Proud Colors for The Paper Players

Mornin' y'all and happy Sunday!  We had a small but mighty gallery for last week's Paper Players challenge from Jan, and I hope to see lots of players in this week's color challenge from Stef:

I went with Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Crumb Cake, and Real Red for my colors, which immediately made me think of the old retired favorite Fresh Prints (...of Bel Air, I can't help it) DSP stack which has the latter three colors in it so that put me three quarters of the way to the color combination.  And you know what I've had on the brain lately?

Yep, I did it, another peacock!  I went through the DSP stack first and I really liked that floral print with three of the colors in it, and the peacock from World Treasures seemed to match the style of artwork so I stamped him in Bermuda Bay to round out the challenge colors.  I did accent some of his feathers with some Coastal Cabana ink, but I kept the card very simple since the pattern is busy and the peacock's tail of course is also a lot visually.  I used a simple strip of Crumb Cake cardstock to ground the peacock and that gave me a place for a simple stamped greeting.  Almost everything I used on this card is retired, but that doesn't mean I can't still use those supplies to play with : )

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

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!
Stamps:  World Treasures, Express Yourself
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana
Paper:  Bermuda Bay, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Fresh Prints DSP Stack
Accessories:  Dimensionals

The Secret of the Wooden Lady

Happy Saturday and welcome to the latest Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we're investigating The Secret of the Wooden Lady, the twenty-seventh adventure of Nancy and her pals.

There's the original text on the left, artwork by Bill Gillies.  I'm thinking that's George in the striped dress and Bess in the yellow top, but it's hard to tell since their hair color looks the same.  Why are we making George row by herself?

The revised text on the right features cover art by Rudy Nappi, it's the same scene but darker colors so the title pops more.  Also if you go back to The Secret of the Old Clock, Nancy is wearing the same dress on this cover.  Poor George still has to row by herself.

I think the title and pretend author's name stand out better on the revised cover, which makes me like it more.  Let's take a look at the mystery.

Case file:  Captain Easterly of Boston requests Carson Drew's help in obtaining a clear title to the Bonny Scot, the clipper ship that he lives on and wants to purchase from its owner.  Carson enlists Nancy's help in researching the history of the ship, which she finds out had had its name changed when it was taken by pirates, and it supposedly still contains some kind of treasure hidden on it.  Nancy has to find the ship's missing figurehead and the treasure to outwit a jewel thief known as The Crow.

Here's my card:

I actually only made this week's cards yesterday and usually I am working ahead at least a little bit.  I knew from the jump that I was going to use On the Ocean for a pirate ship.  The Bonny Scot is absolutely a character in the book, after all, and much of the action takes place on the ship and there are hidden passages and all that fun stuff.

I thought the colors of the By the Shore DSP were a pretty good match for the cover of the book, and the stripes remind me of George's dress.  And the green matches Nancy's dress pretty well too, serendipity.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  On the Ocean
Ink:  Basic Gray, Dapper Denim, Soft Sky
Paper:  Soft Sky, Dapper Denim, Thick Very Vanilla, By the Shore DSP
Accessories:  On the Ocean dies, some kind of label punch, circle punch, pearls

On to the revised text:

My childhood copy, I love it.  There are a few elements from the longer original text that are omitted here, but the mystery itself plays out the same way.  Here's my card:

The jewel thief was a major part of this book, and the treasure aboard the Bonny Scot was a ruby so I really wanted to do jewels for this card.  I came across this lovely pattern that matches the colors on the book cover pretty well:

I don't have any DSP with rubies on it so this will have to do : )  Yes, I used the same treasured friend greeting as I used on one of my cards for The Quest of the Missing Map, but it works for both stories.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  World Treasures
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Night of Navy, Thick Basic White, Naturally Eclectic DSP
Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits, Dimensionals, Opal Rounds

It took days of pondering before I sat down to make my cards for this challenge, but I had a ball when it was finally time to create.  This book is once again quite a fun installment, the 20s have really had some great books!  Five stars.  If you're inspired to create a card, comment on this post as I would love to see!  See you next Saturday when we search for The Clue of the Black Keys.  Cheers!

The Quest of the Missing Map

Hey y'all and welcome to another Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we're on #19, The Quest of the Missing Map.

Unlike the last few books, the plot for the RT version of this book sticks fairly close to the OT version.  We have an illustrated scene from the book for the OT, and we're still doing the collage style for the RT version.  Personally I like the bold purple cover of the RT version better but they're both good.

