The Clue of the Velvet Mask

Happy Saturday and Nancy Drew Challenge day!  Today we are investigating the Clue of the Velvet Mask, Nancy's 30th adventure.

So we have Nancy in fancy dress on the left (OT version), watching a nefarious man in a cape scale a trellis and it's fun.  Lots of color, a nice scene that happens at the beginning of the book, the title and author are nice and big so you know what you're reading, very nice cover by Rudy Nappi.

On the right (RT version), we have Nancy carrying a fancy dress/shawl/thing and looking apprehensive while a masked someone stares at her, and this masked figure is simultaneously silly and also creepy.  It's the eyes.  This cover is also by Rudy Nappi, but I gotta give it to the OT cover this time because the eyeballs on the RT cover are too creep-silly.

Let's take a look at the case.

Case file:  Nancy investigates a series of brazen robberies at every rich people party in River Heights over the course of several weeks, attending masquerades and academic lectures and wedding receptions, oh my.  While helping Nancy on the case, George gets kidnapped and ends up with PTSD so she becomes more fearful than Bess for most of the book, until Nancy and Bess are captured and George steps up to help save them.  Also Ned helps out with this case mostly by being a brawler.  Being friends with Nancy is dangerous.

Here's my card:

George was abducted off a train while pretending to be Nancy, and as I don't have any stamps that go with the Spanish lady fancy dress that Nancy is wearing on the front cover, I decided to go with the train for this one.  I paired it with the Attic Boutique DSP for some nice vintage imagery because it seemed to fit with the train image and the pattern is Poppy Parade to match Nancy's costume.

I gently added a bit of yellow and green around the train to echo the colors around the party scene on the cover, and also to make that panel less stark white on my card.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Greatest Adventure
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Attic Boutique DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Black Rhinestones

Now on to the RT and Mr. Creepy Eyes:

No significant changes to the story, and we're approaching the end of the revised texts; after #34, we only have one version of each story.  Anyway, here's my card:

The gang of thieves is using a dilapidated place called the Blue Iris Inn to stash their loot, and since Nancy is wearing her signature blue on this cover, I decided that my card should also feature blue irises.

Mr. Creepy has green eyes, and I needed a green for the iris stems so that's why I have a lot of green on my card (plus green is my favorite color); even though I didn't use any reddish colors, I found some old Wild Wasabi DSP in a pattern that is kinda reminiscent of the lace thingy that Nancy is holding.  And I found a painted-style pattern for the background that's a pretty good match for the background on the book cover, even though I ended up covering most of it with the other card elements.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspiring Iris
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Balmy Blue, Wild Wasabi
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Thick Basic White, Fresh as a Daisy DSP, Wild Wasabi DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Dimensionals, In Color Opaque Sparkle Dots

I give this one three and a half stars, it's fine but not one of my favorites.  I will say that I vividly remember George being incapacitated and saying the bad guys' threats were burned into her brain--I remember the wording of that from when I read this one as a kid so at least that part stuck with me for years.  I am now thirty books in (well, sixty really since they all have original and revised versions to this point), and I am still having lots of fun with this series : )  If you would like to play along, it's as easy as leaving a comment here with a link to where I can see what you make and I hope you have fun too.  Stay tuned next time when we uncover The Ringmaster's Secret.

Son of a Nutcracker!

You know what, we did not watch Elf this year, or any of the Santa Clause movies.  The only Christmas movie we did watch was the old animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas...and I watched quite a bit of Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring yesterday.  Don't tell me that's not a Christmas movie, it's got elves and snow and gift-giving and a man with a long white beard.  I also finished reading the book on Christmas Eve; I've been a little fixated on Middle Earth of late, which is weird because I first read the books about 15 years ago and then immediately sold them because I thought they were a slog.  I enjoyed Fellowship more this time around.

Anyway, on to the nutcracker!

I made the Santa card for the hubs to take into work so I couldn't leave out the stache-tastic nutcracker to go with him.  I chose a piece of Festival of Prints DSP and then colored the nutcracker to match and fussy cut him, so this is the card that took the longest out of all the ones I made.  I think he's pretty handsome though.

Okay, we're going to do Boxing Day celebrations with Bennet and Missy so I need to go make another apple pie and some other stuff.  The hubs is clearing out Ryan's room so we can paint in there this weekend.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Santa Stache
Ink:  Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Cherry Cobbler, Pecan Pie, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Neutrals
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Crushed Curry, Thick Basic Vanilla, Festival of Prints DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

Christmas Lights

Mornin' y'all and Merry Christmas!  Ryan was Most Insistent that we all had to get up and go downstairs together to see what Santa brought us.  The hubs and I got chocolate oranges, Daphne got a toy, and Ryan got a bunch of things.  What was he most excited about?  DUCK UNDERWEAR.  My duck-obsessed child can now be fully outfitted in duck items:  duck socks and underwear, duck jammies, a duck hat.  And he can wrap himself up in multiple duck blankets to snuggle with his duck stuffies.  Ducks everywhere.

We opened Christmas presents last night and I got literary tea (can't wait to check that out!) and a book called To Die For:  A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes which the hubs thinks is terribly weird (it was from my mom) but for reals I am looking forward to reading it.  Ryan got lots of duck things and lots of STEM/building-related things; the hubs got stuff for his RC plane and a new backpack to wear while skiing.  Best of all, none of us got eaten by the Yule Cat because we all got clothes.

