The Mystery of the 99 Steps

Happy Saturday and welcome to the latest Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we are investigating The Mystery of the 99 Steps, Nancy's 43rd adventure.

We have a pretty cool Rudy Nappi cover here with a whole lot of steps and I really want Nancy's dress.  George's dress is good too, but she's still rocking Danny Zuko's hairstyle from Grease, like she was on the cover for Old Stagecoach.  That mysterious figure at the top of the stairs looks scary but it's Bess, who I'm sure is also wearing a lovely frock.

Case file:  We have another travel mystery as this time the Drew Crew is heading to France on two different cases.  While Carson has been hired to try to figure out why a French financier is suddenly behaving oddly, Nancy has been asked by a French lady to find out why she has recurring nightmares about falling while someone says "99 steps".  We get tourist time in Paris and the Loire Valley as well as lessons on medieval alchemy and Joan of Arc.

Here's my first card:

Actually I can't remember offhand if they talk much about the Eiffel Tower, but they go to Paris and I just had to make a Paris card.  Plus Artistic Etchings is an old favorite stamp set and I will accept any excuse to use it.  I have several stamp sets in French, with today's greeting coming from Carte Postale.

I used Terracotta Tile to match Nancy's dress and Pool Party for George's.  

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Artistic Etchings, Carte Postale, French Script
Ink:  Terracotta Tile, Pool Party, Pecan Pie, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze Blend to color the rhinestones
Paper:  Terracotta Tile, Thick Basic White, Early Espresso DSP
Accessories:  some kind of label punch, I forget what, Dimensionals, Rhinestones

I couldn't stop with just one card though, so here's the second:

Since we have the alchemy angle in this mystery, I had to break out the It's a Science stamp set for some chemistry beakers.  And you know what, this is the very first time I've used that stamp set!  I knew it would come in handy sometime.

This time I used my favorite Fresh Prints (of Bel-Air) DSP, so the colors are Coastal Cabana, Real Red, and Crumb Cake.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  It's a Science
Ink:  Early Espresso, Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Versamark
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Thick Basic White, Fresh Prints DSP Stack
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, clear EP, Dimensionals, Delightful Dots, Wink of Stella

I was going to stop there, but then I decided I had to make a card to commemorate the Drew Crew's visit to Notre Dame, so here is my third card:

I had to get out the stained glass stamps from Painted Glass for Notre Dame's rose window.  Once again I tried to choose colors that coordinate with the book cover:

This time I did Coastal Cabana for George, but used Timid Tiger for Nancy, and incorporated Daffodil Delight for the book title.  Still kept quite a bit of Pecan Pie for all the brown on the cover of the book too.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Glass, Stacked Stone
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pecan Pie, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Timid Tiger, Coastal Cabana, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Pecan Pie, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Textured Notes dies, Best Year Ever ribbon, In Color Flat Pearls, Earthy Matte Dots

This is another example of the mystery being secondary to the setting, but kid Christy loved the French tourist bit (I started taking French classes in middle school and would have gotten a minor in French if I had taken two more classes in college).  Adult Christy thinks the financier was just about the stupidest person ever--the fake alchemist has him convinced that he can turn coal into gold, which is a trick alchemists have been trying to pull since the Middle Ages so why is the financier so easy to fool?  All in all I give it three and a half stars.  If you're inspired to play along, leave me a comment on this post so I can see!  And come back next Saturday when Nancy investigates The Clue in the Crossword Cipher.

The Easy Button

Mornin' y'all!  I have to type fast...it's the last day of Ryan's film camp and they're having their movie premiere this morning so I am going to go watch that.  But first, I have a very quick card:

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And really it feels like I cheated, because when I saw the sketch I thought of the oval elements in the Lovely Blossoms DSP that Joanne made me get.  So all I did was snip out the central image; the horizontal strip was already a scrap, I just cut it to fit the card front, and one simple stamped greeting on a punched circle and a few dots finished it off.  I mean the whole thing probably took less than ten minutes so I decided to have a go at a similar sketch and made this card:

We have another large oval on the Sunday Stamps sketch, and since this DSP image isn't quite as oval as the first one, I floated it on a Crumb Cake oval and then put that on the fun stripes that's the opposite side of the DSP from the big images I used today.  Same greeting, but this time die cut with another oval.  Here's the sketch:

