Grammy's Attic

French St. Patrick's ???

2012-03-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

These poor little bugs are so confused -- can you see them looking at me like I'm crazy? When they saw me pulling from my stash all the lovely, spring-green card stocks, dps, and ribbons, they just knew they were destined for a St. Patrick's card, and they were soooo happy! Then I colored and fussy cut them, popped them up on the main image, and ...

...WHAAAT??? Some strange French word and not a shamrock in sight! Images by Bugaboo, from their Spring collection, and sketch from Sketches by Carly.

Challenges:
Card Makin' Mamas -- Green
Catch the Bug -- Anything goes
Crafty Catz -- Punches and dies
Crafty Purple Frog -- Yellow and green
Everybody Art Challenge -- Monochrome
Going Grey with Scrap Creations -- Pop It
Guylou's Inimitability -- Things with Wings
Hiding in My Craft Room -- Green
House of Gilli - Green
Sassy Studio Designs -- Seeing green
Shopping Our Stash -- Include a sentiment or use a Bugaboo stamp (everything is from my stash -- not a single 'new' thing on this card.)

By the time you read this, I'll be flying off to a conference, but I have my DT things scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and I'll be back before that time so you won't even miss me. :-D Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Death by Chocolate - Oh, My! & Blogaversary Candy Winner

2012-03-03T07:37:00.003-08:00

Good Saturday morning, to you. As promised, I am announcing the winner of my First Blogaversary Candy. I won't keep you in suspense by making you read through the entire posting just to find out if you're the winner. :-D I took all the names of my followers who posted a comment, tossed them into the basket, and had my young friend, Juliana, draw the winner's name. She pulled out --- drumroll, please..... Stephanie! Stephanie wrote: "I missed your first post and have loved hearing about your Grammy. My own grandma was a wonderful cook as well. I remember visiting her house and watching her cook. She would set me up with some raisins to snack on while I watched. She loved to crochet and I have several items tucked away in my cedar chest that she made me."

Stephanie, please send me your e-mail so I can contact you and get your mailing address. And thanks for sharing your "Grandma" with us. Hugz.

Now, for today's card.... It's the weekend, and despite having had a long day yesterday, I was up early this morning working on this card. It's a Limited Runs stamp (pearls, bling, or brads), digital papers from Bearly Mine, sketch from Stella Says Sketch, and colors from Annabelle Stamps (brown, olive & mustard. The olive is hard to see but it's in the dp).

Image is colored with Touch Twin markers, fussy cut, and matted onto a Spellbinders die cut. The dp is matted with brown CS. Flowers are layered together from things in my stash, and brads are added to the centers. Sheer sparkly ribbon was also in my stash and seemed the very thing to use for a loopy bow. I added the pearls and the corner brads before adhering everything to the card front.

This would make a perfect birthday card for a chocoholic, don't you think? Hmmm, I have a birthday this month, and I love chocolate! :-D

Challenges:
By the Cute & Girly -- In the Kitchen
Crafts 4 Eternity -- Digital (image and papers)
Dutch Dare -- Tic Tac Toe: Ribbon, distressing, brads
That Craft Place -- Anything Goes
The Squirrel & the Fox -- Autumn (colors)

I hope to have another post for tomorrow even though I'm going to be traveling to a conference. I have my DT projects scheduled and we'll hope that Blogger co-operates and posts them on time. Otherwise, I'll be doing it from my hotel room on Monday and Tuesday mornings. Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Spring Birthday = Spring Break? or "Men Are Just Large Boys"

2012-03-02T08:11:00.000-08:00

This card is meant to celebrate the guys in our lives -- you know, the ones who claim to be grown up and mature but who 'rough and tumble' like young boys, no matter how old they get? Yeah, we all know one or two -- or ten. :-D I'm using this for a birthday card for one of those guys and he loves to say his birthday is always a "week-long, spring break"... he's turning 52 this month!

Sketch is from Cards for Men and the pile of kittens image is from Squigglefly, where the theme is "Spring is in the Air."

