Tranquil Tiger

Mornin' y'all!  Had to take a brief pause to start my morning tea brewing.  But now I'm ready to share today's card:

I've only used the Along These Lines stamp set twice and both times it's the tiger, but honestly the tiger is the whole reason why I bought this stamp set.  Anything tiger-related reminds me of my friend Neelu, who loved tigers and was one of my very favorite people ever, and she's the reason why my Facebook profile pic is a tiger and why I wear a tiger necklace every day.  Yay tigers.

Sooo today's tiger was inspired by the TGIF Challenges color palette:

I only added a bit of black because a tiger has to have black stripes.  At first I was thinking about adding some more Peach Pie to the tiger by coloring with Blends, but I decided I liked him in his simple majesty on the patterned paper.  

I paired the colors with the CAS Colours & Sketches sketch:

That one's a classic, love it.

That's it for me today, peeps.  I'm going to finish my tea (Adagio's vanilla this morning) and go write up my review of a Nancy Drew book for my other blog.  Right after I let Daph-Daph outside for the twentieth time today.  I think it's a game to her, to see how many times she can make me get up to let her in and out the back door.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Along These Lines, Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Shy Shamrock & Peach Pie DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies (retired), Dimensionals, Neutrals Matte Dots

Fintastic Fishes

Mornin' y'all!  I think we're getting into the swing of school days here, and since it's still pretty warm out there I started taking Daphne for her daily perambulation at around 6:30 in the morning and doing my workout before taking Ryan to school.  Day 3 of 3rd grate is now underway and I think he likes it so far.  Third grade was my favorite year of elementary school, I had a great teacher.

Anyway, we're going retro for today's card!

Anyone else remember Fishy Friends and Fintastic?  I pulled them both out for the Retro Rubber sketch:

I didn't get Fishy Friends when it first debuted, but I did buy it several years ago on eBay so I've had it for 4 years.  I bought Fintastic on the Splitcoast BST boards (it has a mermaid in it!) and it has been in my collection for something like 14 years now.  I've been using my retired stamps a lot this year and I only bought two new stamp sets when I did an order yesterday...I'm ready to dive into fall and Halloween cards!

I digress.  For today's card, I couldn't resist the color challenge from Color Dare: 

I used Night of Navy for my neutral, and Balmy Blue, Pumpkin Pie, and Daffodil Delight for the colors.  I dug out some iridescent pearls for accents, not sure how I like those but they're stuck down now.

I think it's about time for a second cuppa tea and then I have some projects to work on.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fishy Friends, Fintastic
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Balmy Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Dandy Designs DSP, Pumpkin Pie DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, 3/4" circle punch, Countryside Corners dies, Iridescent Pearls, Mini Dimensionals

A Sketchy Duo for SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all!  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

And it's one of my favorites, a SKETCH!

Oh who am I kidding, I love color challenges and inspo challenges and all kinds of challenges.  So let's see what I did with the sketch:

I made this card with a cute Halloween duo and then found out that my teamie Tammy had made a similar card with the same DSP, and since I like to be different I made a second card at the eleventh hour:

I looked at everyone else's cards before I made this one to make sure I didn't duplicate anything else : )  I started out with the larger drinks on there but just couldn't make them work, so I had to cut out some smaller drinks.  Who knew that Scenic Adventure would pair so well with the Celebratory Sips DSP?  Well, me, since I've done it a couple of times, ha!

We hope you'll join us over at the SUO Challenges blog with your own sketchy creations.  Or if you're extra inspired, multiple sketchy creations.  Have fun!

Supplies, Halloween card:
Stamps:  Spooky Halloween
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Petunia Pop, Granny Apple Green, Daffodil Delight, Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Spooky Sweet Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Spooky Halloween dies, Foam Stars, Mini Dimensionals

Supplies, adventure card:
Stamps:  Scenic Adventure
Ink:  Old Olive, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Old Olive, Thick Basic White, Celebratory Sips DSP
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Starburst Sequins

Saint Beatus Caves

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  And it's my favorite Monday ever because it is Ryan's first day of school : )  The house is all nice and quiet...or it would be except I started some music so I am enjoying Chicago's If You Leave Me Now while I drink my tea.  Love that song.

