Regal Pumpkins

Mornin' y'all!  Ryan is off school today (why?  They rarely seem to go five days in a single week, what is up with that) and supposedly he's cleaning his room, which is desperately needed so I hope that's actually what he's doing.  I got my workout done this morning, cleaned the powder room, put up my laundry, started washing a load of towels, and once I finish this post I will be taking Daphne out for her morning perambulation.  Then I have to finish my cards for tomorrow's Nancy Drew post, but first I have a card for today:

Of course I'm back with more pumpkins and I had to have a second go at the Four Seasons Challenge:

This time I had to play with the colors in the bottom left, so I chose Cajun Craze, Pretty Peacock, Crumb Cake, and Very Vanilla, with a bit of gold thrown in there.  I don't know that I've ever put Pretty Peacock and Cajun Craze together but I am loving that combination.  Ooh, I bet I could add in Lost Lagoon too, a thought for another day.  I chose a greeting from Elegant leaves so I could enter at the SOS Challenge to have a grateful/Thanksgiving card.  And I'm tackling the Atlantic Hearts sketch as well:

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Pumpkins, Elegant Leaves
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Pretty Peacock, VersaMark
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Regal Winter DSP, Autumn Woodland Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Painted Pumpkins dies & masks, Dimensionals, Pretty Peacock Foiled Gems, Pretty Peacock Metallic Ribbon

We had a glorious clear fall day yesterday so while I was out with Daphne, I took a couple of pictures.

A lot of the leaves have fallen, but there are a few trees still hanging on to them and the colors are still gorgeous.

I took this picture looking up at a branch over my head and the only editing I did was shrinking it down a bit for the blog, the leaves really are that vibrant and so was the sky yesterday!  Isn't that amazing?  Have a lovely day, y'all!

Joyful Bear

Mornin' y'all.  I could have had this post up like an hour ago but Ryan threw off my morning routine and I'm a little grumpy about it.  I'm on my second cuppa tea though, so I'm sure that will help, and right after I finish this I will take Daphne for a walk which will definitely help.  And also I might have been browsing fall cross stitch patterns (as if I need more) and that's always fun.

Know what else is fun?  New paper crafting goodies to play with : )

Peep that gorgeous paper that I finally added to my collection!  It is really doing the heavy lifting here, the bear and trees are part of another pattern in the pack and I'm in love with those watercolor stripes.  And I got some new oval dies from Spellbinders, I've been wanting some flat-sided ovals and these went on sale so of course I bought them (I'm a sucker for a good sale).  I combined both of those new things with an older retired stamp set and snowflake dies, and this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I added a greeting on the inside of the card, too, but didn't take a picture of it.  I do like how this turned out, it was lots of fun to cut into this DSP and I think I need a second pack of it for hoarding purposes.

Almost done with my tea and Daphne is more than ready for her tour of the neighborhood.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Snow is Glistening
Ink:  Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Pretty Peacock, Whispering Woods DSP, silver glimmer paper
Accessories:  Snowfall dies, Scallop and Stitched Edge Ovals dies (Spellbinders), Tinsel Gems

More Pie!

Mornin' y'all!  Ryan had his orthodontist appointment yesterday and now has an expander installed to make his mouth bigger...I thought it was big enough based on how he talks nonstop, but apparently his teeth said they need more room.  It's definitely going to be a learning process with the bands, he was not a happy kiddo yesterday afternoon and I think we've told him a hundred times already that it's just going to take time to get used to.  Braces will go in in January.

Anywhaaa, now that it's November, you probably know what is occupying my attention...PIE.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I always try to bake as many pies as I can possibly manage, and other than maybe making one for Christmas this is the only time of year that I make pies.  I have not yet finalized my lineup for this year, but one of the pies that is *always* on the list is...

