The Secret of the Old Clock

Earlier this year, I randomly decided to reread my old Nancy Drew books while waiting in line to pick Ryan up from school every day--so I always have a book in the car and that's usually at least 30 minutes of reading time.  I've been having The Best Time Ever revisiting these books from my childhood and while I had insomnia a few nights ago I thought hey, what if I turned my Nancy Drew reread into a creative stamping challenge?  Maybe it was just 3am talking but I still think it sounds like loads of fun so here we are : )

My plan is to post a pic of a Nancy Drew book from my personal collection once a week, talk about the book and what I think (because it's my blog and I can nerd out about books if I want to),  and make a card inspired by the book.  Why?  Because it's fun.  If anyone else wants to join, I'd be delighted to see what you make--just post a comment below.  So let's get started!

The Secret of the Old Clock is the book that started it all!  My copy is pretty battered and well-loved and I wouldn't trade it for anything.  The books were originally written starting in the 1930s, then the earliest ones were rewritten and updated in the 1960s; I have the more updated versions (I've never read the originals, I think those would be highly collectible and thus expensive now).  I started collecting Nancy Drew books when I was around Ryan's age; I got several as gifts, I constantly checked others out of the public library, and when I got a little older I started scouring the used book stores for more in the series, so my collection is mismatched and unique and I love it that way.

Case file:  While tooling around River Heights in her dark blue convertible, Nancy meets several groups of poor but very kind people who all tell her (a perfect stranger) that the recently deceased Josiah Crowley had promised to leave them money in his will, and instead the snooty Topham family has inherited everything.  Nancy is soon convinced that this somewhat eccentric old dude she never met did write another will and sets out to find it.  In between visits to all these people she's just met and consulting with her father, famous attorney Carson Drew, Nancy goes out to Moon Lake to hang out with her friend Helen Corning and visits the Tophams' lake house, where she discovers a band of thieves have stolen all the furniture including the clock that she thinks holds the key to the mystery.  The thieves surprise her and lock her in a closet at the now-empty lake house, but she escapes, notifies the police, and then chases down the thieves on her own and snatches the clock out of their van while they're eating dinner.  She finds the will which does indeed leave money to all those nice deserving people and almost completely cuts out the snooty Tophams, so now the Topham daughters (who are basically like Cinderella's wicked stepsisters) will have to--gasp!--get JOBS.  To thank Nancy, the nice people decide that she should get Josiah's old clock as a memento of her first mystery.

Notes:  This book is a total nostalgia bomb for me, I don't even know how many times I've read it but this is the first time in probably at least twenty years.  It establishes the tropes that will run through the series--Nancy is a total Mary Sue who's good at everything, all the adults around her treat her like a peer and listen to her no matter what crazy story tells, and she always figures things out one way or another.  I don't think any 18-year-old girl even today would be given as much leeway as Nancy Drew gets, but it's escapist entertainment and fun anyway.  I can imagine it would have been even more fun to read during the Depression since Nancy has money and gets to travel to lots of cool places, first in her roadster and then updated to a convertible with the 60s editions.  Five stars.

So here's my card inspired by The Secret of the Old Clock:

I had to go with a clock theme, of course.  I like that quote too, I find it apropos considering how I love to sit back and relax with a good book on the regular, which definitely feels like wealth to me.

I chose the blue and green patterns to echo the blue of the night sky behind Nancy and her lime green dress on the cover, and my book is so battered that I had to grunge up my card to match.  And now I'm thinking I could have distressed the edges of my layers a bit to add to the grunge.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sense of Time, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink:  Pecan Pie, Early Espresso
Paper:  Pecan Pie, Very Vanilla, Splendid Autumn DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Rectangle dies, Dimensionals, Rustic Metallic Dots


And then I got so excited about this idea that I made another card for The Secret of the Old Clock.

So yeah, I have four clock-related stamp sets from which to choose for this challenge.  I kept the patterned papers the same but switched out Pecan Pie for Copper Clay for my pocketwatch.

And there it is with the book.

