The Kachina Doll Mystery

Mornin' y'all and welcome back to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today is book #62, The Kachina Doll Mystery: 

We have three pretty great covers this time and at least Nancy is strawberry blonde on the third one.  I don't have a favorite cover this time around, I love the colors on all three and had a good time making my cards for them...maybe because this book is one of my favorite Drews!

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are invited to Arizona by their friend Heather McGuire to investigate strange happenings and sabotage at the ranch resort her family is trying to get started.  Suspicion has fallen on a young boy who's living at the ranch with his aunt.  In addition, there have been sightings of a Kachina doll ghost (pictured on the first two covers) and rumors of a long-lost treasure.

Here's my first card:

I didn't want to be unintentionally disrespectful of First Nations cultures so I decided to stick with the desert setting for my cards, starting with Desert Details which I dearly love.  When the girls arrive in Arizona, they talk a lot about how Heather and her family have made the desert bloom at their ranch, so desert blooms it is for this card!

I used Merry Merlot, Blushing Bride, and Just Jade for my colors and I was surprised at how much I liked them together.  I've never been a fan of Blushing Bride but I really like how it plays together with the other two colors.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Desert Details
Ink:  Merry Merlot, Blushing Bride
Paper:  Merry Merlot, Just Jade, Whisper White, Awash in Beauty DSP
Accessories:  Desert Details dies, Everyday Arches dies, Dimensionals, Regal Foiled Dots

Here's card #2:

At one point in the book, Nancy and a large group of people take a trail ride out into the desert and have dinner and sing songs around a campfire, and there are several mentions of coyotes so Musical Jamboree was a natural choice for this one.

To match this cover, I used Lovely Lipstick, Azure Afternoon, Tranquil Tide, and Cinnamon Cider.  I used an Azure Afternoon watercolor wash pattern for the color of Nancy's dress and would you believe that Tranquil Tide piece on the bottom is from the Classic Garage DSP stack?  I just stamped some grassy bits on it.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Musical Jamboree
Ink:  Early Espresso, Azure Afternoon, Tranquil Tide, Stampin' Blends in Cinnamon Cider, Ivory, Lovely Lipstick, Golden Glow
Paper:  Lovely Lipstick, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Bloom Impressions DSP, Classic Garage DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

And for my third card:

One of the acts of sabotage that was blamed on the innocent kid was burning a huge cactus, which almost fell on Nancy, Bess, and George when they went to check it out and I will not miss an opportunity to make a fun cactus card.  Plus this gave me an excuse to use the frame dies from Desert Details since I didn't use them on my first card as I was focused on the arch shape.  One of the clues that Nancy finds is an old journal, so I used a piece of patterned paper with a lot of words on it.

Another color combination that was very fun to work with:  Shy Shamrock, Pool Party, and Fresh Freesia.  This particular book has some water damage along the right side, so if I find a copy in better condition I will probably grab it, but this one is otherwise in pretty good shape.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flowering Desert
Ink:  Shy Shamrock, Fresh Freesia, Pool Party
Paper:  Shy Shamrock, Whisper White, Pool Party DSP
Accessories:  Desert Details dies, Dimensionals, Tinsel Gems

This book definitely hearkens back to Shadow Ranch which is one of my all-time favorites, I wish they had done some kind of callback to that book but they didn't.  This book also has an incident with a scorpion, which is the second book in a row that I don't have scorpion stamps for so maybe I should look into that.  The sabotage mystery was a no-brainer to solve; it's the missing treasure and the Kachina doll ghost that are more interesting and delightfully spooky.  I think this book is more respectful of First Nations cultures, by which I mean that Nancy doesn't dig up any bodies this time (yeah that bar was low), but we get a little bit of talk about Hopi culture and artwork, which is nice.  Also I have seen Kachina dolls in person, they are amazing and beautiful!  I'm giving this one five stars, I love it.  If you're inspired to make a card for this book, please leave me a comment!  And I'll see you next week when Nancy takes on The Twin Dilemma.

The Clue in the Old Album

Happy Saturday!  And welcome back to the Nancy Drew Challenge, I love these : )  Today we are on book #24, The Clue in the Old Album, and once again I have three different covers.

The first one is by Russell Tandy and features what could be one of several scenes of Nancy watching the happenings at a Romani campsite (the book says Gypsies, but I'm going to do my best to use the more correct and respectful terminology).  This time we have Nancy in a dark red skirt suit with matching headwear, looking pretty sharp.

