The Silver Cobweb

 Hey y'all, and welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we're on book #71, The Silver Cobweb:

I got the middle one when I was a kid, and acquired the other two just since I started rereading these.  Uh, why does Nancy have a mullet on the arch cover?!  Ugh.  The middle one is weird because while Nancy does investigate an abandoned warehouse, there is no dynamite involved.  The last one is my favorite and it's the hardest one to find; I got one that had marks all over the cover and then it was about a year before I found this copy that's in great shape.  Did I pay $20 just for this one book on eBay?  Yep.

Case file:  Nancy works to discover the link between rising golf star Kim Vernon, deceased opera singer Arachne Onides (what a name, I approve), and a mysterious piece of bling which at various points has been stolen, faked, and used in insurance fraud.  And also there are a LOT of spiders in this one.

Here's my first card:

It works out for me that this book came up during spooky season because I have quite a few spiders in my Halloween stamp stash.  The cobweb on this card (and yes, I made an actual silver cobweb here) is from Bite Me, one of SU!'s earliest photopolymer stamp sets, and the spider is from perennial favorite From the Crypt.  I should have done something different to make the greeting show up more though.

For my colors, I used Midnight Muse, Dapper Denim, More Mustard, and Cherry Cobbler.  That buffalo check from the Orchard Harvest DSP was the closest I could get to Nancy's shirt.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bite Me, From the Crypt
Ink:  Versamark, Secret Sea (because I was too lazy to get up and grab my Midnight Muse ink pad)
Paper:  Midnight Muse, Dapper Denim, Orchard Harvest DSP, Cherry Cobbler DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Stylish Shapes dies, silver EP, Cherry Cobbler EP, Sparkle Gems

Okay, second card:

In the book, the stolen jewelry is a spider brooch with rubies for its body and diamond-studded legs and I still wouldn't wear it no matter how fancy it is, but my mom would love it.  This card made for an interesting color combination but I wanted to work in the red as red spiders are a recurring plot point.

My colors this time are Pebbled Path, Smoky Slate, Pool Party, and Real Red which kind of makes for an odd combination on a pseudo-Halloween card but I had fun making it anyway.  It doesn't show up very well in the photo, but there's red-on-red cobwebs on the bottom strip.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hallows Night Magic, Witches' Night
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Real Red, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Paper:  Pebbled Path, Smoky Slate, Pool Party, Real Red, Softly Stippled DSP
Accessories:  Halloween Magic dies, Shimmery Black EP, red rhinestones, Dimensionals

And now for the third card:

I got out my beloved Wonderfully Wicked bundle for this one and I realized that while I had used that giant wicked die several times, I hadn't used the spider die.  Once again this book cover's color combination was just weird for a Halloween-esque card, so I focused just on one color and a tiny pop of Strawberry Slush with a gem on the spider.  I decided to do the wicked die cut in silver glimmer paper to go with the silver cobweb book title.

So the closest I could come to the blue on this cover is Azure Afternoon, and I decided to go with a largely monochromatic card instead of trying to work in the purple or red or whatever.  I do like that giant word die in the glimmer paper.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wonderfully Wicked
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Azure Afternoon
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Basic Black, Silver glimmer paper
Accessories:  Wicked dies, mini Dimensional, Strawberry Slush gem

This book reminds me of Haunted Bridge (golf, yawn), Old Attic (spiders), and Spider Sapphire (spiders and jewelry), and we have a reappearance of the Footlighters theater group from Dancing Puppet.  And also opera, which is new and different.  It's not one of my favorites but I do remember one of the villains from reading this as a kid (he had a droopy eye, that's what I remember), and the other villain is 100% modeled on Vincent Price, so I give this one three and a half stars.  I'll see you here next Saturday when Nancy investigates The Haunted Carousel.

All About the Shoes

Midnight greetings, ghoul friends!  As promised, I have a card tonight that does NOT feature a pumpkin.  Gasp!

Shopping Our Stash wants to see cards featuring shoes, so I was vacillating between these shoes from Tee-Hee-Hee and a big ol' witch's boot from Bootiful Occasions.  The little shoes won out because I like that greeting : )  I pulled out more of the Doodlebug Designs 6x6 paper pad and matched it to some SU! colors.