I colored the image with my Copic markers, then used a color palette taken from an inspiration photo at Creations by Gill to create the card. Since it's a masculine card, I kept it as CAS as possible. I used two different card stocks, die cut and matted behind the image, plus two twines (cording), and three small brads. The humorous sentiment was printed on my computer (humor doesn't mean 'untrue'!)

Here's a list of challenges for this card:
City Crafter -- 2 or more ribbons (twine) & 9 or more words
Creative Card Crew -- Humor
Creative Craft Challenge -- Boys Will Be Boys
Cupcake Crafts -- Boys and Their Toys
Digital Tuesday -- Things that Leap -(kittens and boys!)
Dream Valley -- Just for Men
My Craft Spot -- Make Us Laugh - Use humor
Outlawz Copic Challenge -- For Men Olny
Paper Playtime -- Pets and a sentiment
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle -- Manly card
Sweet Stampin' -- It's a Man Thing
There's Magic in the Air -- All Critters Great and Small

The weekend begins and I hope you're going to have a delightful one. Find some time for yourself; relax, enjoy, and feel creative. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Just Inspirational Teams Up with Floppy Latte and Celebrates St. David's Day

2012-03-01T01:00:00.029-08:00

Those of us who live in the US may not be all that familiar with St. David's Day (March 1st), but he's the patron saint of Wales. Wales has two primary symbols of its country; one is the daffodil and the other is the leek. My own daffodils have just started blooming this week so I think it's a perfect symbol for St. David's Day. The inspirational photo for the Just Inspirational challenge this time really made me think about daffodil yellows so here's my card and the photo.

I used a sketch from Fairy Fun Friday and the digi is from Floppy Latte, our sponsor for this challenge. I love cameos and I love silhouette stamps so when I saw this one at Floppy Latte, you know I fell in love with it! I wanted to use bright daffodil yellows (even though the flowers on the silhouette aren't daffodils) and the purple flowers in the photo gave me an excuse to also use my favorite color along with the yellow.

Papers are all from my stash (probably DCWV but who knows for sure), and I added shading to the image and sparkle gel pen to the flower centers, both on the image and the paper flowers on the card. The lavender ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon, and it's one of my favorites for spring/Easter themes. I'm almost out of it so will be off shopping for more of it soon. The three yellow dew drops seemed to fit in with the spring time feel of this card and they added a little extra bling.

Challenges for this card:
Fairy Tale -- Spring
Glitter Geeks -- St. David's Day
Hiding in My Craft Room -- Bring on Spring
House That Stamps Built -- Pastels
Outlawz Paper a la Mode -- Flower Power
Pattie's Creations -- Vintage
Stamp Man -- Colors of Spring
Stamping for the Weekend -- Bingo: ribbon, sparkle, flowers
Stemplesonnen -- A flower for you

I hope this card brightens your day and may all my friends in Wales have a wonderful St. David's Day! Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

First Blogaversary !

2012-02-29T05:45:00.002-08:00

If you're looking for the Just Inspirational Challenge Blog Hop, please scroll down to the February 23 posting or click here. Thanks.

This post is set to stay on top until February 29, 2012. Please join in my blogaversary celebration and win some blog candy! :-D

One year ago, on February 10, 2011, I started my blog with a post about my own Grammy, which I'm going to copy and share with you again today. But first, I want to say thanks to all my followers and blogland friends, many of whom have become especially close. I also want to let you know that I'm going to be offering blog candy and you have all the rest of this month to sign up for it.

How do you do that? No fancy rules or requirements; no need to jump on board the "follower" wagon (unless you really want to follow my blog because you've seen something you think is worthwhile); no cards or other projects to make; just leave me a comment on this posting and tell me something wonderful about your own Grammy or other person who influenced your life as a child. I'll be selecting the winner on February 29, and posting the winner's name on Saturday, March 3. Please make sure I have a way to contact you so I can get information for mailing your blog candy to you.

I don't have a picture of the candy yet (too many problems from the computer crash) but I'll edit this post when I do have one. It's going to consist of a MS border punch, a couple of small hand punches, tons of lovely ribbon, some gorgeous laces, a handful of brads and eyelets, a few swirls, and some wonderful embossing powder samples.

