The Clue in the Old Stagecoach

Happy Valentine's Day and welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Our book isn't Valentine themed but that's okay; today we're investigating #37, The Clue in the Old Stagecoach.

For the third book cover in a row, we have Nancy and her chums looking with great concern at something happening in the distance.  I wonder why Rudy Nappi put Nancy and Bess in the same color on this cover and I have to say I like George's hair better on the cover for The Haunted Showboat; on this one she looks like Danny Zuko from the movie Grease.  Regardless, let's talk about the mystery!

Case file:  While on vacation at a summer camp near the town of Francisville, Nancy is contacted by elderly widow Mrs. Strook, who says that her great uncle Abner was a stagecoach driver in the 1800s and wrote a letter saying that he had hidden something that would be of great value to the town.  Francisville has recently grown quite quickly and they desperately need a new school for all the kiddos, so Nancy agrees to investigate, while contending with two extremely nosy people staying at the camp and a local resident who wants everyone else in town to GIT OUT.  I won't tell you what the treasure is, but Nancy and her chums are named honorary citizens of Francisville.

Here's my card:

I have several stamp sets featuring horses, but the closest I could come to a stagecoach is this wagon wheel from Country Road, which was something of an impulse buy a few months ago and now it's come in handy.  I kept this card very simple and used my ink pads and blending brushes to color in my main panel.

I have Balmy Blue for Nancy and Bess's clothes, Shaded Spruce for the woods, and Crushed Curry for Bess's hair because I just couldn't convince myself to stamp that grain stalk in green.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Country Road
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Bashful Blue, Pecan Pie, Early Espresso
Paper:  Bashful Blue, Thick Basic White, Meandering Meadows DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles DSP, Dimensionals

And I have one more card:

At the end of the book, when all the baddies are in custody, a police officer tells one of the baddies that another one had fooled him, and the man says "I'll say he did, the skunk!" which just made me laugh so hard and I had to make a skunk card.  I will say after I finished this one that I wish I had made the dark green panel (same as on the first card) smaller so more of the cloudy pattern would show, but it is what it is and I can't unstick it.

I think I'm going to start saying "The skunk!" when someone does something I don't like : )

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wildlife, Rough Edges Alphabet
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Meandering Meadows DSP Stack
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Matte Black Dots

I think The Clue in the Old Stagecoach is fine, but not one of the more memorable mysteries in the series, so I give it three stars.  If this book inspires you too, I would be delighted to see what you make, just leave a comment on this post.  And come back next Saturday when Nancy encounters The Mystery of the Fire Dragon!

Florals in Green

Mornin' y'all!  Since the hubs has been sick, I've spent the past couple of nights in the guest room in an attempt to not acquire what he's got (though I'm not sure it's working).  Daphne joined me in there last night and I woke up in the middle of the night with her head rammed into my spine--she and Ryan both like to sleep perpendicularly on the bed.  Just don't tell the hubs she was on the bed with me : )  Usually I agree with him about no doggos on the furniture (other than Daph's chair), but I wanted puppy snuggles.  They're medicinal.

Anyway, here's my card today and we're going all in on my favorite color, green!

As soon as I saw this week's Freshly Made Sketch, I knew I was going to use that Nested Essentials shape for the oval in the sketch:

That's the first one I could think of that was wide but short.  I made this card before I saw this Easter card by my Paper Players teammie LeAnne but apparently we were both riding the same brain wave.

Aww man, I just picked up my tea mug and found it unexpectedly empty.  Time to brew another cuppa!  Anyway, my next challenge is The Card Concept:

My colors don't exactly match their palette, but that inspo pic immediately made me think of the Garden Lane DSP (though I couldn't remember the name so I had to do some hunting for it).  I read their colors as Granny Apple Green, Shy Shamrock, and Always Artichoke, while my card is Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, and possibly a bit of Mossy Meadow.  Still very green.  I have a mix of still current (Pretty Florals), recently retired (Year of Flowers), and long retired (Garden Lane DSP and Pear Pizzazz as a color) on my clean and layered card.  This is the year of the retired supplies I think, I'm just using whatever I feel like for challenges and who cares if it's retired or not.  (Though I did just get a little bitty order from SU! yesterday evening that I haven't opened yet!)