The second cover is the same type of scene, but updated by Rudy Nappi so we have Nancy in a '60s-style yellow sheath dress with her signature flippy 'do, and if you look closely, her fingernails are painted.  The camp scene she's observing feels more menacing to me, with the man opening the tent and the woman sitting on the ground inside...is it just me?  Gives me the heebies a little bit.

For the third one, also a Nappi cover, we have Nancy in the foreground looking through a photo album, and behind her is the Romani violinist she's trying to find.  I like that Nancy is still in yellow, which looks great with her titian hair and makes for a nice contrast with the black and deep red of the background.  I think this is my favorite of the three, I like the moodiness.

So let's take a look inside.

Case file:  While at a violin concert, Nancy sees a man steal an elderly woman's purse, which is how she meets Mrs. Struthers.  The woman asks Nancy to find a specific doll for her, which her daughter had mentioned in her last words before expiring of an unexplained illness, and while she's doing that Nancy acts as her personal shopper to buy dolls at doll shows in different cities.  Mrs. Struthers also asks her to find Romano Pepito, estranged father of her granddaughter Rose, who is a Romani man and plays the violin (and apparently he is less important to her than the dolls).  Of course Nancy finds everything she's looking for and reunites the family.  And the dolls.  Don't forget the dolls.

Here's my card:

Musical Jamboree is the closest I could come to a violin in my collection, though in this context would it be a fiddle?  What's the difference, anyway?  Ah, Google says that the main difference is the style of music played rather than the structure of the instrument, but fiddlers will sometimes flatten the bridge of the strings so they can more easily play multiple strings at once.  Today I learned.

I thought my music-loving animals were a good parallel for the campfire scene on the book, and I used my new favorite Everyday Skies DSP for the background, embossing the greeting right on the sky.  Over the course of the book, Nancy encourages Mrs. Struthers to get her wild granddaughter Rose into music lessons, so I liked that sentiment for this card.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Musical Jamboree, Music from the Heart
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Pebbled Path, Ivory, Copper Clay, Pecan Pie, Petal Pink, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Everyday Skies DSP Stack, Meandering Meadows DSP Stack
Accessories:  White EP

And the second OT cover:

Here's my card:

A large part of the book has to deal with Mrs. Struthers' doll collection; she sends Nancy on a couple of errands to go buy more dolls in other cities and a pair of nefarious Romani steal dolls from her and also kidnap her granddaughter Rose.  Anyway, dolls brought to mind the My Matryoshka stamp set...I like matryoshka dolls but most other types creep me out ; )  I think dolls were a bigger plot point than the titular old album.

I wanted to incorporate yellow for Nancy's dress on the cover, so I started with the Floral Delight DSP, then added Real Red from the book cover and a bit of Pool Party from the DSP.  Parts of the dolls are colored with the lighter Pool Party Blend but it's hard to see in the photo.  I went with the "Missing You" sentiment since Rose and her dad were missing each other until Nancy reunited them.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  My Matryoshka, Oh So Eclectic
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink, Real Red, Pool Party, Old Olive
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lolly, Thick Basic White, Floral Delight DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Opaque Faceted Gems, Best Year Ever ribbon, Dimensionals

Now for the RT:

Case file:  This one closely follows the RT, omitting a subplot where Nancy, Bess, and George buy a sailboat and beat a snooty girl and her friends in a sailing race, which was pretty pointless anyway.

Here's my card:

Rose, the granddaughter, is a bit of a wild child and Mrs. Struthers initially doesn't want Rose to know about her Romani heritage (because...it will make her more wild?).  Rose loves music and dancing, so I chose Margarita Ketto from Stamping Bella to represent Rose, plus many multiple Romani women are described as wearing scarlet skirts.  I used a giant rose outline on the Cherry Cobbler paper and on the inside, I stamped the Katharine Hepburn quote "If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun" which pretty much encapsulates Rose's attitude.

I took my colors directly from the cover on this one.  I wanted to put the Katharine Hepburn quote on the front, but that stamp is quite large so I put it on the inside instead and then forgot to take a picture of it.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Margarita Ketto & greetings from Stamping Bella, Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Cherry Cobbler, Stampin' Blends in Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Layering Ovals Framelits, Dimensionals, Daffodil Delight 3/8" taffeta ribbon

I do vaguely remember this one from childhood--as soon as it mentioned Mrs. Struthers' doll collection, I was like "Oh yes, the creepy dolls!"  Nancy even gets poisoned by one.  Anyway, this is a pretty solid installment but not one of my favorites; I give it three and a half stars.  If you are inspired to create a card, leave me a comment below as I would love to see!  Meanwhile, I will be back next Saturday to investigate The Ghost of Blackwood Hall.  Cheers!