Edited to add the photo:

I forgot to include the swirls in the photo but they'll be in package when it ships. :-D

OK, here's the first thing I ever posted on my blog:

A Great Beginning

     My New Year's Resolution was to get a blog up and running this year and it's only February! HOORAY!! This is my first day blogging, and I want to share with you why my Blog is named "Grammy's Attic."
     When I was a young child, I loved visiting my grandma.  She was always baking something in the kitchen, and always had a hug for us as soon as we walked in the door. The grandkids' play area was the whole attic, up a narrow set of stairs that opened into a completely open space nearly as big as the whole house. The two best places in the attic were the 'trunk corner' and the spot right over the kitchen where we could smell the cookies baking.
     The 'trunk corner' is where Grammy stored all things old and wonderful: dress up clothes, hats, a hand mirror, an old phonograph complete with records, boxes of stationary, buttons, and laces, keepsakes from her own childhood, hand carved toys, and photographs. It was a delicious array of "goodies" -- there for touching, reading, seeing, trying on, or even smelling in the case of the old perfume bottles!
     Whenever I am in one of my 'crafty' modes, as I dig into my various stashes for just the right embellishment, I find myself thinking about those "attic days" of childhood.
     I want to share some of my projects with fellow enthusiasts, and I hope perhaps you can get a feel for the hours of joy spent in Grammy's Attic.
     Here is a card I made for a sketch challenge over at Operation Write Home. The image is from Sparkle 'n' Sprinkle. It's colored with Copic markers and I used Oval and Scalloped Oval Spellbinder's dies. The design paper and ribbon are from Gina K and they're just luscious! This card reminds me of the old hats that were in Grammy's attic. :-)

      If you're not familiar with OWH (http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org/ ), they're a great organization that takes handmade cards sent to them by people just like us who love to make cards, and they send them to military folks who are away from home so that they can write a few lines and then mail the cards off to their loved-ones.  Since my eldest grandson serves in the Marine Corp, this is a cause near and dear to this old Nana's heart.
     Hope you have yourself a grand day, and find a little bit of Grammy's Attic in your own memories. :-) NanaConnie

Romantic Birdhouse

2012-02-29T02:02:00.011-08:00

Birdhouses always seem to say "romance" to me and this one, entwined with roses, says it beautifully. The image is by Ann Fenton and is one of the two we received for playing in the challenge at Creative Freebie Challenge on Outlawz. I used a sketch from Sketchy Colors, turned 90 degrees. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble copying the sketch and adding it to my post for you to see. Guess you'll just have to check out their blog.

The image is colored with Sakura Glaze pens which give a bit of a shine and "puff up" when they dry so there's dimension, too. I cut out the image and adhered it to a Spellbinders Beaded Oval die cut. I framed that die cut with another Spellbinders die cut (Fleur de lis rectangle) and then another, larger Beaded Oval.

The lace bow is made from two bits of recycled lace which had been a tie for a cape. The cape was beyond saving but the lace was still in good shape. I ironed it flat and used it here by threading both pieces through the largest die cut before I tied it and dovetail cut the ends.

I mounted everything onto a deep red card base to showcase the red in the roses and just knew it was finished without further details or embellishments. It really is a CAS design even though there seems to be lots going on -- it's just three die cuts and a bit of lace. Again, I wanted the image to be the focus and not fight for prominence against a pile of embellishments. Besides, I've sold this one and the buyer felt it was perfect as is, so who am I to argue? It's going to be a sweetheart card for his wife, "just because..." See, didn't I say birdhouses are romantic? :-D

Challenges for this card:

Catered Crop -- Use red

Crafts and Me -- Pretty in Lace

Crafty Pad -- Recycle it

Crazy Challenge -- Anything goes

Creative Mondays at Always Crafting -- Anything goes

Cutie Pie -- Flowers

Little Claire's -- Romance

Mark's Finest Papers -- Use lace

My Grafico -- Flowers

One Stitch at a Time -- Spring or Easter

Ooh La La -- inspiration photo: flowers and colors

Outlawz CAS -- Splash of Red

Pattie's Creations -- Vintage

Scrappy Frogs -- Die cuts

SJ Crafts -- Flowers w/ red or pink

Stemplesonnen -- A Flower for You

Victorine Originals -- Lace

It's the mid point of the week, and the weekend approacheth (but not quickly enough - I have lots of crafting to do!) Have a great hump day and find some beauty in your world. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Tuesday Throwdown "Tears It Up" with Pink Cat Studio