So there's my kickoff to my new personal Nancy Drew card challenge.  If it sounds like fun to you too, I invite you to play along and leave a comment below.  In the meantime, I'll be reading.  Up next:  The Hidden Staircase!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Clockworks, It's About Time
Ink:  Early Espresso, Copper Clay, Mossy Meadow, Azure Afternoon
Paper:  Copper Clay, Very Vanilla, Splendid Autumn DSP Stack
Accessories:  Deckled Circles dies, Deckled Rectangles dies, Dimensionals, Rustic Metallic Dot

Rockin' 70s

Hey y'all, how's it going?  I really need to learn *not* to try reading right before bedtime...I always stay up too late!  But I got my trusty mug o' tea this morning and a card to share.

Let's start with the Retro Rubber Challenge:

I used Delightful Dijon (harvest gold), Always Artichoke (avocado green), Really Rust (burnt orange), and Chocolate Chip (brown), so even my colors are retro!  As for the stamps, For the Record isn't retro yet, but Music from the Heart is at least 2 years old, Epic Celebrations is 4 years old, and Gorgeous Grunge is 8 years old.  Man, for a while there I used Gorgeous Grunge on *everything*, so it was fun to bust it out again for this!  Also, as for the 70s theme, I think I've already mentioned that I recently bought my first pair of bell bottom pants and I'm working on putting together an epic 70s playlist (it's an ongoing process as I find more music!).  So no way was I letting this challenge pass me by.

But I played in two other challenges as well!  I used the sketch from Fusion:

And the inspo list from Festive Friday:

As someone who is allergic to the sound of silence, I really appreciated the music theme this time around.  I used music notes, white, an instrument (guitar), embossing, and a circle.  Half the list ain't too bad.

Have a great day!

Supplies, all SU! (many retired)
Stamps:  For the Record, Music from the Heart, Epic Celebrations, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink:  Versamark, Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Always Artichoke
Paper:  Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Thick Basic White, Always Artichoke DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Stylish Shapes dies, clear EP, Dimensionals

And here's my awesome butterfly bell bottoms!

I need to have them hemmed; the hems are unfinished and even wearing tall espadrilles, these pants drag on the floor.  But I loves them!  And I *have* worn them out in public!

China: Han Tombs & Great Wall

It's China Sunday!  All the layouts I'm sharing today are ones that I've shared before, but there are six of them in a row so we're just doing a rerun post today.  Hope you enjoy!

This was one of the earlier layouts I did for the China books (original blog post here).  The page base is Elegant Eggplant, and some of the photos are matted with Perfect Plum.  This was the very last thing we did in Xi'an before boarding the plane to Beijing.

And our first activity in Beijing was going to the Great Wall!  I will never say no to an opportunity to look at these pages :)  (original blog post here).

We had SO MANY pictures from the Great Wall and I just didn't want to leave any out if I could help it, ha!

This is one of my favorite layouts ever (original blog post here).  I need to look around online and see if I can find more Handsome Hunter cardstock in both 8.5x11 and 12x12.  It was the perfect Baylor green and I'm almost completely out.

We've been teasing Missy for years about her affinity for lots of stairs but I think the Great Wall will forever hold the record for most stairs in a single day (original blog post here).

And there's the last Great Wall layout (from this day, anyway).  Hope you enjoyed this scrappy flashback.  Have a great Sunday!

China: Jade

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there!  Ryan supervised as his dada made waffles with strawberries and cream for breakfast :)

I'm sharing two more China layouts today.  The first one has been seen 'round these parts before:

I didn't really notice until I was flipping through the finished albums, but I really like doing horizontal strips of patterned paper on my layouts.  And here is what comes next:

I think it's a law in China that the tour guide takes you to places specifically for you to shop and spend all your moneys.  And we did buy that jade pixiu (pronounced pee-shoo) so it worked this time.  See the pictures here.  Anyway, this is not my favorite layout but I tried.  I don't know, it's just not my favorite.

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, Stampin' Up! had a color called Mint Melody which was the perfect match for the pixiu.  I only had a little bit of cardstock from an assortment pack I bought way back when, and I never got the matching ink, so I had to be creative with how I used it.  I stamped white swirls on it for the mat and used some to cut out my title.

Since I only had I think two pieces of the Mint Melody cardstock, I never cut a sample for my color swatch book.  But here's the palette anyway:  Peekaboo Peach, Dusty Durango, Brocade Blue, and Mint Melody.

