The Berry Best Sketch for The Paper Players

Hey hey hey, how's your weekend going?  Sunday means it's time for a new challenge from The Paper Players!  This week, the fabulous Joanne has an equally fabulous sketch for us:

My first thought was this is perfect to showcase some pretty patterned paper, and that's exactly what I did:

I had berries on the brain thanks to the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I had recently used the Berry Delightful DSP for another card, and since I bought a spare pack of it I was able to convince my dragon brain that it would be better to USE the paper than just stare at it in my hoard (the first pack, at least, that second pack is still sealed in plastic).  I stamped a blackberry, leaves, and the greeting with Berry Blessings, which is five years old.  Retro in stamp years.

As it happened, I had pulled out the DSP and picked out what I wanted to play with before I got out the stamps, and I found some leftover stamped images from when I made this scrapbook layout so I made two more cards for a triple berry card pie:

I did have to argue with myself a bit about the card on the right, it was hard to cut into that sheet of paper with the blue plaid pattern...it's so pretty I want to hoard it!  These two cards came together super quickly since I already knew the measurements I had used for the first card.  All the berry and leaf images were already stamped and sitting in the stamp case, so these two cards count for the Inkspiratinoal challenge:

Check out the other design team creations on the Paper Players blog, and you can hop through their individual blogs to leave some comments too:

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

you are here --> Christy Stanford

And then upload your card at the Paper Players blog!  Keep in mind a few simple rules:
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL
4.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU! (all 3 cards together)
Stamps:  Berry Blessings, Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Granny Apple Green, Garden Green, Poppy Parade, Shaded Spruce, Blueberry Bushel
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Poppy Parade, Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Berry Delightful DSP
Accessories:  Chalk Talk Framelits, Dimensionals, Artistry Blooms Sequins, Dear Dots

Pink Strawberry

Mornin' y'all!  How's your week going?  Today I have yet another card that I made in my marathon session last Friday, take a look:

I was all set to make a cupcake card for the TGIF inspiration challenge:

And then I came across that Berry Delightful DSP in my stash and I just *had* to use it instead.  I liked how the watercolor style of the patterned paper coordinates with the artwork style on the inspo pic and I had never cut into that strawberry pattern before, so I had to use it.  One stamped pink strawberry and a greeting and I have a berry cute card!  I really do like this DSP pack, it's got some really pretty berry-based patterns in it.

Anyway, that's it for me today.  Have a berry good day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Berry Blessings, Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo, Granny Apple Green, Garden Green
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Garden Green, Thick Basic White, Berry Delightful DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Circles Collection Framelits, Strawberry Builder Punch, Dimensionals, Rainbow Dots

Strawberry Greeting

Mornin' y'all!  Hope your week is starting off well.  After I get Ryan off to school, I'm going to finish off the leftover waffles and strawberries from yesterday's breakfast : )  And it so happens that I'm starting off my blog week with a strawberry too!

Something about the CAS Colours & Sketches palette made me think of strawberries right off:

Also I think Shy Shamrock and Summer Splash are twins, they look a lot alike but one leans a bit green and the other leans a bit blue.  My card base and the greenery around the strawberry are Shy Shamrock, and the DSP and the greeting are Summer Splash, and they don't look all that different to me.  Hmm.

Anyway, I need to get Ryan out the door and off to school so I can go run some errands, eat brekkie, switch out laundry, take Daph-Daph for a walk, and hopefully get some things done in my craft room.  Yeah, I've got plans today.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Shy Shamrock, Summer Splash
Paper:  Shy Shamrock, Thick Basic White, Summer Splash DSP
Accessories:  Strawberry builder punch, Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals

Password to Larkspur Lane

Happy Saturday and welcome to the TENTH Nancy Drew challenge!  Today's book is Password to Larkspur Lane:

There's the OT on the left and RT on the right, and again a slight change in titles.  Also, we're back to the trend of the OT covers being to be brighter than the RT versions, but I like them both for this book.  

