The Haunted Bridge

Welcome to another Nancy Drew Challenge, where today we are investigating The Haunted Bridge!

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are hanging around a resort while Carson works on a jewel theft case.  While out golfing, Nancy's caddy tells her that a nearby bridge is haunted.  Of course Nancy investigates and finds a small brass chest full of jewels that may be related to Carson's case.  She tracks down the owner of the chest, reunites the woman with her fiance, and wins a golf tournament despite an injured hand, and does all of that while dealing with the unwanted attention of an older man who's quite a creep and brags about himself a lot.

This time, the OT and RT are very similar, the OT is just five chapters longer.  If the Nancy Drew books followed the same naming conventions as episodes of Friends, this one would be The One Where Nancy Golfs a Lot.  Here's my card for the OT:

I went through my collection of Ink Road stamps and I think this is pretty much what Nancy was thinking about the one guy who just would not leave her alone, though she's too "proper" to tell him off.  Personally, I would rather be rude and not have to put up with the guy's antics and bragging, especially since Nancy was trying to get away from him when she hurt her hand.  I added flowers because there are a couple of minor characters who are into gardening and stuff.

I always think of golfers wearing fashion victim outfits with discordant plaids so I had to use plaid on here, I think I managed to find a pretty good match for the colors on the book cover.  My hubs used to golf and I never saw him in an outfit like that, but let me hold onto my preconceived notions.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Vintage Ladies & Snarky Housewife 2 from The Ink Road, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pretty Peacock, Stampin' Blends in Peach Pie, Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink, Cajun Craze, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Mango Melody, Pretty Peacock, Thick Basic White, Plaid Tidings DSP Stack
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Pretty Peacock Foil Gems, Dimensionals

Next up is the RT:

Same story but I think the annoying guy's name changes from Mortimer to Martin.  Anyway, I like Nancy's little polka dot ascot on this cover.  Here's my card:

I didn't want to recreate my first card, so this time I decided to go with the ghost at the bridge (which was a scarecrow erected by one of the minor characters to keep the golf caddies away from his garden).  I still got some plaid in there and used a bunch of patterns to go with my mental image of golf outfits.

No offense if you're a golfer, I just don't understand the appeal.  That twine I used was wrapped around some stamps and dies I ordered from Lawn Fawn, so recycling!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Twick or Tweet
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Balmy Blue & Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Thick Basic White, Dandy Designs DSP
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals, twine from Lawn Fawn, Glitter Enamel Dots

I'm giving this one three stars, what do you think?  Please comment on this post if you'd like to join me--you can read the book(s) and make a card inspired by the contents, or just go off the covers, either way.  I'd love to see how Nancy Drew inspires you!  If you want a more in-depth look at the Nancy Drew books, check out my other blog at Hey Nancy Drew.  Next up, we search for The Clue of the Tapping Heels!

Friendly Tulips

Mornin', y'all!  After a four-day weekend we're back to business as usual and Ryan is getting into the DVDs and books every time I turn around.  Good thing he's cute!

Anyway, while Mr. Cute was napping yesterday, I made a quick card.

Tranquil Tulips is a gorgeous stamp set and why didn't I use it more often?!  Well, I broke it out for today at least.  And of course you recognize the sentiment from Orange Blossom because I'm still in denial that it's retiring.

So let's check out the CASE the Designer Challenge at Global Design Project:

Really I kept my card very close to Brian's original concept.  Pink and green (though mine are more saturated shades), flowers on the left, friend sentiment on the right.  I even had a lacy sort of stamp for the bottom, but it just didn't work for my card so I sponged it instead.

I was also thinking of this picture at Inkspirational:

This is why I did darker colors on my card, and I thought the way I sponged it sort of echoed the curve of the tree branch in the picture.  Okay, since I mentioned the colors...hey look it's Flirty Flamingo!  For some reason I've been using that more recently.  Today I paired it with Melon Mambo and two new greens, Shaded Spruce and Granny Apple Green.  I'm looking forward to playing more with those greens!  The glitter enamel dots are retiring (as are all the stamps) and they're actually Old Olive, but the color is light enough that I figured they blended pretty well with the Granny Apple Green sponging.