2012-02-28T00:02:00.006-08:00

Another Tuesday, another challenge and this time Tuesday Throwdown wants you to 'go on a tear'; use torn papers on your project. Our sponsor this week is Pink Cat Studio and they have some of the cutest images! They generously provided the DT members with images for our projects this week. I immediately fell in love with this Cat on a Hatbox. Of course, you know me and cats!

I used a marvelous sketch from Fetch a Sketch.

I printed the Cat on a Hatbox onto marbled paper, colored the hatbox and the flower with watercolor pencils (blended with Copic blender), then tore the image out of the paper. In recognition of Pink Cat Studio being our sponsor, I tore some pink dp pieces and framed the image with them, then I used a bamboo skewer to curl the edges of the dp.

The mat for the image is from dp that's been in my stash for so long, I have no idea who made it or even where I got it. I did some distressing on it with both ink and sandpaper. I cut two strips of the shiny, green, satin ribbon, then frayed one end and bunched up the other end of each strip before adhering them to the card front. I thought the frayed look matched up with the torn paper. I added the lace and the flower, and layered on the image piece last, popping it up over the ribbon pieces. The rhinestones were added as a bit of bling.

Challenges for this card:
ATCs & Cards with Attitude -- Anything with bling
Crafter's Companion -- Anything goes
Corrosive Challenges -- Another Dimension - pop something up
Craft Us Crazy -- Favorite embellishments: Ribbon, Lace, Flowers, and Gems
Crafty Ribbons -- Paws for Thought (cat paws)
Creatalicious -- Lace
Do You Stack Up? -- Distress
Little Miss Muffet - Fancy or Lacy
Outlawz Twisted Thursday -- Anything goes with green
Paper Crafting Journey -- Make it cute (nothing cuter than a cat with attitude!)

Hope you're enjoying your week and that you'll find time to play along with us at Tuesday Throwdown. All you have to do is use torn paper. How easy is that?
Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Butterflies for Spring

2012-02-27T17:32:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I did a card with a truly simple design but this butterfly just called out for something really clean. The image is from Sandi Huggett, one of the digis she did for the Outlawz Creative Freebie Challenge which started yesterday and will run for 2 weeks. There are some really incredible cards there this time, and I'm almost intimidated! :-D I'm posting this one anyway. Never played at the Outlawz CFC challenge? You should try it. Great bunch of gals there with all levels of expertise and so much creativity and inspiration!

I used a sketch from Fetch a Sketch (you'll see it again tomorrow looking completely different!)

The butterfly is colored with pen and ink -- something I haven't done in a long time and I'd forgotten how much fun that can be. I fussy cut the image and adhered only the body of the butterfly to the Beaded Oval die cut, leaving the wings free. I layered the oval onto off white CS, and layered that onto a turquoise card base. The ribbon flowers were added and then I put the tiny rhinestones onto the butterfly's body and wing tips.

I thought about a sentiment but everything I tried just distracted the eye from the butterfly, so I left it without a sentiment. I can always put one on the inside as needed.

Challenges for this card:
2 Sisters -- Anything goes
Crafts & Me -- Shades of Spring
Crafty Catz -- Something with a "B"; Butterfly, blue, & bling
Crop Stop -- At least 3 flowers; 1 rose, & 2 buds in the image and 11 in the ribbon
Fab 'n' Funky -- Blue, Green, White
Willow Sketchie -- Anything goes

Have a great day, and if you're watching the Daytona 500 finally run, enjoy that, too! :-D (Thinking of you, Donna!) Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

ATC with March Theme

2012-02-26T15:29:00.000-08:00

I've done my next set of Artist Trading Cards for my exchange group, and we have a theme of "Green" for March. Being Irish and having a St. Pat's reason to celebrate (birthday), I had to use emerald green and an Irish Blessing on my ATC. The image and sentiment are both from Doodle Pantry, and I think I must have every single digi stamp they have of the ants. Takes me back to my childhood days, when my mother said I was too young to have a pet because she didn't think I understood about care and feeding of pets, but I did get an ant farm for my birthday. It was absolutely fascinating! The following year started a lifelong series of pets; hamsters, dogs, cats, tropical fish, bunnies, guinea pigs, turtles, even a white rat. I still miss the ants -- you didn't have to let them out, take them for walks, or clean out their litter box!