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pretty Florals, Year of Flowers
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, VersaMark
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Basic White, Garden Lane DSP
Accessories:  Pretty Florals dies, Nested Essentials dies, white EP, Pearls of Beauty, Dimensionals

I came down with a low-grade fever yesterday afternoon and just felt really tired, so I didn't get in my craft room at all but I DID watch a show and finish my latest cross stitch piece:

More green!  I bought this Art Deco Tiger pattern from Etsy and it was a delight to stitch.  For once I'm not sure what I'm going to make next; I have several patterns that I could do but I haven't picked yet.

Okay I feel like I've talked a lot today, so I'm going to take my fresh cuppa and go look at other blogs for a bit, then take Daphne for a walk, then start working on a birthday cake for the hubs.  I'm planning to make a homemade strawberry cake for him, and as much as I cook and bake I hardly ever make cakes so this will be interesting.  Cheers!

Pumpkin Patch

Mornin' y'all!  It's been busy already...hubs is home sick today with a very bad cold, but I got the kiddo off to school and then went to the store so I could buy potatoes (and somehow a bunch of other things) and then I put a roast (with the potatoes) into the crock pot for dinner.  And did the dishes.  Oh, I need to switch out my laundry.  Lots to do today.

Anyway, the title of this post did not deceive you, I have a pumpkin card to share today:

And I made this for the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I did both diagonals and the bottom row, I have purple - your choice (paisley) - squares - gems/pearls - die cut - pumpkin.  Pick of the Patch (greeting) is about two and a half years old, and I think I got Paisley Prints that year I was in Texas with Ryan so it should be about the same age.  We've moved around so much for the past 22 years that I will associate a lot of crafty supplies with where we lived when I bought them, so those are both Texas sets.  Anyway, I've never used Paisley Prints before and it's SO CUTE so I'm glad I had this excuse to ink it up.

It was the squares option on this tic-tac-toe (I just tried to call it a tic-taco, ha) that made me decide to tackle this week's Atlantic Hearts sketch:

Not gonna lie, I was all set to skip it but I really liked what Tracy did with the sketch so I decided to be brave and give it a shot.  And then it ended up being not too bad thanks to my square dies, *and* I used up some leetle scraps of Soft Sky DSP.  Also I really liked the combination of Concord Crush and Peach Pie from this card, so I went with those and swapped the Basic Beige for Soft Sky.  Who cares if February isn't pumpkin season?  Ryan's birthday is on Sunday and he's already requested I make an extra large pumpkin coffee cake for breakfast that day.

Aww, I'm out of tea.  Guess I'd better go take Daphne for a walk and then work on more laundry.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Paisley Prints, Pick of the Patch
Ink:  Peach Pie, Soft Sky, Concord Crush
Paper:  Peach Pie, Concord Crush, Basic White, Soft Sky DSP
Accessories:  Squares Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, Delightful Decorative Dots

Hugh Manatee

Hello again, y'all, and welcome to my second card of the day!  Here it is:

Of *course* this manatee's name is Hugh : )  I wish the colors on this photographed a bit better, but my phone seems to have beef with Cloud Cover and always makes it look weird.  And the bit under the manatee's tail is Secret Sea, not black.  Those three little scraps of DSP are what started this card, I had them left over from a design team card you'll see soon and they were all one inch tall so I decided I could use them for this card.  Proof that you can use even tiny pieces of DSP to make a card!

I'm entering this at CAS on Friday where they want anything that's CAS.  Last time I looked, this stamp set was on the Last Chance List so go grab it if you haven't yet.  I haven't even gotten to use the panda or the elephant yet.

Okay, I'm off to make some more schtuff.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Big Little Things
Ink:  Cloud Cover, Secret Sea
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Basic Beige, Thick Basic White, Nature Walk DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Faux Glass Dots

And I have a third card today, I made over this morning's card in The Man Rainbow for the hubs' birthday on Saturday, check it out:

I like to jokingly refer to The Man Rainbow which encompasses about 95% of the hubs' wardrobe:  white, black, gray, navy blue, and khaki.  Every once in a great while he'll mix it up with a dark red or forest green and I'm like whoa now, let's not get too crazy here.  Ha!  Meanwhile I'm over here with my fluorescent pink winter jacket.

