The Secret in the Old Lace

Happy Saturday, y'all, and welcome back to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week we are on book #59, where Nancy investigates The Secret in the Old Lace:

So, the arch cover is my least favorite of this trio, but I like Nancy's outfit the best out of all of them.  We have a moody gothic cover with a Captain Hook dude staring down at Nancy from a wall with a sinister cloaked figure behind him, but I just don't like Nancy's face and hairdo on this cover.

Next up is the pink checkerboard, we have Nancy and George confronting a phantom in what looks like a dungeon but WHAT in the 1980s is Nancy wearing??  I like the girls' shoes but Nancy's outfit is definitely mockable.

The fashion doesn't get much better on the orange checkerboard cover, this time we have Bess and Nancy.  Bess, why would you put a purple top with maroon pants?  Nancy, what are you smuggling under that ginormous blouse?  The bit with the painting described in the book is good, though.

Case file:  Nancy enters a magazine contest where she writes a fictitious ending to a real-life mystery of a Belgian nobleman who disappeared in I think the 19th century, and Bess conveniently pops up with a present-day mystery for Nancy to solve in (you guessed it) Belgium.  Nancy has to figure out who the present-day heir is to some jewelry discovered in an old house in Bruges, and along the way she really does solve the mystery of the missing nobleman.  Alas, there were no waffles.  Opportunity missed.

Here's my first card:

So upon perusing my stamp collection, my options for lace were surprisingly slim pickins.  At last I landed on using both Tasteful Touches and Touches of Texture and once again I managed to incorporate an arch for the arch cover, it's becoming a game to design cards around that shape.

My color palette is Purple Posy, Petal Pink, and Concord Crush so even though the card looks like it's got black on it I promise it's very dark purple.  And I included just a touch of Golden Glow to match Nancy's hair; I used it on the flower center.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Tasteful Touches, Touches of Texture
Ink:  Purple Posy, Concord Crush, Petal Pink
Paper:  Purple Posy, Petal Pink, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Dimensionals, In Color Opal Rounds (they're Fresh Freesia, but they looked good with the Purple Posy on my card)

Here's my card for cover #2:

Before the girls take off for Europe, a criminal breaks into Nancy's house.  She calls Chief McGinnis who rushes right over and then she pulls out her own fingerprinting kit (yeah, I have one of those in my hall closet too, Nancy) and he comments that he'd never seen her dust for prints before.  And that was the PERFECT opportunity to use True Crime Vol. 2 from The Ink Road.

I kept this one a very simple design and went with Melon Mambo, Basic Gray, and Cloud Cover for my colors and we're just ignoring Nancy's outfit now.

Supplies:
Stamps:  True Crime Vol. 2 from The Ink Road
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray
Paper:  Melon Mambo, Basic Gray, Cloud Cover, Basic White
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Glitter Enamel Dots

And on to cover #3:

So there's a bad guy who pretends to be a ghost running around this house that Nancy, Bess, and George are investigating, but Nancy notices the "phantom" is wearing boots and later she finds a guy wandering around Bruges wearing cowboy boots and of course he's the rightful heir to the jewelry.  So anyway, boots are a recurring clue in this book.

This one was the hardest of the three to come up with a card for some reason.  Super bright and possibly not coordinating colors (sorry Bess, I am not digging your outfit), but I went with Mango Melody, Sweet Sorbet, Tahitian Tide, and stamped the boot image in Night of Navy.  So hopefully that color combo feels cohesive on my card?  Well, not every card can be my favorite.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions
Ink:  Night of Navy, Mango Melody Blend which should probably be tossed
Paper:  Mango Melody, Whisper White, Sweet Sorbet & Tahitian Tide DSP
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Hydrangea Hue glitter pen, Dimensionals, In Color Matte Dots

This book is another travelogue and we learn a few things about lace making along the way.  I had forgotten that this one takes us to Belgium and you know what?  I've been to Bruges!  I did not visit the same museums as the girls did, nor did I foil any nefarious criminal plots, but I can imagine where they were in the book.  Still, I think this one is a middle-of-the-road Nancy Drew book, not terrible but not great either, so I'm giving it two and a half stars.  If any of these book covers (or the story) inspire you, pretty please leave me a comment!  And stay tuned next week when Nancy takes on The Greek Symbol Mystery.

