Another Apple Card

Hello again, y'all!  I got Ryan off to school and did the dishes while I made myself a cuppa, so now I can relax with my tea and a protein bar for breakfast.  And I have my second card to share today:

Apples again and I have to say that Apple Harvest is my favorite apple stamp set ever, I love it.  For this card, I turned to this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

I read that as Real Red, Darling Duckling, and Granny Apple Green.  I tried it with Old Olive first but the background stripes looked too dull, so I switched to Granny Apple Green but I neglected to switch out my Blends so the leaves on my apple are Old Olive and Darling Duckling.  My Granny Apple Green pad is extra juicy right now so the greeting looks dark but I like it.

Halfway through my cuppa tea and I'm already contemplating making another one : ) Daphne thinks we should go for a walk first, but I think we'll wait a bit since it's supposed to start raining here shortly.  Maybe I can make another apple card while we wait...

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Apple Harvest, Heartfelt Hellos, Painted Stripes
Ink:  Early Espresso, Granny Apple Green, Stampin' Blends in Real Red, Darling Duckling, Old Olive, Bronze
Paper:  Real Red, Thick Basic White, Darling Duckling DSP
Accessories:  Apple Blossoms dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Iridescent Foil Gems

SUO Challenges: Choose Your Own Adventure

Mornin' y'all!  It is already time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

And this one is super easy:

Anything goes, so long as you use Stampin' Up! products!  For this challenge, I decided to CASE Tammy's card and now I have another sorta patriotic card for next year's July birthdays.  Here's what I made:

I loved how Tammy used the Painted Stripes background for her card and I just had to do it too.  I don't have the Mixed Florals bundle, so I chose the large and in charge hydrangea from Thankful Garden and added a few retired Tinsel Gems because I love those things.  I will admit it took me a few tries to get the stripes to look how I wanted them to; I think what I ended up doing was inking up the stamp with a sponge instead of pressing the ink pad on it, which makes the stripes a bit softer and a better match for my sponged/stenciled flowers.

Your turn!  Anything goes so long as it's SU! products.  Don't forget to upload your creation on the SUO Challenges blog and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Garden, Painted Stripes, Year of Flowers
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Balmy Blue, Soft Sea Foam, Real Red
Paper:  Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Balmy Blue
Accessories:  Thankful Garden masks & dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Tinsel Gems, Dimensionals

The Clue of the Broken Locket

Welcome to another Nancy Drew challenge, and today we are on book #11, The Clue of the Broken Locket!

This is one of the times where the original text (left) and the revised text (right) are not even nodding acquaintances they're so different, so let's take a peek.

Case file:  Carson Drew is asked to draw up the legal paperwork for a pair of actors to adopt 14-month-old twins, but he regrets it afterwards and Nancy decides to look for the babies' biological parents.  The babies were found in a boat with a broken locket; the adoptive mom wants to destroy the locket and the clothes the babies were found in, but Nancy prevents that and ends up taking care of the twins along with Bess because the actors' nursemaid is useless (and so are the actor parents, they adopted the babies pretty much as a publicity stunt).  Not only does Nancy reunite the babies with their mother, she also reunites a pair of adult twins who had lost track of each other after the man went off to WWI.  Also, I read somewhere that the old man with the pipe is a self-portrait of the cover artist : )

Here's my card for the OT version of The Clue of the Broken Locket:

I had to have a golden locket on my card, even if it's not broken, and I liked the love sentiment since the mother was so happy to be reunited with her babies.  She had been struck by lightning (!!!!) and unable to claim the babies when they were found the next day in the boat.  I wanted a soft, dreamy background so I inked up Painted Stripes with Versamark for the card base, and found a scrap of a Balmy Blue pattern to match Nancy's ruffled shirt.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Stripes, Best of Love
Ink:  Versamark, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Darling Duckling, Wild Wasabi, Thick Basic White, Tranquil Textures DSP
Accessories:  Gold EP, Antique Pearls, Dimensionals

Next up is the revised version:

Case file:  Carson sends Nancy, Bess, and George to a lake in Maryland to investigate a ghostly boat that's scaring people away from the lake.  The girls meet Cecily Tyson and her boyfriend Nico Van Dyke, who is the lead singer of the popular band The Flying Dutchmen; soon they discover that there's a suspicious family (brothers, their wives, and a set of young twins) living in the big house on the lake.  Cecily is there looking for an old family treasure dating back to the civil war.  They catch sight of a girl who looks exactly like Cecily and it turns out she's really Cecily's cousin and the mother of the twins who is being held against her will.  Cecily and Susan (the doppelganger) both have pieces of a locket that was passed down in the different branches of their family with clues to the family treasure.  And also as if kidnapping and wrongful imprisonment aren't enough crimes for two brothers, they're also pirating Nico's records.  This one is a bit all over the place!