Case file:  Nancy meets Hannah's friend Ellen Smith, who asks her to investigate prospective employer Mrs. Chatham, whose daughter Trixie says that Ship Cottage on their estate grounds (yeah they're rich) is haunted.  She's not entirely wrong; crooks are using secret passages on the estate to get around.  Also, Ellen's dad is trying to track down his long-lost twin brother because they each received half of a treasure map from their father and they have to work together to find the treasure.  Multiple bad guys are after the pieces of the map, but Nancy manages to charter an expedition to the south Atlantic and find the treasure despite being kidnapped several times.

Here's my card:

The model ships made by Mrs. Chatham's deceased first husband (who is the missing twin) are a big plot point, so I pulled The Open Sea out of my to sell sets to make this.  At first I was going to work in some Darling Duckling for Nancy's dress, but I found a striped piece of Island Indigo DSP so I used that instead.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  The Open Sea, Daring Adventure, World Map
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Paper:  Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Island Indigo DSP
Accessories:  Deco Labels Framelits, Dimensionals, Enamel Dot Essentials

And here's the RT:

Only a few minor differences this time between the two versions but I like how we get Bess and George on this cover as well as the map.  Here's my card:

I went with the palm tree from Balmy Breezes because they're searching for Little Palm Island, and I chose that greeting stamp from World Treasures to echo the treasure hunt theme and also to honor Bess and George on the cover.  And I threw on some purple glimmer gems because treasure.  Y'all know I am highly influenced by the colors on the book covers when I make these cards.

I kept the World Map background from the first card but I kept it lighter and kinda faded in places for the background.  I did a lot of sponging on both cards for this challenge.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Balmy Breezes, World Treasures, World Map
Ink:  Pecan Pie, Crumb Cake, Gorgeous Grape
Paper:  Gorgeous Grape, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Layering Ovals dies, Dimensioanls, Purple Shimmer Gems

I think this one is a solid installment, but not among my favorites, so I'm giving it three and a half stars.  If these books inspire you to make a card, please leave me a comment so I can see!  As always, you can read a much more in-depth discussion of the books over on Hey Nancy Drew.  I'll see you here next week when we uncover The Clue in the Jewel Box!

Friday Flashback: World Treasures

Happy Friday afternoon, peeps!  It's time for another Friday Flashback, and grab a cuppa tea (or coffee, if you prefer) and settle in because this one's a long one.  Let's take a look back at the very awesome stamp set (and more recent retiree) World Treasures!

Also features Fabulous Phrases

I think you're going to figure out very quickly which stamp in the set is my favorite.

Also features Four You

 For a while, it was even available as a single stamp.

Also features Vintage Verses

Because it's that awesome.

Also features Sweet Essentials

Haha, snuck one in here without the peacock on it!  But the flowers are from World Treasures too.

Also features Curly Cute

This one might be my favorite card with World Treasures, I just love that bright blue and orange together.

Also features All Holidays

The fun thing about stamps is that peacocks can be any color you want.

Also features Pursuit of Happiness

Or multi-colored.

Also features Occasions

Though I admit, perhaps I am lacking in imagination for usually sticking with the blues, greens, and purples for my peacock.  Or maybe those are just the colors I'm drawn to.

Still, the sky's the limit for peacock colors here.  And that's the flashback part of the Friday Flashback, so now it's time for a brand new creation!

I decided to be contrary and make a World Treasures card *without* the peacock.  I mean, I love that peacock, but these flowers are perfectly lovely too, and I was suddenly curious this afternoon as to how Crushed Curry embossing powder would look on Blackberry Bliss cardstock.  Answer:  awesome.  But use your Embossing Buddy, the first time I had powder all over everywhere.  The sentiment is from World Treasures too, I took a marker to the sentiment stamp in the set and only inked up "friend".  Tip:  make sure your stamp is very, very clean and DRY or you'll get a ghost image around the part you ink up.  And Halloween is over.

So the color combination for today's creation is from Fab Friday:

Another awesome fall color combo, amirite?  Might have to use that one again!  Y'all know how much I love Crushed Curry and Blackberry Bliss.  And they work great together.

The sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches:

So even though it took me a long time to settle down enough to actually make something today, once I sat down the card came together in, like, ten minutes.  Woohoo!