Another super fast card and now I have cards to mail out next week to my two friends.  I like to pick cards that kind of coordinate to send to these two ladies because they are also friends so just in case they compare what they get ; )

Ack!  Gotta run.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Secret Sea
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Secret Sea, Crumb Cake, Lovely Blossoms DSP
Accessories:  circle punch, Muted Palette Dots, Layering Ovals dies, Dimensionals

Bodaciously Happy

Mornin' y'all.  I'm still dealing with the headache from yesterday but at least it's not as bad today.  And I made something in my craft room yesterday that makes me happy, so that's good, and here it is:

I have once again pulled out some retro stamp sets for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

And I went really retro, pulling out some of my longtime favorites:  Bodacious Bouquet is now 19 years old, and Happy Everything is 20.  I think they safely qualify as retro.  I also used a color combination from Color Dare:

I read it as Daffodil Delight, Petunia Pop, Pool Party, Sweet Sorbet, Summer Splash, and Pumpkin Pie, and I used all of the colors except Petunia Pop.  For the two blues though it's a little hard to see the difference as my Pool Party ink pad was inked up pretty recently so it's extra dark, and the Summer Splash ink pad is a bit on the dry side so it's a little light.  "Happy" is stamped in Pool Party and "Everything" is in Summer Splash.  Those two stamp sets have been favorites for a very long time so I has happy to play with them both again.

That's it for now, peeps.  Time to walk the Daphinator.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bodacious Bouquet, Happy Everything
Ink:  Sweet Sorbet, Summer Splash, Pool Party, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Basic White, Daffodil Delight DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Mini Dimensionals, Seasonal Sequins

Bunny Wishes

Hey y'all.  I did not get much sleep last night--I was up too late reading a book (which happens frequently, let's be honest) despite knowing that the hubs was going to get up in the wee smalls and that would wake me up and I have a hard time getting back to sleep, and I also know that when I don't get much sleep I am much more prone to headaches which is exactly what happened so that's how my day is starting.  But I finished my book last night and it was really good and also I'm pretty sure I have bought over fifty books on my Kindle this month.  I need to clone myself so I can read more and do all the other things I want to do too.  Also, speaking of clones, Ryan and I have watched all of the Star Wars prequel trilogy and we are now watching the Clone Wars cartoon series.  Love it.

Anyway, for the second day in a row, I have inked up a brand new stamp set.  Take a look:

Mixing old and new here; the bunny is from the March product of the month stamp set Notes of Spring, and the patterned paper is February's product of the month, the Painted Illusions DSP, while the Easter greeting is from 2011's Something to Celebrate.  I am entering this at CAS on Friday's challenge to make a spring card, and I had to have a go at the Festive Friday challenge:

I have pastel colors, two punches, a rabbit, and an Easter greeting.  I also used the latest sketch from CAS Colours & Sketches:

I cut a strip of Soft Sea Foam cardstock to go across the patterned paper as in the sketch, and I colored it with the light Blend marker to differentiate it a bit from the card base instead of using another pattern there since this is meant to be CAS.  The bunny was quick to snip out and happily the large oval punch was a good size for the bunny to fit into.

This is the second card I made for these two challenges; I won't show you the first one because I absolutely despise it because every once in a while, things just don't work out the way you want them to and a card has to go in the bin.  I've decided that for the first time in my 20+ years of crafting with SU! products, I am going to take an entire pack of DSP and chuck it.  I got the Easter Joy specialty paper and it's got this coating on it that makes the colors dull and smells weird and just feels ick in my hands.  I tried to use it and the longer I looked at it the more I hated it.  I have also discovered that I don't much like creating with the mix & match ephemera packs either, but at least now I know not to buy those in the future.