Well, it's time to feed the kiddo his morning Cheerios (not to mention get breakfast for me, too!).  Cheers, y'all, and have a great week.  New SU! catalog goes live on Friday!  Until then, it's likely I'll still be revisiting some retiring favorites.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tranquil Tulips, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo, Melon Mambo, Shaded Spruce, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Shaded Spruce, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Glitter enamel dots

A Note to Say Hey

Mornin', y'all!  How's your week going so far?

I am still in denial that my fave Orange Blossom is retiring, so here's another Orange Blossom card and I won't even promise it'll be the last one because I love this stamp set.

I was totally inspired by Queen Elizabeth's outfit for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding this past weekend.

Great outfit, Your Highness.  I love the colors!  Speaking of colors, I spy two new shades of purple!  Highland Heather (lighter shade) will be in the Subtles family, and Gorgeous Grape will be in the Brights.  They go pretty well with Lemon Lime Twist, don't you think?  But I like LLT with *lots* of different colors.  Who knew a wild green color like that would play along so well with all the other colors of the rainbow?

I'm entering this in the theme challenge at Global Design Project:

And the CAS challenge at Paper Players:

It was fun building a bit of a bouquet with the stamps this time around.  The largest bloom in the center is popped up on mini Dimensionals.

It is time once again to go running after my tiny spawn.  Ryan is getting into absolutely everything these days, and I swear he's getting taller every night as he sleeps because he can reach more and more stuff.  Gotta make sure he doesn't turn on any of the burners on the stove...Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Orange Blossom
Ink:  Lemon Lime Twist, Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Gorgeous Grape, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals

ETA:  I just found out my Tea-Riffic card from a little while back won the Inkspire Me challenge!  Yay!

Retiring: Pop of Paradise

Howdy, y'all.  How's it going today?  I'm getting really tired this week because one of the dogs keeps waking me up around 5:00 in the morning every day.  Not really funny anymore.

So I made a super fancy flamingo to cheer myself up.

Pop of Paradise is another stamp set on the retiring list, so I had to give the flamingo another chance to shine.  And he does shine today--I covered him in Wink of Stella after I stamped :)

Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I went back and forth about what colors to use for my layers.  I started out with an Old Olive layer for the leaves, but that seemed too dark, so I stamped them on white and then sponged on Old Olive.  Then I tried it on a Crumb Cake card base but that also seemed too dark, but it just didn't pop enough on Whisper White until I added that tiny little border of Calypso Coral.  Then I added some itty bitty sequins to the sentiment and voila!  It works.

Take a look at this week's Color Throwdown:

These looked like great flamingo colors to me--Calypso Coral, Old Olive, and Crumb Cake.

Kiddo just fell asleep so I'm off to my craft room!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pop of Paradise, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Old Olive, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Calypso Coral
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, 1 3/8" circle punch, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella pen, Iridescent Sequins

Retiring: Orange Blossom

Howdy, y'all!  I don't usually post on the weekends, but there were a few challenges this week that I just couldn't let pass me by, so here we are!

I has a sad that Orange Blossom is retiring!  Last year when the new catalog came out, my kiddo was just a few months old and I was still working out how to balance life with a baby, so I limited myself to just two new stamp sets (Orange Blossom and Post Script).  That turned out to be a great decision--I was able to really focus on using those two sets and really have fun with them instead of being ADHD with a half a dozen stamp sets.  (Sometimes when I order a lot of stamps at once, it takes me forever to get around to using them all...Sale-a-Bration is particularly troublesome for that.  I didn't even use most of the SAB stuff from this year!) Anyway, I *adore* Orange Blossom and I'm sad to see it retiring so soon, but I've already chosen the two stamp sets I want to start off with from the next catalog.

Here is the Color Throwdown color combination that I love:

I used Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, and Coastal Cabana for my colors.  Coastal Cabana is coming back y'all!  So excited about that.

I'm also entering this at the SUO Challenge to use a favorite floral from the annual catalog:

And finally, a cool sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

That's it for me today, y'all.  Hoping to get some crafting time in this weekend while the hubs is here to entertain the tiny human.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Orange Blossom
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Coastal Cabana, Basic Black, Versamark
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  White EP, Dimensionals

Springy Butterfly

Good afternoon, friends!  I had a big nasty headache yesterday, but this morning I managed to get a card made to share today.

