Pirate Ship

Mornin' y'all!  Well, I did not get the laundry done yesterday but today is a new day and that laundry is always waiting ; )  What I did get done is a pirate card!

I will be sending this to a friend who's been having a hard time of it lately because sometimes you just need to yell ARRRRR!  I was inspired to talk like a pirate by the Festive Friday challenge:

I used black, white, a ship, and waves, and I'm not sure if the pearl accents count as jewels.  They're not stones, but they are used in jewelry.  My ship is either the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean or the pirate ship Revenge from The Princess Bride.  One of those.

My card came together super fast thanks to the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge:

And I'll enter this at Shopping Our Stash, where the challenge is on or in the water.  It was fun to pull out two of my piratical stamp sets for this card : )

Time to go walk with Daphne.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  On the Ocean, Beware Pirates
Ink:  Versamark, Lost Lagoon, Pretty Peacock
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  On the Ocean dies, black EP, Dimensionals, Riverside Irregular Pearls

Apple Thanks

Mornin' y'all!  Did you have a good holiday weekend?  We flew out to Texas for the weekend, which was great until they canceled our flight back to Colorado on Monday.  Somehow our suitcase ended up flying out on Monday night, but we spent that night in a hotel and flew out yesterday morning and Ryan got to miss a day of school.  We're back to our regularly scheduled programming today and I got to spend the weekend with my parental units and I hit up four Half Price Books stores and came back with a rather tall stack o' books.  If I had bought any more, we would have had to get a second bag for them : )

Anyway, I got in my craft room for a little bit yesterday and made this:

My friend Toby gave me a book that's kinda like a Nancy Drew scrapbook, so I made this card to send to her.  I absolutely loooooove the inspo challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments:

An excellent excuse to break out my favorite retired apple stamp set, Apple Harvest, and also I would like to go to there, please.  Actually I'm planning to make apple cider muffins in the very near future (I got the new Sally's Baking 101 cookbook), I can easily make myself a cuppa tea, and I have a stack of new books to read so that will be very much like living in these inspo pics : )  

Next up is the follow my lead challenge at AAA Cards:

Which dovetails nicely with the TGIF Challenge:

I used one of the Everyday Arches dies as a mask to sponge ink on my card base, then floated my apple branch on top and added the greeting and a few sparkle dots.  I think I want to play along with all of these challenges again and Ryan has his cooking class after school today which means extra crafty time (after I wash dishes and start some laundry, anyway).

That's it for now, peeps, have a great day!  As soon as I get Ryan off to school, I'm going to make myself a cuppa.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Apple Harvest
Ink:  Early Espresso, Darling Duckling, Wild Wheat, Stampin' Blends in Sweet Sorbet, Darling Duckling, Pecan Pie, Mossy Meadow, Ivory
Paper:  Basic Beige, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Apple Blossoms dies, Everyday Arches dies, Dimensionals, Opaque Sparkle Gems, Wink of Stella

A Frightfully Good Color Combo from SUOC

Mornin' y'all!  Get ready for a new challenge from SUO Challenges!

It's comin' at ya right...NOW!

Now that we are officially in Spooky Season (because in my reality that officially starts on September first), I had to give these colors a Halloween spin.  Here's what I made:

I used the blendy thingies I can't think of the name for right now to apply Timid Tiger and Melon Mambo ink on some plain white cardstock, just kinda randomly, and then I flicked a bit of water on it and dried it with a heat tool because I'm impatient.  Then I stamped the Fright Night stamp on top, cut it out, et voilà, a custom-color background for my main image piece.  I played around with different elements and eventually landed on a few spiderwebs on some Spooky Sweet Specialty DSP, a few Melon Mambo Faceted Gems and done.  I've been in Michaels a couple of times recently and it seems like there is a LOT of Halloween decor out there with hot pink, so now I'm trendy (first time for everything).

Hope you'll play along with the challenge over at SUO Challenges.  You don't have to make it Halloween, just remember to use SU! only supplies and have fun.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fright Night
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Timid Tiger, Melon Mambo
Paper:  Timid Tiger, Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Fright Night dies, Dimensionals, Solid Faceted Gems

Appel Happel

Scrappy Monday, y'all, and welcome to SEPTEMBER which kicks off my favorite time of the year, fall!  Squeeeee!  I'm so excited for cooler temperatures and autumn colors and many, many cups of tea and also apples.  I love today's layout!

In 2021, we went apple picking at a place called Appel Happel in Germany despite having two apple trees in our own yard, and I wish we had done it every year because it was fun.  I made pie and muffins and my first-ever attempt at homemade applesauce and I love that picture of Ryan just stretched out at his leisure in the wheelbarrow.  Love love love love love.

Today's color palette is courtesy of the Orchard Harvest DSP, one of my favorites and one of the first that I can remember SU! having on the clearance rack after it had retired.  Like, when the clearance rack was introduced, this paper was on it and I happily snagged several packs of it because I had already used most of my first pack (which rarely happens, I buy DSP faster than I use it even with how much stuff I make).  Anyway, the colors are Raspberry Ripple, More Mustard, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Early Espresso, and white.  I had a mishap while creating this layout though; I wanted to ink up my Island Indigo ink pad and I accidentally used Pacific Point ink instead.  Since then I've been using a Stampin' Spot (like a mini ink pad), but I do have a full-size one in my eBay cart to replace the one I messed up.  Harrumph.

I have a bag of apples on my counter right now, I think some apple muffins would not go amiss to celebrate the beginning of September.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Big Deal Alphabet, Perfectly Preserved
Ink:  More Mustard, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Raspberry Ripple, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Basic White, Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories:  Cannery Framelits

Flamingo Flowers

Mornin' y'all!  How's your weekend going?