And that's it for today's Friday Flashback, I hope you enjoyed it.  Happy weekend, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  World Treasures
Ink:  Versamark, Cajun Craze
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Blackberry Bliss, Very Vanilla, Comfort Cafe DSP
Accessories:  Banners & Labels Framelits, Crushed Curry EP, Very Vanilla seam binding, Regals Candy Dots, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Vintage Verses

Howdy folks and welcome to this week's Friday Flashback!  I'm a little late getting my post done today, but I've been distracted...I got my preorder goodies in the mail today and I just *had* to have a sit-down with the new catty before I could do anything else.  But I'm ready to go now and this week's randomly chosen retired stamp set is Vintage Verses from last year's Sale-a-Bration!  What's with all the former SAB sets lately?  I don't know, they were all chosen from the proverbial hat.

Also features Mixed Bunch

Here's a very bold bright card to start us off.

Also features Lovely Leaves and Weathered

Something a bit more manly...

Also features Swallowtail

Ok, I admit, this is one of my favorite cards ever.  Gotta love the giant butterfly.

Also features Nature's Pace

And this one...is not my favorite.  Well, they can't *all* be winners.  So that's it for the Flashback, here's today's new card:

You can see I kinda love that little "Just because" stamp :)  And I had to give the World Treasures peacock a little more love since he's on his way to blissful retirement in Jamaica.  That peacock panel was a pain though; I had three different tries at polished stone and one try at doing something on watercolor paper before this one kind of worked.  The Old Olive ink refill muddied the Bermuda Bay too much when I tried to use them together for polished stone, Bermuda Bay was too dark by itself, but Bermuda Bay plus Coastal Cabana seemed to work okay.

I used almost the right colors for this week's Color Throwdown:

I accidentally used Old Olive instead of Lucky Limeade; this is what happens when I try to do color challenges from memory.  I think the Old Olive is close enough for me to be safe from the Challenge Police though.  I also used this week's Retro Sketch:

That one I stuck pretty close to, except all my card elements are bigger than they are on the sketch.

And now it's time for me to dive in with the new In Colors and have some fun.  My fingers are already stained blue and green, so I'm a happy stamper!

Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only, all SU!
Stamps:  Vintage Verses, World Treasures
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Night of Navy
Paper:  Old Olive, Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy, Glossy White, Season of Style DSP scrap
Accessories:  Deco Label, Petite Petals, and Boho Blossoms punches, rhinestone, Dimensionals

Silver Peacock...Now Retiring

It's that time of year again, friends--the Stampin' Up! retirement lists came out this morning.  And the fabulous peacock from World Treasures is on it.  Gasp!

Fear not, Mr. Fabulous--you'll get to live in my stamp collection forever.

Silver EP is really difficult to photograph well, even when I've got sunshine coming in my stamp room window.  Fabulous Phrases is also on the retiring list, as is Perfectly Penned (say it ain't so!), but Perfectly Penned will have to get its own tribute card later this week.  Oh yeah, the Houndstooth EF is on the list and so is the corner rounder punch.  I kinda can't believe that last one, my corner rounder is the one punch that lives on my craft table full time.

Anyway, I used last Wednesday's Freshly Made Sketch for my silver peacock:

Obviously I sat on it and squished it into a landscape layout instead of portrait.  I needed it to be landscape to get that whole fabulous peacock on there.  And I moved the sentiment panel a bit and shortened it but hey, all the elements of the sketch are there.  I think it counts, and that's what I'll tell the Challenge Police if they question me.

Hope you have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  World Treasures, Fabulous Phrases
Ink:  Versamark, StazOn Black
Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Black, Brushed Silver
Accessories:  Deco Labels & Banners Framelits, Corner Rounder punch, Houndstooth EF, Dimensionals

Rhinestone Peacock

Howdy, folks!  Once again, I'm a bit late with my post since it's almost 3 p.m. here.  I blame it on a variety of factors:

1.  British Daylight Savings Time.  Can we just get rid of this concept forever and ever amen?  Because it's stoopid.
2.  Saturday night insomnia.  I was going to stamp yesterday, but then due to middle-of-the-night insomnia and DST, I didn't actually get out of bed until after 11 a.m. and that just kinda threw my plans out of whack.
3.  Yesterday afternoon it seemed very important that I watch The Avengers instead of stamping.  We saw Captain America:  The Winter Soldier on Saturday, and you have my permission to be jealous because it was released in Britain already and you guys in the States still have to wait.  Bwahahaaaa!  I want to go see it again.

But I finally made a card today!