For a wonder, the Wink of Stella on the butterfly actually shows up somewhat!  So of course the Soft Sky sponging behind the butterfly doesn't show up as well.  My springy colors are courtesy of Fab Friday:

 And I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Just for good measure, I'll enter this over at Retro Rubber as well:

Watercolor Wings is almost 3 years old (I got it in July of 2015); Orange Blossom isn't quite a year old yet and of course Beautiful Peacock (where I got the teeny flowers) was from this year's Sale-a-Bration so it's pretty much new.

Okay, kiddo is running riot and angry that I won't feed him any more goldfish so I'd best attend to him before he starts chasing Sadie around again.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, Orange Blossom, Beautiful Peacock
Ink:  Soft Sky, Night of Navy, Powder Pink, So Saffron
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Naturally Eclectic DSP
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Thinlits, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Snowman Friend

Happy Friday, y'all!  And also surprise!  I did NOT use Magical Day for my card today.

Instead here's a happy little snowman!  I really need to do better about taking pictures in the afternoon rather than in the morning, the lighting isn't great on this.  Those sequins are silver, by the way.  The colors on the snowman came out more muted than I really intended, so I finally retired (read: tossed) my blender pen that I've had since I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator over ten years ago.  Yeah, I think it was time for it to retire.

Anywha, for today's card I started with the Color Throwdown challenge:

I used Baja Breeze (sadly retired) and Crumb Cake for my colors.  Couldn't resist busting Baja Breeze out when I saw this picture, and I love that snowflake paper (happily, I have a LOT of it too!) that has made more than one appearance on scrapbook pages over the years.  This color combination seemed like a natural fit with the Cupcake Inspirations theme challenge:

Winter!  Most of our snow melted yesterday but it's still cold outside.

Finally I used this week's Fall-To Layout from Clean & Simple Stamping:

I even dusted off my Top Note die for my card.  The stamps are all current, even if the patterned paper and die aren't.  And the friend I want to send this to won't care if it's all current stuff anyway :p

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Seasonal Chums, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Emerald Envy, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Gray
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Ski Slope DSP
Accessories:  Top Note Die, Seasonal Tags Framelits, Metallic Sequins, Dimensionals

Hey, Friend: Fall Edition

Howdy, folks!  How's your Friday morning going?  After my complaining earlier this week, it's *finally* starting to feel a little like fall here.  Color me thrilled!

I think I've said before that fall cards might be my very favorite thing to make.  The inspiration for this one came from the new challenge at Fusion:

I loved those fall leaves on the blue background, so I tried to kinda recreate that on my card.  I also dyed half my fingers blue in the process--it got all around one of my fingernails too so that ain't coming out for a day or two.  I spritzed water on glossy white cardstock and dripped some ink refill on it, then spritzed some more to make the background.  Messy, but fun.

I also used the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

I didn't have a recipient in mind when I made this, but I was talking to my friend Tiana last night and our friend Sarah's husband just deployed, so she'll be the one getting this in the mail.  And probably cookies, because I just got the Sally's Cookie Addiction cookbook and I need an excuse to try out a recipe or three.  (I already tried the giant M&Ms cookies.  Uhhh....they're gone.  And I need to be spending more time at the gym.)

That's it for me today, folks.  Have a fantabulous day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Colorful Seasons, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango
Paper:  Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Cajun Craze, Glossy White, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Seasonal Layers Framelits, Dimensionals, White baker's twine

Out of Sight Orange Blossom

So when the Stampin' Up! catalog came out this summer, I only got two new stamp sets to start with (Orange Blossom and Post Script).  And even though I've gotten several other new stamp sets since then, I keep coming back to those first two...especially Orange Blossom!

Sooo that just means I made a good choice when I bought that set, right?  ;)  Today's Orange Blossom card is for the newest Freshly Made Sketch:

I arranged my three elements a little farther down on the card just because I wanted to make sure that orange flower on the patterned paper was visible :)  Isn't that paper gorgeous? It's from the Whole Lot of Lovely pack, and that's not a misnomer.  Love the watercolor-style flowers on that black background.

Well, I've got pumpkin baked oatmeal about to come out of the oven...we're starting fall pumpkin season just a smidge early here :)  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Orange Blossom
Ink:  Basic Black, Powder Pink, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Pool Party, Tangerine Tango, Thick Whisper White, Whole Lot of Lovely DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits

"Thanks" Doesn't Seem Like a Big Enough Word

Happy Saturday, y'all!  Hubs went in for his back surgery on Wednesday and stayed overnight in the hospital; he came home Thursday morning.  My friend Tiana, who is the awesomest person in the world, drove down here with her daughters to take care of Ryan while I was at the hospital with the hubs, and while I was gone she made a half-dozen meals for us and put them in the freezer, AND she swept/vacuumed/mopped the middle floor, AND she washed sheets/made the bed for hubs, AND she washed towels and cleaned the bathroom counter.  She is the most capable and efficient person I have *ever* met and I want to be her when I grow up. (She's also taught me 90% of what I know about being a mama.)

Tiana mentioned that she could use some thank you cards to send out, so rest assured I am going to mail her an entire box of thank you cards, because I think she deserves probably about 57,413 thank you cards and also a million dollars for everything she did to help us out.  So while hubs and baby slept yesterday afternoon (baby Ryan got his six-month shots, he was all tuckered out after that), I got started on Operation Thank You Card.

Having fun with the sequins again :)  I'm starting to wish I'd bought sequins before now, they're fun embellies and they're flat so this card will go through the mail no problem.  (Sorry the photo is a little dark, I took it this morning and it was really overcast.  What can ya do.)

Meet this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I just got a box full of new stamp sets and other goodies, and I still pulled out my favorite Orange Blossom and Post Script for this card.  Can't help it that they're awesome ;)  But hopefully I'll be able to ink up some new rubbah in the next couple weeks.

Anywha, I also used this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Melon Mambo, Pear Pizzazz (the long retired Gable Green would be a better match for the color swatch, but I was using all current schtuff), and Daffodil Delight.  My Melon Mambo flower came out much too dark and overpowering the first time, so I cleaned the stamp off and then inked it up by using a sponge and that worked better.  I also tried stamping off, but that just made it turn out kind of blotchy, so for this card sponges were where it's at.

I've got a happy baby boy dressed like Superman.  I think we're going to go have some quality time together while his dada sleeps in this morning.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Orange Blossom, Post Script
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Iridescent Sequins

Leafy Thanks

I know there are people (like my husband) who love summertime and all the heat and humidity, and to them I say YOU CRAZY.  I can't wait for some cooler temperatures.  Not saying I want to spend 8 months of the year snowbound, but you can take this 90+ degree weather with 8 million percent humidity and shove it.

So I made a fall card.

Because fall is the best season.  I'd love another stamp set or two to work with those Leaflets Framelits, they had one a couple years ago that I loved too (Lighthearted Leaves anyone?).  I love it when a stamp set has coordinating dies, and I love it even more when those dies coordinate with more than one stamp set.

Anywha, the sentiment is from Orange Blossom because apparently I'm a teensy bit totally obsessed with it, and I used the Post Script background on the card base because it is also awesome.  Speaking of awesome, check out the sketch from the Paper Players:

 And I told you I wanted another hack at the Color Throwdown:

This time I used Berry Burst and Daffodil Delight with Old Olive; I sponged the ink on the background stamp so it wouldn't come out too stark this time.  The leaf kinda looks more yellow and orange than red, but that's what you get when you mix red and yellow ink right?  I was trying to get the leaf to cover from the yellow, through the orange and over to the red side.

But it's a lot more red in the bottom corner than anywhere I could reach with one leaf stamp :)  Still, that's the fun thing about doing watercolors like that, you get something different every time.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Cheers!  And stay cool, yo.  Fall is on its way, just slowly...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Vintage Leaves, Orange Blossom, Post Script
Ink:  Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Berry Burst, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Old Olive, Berry Burst, Thick Whisper White, Watercolor paper
Accessories:  Leaflets Framelits, Dimensionals

Hey, Friend

Mornin', y'all!  Or should I say...

