The Thirteenth Pearl

Happy 4th of July, y'all, and welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  We get fireworks for the final hardback Nancy Drew, #56 The Thirteenth Pearl.

The one on the left is my childhood copy, and the one on the right is another matte edition that I picked up at that middle-of-nowhere used book store in Wyoming; the colors are just a bit more saturated on it but for now at least I plan to keep them both.  We get a fun BLUE book cover this time and you can tell we're traveling based on the building depicted on this cover.  I do like how Nancy is in profile and she's the only spot of color on this otherwise blue and gray cover.

Case file:  Japanese jeweler Mr. Moto asks Nancy to locate a missing pearl necklace that belongs to a wealthy socialite (we hear about her a lot but she never actually appears in the book), and shortly after that Mr. Moto also disappears.  Nancy and Carson follow rather insubstantial clues to Tokyo and start tracking an international gang of jewel thieves; upon returning to River Heights the book takes a very strange left turn when Nancy and Ned spy on a cult of pearl worshipers before getting kidnapped.  At least we got a daddy-daughter trip to Japan first, it's fun to have more Carson than usual in this one.

Here's my card:

Naturally I had to do a card featuring pearls for The Thirteenth Pearl, though I included seven pearl embellishments and a bunch of stamped ones.  Did I purchase Seaside Bay specifically to make a card for this book?  Yep.  Of course I did.

I found this Azure Afternoon (and possibly Pool Party?) wash in the Lights of Aurora DSP Stack and I like how it feels like you're underwater and the sun is shining into the water.  I kept a very simple layout and just did some Barely Blush shading on the inside of the oyster and some Wink of Stella on the pearl.  They do talk about color variations in pearls in the book, mentioning pink specifically.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Seaside Bay
Ink:  Basic Gray, Barely Blush, Barely Blush Blends
Paper:  Basic Gray, Azure Afternoon, Barely Blush, Basic Beige, Lights of Aurora DSP Stack
Accessories:  Seaside Bay dies, Layering Circles dies, Circles Collection dies, pearls, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

It's the last hardcover book, you know we're not stopping with one card.  Here's my second:

I bought Geisha Anya from The Greeting Farm many, many moons ago (I have a collection of Asian-inspired stamps since we used to live in Japan for a couple of years) and I'm fairly certain this is the first time I've used her as I still had backing paper on the stamp.  I had some fun coloring in her hair and her kimono, and this time I used some In Color Dots but they look like the flat pearls we had last year in the newer colors so they're still pearls.

I decided to use some Golden Glow for Nancy's hair this time and Flirty Flamingo and Barely Blush for pinks to go with Nancy's face.  And lots more Azure Afternoon for my blue book cover.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Geisha Anya from The Greeting Farm, Symbols of Solicitude, French Filigree
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Azure Afternoon, Stampin' Blends in Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Barely Blush, Azure Afternoon, Golden Glow
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Basic White, Moonlit Flora DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, In Color Dots

But wait, there's more!

I had pulled Power of Hope and this pagoda before I remembered that I had Geisha Anya, but I wanted to make a card with it too.  I used the leftover scrap of DSP from my first card here and once again accented with more pearls.  I found the Basic Gray DSP scrap in my stash.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Power of Hope
Ink:  Azure Afternoon, Basic Gray
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Basic Gray, Basic White, Lights of Aurora DSP Stack, Basic Gray DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, pearls

The Thirteenth Pearl trucks along fairly normally by ND standards for like the first 80%, and it reminds me of Fire Dragon where Nancy and several friends visit Hong Kong.  Nancy even dresses up in a kimono and wig to pass herself off as Japanese in this one while George impersonated a specific Chinese girl in Fire Dragon, which is still not my favorite plot point.  I did like the part of this book spent in Japan and we learn quite a bit about cultured pearls, but the ending of it just comes out of left field where suddenly there's not just jewel thieves but a pearl cult.  Say what now?  The heck is a pearl goddess??  I give it three and a half stars for the bizarre turn, it does get extra credit for going to Japan because I loved that part of the plot.