Hues of Yellow

Mornin' y'all, busy morning ahead as I have to take Ryan to camp and then go get blood drawn (again).  At least I don't have to fast before the blood draw this time.

Anyway, my card today is a little floral number, check it out:

It looks like I threw the kitchen sink at this card because the background floral I used is SO busy but I like it anyway : p  I got out the Hues of Happiness DSP to play along with the As You See It recipe challenge:

I've got some old Ombre Enamel Dots in Crushed Curry, a big flower cut from the DSP plus all the smaller ones on the card front, Words of Beauty for a big bold sentiment, die cuts from two different sets, and I've got Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lolly, and Crushed Curry for shades of yellow.  And I managed to fit all that in with the Atlantic Hearts sketch:

And that's it for now, peeps.  Hopefully I will have the energy this afternoon to work on another card for The Paper Players on Sunday...I'm having decision paralysis with that.  Have a great Friday, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Words of Beauty
Ink:  Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lolly, Mossy Meadow, Basic White
Accessories:  Words of Beauty dies, Perennial Postage dies, Dimensionals, Ombre Enamel Dots

Poppy Topper

Mornin' y'all!  I took Ryan to camp already and now I am looking up recipes for apple coffee cake for Sunday breakfast because I have a bag of apples in the pantry.  And also I love coffee cakes.

Today's card has neither apples nor cakes, it's another California poppy:

I hadn't made a tent topper card in aaaaaaaages and oddly enough, I had been thinking about making one for the past few weeks but never got around to it.  Jen M. at Freshly Made Sketches was on the same wavelength because the sketch this week is a tent topper:

And I paired that with the Creative Colour Challenge for this week:

I did another California poppy card with a very similar color combination a few months ago, but in the immortal words of Cogsworth, "If it's not Baroque, don't fix it!"  This time I went bold with a die cut poppy from the Poppy Moments dies.  At first I tried it without the Gray Granite circle behind it:

I had even stuck it all down and thought I was done but then I decided to add the scalloped circle so I burned through a lot of Dimensionals on this card.  Then I had some trouble getting a good picture of it and Daphne tried to help:

Yes, very helpful, Daph.  Anyway, I had a scrap of Timid Tiger DSP that was just the right size for my poppy, and for the leaves I cut both layers out of Lost Lagoon cardstock but colored the outline piece with a Blend to give a darker shade of the color.  Then I used some ribbon from when Lost Lagoon was an In Color to tie the whole thing together.  Snerk.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Beautiful Day
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Lost Lagoon Blend
Paper:  Timid Tiger, Gray Granite, Lost Lagoon, Basic Black, Timid Tiger & Gray Granite DSP
Accessories:  Poppy Moments dies, Layering Circles dies, Lost Lagoon ribbon, Dimensionals

And one more pic of Miss Daphne:

I don't know how that could possibly be comfortable but she seemed to like it.  My friend Krissy says that Daphne and her doggo Winslow must have bones made of gummy worms.  As long as those are the only worms that Daphne has, ha!

Coral Seahorse

Mornin' y'all, quick post as I need to get Daphne walked so I can get ready to go to take Ryan to camp.  So here's my quick and easy card for today:

The CAS Colours & Sketches palette instantly made me think UNDER DA SEA (in Sebastian's accent, of course), and I haven't inked up Natural Artistry hardly at all so here we are.  This set has a gorgeous peacock as well and some really fabulous greetings, I need to use it more.

I pulled out scraps of my favorite retired Bright & Beautiful DSP stack for the background; it's actually cut with the same die as the seahorse, but I cut it apart with the split behind the seahorse so I could make it longer.  And like I did for my Paper Players card this week, I added one Antique Pearl for accent because this is CAS too.

Okay, I'm off for a walk with my best girl.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Natural Artistry
Ink:  Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Petal Pink, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals, Antique Pearl

A Possibly Spooky Sketch from SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all!  It's that time again...we have a new challenge all ready to go at SUO Challenges!  Check out our hot-off-the-presses sketch:

I had a quick look through my current DSP and I decided that what I needed was another Summerween card, so here it is:

Those spooky kitties are so cute!  There are dies for both of those kitties and stamps in the coordinating Oh My Fright stamp set, but once again I opted to use the kitties from the Frightfully Fun DSP.  I will say I was initially thinking of putting the greeting on the horizontal banner, and in fact I have a third kitty all cut out and ready to go, but then I elected to do a bigger greeting in place of the third flower on the sketch.  The black ribbon I used kinda sinks into the black strip on the card front but it looks better IRL, I promise : )  I also added two bats and a ghost from the matching embellishments pack.  Fair warning though:  those things are pretty thick so they might not go through the mail.

I hope you'll have as much fun with this sketch as I did!  Add your card to the SUO Challenges blog and don't forget, it's Stampin' Up! products only.  Just like it says on the tin.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Oh My Fright
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Frightfully Fun DSP
Accessories:  Circles Collection Framelits (very old and retired, but still SU!), Oh My Fright dies, Stylish Shapes dies, hole punch, Bats & Ghosts Embellishments

Hydrangea Hue Hydrangeas

Mornin' y'all.  I didn't have time to get this post written before I took Ryan to his summer camp this morning, but we're here now so let's go:

I pulled out some very retro stamp sets for the Inspired By... Challenge:

And I colored in my hydrangeas with Hydrangea Hue : ) I don't know why this specific hydrangea popped in my brain for this challenge, I have several other ones, but it was nice to play with it again.  I can't even remember what I was looking for when I came across Painted Petals, which I used for the stripes and the greeting, it just seemed to be a good idea.  One die cut from Textured Notes, a bit of fussy cutting, and she's done.

I have about 45 minutes until I need to leave to pick Ryan up...and I think I might have to take a nap in that time.  I have been a zombie all summer thanks to a change in my thyroid medication and it's been miserable.  Hoping I can get that changed soon.

Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Flower Garden, Painted Petals
Ink:  Basic Gray, Soft Sea Foam, Hydrangea Hue, Stampin' Blends in Soft Sea Foam & Hydrangea Hue
Paper:  Hydrangea Hue, Basic White
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, In Color Dots

Beach, Please with The Paper Players

Happy Sunday, y'all!  It's time for a new challenge from The Paper Players, and the lovely LeAnne has a fun theme for us!

My hubs and kiddo are both total water babies, so I do tend to buy stamps that have to do with the ocean, pools, the beach, etc.  So here's what I made:

My card base is Barely Blush, though it's a little hard to tell from the photo since it's such a pale color.  I haven't had good luck with the ink color but I do like the cardstock for this color.  I am 100% CASEing Jan's Paper Players card from a couple challenges back for my card today!  I turned my card vertical rather than horizontal and used a watery stamp from Rolling Waves for my horizontal element instead of the die, and then I layered on a net from the long-retired Sea of Textures and a pretty shell from By the Tide.  One antique pearl (because this is a CAS card) and done.  I actually made this card first:

Well, actually, I made it fourth but we'll get to that in a minute.  I thought this card ended up being a little too similar to Jan's new card for this week so I made the vertical one instead, but this one took some experimentation to find the right blue for my wave.  I ended up with Baja Breeze, but not before I tried three other colors:

Sorry for the shadow, but that's the best I could do in my house.  That's Hydrangea Hue, Balmy Blue (my ink pad is extra juicy right now so it turned out so dark), and Pool Party (also extra juicy).  Even though the Barely Blush card base is super pale, it still altered the ink colors of the blue enough that it did take some experimentation to find the right blue for the look I wanted.  But now I have some beachy cards to send out next week and that's no bad thing.

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:  By the Tide, Rolling Waves, Sea of Textures
Ink:  Crisp Cantaloupe, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Night of Navy
Paper:  Barely Blush, Whisper White
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Antique Pearls
Paper:  Barely Blush,