The Elusive Heiress

Happy Saturday and Nancy Drew Challenge day!  Today we are on Nancy's 68th adventure, The Elusive Heiress:

Okay, we've got some fun action happening on the arch cover with Nancy in fancy dress and firecrackers scaring some horses, which does happen in the book but Nancy is inside the stagecoach rather than watching from afar.  The one on the right is the cover I grew up with; I like the composition of it but I don't think it tells us much about the mystery at hand since it's just a broken window.  I think this Nancy looks like Erica Durance as Lois Lane on the show Smallville (she's my favorite Lois Lane), but maybe that's because I've been rewatching Smallville lately.

Case file:  Nancy is tasked with tracking down the daughter of an aging millionaire; said daughter ran off 30 years ago to marry a man her father didn't approve of (good for her, the millionaire sounds like a butt).  Nancy and Ned travel to Cheyenne, Wyoming, while Carson follows a lead to Canada.  En route to Cheyenne, Nancy is asked to watch after a little girl named Jennifer who is on her way to meet her mother, but the mother doesn't show at the airport and so now Nancy has two missing persons to find.  And also there's a rodeo which is a lot of fun.

Here's my first card:

Nancy and Ned are staying with an old friend of Nancy's mother while they're in Cheyenne, and the local police are so busy with the big rodeo that Jennifer stays with them too because Child Protective Services isn't a thing in the Drew-niverse.  Ned and Nancy play pretend parents and take Jennifer to various rodeo activities, including a carnival one night so I made a card with Carnival Treats.

My colors are Poppy Parade, Pacific Point, and So Saffron; I initially had thought to do something with firecrackers instead but for some reason this is the card that came out.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Carnival Treats, July Fourth, Super Cool
Ink:  Poppy Parade, Pacific Point, So Saffron, Versamark
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Pacific Point, So Saffron, Basic White
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, white EP, Dimensionals

I actually made a second card for this cover:

Ned and Jennifer go ride a Ferris wheel while Nancy gets assaulted at the carnival and is left unconscious under the bleachers, which is a normal day in the life of Nancy Drew and I'm glad I was not a teen detective.

I swapped the So Saffron for Basic Beige on this card and kept the design simple.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Feeling Sentimental
Ink:  Poppy Parade, Pacific Point
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Basic Beige, Blueberry Crisp DSP
Accessories:  Everyday Arches dies, Not Quite Navy taffeta ribbon, Dimensionals

On to the second cover:

The book is set at Cheyenne's Frontier Days rodeo so I had to have a cowboy card!  I actually had to stamp the horse and cowboy three times before I found the look I wanted.  I think every time I've used this stamp set (Out West), I've used just this image so this time I decided to incorporate the horseshoe and made my own border.  Then I decided that there was too much space under the horseshoes so I tore off the edge of the card front and backed it with some Rococo Rose gingham.

My colors are Island Indigo, Rococo Rose, and Pecan Pie for this go-round.  There is a variation of this cover but the only difference is the colors on the title block; the artwork is the same so I never bothered to track down the variant.  I've had this copy for at least a couple of decades.  I wanted to make another card for this cover but I ran out of time.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Out West, Rough Edges Alphabet
Ink:  Early Espresso, Pecan Pie, Island Indigo, Rococo Rose, Versamark
Paper:  Island Indigo, Very Vanilla, Rococo Rose DSP
Accessories:  Deckled Circles dies, Dimensionals, clear EP

Oddly, I had absolutely no memories of this story when I picked it up this time and usually I remember at least *something* about the books that have to do with horses even tangentially.  Maybe it's because the artwork on my childhood copy is horse-free?  At any rate, I really enjoyed it this time around though I think that people could have looked harder for the titular heiress thirty years ago because Nancy seems to track her down pretty fast.  I had a great time reading this one so I'm giving it four and a half stars.  If you're inspired to make a card by either the book covers or the story, leave me a comment below!  And I'll see you next Saturday when Nancy searches for The Clue in the Ancient Disguise.

Year of the Horse

Mornin' y'all!  I feel like I actually got enough sleep last night and that hardly every happens so today is the day I'm going to take over the world.  Ha!  Or I will at least have dominion over my craft room and the laundry.

Here's my card for today:

This is for the As You See It recipe challenge.  Joanne said when she made her card that she had wanted to do a Chinese New Year but didn't have anything that would work for the year of the horse, and I immediately thought of this horse image in Ancient Asia.  Here's the challenge:

The only part of this recipe that gave me trouble was the vellum; I was looking to see if I had any gold vellum (nope) when I found that scrap of die-cut glimmer paper.  It's the center of the wreath I made for this card in 2023 and I thought it kinda looked like a sunburst which maybe doesn't make sense for a lunar new year card but that's what my brain told me to do.  I added gold embossing powder and some gold glitter dots to really up the bling factor here.

I'm going to finish my tea and then take Daphne for a walk, and then I have lots of things to do in my craft room (in between loads of laundry, of course).  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Ancient Asia, Feeling Sentimental
Ink:  Versamark, Merry Merlot
Paper:  Riding Hood Red, Merry Merlot, Ginger Blossom DSP, vellum
Accessories:  Wishes All Around dies, gold EP, Gold Glitter Dots, Dimensionals

London Calling

One more post for this weekend!  Here's my super quick card for today...

