Rococo Primroses

Mornin' y'all!  Bit of a later start today as the kiddo is off of school today (why) and I was slow getting up and moving this morning.  I only did a short yoga session for a workout but I think even just that little bit helped me set up to feel good today : )  It's a beautiful sunny day too so Ryan and I will be taking Daphne out for her neighborhood tour when I finish writing this.

So here is today's card:

I pulled out a retired In Color and some retired DSP for this one.  Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And this week's Color Throwdown:

I'm sad I missed out on playing in the challenge prior to this one but I'm glad I got play this week.  I used Rococo Rose (the retired In Color), Lost Lagoon, and Darling Duckling.  I chose that plaid pattern out of the Inked Botanicals Stack (I'm a sucker for a good plaid) and it wasn't until I was putting the whole card together that I realized it's more Pool Party with Lost Lagoon lines.  Well, I'm calling Pool Party and Lost Lagoon different values of the aqua shade on the challenge graphic.

This also fits in with the Paper Players challenge this week, there's two more hours left until the challenge closes!

Okay, time to go walk the Daphinator.  Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Garden
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Rococo Rose, Darling Duckling, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Rococo Rose, Thick Basic White, Inked Botanicals DSP Stack, Darling Duckling DSP
Accessories:  Thankful Garden dies, Circles Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, Earthy Matte Dots

An Apple a Day

Mornin' y'all!  Daphne is ensconced on the oversize chair near me where she can look out the window and she just looks so comfy and content : )  And cute, of course.  Pretty soon she'll start poking at me to take her for a walk so I'm going to enjoy the tranquillity while it lasts.

I did a whole lot of apple cards in September but that didn't stop me from making one more yesterday.

Give Thanks is a sweet little stamp set from many moons ago and I love it.  This year I have embraced using more of my retired stamps and other supplies instead of feeling like I *have* to have all the new things that come out.  Anyway, I used a stamp with multiple leaves on it to stamp the Cherry Cobbler cardstock strip but it's not showing up that well on the photo.  Just gives an extra bit of texture.

Thought I'd have another go at the As You See It theme, I had done a pumpkin card already so we had to do apples so I can represent the top two Thanksgiving pies in our house : )

Here's the CASE-ing Tuesday sketch I used:

That challenge is not just for Halloween cards anymore ; )  And last up is the Hand Stamped Sentiments color challenge:

I stamped the main image and the greeting in Secret Sea and I discovered while coloring the image that I need to replace my Pool Party Blends.  I also need to replace the Soft Sea Foam Blends and I just recently got new sets for Mossy Meadow and Shaded Spruce.  Bit annoying, that.

Anyway, I did five loads of laundry yesterday but I need to do at least one more today.  I have a few more things to do but the first on the list is taking our sweet Daphne out for her walk.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Give Thanks, Pick of the Patch
Ink:  Secret Sea, Cherry Cobbler, Stampin' Blends in Cherry Cobbler, Smoky Slate, Pool Party, Mossy Meadow, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Secret Sea, Thick Basic White, Plaid Tidings DSP Stack
Accessories:  Labels Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, Secret Sea Flat Pearls

Pumpkin Harvest

Mornin' y'all.  Moving slow this morning as the hubs returned from a quick trip to DC late last night and it took me forever to get back to sleep when he came in.  Been busy this morning too, going to the store (again), doing the dishes, and I have the first of many loads of laundry in the washer because I didn't actually do it the other day when I said I was going to.  Oops.

Anyway, while I might start making Christmas cards, I also want to spotlight my FAVORITE holiday so here is today's card:

Yes, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, mostly because PIESSSS (so many pies) and also sweet potato casserole.  I'm the only one in my household who likes sweet potato casserole so I only make it for Thanksgiving, and actually I usually only make pies at Thanksgiving too.  If we're celebrating other friends or family, I make two apple pies so the hubs doesn't have to share because if I only made one, he would sword-fight other people with his fork and knife to keep them away from his apple pie.  Pumpkin is my favorite though and I use a pumpkin praline pie recipe that I found in a cookbook we got for our wedding over 20 years ago.

Anyway, now I'm craving pie but let's talk about challenges, starting with the Creative Colour Challenge for this week:

The Blueberry Bushel is only on the sky in the pumpkin image, and I added Early Espresso and Pecan Pie (oh look, more pie) for neutrals.  Next up is the As You See It theme challenge:

My main image is from Best of Autumn, which is a smaller version of one of the stamps in Harvest Home and I kinda wish I'd found the bigger stamp but too late now.  I'm also not sure how much I like the layout I came up with...it seemed like a good idea at the time but I'm not sure I like the effect.  Well, not every card can be your favorite and this will still go out in the mail in the next couple of weeks.

