Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion

Mornin' stampy friends and welcome to another Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week we're taking a look at The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion, or The Mystery *of* the Moss-Covered Mansion depending on which version you have.  I have both : )

For the OT on the left, we have an action scene but it's a little ambiguous--looks almost like Nancy, Bess, and George are burying some cash but in fact they're digging up a criminal's stash of stolen funds.

We have a collage on the RT with Nancy looking a bit concerned that a panther is stalking her and also that house looks like the Addams Family lives there and I like it.  Interestingly, the RT version says AT on the spine but OF on the cover, which I never noticed until this year and I've had that book since I was 9.

Between those two covers, I have to go with the RT as my favorite.  That Addams house is just too cool.  Let's take a look inside, shall we?

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are supposed to be enjoying a vacation in the town of Ashley while Carson works on a case to find an heiress, but Nancy is intrigued by a mysterious moss-covered mansion nearby.  Nancy crosses paths with Ramo, a "gypsy-like" character who is up to no good.  The missing heiress turns up and Carson hands over the inheritance, but then she absconds with Ramo, so Nancy figures out that she's a fake and they have to find the impostor and the money as well as the real heiress.  Everything seems to revolve around the moss-covered mansion where the owner keeps a variety of wild animals, and of course in the end Nancy solves it and all the good people live happily ever after while Ramo goes to jail.

Here's my card:

This one was actually really tough for me, but in the end I had to go with one of the wild animals that Nancy encounters at the moss-covered mansion.  I was tempted to go with a fortune-teller theme (Ramo's sister is a con artist fortune teller, and I found a cute cat fortune-teller stamp set and I'm just looking for an excuse to buy it) but all those parts in the book are *highly* problematic so wild animals seemed to be less fraught for a theme.  Also there's a plane crash in the book, but I'm definitely not making any plane crash cards.  Oyy.  I gave just a very brief synopsis of this book but it's pretty bananas.

I used Darling Duckling as my primary color to go with Nancy's dress on the cover of the book, plus it makes a good leopard color.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wild Cats
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Darling Duckling, Evening Evergreen, Soft Succulent
Paper:  Darling Duckling, Thick Basic White, In the Wild DSP, Soft Succulent DSP
Accessories:  Big Cats dies, Textured Notes dies, Matte Decorative Dots, Mini Dimensionals

Next let's look at the RT, which is even MORE bananas:

Case file:  Carson Drew takes Nancy, Bess, and George down to Florida to help investigate when his friend and client Mr. Billington is accused of sending a truck of explosive oranges into the Kennedy Space Center (as if NASA is going to let a teen detective within a hundred miles of a case like that).  Once again Nancy is intrigued by a moss-covered mansion which is home to wild animals, but this time it belongs to a Bond villain wannabe who's trying to sabotage the US space program (this was written in 1971, so the Cold War was definitely the inspiration).  Like #17, this one was a gift to me for Christmas of 1989 and I adore how bananas it is.

Here's my card:

I was torn between the panther and the explosive oranges for my card inspiration, but since I did the leopard on the OT card I decided to go with the oranges on this one.  I fussy-cut one pretty orange from the Mediterranean Blooms DSP and then somehow stamped my greeting just a leetle bit crooked.  When I was growing up, my great-grandmother used to tell us to drink orange juice at breakfast to put sunshine in our day, so I had to go with a sunshine sentiment on here.

I did keep the main colors of the book cover on my card and now I kinda want to go make a haunted house card.  That mansion on the cover is a whole VIBE.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Celebrate with Flowers
Ink:  Early Espresso
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Pecan Pie, Lemon Lolly, Mediterranean Blooms DSP, Floral Impressions DSP
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Mini Dimensionals, Transparent Dots

Like the previous book, I enjoy the off-the-rails shenanigans (in the RT especially) so I give this five stars just for being bananas.  If you would like to play along, please drop a comment on this post with a link to your card as I would love to see!  You can read a much more in-depth analysis of Nancy Drew books on my other blog, Hey Nancy Drew.  It's a few books behind where I'm at here, so next week on this blog, we will undertake The Quest of the Missing Map!

It's a Jungle Out There

When I was in high school, our marching band director would sometimes take us on a run through the jungle.  Not an actual jungle, mind you--I grew up in Texas ;) but he would have everyone jog in place and do an entire monologue about running through the jungle, and we had to jump over streams and run around trees and duck to get away from snakes and dodge around animals and whatever else he could think of.  It was a fun and silly way to warm up before marching band rehearsal.  And today, I've brought the jungle into my craft room.

