The Invisible Intruder

Happy Saturday, y'all, and welcome to the 46th Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today Nancy is squaring off with The Invisible Intruder.

This cover reminds me of 99 Steps and Crossword Cipher in that it's largely brown/neutral tones, and once again Nancy is in her signature color of pale blue.  This time we get Ned on the cover, which rarely happens, and we have a creepy backdrop of a stingray and some skulls.  I like it.  This is my childhood copy, I have my name written not once but twice inside the front cover.

Case file:  Nancy's friend Helen (who last appeared in #20, The Clue in the Jewel Box, and I think this might be her final appearance) organizes a ghost-hunting road trip to investigate odd happenings at five different locations, including a phantom canoe, a medium, and a ghost horse, so this is basically five Scooby-Doo episodes in one volume.  The book ends up at the home of an eccentric old man who collects rare shells and also human skulls, which is not my design aesthetic but rock on as long as the skulls and shells are ethically sourced, and Nancy captures the gang behind all of the haunts.

Here's my card:

We get some lectures on different kinds of shells over the course of the book, so I decided to pull out Stippled Shells for my first card.  I chose River Rock, Pebbled Path, and Basic Beige for neutral colors and put it all on a Balmy Blue card base for Nancy's dress.

I had done a mosaic card with Stippled Shells a long time ago so I kind of started with that as a jumping off point for this card.  Also, I made this one before the vintage traveler card I posted on Wednesday.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Shells, Weathered, Stepping Stones
Ink:  River Rock, Pebbled Path
Paper:  Balmy Blue, River Rock, Pebbled Path, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Layering Ovals Framelits, Dimensionals

And I have one more card:

The first location they road trip to has a self-propelling canoe, and while investigating it Nancy and Ned encounter a mechanical octopus which drags Ned away and that is straight out of a Scooby-Doo episode and it makes me laugh.  So I had to make an octopus card, using Nancy's hair and dress for my colors since the rest of the cover is pretty blah.

I did keep Gray Granite as my main color here, which matches the stingray pretty well.  I found my blue and gray patterns in the Otterly Adorable DSP, and I matted the Gray Granite pattern on some Gray Granite cardstock on which I colored the edges with a Blend marker to make it stand out against the Gray Granite card base, which is an easy way to get multiple values of a single color.  You know what, I miss Mango Melody.  It's a fun orange.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Message in a Bottle
Ink:  Gray Granite, Mango Melody, Gray Granite Stampin' Blend
Paper:  Gray Granite, Thick Basic White, Otterly Adorable DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Sparkly Gems

Like The Scarlet Slipper Mystery, I think this one has too many characters as we have the regular Drew Crew (Nancy, Bess, George, Ned, Burt, and Dave), Helen and her husband, and three other couples whose names I could never remember and they're apparently only around so everyone can rag on the one married woman who believes in ESP and ghosts, which is unfortunate.  We have some goofy Scooby-Doo inspired moments, not up to the utterly bananas hijinks of Brass-Bound Trunk or Moss-Covered Mansion, but the five mini mysteries and road trip setup are fun, so I give this one three and a half stars.  If you're inspired to create a card based on this mystery, please leave me a comment below!  And I'll see you next time when Nancy investigates The Mysterious Mannequin.  Cheers!

Mermaid in a Bottle

Hey y'all!  How's your week going?

I decided to pull out some retired stamps for today's card.  Check out the challenge from Cupcake Inspiration:

Both my stamp sets, Message in a Bottle and Seaside Shore, retired last summer but I just couldn't resist pulling them out for this challenge.

I also used the sketch from the Paper Players:

And I know who this card should go to, so I'm going to try to get it in the mail by the end of the week.  I need to actually MAIL more of the cards I make :)

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Message in a Bottle, Seaside Shore
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Call Me Clover, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Petal Pink, Basic Black, Real Red, & Call Me Clover
Paper:  Real Red, Thick Whisper White, Fresh Prints Stack
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Sing It With Me...

I showed this card to the hubs and he got it immediately.

Love potion number niiiiiiiiiiiiiine!  I had this idea for the Message in a Bottle stamp set *months* ago and I'm glad I finally got to make it.  Twice actually; I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out the first time so I tweaked some things and made it a second time.

Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I took a few liberties with the sketch but all the elements are there.  And I had to revisit the Sunday Stamps color challenge:

This time I used a Painted with Love pattern that has alllll the colors in it :)

Happy Friday, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Message in a Bottle, Labeler Alphabet, Labels to Love
Ink:  Powder Pink, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Powder Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Painted with Love DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Splashy Mermaid

Okay so can you tell that I'm in love with the new Magical Day stamp set and matching dies?  Three days in a row!  But come on, how could I resist a stamp set that includes a dragon, a unicorn, a mermaid, and more?