OK, here's my ATC for March.

"May your home always be too small to hold all your friends." If that isn't a classic Irish-style blessing, I don't know what is! The image is cut with a plain oval die and then layered onto a Beaded Oval, both by Spellbinders. I adhered the sentiment right to the oval. The polka dot dp (also a Doodle Pantry digi) is adhered right to the card base and the image is popped up on dimensional dots. I added the handmade bow and the three little pearls as embellishments. The bow itself is grosgrain ribbon and the part that ties the center is sheer ribbon. Both were in my stash and I'm not sure where I got them.

Challenges for this ATC:
Die Cuttin' Divas -- favorite pet (ant farm)
Divas by Design -- Bling
Going Grey with Scrap Creations -- Critters (Ants are critters; pesky ones at a picnic!)
Sweet Stamps -- Bingo: Die cut/ribbon/bling (the pearls)
Whimsy Inspiration -- monochromatic
Wicked Wednesday - ATC only -- Luck of the Irish/St. Patrick's

May the rest of your weekend be the best of your weekend, may you have the Luck of the Irish, and Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

My First St. Patrick's Project

2012-02-26T06:57:00.001-08:00

Some of you may remember that I cheerfully celebrate my birthday on St. Patrick's Day and, since I'm Irish on both sides of my family tree, I love every birthday no matter how many have stacked up over the years. And there have been quite a few! :-D Every grandchild, and now I've added 2 great-grands, gets a St. Pat's card from Nana each year. This one is a bit different in that it's a tag rather than a card, and it has a pocket on the back to hold a "gold" chocolate coin.

The inspiration to do this tag came about because I belong to the Robyn's Fetish group over on The Crafter's Cafe and they have a St. Patrick's tag challenge going on. How could I not join in on that?! The image is a freebie to use for this challenge. You can play, too. Just join the group (if you aren't already a member) and send a message to Susan (moderator of the challenge) to get the digi.

The Lucky Leprechaun is colored with various gold and green Copic markers, fussy cut and matted with black CS, then fussy cut again. I layered the image onto a dp scrap left on my table from another project, and then layered that onto gold dp. I added Baker's twine, a double satin bow, and the three rhinestones.

Challenges for this project:
Crafty Purple Frog -- Yellow and Green
Crazy Amigo -- Use a tag
Creative Stamp Friends -- Inspired by a song: "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling"
Delightful Challenges -- patterned paper
For Your Inspiration -- photo (colors of green and yellow)
Gingersnap -- Only 2 colors (green & gold)
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Anything goes
Robyn's Fetish -- People (Leprechauns count as "people", right?)
Sassy Cheryl's -- NO embossing
Shelly's Images -- Make it a triple: 3 rhinestones
Sisterhood of Crafters -- Use a digi
Truly Madly Crafty -- Ribbon and bling

That's it for today. I may have something to post later today or Monday, but in the meantime, be sure to check out the First Ever Blog Hop at Just Inspirational Challenges. It runs through the end of this month. Tons of prizes, not too many stops on the hop, and some fantastic sponsors. Read about it here.

Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

First Step Card

2012-02-24T22:18:00.000-08:00

If you read my blog at all, you know how I love the Sketchy Thursday sketches Tracy does over at Eat, Sleep, Stamp. This week is no exception and I incorporated her sketch into this, my first ever step card -- because it really is her fault that I even tried a step card! She more or less shamed me into it. Not intentionally, but ...