Okay, that's it for today (really).  I'm going back upstairs to work some more until it's time to pick up Ryan.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Valentine Kisses
Ink:  Boho Blue
Paper:  Boho Blue, Whisper White, Take to the Sky DSP, Silver Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Hearts Collection Framelits, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Opal Rounds

Sending Love

Mornin' y'all!  I tell you what, I have been ON FI-YURRRR in my craft room lately!  Which is great, since for the past couple of weeks it has felt like a bit of a struggle to get things done but right now I have almost a dozen cards sitting on my computer desk that I made over the past couple of days.  So let's get to one of those!

We're going CAS today and I have several challenges, starting with Time Out Challenges:

I have sparkle, red, heart, and pink, which is not too shabby for a CAS card.  Next up is the Color Hues Challenge:

I used Real Red and Flirty Flamingo for my hues and the only other color is white.  Next up is Cupcake Inspirations:

And Inspire. Create. is also feeling the love:

I think I'll make this card again with a different color for the card base and give it to the hubs for his birthday, which is on Valentine's Day.  I'll so something that's a little less pink for him : )

Most likely I will be posting another card this afternoon because like I said, I have quite a pile going and I don't want to miss challenge deadlines.  In the meantime, I'm going to take my girl Daphne out for a walk.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Valentine Kisses
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo
Paper:  Flirty Flamingo, Basic White, Made with Love DSP, Real Red Glimmer Paper
Accessories:  Hearts Collection Framelits, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Year of the Horse

Mornin' y'all!  I feel like I actually got enough sleep last night and that hardly every happens so today is the day I'm going to take over the world.  Ha!  Or I will at least have dominion over my craft room and the laundry.

Here's my card for today:

This is for the As You See It recipe challenge.  Joanne said when she made her card that she had wanted to do a Chinese New Year but didn't have anything that would work for the year of the horse, and I immediately thought of this horse image in Ancient Asia.  Here's the challenge:

The only part of this recipe that gave me trouble was the vellum; I was looking to see if I had any gold vellum (nope) when I found that scrap of die-cut glimmer paper.  It's the center of the wreath I made for this card in 2023 and I thought it kinda looked like a sunburst which maybe doesn't make sense for a lunar new year card but that's what my brain told me to do.  I added gold embossing powder and some gold glitter dots to really up the bling factor here.

I'm going to finish my tea and then take Daphne for a walk, and then I have lots of things to do in my craft room (in between loads of laundry, of course).  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ancient Asia, Feeling Sentimental
Ink:  Versamark, Merry Merlot
Paper:  Riding Hood Red, Merry Merlot, Ginger Blossom DSP, vellum
Accessories:  Wishes All Around dies, gold EP, Gold Glitter Dots, Dimensionals

Gus Says Hello

Mornin' y'all.  We're supposed to leave in less than ten minutes to take Ryan to school and he's upstairs just...yelling.  Making noise.  Wish me luck getting him out the door on time.

In the meantime, let's revisit yesterday's Paper Players color challenge from Ann:

I pulled out a couple of undersea stamp sets before I decided to go with Sea Turtle for yesterday's card, and while I had Sea of Textures out I had to make another card:

It's been a while since Gus last got out to play, so here he is.  Gus is a chameleon octopus, he can be any color(s) he wants to, and today he chose Calypso Coral and Petal Pink.  The Lost Lagoon DSP was the scrap I had left over from yesterday's sea turtle card.  I liked the balance of the colors on yesterday's card better and that's why I chose it for the Paper Players challenge.

Okay, Ryan's got five minutes and the noise seems to have died down somewhat...oh no wait, I typed too soon.  Hopefully he's getting ready to go whilst making so much noise.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sea of Textures, Four You
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Mossy Meadow, Petal Pink, Thoughtful Journey DSP Stack
Accessories:  Under the Sea dies, Dimensionals, Pearls of Beauty