Anyway, I'm almost done with my morning cuppa and perhaps a walk in the sunshine with Daphne will make my head feel better.  Have a good one, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Notes of Spring, Something to Celebrate 2011
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Soft Sea Foam, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Flirty Flamingo, Soft Sea Foam
Paper:  Soft Sea Foam, Thick Basic White, Painted Illusions DSP
Accessories:  large oval punch, modern label? punch, Dimensionals

Best Day = Dogs

Mornin' y'all!  My car is still in the shop so I still have to walk or ride bikes to take Ryan to his film camp this week, and today Ryan wanted to ride bikes *and* bring Daphne with us which is a level of chaos I will not attempt again.  I mean, we all survived, but it's hard for me to keep track of Ryan and Daphne and ride a bike at the same time.

Anyway, I have exciting news:  I FINALLY inked up one of the new stamp sets I've had hanging around since...January?  Maybe February?  A while, anyway.  Here's my card:

The Cutest Crew bundle has puppers, kitties, and birbs and this doggo card will be going to my dog-loving pal Krissy.  I got my bright color combo from Creative Colour Challenges:

Since I colored all the doggos in with various shades of brown and ivory, I could go really wild with the other colors.  I did use Parakeet Party bakers twine and the faceted gems are supposedly Night of Navy, but I thought that the embellishments matched the challenge colors closely enough to work.

I also used this week's Atlantic Hearts sketch:

I do still have several brand new uninked stamp sets though...we'll see how long it takes to get around to those ; )  Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cutest Crew
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Timid Tiger, Lemon Lime Twist, Blueberry Bushel, Ivory, Pecan Pie, neutrals
Paper:  Lemon Lime Twist, Timid Tiger, Thick Basic White, Blueberry Bushel & Timid Tiger DSP
Accessories:  Cutest Crew dies, Parakeet Party bakers twine, Solid Faceted Gems, Dimensionals

Tiger Thoughts

Mornin' y'all!  I did my first workout in about six weeks this morning and I bet I'll be feeling it tomorrow.  I usually play workout videos on the Mac and work out in the living room, so when the old Mac went kaput so did my workout routine.  But now I'm back in it AND Daphne and I walked Ryan to school this morning.  He's still on spring break this week, but he's doing a film camp thing where they're making a movie based on Peter Pan, which means Daphne and I still get our girl time in the mornings.

Anyway, we were in Telluride for most of last week so yesterday was my first time back in my craft room and I made this:

I hadn't used Along These Lines in a while and every single time I've ever used it, it's been this tiger stamp but that's okay because the tiger is precisely why I bought the stamp set.  I'm entering this at Color Hues:

I used Blackberry Bliss and Peach Pie for the colors.  Next up is the AAA Cards Challenge:

I think my card still counts as CAS, there's a limited amount of patterned paper and lots of white space.  Next up is the Addicted to CAS challenge:

It was this challenge combined with the colors that made me think of the tiger stamp, and just in case the tiger wasn't stripey enough on his own I added a little bit of purple stripey paper for him to recline on in all his regal glory.  I added a bit of color with watercolor pencils and a blender pen.

I'm going to finish my cuppa tea while I look at some card blogs and then I'll probably try to work on something in my craft room until it's time to pick Ryan up.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Along These Lines, Branching Out
Ink:  Peach Pie, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Peach Pie, Basic White, Blackberry Bliss DSP
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, watercolor pencils

Desert Sunshine for a Paper Players Sketch

Mornin' y'all!  It is time once again for a new Paper Players challenge, and this week the lovely and talented Claire has a sketch for us:

One of the stamp sets that I got out for last week's CAS floral challenge was Desert Details, and since I didn't use it for that challenge I just had to use it for this sketch.  Here's what I made:

I used both the Delicate Desert DSP and the Dry Brushed Metallic specialty paper for this, I think it's the first time I cut into the specialty paper.  I added some brushed metallic dots to bring the gold over and draw the eye toward the greeting on my desert landscape backdrop.  For the "anything goes" strip, I combined one of the stamps that's a long, thin pattern and a die on a scrap of the same paper I used for the background (it's a bit I cut off the top that's just a little bit Soft Succulent colored).  And just because I like sparkle, I added Wink of Stella to the largest flower.

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:  Desert Details
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Soft Succulent, Pale Papaya
Paper:  Soft Succulent, Thick Basic White, Delicate Desert DSP, Dry Brushed Metallic Specialty Paper
Accessories:  Desert Details dies, Dimensionals, Brushed Metallic Dots