Mystery of the Glowing Eye

Mornin' y'all and welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today's adventure is Mystery of the Glowing Eye, and buckle up because it's going to get WEIRD in here:

This cover reminds me somewhat of Crooked Banister, and actually the book does too but we'll get into that.  Crooked Banister's cover is all about hot pink and we do have some hot pink here too with Nancy's shirt, but more red around the creepy eye.  I can't think of another book cover that has words on it like the "warning" and "cyclops" here either, but Nancy's hair is on point.

Case file:  Ned Nickerson's science lab partner at Emerson College goes mad scientist and kidnaps Ned, then sends a remote-piloted helicopter to Nancy's house (so he can fly it like a drone, but it's a full-size helicopter).  Mad scientist also has a spotlight that can temporarily paralyze people?  And rigged up a wall in a museum that can make you stick to it like a magnet?  Crazy stuff.  Nancy and the rest of the Drew Crew try to investigate Ned's kidnapping, but Nancy is distracted by the new lady lawyer in dad Carson's office who has her sights set on Nancy's amateur detective gig AND Carson's affections.  Oh no!

So the villain of the story is obsessed with cyclops from Greek mythology, and he's got that helicopter, but my stamp collection was curiously devoid of cyclops or helicopters.  Actually I was even looking for eyeballs and came up empty, which was surprising to me given my extensive collection of Halloween stamps.  Luckily Whimsy Stamps said "Eye got you, girl" so here's my first card:

Yep, I have eyeball stamps nooowwwww : )  I did just a single eyeball for this card because cyclops, and I colored it in green because Nancy is jealous of the new lady lawyer.  Actually I just recently acquired the Rays of Light background stamp and I just HAD to use it for this book cover.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Jeepers Creepers from Whimsy Stamps, Rays of Light
Ink:  Real Red, Basic Gray, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate & Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Real Red, Poppy Parade, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Stitched Nested Labels dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

More eyeballs for my second card:

The eyes have it!  Yeah this stamp set will be making another appearance when we get closer to Halloween, it's so much fun.  I did the same Rays of Light background stamp on this one but discovered I liked it in Real Red ink on Poppy Parade cardstock to match the book cover a little better.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Jeepers Creepers from Whimsy Stamps, Rays of Light
Ink:  Real Red, Basic Gray, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Granny Apple Green, Pecan Pie, Balmy Blue
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Basic Gray, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella, Basic Gray Pearls

And this time I have one more card because I just couldn't stop:

Again with the Rays of Light background, but this time I decided to go with It's a Science for the atomic panel, which is Mango Melody to match Nancy's hair.  Plus I wanted to do a science-y card since this whole mystery started when Ned invented something to do with lasers in science class and his lab partner decided to abduct him and hold him hostage in a swamp.

Supplies:
Stamps:  It's a Science, Rays of Light
Ink:  Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Gray
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Mango Melody, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals, Milky Dots

Like I said, this book is just plain weird, and we don't even have the charm of Robby the Robot from Crooked Banister to make me laugh this time, so I give it two stars.  It's the paralyzing spotlight and the weird glowing eye at the museum that make this feel like a bad 70s sci-fi nightmare instead of a Nancy Drew mystery, but I still had a good time making cards for it precisely because it IS so bizarre.  And now I have eyeball stamps, which is a plus.  If this strange adventure inspires you, please leave me a comment!  And check back next week when Nancy is on the trail of The Secret of the Forgotten City.

T-Rexcellent Colors for The Paper Players

Good morning, stampy friends!  Sunday means a new challenge from The Paper Players!  I hope y'all enjoyed Jaydee's feminine card challenge last week; today, Claire has a great color palette for us!

I had a bit of a think about these colors and then I decided that the obvious choice was a dinosaur.  A T. Rex to be specific:

I haven't made a dino card for my dino-loving pal Krissy in a while, so this was a great time to make one!  I stamped the T. Rex from Whimsy Stamps and colored him in with Stampin' Blends; I still have the 3-pack of Coastal Cabana Blendabilities from way back and WHEN is SU! going to make Blends in Gorgeous Grape and Coastal Cabana?!  Anyway, I wanted Rexy here to look like he was peeking out of a window, and my old reliable Rectangles Stitched dies made that easy.  Those enamel dots are some of the first embellishments in that style that SU! ever produced and I bought like five packs so I still have a bunch.  They have all three of the challenge colors!

I actually stamped and colored two Rexies because I wasn't sure I liked the eyes on the first one, but I decided he needed his own card anyway, so here he is:

I didn't have enough of that Gorgeous Grape polka dot pattern to exactly remake the first card, so I just played around with some DSP scraps for a different layout.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Roarsome Rex from Whimsy Stamps
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana, Stampin' Blends in Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Coastal Cabana, Thick Basic White, Gorgeous Grape & Coastal Cabana DSP
Accessories:  Roarsome Rex dies from Whimsy Stamps, Stylish Shapes dies, Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals, Glitter Enamel Dots

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!

Here's Daphne trying to "help"...or she wants to chew up my craft supplies, one or the other.  Naughty girl!

Paper Players: Mythical Creatures!

Gooooooood morning y'all!  I'm SO EXCITED because today is my very first time hosting a challenge for The Paper Players!  (I did one or two last year that I took over from Elizabeth, but this is the first one that was MY idea.)  So without further ado, here it is:

So as you can see in the challenge graphic, I'm thinking fairies, gnomes, dragons, unicorns, mermaids, leprechauns, et cetera!  Anything you would associate with mythological stories, fairy tales, folktales, anything like that.  When I was in first grade, my favorite book was about a tiny pegasus who herded butterflies as her job.  In middle school, I fell in love with a book about a princess who is tired of trying to live up to the very boring expectations of her parents so she runs away to live with dragons.  So obviously this topic is pretty near and dear to my nerdy little heart : )  I still love both of those books and I still have copies in my personal library.