Pumpkin pie!  The hubs' favorite is apple pie, and the only type of pie that Ryan eats is creamy lemon (weirdo...I mean, that's a great pie, but I love lots of other pies too), but my favorite Thanksgiving pie is pumpkin.  I use a praline pumpkin pie recipe from a cookbook we got for our wedding over 20 years ago, I love it.  The If You Give a Crafter a Cookie challenge was the perfect excuse to use my pumpkin pie stamps:

I like a lot more whipped cream on my pies though ; )  And I used the new sketch from Sunday Stamps:

In an ironic twist, given the greeting stamp I used, I decided that using Pumpkin Pie DSP for the three banner strips would have been too much pumpkin, so I did those with Cherry Cobbler DSP scraps and added some fun ribbon across the top.  I will be trying out a recipe for cranberry-cherry cobbler this year, which is pie adjacent so I count it for my Thanksgiving desserts.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  More Than Autumn, My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Pumpkin Pie, Ivory, neutrals
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler DSP
Accessories:  More Than Autumn dies, Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin Ribbon, Matte Decorative Dots, Mini Dimensionals

It's Wednesday, so time for a WIP Wednesday update and why did it take me three tries to type Wednesday correctly?  I just started a new pattern called Flaming October from Chouette des Forets on Etsy:

And here is what I have so far:

Okay, so I'm not digging it so far but I Have A Plan.  The model was stitched with some hand-dyed silks, which I don't have, so I am substituting some variegated DMC floss--there are only four colors on the pattern, but you get a lot of color variations with this type of floss, and this will be my first pattern to really focus on it.  Should be fun if I can get the colors right.  I loooooooooove that dark red on the bottom left of what I have here (sorry the lighting is terrible on the picture), but I think the yellow is too bright to go with it--needs to be more mustard and less lemon.  So I am going to order some more variegated thread and confer and converse with my mama when she gets here for Thanksgiving.  I may pick out the yellow I've done so far and keep going on this fabric, or I might switch depending on what else I get to go with the red.  In the meantime, I think I'll go ahead and start the Christmas pattern I had planned to start in December; I have the floss and the fabric all picked out and I am confident in my fabric choice for that, so I know that will be fun for me to start while I wait to get the other floss.

Here's my stitching helper:

Maybe her nose got cold?  I don't see how that's comfortable but she was sawing logs, so it must work for her.  Loves my Daphne girl.  Cheers!

Moonlight & Cloud

Mornin' y'all.  November has arrived and it is being *extra* November-y, we had rainy weather most of the day yesterday and it was super windy all night.  My card today is pretty much a paper representation of the weather:

I was inspired to make a blue-gray leaf card by the Four Seasons Challenge:

Specifically the bottom right pane, though I would love to go back and make cards for the other three parts of this too, they're all fantastic inspiration pieces.

I think this also works for the Time Out Challenges theme:

I send out general hello/friendship cards by far the most often, but I think this will go to a cousin who is undergoing cancer treatments and had to have surgery last week.

Anyway, I need to get Ryan out the door for an orthodontics appointment; wish him luck as he's getting some hardware today.  Maybe I should make another one of these for him.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Elegant Leaves
Ink:  Cloud Cover, Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Basic White
Accessories:  Elegant Leaves dies, Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls, Wink of Stella

Pumpkin Wreath

Mornin' y'all!  Hope you had a good weekend and a good Halloween if you celebrate.  Ryan had an inflatable Godzilla costume, so for a while he stood very still at the top of the driveway and when kids walked past him to get to where I was with the candy, he'd suddenly move and scare the kids.  He didn't scare the little ones but I told him teenagers were fair game, and he got quite a few of them to holler even if they KNEW he was in the costume, it was hilarious.  Then he went off trick-or-treating with his dad and I handed out candy, it was a fun time.

Anyway. I have been a naughty little shopper of late and I got a new-to-me stamp set last week that I bought on Ebay, and I had to ink it up for today's card:

The stamp set is a retired SU! set called Full of Blessings and I have zero memory of this from whenever it might have been released, but then again I've been stamping for over 20 years now so I suppose I can't remember *alllll* of the stamp sets.  Anyway, I thought it would work for last week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I wanted to keep all the colors soft, so I heat embossed the images with Versamark + Soft Suede + clear embossing powder, and then lightly watercolored the images.  The wreath was die cut, very simple, and I fussy cut the longer image to go behind it.

That's it for now, Daphne just woke up from a nap and she wants to go for a walk...plot twist, it looks like it's raining, so we might have to go later.  I swan it wasn't raining five minutes ago.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Full of Blessings
Ink:  Versamark, Soft Suede, Mellow Moss, Crushed Curry, Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade
Paper:  Soft Sky, Very Vanilla, Soft Sky DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, clear EP, Dimensionals, Clear Epoxy Shapes

Oh wait, how about a couple Halloween pictures?

Daphne and I were Maleficent twinsies!  The hubs says this is why dogs bite people; I say Daphne can wear a costume for under 10 minutes one day a year.

There's my Godzilla.  Oddly cropped because I didn't want to show other people's faces without permission.  A lot of costumes I didn't recognize because I have the olds, but I did see a pint-sized Michael Jackson in Thriller costume and a teenage Princess Buttercup who was quite pleased when I greeted her by name.  And there were two tiny kiddos dressed as Elsa and Olaf and they were walking around with an actual PONY wearing reindeer antlers.  First time I've ever seen a pony trick-or-treating!

The Paper Players are Mad for Plaid

Mornin' y'all and happy Sunday, which means it's time for a new Paper Players challenge!  Thanks to everyone who played along with my sketch last week, and now it's time for the fabulous Claire to choose our theme:

Now, I loooove me a good plaid and I have three different packs of plaid-specific 6x6 DSP that I can think of off the top of my head, and I had even pulled one out probably two weeks ago thinking I would use it for this challenge, buuuuuut......I got a new box of goodies last Wednesday and one of the DSPs has a fun plaid in it.  So here's my card with all-new plaid and and all-new stamp set and some all-new dies, too!  

Of course I bought this bundle, he's got a COOKIE!  I have, at various points in my hubs' career, been rather famous amongst his coworkers for my cookie baking, so this particular image had to be the first one I used from this stamp set.  I started out with kind of a variation on last week's sketch, to let me really have a lot of the plaid showing on my card front, and I just couldn't make the greeting work on the front so it's stamped on the inside ("May your Christmas be as sweet as a warm cookie").  Now that Halloween is over (sniffle), I thought I'd start making a few Christmas cards.  Of course I will still be making fall cards too, Thanksgiving is actually my favorite holiday : )

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

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:  Merry Mischief
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Cinnamon Cider, neutrals, Petal Pink, Hydrangea Hue, Calypso Coral, Real Red,  Basic Black
Paper:  Real Red, Basic White, Creative Celebrations DSP Stack
Accessories:  Merry Mischief dies, Party Pennants dies, Dimensionals, Hydrangea Hue ribbon, Glossy Garden Dots

The Haunted Carousel

Happy Saturday and welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we're on a Halloween-appropriate book, The Haunted Carousel:

I think I've had the one on the right for the longest and that I got the other two after I started rereading my Drews last year, but I'm not 100% sure.  The one on the left has zero carousel horses on it and it gives me Wizard of Oz vibes, does anyone else see the Wicked Witch of the West in that shadow?  I actually quite like all three covers this time.

Case file:  A newspaper reporter dares Nancy to find out why the carousel in a local amusement park has started turning itself on late at night when the park is closed and no one is around.  At the same time, a girl named Joy Trent (who happens to own a horse that used to be part of the haunted carousel) approaches Nancy for help in solving a riddle that her father left her just before he died.  We get a lot of time in the amusement park and it's fun.

Okay, y'all.  It's Halloween, today's book has some fun spooky elements, and there was a LOT in the story to inspire cards so...it's a supersize Nancy Drew challenge!  I made TWO cards for each cover, one spooky and one not.  So let's get started!

Nancy chases a bad guy into a haunted house and gets knocked out for her trouble, so of course I have a haunted house card to start us off!

Pretty sure it's the scene inside the haunted house that inspired this cover.  Also, I heard on one of the Nancy Drew podcasts that I listen to (yeah, there's several) that Ruth Sanderson, the cover artist for this one, is actually known for painting horses, but the publisher wouldn't let her for this cover.  Weird call, but okay; obviously that changed for the two later editions.  My colors for this one are Real Red, Cloud Cover, Misty Moonlight, and Basic Gray.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tricks & Treats, Haunt Ya Later
Ink:  Basic Gray, Misty Moonlight
Paper:  Real Red, Misty Moonlight, Cloud Cover, Winter Meadow DSP, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Tricks & Treats dies, Strawberries & Dots accents (the Misty Moonlight Dots)

And for my non-spooky card:

Joy's riddle involved Old Glory, which referred both to the American flag and to the name she gave her carousel horse, so a flag card it is!  I thought it would be fun to invert the arches and turn them into pennants for this one.

