Pink Pumpkin Club

Mornin' y'all!  Well, despite my paper crafty intentions yesterday, I only got one card made in the afternoon...but I have made a lot of progress on my current stitching project so I was still being crafty, just in a different medium.  So here's the card I made:

Continuing to make good on my threat to make these pumpkins in a rainbow of colors, here they are in pink : )  Flirty Flamingo and Crumb Cake, to be precise.  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Combined with the Creative Colour Challenge:

I used the stencils and blending brushes to color my pumpkins, and then I used another blending brush to apply Lemon Lime Twist ink to white cardstock and used the leafy and viney dies to cut those bits out so they'd match the pumpkins.  That plaid is from the Timeless Plaid DSP stack that's now retired but none of my regular card recipients would know (or care) if my supplies are current or not so I can use whatever I want in my warcraft room.  I found one scrap of that ribbon in one of my ribbon boxes and used about half of it for today's card, I wish I had more as I like that ribbon.  It's odd that I just have the ribbon scrap and not the original roll that I assume it came on.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Pumpkins
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Flirty Flamingo, Lemon Lime Twist
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Basic White, Timeless Plaid DSP Stack
Accessories:  Painted Pumpkins stencils & dies, Dimensionals, Dots for Days (I think), LLT ribbon

And here's my current stitching project:

All I have left to do is the words, it will say "It's just a bunch of Hocus Pocus" on the bottom : )  Probably won't take very long, I've done a lot of work lately while watching episodes of Scooby-Doo so that's fun.  I am already trying to narrow down what my next project will be...fall, Halloween, or maybe Christmas?  So many choices.  Cheers, y'all!

HOoOowl

Mornin' y'all, hope your Wednesday is off to a good start.  I had a very busy day yesterday and once I picked Ryan up from school, I absolutely hit a brick wall and conked out for a bit and thus never got any crafting done yesterday.  Not a literal brick wall, you know what I mean.  So then I had to make a card this morning to share today and here it is:

Is my wolf levitating?  Yes.  Do I care?  Nope, I think he's cute even if he's levitating.  I used the sketch from Sunday Stamps:

And the color palette from As You See It:

I was looking at a werewolf stamp set that I want to get, and the idea for today's card popped in my head but obviously I don't have those werewolf stamps (yet) so I used the wolves from Lawn Fawn instead.  And my little wolfy fits with the Inkspirational challenge:

Supplies:
Stamps:  Wild Wolves, Wolf Before & Afters from Lawn Fawn
Ink:  Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Smoky Slate Blends
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Basic White, Lights of Aurora DSP Stack, Simply Marbleous DSP Stack
Accessories:  Lawn Fawn dies, Layering Circles dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Shimmery Stars Foam Stickers

I only have two errands to run today so hopefully I'll get some crafty time later this morning.  I do still have a few more cards to share today, as I am the lucky recipient of THREE cards from the UK and New Zealand!  The first two are from Joanne and the last one is from Jan, who are both my teamies on the Paper Players design team.  Take a look:

I wish I had gotten an extra pack or two of that Delightful Floral DSP, isn't it gorgeous!  Also Joanne is the one who "made" me get the Words of Beauty bundle so I think of her every time I use it.  (She's responsible for my purchasing several other things too!)

Joanne said she hoped that Daphne didn't mind the kitties on this card too much and I will say that Daph kinda gave it the side-eye a bit : )  I don't think I've used the kitties from the Cutest Crew stamp set yet and I know I haven't used the birds, I always go for the puppers.

And here's a beauty from Jan, I like how she cut the patterned paper into strips and then popped every other strip up, it's such a neat effect.

Okay, I have just enough time to finish my cuppa and take Daphne for a walk before I have to hit my first appointment.  Cheers, y 'all!

CASEing Jennie for SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all!  It's time once again for a new challenge from SUO Challenges, and this time we are CASEing the one, the only...Jennie Maier!  She frequently plays along with us and we are so pleased to be featuring her today.  Here is her card:

So I don't have the stamps or the paper that she used, so after having a bit of a think about it I elected to go with something that has a similar "feel" to it and here's what I made:

I started with the patterned paper and chose a pattern somewhat similar to what Jennie used, and it's fall (shut up calendar, I say fall starts on September first and the leaves are changing colors already so that means I'm right) so I went with leaves.  Also these leaf stamps are nice, solid shapes like the ones she used on her card.  I tried to stick to a similar color combination too, including a bit of Pool Party to go with all the warm colors.  I love a nice blue or purple for contrast with the more typical fall colors.

