The Clue in the Old Album

Happy Saturday!  And welcome back to the Nancy Drew Challenge, I love these : )  Today we are on book #24, The Clue in the Old Album, and once again I have three different covers.

The first one is by Russell Tandy and features what could be one of several scenes of Nancy watching the happenings at a Romani campsite (the book says Gypsies, but I'm going to do my best to use the more correct and respectful terminology).  This time we have Nancy in a dark red skirt suit with matching headwear, looking pretty sharp.

The second cover is the same type of scene, but updated by Rudy Nappi so we have Nancy in a '60s-style yellow sheath dress with her signature flippy 'do, and if you look closely, her fingernails are painted.  The camp scene she's observing feels more menacing to me, with the man opening the tent and the woman sitting on the ground inside...is it just me?  Gives me the heebies a little bit.

For the third one, also a Nappi cover, we have Nancy in the foreground looking through a photo album, and behind her is the Romani violinist she's trying to find.  I like that Nancy is still in yellow, which looks great with her titian hair and makes for a nice contrast with the black and deep red of the background.  I think this is my favorite of the three, I like the moodiness.

So let's take a look inside.

Case file:  While at a violin concert, Nancy sees a man steal an elderly woman's purse, which is how she meets Mrs. Struthers.  The woman asks Nancy to find a specific doll for her, which her daughter had mentioned in her last words before expiring of an unexplained illness, and while she's doing that Nancy acts as her personal shopper to buy dolls at doll shows in different cities.  Mrs. Struthers also asks her to find Romano Pepito, estranged father of her granddaughter Rose, who is a Romani man and plays the violin (and apparently he is less important to her than the dolls).  Of course Nancy finds everything she's looking for and reunites the family.  And the dolls.  Don't forget the dolls.

Here's my card:

Musical Jamboree is the closest I could come to a violin in my collection, though in this context would it be a fiddle?  What's the difference, anyway?  Ah, Google says that the main difference is the style of music played rather than the structure of the instrument, but fiddlers will sometimes flatten the bridge of the strings so they can more easily play multiple strings at once.  Today I learned.

I thought my music-loving animals were a good parallel for the campfire scene on the book, and I used my new favorite Everyday Skies DSP for the background, embossing the greeting right on the sky.  Over the course of the book, Nancy encourages Mrs. Struthers to get her wild granddaughter Rose into music lessons, so I liked that sentiment for this card.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Musical Jamboree, Music from the Heart
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Pebbled Path, Ivory, Copper Clay, Pecan Pie, Petal Pink, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Everyday Skies DSP Stack, Meandering Meadows DSP Stack
Accessories:  White EP

And the second OT cover:

Here's my card:

A large part of the book has to deal with Mrs. Struthers' doll collection; she sends Nancy on a couple of errands to go buy more dolls in other cities and a pair of nefarious Romani steal dolls from her and also kidnap her granddaughter Rose.  Anyway, dolls brought to mind the My Matryoshka stamp set...I like matryoshka dolls but most other types creep me out ; )  I think dolls were a bigger plot point than the titular old album.

I wanted to incorporate yellow for Nancy's dress on the cover, so I started with the Floral Delight DSP, then added Real Red from the book cover and a bit of Pool Party from the DSP.  Parts of the dolls are colored with the lighter Pool Party Blend but it's hard to see in the photo.  I went with the "Missing You" sentiment since Rose and her dad were missing each other until Nancy reunited them.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  My Matryoshka, Oh So Eclectic
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink, Real Red, Pool Party, Old Olive
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lolly, Thick Basic White, Floral Delight DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Opaque Faceted Gems, Best Year Ever ribbon, Dimensionals

Now for the RT:

Case file:  This one closely follows the RT, omitting a subplot where Nancy, Bess, and George buy a sailboat and beat a snooty girl and her friends in a sailing race, which was pretty pointless anyway.

Here's my card:

Rose, the granddaughter, is a bit of a wild child and Mrs. Struthers initially doesn't want Rose to know about her Romani heritage (because...it will make her more wild?).  Rose loves music and dancing, so I chose Margarita Ketto from Stamping Bella to represent Rose, plus many multiple Romani women are described as wearing scarlet skirts.  I used a giant rose outline on the Cherry Cobbler paper and on the inside, I stamped the Katharine Hepburn quote "If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun" which pretty much encapsulates Rose's attitude.