My stamping muse is being a little temperamental still after her little hiatus thanks to tea party and test taking up almost all of March.  She changed her mind about six times as to what stamps we were going to use with the sketch I picked before we agreed on the peacock.  And now I sound like a crazy person, but if you know me in real life you know I really am crazy.

So here's the sketch I picked, courtesy of Freshly Made Sketches:

Today is the last day of Sale-a-Bration so I was kinda planning on using one of the SAB stamp sets but then that didn't happen so I used a bit of the SAB Sweet Sorbet DSP instead and look at me and all the TLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms).  I know what I'm sayin' even if no one else does.

Cheers, peeps!  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  World Treasures, Occasions
Ink:  Night of Navy, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Night of Navy, Whisper White, Sweet Sorbet & International Bazaar DSP (and after today, both of those will be retired)
Accessories:  Rhinestones, Dimensionals

Favorites Showcase 2013, Part 1

Last year around this time, I noticed lots of stampy bloggers doing a retrospective of their favorite projects of the year, so I thought instead of doing a regular Friday Flashback on the last Friday of the year that I would post the first half of the 2013 retrospective.  So it's kind of a different type of flashback :)  So let's take a look at January through June!

This lovely peacock was my pick for January--I love that bold stamp and the blue/orange high-energy color combo, not to mention the fun layout.

February's pick is this seashell card.  I think Perfect Plum is underused, and of course I love everything with Baja Breeze.

How could I not pick this larger-than-life butterfly for March?  And I'm noticing a trend when it comes to sentiment stamps...

I love the color combo on my pick for April--Marina Mist, Wisteria Wonder and Wild Wasabi.

And here's a sunny happy card for May, I love that Daffodil Delight print on the sundress.

And we'll wrap it up for today with some June roses.  I've linked up all the original blog posts if you want to see more about a specific card.  I'll be back on Monday with the second half of the 2013 retrospective, so until then, have a great weekend!

CreativeCrew: Hello Peacock

And hello August!  How can it be August already?  And it's my last month on the CreativeCrew too.  Man, time flies when you're having fun!

One of the challenges this month is to CASE a project from the Garden Delight section of the catalog (pages 80 to 95).  I knew immediately which one I wanted to CASE:  check out the top right pic on page 84.  So that's how I ended up with this peacock card.

But just one peacock card isn't enough, is it?  When I saw the new challenge at ColourQ, I had to do another one!

So this is a CASE of a CASE, and I've still got more ideas floating around in my noggin for this layout because I'm kind of in love with it.  The DSP is from the brand new holiday catalog, it's called Season of Style.  And this is proof that you can use Christmas DSP to make non-Christmas cards.

Here's the ColourQ graphic, you can see why I just had to do a second peacock:

I'd totally buy that for my mom if I knew what kind of cellphone she has, but I don't think she's got one that would work with this cover.  But it is really awesome.

Thanks for stopping by today, and go check out the brand new August CreativeCrew gallery.  And you can play along with those challenges here, too!

Supplies for the first card, all SU!
Stamps:  World Treasures, Four You
Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Elegant Eggplant, Crushed Curry, Versamark
Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Bermuda Bay, Elegant Eggplant, Crushed Curry, Whisper White
Accessories:  Corner rounder punch, white EP, Dimensionals

Supplies for the second card, all SU!
Stamps:  World Treasures
Ink;  Midnight Muse, So Saffron, Old Olive, Marina Mist
Paper:  Midnight Muse, So Saffron, Marina Mist, Whisper White, Season of Style DSP
Accessories:  Corner rounder punch, Dimensionals

Purple Peacock

Ya know what?  It's time to make Mother's Day cards. And since my mom checks out this blog from time to time, I don't think she'll be surprised when this card arrives in the mail soon.

Mom has a thing for peacocks and purple :)  The layout is based on the latest Retro Sketch:

And the color combo started out being the palette provided by Nacho Average Challenges:

I kinda forgot the Basic Gray.  Ok, so I didn't so much forget it as it just didn't quite work with the rest of my card...I meant to stamp the sentiment in Basic Gray but I forgot and did it in Elegant Eggplant, and then the Eggplant button just looked much better on there to my eye than a Basic Gray one and then there was no other place for the Basic Gray so it got left out.  But the Nacho challenge was still what gave me the idea to do a purple peacock so I'm still gonna count it.

Have a fabby-dabby Tuesday and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  World Treasures, All Holidays (retired)
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Regals DSP Stack
Accessories:  Wisteria Wonder baker's twine, Regals button, Dimensionals