I hope you'll play along with us at upload your card at SUO Challenges!  Don't forget to keep it to only Stampin' Up! products (that's what we do, after all) and most importantly, have fun.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Simply Leaves
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Golden Glow, Pool Party, Early Espresso
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Golden Glow, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Sunflower Fields DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Radiant Gems

Friendly Sunflowers

Mornin' y'all!  Hope you had a good weekend, 'cause I sure did.  Daphne and I watched Practical Magic on Friday night and then I went to see the new one on Saturday while my dudes were out camping with the Cub Scouts, and then we went out to dinner with friends last night (HI LYNN!).  Plus I made some great progress on my current Hocus Pocus stitching project and I made several cards, so a very happy weekend as far as I'm concerned.  There was even pumpkin coffee cake for breakfast yesterday, Ryan's favorite.

So anyway, here is today's card:

Since I didn't use the sunflower dies on yesterday's Paper Players card, they had to come out to play today especially with the new challenge at The Card Concept:

I like it.  I used Daffodil Delight, Peaceful Pine, Basic Black, and a wee bit of Pecan Pie for my card and finally used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches from last week:

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Radiant Sunflowers
Ink:  Peaceful Pine, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Pecan Pie, Basic White, Moonlit Flora DSP
Accessories:  Radiant Sunflowers dies, Spotlight on Nature dies, Dimensionals

And here's a picture of some real-life sunflowers that I took yesterday:

I saw these when Daphne and I were out for our morning tour of the neighborhood, they're growing in the green space but right next to someone's back fence.  When we lived in Germany, we'd see sunflowers at the blumenfeld that were HUGE, like the flowers were the size of your head!  These ones aren't nearly that big but they're still pretty and I see them growing in people's yards too.

Have a great day, y'all!

Red Gate Farm for The Paper Players

Happy Sunday, y'all!  I hope you enjoyed Joanne's candle-centric challenge last week, and that you are ready for a new Paper Players challenge today!  LeAnne has some fun seasonal colors for us:

Since I was busy making what felt like eleventy-billion cookies last week, I didn't get my card done until late in the week and that was after I had already made three or four different ones in my head before I finally got up to the warcraft room to make one for real life.  I had initially been planning to use watercolor paper and do something like I used on a few cards here, but this is what actually happened:

I borrowed a page from Jaydee's book and went to town with my dies.  I had used the pumpkin stamps and the stencils in the Painted Pumpkins bundle, but I had not yet used the pumpkin dies that don't go with a stamp and I saw the gate and fence dies and my Nancy Drew-obsessed brain said RED GATE FARM because #6 is The Secret of Red Gate Farm and then I *had* to make a red gate.  I was planning to use both the pumpkins and some die-cut sunflowers, but in the end I went pumpkins only and used the Sunflower Fields DSP in some neutral browns to ground my scene, and my greeting is from Radiant Sunflowers.

This went out with a package to my pal Krissy yesterday...I had gotten some fall decor and showed her pictures and she really liked what I got so then I had to get her the same things because she needs some postal sunshine right now.  I told her I got her one little figurine that's got a doggo with a pumpkin and a sunflower, but I had a real "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" moment and ended up getting her like six different things so that will be a surprise for her.

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:  Radiant Sunflowers
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red
Paper:  Early Espresso, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla, Sunflower Fields DSP
Accessories:  Painted Pumpkins dies, Perennial Postage dies, Dimensional for the tiny pumpkin

Mystery of the Winged Lion

Happy Saturday and welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we're taking a look at Nancy's 65th adventure, Mystery of the Winged Lion:

On the first book cover, we have Nancy in a bright-yellow shirt and a totally vacant expression, not my favorite cover.  I do like her outfit on the middle cover and I'm trying to remember if my childhood library had the second one or the third one, or maybe they had both but I can't remember for sure.  The third one I think is my favorite, I like the arched shapes behind Nancy and George and the colors are the most fun out of the three options.

Case file:  Immediately following the events in Captive Witness, Nancy, Bess, and George are in Venice for a vacation from their vacation when they get the news that Ned, Burt, and Dave flew in to surprise them and landed in jail.  They're accused of stealing a glass horse figurine found in Ned's bag which the customs officials conveniently smashed to smithereens but the boys are in jail anyway.  And then a Venetian noblewoman contacts Nancy for help in finding her missing nephew so once again, Nancy misses out on a restful and uneventful vacation.

Here's my first card:

Weirdly, my stamp collection does not include a winged lion BUT I have this happy little guy from Inspiration Squad and the wings from Valentine Kisses, so I was able to give him wiiiiiings like a Red Bull.  Of course I had to incorporate the arch shape for the arch cover:

I thought it looked rather like a portico on a building, and I chose a pattern with birds on it because there are approximately eleventy-million birds in St. Mark's Square in Venice, at least all the times I've been there.  I used Shaded Spruce, Pool Party, Golden Glow, and Cinnamon Cider for my colors; I had pulled Cherry Cobbler to match the cover but was at a bit of a loss as to where to incorporate it, so the lion has some red highlights.  He enjoys going to the salon.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Inspiration Squad, Valentine Kisses
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Golden Glow, Cinnamon Cider, Cherry Cobbler, Pool Party
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Pool Party, Basic White, Design a Daydream DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Dimensionals, Rhinestones

On to the second cover:

This time I used the stamp set Travel Sketchbook and that image has a gondola, the duomo of a church, AND if you look in the upper left corner there is a winged lion on the pillar.  So I was incorrect, I DO have a winged lion stamp in my collection!