I took my colors directly from the cover on this one.  I wanted to put the Katharine Hepburn quote on the front, but that stamp is quite large so I put it on the inside instead and then forgot to take a picture of it.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Margarita Ketto & greetings from Stamping Bella, Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Cherry Cobbler, Stampin' Blends in Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Layering Ovals Framelits, Dimensionals, Daffodil Delight 3/8" taffeta ribbon

I do vaguely remember this one from childhood--as soon as it mentioned Mrs. Struthers' doll collection, I was like "Oh yes, the creepy dolls!"  Nancy even gets poisoned by one.  Anyway, this is a pretty solid installment but not one of my favorites; I give it three and a half stars.  If you are inspired to create a card, leave me a comment below as I would love to see!  Meanwhile, I will be back next Saturday to investigate The Ghost of Blackwood Hall.  Cheers!

Moonlight Pines

Afternoon, y'all!  I had an extra productive day in my craft room yesterday so I have an extra card to share today.  Take a look:

Why I always seem to get some kind of smudge but only on Misty Moonlight cardstock?  Of course it happened after everything was stuck down so it's staying that way.  Let's start with the Inspired By... challenge:

I couldn't get it to show up in a picture taken straight on, but the dark parts on my card are the Earthen Toned Metallic Paper, take a look:

IRL it matches the shine on the copper plates and utensils in the inspo pic.  Next up is the Sunday Stamps sketch:

I made the strip across the bottom taller than in the sketch, which made the greeting be within that strip instead of above it, but that's what made sense to me for my card--if I'd made the DSP narrower, I don't think it would have come across that it's a pattern with pine trees.

This was the first time I'd played with the image stamps in Branching Out and I had a good time with it.  I love the shaped dies in this set too, so I'm sure you'll be seeing lots more of this as we get closer to Christmas : )  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Branching Out
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Early Espresso
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Winter Meadow DSP, Earthen Toned Metallic Specialty Paper
Accessories:  Branching Out dies, Textured Notes dies, Tinsel Gems

Christmas Thoughts Duo

Mornin' y'all, how's your Friday going?  Mine started extra early...every once in a while the hubs has a weird work schedule that involves getting up at 4am so guess who was *also* awake at 4am.

Nevertheless, I have two cards to share today, starting with this one:

Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I used the colors from CAS Colours & Sketches:

But I worried that it wasn't really CAS enough, and I still had all my paper scraps out including another bit of that same plaid, so I made this:

Same basic idea as the first card, but I took out the Night of Navy layer and I changed the layout around to leave more white space and thus make it more CAS.  But before I mail this out I'm going to add some gold glitter enamel dots like on the other one ; )

That's it for now, peeps.  Have a good Friday...I'm going to go make a cuppa tea and try to wake up.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sleigh Ride, Greatest Part of Christmas
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Real Red & Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Wrapped in Plaid DSP
Accessories:  Gold Glitter Enamel Dots

Foresty Thanks

Mornin' y'all!  I actually did sleep last night, hallelujah, but my left hip and knee are really hurting this morning for no reason that I know of.  Don't know what that's about, but Daphne will insist on going for her usual walk so maybe that will help work the kinks out if I just slept on it wrong?  Here's hoping.

Anyway, here's my card for this morning:

I like the TGIF Challenges color palette this round:

I did add some Early Espresso because I needed a dark neutral to ground the other colors.  Paired that with the Atlantic Hearts sketch this week:

I thought the explosion of leaves, mushrooms, and acorns from the Gathering Moments stamp set worked well for this sketch.  I added a few of the new Pearls of Beauty in Crumb Cake for accents, I would love these in lots more colors.