Case file:  A wounded carrier pigeon falls in Nancy's yard with a weird message, and a doctor friend of the Drews is abducted to care for a woman at a huge estate and afterwards told to forget the whole incident.  Nancy uncovers a criminal group who trick rich old ladies into moving to their fake sanatorium and then they coerce the women into signing all their money over to them.  Nancy busts the criminals and frees all the little old ladies.  Hooray!

So here's my card for the OT version, The Password to Larkspur Lane:

I wanted to work in the pink of Nancy's top on this card, and I kept the main color Balmy Blue to go with the larkspur, sky, and the old lady's cardigan.

I'm not sure if Nancy's wearing a shirt and skirt combo or if it's a color block dress situation, but I want it.  She looks so cute but for this cover that hair had to come out of a dye bottle.  You may have noticed that the color of Nancy's hair is inconsistent to say the least, not just on the book covers but in how it's described in the text--sometimes she's blonde, sometimes she's "titian" or strawberry blonde, and sometimes she's a redhead.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Soft Spring, Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Night of Navy, Balmy Blue, Garden Green
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Balmy Blue & Pretty in Pink DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Matte Decorative Dots

Next up is the darker, moodier RT Password to Larkspur Lane:

Case file:  The RT version still has the elder abuse story line from the OT version, and adds a subplot where Helen Corning's grandparents keep seeing a ring of blue fire outside their lake house and it's creeping them out.  Nancy finds out that the Cornings' houseman (I wonder how that's different from a butler) had been affiliated with criminals in the past but had gotten out of the criminal life.  His old gang is trying to coerce him into stealing from the Cornings, and coincidentally it's the same group running the fake sanatorium.  Two very different versions of theft going on.

So here is my card for the RT version, Password to Larkspur Lane:

I made this card before I got the OT version of the book and I had to use Wisteria Wishes for my larkspur this time.  I used some Darling Duckling DSP to match Nancy's yellow dress on the cover.

I like her pink-and-navy outfit on the OT better, but this dress is pretty too and I'd love to have Nancy's wardrobe even though I almost never wear anything but T-shirts, jeans, and workout clothes.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wisteria Wishes
Ink:  Orchid Oasis, Starry Sky, Garden Green
Paper:  Orchid Oasis, Thick Basic White, Orchid Oasis & Darling Duckling DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, In Color Pearls

If you'd like to participate in the challenge, leave a comment below with a link to your creation, I'd love to see!  Next week I'll be looking into The Clue of the Broken Locket.  

Also, if you'd like a more in-depth discussion of the books, I did what I threatened I would and started another blog.  Visit Hey, Nancy Drew here.  New posts on Tuesday (Drews-day).  Cheers!

Strawberries for You

Hey y'all, happy Friday!  We had some drama last night--Ryan bonked a loose tooth with his toothbrush at bedtime last night, and after a lot of tears he managed to pull the tooth himself.  And I think he totally forgot to check this morning if the Tooth Fairy came to visit or not!

Anywha, I've been having fun getting settled in my new craft room and today I played with a retired stamp set.

I had strawberries on the brain from the Color Throwdown inspo pic this week, but I decided to use the Hand Stamped Sentiments inspo pic for my colors:

I love having Basic Beige as a color, I think it fills the hole left when Sahara Sand retired and I like that it's softer than Crumb Cake.  I also used Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Lemon Lime Twist, and Granny Apple Green to mimic the colors in the inspo pic.  And I had to have another go at the Freshly Made Sketch:

That's it for me right now, peeps.  Ryan is off school today as they're doing assessments for all the elementary schoolers; his appointment is in an hour and a half so he could have totally slept in this morning, but nope, he was up at 6:30.  We're going to run some errands after his appointment and tonight we get to have dinner with some friends.  Hooray!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Lemon Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Basic Beige, Thick Basic White, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Strawberry builder punch, In Color Shimmer Gem, Mini Dimensionals

Guest Designer: CC&S Sketch

 Hey hey, it's my second post of the day!  It's time for a new sketch from CAS Colours & Sketches:

Fun, right?  I like it!  My problem this week was narrowing down what I wanted to make with this sketch, so many options!  In the end, here's what I came up with:

I recently acquired the Stitched with Whimsy dies and thought they'd be a good stand-in for the bottom layer on the sketch, a sort of faux layer if you will.  Then I added a strawberry and a sweet sentiment and done!