Hey, FRIEND.  I do love that sentiment stamp.  I'm not sure how much I like the rest of the card for today though...but not every card can be your favorite, right?  Time to share a secret:  I added the rhinestones because one of them is covering an ink smudge.  Oops.

I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And combined it with the Color Throwdown:

I used Rose Red (I was going to do Berry Burst but I decided to dust off the long-neglected Rose Red instead), Crushed Curry, and Old Olive.  My Old Olive ink pad is extra juicy and came out a lot darker than I expected.  Might have to have another go at this color combination, I like it and I don't think I did it justice.

Anyway, my kiddo is already getting kinda fussy and ready for a nap and it's not even 8:00 yet.  Best go tend the munchkin.  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Orange Blossom
Ink:  Rose Red, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Rhinestones

Orange Blossom Smile

Happy rainy Thursday, y'all!  It's been raining almost nonstop since sometime in the middle of the night, and it has to be coming down pretty hard for me to hear it in my bedroom on the third floor so yep, water water everywhere.  Good thing all our out-of-town guests left yesterday before the deluge really got going!

I got some time in my craft room this morning to make this:

Oh look, I used the Orange Blossom stamp set to make an ORANGE!  Haha.  The colors are slightly wonky because, as I said, rainrainrain but the orange is stamped with Tangerine Tango and is definitely orange and not red.  And the chevrons are stamped-off Lemon Lime Twist so they actually are the same color as the little leaf sprig behind the orange; it looks like two different colors but it's not.  The bigger leaves ARE a different color (Old Olive) and I think I might not be making sense anymore and the cloudy skies just made the colors look weird so let's juts go with that.  But anyway!  Here's the Global Design Project sketch:

The card above was actually my second hack at this sketch; first I tried doing the chevrons a little offset and I didn't like it as much:

Buuut we need some thank you cards and not every card can be your favorite. 

So the last week and a half has been ridiculously busy with family in town, the hubs' promotion ceremony, party here at the house afterward...so here's one pic from the promotion:

That bow tie!  I DIE OF THE CUTE.  And also my hubs is a dang good-lookin' dude, I'm a lucky lady.  So after all that celebratin', we also had to deal with one girl dog who isn't feeling so hot, and then Saturday night my gallbladder attacked me so we spent the night in the ER.  Fun times.  I'm okay, but I'm not eating ice cream for the foreseeable future, which is a shame because we have a freezer full of it and I'm a sucker for cookies 'n' cream.  I'll have to figure out if the gallbladder and I can reach some kind of truce or if I need to declare war and have it annihilated.

Well, I'm going to take advantage of sleeping babe and see if I can get anything else done in my craft room.  I've missed it!  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU! (first card)
Stamps:  Orange Blossom, Work of Art, Dragonfly Dreams
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, Lemon Lime Twist, Daffodil Delight, Basic Black
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Paper snips?  Do those count as an accessory?

Supplies, all SU! (second card)
Stamps:  Orange Blossom, Work of Art, Dragonfly Dreams
Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Basic Black
Paper:  Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Paper snips

Your Friendly Neighborhood Butterfly

I stole a few minutes yesterday to work on a card, but then I got interrupted and discovered this morning that I'd left my Chocolate Chip ink pad out and open all night.  Oops!  But so far it doesn't seem like it's been too adversely affected, and I finished my card:

ETA:  The white lacy bit is the lace stamp from Touches of Texture stamped with Whisper White ink :)  Mystery solved!

I used the latest sketch from As You See It:

And bonus!  They chose my Tranquil Hello card as a top pick last week.  Thank you, AYSI team!

Back to today's card, I paired the sketch with the new Color Throwdown:

That's a gorgeous picture, isn't it?  And beautiful colors too.  I used Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, and Garden Green.

We're hoping to spend today at the house just relaxing after all the craziness of the last week.  I'm itching to get to work on some more scrapbook pages...speaking of which, I have a layout I specifically wanted to share on July 4th so this week we'll have Scrappy Tuesday instead of Scrappy Monday.  I didn't forget :)

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Watercolor Wings, Touches of Texture, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Garden Green
Accessories:  Bold Butterfly Framelits, Dimensionals