Last Wednesday, she posted a fabulous card she made for the challenge at All That Scraps where they want to see Fancy Folds. She had never done a step card before and jumped in like a professional and created pure magnificence -- click here to see it. Now, I'd never played in any of the challenges at All That Scraps, but I was so inspired, I went on a shopping spree, bought several of their wonderful digis, and followed the center step card tutorial on SCS. I'd love to tell you it was "easy peasy" but if I'm honest, it took a while for me to feel comfortable with something that different from my "normal." However, I have the basics now, and I know I'll do more of these in the near future. For now, here's my CASE of Tracy's center step card. Thanks, Tracy! Hugz.

This is the sketch, but I turned it a quarter turn so it would work as the center part of my step card.

The image is one of the Swiss Pixie collection at All That Scraps and I colored her with Touch Twin and Copic markers except for her little wings, which I did with glitter gel ink. I did an 'Outside the Box' cut with an oval Spellbinders die (I had to use a craft knife instead of scissors because I ended up cutting a bit of each of the four sides), and then layered it onto a scalloped oval die cut. The light pink and the polka dot dp are from SU and the dark dp with the teeny-tiny dots is from DCWV, Garden Party stack.

The ribbon and the lace came from Really Reasonable Ribbon and the roses are from my stash. I stamped it with a sentiment which came from a SU stamp that I masked so only the "Happy Birthday" part was inked. I like the end result and I know I'll do step cards again. Now that I have my first one done, the rest will get easier because the "fear" barrier isn't there any more. :-D

Challenges for this card:
Addicted to Stamps -- Birthday with dots
Birthday Sundaes -- Stair Step
Flutterby Wednesdays -- Inspiration photo: colors and flowers
Paper Sundaes -- Birthday cards

Thanks for visiting and if you haven't done the blog hop at Just Inspirational Challenges (their first ever!), you might want to do that. Click HERE to start. There are some really incredible sponsors and tons of prizes! Don't miss out. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

First Ever Just Inspirational Blog Hop

2012-02-23T01:00:00.033-08:00

Hi, this week Just Inspirational is having it's first ever blog hop, and it runs this entire week, until March 1. If you arrived here from Kelly S. "Kels Makes" blog, you're hopping along just fine. If you arrived here in the middle, you may want to go back to the Just Inspirational blog so you don't miss anything. I hope you'll join in and hop with us. Here's all the information you should need. My DT cards are below the blog hop list, and the first uses an image from Floppy Latte, the second an image from Unique Digis, two of our fantastic sponsors!

And boy do we have a treat for you! There are TONS of prizes along the way from some very generous sponsors!! Check out the Just Inspirational blog to see them all.

All you need to do is:

Spread the word about our Hop
Leave a comment on each team member's blog (you MUST do this to be in with a chance to win)
AND to be in with a chance of winning the prize on the Just Inspirational Challenge blog, we would like you to make something; absolutely anything you like because the theme is ANYTHING GOES!

There are several inspirational photos for you on the Just Inspirational blog (go HERE). Well, get on your hopping shoes because below is the order of the hop. Good luck and HAVE FUN!!!!!

Annie

Erin

Jill

Kate

Kelly M

Kelly S

NanaConnie <------You are here

Oona aka Choccy
Sofia

Tracey

Victoria J

Victoria S

Just Inspirational Challenges Blog

For a chance to win the prize on the Just Inspirational Challenge blog, make a project and enter into Mr Linky which is on the Just Inspirational blog.

Thank you so much for hopping with us!!!! Good luck & HAVE FUN!!!!

Here's the photo that inspired my first card:

and here's my first card:

Image from Floppy Latte. I loved the pink background and the flower in the inspiration photo, and knew I wanted to do something with pearls. I liked the lace but didn't want to actually use lace, so I used a lacy-looking die cut instead, and added tiny pearls to it. I'm very pleased with the outcome.

I'm going to enter this first card into these challenges:

Colour Me Creative -- Bright colors
Inky Impressions -- Bright Colors
Robyn's Fetish -- Pretty in Pink
Saturday Secret Crafter -- bingo: ribbon, bow, leaves

Scrappy Frogs -- Die Cuts

Sir Stampalot -- In the Garden

My second card was inspired by this photo:

No other explanation is really needed, is it? Image by Unique Digis. Background dp is embossed and glittery, and my card was made entirely from scraps that were cluttering up my table. Colored with Touch Twin markers.