Here's my card:

I managed to find a piece of patterned paper that has the same colors as Nancy, Bess, and George's shirts AND it's even in the same order as on the cover.  Since one of the mysteries dealt with pirated records, I had to bring out For the Record for this one.

Also there is no power on this earth that would induce me to go trudging through a swamp barefoot.

Supplies, RT card:
Stamps:  For the Record
Ink:  Versamark, Night of Navy, Misty Moonlight, Blushing Bride
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Crushed Curry, Bashful Blue, Magenta Madness, Thick Basic White, Abstract Beauty DSP Stack
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, clear EP, gold sequins, Dimensionals

Comment here with a link if you make a card for this challenge, I would love to see!  Visit Hey, Nancy Drew for more in-depth book commentary.  I'll be back next Saturday when we'll be taking a look at The Message in the Hollow Oak!

Stars & Stripes Birthday

Mornin' y'all!  I tried doing things in a different order this morning and I think it will work for the rest of the summer.  It's getting toasty enough outside that I walked Daph early this morning before Ryan got up and before the hubs left for work, and I still got my workout done before I took Ryan to camp.  I think that will be good to keep Daphne from getting too hot walking later in the day when the sun's all the way up.

Anyway, I made three cards in my crafting palace yesterday, so here's the one I'm sharing today:

This was the only stars and stripes cards before the 4th this year, and I'm holding onto it for next year's July birthdays since I already sent out cards this year, so here's another one for next year.  The paper strip behind the star is gold foil and I added some gold Low Profile Dots to draw the eye to the greeting in the corner and coordinate with the gold paper.

I like the Just Add Ink sketch:

Though I only realized after the fact that I left off the bow, oops.  The sketch did inspire my card though, promise.

I'm also entering this at Color Dare:

I used Real Red and Azure Afternoon for the colors, plus the gold.  I'll have to make more 4th of July cards next year, they're fun.

Okay, I've got about 30 minutes left before I have to go back to Ryan's camp for their parent showcase day (it's a robotics camp this week).  Better make the most of it...and finish my cuppa tea!  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Be the Star, Painted Stripes, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Versamark, Real Red, Azure Afternoon
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Basic White, gold foil
Accessories:  Stars Framelits, white EP, Dimensionals, Low Profile Dots

Guten Tag!

Guten Morgen, y'all!  Guess what the theme is for today's card?

Mixing a bit of old and new for today's card, Chase Your Dreams (the castle and greeting) has been retired for years and I just got Painted Stripes last week as part of my latest SU! order.  I love the Paper Players challenge for this week:

I could very easily make different travel cards every day for a week (okay probably more like a month or more) and now I'm wondering why I *didn't* do that this week, it would have been fun.  I did make another card for this challenge, so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, here is this week's CASE-ing Tuesday Sketch:

And last up, here's the Inspire. Create. color challenge:

I wasn't intentionally following the challenge graphic, but I ended up using Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, and Merry Merlot for three shades of the same color.  I didn't worry about keeping my watercoloring neat because the style of the line art is a bit loosey-goosey.  Neuschwanstein was the first castle I ever visited outside of a Disney theme park and I have since been there several times.  I'll be sending this card to my friend Krissy, whom I met while we were both living in Germany : )  I miss living in Europe and getting to travel to all these cool places, but at least I can make travel-related cards and scrapbook pages.  And we will travel in the US too, I am particularly keen to visit the redwood forest and take Ryan to the Grand Canyon.

Ryan has a cartooning class after school today which means I get an extra hour and a half of kid-free crafting time today, woohoo!  Not that I can't craft when he's home, but it's easier to concentrate when he's at school.  So I'm going to finish my cuppa, take Daph for a walk, and then go finish the scrapbook layout I started yesterday.  Cheers!  Or should I say, auf wiedersehen!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Chase Your Dreams, Painted Stripes
Ink:  Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, Merry Merlot. Versamark
Paper:  Petal Pink, Merry Merlot, Thick Basic White, Calypso Coral DSP
Accessories:  Thoughtful Expressions dies, Stylish Shapes dies, clear EP, Faceted Gems