I could not let the Festive Friday challenge go by without playing along!

One of my favorite people ever absolutely loved tigers so I think of her any time I see anything related to tigers.  My current Facebook profile pic is a tiger, too, and it's the Year of the Tiger.  So anyway, I decided to go all out with the stripes for World Tiger Day, and from the inspo list I used a frame, two tigers, lots of stripes, orange (Cajun Craze is dark orange, right?), fur, and jungle (check out the jungle leaves).  The only stamping on here is the greeting (and I finally inked up my Evening Evergreen ink pad!); all the rest, including the tigers, is different patterns from the In the Wild DSP pack.  I had cut the oval shape out when I was working on a previous card so I just used that scrap and built the rest of the card around it.

Hope you have a great day today, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wild Cats
Ink:  Evening Evergreen
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Evening Evergreen, Thick Basic White, In the Wild DSP
Accessories:  Big Cats dies, Layering Ovals dies, Apothecary Accents dies, Stitched Nested Labels dies, Dimensionals, rusty metal accents

Tiger Birthday

Hey y'all!  I had Ryan home all day Monday since he had a fever in the morning, and he "helped" me in my craft room.  I do NOT have the patience to do that very often because he has to touch All The Things, but we did get two cards made before his attention span ran out.  So here's one of those!

This is for the Inspire. Create. inspiration challenge:

I jotted down the general sketch and then went up to my craft room with Ryan.  I figured I'd start with some patterned paper, maybe a nice soft floral, but when I showed Ryan the pages in the catalog with the patterned paper he immediately said TIGERS and that's all there was to it.  So we made a tiger birthday card, and I have to admit that I am glad of the chance to use more pieces of these papers as my paper hoard is extremely large ;)  I stamped the greeting (note to self:  I need to ink up my Evening Evergreen ink pad) and lined up the dies; Ryan cranked the dies through the machine and put adhesive on all the pieces, and we worked together to stick everything down.  At the end I added a few Evening Evergreen rhinestones because why not.

This also fits for the SUO Challenges theme to use a favorite bundle!

I enjoy Wild Cats and the rest of the suite associated with that stamp set.  I'd say I'm sad it's retiring, but even if it is retiring that doesn't mean it's leaving my collection.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wild Cats
Ink:  Evening Evergreen
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Evening Evergreen, Thick Basic White, In the Wild DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, In Color Rhinestones

SUO Challenges: Get Inspired

Hey there friends!  It's time for another challenge from the SUO Challenges crew!

This time around, we've got an inspiration pic for you, check it out:

There's a LOT to be inspired by in that picture!  My little brain kept noticing the animal print pillows and the pink walls, which reminded me of a particular piece of patterned paper in the Pattern Party DSP pack, and here's what I made:

If the layout of my card looks familiar, it's because I based it on the current Paper Players sketch : )  But I used a totally different set of papers, stamps, and dies for this one.  Okay, two of the die sets are the same (the stitched rectangles and Hippo Friends dies).  Elle Woods of Legally Blonde would like to remind you that pink is absolutely a fierce color!

So what inspires you from the picture?  Upload your creation to the SUO Challenges blog!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wild Cats
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Granny Apple Green, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Paper:  Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo, Thick Basic White, Pattern Party DSP
Accessories:  Big Cats dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Hippo Friends dies, Rectangles Stitched dies, White EP, Dimensionals

Tiger Blues

Mornin', kids.  Man, I am dragging today...I did NOT get enough sleep last night.  Pretty sure this is what I looked like when I discovered it was time to get up and face the day:

This is my new Facebook profile picture, courtesy of the Denver Zoo : )  Yuri the tiger is my new Patronus.  By sheer coincidence, my card today also features a tiger:

And he's blue.  Once again I could *not* get a really good picture of this; either it's full sun (harsh shadows) or so cloudy that *everything* looks blue.  So just trust me when I say it looks better IRL.  I was looking through my stamp sets to find something to go with a color challenge (more on that in a minute) and I thought why not have a blue tiger?  It's my craft room, I can stamp what I want : )

Check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I used the colors from the Color Throwdown:

I read it as Misty Moonlight, Coastal Cabana, and of course gold.  I'm not really sure what color is on that DSP background because it doesn't look quite like Misty Moonlight *or* Coastal Cabana, but I thought it was enough of a contrast with the Misty Moonlight tiger to count for the color challenge.  At first I tried stamping his stripes and embossing them gold but that didn't work out too well.

Gotta get ready for work.  This is going to be fun, considering I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep...