This second card will go to these challenges:
Cupcake Craftroom -- New beginnings (spring and Easter - what could be better?)
Desert Islands Crafters -- 3 from the list: bling, twine, & 2 or ore die cuts
Make It Colorful -- Spring colors
Send a Smile 4 Kids -- Easter/Spring for a kid
Whimsie Doodles -- Oh, Scrap!

Now it's time to send you on to Choccy's blog to see the wonderful projects she created. Be sure to leave a comment before you go so you can be in the running for prizes!

Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Reminder: First Ever Just Inspirational Blog Hop Starts Tomorrow

2012-02-22T15:35:00.000-08:00

You won't want to miss the First Just Inspirational Blog Hop which starts tomorrow (February 23) and runs for a whole week! There are scads of prizes and some fantastic sponsors. In addition to the Blog Hop, there's our regular challenge and the theme is Anything Goes. There will be some incredible inspirational photos and you can choose one to use for your inspiration for your challenge project. That could win you the main prize!

Hope to see you tomorrow. It's going to be great fun!! Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Favorite Things challenge at Cooking It Up with Katie

2012-02-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

Hello. Even though I'm posting this a little bit early because I'm having problems with Blogger actually doing the scheduled posts, let's hope by the time you read this that it's actually a wonderful Wednesday morning. I'll be slaving away at work early and won't have time to check on the post. That's the reason for posting it manually ahead of time.

We have a new challenge for you at Cooking It Up with Katie today. It's a really easy recipe this week. We ask that you use 3 of your favorite things on a card or project, and tell us what the 3 things are. Here's my card; image from Fred, She Said and sketch from Catch the Bug.

Let me start by telling you what my three favorite things are for making a card. 1) patterned dp; 2) die cuts; 3) ribbon flowers or bows-- on this card I used both. This time I colored the image with watercolors, fussy cut it and adhered it to a pink die cut, layered onto a raspberry die cut. The papers are all from K & Co. (scraps left over from another project), and I love the fresh, spring colors in them. The flowers are from my replenished stash of handmade ribbon flowers and the satin bow I made just for this card.

Challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks -- 2 of something (2 flowers each of 2 different colors and styles)
Craft Us Crazy -- Favorite embellishments: satin flowers
Crafty Catz -- Favorite things: die cuts, dp, & flowers
Crafty Purple Frog -- Flower Power
Delicious Doodles -- Pink
Desert Islands Crafters -- 3 from the list: 2 dp, green, die cuts, polka dots
Digi Doodle Shop's Best -- Anything goes
Do You Stack Up? -- Layers
Fairy Tale -- Spring
Outlawz PAM -- Dreaming of Spring
Totally Papercrafts -- Ribbon &/or bows

I hope we see you playing along this week at Cooking It Up with Katie. After all, it couldn't be any easier -- 3 of your favorite things and tell us what they are. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Tuesday Throwdown & My Grafico

2012-02-21T02:50:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge at Tuesday Throwdown is "Shades of Blue" and we're sponsored by My Grafico, who generously supplied each of the DT members with the flower images they used on their projects. The two week challenge at My Grafico is "Flowers."

Sketch from Unscripted Sketches, turned a quarter turn.

The large flower and the 4 small ones on the side are all the same digital image, just adjusted for size before printing. They are colored with watercolor pencil, blended with Copic blender, and then fussy cut. The large flower is printed twice, and the top one is mounted with dimensional, adhesive dots. Although it's hard to tell in the photo, the petals are curled slightly to add some more dimension.

The die cuts are all done with Spellbinders dies; Wonky Squares and the medium size Butterfly Circle. The background dp is from DCWV Linen Closet stack, and it's embossed, hence the shine on the small polka dots. I added twine, button, and rhinestones, and the sentiment which was printed on my computer.

This card is already in the box for Operation Write Home. It will find its way to one of our deployed troops who can then use it to write home. You can read more about OWH by clicking on their name above. It's a fantastic organization and you, too, could participate in supporting our troops in a small way by making and sending cards.