I'm off to go play with the kid...or else get me another waffle, I haven't decided yet.  Have a great Sunday!

Supplies, Shanghai Museum layout:
Stamps:  Rough Type, Gifts from the Orient (floral vase), Asian Art (coin and characters), Ancient Asia (dragon vase), Asian Artistry (flower)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Basic Black, Marina Mist, Garden Green, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Primrose Petals, Basic Black, Thick Whisper White, Crushed Curry DSP
Accessories:  circle punch, Circles & Ovals Framelits, lettering template 

Supplies, Jade layout:
Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge, Stars & Swirls
Ink:  Brocade Blue, Whisper White, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Peekaboo Peach, Dusty Durango, Brocade Blue, Mint Melody
Accessories:  1/2" circle punch, lettering template

Star Wars Disneyland

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday.  (Watch out for those crazy shoppers on the roads this afternoon and early early tomorrow!)

And today is Scrappy Thursday since I didn't do Monday.  I thought maybe I had another Thanksgiving layout somewhere in my draft posts but nope!  So instead, how about more pictures from Disneyland!

Okay the photos of the layout kinda stink but it was super overcast the day I took them and what can ya do.  The 5x7 on the left is when Lee and I met Chewbacca and I can now say I'VE HUGGED A WOOKIEE.  When we met Kylo Ren, he rudely told the girls to leave after their picture, and as she was walking away, Emma indignantly exclaimed, "He didn't even say please!"  The rest of us about died laughing.

Oh, those orangey circles on the right page?  They're epoxy stickers.  The largest one is Chewbacca and the two smaller ones are the Rebel Alliance insignia.

The epoxy sticker on this one says "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" which I admit wouldn't have been my first choice but I looked all over and apparently no one sells Star Wars scrapbook supplies anymore.  What the heck, people.  Anyway, on the left is Space Mountain in its new guise as Hyperspace Mountain (it's pretty cool, you go through a space battle and Admiral Ackbar says "It's a trap!") and on the right is the lightsaber fight we had in the hotel room one evening before watching The Force Awakens.

Today's color combo:  Sweet Sugarplum, Coastal Cabana, Tangelo Twist, Basic Black and Whisper White.  Kiddo just woke up so I'm going to go grab him, then we're on like Donkey Kong for all the food food foooooooood!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge
Ink:  Whisper White, Basic Black
Paper:  Sweet Sugarplum, Coastal Cabana, Tangelo Twist, Basic Black, Whisper White, Eastern Elegance DSP
Accessories:  Star Wars paper & epoxy stickers by Creative Imaginations

Beach Wedding

Happy Friday, y'all!  We're getting the kiddo back on his regular schedule of naps; he took two pretty good ones yesterday so I managed to get today's card done and got started on a scrapbook layout.  And I like how this card turned out!

I used some retired stamps on here, we'll get to that in a minute.  Do you like the color variation on the shell and starfish?  I inked them both up with Crushed Curry, and then used a sponge dauber to add some Cajun Craze ink.  For the shell, I just did a bit on the center of the whorl; for the starfish, I held the dauber at an angle to only get the outside edges of the starfish.  Took me a couple of tries to get them both looking how I wanted, but we got there in the end.  The bottom part is Thick Whisper White (I ran out of regular WW, can you believe it?) sponged with Dapper Denim; the strip with the sentiment is another piece of Whisper White adhered on the top of the sponged piece, and I tore the bottom edge of that strip so it would look kinda like a wave coming in.

I'm entering this card in several challenges!  First up is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Next is the challenge from Fusion:

(Obviously I used the picture but not the sketch, hee).  But we're not done yet!  I squidged this challenge together with another theme; check out the challenge from Retro Rubber:

A beach wedding card sounded like a good idea today.  I've had By the Seashore (shell stamps) since at least 2012, so five years, and in fact I used that stamp set on my very first blog post here.  Gorgeous Grunge has been in my collection since 2013, and Rose Wonder is the baby at a mere one year old.  And my fishy card from a couple weeks ago was chosen as a Top Pick at Retro Rubber, so that's cool!