Musical Badger

Mornin' y'all.  With Ryan on spring break this week (and next), I'm having trouble keeping track of what day it is, anyone else have that problem?  He's got a mini research project that we'll need to work on next week but this week he just gets to goof off : )

I spent a lot of the day yesterday reading or working on my stitching project, so I only made one card and this is it:

I hadn't used the badger yet from Musical Jamboree, so it's his time to shine thanks to the Festive Friday challenge:

Let's see, I got black, white, torn paper (well, I tore paper to use as a mask, does that count?), musical notes, the badger has stripes on his face, musical themed sentiment, and a musical instrument.  I have several other retired stamp sets I could have used for this challenge too, we'll see if I have time to circle back.

Check out this week's Atlantic Hearts sketch:

I tore a piece of scratch paper (I have a giant stack of scratch paper in my craft room and use it all the time) and used it as a mask to stamp the music notes and then sponge ink along the edges of the card front. Super simple technique but it always looks good.  Then I added my tambourine-playing badger, the sentiment, and a few faceted gems and it's done.  I think what took the longest was choosing a color combination and in the end I reused the Lemon Lime Twist and Lemon Lolly combo from yesterday's card.  Black and white go with just about everything, right?

I've got a bit of a headache but I'm going to go do dishes and mop the floor anyway.  Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Musical Jamboree
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Lemon Lolly, Lemon Lime Twist, Stampin' Blends in Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Lemon Lolly, Lemon Lime Twist
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Faceted Gems

Singing Coyote

Mornin' y'all, happy Friday.  Today's my last day with Ryan at school for the next two weeks, so I'd better make it count...so far I've fallen down a couple of rabbit holes online.  I started out shopping for my corgi-loving niece's birthday and somehow ended up looking at place mats with rubber ducks wearing sunglasses.  Might have to get those for my duck-loving kid.

Anyway, I've been looking forward to sharing today's card for the past couple of days, take a look:

I love this singing coyote!  I bet he's singing Home on the Range.  Seems like I use the sentiments from Musical Jamboree more often than the animal images, so I'm glad to have this dude take center stage on today's card.

I made this for the Inspire. Create. challenge:

And I used the colors from the Cupcake Inspiration challenge:

Yes, I used hot pink on a masculine card!  Just a little bit.  I chose Azure Afternoon, Melon Mambo, and Granny Apple Green for my colors, plus Crumb Cake for a neutral.  What do you think, did I make those colors work for a masculine card?

I had to fire Daphne from her job as my stitching assistant last night.  While I was in the bathroom, she got into my project container and ate a bunch of my thread.  I had to throw out three or four slimy skeins but I'm pretty sure she ate all the odd ends that were in there waiting to go in the trash when I finish my project.  Good thing the Daphinator starts school tonight...we have her first professional training session tonight.  In the meantime, I'm going to make sure I keep my thread containers closed.

I think I'm off the hook for walking Daph today too.  The wind is blowing pretty good and it's snowing (again).  I think 99% of the snow in the backyard had finally melted, so of course it's snowing again.  But I think the wind is too strong for it to stick much.  So I'm going to go work in my craft room and stay warm.  I just finished my second cuppa so I need to make more tea first...

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Musical Jamboree, Everyday Arches
Ink:  Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Ivory, Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel, Granny Apple Green, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Azure Afternoon, Everyday Skies DSP Stack, Granny Apple Green DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Opaque Faceted Gems, Dimensionals

Pineapple Greeting

Mornin' y'all!  Well, we have made a start on painting our house--we painted the ceilings in the kitchen/dining and pantry areas yesterday : )  Today we're painting light green in there, and tomorrow we're doing dark green accents.  Can't wait to see what it all looks like!  *Really* can't wait until our entire house is in Technicolor!!  I'm so over the greige.

Anyway, I have a quick little cheery card to share today, lookie:

I played with a few patterns from the new SAB Fruit Salad DSP stack so I could enter the Just Add Ink challenge:

And I used the sketch from CASE-Ing Tuesday Sketches:

And here's the card in the mini catalog that's the inspiration:

My card was super quick to make, the thing that took the longest was choosing which patterns I wanted to play with.  And now I have a cute card that's suitable to send to pretty much anyone : )

Okay, time for me to start cleaning the baseboards so we can tape off the walls.  Meanwhile it snowed last night, so Daphne keeps wanting to go out and play in the snow and Ryan wants to try putting water in an ice cube tray and putting it outside to see how fast it freezes.  Guess we've got a busy day ahead.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Musical Jamboree
Ink:  Pecan Pie
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Thick Basic White, Fruit Salad DSP Stack
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Dots for Days

Regal Friend

Hey y'all!  I got to spend some time in my craft room yesterday and Daphne was a Very Good Girl so I got a couple of things done, including a card to share today : )

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I piled on a Regal Flora bouquet and a sentiment from Musical Jamboree using this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Crushed Curry, Cherry Cobbler, and Misty Moonlight, with a bit of Night of Navy thrown in.