That's it for now, I'm going to go take Daphne and hope that my hip and knee will cooperate.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gathering Moments
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral, Old Olive
Paper:  Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Thick Basic White, Gathering Together DSP
Accessories:  Gathering Moments dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Pearls of Beauty

Grateful Greetings

Afternoon, y'all!  Well, since I was last here, I got Ryan to school (he left his backpack at home so we had to come back and get it, but he got into school on time just by the skin of his teeth) and then I took a long nap to make up for last night's insomnia.  The only good part about insomnia is that I got to read for a couple of hours while the house was all quiet since everyone ELSE was asleep.

Anyway, I have another card to share today and here it is:

I have to say, when I first saw the Hand-Stamped Sentiments sketch, I had planned to skip it because I didn't really want to futz with all the layers, but when I actually got in my craft room my brain insisted on making it anyway : )  Here's the sketch:

The easy part was pairing it with the Color Dare Challenge:

Those colors together instantly made me think of the long, long, long-retired Fall Flowers DSP, and that chose my third color for me (and a neutral) because the paper has Really Rust, Old Olive, Soft Sky, and Crumb Cake.  Once I chose patterns for the background bits, this came together really quickly.  There is a Bigz die for the leaves, but since you can't see where you're cutting it (as the name implies, it's a big fat die, not one of the wafer-thin ones you can see through), I almost never use it and just fussy cut the leaves.  Wonderfall is another longtime favorite leaf set and Grateful Greetings popped into my head for a sentiment, and happily there was one that fit perfectly in the sketch.

Okay, Daphne is staring me down because I didn't take her for a walk this morning, so I had better fix that oversight before she takes matters into her own paws.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wonderfall. Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Really Rust, Soft Sky, Old Olive
Paper:  Really Rust, Thick Basic White, Fall Flowers DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Enamel Dot Essentials

Cardigan Card Again

Mornin' y'all...insomnia must be contagious because I think I caught it from the hubs.  I was awake from midnight to 3am last night and I did NOT want to get up this morning, but Daphne and Ryan insisted.  Maybe I'll get to take a nap once I get Ryan off to school...

Anyway, I do have a card to share today and actually I might be doing multiple posts some days this week because there are a plethora of great challenges out there and I want to play with all of them : )  So here is today's card:

We have two challenges that were absolutely meant for each other, starting with Inkspirational:

And next is Inspired By...:

I had to get out my trusty Knit Together background stamp and the knit cardigan from Forever Friendship for these two challenges.  I could not for the life of me remember the name of the stamp set with the cardigan in it so I think it took me almost as long to locate the stamp set as it did to make the card, ha!  I couldn't resist adding some Mossy Meadow to my color palette even though there's no green in the inspo pic.  Also I think I've gone through half a package of Cajun Craze cardstock in the last six weeks.

Time to get the kiddo to school.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Forever Friendship, Knit Together
Ink:  Versamark, Tip Top Taupe, Cajun Craze, Pecan Pie, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Tip Top Taupe, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Speckled Dots

A Colorful Challenge from SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all and guess what?  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

And without any ado whatsoever, here it is:

Okay I have to say that my brain kept thinking it was an inspiration challenge rather than a color challenge, but I like to use the colors I see on inspo challenges anyway so it worked out and I got to ink up a couple of new stamp sets!  Here's what I made:

Looking at the picture, I saw Cloud Cover, Darling Duckling (or gold, but I opted for Darling Duckling), Strawberry Slush, and Garden Green.  The adorable snowman is from Festive Friends and the trees are the coordinating Festive Friends dies; the greeting comes from Branching Out, which I just *had* to buy because of Cynthia and all the pretty cards she's made with it.

I kept a lineup similar to the challenge graphic, and to give the trees a bit more texture I scrunched up plastic wrap and used it to dab ink on the die cut trees.  Such an easy technique and it makes the trees match the DSP background.  A few Strawberry Slush gems and done!

We hope you'll join in the fun at SUO Challenges.  Don't forget to use only Stampin' Up! supplies and link up your card at the challenge blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Festive Friends, Branching Out
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Darling Duckling, Garden Green, Stampin' Blends in Cloud Cover, Soft Sea Foam, Darling Duckling, Strawberry Slush
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Darling Duckling, Garden Green, Thick Basic White, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Festive Friends dies, Dimensionals, Strawberry Slush sparkle gems