Also, Joy wants freedom from her overly strict guardian aunt, so the "Let Freedom Ring" greeting seemed appropriate.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Red, White & Blue, Simply Stars
Ink:  Real Red, Misty Moonlight, Bordering Blue (not sure where my Cloud Cover ink pad is hiding and it doesn't match the cardstock anyway)
Paper:  Real Red, Cloud Cover, Basic White
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Gold baker's twine

On to cover #2!

Joy's riddle also involves a frog and I can make frogs Halloweeny so that's just what I did.  I love the expression on his face, he is so done with these witchy shenanigans.

I used Tangerine Tango, Granny Apple Green, and Basic Black for my colors here.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Witches
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends
Paper:  Tangerine Tango, Basic White, Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP, Halloween Spells DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, Stitched Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, Glitter Sequins

And for my non-Halloween card:

Yes, I bought the Carousel Birthday stamp set last year on eBay just for this book, and no one is even pretending to be surprised by that decision.  Fun fact:  one of our neighbors when we lived in England bought an antique carousel horse and had it displayed in her living room.

I still used Tangerine Tango for the card base, but pulled in Tahitian Tide and Daffodil Delight for my supporting colors.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Carousel Birthday
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Pumpkin Pie, Granny Apple Green, Tahitian Tide, Flirty Flamingo, Smoky Slate, Night of Navy
Paper:  Tangerine Tango, Basic White, Tahitian Tide DSP, Daffodil Delight DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, Candy Dots

And on to the third cover!

Two of the villains in this book have the absolutely spectacular criminal sobriquets of Baldy Krebs and Fingers Malone (love it), and they sneak into the amusement park at night while Ned and Nancy are surveilling the carousel.  Baldy is described as looking like an overgrown hippie at one point (savage) so he's Frankie here, and he even has a tool to tinker with the carousel.  Fingers the pickpocket is Drac : )

I used Blushing Bride, Perfect Plum, and Basic Black for my colors on this card.  I tried doing an ink blend background for my baddies, but then changed my mind and did a bit of Polished Stone instead.  I used the Branching Out dies for the ticket shape since we needed lots of tickets for the amusement park.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Handmade Monsters & Jeepers Creepers from Whimsy Stamps
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Perfect Plum, Versamark
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Glossy White, Cast-a-Spell DSP
Accessories:  Branching Out dies, black EP, Dimensionals, Low Profile Dots

And for my final card:

Another part of Joy's riddle has to do with irises; her mother's name was Iris and her father had decorated all over the house with fresh flowers and even iris wallpaper, which I really want to see even though I am generally very anti-wallpaper.  I like the name Iris, that is my phone's name after the Greek goddess of the rainbow.  Another fun fact:  the first flowers my husband ever gave me were irises because he remembered me saying that roses were overdone and boring, ha!  Anyway, irises worked well with the colors on this book cover.

This time my colors are Blushing Bride, Highland Heather, Summer Splash, and Basic Gray.  I was never a fan of Blushing Bride when it was a current color for SU!, but I think it works surprisingly well with the other two colors here.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspiring Iris
Ink:  Basic Gray, Blushing Bride, Stampin' Blends in Highland Heather & Summer Splash
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Basic White, Blushing Bride & Highland Heather DSP
Accessories:  Branching Out dies, Dimensionals, In Color Resin Dots

I thought this book was a lot of fun.  Are there some plot elements that seem shoehorned in for no reason?  Yeah.  Does Chief McGinnis treat Nancy like she's a detective on his force and even let her plan and run a sting operation?  Uh-huh.  Is it absolutely unbelievable that he would share so much information with a teenager?  Absolutely.  Would Nancy have severe cognitive impairment due to how many times she's been knocked on the head over the course of the series?  Undoubtedly.  Is it fun anyway?  Yep!  Five stars, no notes.  If you're inspired to make a card based on the book or its covers, leave me a comment below!  Stay tuned next week when Nancy meets her Enemy Match.  Happy Halloween!