That's it for me today, y'all.  I'm hoping to get some more crafting done and maybe even work on a scrapbook layout for the first time in a while.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Regal Flora, Musical Jamboree
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Cherry Cobbler, Misty Moonlight, Night of Navy
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Misty Moonlight & Night of Navy DSP
Accessories:  Regal Flora dies, Thoughtful Expressions dies, Wink of Stella, Regal Foiled Dots, Dimensionals

Lavender Note

Hey y'all, happy Saturday!  And it WILL be a happy Saturday, I finally got to do my first order from the holiday mini catalog and it's supposed to arrive today.  After I do some yoga this morning and then run some errands (that grocery shopping ain't going to do itself...) I can reward myself with some new stamping toys!  : )

I promised that I would have a Color Throwdown card to share this week and here it is:

And here's the challenge:

I went with Bermuda Bay, Gorgeous Grape, and Shaded Spruce for my colors, which just begged for me to get out Painted Lavender and have some fun.  I had started out with a white card base but then decided to just go for it and do lots more purple.  The thing that took the longest on this card?  Placing the die-cut sprigs behind the lavender bunch.  A simple "just a note" from Musical Jamboree and there's my card.

Okay, I'm going to get started for the day and hopefully my nice fat SU! box will be here by the time I'm done running errands.  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Lavender, Musical Jamboree
Ink:  Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, Shaded Spruce, Bermuda Bay
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Shaded Spruce, Bermuda Bay, Thick Basic White, Butterfly Brilliance DSP Stack
Accessories:  Painted Lavender dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Purple Shimmer Gems, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Friendly Fiddler

Mornin' y'all!  I'm still a bit under the weather but I did make a couple of cards yesterday AND my fever is gone today, so that's good news.  And here's my card for today:

It's a triple challenge card starting with Inkspirational:

And I had to give the colors at Creative Colour Challenges a whirl:

I think this might be the first time I've played along over there.  I figured I could go whimsical for the colors with the images from Musical Jamboree, isn't that fiddler cute?

I'm also entering this at Shopping Our Stash, where the challenge is to make a "just because" card.  I usually send out around 3 to 5 cards a week (though last week I mailed out nine) and "just because" is the type of card I use most, so this challenge was a no-brainer for me.  And several of my most frequent recipients are musically inclined (we were in band together in middle school and high school) so a musical card is always good too.

It's almost time to get Ryan ready to go to school so I'm signing off.  Have a great day, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Musical Jamboree
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Petal Pink, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Petal Pink, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Petal Pink, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies

SUO Challenges: Favorite Technique

Happy Tuesday y'all, are you ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges?

'Cause here it is!

I had to think about this one for a while because I don't really think I do a lot of techniques per se.  I mean, does coloring with Blends count as a technique?  (Maybe not the way I do it, I know there are a lot of way more incredible alcohol marker artists out there.)  But as it happened, when I made this card back in June (I was working ahead, knowing that we were moving to Colorado in July), I had done a couple of cards with watercoloring.  My StazOn stamp pad is bone-dry at the moment, so I have to use something different to stamp with.  Memento ink is great for alcohol markers but not watercoloring, so I like to ink up my outline stamp with Versamark, then whatever color I want for the outline, stamp it, and then emboss with clear embossing powder.  (Here is a card where I used different colors for the outlines so you can see what I mean.)

So having chosen my technique, I needed to choose a stamp set, and here's what I made:

I totally love Musical Jamboree, which is hiding out on page 125 of the catalog.  This singing coyote and his musical compatriots just make me smile every time.  So I used Versamark plus Early Espresso to stamp the coyote and the campfire, embossed with clear EP, and then went to town watercoloring everything.  Basic White isn't a great choice if you want your watercolors to actually blend, but it worked for the style I was going for on this card and I am particularly proud of the freckly texture on the coyote's fur.  So there's my technique!

I hope y'all have lots of techniques to share with us on the SUO Challenges blog, I'm always down to learn new things.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Musical Jamboree
Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso, Pebbled Patch, Peach Pie, Lost Lagoon, Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Pebbled Path, Gray Granite, Thick Basic White, Lily Pond Lane DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, clear EP, Dimensionals, In Color Shimmer Gems