This is the last hardcover Nancy Drew, so does that mean we're done with the Nancy Drew Challenge?  Heck no!  Starting next week, we'll turn over to the Simon & Schuster paperbacks, and not only are there many many of those, there are several cover variations for a lot of them too so I have a whole lot of cards in my future.  If you're inspired to make a card based on today's book, leave me a comment!  And I'll see you here next Saturday for The Triple Hoax.

Guest Designer: AAA Cards Challenge

Good mornin' y'all!  Okay so it's really the middle of the night my time but I have fun news to share, I'm a guest designer for AAA Cards Challenge today!  Here's the challenge:

I am not afraid to say that I had to ponder these colors for a while before I figured out what to make.  I translated them to SU! colors as Cinnamon Cider, Elegant Eggplant, Cloud Cover, and Perfect Plum, three of which are retired colors, and here's what I made:

I actually came up with the idea for this one when I saw someone selling Night of Flight on a Facebook group and it occurred to me that a moth would be PERFECT with these colors!  My Elegant Eggplant ink pad is still extra juicy so while it might read as nearly black, I promise, it's purple.  I used the fill-in stamps in the set to add color to the moth's wings, and then added a bit more on the moth's body and the lightest portions of his wings.

I hope you'll play along at the challenge at AAA Cards Challenge.  Don't forget to keep it CAS and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Night of Flight, Power of Hope
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Cloud Cover, Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Thick Basic White, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, In Color Flat Pearls, Dimensionals

Getting Sketchy with SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all!  Guess what today is?  (Is anyone keeping track of what day of the week it is now???)  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

This time we're asking you to use a sketch from page 42 of the Occasions Catalog, which means you have three lovely choices!

Confession:  I peeked at what my fellow Design Team members did and picked the sketch no one else played with :D  That was the second one, so here's my card:

I resized it to a standard A2 card, and since I was CASEing the sketch I decided to CASE some other elements too:  the watercolor background and fussy-cut, popped up image with sequin accents.  Since today is the last day of Sale-a-Bration, I had to ink up Power of Hope again, and the sentiment is from Sending You Thoughts, another SAB offering that I hadn't used before this.  My unscheduled blogging break means I didn't get to play around with my SAB freebies as much as I might like, so you'll probably be seeing them here now and again for a while yet.  I did a huuuuuuuuge order a while back and haven't inked up everything yet!

Check out the three cards above and CASE the layout of one of them (or more, that would be awesome too) and post it on the SUO Challenges blog.  And since we're all social distancing right now, why not send out your creation to someone and let them know you're thinking about them?  I am going to try to send out more fun mail in the coming weeks.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Power of Hope, Sending You Thoughts
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Shaded Spruce, Pear Pizzazz, Poppy Parade
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Petal Pink, Thick Whisper White, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Basics Sequin Assortment, Tailored Tag punch, Dimensionals

New Beginnings

Hey y'all!  I was hoping I'd have a card to post yesterday, but it didn't happen...Ryan had a fever Tuesday and Wednesday, so we couldn't go anywhere and it threw off our groove.  He's feeling better so now we're potty training...oh yeah that's fun.  But TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY so we're gonna celebrate!  I'm having PIZZA for dinner tonight!!! (I haven't had pizza in almost 3 months!)

And I also have a card to share today.  When I first laid eyes on the Sale-a-Bration catalog, there was one stamp set that I just HAD to HAVE and I finally inked it up!

I lived in Japan for a couple of years, and so did my parents, so of course I spring for anything Oriental that SU! comes up with.  I'm almost finished with all my Japan scrapbook pages but I still wanted this stamp set in my collection!  I love it.

My card fits three challenges today.  First up is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Next up is the Paper Players challenge:

The Japanese lady in the kimono was the first image that came  to mind when I saw this challenge.  Kimonos are fashion, right?  My card is definitely clean, but I do have a couple layers on there so I hope it still qualifies as simple.

Last up is the pretty color combo from Color Throwdown:

I used Night of Navy, Lovely Lipstick, and Mint Macaron for my colors.  I wanted the lady to be the only pop of pink with the blue and green giving the card a serene feel.  What do you think?

Have a great day, folks!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Power of Hope
Ink:  Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, Lovely Lipstick, Basic Black, Petal Pink, Versamark
Paper:  Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Clear EP