my pictures!

Today's color palette:  Petal Pink, Terracotta Tile, Merry Merlot, Mossy Meadow, and Whisper White.  I've used Merry Merlot several times on scrapbook layouts lately, but since I skip around as I scrap I won't have a bunch of layouts all together that have the exact same colors.  Unless that's what I intentionally decide to do, but mostly I like to use lots of different colors.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Art Gallery
Ink:  Terracotta Tile, Merry Merlot, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Petal Pink, Terracotta Tile, Merry Merlot, Thick Basic White, Fine Art Floral DSP
Accessories:  Floral Gallery dies, Tasteful Labels dies

Tidal Basin

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I got my giant picture order in the mail so I spent a lot of time on Saturday going through all the prints and getting them organized for future scrapbook pages :) It's doubtful I'll ever catch up, but I'll never be bored, either.

So here is today's layout:

We took these pictures in November of 2016 at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. and used that focal point photo as our Christmas cards that year.  I think I used up my last two pieces of Handsome Hunter 12x12 cardstock on this layout but I think it was worth it.  The new Evening Evergreen is similar though...I should do a side-by-side comparison of the two greens.  Anywha, Handsome Hunter ended up jiving quite nicely with the other colors in that Painted Autumn DSP.  I used my favorite piece of it on this layout.

Today's color palette:  Handsome Hunter, Garden Green, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Cinnamon Cider, Soft Sky, and Very Vanilla.  My only day off this week is Friday so I guess I'll be plotting out future scrapbook layouts in my head until then.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Painted Harvest
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Cinnamon Cider, Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Handsome Hunter marker
Paper:  Handsome Hunter textured, Garden Green, Cajun Craze, Thick Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, leaf punch