Back to the challenge!  Here's what I made:

I am still working on the hubs' laptop; we ordered a new Mac but it won't get here for a couple of WEEKS so I am still without my watermark or photo editing software but at least I can still post.  Anyway, I had to choose a dragon for this challenge as dragons are probably my favorite (don't tell the unicorns and fairies and mermaids because I love them too).  And I have several different dragons in my stampy stash, but I dearly love the grumpy dragons from Whimsy Stamps, just look at his wee face!  I chose two different paper packs for my patterns and had fun coloring my grumpy friend here, I have no rhyme or reason to why I ended up with this color combination (Summer Splash, Lemon Lime Twist/Granny Apple Green, Pumpkin Pie) but I think it works.

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!

I really hope you like this challenge, I had so much fun with it and I am really looking forward to seeing the gallery this week.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Grumpy Dragon from Whimsy Stamps
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Summer Splash, Lemon Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Summer Splash, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Refreshed Beauty DSP, Friends of the Ocean DSP
Accessories:  Grumpy Dragon dies from Whimsy Stamps, Stitched Nested Labels dies, Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls

GRRReat Day

Mornin' y'all!  I was reading a cozy mystery book last week and it had some recipes in the back (that's a thing with some cozy mysteries) so last night I prepped a strawberry and cream cheese French toast casserole.  Now I'm just waiting for my boys to get out of bed so I can put it in the oven : )  Hope we like it!

I got a chortle out of today's card so here it is:

I'm always making dinosaur cards for my dino-loving pal Krissy and I think she'll like this one.  I was inspired to use this chomping T-Rex by this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Rexie is kinda large and I don't like making square cards, so I turned the sketch into a standard A2 card.  I was experimenting with a bunch of different Garden Green DSP scraps and when I found that bold stripe I just HAD to have Rexie chomp the corner of it!  I used this week's Color Throwdown too:

I used Garden Green, Island Indigo, and Pumpkin Pie.  I kept the Island Indigo card base plain since the green stripes are bold and I wanted the focus to be on chompy Rexie there.  I think Krissy will like it : )

That's it for now, peeps.  Have a GRRReat day!

Supplies:
Stamps: Roarsome Rex from Whimsy Stamps
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Pumpkin Pie & Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Island Indigo, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Garden Green DSP
Accessories:  Roarsome Rex Outline Dies, Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls

Where I Want To Be

Mornin' y'all!  We pretty much had another blizzard (not the Dairy Queen kind) move through here last night, I kept waking up all night because the wind was so loud all around the house.  Last week the last of the snow had finally melted for one brief, shining moment (to borrow a line from Camelot) and now we're back to the backyard being mostly covered again.  Seems like the snow is done falling, but the wind is still kicking up.  I haven't looked in the front to see what the street looks like yet.  I'm just glad that I don't have to go anywhere today : )

Which leads me perfectly to today's card:

AAAAHHHHH I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS DRAGON!  Yep, we're going non-SU! for today's card, this dragon is from the set Grumpy Dragons by Whimsy Stamps and I am so tickled to have them in my collection, for I, too, am a grumpy dragon.  The greeting stamp is by The Ink Road and I love that too.  This card will be going to my pal Krissy who is just as introverted as I am.  I also got some T. Rex stamps in this same style so I need to make her more dino cards.

The Paper Players challenge this week gave me the perfect excuse to ink up this dragon for the first time:

And I used the colors from Color Hues:

I used Lemon Lolly and Lemon Lime Twist for the main colors, with some Granny Apple Green for the dragon's spines.  I found the black stripey paper in my stash and only had to trim about a quarter inch off the length to fit on my card.  I had so much fun making this.

Ooh, cinnamon rolls are ready to come out of the oven.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Grumpy Dragons by Whimsy Stamps, Roadies 52 by The Ink Road
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Lemon Lolly, Lemon Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Lemon Lolly, Lemon Lime Twist, Thick Basic White, Basic Black DSP
Accessories:  Grumpy Dragons Outline dies, Dimensionals

Lucky Horseshoe

Mornin' y'all!  I'm still a bit under the weather and my voice is so croaky that the hubs and the kid both say they can't understand when I try to talk, but I'm feeling better enough that I did a barre workout this morning and so far don't feel the need to take a 3-5 hour nap, so I'll take it.  I'm planning to take Daph out for our daily tour of the neighborhood and then go up to my craft room : )

I did take a bit of time in there yesterday and made this which is why we're not doing Scrappy Monday today because I wanna get back into the card-making groove and here it is:

I used a non-SU! stamp, GASP!  I do buy some non-SU! stuff periodically, and I recently found Whimsy Stamps and bought a few things (they have GRUMPY DRAGONS, how could I not?).  Most of the time, Stampin' Up! doesn't do much St. Paddy's Day stuff and I really liked this stamp set with the horseshoe shapes.  Anyway, here's the Festive Friday challenge:

I used green, gold, metallic thread, and cloverleaf.  I'm also entering this at Color Hues:

I used Garden Green for my green shade, plus a bit of gold for accents because any St. Paddy's Day card needs gold.  I like those gold swirl accents because they remind me of gold coins.

So yep, my plans for today while Ryan is in school include doing laundry, walking Daph, and spending time in my craft room.  And I should probably vacuum up all the Daphne hair in the living room, it's starting to take over everything.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Lucky Horseshoe from Whimsy Stamps
Ink:  Garden Green
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Garden Green DSP scraps
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, gold cord, Gold Swirl accents