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wild Cats
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Night of Navy, Versamark
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, gold foil
Accessories:  Big Cats dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Tasteful Labels dies, gold EP, Dimensionals

Bicycle Race

Hey kids!  How is your day going?  I have a CAS card to share today with a cute bicycle.

Somehow I managed to combine three challenges into one CAS card ;)  First up is the color challenge from CAS Colours & Sketches:

And the sketch from Just Add Ink:

Finally, I chose a bicycle for the main image for the Retro Rubber challenge:

It amuses me that the inspo pic is a tractor for a mode of transportation.  The area where we live is rural enough that we occasionally get stuck behind slow-moving tractors when we're driving around.  We have a lot of bike riders too.  My bike stamps (that main image is actually four different stamps:  bike, flag, basket, and bird) are from 2016 and this is only the second time I've used the set, so it was nice to dust it off for these challenges.

Hope you're having a great day, and enjoy the ride! :)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pedal Pusher, Wild Cats
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Pool Party, and Smoky Slate
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Ornate Frames dies, Pool Party baker's twine, Mini Dimensionals

Snow Leopard

You know, I like to tease my husband about the Man Rainbow.  It seems like almost every article of clothing he owns is gray, black, navy blue, or khaki.  Add in some army green on special occasions and that is the extent of the Man Rainbow.  My card for today fits squarely in the Man Rainbow, as it's all shades of Gray Granite!

I was inspired to make a snow leopard thanks to Helen Read in the UK!  For mine, I inked up the solid stamp by using a sponge, which gave it some nice texture and let it be lighter than the spots and face detail, which I inked up like normal.

I'm entering this over at the Paper Players:

I have a couple of layers, but it still has a clean and simple vibe.  Have a great day, kids!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wild Cats
Ink:  Gray Granite
Paper:  Gray Granite, Thick Basic White, Gray Granite DSP
Accessories:  Big Cats dies, Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals

Amazing Tiger

Hey, y'all!  I had some trouble focusing yesterday morning in my craft room, but I finally found my groove and ended up making a whole bunch of cards.  I'm particularly proud of the one I'm sharing today.

One of my favoritest people in the entire world was my friend Neelu, and she loved tigers.  She died of cancer a few years ago and every time I see anything tiger-related I think of her.  So of course that's why I bought the Wild Cats stamp set and dies.  This card ended up being pretty busy, but I think I like it!  The two patterns of DSP are actually both sides of one sheet, how's that for thrifty?

I started out with the Sunday Stamps color challenge:

Hopefully the colors of the In the Wild DSP are a close enough match--I used Soft Succulent, Cajun Craze, Merry Merlot (in the jungly DSP), and Evening Evergreen, only leaving out the purple.

I paired that with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I thought I'd enter this at As You See It since I love tigers because I associate them with Neelu:

Apparently I have LOTS of favorite animals ;)

Have a great day, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wild Cats, Ornate Thanks
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Evening Evergreen, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Soft Succulent, Thick Basic White, In the Wild DSP
Accessories:  Big Cats dies, Layering Ovals dies, Potted Succulents dies, Dimensionals

Fierce Dragon

Hey y'all!  I worked a shorter day yesterday and I had just enough time to eke out a quick card before I went to pick Ryan up.  Here is today's card:

My parade of retired schtuff continues ;)  I'm entering this in a couple of challenges; first up is As You See It:

The first animal that popped in my head when I saw this challenge was a dragon, so that's what I went with.  Dragons are my favorite mythological animal...dogs are my favorite pets...my favorite shirt has a llama on it...foxes are my favorite forest dwellers.  So it's hard to pick just one favorite animal!  And of course I could pick out favorite animals for a lot of my friends and family too, but I only have so much time to make cards.

I used the sketch from Fusion:

And paired it with the colors from the Paper Players:

I had never colored the dragon red before, which seemed like an egregious oversight on my part, and I thought a red-and-yellow dragon would be nice.  I admit that I was stumped for a bit on how to incorporate the Old Olive but I got there in the end (the scales on his tummy shade to Old Olive, and his spines are Old Olive as well...the flash kind of washed that bit out when I took the picture).  And how awesome is that FIERCE sentiment with the dragon image?!  Thank you Wild Cats stamp set!

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Go forth and conquer!

Supplies, all SU! (many retired)
Stamps:  Magical Day, Wild Cats
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Real Red, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Shimmery White, See a Silhouette DSP, Ice Cream Corner DSP
Accessories:  Magical Mates dies, Starburst dies, Tags & Labels Collection dies, Dimensionals