I used Basic Black, River Rock, and some hints of Soft Suede, Bashful Blue, and Marina Mist to color the image with Watercolor Wonder Crayons.  Anyone remember those from way before we had alcohol markers?  My set is a bit the worse for wear, some of the crayons have melted a bit as we've moved over the years, but they still work!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Travel Sketchbook
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Basic Black, River Rock, Very Vanilla, Brocade Backgrounds DSP
Accessories:  some kind of label punch, Dimensionals, Watercolor Wonder Crayons

And on to the third book cover:

Nancy comes up with a risky plan near the end of the book to go confront the bad guys with just Ned as backup, and when Bess and George are understandably reluctant to allow this due to perfectly valid safety concerns (they had all been kidnapped and held overnight against their will inside St. Mark's, for Pete's sake), Nancy flippantly says she'll send a seagull with a message if she gets in trouble.  So of course I had to get out Friendly Seagulls for this card.

I used Pacific Point, Summer Starfruit, Calypso Coral, and quite a lot of Pool Party on my card even though the book cover doesn't really have Pool Party on it, but I love that wave patterned paper so I had to use it.  Since Nancy said she'd send a message via seagull, I went with my Perennial Postage dies for this card.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Friendly Seagulls
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Wild Wheat, Pool Party
Paper:  Pacific Point, Summer Starfruit, Calypso Coral, Basic White, High Tide DSP
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Dimentsionals, Blue Gems, Pacific Point Watercolor Wonder Crayon

In general I like the books where Nancy visits other countries, but I think this one reminds me more of Greek Symbol than the wacky hijinx of Captive Witness despite numerous callbacks to that one.  I do like the Venetian setting especially since I've gotten to visit Venice since the last time I read this book as a child, and that's always fun.  I just don't think the mystery was as engaging.  Fun fact:  at the end of Captive Witness, it says that Nancy's next adventure will be The Gondolier's Secret which is a really cool title but somewhere between that book and this one they changed it to Mystery of the Winged Lion, which is also a good title.  Anyway, I give this one two stars, maybe two and a half.  If you're inspired to make a card, leave me a comment below!  And I'll see you next week when Nancy has A Race Against Time.

Something Strange in Your Neighborhood

Goooooood mornin' y'all and happy Friday!  The weather is finally starting to cool down just the tiniest bit (I wore a sweatshirt outside last night and it was great) and I've started watching the spooky sweet movies.  Already watched both Hocus Pocus movies and I watched the first half of Casper last night; tonight I need to watch Practical Magic because I'm going to see the sequel tomorrow.

And there's one more movie (well, series) that I am happy to watch at any time of year but it's especially good during spooky season...

OF COURSE I have Ghostbusters stamps!  (But they're retired, so you can't get them, sorry.)  Shopping Our Stash wants to see people, so I chose the Ghostbusters in all their ghostbusting gear.  And I had to try out the sketch from Retro Rubber:

I made my first Ghostbusters card two years ago, I'm pretty sure I'd had the stamps for a while before that but in any case they count as retro.  I really ought to make cards just as soon as I get a new stamp set so I know how long I've had it but let's not talk about the brand new stamps I bought last month that I haven't used yet and nobody tell my hubs, kay?  Kay.  Definitely don't mention the ones that I got in the mail on Wednesday or the ones I ordered on Thursday.

Anywha, I also have a Ghostbusters cross stitch that I did several years ago but I haven't ever done the words I wanted to add on it and I should get on that.  I'm working on the Sanderson Sisters right now, Winifred and Sarah are done and I'm stitching Mary, then I need to do "It's just a bunch of Hocus Pocus!" underneath them and then the real trick is actually getting it framed.  I have an entire stack of stitches that I've done and not gotten framed yet, including at least two very large full-coverage pieces.  Maybe I should make that a goal for next year, get at least one piece framed every year.

Anyway, that's it for now.  I will be making cookies for most of the day because the hubs asked me to make "some cookies" for the Cub Scouts event this weekend and of course I heard "We need thousands of cookies" so I made a double batch of chocolate chunk cookies and a batch of oatmeal white chocolate cranberry cookies yesterday; today it's double chocolate crinkles and lemon crinkles and then I need to deep-clean my kitchen this weekend.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Slime by The Ink Road, Ghoulish Grunge, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Ink:  Versamark, River Rock
Paper:  Basic Black, River Rock, Basic Beige
Accessories:  Black EP, White EP, Dimensionals