Turtle Power

Mornin' y'all!  I'm currently brewing my second XL cuppa tea this morning so it's shaping up to be a good day : )  And I have a triple challenge card to share:

Actually this card base started out to be used for my Tranquil Tiger card, but I decided that the DSP strip was too wide after I had already glued it down so I made a whole 'nother card base.  It was still too wide for this card too, so I chopped an inch off the bottom of the card base and then glued on a scrap of Crumb Cake et voilà:  a narrower strip of DSP, and I still have that other piece for some other card on down the line.

So let's talk challenges!  Starting with the Paper Players:

Next up is the Inspire. Create. challenge:

And then the AAA Cards Challenge:

This one solidified my choice to make a turtle card, which I already had on the brain after seeing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the theater last weekend.  When I got up this morning, my husband asked if I slept well and I told him that I had a dream that we hatched eggs which turned out to be like armored turtles (like a cross between a turtle and an ankylosaur) and they were carnivorous and FAST so I was worried that they were going to eat Daphne.  He said I have weird dreams (true), and then I told him that there were four ankylosaurus turtle babies in my dream, so clearly that was related to TMNT.  But yeah, that dream was extra weird even by my standards.  The hubs once had a dream that I turned into a dragon and he had to fight me with a sword, so he's one to talk.  Hope I won that dream fight.

Anyway, that's it for now, peeps.  Have a great day!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Turtle Friends
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Shy Shamrock, Stampin' Blends in Shy Shamrock & Crumb Cake
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Thick Basic White, Shy Shamrock DSP
Accessories:  Turtle punch, Dimensionals

Shells & Stripes

Mornin' y'all!  Ryan has a cooking class after school today so that means I get extra crafty time.  So my plan is to do some housework this morning and then I can spend the rest of the day in my craft room or working on my stitching, woohoo!  I couldn't settle in to create anything in the craft room yesterday, so instead I worked on my current stitching project, which was nice because I haven't stitched much of late.  I'm on the home stretch for this project, too.

Anyway, here's my card for today and once again we're pulling out some old stamps:

I managed to hit three challenges with this card, so let's start with Retro Rubber:

I went down the left side with die cut (Stitched Rectangle die on the DSP), stripes (also on the DSP), and twine (across the DSP).  By the Seashore (the shells) is 13 years old, and Seaside Notions (greeting) is six years old.  This is not the first time I've paired those two stamp sets together either.

Next up is the Festive Friday challenge:

From the list, I have shades of blue (really easy with the stripey DSP I chose), pearls (in the centers of the shells, they're pretty subtle with the patterns on the shells), and shells.  And what brought it all together is the sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

I guess I rotated the sketch upside down since I put the sentiment at the top instead of the bottom, I was focusing on the stripes and I think when I copied the sketch down that I didn't put the sentiment on it at all.  Hopefully they won't send the Challenge Police after me : )

That's it for me today.  I'm going to take Ryan to school and then start vacuuming up all the Daphne hair upstairs.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  By the Seashore, Seaside Notions
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Dapper Denim
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Dapper Denim, Very Vanilla, Shades & Hues DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, linen thread, pearls, Mini Dimensionals

SUO Challenges: Where Are You Going?

Hey y'all, happy Tuesday!  And it's time for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

Aaaannnndddd....here it is:

Rather than going with the colors or style of the photo, I decided to go with the theme and here's what I made:

I combined the Scenic Adventure dies with the upcoming new Lights of Aurora DSP Stack to make a mountain scene because I, for one, love to travel to mountains!  We've been to the Rockies, the Appalachians, and the Alps (French, Swiss, German, and Austrian!) so yeah, the mountains are calling and I must GO.  Now I'm lucky enough to live where I can see the mountains every day when I take Daphne out for her walk.

Anyway, the Lights of Aurora DSP is, as you might guess, inspired by the Northern Lights so half the patterns are like the background I used, dark with a Northern Light design, and then the other sides are color washes in coordinating colors and that's what I used for the mountain scene.  I think I cut into six pieces of paper for this card : )

So decide where you would like to travel and upload your card to the SUO Challenges blog.  Don't forget to keep it Stampin' Up! only and have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Scenic Adventure
Ink:  Highland Heather, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Highland Heather, Lights of Aurora DSP Stack
Accessories:  Scenic Adventure dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Frosted Iridescent Dots

Funky Chocolate Club

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I hope you had a good weekend.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching TMNT on the big screen yesterday morning and then a quiet, relaxing afternoon at the house.  And now it's Monday and I'm ready to get started on some projects for the week!  So let's look at a scrapbook layout...

And it's about one of my favorite things, CHOCOLATE!  During our trip to Switzerland, we took a class and learned all about chocolate and made our own chocolate bars.  Ryan especially liked the part where you put chocolate on your nose to see if it's the right temperature before the next step, but of course his favorite was taste testing everything.  Well, me too ; )

Of course today's color palette is chocolate-inspired too:  Close to Cocoa page base, with Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Taken with Teal, and Whisper White to go with it.  I think we've been to two different chocolate museums but this is the only place we got to make our own chocolate so it wins for chocolate-based tourism.

That's it for me, I've got some things to do today.  As Ryan said when I dropped him off at school today, "See ya on the flip side, Willie!" which is a quote from Bluey.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Eat Chocolate
Ink:  Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Close to Cocoa, Real Red, Taken with Teal, Basic White, Ski Slope DSP
Accessories:  None

School Blues

Mornin' y'all!  Well, I went to two different book sales over the past couple of days and they were both a bust.  The first one was more antique/rare books, maps, and prints; I probably would have looked around for longer if I hadn't had Ryan with me.  The one yesterday was much smaller than I expected (like, probably smaller than my living room) and mostly books on Colorado history, which is cool but not what I'm looking for right now.  But I treated myself to lunch at Panera on the way home so the day was not a total loss : )

And I have a card to share today:

I have a friend who's a teacher so I will send this to her.  I have a few challenges today, starting with Addicted to CAS:

I die cut four squares with the Stylish Shapes dies, it's both sides of one sheet of Azure Afternoon DSP, and simply popped up the backpack and apple on top.  I wanted to add some embellishments but I opted to keep it CAS for this challenge.  Next up is the Cupcake Inspiration challenge:

School Days is the perfect stamp set for this challenge, easy peasy!  And finally here is the Creative Colour Challenge from last week:

I like a monochromatic challenge every once in a while and I can make an apple blue if I want to.

This year is the 35th anniversary of the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and I am going to see it on the big screen today BY MYSELF because the hubs and the spawn don't know good movies and they don't wanna go with me.  I remember one year my brother got this movie on VHS for his birthday in November and watched it every single day of Christmas break that year, most often multiple times a day, and because of that I *still* have most of the dialog memorized.  So if I randomly say things like "Whoa, time to switch to decaf, April!" now you know why.  I'm going to go have a great time at the movies by myself.  Cowabunga, dude!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  School Days
Ink:  Blueberry Bushel, Azure Afternoon
Paper:  Balmy Blue, Thick Basic White, Azure Afternoon DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

The Haunted Bridge

Welcome to another Nancy Drew Challenge, where today we are investigating The Haunted Bridge!

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are hanging around a resort while Carson works on a jewel theft case.  While out golfing, Nancy's caddy tells her that a nearby bridge is haunted.  Of course Nancy investigates and finds a small brass chest full of jewels that may be related to Carson's case.  She tracks down the owner of the chest, reunites the woman with her fiance, and wins a golf tournament despite an injured hand, and does all of that while dealing with the unwanted attention of an older man who's quite a creep and brags about himself a lot.

This time, the OT and RT are very similar, the OT is just five chapters longer.  If the Nancy Drew books followed the same naming conventions as episodes of Friends, this one would be The One Where Nancy Golfs a Lot.  Here's my card for the OT:

I went through my collection of Ink Road stamps and I think this is pretty much what Nancy was thinking about the one guy who just would not leave her alone, though she's too "proper" to tell him off.  Personally, I would rather be rude and not have to put up with the guy's antics and bragging, especially since Nancy was trying to get away from him when she hurt her hand.  I added flowers because there are a couple of minor characters who are into gardening and stuff.

I always think of golfers wearing fashion victim outfits with discordant plaids so I had to use plaid on here, I think I managed to find a pretty good match for the colors on the book cover.  My hubs used to golf and I never saw him in an outfit like that, but let me hold onto my preconceived notions.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Vintage Ladies & Snarky Housewife 2 from The Ink Road, Orange Blossom
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pretty Peacock, Stampin' Blends in Peach Pie, Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink, Cajun Craze, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Mango Melody, Pretty Peacock, Thick Basic White, Plaid Tidings DSP Stack
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Pretty Peacock Foil Gems, Dimensionals

Next up is the RT:

Same story but I think the annoying guy's name changes from Mortimer to Martin.  Anyway, I like Nancy's little polka dot ascot on this cover.  Here's my card:

I didn't want to recreate my first card, so this time I decided to go with the ghost at the bridge (which was a scarecrow erected by one of the minor characters to keep the golf caddies away from his garden).  I still got some plaid in there and used a bunch of patterns to go with my mental image of golf outfits.

No offense if you're a golfer, I just don't understand the appeal.  That twine I used was wrapped around some stamps and dies I ordered from Lawn Fawn, so recycling!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Twick or Tweet
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Balmy Blue & Granny Apple Green
Paper:  Granny Apple Green, Thick Basic White, Dandy Designs DSP
Accessories:  Nested Essentials dies, Dimensionals, twine from Lawn Fawn, Glitter Enamel Dots

Please comment on this post if you'd like to join me--you can read the book(s) and make a card inspired by the contents, or just go off the covers, either way.  I'd love to see how Nancy Drew inspires you!  If you want a more in-depth look at the Nancy Drew books, check out my other blog at Hey Nancy Drew.  Next up, we search for The Clue of the Tapping Heels!

Rainbow Hot Air Balloons

Mornin' y'all and happy Friday!  I am happy to report that Ryan and I both got an A+ from the dentist yesterday, no cavities for either of us despite not having cleanings done for a long time.  I really like the dentist we saw and it's super close to the house so that's all great.  Today Ryan has early dismissal (why??) and then I'm planning to drag him with me to the Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair this afternoon.  There will most likely be bribery involved.

Anyway, I got some good crafting time in yesterday and feel like I worked through a creativity block I had going on, I got four cards made.  Pretty sure what broke the block is that I had three double-size mugs of tea yesterday, I am sure my creative muse is fueled by tea.  So here's the first card:

I have been pondering this week's Atlantic Hearts sketch since Monday:

I knew I was going to be showcasing some patterned paper but I wasn't sure what until I saw the Inspired By... challenge:

Those soft colors made me think of the Lighter Than Air DSP Stack immediately, and then in a delightful coincidence the new Just Add Ink challenge dovetails perfectly:

I used patterned paper and pastels since I'm taking that as pastel colors rather than pastel crayons.  I used some Rainbow Dots for accents but those I don't think count as pearls.  Also, fun fact, we see hot air balloons around here a lot, the hubs says he sees them most mornings on his way to work when there's nice weather, and last weekend there was one that was basically hovering over the house across the way from us so quite close.  He asked if I wanted to go up in one and I said heck NO but I like to look at them!

Right this minute I am mostly through my first mug of tea for today (Republic of Tea's blueberry black tea, if you're curious), so we'll see if I get any more cards made before I go pick Ryan up and go book shopping (my favorite kind of shopping...okay stamps too).  So I am looking forward to a really fun day!

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Adventurous Sky
Ink:  Balmy Blue
Paper:  Lemon Lolly, Thick Basic White, Lighter Than Air DSP Stack
Accessories:  Adventurous Sky dies, Mini Dimensionals, Rainbow Dots, Bubble Bath ribbon

Peony Petals

Mornin' y'all!  I've got to get Ryan out the door in just a couple of minutes because we're both going to the DENTIST.  Wish us luck, it's been far too long since our last dental appointments.

I have a quick card to share today:

I stuck very closely to the Freshly Made Sketch this time:

And here's the Color Hues Challenge to go with it:

I went with Petal Pink and Gray Granite thanks to the retired Peony Garden DSP.  I personally think Petal Pink is more peach than pink but...it does have pink in the name?  And I liked the floral prints with this sketch.

Gotta go, wish us luck at the dentist!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Regal Flora
Ink:  Gray Granite, Petal Pink
Paper:  Petal Pink, Thick Basic White, Peony Garden DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Textured Notes dies, Mini Dimensionals, Petal Pink foil gems

Gathering Some New Stamps

Mornin' y'all!  I am happy to report that new stamps DID help make me a happy crafter yesterday and look what I made!

I used the new Gathering Moments bundle (stamps and dies) and some of the coordinating Gathering Together DPS, which is gorgeous and has gold accents.  I dug out some long-retired gold baker's twine for an accent but pretty much everything else on here is new (other than the Stylish Shapes dies).  I had to have a go at the color challenge from The Paper Players:

The background square may look black in the photo, but it's actually Blackberry Bliss cardstock and I stamped the greeting in Blackberry Bliss ink, too.  And finally I get to play along with this week's CASE-ing Tuesday Challenge:

For one reason or another I have missed playing along with them for several weeks recently, so I'm glad the inspiration struck for this one.

That's it for now, peeps.  Ryan has a cooking class after school today so I get EXTRA crafty time, woohoo!  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gathering Moments
Ink:  Basic Beige, Blackberry Bliss, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Basic Beige, Blackberry Bliss, Very Vanilla, Gathering Together Specialty DSP
Accessories:  Gathering Moments dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Low Profile Dots, gold baker's twine

Spotlight on CAS

Mornin' y'all!  I had to go grocery shopping after I dropped Ryan off at school and I can report that the apple pie à la mode Oreos are actually okay.  I usually try to avoid buying Oreos because I have zero self control when it comes to cookies, but sometimes I just have to try the limited edition flavors.  I'm keeping an eye out for the pumpkin spice Oreos.

Anyway, I wasn't real sure what to work on yesterday (lacking focus) but I finally came up with this:

I used last week's Color Throwdown colors:

Which I interpreted as Melon Mambo, Petal Pink, and Garden Green, but of course there aren't any Blends for Garden Green so I used the lighter Shaded Spruce Blend for my leaves and stems.  I got the layout from AAA Cards Challenge:

My oval and image ended up being larger than what's on the sketch, so I changed the sentiment I had planned to use so I'd have more white space.  I did add some Rainbow Dots because it just felt unfinished until I did that.

Anyway, I got a few new things yesterday (okay, five packs of DSP...clearly I need an intervention when it comes to paper hoarding) so I hope that I'll be a bit more focused today on what to make.  It's always fun to play with new stuff, right?  And this order is a lot more interesting than the last one that was just white cardstock, envelopes, and Dimensionals.  Ha!

Have a great Tuesday, y'all.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Spotlight on Nature
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Petal Pink, Stampin' Blends in Melon Mambo & Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies (used as a mask), Rainbow Dots

Interlaken

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  Hope you had a good weekend.  We went to see the latest Fantastic Four movie yesterday, I liked it okay.  Not my favorite superhero movie, but a good way to spend some time on a Sunday.

Anyway, I'm still working through my Switzerland layouts, and here's the next one:

We took the train from Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken and kinda tooled around the town for a bit.  We had fun watching the paragliders come in for a landing at a nice park and check out the mountain views!  Those were even better from the top of the Ferris wheel.

Today's color palette:  Sweet Sorbet (I still love this color), Lucky Limeade, Marina Misty, Basic Gray, and white.  Bright and fun, I think.

That's it for now, I'm going to enjoy a piece of pumpkin coffee cake and then get started on my projects for the day.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Taffy Alphabet, Fabulous Flowers
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Marina Mist, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Sweet Sorbet, Pebbled Path, Marina Mist, Basic White, International Bazaar DSP
Accessories:  None

Blackberry Greeting

Mornin' y'all.  Per kiddo's request, there's a pumpkin coffee cake in the oven for breakfast today but my card is all about the blackberries:

I wasn't sure at first what to do with this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

But then I decided to pair it with the colors from Hand-Stamped Sentiments:

And the Inspired By... challenge:

Obviously that's where I got my blackberries, but I also added a subtle woodgrain to the Basic Beige postal shapes with some Versamark ink.  I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out when I started, but I think I like the end result.

That's it for now, peeps.  Wish me luck as I try to get Ryan to do his homework...there was a major tantrum about it last night.  Ugh.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hello Kiwi, Hardwood
Ink:  Versamark, Fresh Freesia, Blackberry Bliss
Paper:  Pool Party, Basic Beige, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Mini Dimensionals, Translucent Dots

The Whispering Statue

Happy Saturday y'all!  We have survived Ryan's first week of school and now it's time for a new Nancy Drew Challenge.  Let's investigate The Whispering Statue!

There's the OT on the left and the RT on the right.  Starting with #8, Nancy's Mysterious Letter, a lot of the RT versions feature cover art that's more a collage style rather than an illustration of a scene from the book.  This pair is another one that the two versions basically share a title and Nancy but almost nothing else.  Let's take a look!

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are staying in a seaside town while Carson is working on some kind of law case.  Nancy spends a lot of the book trying to locate Miss Morse, whom she had met on the train to Sea Cliff, to warn her that the young man they met on the train is trying to con her out of a large sum of money.  Nancy also visits the Conger estate near Sea Cliff to see a statue of a whispering girl who looks like her.  Miss Morse is the long-lost daughter of the deceased owner of the estate, which has slowly been crumbling into the sea, and it turns out that Miss Morse had been a con artist in her youth and the young man on the train was her son, whom she had given up for adoption in hopes that he wouldn't follow in his parents' perfidious footsteps.  In the climax of the book, both Nancy and Miss Morse are trapped in the building when it finally falls into the sea.  They get rescued by the Coast Guard and Nancy foils a plot to steal the whispering girl statue.  Also, this book introduces Nancy's dog Togo, who's a pretty major character in this version.

I had to dig By the Bay out of my "To Sell?" boxes because I just had to make a card inspired by the Conger mansion crumbling into the sea.  That part of the book was wild, I want to reread this one.

I based my colors on the book cover, what do you think?

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  By the Bay
Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso, Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon, Cajun Craze, Basic Beige, Garden Green, Gray Granite, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Azure Afternoon, Early Espresso, Thick Basic White, Nests of Winter DSP
Accessories:  Mini Dimensionals, clear EP, Milky Dots

Next up is the RT:

Case file:  Mrs. Merriam has given a large number of rare books to a man to sell for her, but she suspects that he's not giving her the money from the sales and she asks Carson to investigate.  He's busy, so he sends Nancy, Bess, and George to Waterford to investigate and Nancy goes undercover with a wig and sunglasses as Debbie Lynbrook.  Nancy lands a job at the bookseller's shop and soon finds that he IS swindling Mrs. Merriam and he's also selling fake reproduction artwork.  The yacht club where the girls are staying is also home to the whispering statue, which had been stolen and didn't whisper anymore when it was recovered.  Nancy discovers the statue is a fake and recovers the real one, which still bears an uncanny resemblance to her.  (Togo is also in this book, but only one teeny mention.)

This book also features what has to be the silliest Scooby-Doo moment of any of the books so far:

They're hiding from someone by pretending to be paintings.  Hilariously absurd!  I love it, it's so silly.

Here's my card:

The girls go sailing several times in this book and only sink a boat once ; p  I had to buy Uncharted Territory on eBay to make a card for this book.  I decided to stick with blues for my card to coordinate with the book cover:

I had already done the sailboat and greeting for this card when I went hunting through my scraps for a bit of DSP, and that Everyday Skies scrap matched my card perfectly.  Love it when that happens!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Uncharted Territory
Ink:  Versamark, Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Azure Afternoon, Balmy Blue, Everyday Skies DSP Stack
Accessories:  White EP, Textured Notes dies, Clear Ribboned Dots

If you would like to play along, just drop a comment on this post with a link to your card, I would love to see!  You can also check out my other blog, Hey Nancy Drew, for more in-depth commentary on the books--it's a bit behind where I am for this challenge but I am having all the fun writing it.  Be sure to check back here next week when we investigate The Haunted Bridge!