I have one crazy doggo who really wants to go on a walk, so I should go do that before she gets too pushy.  Maybe the washer will be done by the time we get back and I can start a second load of laundry, so I have that to look forward to, ha.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Autumn, Petite Patterns, Painted Pheasant
Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso, Blueberry Bushel, Timid Tiger, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Timid Tiger, Early Espresso, Thick Basic White, Crushed Curry DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Stitched Rectangles dies, clear EP, Streaked Dots, Dimensionals

Birthday Panda

Hey y'all, I hope your morning is going better than mine.  Last night I was reading on my Kindle and it quit responding when I told it to turn the page, then it said that all of my books were deleted from my device and unavailable (THE NERVE!), and so far I have been unable to make it work.  Kindles are great for carrying around hundreds of books easily, but I have to say I've never had a physical book suddenly stop working.  Arrrrgh.  I think I'll be chatting with Amazon later today.

In the meantime, we have several birthdays coming up in the family this month, so here's the card I made for my little brother:

He went through a phase as a kid where he collected all kinds of panda paraphernalia, and even though he doesn't collect anymore I still think of him when I see anything panda-related.  I'm planning to send him this book (hardback, because I know that will not suddenly stop working) because it sounds like it's going to be a really interesting read.  I had thought about buying the Kindle version for myself but that will have to wait until I get a device that actually works.  *annoyed book dragon snort*

Anyway, back to the card, Adam loves orange (he and my dad are both Oklahoma State cowboys, they have orange and black everything, including vehicles), so I chose Timid Tiger for my main color, then colored the balloon with Summer Splash just because I liked it with Timid Tiger.  This would have come together super quickly but I messed up the panda on the first card front I tried, so I had to stamp it again, but I think I like how it turned out.

I'm entering this at the CAS birthday challenge at CAS on Friday.  Gotta get this card in the mail today and then I'll order the book in a few days to see if I can get it to Adam close to his actual birthday this weekend.  In the meantime, I'm going to try to figure out why my Kindle suddenly lost the plots.  Literally.

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Party Pandas
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Timid Tiger, Stampin' Blends in Summer Splash & Smoky Slate
Paper:  Timid Tiger, Basic White, Timid Tiger DSP
Accessories:  None

Berlin

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Been a busy morning so far, I did my first workout since my appendix violated the Geneva Conventions, got Ryan off to school, did the grocery shopping, washed dishes, and finally ate breakfast at 10:30 this morning.  Still have quite a few things to do today (write in some cards to mail, do laundry, etc.) but the first thing I'll do is take Daphne out for a walk when I finish this blog post.

Another fun thing about today:  it's Daphne's gotcha day!  One year ago today, I talked the hubs into going to the animal shelter "just to look" and then he acted all surprised when we brought a terrified and pathetic little pupper home.  I think he should be more surprised that I haven't seriously tried to talk him into getting a second doggo, ha!

Anyway, on to Scrappy Monday.  I have a pair of layouts to share.

When we lived in England for 3 1/2 years, we somehow never went to Berlin, so it was on my list of things to do while we lived in Germany.  We took the train and spent several days exploring; the very first thing I wanted to do was see the famous bust of Nefertiti at the Egyptian Museum of Berlin.  No pictures allowed of her but I did take some other ones in the museum.

Our hotel was close to Checkpoint Charlie (which now has a McDonald's right next to it) and we all highly enjoyed the spy museum, so much that we forgot to take pics in there.  Ryan's favorite thing, predictably, is talking us into getting dessert at as many different places as possible.

Today's color palette:  Bravo Burgundy/Merry Merlot, Cranberry Crisp, Not Quite Navy, Crumb Cake, and Very Vanilla.  I really like the two shades of red together, the dark page base and lighter mats on the photos.  One of these days I will start scrapping again...and I have so many pictures I need to sort and print!

Okay, Daphne is getting most insistent that I escort her daily perambulation.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Schoolbook Serif Alphabet
Ink:  Merry Merlot, Night of Navy marker
Paper:  Bravo Burgundy, Cranberry Crisp, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, Bella Bleu DSP

Thankful for the Paper Players!

It's Sunday and that means it's time for a new challenge from the Paper Players!  This week we have a fantastic theme from the lovely LeAnne!