And just one more challenge for good measure, the Color Throwdown:

The challenge writeup said dark red for the first color, but it really looked more like dark orange to me, so I used Cajun Craze with Dapper Denim, Crushed Curry, Whisper White and of course Crumb Cake for the sand.  (I almost used Sahara Sand because...sand...but I thought Crumb Cake worked a little better with the other colors this time.)

I think my kiddo will be ready for his nap pretty soon, so we're going to read a book until he falls asleep ;D and then I'm going to go work on that scrapbook layout.  Cheers y'all, and happy Friday!

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  By the Seashore, Gorgeous Grunge, Rose Wonder
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Dapper Denim, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes Framelits, retired Pearls, Dimensionals

Bonjour, Beautiful Butterfly

Hey kids!  How's your Wednesday?  Once again, I have a squirmy babe in my lap, but what's funny today is he keeps trying to sing along to the music I'm playing on the computer.  He's not so great with the lyrics (well, he is only three months old) but he makes up for it by being adorable in his fire truck onesie.

But anyway, I bet you're here for a card, not my singing infant, who is getting squirmier by the second.

OOOOOHHHH I like it.  And it was pretty quick and easy to make, too.  For the background, I did a watercolor wash of Powder Pink ink all over Shimmery White cardstock, then hit it with my heat tool until it dried.  Then I stamped some Gorgeous Grunge splats on it with Powder Pink ink (hey, I used the other two splat stamps too, not just my favorite one!), making it the heaviest under where the butterfly would be.  Then just a quick stamped sentiment and a gorgeous gold foil butterfly and VOILA!

And kudos to whoever at Stampin' Up! came up with the color combo of Powder Pink, Pool Party, and Tranquil Tide...it's in one of the patterned papers in the new catalog and I have some pictures I'm hanging onto until I can get that paper because I'm so using it for scrapbook pages.  Love.  It.

Okay, so this card started out with the CASE the Designer challenge at Global Design Project:

I kept the gold die cut (though I had butterflies on the brain rather than roses) and the pink as the main color under it, and my white panel is the same size as this one and the sentiment is in the same place.  I was going to use a sentiment from Rose Wonder, but the butterfly was just a bit too wide to accommodate any of the stamps in that set, so I broke out "Bonjour, Beautiful" from the soon-to-retire Happy Happenings.

And since I had butterflies on the brain, how about the Paper Players' challenge:

I'm not 100% sure this card counts as CAS...I would have used the Shimmery White as the card base, but of course it kinda warps when you wet it so I needed to glue it down to something.

This pic kinda gives you an idea of the bling on this card--not just the gold foil butterfly, but the shimmer on the white cardstock.

We are fast approaching naptime (kid is now squirming around on his blanket on the floor, he seems happy), so I'm hoping to get some scrappin' done today.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge, Happy Happenings
Ink:  Powder Pink, Tranquil Tide
Paper:  Tranquil Tide, Shimmery White, Pool Party, Gold Foil
Accessories:  Butterfly Thinlits

I Heart Dragonflies

Heyyy I made another card this week!  I'm also making good progress on the honeymoon album...SO ready to get that done.  But anyway, card!

I loooooove the Dragonfly Dreams bundle from the Occasions catalog, which is happily carrying over to the big catty.  But for today's card I just used the Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits along with some stamps that are on the retiring list, Gorgeous Grunge and Love & Affection.  I think they're only retiring Gorgeous Grunge because *everyone* owns it now (let's be honest, I've used this splatter stamp more than all the other stamps in the set put together!).  I love Love & Affection for that super pretty font on the sentiments, so I wanted to revisit it before it retires.  Not that it will be leaving my collection because #hoarder.

So this card came together super fast with the help of this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I followed the sketch pretty much exactly this time :D  I also used this week's Color Throwdown:

I thought these would be perfect colors for a dragonfly card.  I used Tempting Turquoise, Cucumber Crush (sad to see it retire too), and Crushed Curry for my colors.  The background was made by scribbling on the largest acrylic block with markers, spritzing with water, and then "stamping" it on Thick Whisper White cardstock, love that technique for superfast watercolor backgrounds.  I'm very happy that you can actually see the Wink of Stella glimmer on the dragonfly too!

So on Mother's Day, my sweet Ryan made a card for me:

I suspect his daddy helped him (after all, Ryan is just 3 months old and not really writing much yet), but it looks like he took dictation.

And there's authentic-looking drool marks on the inside.  I love it!

That's it for me today.  I'm hoping to put Ryan down for a nap soon and then finish up the scrapbook layout I started yesterday.  I actually think I get pages done *faster* since I had Ryan because when I get him to sleep I'm all like MUST WORK FAST DO NOT WASTE NAPTIME!  I've always worked best under pressure ;)

Cheers y'all!

Supplies (first card), all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge, Love & Affection
Ink:  Crushed Curry & Cucumber Crush markers, Basic Black
Paper:  Cucumber Crush, Tempting Turquoise, Thick Whisper White
Accessories:  Detailed Dragonflies Thinlits, Wink of Stella pen

Friday Flashback: Choose Happiness

Happy Friday, y'all!  Once again I didn't get in my craft cave until a lot later in the day than I planned...I had an accidental two-hour nap in the middle of the day (oops).  But here I am and today's Friday Flashback stamp set is Choose Happiness!

Also features Petite Pairs, Hardwood

I think this is my favorite of the older cards for this set, I just like the soft watercolor on the background panels.

Stampy collages aren't really my forte, but I keep trying anyway.

Also features Gorgeous Grunge

And this one uses a lot of colored embossing powder and was a cooler idea in my head than it is on paper.  So that's it for the Flashback, here is my new creation:

It's got several layers, but it's still totally flat and easily mailable.  I stamped the flowers, then sponged that whole panel while making the flowers darker, and then I used the script stamp from French Foliage to fill in the empty spaces around the flowers a bit.  Didn't take long and I like how it turned out, all with just one color of ink.  I ran the edges of the panel on my Basic Black ink pad to give them a little definition on the card front.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Paired with the Color Throwdown:

I used Basic Black, Crushed Curry, and Marina Mist for the colors.  At first I thought this combo was really similar to the one I had trouble with earlier this week, but I think my problem with that one was mustard + silver.  Granted, today I used Crushed Curry instead of Delightful Dijon (lighter kind of mustard, maybe) but I think I like it a lot better with black than silver.

Well, I'm gonna take my sweet hubs out to dinner tonight for date night.  Cheers,  y'all!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Choose Happiness, French Foliage
Ink:  Basic Black, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Basic Black, Marina Mist, Very Vanilla, Beau Chateau DSP
Accessories:  None

2016 Showcase, Part 2

Time for Part 2 of my favorite projects from 2016.  Let's dive right in, shall we?

Love this bright and cheery card for May.

June's pick is this Millennium Falcon card, might not be the prettiest thing ever but I'm rather proud of it given that I don't do much punch art.  And I watched The Empire Strikes Back last night in honor of Carrie Fisher.

For July I chose this flamingo card, love the bright colors and I need to break out that stamp set again soon.

And the last card for today is August's jellyfish.  I admit the main image is a little indistinct with the clear EP, but I loved the idea of it and how the "sand" on the background turned out.

Part 3 coming tomorrow!

2016 Showcase, Part 1

Mornin', y'all.  I have entered the phase of pregnancy when I'm tired all the time but CANNOT SLEEP more than 3 hours a night.  I swear this kid kicked me around 4:30 this morning so hard that I heard a noise when he did it.  Not even exaggerating.

Happily for me, it's time to do the annual look back at favorite projects from the year.  Most challenges are on hiatus until January and I haven't spent much time in my craft room so this is a great time to not worry about making something new :)  So today let's take a look back at cards from January through April.

This card was for my SIL's baby shower in January; my niece's nursery is decorated with ladybugs but I did this card with the colors we used for her Cinderella baby shower.

I loved this card from February, I don't use big bold sentiments like that too terribly often and this one just speaks to me.

For March, this punch art bear wins the prize for my favorite card of the month.  I actually just sent this one to my friend Missy a few weeks ago, how I managed to hold onto it for 9 months before I mailed it to her I really don't know!

And last up for today is this card from April, which was inspired by the color palette of a bathroom in Disneyland.  Inspiration is everywhere!

I'm off to the gym.  Hubs and I made sticky toffee pudding on Monday night and I feel like I need to live at the gym for a week to offset that.  Cheers, y'all!