Upload your card at the CAS Colours & Sketches blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Strawberry, Sweets & Treats
Ink:  Polished Pink, Cherry Cobbler, Granny Apple Green, Garden Green
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Stitched with Whimsy dies, Tasteful Labels dies, Strawberry Builder Punch, Dimensionals

You Sweet Thing

Hey y'all, happy Thursday.  I have a very quick card to share today:

As soon as I saw the sketch from Sunday Stamps, I knew it would be perfect for showcasing some patterned paper and I have SO MANY beautiful patterns :) But the hubs' birthday is coming up on Valentine's Day, so I chose a pattern from the Sweet Talk DSP.  Yeah, it's pink on a guy's birthday card, but I think the Coastal Cabana card base makes it a bit less girly.  Plus I just liked the lollipop pattern with the "sweet" sentiment.  Here's the sketch:

As a bonus, here's the Festive Friday challenge:

For my Valentine birthday card, I used red, pink, sparkle (check out the glitter dots under the sentiment), hearts, and stitching (the stitched dies).

Hope you have a great day, kids!  Oh, we got a new girl at work this week who happens to share the hubs' Valentine birthday, and she's NINETEEN years younger than me.  I think I'm the work mom...

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Sweet Talk DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, white EP, Glitter Enamel Dots, Dimensionals

Sweet Thang

Mornin' folks.  Hope you're feeling better than I am--I was feeling a little under the weather last weekend and by Tuesday afternoon I didn't want to do anything but sleep.  Which is what I did yesterday.  Hope I start feeling better today!

I did make another card on Monday that I can share today at least : )

I was inspired by the Just Add Ink challenge:

I loved the colors in the picture, which I interpreted as Old Olive, Magenta Madness, and Pacific Point.  At first I was going to stamp the flowers from Art Gallery, but the Sweet Strawberry set caught my eye and I thought hey, why NOT have magenta strawberries?  To get the color values on the fill-in stamps vs. the outline stamps, I used sponges to apply ink on the fill-in ones, and for the outlines I just tapped them on my ink pads normal-normal.  That gave me light and dark values of the color with just one ink pad.  Nifty!

I also used the Global Design Project sketch:

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Magenta Madness, Old Olive, Pacific Point, Versamark
Paper:  Old Olive, Pacific Point, Thick Basic White, Berry Delightful DSP
Accessories:  Strawberry punch, Tasteful Labels dies, white EP, Dimensionals, In Color Enamel Dots

Butterfly Calypso

Thank goodness for a couple challenges that stay open longer than a week!  I had my eye on a sketch challenge and a color challenge last week and I thought I wouldn't get to play along, but I stole some time in my craft room on Sunday.  Good thing, too, because I've worked every day this week...but I have tomorrow off, so long as no more eleventh hour presidential orders come out :p  Anyway, today I have butterflies.

This is actually my second attempt at this card; the first one just wasn't doing it for me and I had to give it a second go because I liked the challenges so much.  I moved around what colors went where and I like this version better.  Here's the original:

I thought the white card base would make the card feel light and airy, and it just didn't work as well for me.  I also changed up what stamp I used on the Just Jade strip.

