Saint Beatus Caves

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  And it's my favorite Monday ever because it is Ryan's first day of school : )  The house is all nice and quiet...or it would be except I started some music so I am enjoying Chicago's If You Leave Me Now while I drink my tea.  Love that song.

Anyway, I just figured out this morning that I've been sharing the Swiss-capade layouts in the wrong order but whatever, they're all from the same trip.  And here is today's layout:

We do tend to like doing underground touristy things.  We had to wait in line a while before we got to go in the caves, which were pretty cool and we took the opportunity to teach Ryan to be a responsible and respectful tourist and keep his grubby little fingers off the rocks because that damages them (which we know because we've been to caves in several different countries now).  Then we had lunch at a restaurant next to the monastery started in St. Beatus' honor, and we had a PHENOMENAL view of Lake Thun--can you believe that picture in the lower right corner?!  It was a quick snap I took with my cellphone!  I think I need to print that one out giant size and frame it...if only I had more open wall space, ha!

Today's color palette:  Island Indigo, Starry Sky, Sweet Sorbet, Garden Green, and white.  Normally I wouldn't think to pair those two blues together, but I was pulling colors from the photos and I think they work together pretty well here.  I haven't worked on scrapbook pages in a long time since I've been busy with having Ryan home for the summer and working on other projects, but I'm starting to get the itch to get back to scrappin'.  Should be easier to make that happen now that he's back in school.

For right now, I think I'll brew a second cuppa tea and go write out some cards to go out in the mail, then get to work on something crafty.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Blossoms in Bloom
Ink:  Island Indigo, Starry Sky, Sweet Sorbet, Garden Green
Paper:  Island Indigo, Starry Sky, Garden Green, Basic White, Blooms & Bliss DSP
Accessories:  none

Pumpkin Spice is BACK!

Mornin' y'all!  We had to be up early today for an event so here I sit in a DRESS with MAKEUP on and that usually happens about once a year.  I actually bought this dress over 10 years ago and it's the first time I've worn it, and I managed to find jewelry on Amazon that coordinates with it pretty perfectly : )

Anyway, now that we're in August, pumpkin spice is back and I'm going to start manifesting fall weather as much as I can.  So here's a pumpkin spice card:

I love the Timeless Plaid DSP stack, I love me a good plaid!  I had to pick one for the Just Add Ink challenge:

Because of that plaid blanket on the bottom.  I've got a coffee and a little bitty pumpkin too, but what's funny is I don't drink coffee.  Pretty much everyone else I know does though (well, not the hubs) so I know I won't have trouble choosing someone to send this to.  I usually don't even drink pumpkin spice tea because I've found I don't like teas with loads of cinnamon and spice in them--I love a good breakfast tea and I like dessert teas but more along the vanilla or chocolate flavor profile.  I keep my spices in my baked goods : )

Anyway, I also used the most recent Freshly Made Sketch:

That's it for now, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  More Than Autumn
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Stampin' Blends in Ivory, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Basic Beige, Old Olive, Thick Very Vanilla, Timeless Plaid DSP Stack
Accessories:  More Than Autumn dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Mini Dimensionals, Swirl Dots, Chocolate Chip twill ribbon

The Mystery of the Ivory Charm

Welcome to a new Nancy Drew Challenge!  This time we're looking into The Mystery of the Ivory Charm, which is the thirteenth book in the series and definitely unlucky.

You can tell from the OT cover on the left that this time, we're going to the circus and I will be honest, this is my least favorite Nancy Drew book up to this point and by a wide margin.

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George see a circus unpacking while waiting for their train to River Heights and a circus worker named Rai, an Indian man, gives Nancy an ivory elephant charm for good luck.  The man's supposed son, Coya (who works with the elephants), stows away on the girls' train so Nancy just decides to keep him and let him do chores around the house (the HECK).  A weird lady comes to see Carson about selling some land she owns, and in the course of investigating where Coya came from and how he ended up with not-his-real-dad Rai, she discovers that the weird lady and Rai had colluded to rob Coya of his inheritance as a maharajah in India and installed someone else on the throne.  This one is just bizarre as well as being rife with racial stereotypes.  One star.

So here's my card for the OT version of The Mystery of the Ivory Charm:

And it's proof that I can make a card I really like that was inspired by a book I really dislike!  I decided on three simple blocks of color to mimic the colors on the book cover and of course I had to have an elephant.  At first I tried to do this as a vertical card, but the color blocks looked like a stoplight no matter what order I put them in.  I really like what I ended up with though.

Rai gives Nancy the ivory charm because she's brave and doesn't panic when an escaped circus snake (that's a thing, I guess?) drops out of a tree on her and tries to squeeze her to death.  I was tempted to make a snaky card but my stamp collection is pretty light on snake images, so I pulled out one of my elephants instead.  I chose that "hello" because the font makes me think of the circus, is that weird?

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  A Little Wild, Happy Greetings
Ink:  Versamark, Pebbled Path, Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Soft Sky, Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  clear EP, Little Loves Framelits, Squares Collection Framelits, Dimensionals

On to the RT version!

Revised case file:  This one follows the plot of the OT fairly closely, except that the Indian boy is renamed Rishi and Nancy discovers that his biological father is living in River Heights; the dad had been told that Rishi was eaten by a tiger years earlier.  Usually they tried to tone down the racism when they revised the texts, but this time they took out a scene where Nancy is invited to the White House to have lunch with the First Lady and pretty much left in all the racist stereotypes.  One of my best friends growing up was Indian and I can only imagine what she would have thought of this book--I wish I could ask her, but she passed away of cancer over ten years ago.  I'm sure she would have hated this though.  Or laughed herself silly.  Perhaps both at the same time.

Here's my card:

I bought Balmy Breezes on eBay a while back and this is the first time I've used it and I love it.  Of course I picked it for the elephant image, and I tried to stick close to the colors of the book cover.  There weren't any palm trees in the book but they go with the elephant image, right?

I used the Deckled Rectangles dies and a generous amount of sponging to mimic the book cover, and this time I decided to ignore Nancy's bright hair and just went with the greens.  She gets to keep the ivory charm as a souvenir; she gets a lot of jewelry from solving mysteries.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Balmy Breezes
Ink:  Mossy Meadow, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Basic Beige, Mossy Meadow, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, linen thread, Faux Glass Dots, Dimensionals

I'd love to see what you come up with for this book, drop me a comment below (no time limit).  Next up, we'll be investigating The Whispering Statue!  And if you want to deep dive into the books, check out my other blog at Hey, Nancy Drew.  Cheers!

Fright Night Halloween

Mornin' y'all!  We went school supply shopping for Ryan yesterday and got to meet his teacher last night.  I really like her, she's very structured and won't let Ryan win arguments with her : )  Excited for him to start school on Monday!

I also got a bit of craft room time last night for the first time in about a week so that's always a good thing.  Here's my card for today:

I bought ALLLLL the Halloween stuff when it showed up in the online exclusives and this is the first time I've used the Fright Night stamps (I did use the dies once before).  I thought this week's Creative Colour Challenge was the perfect excuse for a Halloween card:

I love the look of the stamped image on the Timid Tiger DSP, super super easy and it looks cool.  I used this week's sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

Well, maybe it's a modification of the sketch, I'm counting the words and images on the big stamp as the floral elements on the sketch.  I think it's close enough that you can still see how the sketch was my starting point.

And yesterday I opened up the world's most boringest Stampin' Up! order ever.

But somehow I had totally run out of Stamin' Dimensionals (no!!), so I got a bunch of those, a couple packs of envelopes, and three packs of white cardstock.  The most boring order ever, but necessary staples.

Time to take Daph-Daph for a tour of the neighborhood.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fright Night
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss, Garden Green, Versamark
Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Thick Basic White, Timid Tiger & Blackberry Bliss DSP
Accessories:  Fright Night dies, white EP, Mini Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls

Totally Buggin'?

Mornin' y'all!  For the next 15 minutes where I am, anyway.  We were out of town for a few days on a trip to California and I got to fulfill a bucket list item and see the redwood forests!  It was awesome.  We were unsure if we were going to go or not because of Ma's heart surgery, but she and my dad insisted that we go and she came through the surgery fine so we went.  She's still doing well and hoping to be out of the hospital in the next couple of days.

We got back home after midnight last night and I didn't have a post scheduled to go up today before we left.  Well, we all got to watch movies on our second flight yesterday and I chose...Clueless!

This movie is still awesome, I love it.  Can't hardly believe it had its thirtieth anniversary this year!  The stamps are retired Ink Road stamp sets and of course I had to have plaid on this card since so many of Cher's outfits feature plaid.

Anyway, I just took Daph for a walk and now we need to go school supply shopping for Ryan as he meets his new teacher tonight.  Cheers!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Buggin' & As If from Ink Road Stamps
Ink:  Versamark, Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Melon Mambo, Thick Basic White, Plaid Tidings DSP Stack
Accessories:  White EP, Dimensionals

Charming Hello

Mornin' y'all!  I got a new pack of DSP and I just had to cut into it for today's card:

I thought the current Paper Players sketch allowed for several patterns:

I stuck with the circle on the sketch rather than doing a different shape and let the patterned papers be the star of the show.  The only stamping is on the greeting and I finished off with some Blackberry Bliss dots.  Can't wait to play with this paper some more!

Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Berry Burst, Thick Basic White, Floral Charm DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Perennial Postage dies, Dimensionals, Blackberry Bliss Dots

Hulk SMASH

Y'all, I have been looking for an excuse to use some superhero stamps I bought from *coughcough* NOT Stampin' Up! and LOOK HOW CUTE HE IS!

In fact, Hulk and his three companions are so cute I accidentally bought this stamp set twice.  I also have another set that includes Wonder Woman, I almost went with her but I could not resist inking up the Hulk for the TGIF challenge:

Supplies:
Stamps:  Universe by C.C. Designs
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Basic Black, Old Olive, Highland Heather, Pretty in Pink
Paper:  Highland Heather, Thick Basic White, Highland Heather & Old Olive DSP
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Neutral Matte Dots, Dimensionals

Schneebas

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Time for another Swiss-Capade layout and here it is:

I let that top left picture with the gremlin-looking little thing stand in for the title on this layout, which is kind of a random collection of photos taken on the way down from the top of the Schilthorn.  And in an unusual twist, this layout has no stamping, just some die cut pseudo-eidelweiss flowers.

My nature-inspired color palette:  Gumball Green, Evening Evergreen, Granny Apple Green, Crushed Curry, and white.

That's it for me today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  None
Ink:  Evening Evergreen
Paper:  Gumball Green, Evening Evergreen, Granny Apple Green, Crushed Curry, Basic White, Flowers & More DSP
Accessories:  Simply Zinnia dies

A Llama?!

Mornin' y'all!  My mom came through her surgery okay and is in the ICU for a few days to recover.  Hope that all goes smoothly for her.

I have a CAS card to share today:

I'm not sure how much I like my coloring job but I did like the color combo from Creative Colour Challenges:

I decided to have another hack at the Freshly Made Sketch for this week and keep it more CAS this time:

Because the CAS on Friday challenge is to make a card featuring an animal, so of course my first thought was this adorable llama.  I just went with die cut letters for the greeting because I wanted to keep that strip pretty narrow.

That's it for now, peeps.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Long Time No See
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Gray Granite, Petunia Pop, Pool Party
Paper:  Gray Granite, Pool Party, Petunia Pop, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  alphabet dies, Dimensionals

The Message in the Hollow Oak

Welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today's book is number twelve, The Message in the Hollow Oak.

This time, the revised text is completely different from the original and both of them are a trip.  This is where the revised text covers start going with more of a collage effect rather than a scene out of the book.  Let's take a look at them, starting with the original text.

Quick side note:  I love the horse playing peekaboo by Nancy's hip, I didn't notice him at first and now he makes me giggle every time I look at the cover.  Peekaboo!

Case file:  Nancy wins a radio contest and the prize is the deed to some land in a super remote part of Canada, so she, Bess, and George head for the border with an older lady to chaperone them.  They're involved in a pretty serious train accident but keep on going anyway, only to discover that unscrupulous men are digging for gold on Nancy's land.  She manages to trick the thieves and ends up with a bag of gold and along the way she saves a kidnap victim and reunites two people who had been separated by a misunderstanding years before.  Those two used the titular hollow oak as a letter drop to pass notes to each other.  Lots happening here.

Here's my card for the OT:

We have lots of big, burly lumberjack and gold prospector types in this book, but I was thinking of the one whom Nancy reunites with his long-lost sweetheart when I made this card.  And it was a great excuse to bust out my Wood You Be Mine stamp set!  I put some Cajun Craze Faux Glass Dots on there for accents but they kinda fade into the background. 

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wood You Be Mine?
Ink:  Early Espresso, Old Olive, Stampin' Blends in Old Olive, Neutrals, Pretty in Pink, Cinnamon Cider, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Gray Granite, Boho Blue
Paper:  Bumblebee, Old Olive, Boho Blue, Beauty of the Earth DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Faux Glass Dots

Now let's look at the revised text:

Case file:  Aunt Eloise's PI friend dares Nancy to solve an old mystery that he and his buddies couldn't crack on their vacation--find a message left by a French missionary in a hollow oak tree and follow the clues to find a treasure.  She stays with Ned's cousin as part of a university archaeological dig and not only does she do some digging with them, she does find a series of hollow oak trees and finds the treasure despite another treasure hunter harassing her.  No gold prospectors in this one but it's still pretty wild.

Here's my card:

The cover of this one looks super spooky and Halloween-y, but the book isn't set around Halloween and the only skulls in it are the fragments that the archaeological dig find.  Still, I couldn't get the idea of a skull card out of my noggin so I made this one.  I did cover up the jack o' lantern on this stamp with a flower that's meant to represent Nancy on the cover.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  From the Crypt, Thoughtful Expressions
Ink:  Versamark, Island Indigo, Timid Tiger, Whisper White
Paper:  Island Indigo, Basic Beige, Beauty of the Earth DSP, Beautifully Penned DSP
Accessories:  Thoughtful Expressions dies, black EP,, Dimensionals

Since the book doesn't really have much to do with skulls despite the cover illustration, I made a second card:

Pretty sure that's Nancy's family motto right there.  I happened to see Textured Timber when I got out Thoughtful Expressions for the first card and I just had to use the tree images for a second card.  Still have orange flowers for Nancy though.

What's funny is that when I first sat down to make a card for this book many weeks ago, I hit a creative block and couldn't figure out what to do.  That's about when I snapped up the OT versions of the books and went back to reread from the start, gave it a few weeks and when I came back to this one I ended up with TWO cards for the book that was giving me a block.  Hooray!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Textured Timber, Thoughtful Expressions, Feathered Flight
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pecan Pie, Island Indigo, Stampin' Blends in Old Olive & Timid Tiger
Paper:  Island Indigo, Pecan Pie, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige
Accessories:  Thankful Labels, Thoughtful Expressions dies, Dimensionals, In Color Flat Pearls

I'd be delighted to have you play along, just drop a link in the comments to your Nancy Drew inspired creation.  You can check out Hey, Nancy Drew for more chatter about the books, and stop by next week for lucky #13, The Mystery of the Ivory Charm!

A Thousand Well-Wishes

Mornin' y'all, I have a special card to share today as I'm sending it to my mom for her heart surgery which happens today.  Here it is:

I *just* got Crane of Fortune (I found it for a good price on Facebook and couldn't resist since I already had the coordinating paper) so I had to use it for the current challenge at Cupcake Inspirations:

And I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I kinda...added a few more layers to it.  (Unlike yesterday's card when I made the sketch more CAS.) It took a while to choose patterns from the coordinating Symbols of Fortune DSP but putting the pieces together actually went pretty fast.  I added some Iridescent Foil Gems and put some Wink of Stella on the crane to add a bit of sparkle (my ma likes sparkly things).  And now I just wait by the phone to hear how she does in surgery today.

Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Crane of Fortune
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Soft Succulent, Crumb Cake, Thick Basic White, Symbols of Fortune DSP
Accessories:  Good Fortune dies, Textured Notes dies, Mini Dimensionals, Iridescent Foil Dots

Hello Sunshine

Mornin' y'all!  I've already taken Daphne for her morning walk and she's happy about that.  It's a beautiful morning here too.  Ryan starts school at the beginning of August (hooray!!!!) so we're enjoying the last of summer, and I have a summer card today too:

I was looking for a non-floral stamp set to use for the CAS Colours & Sketches color challenge:

Call me Mary Mary for I am quite contrary and I like to go with something different for floral color combinations just to prove that they don't *have* to be floral.  Make what you will of what that says about my personality.  Even the Atlantic Hearts sketch has flowers on it:

I did take out a couple of layers to make it more CAS for the other two challenges I'm entering today, but I think you can still clearly see the sketch influence on my card.  And the reason the gingham doesn't go to the card edges?  I was using a scrap that was 4 inches wide so I made it work.  And it only just now as I am typing this occurred to me that I have an entire PACK of gingham patterns that I could have used and they're even Daffodil Delight but oh well.  Last up is the AAA cards challenge:

I suppose my card could fit in with both activity and colors.  This is actually the first card I made:

But I decided that the card base and the DSP both needed to be Daffodil Delight so I made the other one, which I like better.  I had to toss another one when I dropped the greeting stamp--inked up, of course--on my card front and got black smudges all over it.  Ugh.  Some days are just like that, am I right?  But here's what today looks like:

I think these are weeds but I liked the rusty red color on them and the sky was particularly blue early this morning.

Hoping to find some zen in my craft room today.  My mom is having major surgery tomorrow and I'm stressing about it a bit, so all prayers and good vibes appreciated.  Now I'm going to finish my cuppa gingerbread tea and manifest calm.  Wish me luck.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sunny Splash
Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Garden Green, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White, Floral Delight DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Strawberry Slush Gems

Roman Holiday

Mornin' y'all!  Daphne is eager to go for her morning perambulation so I need to type fast : )  Here's my card for today:

Check out the Paper Players challenge:

I don't have any current stamps featuring wheels, so I went through my retired stamps for a likely candidate and settled on the Vespa from On the Grow, which always makes me think of the movie Roman Holiday.  Since I was using an older stamp set, I decided to go with the color palette from Retro Rubber:

I've had On the Grow since 2011, so it's definitely retro.  I checked my archives and apparently I've only ever used this stamp set one other time?  (Here's that card if you want to see.)  There's a really pretty little bouquet stamp in the set too, so I should use that one sometime.  Anyway, I read the colors as Night of Navy, Lemon Lolly, Daffodil Delight, Shy Shamrock, and Mossy Meadow, and I used alllll of them on my image plus a bit of Gray Granite.  Since the Paper Players challenge is CAS, I didn't add any embellishments, just a few die cut pieces under the main image piece sponged with ink on the edges.  Simple.

Time to go take my crazy girl for a walk.  As far as she's concerned, this is shaping up to be the best day ever--the hubs fed her this morning and then Ryan fed her again, so she got TWO breakfasts.  Ha!

Cheers, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  On the Grow
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Shy Shamrock, Lemon Lolly, Daffodil Delight, Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Gray Granite, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Night of Navy, Lemon Lolly, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Choose Your Own Adventure

Mornin' y'all!  It is already time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

And this one is super easy:

Anything goes, so long as you use Stampin' Up! products!  For this challenge, I decided to CASE Tammy's card and now I have another sorta patriotic card for next year's July birthdays.  Here's what I made:

I loved how Tammy used the Painted Stripes background for her card and I just had to do it too.  I don't have the Mixed Florals bundle, so I chose the large and in charge hydrangea from Thankful Garden and added a few retired Tinsel Gems because I love those things.  I will admit it took me a few tries to get the stripes to look how I wanted them to; I think what I ended up doing was inking up the stamp with a sponge instead of pressing the ink pad on it, which makes the stripes a bit softer and a better match for my sponged/stenciled flowers.

Your turn!  Anything goes so long as it's SU! products.  Don't forget to upload your creation on the SUO Challenges blog and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Garden, Painted Stripes, Year of Flowers
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Balmy Blue, Soft Sea Foam, Real Red
Paper:  Blueberry Bushel, Thick Basic White, Balmy Blue
Accessories:  Thankful Garden masks & dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Tinsel Gems, Dimensionals