Since it's now November (how did that happen?) I wanted to go with some fall colors and I decided to let the Designer Series Paper do the heavy lifting for me.  Here's my card:

I had a large scrap of that foxy pattern from Autumn Toile so I started with that, trimming it down a bit and choosing other papers from the pack to coordinate.  I really did build the entire card around that one scrap of paper and found a good place for my sentiment to go without covering up any of the foxes...the fox pattern is 100% the reason I bought this DSP pack in the first place : )

Head over to the Paper Players blog to see what my teamies have dreamed up for this theme, there's quite a variety of cards to ogle!  Then make sure to upload your own card there too.  Here's a quick recap of our challenge 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!

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

you are here --> Christy Stanford

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gathering Moments
Ink:  Early Espresso
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Thick Basic White, Autumn Toile DSP
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Cajun Craze & Gold Dots

The Clue in the Crumbling Wall

Happy Saturday and welcome to another Nancy Drew challenge!  This week we're focusing on book 22, The Clue in the Crumbling Wall:

Both of these beautiful covers are by Rudy Nappi.  The OT is on the left and we have a thrilling action scene with Nancy removing a box from the titular crumbling wall while bad guys are chipping away at the other side (the real mystery is how the bad guys don't see the girls).  Once again I love Nancy's dress, which is my favorite shade of green, though Bess and George have made some lovely color choices as well.  Good job all around.

For the RT cover, we're still in the collage era of cover design.  We still have a bad guy (just one this time) chipping away at the wall and Nancy looking worried about it, but we get a bit more of a view of Heath Castle in the background which I love.  This one kinda has a similar feel to the RT cover of The Mystery of the Ivory Charm as it uses similar green tones for most of the cover, but thankfully this book is far superior to the hot mess that is Ivory Charm.

Let's take a peek inside:

Case file:  A female police officer who works with juvenile offenders asks for Nancy's help in finding missing dancer Florianna Johnson, who is to inherit the old estate of Heath Castle if she can be found in the next three weeks.  Florianna's niece Joan has been in trouble for stealing plants (including two rosebushes from Nancy's yard), and Joan's mother is not well, but Florianna has been missing for nearly 10 years.  Nancy, Bess, and George investigate Heath Castle and find that extensive damage has been done by men searching for something valuable in the walls of the castle.  Of course Nancy outwits the bad guys and locates Florianna, reuniting her with her family and saving the estate from further ruin.

Here's my card:

Since the book begins with Joan stealing Nancy's rosebushes, I decided to go with roses for this card and I had to use the Stacked Stone background stamp for the crumbling walls in the book.  There's a subplot involving river pearls, so I used pearls for my embellishments, and actually this is the first time I've used the Smoky Slate pearls, I quite like them.

I took Shaded Spruce from Nancy's dress and went with a combination of Groovy Guava, Calypso Coral, and Crushed Curry, inspired by Bess's outfit and hair.  Sorry George, I didn't use blue but you look good in that color.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  All Things Fabulous, Stacked Stone
Ink:  Groovy Guava, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Shaded Spruce, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Smoky Slate, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Fabulous Florals dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Smoky Slate Pearls

On to the RT:

Case file:  This is one that follows the OT very closely, just a bit condensed, and a couple of the names have been changed; Florianna is now Juliana and some of the more minor characters have their names changed too.  The mystery itself plays out the same way as the OT.

Here's my card:

This time I wanted to feature Heath Castle on my card, and the closest I could get to that in my stamp collection was this collage-style stamp from Provençal.  I happened to find a small line-drawing rose image in the Dear Friend stamp set while I was looking for a greeting to put on here, which is just what I wanted for the background strip.  I used Marigold Morning cardstock for that piece with the roses, but used Peach Pie ink since I thought my Marigold Morning ink pad was probably dry--turns out those two colors are nearly identical.

Once again I used pearls as my accents on this one; I chose Marigold Morning as my supporting color because of--what else?--Nancy's hair.  We can only see the top of Nancy's shirt here but I kinda hope she's dressed just like Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Provençal, Dear Friend
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Pear Pizzazz, Peach Pie
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Shaded Spruce, Marigold Morning, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Word Window & Modern Label punches, Mini Dimensionals, Pearls

If you're inspired by Nancy's latest adventure, please leave me a comment so I can see what you make : )  Meanwhile, stay tuned for next Saturday when we listen for The Mystery of the Tolling Bell.  Cheers!