I've got a one-layer card to share today.

I kept this one very CAS for the Just Add Ink challenge:

The Thankful Garden masks are the only stencils I own, so that was an easy choice for this challenge, and I paired it with the CAS Colours & Sketches colors:

Lost Lagoon has been in a couple of color challenges lately and I am here for it.  I like these colors together, this was fun.

Have a great day, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Thankful Garden
Ink:  Flirty Flamingo, Pool Party, Lost Lagoon
Paper:  Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Thankful Garden masks

Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk

Hey hey, welcome to another Nancy Drew Challenge!  We're up to number 17, The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk.

Again, we have a very slight title change.  The OT on the left gets the colorful cover and a scene from the book; the RT right is another collage and I find it curious that the cover for a book that takes place almost entirely at sea is nearly devoid of sea colors.  Interesting artistic choice.

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are planning to take a trip to South America with the students of a girls' school (which none of them attend), when a pretentious and rude lady appears and Nancy's house and insists that she can't go with them and that her darling daughter Nestrelda (what a name!) cannot associate with people like Nancy.  Meanwhile, Carson wants Nancy to talk to the daughter of a friend of his and convince her to marry the guy that her parents have picked out, which is super ick on Carson and the parents' part but at least Nancy isn't fond of this idea either.  The girls all do go on the trip and Nancy's trunk gets mixed up with Nestrelda's, which her crooked stepfather has been using as part of a jewelry smuggling operation.  Quite a bit of the book takes place in Buenos Aires, which was fun.  Also, Nancy gets struck by lightning in this one.  What?!

Here's my card:

At the start of the book, when Nancy is packing her stuff in her new trunk, we get a return of Effie from Password to Larkspur Lane though this time instead of just being flighty and hilarious she's actively stupid and packs Nancy's passport in the trunk, so Nancy is worried she won't get to go on the trip as the trunk got shipped to the port separately.  So I had to include a passport on my card for this one.  Also I think it's weird that Nancy is so keen to go on a trip to South America when she was nearly an unwilling passenger on a cruise ship heading there in the OT version of #16, The Clue of the Tapping Heels.

I wanted to use Nancy's smart blue skirt suit as the main color inspiration, so I went with Island Indigo for my card base with Pool Party for the sky, and just a touch of Sweet Sorbet to echo Bess's red jacket.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Next Destination, Post Script
Ink:  Island Indigo, Pebbled Path, Pool Party, Sweet Sorbet
Paper:  Island Indigo, Pool Party, Thick Basic White, Shades & Hues DSP Stack
Accessories:  Perennial Postage dies, Dimensionals, Sweet Sorbet pearls

Now let's take a look at the RT:

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George embark on a transatlantic cruise from Holland to New York and meet Nelda Detweiler, who shares their cabin.  Nancy's trunk goes missing while another similar one with the initials ND is delivered to the cabin in its place.  Nelda had been wrongly accused of stealing jewelry in South Africa; Nancy and the other girls open up this trunk that doesn't belong to them and discover that the trunk is being used to smuggle jewels; Nancy has the bad guys arrested as soon as they dock in New York.  And along the way there's a meteor and she and Nelda get thrown overboard, no big deal (by which I mean this is totally bananas).  Also, fun fact, this book was a gift to me from my cousins for Christmas 1989.

Here's my card:

I admit, I bought the Traveler stamp set on eBay specifically for this Nancy Drew challenge.  I had to do a monochromatic card to match the cover, and I included some antique pearls for the jewelry on the cover.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Traveler, Scenic Adventure, World Map
Ink:  Cinnamon Cider, Early Espresso
Paper:  Cinnamon Cider, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Antique Pearls

But wait, there's more!  I couldn't resist making a second card for this book:

There's a costume contest during the cruise, and George dresses up as an old lady in a nightgown with mice embroidered on it and I could NOT let that opportunity pass me by so here's a mouse card!

I still kept the colors similar to the cover, though I worked in some of Nancy's orangey hues for the cheese.  Still got some jewels on there with the Frosted Iridescent Dots.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Mischievous Mice
Ink:  Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Cinnamon Cider, Daffodil Delight, Peach Pie, Pretty in Pink
Paper:  Cinnamon Cider, Bumblebee, Thick Basic White, A Flower For All Seasons DSP, Bumblebee DSP
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, Mini Dimensionals, Frosted Iridescent Dots

Hope you enjoyed this peek at The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk and if you'd like to play along, write a comment here with a link to your card.  You can read more about Nancy's adventures on my other blog, Hey Nancy Drew, where my posts just keep getting longer and longer but I'm having fun.  Stay tuned for next week's adventure, The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion!

Dino-Mite Birthday

Mornin' y'all and happy Friday!  We have had a LOT of rain here for the last week or so, and last night I woke up at around 2am to quite the thunderstorm happening outside.  Lots of lightning and heavy rain.  Daphne likes finding all the puddles when we take our morning walks.

So, it's been a while since I made a dinosaur card and I have one for today:

Krissy, my dino-loving pal, has a birthday coming up so of course this is for her.  I used this week's Creative Colour Challenge:

I did sneak in a bit of Cloud Cover for some details, but that color reads as a neutral gray to me so I think it's allowable.  I also used the Atlantic Hearts sketch:

Easy peasy.  That's it for me today, peeps, hope you have a great holiday weekend.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Darling Dinos
Ink:  Secret Sea, Stampin' Blends in Darling Duckling, Strawberry Slush, Cloud Cover
Paper:  Darling Duckling, Secret Sea, Thick Basic White, Secret Sea & Strawberry Slush DSP
Accessories:  Darling Dinos dies, Textured Notes dies, In Color Flat Pearls, Dimensionals