Oh yeah, mermaid!

There are actually THREE SU! stamp sets now with a mermaid in them, and I managed to use all three on this card.  The main image mermaid is from Magical Day, the sentiment is from Message in a Bottle, and the little background stamp (click to embiggen the picture) is from Magical Mermaid.

Check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

The Lemon Lime Twist patterned paper is one of the Sale-a-Bration options, it's called Bubbles & Fizz.  I don't intend to get the Occasions stamp set that matches it, but man I'm in lurve with that patterned paper!  There's a Bermuda Bay pattern with stars and I am hoarding that already.  Love it.

Well, kid and I have to skedaddle if I'm going to get to yoga on time.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Magical Day, Magical Mermaid, Message in a Bottle
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Lemon Lime Twist, Calypso Coral, Basic Black
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Shimmery White, Bubbles & Fizz DSP
Accessories:  Magical Mates Framelits, Iridescent Sequins, Mini Dimensionals, watercolor pencils

Psychic Octopi

Hey y'all!  I mentioned yesterday that the current color challenge at Just Add Ink is, like, my favoritest ever color combo from the new catalog, right?  Here it is:

And as promised, I made something new for it...not just one, but two cards!

Having fun with the Message in a Bottle stamp set, from whence my wee mermaid came on Sunday.  I couldn't decide if I wanted the octopus to be Powder Pink or Tranquil Tide, so I did both...mostly because I messed up the Marbled background the first time I stamped it.  I stamped it a little too far down on the card front, so to salvage it, I cut it a bit to layer on a new card base (the card on the right).  The backgrounds look different too because for the right one (the first one I stamped), I inked it up, then used a brayer to spread the ink out a bit so I wouldn't have patches.  On the left card, I inked up the brayer itself and used it to apply the ink to the stamp, and that's how it came out different.  Interesting!  I like this Marbled background stamp for this because it looks wavy to me.  OH!  And check out my brand new iridescent sequins!  I ordered a few more embellishments than usual this last time.  You might even see RIBBON sometime soon.

So now to the psychic part.  I made these two cards on Sunday night, before the Global Design Project posted their newest challenge (#100).  All of their DT have posted cards and this time we get to pick any one we want to CASE.  And if you looked at Brian King's card, I bet you'd think I saw it before I made my cards...

It's just such a coincidence that I have to link it up over there even though I hadn't seen this card before I made mine.  I ended up with a similar layout, pink, and the Marbled background!  Weird, isn't it?  Well, okay, it would be spookier if Brian had used the same stamp set for his main image too, but whatevs.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Message in a Bottle, Marbled
Ink:  Pool Party, Tranquil Tide, Powder Pink
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Whisper White, Delightful Daisy & A Whole Lot of Lovely DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Iridescent Sequins

Mermaid Splash

Mornin' y'all!  I know it's Saturday, and usually I post layouts from my honeymoon cruise album, but I missed posting the last couple days and I have a card I want to share instead.  I've been dealing with a headache all week that just will. not. go. away so lately I've been napping when Ryan naps.  Makes it hard to get any stamping done, but last night I made this!

Message in a Bottle is one of the stamp sets I just got in the last couple of weeks, and it's SO. CUTE.  When I saw this week's Color Throwdown, I knew I had to ink up that sweet little mermaid.

I used some retired colors on here but it's going to my two "nieces" and they won't care about that.  So I used Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo (Powder Pink might have been a closer match for the swatch on the right, but I wanted something that was definitely pink so it wouldn't make her tail just blend into her skin), and Lavender Lace.  I used Island Indigo for the bottle and sentiment.  I noticed as I colored in the mermaid that she's got a belly button, which I thought was funny.

Anywha, here's this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Congratulations to the FMS team for making it to #300.  I haven't participated in every single challenge (it's really hard to do that in the middle of a move, for instance), but I do participate more often than not.  I like this sketch...might have to try another card with it.

ETA:  Oh what timing!  Check out the word prompt from Inkspirational!

I think my card counts for this...the mermaid is surrounded by water waves, *and* it looks like she's waving (with both hands, because she's excited).  Ha!!

That's it for me.  I've got a kiddo to entertain until he goes down for his nap.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Message in a Bottle, Seaside Shore
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo, Lavender Lace, Island Indigo, Blushing Bride, Basic Black
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Fresh Prints (....of Bel Air) DSP Stack, Flirty Flamingo DSP
Accessories:  Pearls, Mini Dimensionals these things are SO COOL