Anyway, I just figured out this morning that I've been sharing the Swiss-capade layouts in the wrong order but whatever, they're all from the same trip.  And here is today's layout:

We do tend to like doing underground touristy things.  We had to wait in line a while before we got to go in the caves, which were pretty cool and we took the opportunity to teach Ryan to be a responsible and respectful tourist and keep his grubby little fingers off the rocks because that damages them (which we know because we've been to caves in several different countries now).  Then we had lunch at a restaurant next to the monastery started in St. Beatus' honor, and we had a PHENOMENAL view of Lake Thun--can you believe that picture in the lower right corner?!  It was a quick snap I took with my cellphone!  I think I need to print that one out giant size and frame it...if only I had more open wall space, ha!

Today's color palette:  Island Indigo, Starry Sky, Sweet Sorbet, Garden Green, and white.  Normally I wouldn't think to pair those two blues together, but I was pulling colors from the photos and I think they work together pretty well here.  I haven't worked on scrapbook pages in a long time since I've been busy with having Ryan home for the summer and working on other projects, but I'm starting to get the itch to get back to scrappin'.  Should be easier to make that happen now that he's back in school.

For right now, I think I'll brew a second cuppa tea and go write out some cards to go out in the mail, then get to work on something crafty.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Blossoms in Bloom
Ink:  Island Indigo, Starry Sky, Sweet Sorbet, Garden Green
Paper:  Island Indigo, Starry Sky, Garden Green, Basic White, Blooms & Bliss DSP
Accessories:  none

Pumpkin Spice is BACK!

Mornin' y'all!  We had to be up early today for an event so here I sit in a DRESS with MAKEUP on and that usually happens about once a year.  I actually bought this dress over 10 years ago and it's the first time I've worn it, and I managed to find jewelry on Amazon that coordinates with it pretty perfectly : )

Anyway, now that we're in August, pumpkin spice is back and I'm going to start manifesting fall weather as much as I can.  So here's a pumpkin spice card:

I love the Timeless Plaid DSP stack, I love me a good plaid!  I had to pick one for the Just Add Ink challenge:

Because of that plaid blanket on the bottom.  I've got a coffee and a little bitty pumpkin too, but what's funny is I don't drink coffee.  Pretty much everyone else I know does though (well, not the hubs) so I know I won't have trouble choosing someone to send this to.  I usually don't even drink pumpkin spice tea because I've found I don't like teas with loads of cinnamon and spice in them--I love a good breakfast tea and I like dessert teas but more along the vanilla or chocolate flavor profile.  I keep my spices in my baked goods : )

Anyway, I also used the most recent Freshly Made Sketch:

That's it for now, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  More Than Autumn
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Stampin' Blends in Ivory, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Basic Beige, Old Olive, Thick Very Vanilla, Timeless Plaid DSP Stack
Accessories:  More Than Autumn dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Mini Dimensionals, Swirl Dots, Chocolate Chip twill ribbon

The Mystery of the Ivory Charm

Welcome to a new Nancy Drew Challenge!  This time we're looking into The Mystery of the Ivory Charm, which is the thirteenth book in the series and definitely unlucky.

You can tell from the OT cover on the left that this time, we're going to the circus and I will be honest, this is my least favorite Nancy Drew book up to this point and by a wide margin.

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George see a circus unpacking while waiting for their train to River Heights and a circus worker named Rai, an Indian man, gives Nancy an ivory elephant charm for good luck.  The man's supposed son, Coya (who works with the elephants), stows away on the girls' train so Nancy just decides to keep him and let him do chores around the house (the HECK).  A weird lady comes to see Carson about selling some land she owns, and in the course of investigating where Coya came from and how he ended up with not-his-real-dad Rai, she discovers that the weird lady and Rai had colluded to rob Coya of his inheritance as a maharajah in India and installed someone else on the throne.  This one is just bizarre as well as being rife with racial stereotypes.  One star.

So here's my card for the OT version of The Mystery of the Ivory Charm:

And it's proof that I can make a card I really like that was inspired by a book I really dislike!  I decided on three simple blocks of color to mimic the colors on the book cover and of course I had to have an elephant.  At first I tried to do this as a vertical card, but the color blocks looked like a stoplight no matter what order I put them in.  I really like what I ended up with though.

Rai gives Nancy the ivory charm because she's brave and doesn't panic when an escaped circus snake (that's a thing, I guess?) drops out of a tree on her and tries to squeeze her to death.  I was tempted to make a snaky card but my stamp collection is pretty light on snake images, so I pulled out one of my elephants instead.  I chose that "hello" because the font makes me think of the circus, is that weird?

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  A Little Wild, Happy Greetings
Ink:  Versamark, Pebbled Path, Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Soft Sky, Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  clear EP, Little Loves Framelits, Squares Collection Framelits, Dimensionals

On to the RT version!

Revised case file:  This one follows the plot of the OT fairly closely, except that the Indian boy is renamed Rishi and Nancy discovers that his biological father is living in River Heights; the dad had been told that Rishi was eaten by a tiger years earlier.  Usually they tried to tone down the racism when they revised the texts, but this time they took out a scene where Nancy is invited to the White House to have lunch with the First Lady and pretty much left in all the racist stereotypes.  One of my best friends growing up was Indian and I can only imagine what she would have thought of this book--I wish I could ask her, but she passed away of cancer over ten years ago.  I'm sure she would have hated this though.  Or laughed herself silly.  Perhaps both at the same time.

Here's my card:

I bought Balmy Breezes on eBay a while back and this is the first time I've used it and I love it.  Of course I picked it for the elephant image, and I tried to stick close to the colors of the book cover.  There weren't any palm trees in the book but they go with the elephant image, right?

I used the Deckled Rectangles dies and a generous amount of sponging to mimic the book cover, and this time I decided to ignore Nancy's bright hair and just went with the greens.  She gets to keep the ivory charm as a souvenir; she gets a lot of jewelry from solving mysteries.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Balmy Breezes
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Basic Beige, Mossy Meadow, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, linen thread, Faux Glass Dots, Dimensionals

I'd love to see what you come up with for this book, drop me a comment below (no time limit).  Next up, we'll be investigating The Whispering Statue!  And if you want to deep dive into the books, check out my other blog at Hey, Nancy Drew.  Cheers!

Fright Night Halloween

Mornin' y'all!  We went school supply shopping for Ryan yesterday and got to meet his teacher last night.  I really like her, she's very structured and won't let Ryan win arguments with her : )  Excited for him to start school on Monday!

I also got a bit of craft room time last night for the first time in about a week so that's always a good thing.  Here's my card for today:

I bought ALLLLL the Halloween stuff when it showed up in the online exclusives and this is the first time I've used the Fright Night stamps (I did use the dies once before).  I thought this week's Creative Colour Challenge was the perfect excuse for a Halloween card:

I love the look of the stamped image on the Timid Tiger DSP, super super easy and it looks cool.  I used this week's sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

Well, maybe it's a modification of the sketch, I'm counting the words and images on the big stamp as the floral elements on the sketch.  I think it's close enough that you can still see how the sketch was my starting point.

And yesterday I opened up the world's most boringest Stampin' Up! order ever.

But somehow I had totally run out of Stamin' Dimensionals (no!!), so I got a bunch of those, a couple packs of envelopes, and three packs of white cardstock.  The most boring order ever, but necessary staples.

Time to take Daph-Daph for a tour of the neighborhood.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fright Night
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss, Garden Green, Versamark
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Thick Basic White, Timid Tiger & Blackberry Bliss DSP
Accessories:  Fright Night dies, white EP, Mini Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls