Gingerbread Season

Mornin' y'all!  Today Ryan has STEM club after school which means extra crafting time for me : )  I finished my latest stitching project yesterday so I will be kitting up the next one today...I always have *something* I want to make!  And tomorrow, I will be making desserts for a potluck thing at the hubs' work, which leads me right into today's card:

I've had the Homemade Treats bundle for WEEKS and this is the first time I've inked it up!  It's super cute and will coordinate well with the Frosted Gingerbread suite from a few years ago, and of course I still have the papers (and stamps and dies) from that.  I know exactly who this will go to as well, my dino-loving pal Krissy also loves to bake.  We've joked about how we should open a bakery together where she does cakes and cupcakes and I make cookies and muffins.

Very happy that the latest challenge at Addicted to CAS gave me an excuse to finally ink up a few of these stamps:

The first weekend in December, I will be making gingerbread muffins for breakfast.  I don't know that I've ever made gingerbread cookies but I do make muffins and some cream cheese frosted gingerbread bars (which I will be making tomorrow along with chocolate cherry bars and cranberry crumble pie bars).  'Tis definitely the season for baking at my house : )

That's it for now, peeps.  I'm going to finish breakfast, take Daphne for her neighborhood tour (she's already poking me with her nose, doggo loves her walks), and then go kit up that stitching project and work on some more cards.  Looks like a fun day to me.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Homemade Treats
Ink:  Pecan Pie, Calypso Coral
Paper:  Garden Green, Thick Basic White, Timeless Plaid Stack
Accessories:  Homemade Treats dies, Nested Essentials dies, Mini Dimensionals

And if you're curious, here's my newly completed stitching project:

The pattern is from Autumn Lane Stitchery and I got the fabric from Mystic Fabrics.  It's an opal fabric so it's sparkly, which is perfect for this nighttime scene.  I had hoped to finish this before Halloween, but it's done now so it's all good.  And here is my next project, I'm excited to start it!

Lagoon Spruce

Mornin' y'all...it's almost 11am and I am ready for a nap!  Grocery shopping wore me out : p  But I do have a card to share today:

Toldja I would be making more with the Branching Out bundle and of course I just really want to use it with the recently retired Winter Meadow DSP, I am trying very hard not to hoard it all.  For today's card I started out with The Card Concept challenge:

I wrote down Cajun Craze, Summer Splash, Early Espresso and white for colors and then I ended up using Cinnamon Cider and Lost Lagoon for the first two colors.  I see some blue spruces around the neighborhood and they really are Last Lagoon colored.  

Next up is the Atlantic Hearts sketch:

I thought this sketch was a good excuse to use some of the bigger dies in the Branching Out bundle.

It's almost an hour past when I usually take Daphne for her walk, but I just finished breakfast.  Brunch, really.  Anyway, she says it's long past time for me to take her and I can't resist those puppy dog eyes.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Branching Out
Ink:  Early Espresso, Lost Lagoon, Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Thick Basic White, Winter Meadow DSP
Accessories:  Branching Out dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Speckled Dots

Funny Faces

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  We had a pretty relaxing weekend and yesterday I got to watch The Secret of NIMH snuggled up with Ryan and Daphne.  One of Ryan's monthly homework assignments is to write a compare/contrast paragraph of a book adapted into a movie, and it just happened that he was reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH at the beginning of the month so that worked out well.  I'd never seen the movie before so that was fun.  It's on Amazon Prime if you're curious.

I'm still working through pics from our Berlin trip in 2021 and today's layout is just fun.

Ryan has always made a huge variety of funny faces and is not shy about mugging for pictures.  I ordered our Christmas cards on Saturday and one of this year's funny faces will make an appearance : )  The hubs cracked up when he saw the picture, apparently I hadn't shown it to him when I took it this summer.  Anyway, I had a whole stack of funny face pictures from this trip so of course they had to go on a layout together.

Once again, I pulled the Call Me Clover color from the previous layouts (the Berlin Zoo layouts here) and used it as my page base, along with Night of Navy, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, and white.  I had a good time making this one.

That's it for now, peeps.  I've got to take Daph for a walk and then I have to make some phone calls, ugh.  Wish me luck, I hate calling people.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Brushwork Alphabet, Schoolbook Serif Alphabet, Happy Hearts
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Call Me Clover, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Call Me Clover, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Thick Basic White, Happiness Blooms DSP
Accessories:  Painted Labels dies

Sleigh Ride for the Paper Players

Happy Sunday!  And that means it's time for a new challenge from The Paper Players!  This time we have a great CAS challenge from the lovely Stef:

Since I've been stamping for over 20 years now, and since I still have yet to sell anything in my To Sell? boxes (note the question mark), that means I have LOTS and LOTS of holiday images to choose from.  The one stamp set that kept popping in my head when thinking about this challenge is the one I used for my very first handmade Christmas cards in 2004:  Sleigh Ride (it is not in the To Sell? boxes).  Here's what I made:

The full image stamp is actually much larger, but I decided to go with just a portion of the image so I could have more open space and keep my card feeling CAS.  I stamped it in Cloud Cover ink on Soft Sea Foam cardstock because I discovered recently that I like those two colors together, die cut it and did a bit of sponging and popped it up on some little scraps of Cloud Cover DSP, also die cut.  I had one little bitty scrap of that DSP and so I cut one end of the rectangle shape twice, the pieces don't actually meet in the middle under the main image.  Don't tell anyone.  Couldn't resist adding a few pearls around my greeting and it's kind of amazing how the Soft Succulent pearls picked up the color of the Cloud Cover cardstock!

Side note:  I took at least ten pictures of this card over several days in various places and this was the best I could get.  Does anyone else have trouble photographing Cloud Cover?  The colors kept coming out wonky.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sleigh Ride
Ink:  Cloud Cover, Soft Sea Foam
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Soft Sea Foam, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Festive Pearls

Want to see my 2004 card?  You can see the full stamped image here:

I made...uh...somewhere between 40 and 60 of these?  And I watercolored every single one because clearly I was bananas.  This is also before I got a Stamp-a-Ma-Jig so I just stamped the greeting and hoped it was straight (spoiler alert:  it wasn't).  Nowadays I order photo cards online for most of our card list and only my favorite peeps get handmade cards (in addition to the photo card and family newsletter).  Mostly because I don't want to make the same design that many times.

Back to today's challenge, we hope you'll join the fun at the Paper Players!  Don't forget to keep your card clean and simple:  limited layers and embellishments, with lots of white space (though my white space is, in this instance, Cloud Cover).  And here are the other challenge 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!

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

you are here --> Christy Stanford

The Clue in the Old Album

Happy Saturday!  And welcome back to the Nancy Drew Challenge, I love these : )  Today we are on book #24, The Clue in the Old Album, and once again I have three different covers.

The first one is by Russell Tandy and features what could be one of several scenes of Nancy watching the happenings at a Romani campsite (the book says Gypsies, but I'm going to do my best to use the more correct and respectful terminology).  This time we have Nancy in a dark red skirt suit with matching headwear, looking pretty sharp.

The second cover is the same type of scene, but updated by Rudy Nappi so we have Nancy in a '60s-style yellow sheath dress with her signature flippy 'do, and if you look closely, her fingernails are painted.  The camp scene she's observing feels more menacing to me, with the man opening the tent and the woman sitting on the ground inside...is it just me?  Gives me the heebies a little bit.

For the third one, also a Nappi cover, we have Nancy in the foreground looking through a photo album, and behind her is the Romani violinist she's trying to find.  I like that Nancy is still in yellow, which looks great with her titian hair and makes for a nice contrast with the black and deep red of the background.  I think this is my favorite of the three, I like the moodiness.

So let's take a look inside.

Case file:  While at a violin concert, Nancy sees a man steal an elderly woman's purse, which is how she meets Mrs. Struthers.  The woman asks Nancy to find a specific doll for her, which her daughter had mentioned in her last words before expiring of an unexplained illness, and while she's doing that Nancy acts as her personal shopper to buy dolls at doll shows in different cities.  Mrs. Struthers also asks her to find Romano Pepito, estranged father of her granddaughter Rose, who is a Romani man and plays the violin (and apparently he is less important to her than the dolls).  Of course Nancy finds everything she's looking for and reunites the family.  And the dolls.  Don't forget the dolls.

Here's my card:

Musical Jamboree is the closest I could come to a violin in my collection, though in this context would it be a fiddle?  What's the difference, anyway?  Ah, Google says that the main difference is the style of music played rather than the structure of the instrument, but fiddlers will sometimes flatten the bridge of the strings so they can more easily play multiple strings at once.  Today I learned.

I thought my music-loving animals were a good parallel for the campfire scene on the book, and I used my new favorite Everyday Skies DSP for the background, embossing the greeting right on the sky.  Over the course of the book, Nancy encourages Mrs. Struthers to get her wild granddaughter Rose into music lessons, so I liked that sentiment for this card.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Musical Jamboree, Music from the Heart
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Blends in Pebbled Path, Ivory, Copper Clay, Pecan Pie, Petal Pink, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Everyday Skies DSP Stack, Meandering Meadows DSP Stack
Accessories:  White EP

And the second OT cover:

Here's my card:

A large part of the book has to deal with Mrs. Struthers' doll collection; she sends Nancy on a couple of errands to go buy more dolls in other cities and a pair of nefarious Romani steal dolls from her and also kidnap her granddaughter Rose.  Anyway, dolls brought to mind the My Matryoshka stamp set...I like matryoshka dolls but most other types creep me out ; )  I think dolls were a bigger plot point than the titular old album.

I wanted to incorporate yellow for Nancy's dress on the cover, so I started with the Floral Delight DSP, then added Real Red from the book cover and a bit of Pool Party from the DSP.  Parts of the dolls are colored with the lighter Pool Party Blend but it's hard to see in the photo.  I went with the "Missing You" sentiment since Rose and her dad were missing each other until Nancy reunited them.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  My Matryoshka, Oh So Eclectic
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink, Real Red, Pool Party, Old Olive
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lolly, Thick Basic White, Floral Delight DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, Opaque Faceted Gems, Best Year Ever ribbon, Dimensionals

Now for the RT:

Case file:  This one closely follows the RT, omitting a subplot where Nancy, Bess, and George buy a sailboat and beat a snooty girl and her friends in a sailing race, which was pretty pointless anyway.

Here's my card:

Rose, the granddaughter, is a bit of a wild child and Mrs. Struthers initially doesn't want Rose to know about her Romani heritage (because...it will make her more wild?).  Rose loves music and dancing, so I chose Margarita Ketto from Stamping Bella to represent Rose, plus many multiple Romani women are described as wearing scarlet skirts.  I used a giant rose outline on the Cherry Cobbler paper and on the inside, I stamped the Katharine Hepburn quote "If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun" which pretty much encapsulates Rose's attitude.

I took my colors directly from the cover on this one.  I wanted to put the Katharine Hepburn quote on the front, but that stamp is quite large so I put it on the inside instead and then forgot to take a picture of it.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Margarita Ketto & greetings from Stamping Bella, Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Cherry Cobbler, Stampin' Blends in Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Layering Ovals Framelits, Dimensionals, Daffodil Delight 3/8" taffeta ribbon

I do vaguely remember this one from childhood--as soon as it mentioned Mrs. Struthers' doll collection, I was like "Oh yes, the creepy dolls!"  Nancy even gets poisoned by one.  Anyway, this is a pretty solid installment but not one of my favorites; I give it three and a half stars.  If you are inspired to create a card, leave me a comment below as I would love to see!  Meanwhile, I will be back next Saturday to investigate The Ghost of Blackwood Hall.  Cheers!

Moonlight Pines

Afternoon, y'all!  I had an extra productive day in my craft room yesterday so I have an extra card to share today.  Take a look:

Why I always seem to get some kind of smudge but only on Misty Moonlight cardstock?  Of course it happened after everything was stuck down so it's staying that way.  Let's start with the Inspired By... challenge:

I couldn't get it to show up in a picture taken straight on, but the dark parts on my card are the Earthen Toned Metallic Paper, take a look:

IRL it matches the shine on the copper plates and utensils in the inspo pic.  Next up is the Sunday Stamps sketch:

I made the strip across the bottom taller than in the sketch, which made the greeting be within that strip instead of above it, but that's what made sense to me for my card--if I'd made the DSP narrower, I don't think it would have come across that it's a pattern with pine trees.

This was the first time I'd played with the image stamps in Branching Out and I had a good time with it.  I love the shaped dies in this set too, so I'm sure you'll be seeing lots more of this as we get closer to Christmas : )  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Branching Out
Ink:  Misty Moonlight, Early Espresso
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Winter Meadow DSP, Earthen Toned Metallic Specialty Paper
Accessories:  Branching Out dies, Textured Notes dies, Tinsel Gems

Christmas Thoughts Duo

Mornin' y'all, how's your Friday going?  Mine started extra early...every once in a while the hubs has a weird work schedule that involves getting up at 4am so guess who was *also* awake at 4am.

Nevertheless, I have two cards to share today, starting with this one:

Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I used the colors from CAS Colours & Sketches:

But I worried that it wasn't really CAS enough, and I still had all my paper scraps out including another bit of that same plaid, so I made this:

Same basic idea as the first card, but I took out the Night of Navy layer and I changed the layout around to leave more white space and thus make it more CAS.  But before I mail this out I'm going to add some gold glitter enamel dots like on the other one ; )

That's it for now, peeps.  Have a good Friday...I'm going to go make a cuppa tea and try to wake up.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sleigh Ride, Greatest Part of Christmas
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Real Red & Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Wrapped in Plaid DSP
Accessories:  Gold Glitter Enamel Dots

Foresty Thanks

Mornin' y'all!  I actually did sleep last night, hallelujah, but my left hip and knee are really hurting this morning for no reason that I know of.  Don't know what that's about, but Daphne will insist on going for her usual walk so maybe that will help work the kinks out if I just slept on it wrong?  Here's hoping.

Anyway, here's my card for this morning:

I like the TGIF Challenges color palette this round:

I did add some Early Espresso because I needed a dark neutral to ground the other colors.  Paired that with the Atlantic Hearts sketch this week:

I thought the explosion of leaves, mushrooms, and acorns from the Gathering Moments stamp set worked well for this sketch.  I added a few of the new Pearls of Beauty in Crumb Cake for accents, I would love these in lots more colors.

That's it for now, I'm going to go take Daphne and hope that my hip and knee will cooperate.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gathering Moments
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral, Old Olive
Paper:  Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Thick Basic White, Gathering Together DSP
Accessories:  Gathering Moments dies, Textured Notes dies, Dimensionals, Pearls of Beauty

Grateful Greetings

Afternoon, y'all!  Well, since I was last here, I got Ryan to school (he left his backpack at home so we had to come back and get it, but he got into school on time just by the skin of his teeth) and then I took a long nap to make up for last night's insomnia.  The only good part about insomnia is that I got to read for a couple of hours while the house was all quiet since everyone ELSE was asleep.

Anyway, I have another card to share today and here it is:

I have to say, when I first saw the Hand-Stamped Sentiments sketch, I had planned to skip it because I didn't really want to futz with all the layers, but when I actually got in my craft room my brain insisted on making it anyway : )  Here's the sketch:

The easy part was pairing it with the Color Dare Challenge:

Those colors together instantly made me think of the long, long, long-retired Fall Flowers DSP, and that chose my third color for me (and a neutral) because the paper has Really Rust, Old Olive, Soft Sky, and Crumb Cake.  Once I chose patterns for the background bits, this came together really quickly.  There is a Bigz die for the leaves, but since you can't see where you're cutting it (as the name implies, it's a big fat die, not one of the wafer-thin ones you can see through), I almost never use it and just fussy cut the leaves.  Wonderfall is another longtime favorite leaf set and Grateful Greetings popped into my head for a sentiment, and happily there was one that fit perfectly in the sketch.

Okay, Daphne is staring me down because I didn't take her for a walk this morning, so I had better fix that oversight before she takes matters into her own paws.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wonderfall. Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Really Rust, Soft Sky, Old Olive
Paper:  Really Rust, Thick Basic White, Fall Flowers DSP
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Enamel Dot Essentials

Cardigan Card Again

Mornin' y'all...insomnia must be contagious because I think I caught it from the hubs.  I was awake from midnight to 3am last night and I did NOT want to get up this morning, but Daphne and Ryan insisted.  Maybe I'll get to take a nap once I get Ryan off to school...

Anyway, I do have a card to share today and actually I might be doing multiple posts some days this week because there are a plethora of great challenges out there and I want to play with all of them : )  So here is today's card:

We have two challenges that were absolutely meant for each other, starting with Inkspirational:

And next is Inspired By...:

I had to get out my trusty Knit Together background stamp and the knit cardigan from Forever Friendship for these two challenges.  I could not for the life of me remember the name of the stamp set with the cardigan in it so I think it took me almost as long to locate the stamp set as it did to make the card, ha!  I couldn't resist adding some Mossy Meadow to my color palette even though there's no green in the inspo pic.  Also I think I've gone through half a package of Cajun Craze cardstock in the last six weeks.

Time to get the kiddo to school.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Forever Friendship, Knit Together
Ink:  Versamark, Tip Top Taupe, Cajun Craze, Pecan Pie, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Tip Top Taupe, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Speckled Dots

A Colorful Challenge from SUO Challenges

Mornin' y'all and guess what?  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

And without any ado whatsoever, here it is:

Okay I have to say that my brain kept thinking it was an inspiration challenge rather than a color challenge, but I like to use the colors I see on inspo challenges anyway so it worked out and I got to ink up a couple of new stamp sets!  Here's what I made:

Looking at the picture, I saw Cloud Cover, Darling Duckling (or gold, but I opted for Darling Duckling), Strawberry Slush, and Garden Green.  The adorable snowman is from Festive Friends and the trees are the coordinating Festive Friends dies; the greeting comes from Branching Out, which I just *had* to buy because of Cynthia and all the pretty cards she's made with it.

I kept a lineup similar to the challenge graphic, and to give the trees a bit more texture I scrunched up plastic wrap and used it to dab ink on the die cut trees.  Such an easy technique and it makes the trees match the DSP background.  A few Strawberry Slush gems and done!

We hope you'll join in the fun at SUO Challenges.  Don't forget to use only Stampin' Up! supplies and link up your card at the challenge blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Festive Friends, Branching Out
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Darling Duckling, Garden Green, Stampin' Blends in Cloud Cover, Soft Sea Foam, Darling Duckling, Strawberry Slush
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Darling Duckling, Garden Green, Thick Basic White, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Festive Friends dies, Dimensionals, Strawberry Slush sparkle gems

Berlin Zoo

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  The hubs is off work today which always makes my schedule go wonky but that's okay.  We walked Ryan to school this morning and walked Daph at the same time, then I cleaned up some things in the house when we got back and here it is almost 11 and I never really had breakfast.  Okay so I may have grabbed a couple of pieces of Halloween candy but whatever.

Anyway, I have another pair of Berlin layouts to share today and I quite like how they turned out!

Hey look, I spy Hedwig in the upper right corner!  They really do have some very nice zoos in Germany, I know we went to at least one other one in a different city, Köln maybe, I can't remember offhand.  The enclosures all look really nice and we got good views of a lot of animals.

Pandas and seals and hippos and polar bears, oh my!  Not to mention mountain goats.  These layouts are similar to some older ones I made for a visit to the Fort Worth Zoo; Crumb Cake page base plus a bright green seems to work really well for zoo pics.

Today's color palette:  Crumb Cake, Call Me Clover, Shaded Spruce, Merry Merlot, Early Espresso, and white.  I pulled the Merry Merlot and Crumb Cake from the first Berlin layouts I did, and for the one after these two I pulled the green, which you'll see next week.  I think it helps several layouts from one trip flow together without having to use the same colors on everything, and I used the same alphabet stamps for the page titles...well, I used Schoolbook Serif on the first layout, and I used it again here plus Brushwork Alphabet, and I think for the other ones I used both alphabets together.  We'll see.

Anyway, time for me to write out this week's cards and go feed some mailboxes.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Schoolbook Serif Alphabet, Brushwork Alphabet, Artfully Layered, Tropical Chic
Ink:  Merry Merlot, Call Me Clover, Shaded Spruce, Early Espresso Marker
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Call Me Clover, Shaded Spruce, Thick Basic White, Painted Seasons DSP
Accessories:  Tropical Layers dies, Tropical dies

Color Options

Evenin' y'all!  I said in this morning's post that I had a couple of other cards I made for the new Paper Players color challenge:

So I thought I would share them both tonight.  Here's the first one:

I used Crumb Cake for the main image layer, embossed my image with Versamark + Early Espresso ink, and then I started out using watercolor pencils but they just weren't vivid enough so I watercolored with the ink pad lids.  I also tried it on Very Vanilla:

And then I decided they might not be "good enough" for my Paper Players card so I made the pheasant card I shared this morning.  I think these two cards turned out okay but I just wasn't loving them, what do you think?

Time to get Ryan started on the usual nighttime routine since he's back at school tomorrow.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rustic Centerpieces, Sweet Blooms
Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Pecan Pie, Whisper White
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangles dies, Deckled Circles dies, Textured Notes dies, Potted Succulents dies, Dimensionals, Streaked Dots

The Paper Players Autumn Palette

Good morning, y'all!  Hard to believe it's already time for another Paper Players challenge, but here we are!  This week the lovely Jan has an equally lovely autumnal color combination for us:

And here's what I made:

I actually made two other cards before this one (which I will share later), I don't know if it's impostor syndrome or what but I always want to make Very Sure that I have made the best card I can for every Paper Players challenge and sometimes that means I make more than one.  

Anyway, I got out the retired Painted Pheasant (which my brain thought was called Pleasant Pheasant, probably because one of the greeting stamps has the word pleasant in it).  The bird and the greeting are both inked up with Versamark + Early Espresso, stamped, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder, which is a great trick to get embossing done in any ink color.  Yes you get some Versamark in your colored ink pads, but I've been doing this for years and I've never noticed anything happening to my ink pads because of it.  I wanted to emboss so that I could watercolor a bit of Cajun Craze on the pheasant's body, and I also added some Mossy Meadow to his head and did the patch around his eye with Cajun Craze blends (I looked at a photo of a pheasant when choosing how to color him).  I fussy cut him out and then added a few stamped layers for a backdrop, finishing off with some Low-Profile Sparkle Dots in Mossy Meadow.

I hope that you'll join in the fun and add your colorful creation to the linky on the Paper Players blog.  Don't forget to check out what my teamies made, too!  Here's a reminder of the challenge 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!

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

you are here --> Christy Stanford

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Painted Pheasant
Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Cajun Craze; Stampin' Blends in Ivory and Cajun Craze
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, Dimensionals, Low-Profile Sparkle Dots

Mystery of the Tolling Bell

Happy Saturday and welcome to the latest Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week's book is #23, (The) Mystery of the Tolling Bell, and I have three different covers for this one.

The Russell Tandy cover on the left features Nancy in her signature blue, I like her pleated skirt and that hairstyle is SO 1940s.  I wonder why this is the only one that has "The" at the start of the title; the second book is the same text as this one but the title slightly changed.  Hmm.

Next we have Rudy Nappi's first cover for this one, which is clearly based on Tandy's but now Nancy has her signature 1960s flip hairdo and I really love that pink and red outfit.  10/10, would wear.  Also, this is the very first original text book I ever bought!

Last up we have Nappi's revised cover, which is kind of a combination of the collage style and also features the same scene as the first two versions but Nancy's outfit is far less interesting than either of the original text covers.  This one is my childhood copy.

I'm choosing the middle one as my favorite cover, both because of the awesome pink outfit and also it makes more sense for Nancy to have her trusty flashlight rather than carrying a clutch purse with her.  So let's take a look at the story!

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are in the seaside town of Candleton to help Carson with a case; his client Mrs. Chantrey was duped into buying worthless stocks in a cosmetics company.  In addition, there's a mysterious cave in the seaside cliffs from which emanates the sound of a tolling bell and the locals think it's haunted.  Naturally, Nancy solves both mysteries and catches all the bad guys with Ned's help as strongman.  This one is like The Whispering Statue in that it's set in a seaside town, and perfume is a major plot point like in The Secret of Red Gate Farm.  But Tolling Bell also has some really whackadoo elements, like when Nancy gets drugged and has a dream that she's carried away by two elves.  It's bonkers.  And Carson gets drugged this time too.

Here's my card for the first cover version:

I just *had* to buy Fanciful Fragrance on eBay just so I could make a card for this book, and who knows how many other Nancy Drews feature perfume as a major plot point so really it was an investment, ha.  Anyway, I do love this image with the fancy perfume bottles and the set has some nice sentiments and some other fancy images too.

I ended up with Baja Breeze and Tranquil Tide to try to color match to Nancy's outfit on this one.  The brownish strip is the Earthen Toned Metallic Specialty Paper but it wasn't reflecting much when I took my photos.  I used champagne-colored rhinestones to make this card a bit fancier, and also that lovely Filigree background stamp, love it.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fanciful Fragrance, Filigree
Ink:  Tranquil Tide, Baja Breeze
Paper:  Tranquil Tide, Baja Breeze, Thick Basic White, Earthen Toned Metallic Specialty Paper
Accessories:  Squares Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, Champagne Rhinestones

On to the next cover!  This one is the original text again.

And here's my card:

The flimflam cosmetics company is Mon Coeur, which means "my heart" in French, so I wanted to do a heart image for this book to coordinate with Nancy's pink and red outfit on the cover.  As soon as I came across Living Large, I knew I had to use it.  Look, the stamped girly even has Nancy's signature 'do!

Once again I tried to work in the colors on the cover, so I ended up with Cloud Cover, Polished Pink, Cherry Cobbler, and Pebbled Path for my neutral.  I love that Wild Hearts background, this was a great excuse to break it out along with Living Large.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Living Large, Wild Hearts
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Polished Pink, Stampin' Blends in Polished Pink, Timid Tiger, Petal Pink, Cherry Cobbler, Cloud Cover
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Polished Pink, Thick Basic White, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Rhinestones, Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin Ribbon, Wink of Stella

And now for the revised text:

The story is the same as the original text, just condensed a bit with no major changes that stood out to me.  And if you've been wondering how I could make multiple cards for the Mystery of the Tolling BELL without using any bells, well, here you go:

Midway through the book, the crooks decide that the Mon Coeur name is getting too hot with Nancy and Carson on their case, so they plan to change the brand name to Sweet Chimes with a logo of bells.  I had to look through my To Sell? stamps to find these bells in Best of Brides & Babies.

Once again I used Pebbled Path as my neutral, and I used So Saffron for the warm colors of Nancy in the center of the illustration.  There are some hints of blue in the rocks around her, so I chose Boho Blue for my card base, and hey, blue goes with a wedding card, right?  No one gets married in this book, though Ned definitely has it on his mind and Nancy politely ignores it because she's more interested in solving mysteries than canoodling.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Brides & Babies, Occasional Quotes
Ink:  Versamark, Pebbled Path, So Saffron, Peach Pie, Boho Blue
Paper:  Boho Blue, Pebbled Path, So Saffron, Thick Basic White, Bella Bleu DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Circles Collection Framelits, Mini Dimensionals, Clear EP, Pearls

I hope you enjoyed (The) Mystery of the Tolling Bell, this was another one I really liked from my childhood and still enjoyed a lot on this read through.  Four stars for all the bananas elements of the story (I rather enjoy it when the Nancy Drew book is a bit off the rails).  If you're inspired to play along (hooray!), just leave me a comment below!  I'll be back next week to search for The Clue in the Old Album.  Cheers!