Anyway, on to today's card:

I love the lights in the Merry & Bright bundle but I am hoarding the coordinating paper for scrapbook pages (...if I ever get back to making scrapbook pages, I made fewer than 50 this year and usually I'm well over 100), so I paired my lights with some fun stripes from the Snowy Scenes DSP.  This is another card the hubs took into work.

Well, I told the hubs I wanted to relax today, but...I still need to do the dishes.  Maybe sneak another Christmas cookie while I'm at it.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Merry & Bright
Ink:  Garden Green, Real Red, Pool Party, Blueberry Bushel, Pretty in Pink
Paper:  Garden Green, Pool Party, Thick Basic White, Snowy Scenes DSP
Accessories:  Merry & Bright dies

Santa!!! I Know Him!

Merry Christmas, y'all!  I made about eleventy billion cookies yesterday, then reorganized the guest room closet (since we had everything out of it to paint in there over the weekend), then ran a bunch of errands, then came home, made tacos for dinner, and made another cookie dough and a batch of pie crust.  I have an apple pie in the oven for the hubs right now : )  I'll be making that last batch of cookies today too, gotta be ready for our visitor tonight.

It's Santa!  Hope we still have cookies by bedtime tonight, we've all been grabbing them whenever we go in the kitchen : )  And that's why I made so many!  Plus we're going to share with friends on Boxing Day.  Anyway, this Santa card is one of the ones I made for the hubs to give out to his coworkers.  This stamp set is quite old (I think we lived in England when it was released, and that was over 10 years ago!) and I wish it had dies for everything, not just the mustache shape.  Remember when mustaches were ridiculously and inexplicably popular and people would have mustaches tattooed on the side of their fingers?!  What a weird time.

Anyway, I'm going to go check on my pie and take an inventory to make sure I get everything I need at the store.  I know I need butter and vanilla...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Santa Stache
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Poppy Parade, Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Thick Basic White, Snowy Scenes DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals

More Gingerbread

Mornin' y'all!  My guys got up super early this morning to go on a day trip skiing, so me and Daph are going to bake cookies all day.  I made three cookie doughs yesterday and let them chill overnight, so now it's time to start baking...right after I finish this blog post : )

These are two of the cards I made for the hubs to take to coworkers last week.  I pulled out a whole bunch of Christmas stamp sets and DSPs, and I discovered that I had already die cut a bunch of the gingerbread elements from the Gingerbread & Peppermint DSP, so these two cards came together pretty quickly.  I started with the card on the right and I had Dimensionals on the back of the round ornament when I discovered that it wouldn't fit where I wanted it on that card, so I used the bell and made the green card to use the round ornament.

That's it for now, peeps.  It's still dark outside but I'm going to fire up the oven and get started on double chocolate crinkle cookies.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Frosted Gingerbread
Ink:  Old Olive, Real Red
Paper:  Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White, Gingerbread & Peppermint DSP Stack
Accessories:  Gingerbread dies, Dimensionals

December 2020

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  We finished painting the guest room yesterday so now we have to get the furniture back in place and put everything back in the closet...and next weekend we're planning to tackle Ryan's room.  Wish us luck.  Today I need to go to the store to get ingredients for ALL THE COOKIES and maybe some food with actual nutritional content, we'll see about that part.

But for right now, I have a December layout from five years ago.  The HECK, how can it be five years ago already?!

That is Ryan with chocolate all over his face on the right page, and I can assure you that five years later he *still* gets chocolate all over his face.  And pretty much everything else he eats.  Not sure when he'll grow out of that, if ever.

Today's Christmas color palette:  Pear Pizzazz, Real Red, Mossy Meadow, Pebbled Path, and Whisper White.  A quick and simple layout other than coloring in the animal images.

That's it for today, peeps, I'm off to walk Daphne and then go to the store.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Full Calendar, Yuletide Pasture
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Mossy Meadow, Stampin' Blends in Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Real Red, Pecan Pie, Smoky Slate, Petal Pink, Pebbled Path, Ivory, So Saffron
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Real Red, Mossy Meadow, Thick Basic White, Heartfelt Hugs DSP
Accessories:  None

Gingerbread Wishes

Mornin' y'all!  Actually it's pretty close to afternoon and yet I am still waiting on the last couple of gingerbread waffles to cook so I can shut off the waffle maker and go upstairs to help paint the guest room.  This is the first time we've tried gingerbread waffles, but I am thinking about making gingerbread muffins for breakfast on Christmas morning.  And since I still have cream cheese in my fridge, I'm thinking about making gingerbread bars sometime this week too.  I have gingerbread on the brain.

But you know what I don't think I've ever actually made?  Gingerbread cookies.  What?

I have, however, made numerous paper versions.  I made this for last week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I was quite pleased with myself for thinking of the baking sheet die cut for the blue panel on the sketch.  I chose a gingham pattern for the background because it made me think of a tablecloth (though picnics usually have red gingham, we're going with green), baked up a few paper gingerbread men and sprinkled with some peppermint accents.

And I'm just in time to play with the latest Inspired By... challenge:

Thanks for a great excuse to make some paper gingerbread men : )  

The timer went off for the last waffle, so now I have to go help paint.  (That waffle recipe makes a pretty large batch, FYI).  We did the closet and ceiling in the guest room yesterday as well as the ceiling in Ryan's bathroom, and today we're painting the guest room walls.  Current plan is to do Ryan's bedroom next weekend.  Wish us luck!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Homemade Treats, Jolly Delivery
Ink:  Real Red, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Real Red, Garden Green, Thick Basic White, Christmas Tags & More DSP Stack
Accessories:  Homemade Treats dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Peppermint accents