Stay spooky, friends!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Tee-Hee-Hee
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Magenta Madness, Mango Melody, Tangerine Tango
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Basic White, Doodlebug Designs patterned paper
Accessories:  Tags & Labels dies, Dimensionals, Shimmer Star Foam Stickers

Pumpkin Wishes

Mornin' y'all!  I'm back with...*counts quickly*...my eleventh card this week featuring at least one pumpkin.  While I won't promise that I won't post anymore pumpkin cards this fall, I will do something different for tomorrow : )  But here is today's pumpkin:

I made a card with Fall Whimsy for the previous Retro Rubber Challenge, but since we were road trippin' then I didn't actually get it linked up at the challenge, so I thought I'd just use that same stamp set for their new color challenge:

Fall Whimsy is still twenty years old, and Hugs & Wishes is only slightly younger at nineteen years old, so how's that for retro?  I still love both of these stamp sets so I appreciated the excuse to trot them out again.  For the colors, I read the palette as Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, Peach Pie, and Lemon Lime Twist.  I used sponges to apply three of the colors on a piece of Basic White cardstock, then stamped the leaf in Cajun Craze on top.  For the pumpkin, I stamped it in Cajun Craze and then colored a bit loosely with Blends.

I do like this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I almost used the larger leaf from Fall Whimsy for the circular element, but the pumpkin was Right There so I had to continue with the pumpkin cards.  I have had a lot of fun with pumpkins, but I think I'm feeling something witchy coming soon.

Anyway, this is our last full day with Winnie, the husky we're dogsitting (who managed not to tinkle on the carpet at all yesterday, hooray!), and I want to take her and Daphne out to the dog park while the sun's out.  We went yesterday and managed to leave right before it started sprinkling.  Daphne has done better than I thought she would interacting with other dogs so maybe I'll take her out there periodically even after her friend goes back to her own house.  I still haven't looked through all our trip pics and I've taken a bunch of Winnie while she's been here, so maybe I'll finally get to share some of those photos next week when Ryan is (finally) back in school.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fall Whimsy, Hugs & Wishes
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, Peach Pie, Lemon Lime Twist
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Peach Pie, Cajun Craze, Basic White
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Earthy Matte Dots

Sweet Boo #2

Midnight greetings, ghoul friends!  I am continuing Pumpkin Week with another sweet ghost:

This is the second image in my new Unity stamp set, {BOO} to You, and it's just SO stinkin' cute.  I used the Hand-Stamped Sentiments color challenge:

I've seen a lot of Halloween stuff this year featuring the darker orange like Cajun Craze and I like it, I think it's a great twist on the traditional orange and black.  And I had two full sheets of that jack o' lantern pattern that I'd never cut into before so this was a great excuse to use it!

Stay spooky, friends!

Supplies:
Stamps:  {BOO} to You from Unity Stamps
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Misty Moonlight, Cajun Craze, Timid Tiger, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Timid Tiger, Misty Moonlight, Basic White, Frightful Sight DSP
Accessories:  Radiating Stitches dies, Dimensionals, Basic Black, Iridescent Ribbon, Wink of Stella

Wheelbarrow...With Pumpkins

Mornin' y'all!  I got some work done in my craft room yesterday after Ryan and I took Daphne and our guest dog Winnie to the dog park to get some energy out.  We're definitely going to have to do that again today.  So here is today's card and yep, it's got more pumpkins!

Side note:  whenever I see a wheelbarrow, my brain immediately plays this exchange from The Princess Bride:

Dread Pirate Roberts:  If only we had a wheelbarrow, that would be something!
Inigo (to Fezzik):  Where did we put that wheelbarrow the albino had?
Fezzik:  Over the albino, I think.

Because The Princess Bride lives rent free in my brain in its entirety and it is such a great movie.  Anyway, I really do have a LOT of pumpkin stamps, there's even more that I haven't inked up yet this year.  For this card, I pulled Always Thankful out of the To Sell? boxes (what a joke, I have tried to sell exactly nothing) for the Card Concept challenge:

For this clean and layered card, I stamped my wheelbarrow on Basic Beige cardstock and embossed with Early Espresso embossing powder, then watercolored the image.  I wasn't planning to add embellishments, but I got a little smear of ink in the white space and I really didn't want to do it all over again, so that bigger dot is hiding the smudge for me.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Always Thankful
Ink:  Versamark, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Crisp Cantaloupe, Early Espresso, Pecan Pie, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Basic Beige, Autumn Toile DSP
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Early Espresso EP, Earthy Matte Dots (and no Dimensionals this time!)

When I got out the Autumn Toile DSP, I found a scrap of another pattern that I just really wanted to turn into a card, so I reused the SUO Challenges sketch from a while back:

Since I still had Always Thankful out on my desk, I decided to use the same greeting stamp and let this scenic patterned paper do the heavy lifting.  Hey look, more pumpkins.  I am really loving Cajun Craze this year, how about you?

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Always Thankful
Ink:  Early Espresso
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Mossy Meadow, Basic Beige, Autumn Toile DSP
Accessories:  Tile Garden dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Rustic Metallic Dots

That's it for now, peeps.  Cheers!

Tangerine Halloween

Midnight greetings, ghoul friends!  One of these nights I will move on from posting pumpkin cards, but...tonight is not that night.  Hee.

For a while there, SU! had embossing powders in a bunch of different colors and being the crafty dragon that I am, I still have all mine so here's a card featuring the Tangerine Tango embossing powder and a couple of fun patterns from Howlstooth & Scaringbone.  I do like the Hex-Travaganza for actually using some of my Halloween paper stash.

Stay spooky, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Seasonal Sayings
Ink:  VersaMark
Paper:  Tangerine Tango, Basic Black, Spooky Night DSP, Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Tangerine Tango EP, Tangerine Tango ribbon, Dimensionals

Pumpkin Season is the Best Season

Mornin' y'all!  I have now completed day three of my new workout plan and I'm feeling pretty good.  Still sore but not too bad, and it's good to be able to work out again.  It feels like I'm getting back to feeling like myself after Zombie Summer.

Anyway, in a move that will surprise probably none of you, I have another pumpkin-related card to share today:

I'm not done yet either, I have plans for one or two more.  Today we have a pumpkin spice latte (despite the fact that I do not drink any kind of coffee because most of my friends do) and a cute little sugar pumpkin to go with the inspiration pic from Time Out Challenges:

I want one of those little tarts, they look yummy.  I found a piece of Peach Pie DSP that gave me a nice light background for my card, with Cinnamon Cider DSP to ground the PSL and pumpkin.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  More Than Autumn, Cutest Halloween
Ink:  Early Espresso, Cinnamon Cider, Pumpkin Pie, Stampin' Blends in Peach Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Cinnamon Cider, Ivory
Paper:  Peach Pie, Early Espresso, Basic White, DSP in Peach Pie & Cinnamon Cider
Accessories:  More Than Autumn dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, Earthy Matte Dots

But wait, there's more!  It's Wednesday, so time for a WIP Wednesday progress pic:

I haven't stitched much between being gone all of last week and this week Ryan is still on fall break *and* we're dogsitting a husky who has unfortunately decided that it's okay to pee in the house, which all adds up to not a lot of progress on this.  However, I did finish this block so all that's left is the thick black border, and then I'm on to the ghost bucket which will go to the right of the pumpkin.

Pretty soon I'll have to make a decision though.  I was going to do a pretty leaf pattern for my next project, but started this one because I had to wait to get some specialty threads delivered...so do I start the leaf on November first, and then start a Christmas pattern on December first?  Then I would rotate the projects and work on each one for a month before switching.  Or do I continue with this one for November and start the Christmas pattern in December...I am having SO much fun with this one but I'd like to see how the leaf mandala works up too.  What do you think?

Ryan wants to take the doggo girls to the dog park so that's what we're doing as soon as I finish my sweet potato pie tea.  I know it sounds weird, but I quite like it, and that's coming from someone who generally sticks to plain breakfast teas.  Cheers, y'all!