Check out the Hand-Stamped Sentiments color challenge:

I love me some Just Jade so I'm glad I got to play along with this challenge.  I paired it with the Try Stamping on Tuesday sketch:

I love the Butterfly Brilliance bundle, but since the stamp set is one big stamp with six butterflies, I now have quite a pile of extras sitting on my bookshelf.  They'll get used eventually I suppose.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Butterfly Brilliance, Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Bumblebee, Calypso Coral, Just Jade
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Just Jade, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Brilliant Wings dies, Ornate Frames dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Berry Greeting

Hey y'all, how's it going today?  I have today off work and I was planning on getting my hair cut and working in my craft room, but Ryan has an upset tummy and threw up his breakfast so looks like I'll be doing lots of couch time with him today.  Hopefully I can get him to watch something other than PJ Masks :p  I do have a card to share today though!

Sometimes if I fold a card and it's not really laying flat enough, I sit on it for a minute or two to make it flatten out--anyone else do that?  I forgot I had this one under my leg and accidentally got a little crease mark on it, but I figure cards usually get a wee bit distressed in the mail anyway.  This is the first time I've pulled out Polished Pink, and I must say I like it a lot more than I thought I would.  My first thought was "Another pink?  We don't NEED another pink!" but dang if it doesn't look just perfect with these strawberries!  I pulled out some retired Tropical Escape DSP that has pink on it--that pink is Blushing Bride, but I figured the stripes were skinny enough that it worked with everything else I had going on with this card :)  And I'm still in the "use up DSP stacks" mode.

Check out the quick and easy Freshly Made Sketch:

And the Color Throwdown:

At first I was going to make a card with Timeless Tropical, but given the inspiration picture I could not resist Sweet Strawberry.  I used Real Red, Polished Pink, Granny Apple Green (and some Shaded Spruce), and Early Espresso (only for the sentiment).

This card also counts for the Just Add Ink challenge:

I admit I made my card before I saw this challenge, but the Granny Apple Green totally makes it count for this!

Happy Friday, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Real Red, Polished Pink, Granny Apple Green, Shaded Spruce, Early Espresso
Paper:  Polished Pink, Thick Basic White, Tropical Escape DSP
Accessories:  Strawberry Builder Punch, mini Dimensionals, Tailored Tag punch

SUO Challenges: Hey Sweet Thing

Good mornin' y'all!  Man, I was so tired last night that I had a dream that I was super, super tired and I had to do grocery shopping so I just laid down on the ground in front of the store to take a nap first and then my husband came to find me in my dream and he was like "It's one o'clock in the morning, what are you doing?!"  I mean, you know you're tired when you dream about being super tired, right?  Haha!

Anyway, there's a good reason to be awake, alive, alert, and enthusiastic today--a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

It's a theme today--anything to do with food or drink!  I actually had trouble narrowing down what stamps I wanted to use, even once I made the executive decision to use something I hadn't inked up yet--which meant either Sweet Ice Cream or Sweet Strawberry.  In the end, I chose...

Sweet Strawberry!  I never inked up the coordinating berry set from Sale-a-Bration either but this strawberry was calling my name.  I stamped the strawberry, leaf, and bitty flowers, and used the coordinating Strawberry Builder Punch to punch them all out.  Gotta love super fast and easy, right?  Actually I didn't originally plan to add the flowers to the top and bottom of the card, but I got a smudge of ink on the top of my patterned paper panel and I used a flower to cover it up.   : ) The large panel is from my lovely Butterfly Bijou DSP, and the thin strip is from the Flowering Cactus DSP stack.  Nothing to stop you from mixing and matching papers from different packs!  This card was inspired by a sketch from a few weeks back on Freshly Made Sketches, so it came together super fast.  Now I just need to ink up the ice cream and berry stamps...and I'm off work until Friday so this could be a pretty sweet week! ;)

Don't forget to upload your yummy card creation on the SUO Challenges blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Strawberry
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz, Mossy Meadow, So Saffron
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Thick Basic White, Butterfly Bijou DSP stack, Flowering Cactus DSP stack
Accessories:  Strawberry builder punch, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella