The Invisible Intruder

Happy Saturday, y'all, and welcome to the 46th Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today Nancy is squaring off with The Invisible Intruder.

This cover reminds me of 99 Steps and Crossword Cipher in that it's largely brown/neutral tones, and once again Nancy is in her signature color of pale blue.  This time we get Ned on the cover, which rarely happens, and we have a creepy backdrop of a stingray and some skulls.  I like it.  This is my childhood copy, I have my name written not once but twice inside the front cover.

Case file:  Nancy's friend Helen (who last appeared in #20, The Clue in the Jewel Box, and I think this might be her final appearance) organizes a ghost-hunting road trip to investigate odd happenings at five different locations, including a phantom canoe, a medium, and a ghost horse, so this is basically five Scooby-Doo episodes in one volume.  The book ends up at the home of an eccentric old man who collects rare shells and also human skulls, which is not my design aesthetic but rock on as long as the skulls and shells are ethically sourced, and Nancy captures the gang behind all of the haunts.

Here's my card:

We get some lectures on different kinds of shells over the course of the book, so I decided to pull out Stippled Shells for my first card.  I chose River Rock, Pebbled Path, and Basic Beige for neutral colors and put it all on a Balmy Blue card base for Nancy's dress.

I had done a mosaic card with Stippled Shells a long time ago so I kind of started with that as a jumping off point for this card.  Also, I made this one before the vintage traveler card I posted on Wednesday.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Stippled Shells, Weathered, Stepping Stones
Ink:  River Rock, Pebbled Path
Paper:  Balmy Blue, River Rock, Pebbled Path, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Layering Ovals Framelits, Dimensionals

And I have one more card:

The first location they road trip to has a self-propelling canoe, and while investigating it Nancy and Ned encounter a mechanical octopus which drags Ned away and that is straight out of a Scooby-Doo episode and it makes me laugh.  So I had to make an octopus card, using Nancy's hair and dress for my colors since the rest of the cover is pretty blah.

I did keep Gray Granite as my main color here, which matches the stingray pretty well.  I found my blue and gray patterns in the Otterly Adorable DSP, and I matted the Gray Granite pattern on some Gray Granite cardstock on which I colored the edges with a Blend marker to make it stand out against the Gray Granite card base, which is an easy way to get multiple values of a single color.  You know what, I miss Mango Melody.  It's a fun orange.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Message in a Bottle
Ink:  Gray Granite, Mango Melody, Gray Granite Stampin' Blend
Paper:  Gray Granite, Thick Basic White, Otterly Adorable DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Sparkly Gems

Like The Scarlet Slipper Mystery, I think this one has too many characters as we have the regular Drew Crew (Nancy, Bess, George, Ned, Burt, and Dave), Helen and her husband, and three other couples whose names I could never remember and they're apparently only around so everyone can rag on the one married woman who believes in ESP and ghosts, which is unfortunate.  We have some goofy Scooby-Doo inspired moments, not up to the utterly bananas hijinks of Brass-Bound Trunk or Moss-Covered Mansion, but the five mini mysteries and road trip setup are fun, so I give this one three and a half stars.  If you're inspired to create a card based on this mystery, please leave me a comment below!  And I'll see you next time when Nancy investigates The Mysterious Mannequin.  Cheers!

Space, The Final Frontier

Mornin' y'all!  Been a little busy here as the hubs had eye surgery yesterday (a PRK procedure, he had his first one years ago so we'll see if this one does better) so Daphne and I are working as nurses for the time being.  Hopefully the hubs will be back up and running soon.

For today's card, I am mixing a new stamp set with some older paper and here's what I came up with:

I grew up watching Star Trek:  The Next Generation and of course I'm also a huge Star Wars fan, so I do like spacey things.  This is the first time I've used Moon & Back, which I've had for a while, but I thought of it immediately when I saw this week's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

Since my greeting is on the moon itself, I had to come up with something different for the sentiment strip on the bottom, and eventually I remembered that I have a vast collection of punches, including multiple stars.  Problem solved!  And more sparkle, because that's always fun.  I used Wink of Stella on the astronaut's helmet too.

Daphne's going to start poking me to go on a walk, so I'd better finish my tea and check on the hubs so we can go.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Moon & Back
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Orchid Oasis, Blueberry Bushel, Berry Burst
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Berry Burst, Thick Basic White, Stargazing DSP, Myths & Magic Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Circles Collection Framelits, star punch, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Bonjer, Y'all

Mornin' y'all!  *Somebody* snarfed down my lemon blueberry muffins so now I'm eating one of the chocolate chip ones I got for Ryan.  Think I'm going to be buying more muffins today because I think the hubs has joined the chat and he's the guilty party here.

Anyway, I took French classes from middle school all the way through high school (I was the sole student in French IV my senior year), and I would have gotten a minor in French if I hadn't decided I just really didn't want to take Advanced French Grammar, so I was two classes shy of the minor.  One of my friends in high school liked to speak French with an exaggerated Texas accent, hence today's blog post title, which invariably made our teacher wail with a French accent.  All that to say, sometimes I buy stamp sets in French and I used on of them for today's card!

I do love that large and in charge bonjour, I thought it was perfect for the AAA Cards Challenge:

I kept a lot the same, with the layout, hello greeting, and floral pattern, but I used Fresh Freesia for the "white" space on my card because I like colors.  And I know this is a CAS challenge, but I just had to add that layer of Sweet Sorbet in between the Fresh Freesia and Blackberry Bliss card base.

I did promise a more colorful card after yesterday's study in brown : )  Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Chère Amie
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Sweet Sorbet, Fresh Freesia, Flowers & More DSP
Accessories:  Starburst Sequins

Vintage Traveler

Mornin' y'all!  Daphne is currently gamboling about the living room and playing with a toy and being totally adorable.  I went to the store this morning and got her and extendable leash, so we'll see how she does with that in about a half hour when we do our daily neighborhood tour.

Anyway, I've got something a bit different to share today:

Y'all know me and how much I love color--in general, I only make all-neutral cards under duress, but it seemed like the thing to do for this particular card.

Let's talk challenges, shall we?  Starting with Festive Friday:

I've got sepia colors (now you know why I made my card all neutrals), twine, distressing techniques if you count sponging and paper tearing, postmarks, and a thinking of you sentiment, not too shabby.  This list seemed to dovetail nicely with the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge:

I was actually looking for a plane image for this card, but I think the old-fashioned valise works.  Next up is the Atlantic Hearts sketch:

I used a square punch to keep all the background pieces exactly the same size, and once again my flabbers are gasted that I don't have a 1 1/8" square punch.  The heck?  I have 1", 1 1/4", and 1 3/8" but no 1 1/8".  Annoying.  And also why my scale is a bit off from the original sketch.  Also, I used the twine in place of the foliage on the sketch, and I tried to put some embellishments on there but decided my card looked better without.

I just realized this also works for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

This time I have the diagonal with tag - your choice (vintage) - die cut and everything on this card is vintage, including the cardstock, inks, punch, and die I used.  For the stamps, Traveler is the least vintage and has been in my collection for about a year, Post Script is 9 years old, and Teeny Tiny Wishes is at least 14 years old.  I hang onto my stamps, because obviously I need them for challenges.

That's it for now, peeps.  Next time I will post a colorful card as an antidote to all this brown : )  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Traveler, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Post Script
Ink:  Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel
Paper:  Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, Early Espresso bakers twine, Dimensionals

Spring Inspo for SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all!  Are you ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges?  Because we have some excellent spring inspiration heading your way!  Check it out:

I was drawn to the butterflies and the rainbow of pastel colors, and here's what I made:

I remembered that little butterfly stamp in Cutest Crew and here I am making another hello card like I talked about yesterday.  I raided my paper scraps and cut five scraps into 1" wide, 3 3/4" tall strips for my rainbow background.  All of the patterned papers are retired but that's okay for SUO Challenges, and this was a good way for me to use up some long, skinny scraps.  And in an unusual move for me, I did not use a single die to make this card!

We hope you'll be inspired too and share your card creation (or scrapbook page or other paper craft project) at the SUO Challenges blog.  And just like it says on the tin, this is a Stampin' Up! only challenge.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cutest Crew
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Pretty in Pink, Peach Pie, Lemon Lolly, Highland Heather
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Basic White, Refreshed Beauty DSP, Pretty in Pink DSP, Lemon Lolly DSP, Highland Heather DSP
Accessories:  White bakers twine, Neutral Matte Dots, Dimensionals

Mosaic Hello

Mornin' y'all!  Daphne is already pestering me to go for a walk but I'm going to type this up first.  I got in my craft room for just a minute yesterday and made this:

We've got a few challenges today, so let's go in alphabetical order.  Here's the As You See It Challenge:

For me it's definitely hello cards or similar.  I just counted seven hello cards posted last week alone : )  I send out at least 4-6 cards per week so this is definitely what I do the most!

Next up is Inspired By...:

I love those colors together!  I used Summer Splash, Pretty in Pink/Strawberry Slush, and Basic Black and I want to come back to this color combination again.

Next up is Retro Rubber:

This time I made SURE my stamps are older than a year (I made a card for this last week only to discover my stamp set will have its first birthday next month); Mosaic Madness is 13 years old and Happy Day is 12 years old, so they're definitely retro.  I went down the left side with sequins, ribbon, and die cuts.

And finally I have the TGIF Challenges sketch:

This sketch made me think of Mosaic Madness immediately so that's what I did.

Okay, time to make my girl happy and go for a walk in the beautiful weather.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Mosaic Madness, Happy Day
Ink:  Summer Splash, Strawberry Slush
Paper:  Summer Splash, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Floral Impressions DSP
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Mosaic punch, black ribbon (not SU, I think), black sequins, Dimensionals

Pengwengs for The Paper Players

Happy Sunday, y'all, and it's time for a new Paper Players challenge!  This time the lovely Jan has a color combination for us:

I thought about this one for a while and then I had a brainwave and I made this:

Pengwengs!  We shall never forget the time that Benedict Cumberbatch narrated an entire documentary about flightless birds and discovered he can't say the word "penguin" properly, haha!  My bird-obsessed kiddo went through a phase where he watched Happy Feet over and over so I knew these colors would be perfect for this penguin pair, from the long-retired stamp set Cold-Weather Friends.  I embossed the image with black ink + Versamark + clear EP and then watercolored with Daffodil Delight and Smoky Slate ink, then added a bit of Wink of Stella to the ground so it would look a little glittery like real snow.

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!
Stamps:  Cold-Weather Friends, A Dozen Thoughts
Ink:  Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Daffodil Delight, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Merry Little Christmas DSP, Marblelous DSP Stack
Accessories:  Tasteful Labels dies, clear EP, Mini Dimensionals, Candy Dots