I couldn't resist making something for the Inspired By... challenge:

It made me think of the phone booth stamp from Feeling Sentimental, which I think maybe was a Sale-a-Bration stamp set from a few years ago (I'm not going to go upstairs to check, I'm lazy).  I stamped the phone booth with Versamark and then embossed with Cherry Cobbler embossing powder...remember when colored embossing powder was A Thing?  I still have lots of it in various colors, it's fun to play with periodically.  One fussy cut greeting and a few Milky Dots, and my card is done.

Well, kiddo had a taekwondo tournament yesterday and did a great job.  He entered four events for his age group and got first place in one and second place in the other three events.  They divvy up the competitors as much as possible so they can give out as many trophies as possible at his age level, it's how they try to make tournaments a positive experience for the younger kids.  Ryan sure was excited about it!  And today we have to clean up the house because I have someone coming over tomorrow to fix the furniture that the movers damaged last year.  Wish me luck getting the kid motivated to clear all his Legos out of the guest room...and the living room...and everywhere else.  Ha!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Feeling Sentimental, Heartfelt Hellos
Ink:  Versamark, Basic Gray
Paper:  Smoky Slate
Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler embossing powder, Milky Dots, Dimensionals

Alabama National Fair

Ok, this week is getting busy with preparing for the garage sale on Saturday, so I'm choosing another scrapbook layout to share today!

Whaddya know, this one is actually from our time in Alabama.  Oh, if you're wondering, a friend of ours doesn't share his kids' pictures online so I censored to protect the innocent (and checked with said friend before posting this, to boot).

So let's take a closer look at the title!

It really was called the Alabama *National* Fair, and I have no idea why that instead of state fair.  Maybe they're trying to sound more important.  Anyway, I used a couple different alphabets on here and that fantastic Ferris wheel from Feeling Sentimental.  Side note:  I had to use a Taken with Teal marker to ink up "Fair"; for some reason, my TWT ink pad comes off looking like a much dustier version of teal rather than a nice vibrant color.  I don't know if it's age or what...I really should try to hit it with an ink refill and see how it looks then, but for this project the marker worked fine.

My color palette:  Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Taken with Teal, Basic Black, and Whisper White.  When I first get out a set of photos to scrap, I like to pull colors I think will work, but sometimes the colors evolve a little as I go through my scrappin' process.  So here's the palette I initially picked out:

Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip, and Whisper White.  Really very similar to what I used, but every single color (except white) got tweaked a little bit before I got to the end.  Sometimes that's just how it works.  Other times, I pick the right mix of colors the first time ; )

Cheers, peeps!  I'm off to organize more schtuff for the garage sale.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Calendar Alphabet & Numbers, Broadsheet Alphabet, Feeling Sentimental
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Poppy Parade, Taken with Teal, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Poppy Parade, Taken with Teal, Basic Black, Whisper White, Peach Parfait DSP, Sweet Pea DSP Stack
Accessories:  Circles Framelits

Vintage Birthday

Two manly birthday cards in a row, that's gotta be some kind of record or something.  I reached for some vintage (read:  retired) colors for this card to go with a vintage bicycle.

I think I'm off my game though, I haven't been really, really jazzed about anything I've made this week really.  I think the two circle embellishments are throwing me off on this one because I covered up that Chocolate Chip corner.  Urgh.  The sketch is from Seize the Birthday, though I am too late to enter it for the challenge:

I love the name of this challenge.  It reminds me of a line from Disney's Robin Hood, when chaos has commenced at the archery contest and Prince John hollers "SEIZE THE FAT ONE!", referring to Maid Marian's chickeny lady-in-waiting, Lady Kluck, who was doing a pretty good job of adding to the chaos all by herself.  I don't know why but I find that line (or the way he says it, or something) totally hilarious.  I've been wanting to play along in the Seize the Birthday challenges for a couple of weeks, so maybe next time I'll actually get my card made in time.  And maybe I'll make something I like a little better than this one...

Thanks for stopping by today, let's all go watch some Disney movies, k?

Supplies (all SU!)
Stamps:  Feeling Sentimental, Curly Cute
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango (retired), Sage Shadow (retired)
Paper:  Sage Shadow (retired), Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Au Chocolat DSP (retired), Dusty Durango Patterns DSP (retired)
Accessories:  Windows Framelits, 1" and 1 1/4" circle punches, 5/16" neutral brads (retired)

It's a MANLY Ferris Wheel

For once, I managed to make a masculine card!  My hubs even said it looked acceptably manly.

This was another one of those stamp sets that I kinda wasn't sure what to do with it once I had it in my hot little hands.  Finally, I saw a set of super cute cards on Mary Fish's blog and I CASEd it to come up with this.  I tweaked the layout a bit, used different colors and patterned paper, but I think you can still pretty easily tell where I got the inspiration :)

And Sale-a-Bration starts today, woohoo!  Go forth and stamp happy!

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps:  Feeling Sentimental
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Parker's Prints DSP
Accessories:  Regals brads, Dimensionals