Challenges:
Creations by Gill M -- Inspiration photo w/ blues and neutrals
Creative Mondays @ Always Crafting -- Anything goes
Cutie Pie Challenge -- Flowers
Inky Impressions -- Die cuts
Lollipop Crafts -- Anything goes
Outlawz Twisted Thursday -- Lots of layers
Paper Creations, Ink -- Show your style and use favorite technique (fussy cutting)
Stampin for the Weekend -- Photo inspiration w blues

Come join us this week at Tuesday Throwdown with your own "Shades of Blue" creation. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Lexi's Creations Says Monochromatic!

2012-02-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

I simply adore monochromatic cards and I love it when I get a chance to do one as a DT member. Lexi's Creations wants us to do mono projects this week, and I picked red -- a color I rarely use except at Christmas or for Valentines. This being February, you'd think I was worn out on red but apparently not. :-D

The image is "Mummy Bug", one of Lexi's designs from Fairy Dust Crafts. She was perfect for a red monochromatic! Sketch came from Stella Says Sketch.

I colored the image with ProMarkers and used glitter gel ink on the dew drop falling from the flower. I also added glitter ink to the mulberry-paper flowers and the centers of felt border piece. Papers are from my scrap stash -- as is everything on the card. I'm using up scraps so I can have an excuse to buy new things! :-D

Final touches were the bow tied from red, polka-dot ribbon and the teeny-tiny rhinestones on the image piece.

Challenges for this card:
Catered Crop -- Red
Cupcake Inspirations -- Inspiration photo with red, white and black
Die Cuttin' Divas -- Use at least 2 of these: Red, Black, White or Pink
Going Grey w/ Scrap Creations -- 3 layers
Ladybug Crafts Ink -- Spring is in the Air
Papertake Weekly -- Black, white and red
Stamps R Us -- Anything Goes (their last challenge - oh, no, say it ain't so!)

I hope your weekend was wonderful and that you had some time for joyful pursuits. Please come and join the challenge at Lexi's Creations this week. We'd love to see what you make. Remember, you can use any color you like as long as it's a monochromatic. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Rhubarb and His Sunflower

2012-02-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

I love all the Rhubarb digis at Sweet n Sassy but this Rhubarb Sunflower just called out to me today. Over on their Crazy 4 Cocoa challenge this week, it's "Anything Goes." I haven't played there for a while and decided it was definitely time to get something made. My supply of 'Thank You' cards is desperately low so I took the opportunity to make this one a thank you card. Pile It On, one of my favorite challenge places -- where they always want us to pile on as many challenges into one project as possible -- has "Thanks" as their theme.

Sketch came from my always-favorite-place to find a sketch on Thursdays, Eat, Sleep Stamp.

For colors, I started out looking at both the "Tone on Tone" challenge at Challenge Up Your Life and the recipe at Creative Belli, which called for 3 colors (plus 1 ribbon, 2 dp, and 4 bling -- the pearls.) My tone-on-tone is all in the neutrals, ranging from very pale beige clear over into caramel and creamy gold. But for the three colors, I guess they'd have to be brown (in all the various tones), gold, and the green in the sunflower stem.

The image is colored with Copic markers, then cut with a Spellbinders scalloped oval die and matted on a larger oval. The 2 bits of dp have been in my stash for a while as have all the embellishments I used (ribbon, flower and the pearls.) I used a kraft card base, also from my stash, made with the fold at the top. The sentiment was printed using a computer script font and adhered directly onto the dp. Last thing I did was add the faux stitching to the outside border of the card front.

Challenges:
Allsorts -- Free & Easy
Crafty Creations -- Warm and cuddly teddy bears
Crafty Pad - Letter "B" -- bear, brown, beige
Cupcake Inspirations -- photo of bears on the cupcakes and neutral colors
Digital Tuesday -- Use your stash
Hybrid Chicks Card Caravan -- Use ribbon
Incy Wincy -- 3 embellishments (flower, ribbon, pearls), 2 papers, 1 image
Just Some Lines -- Fairy tale or nursery rhyme -- 3 Bears (this is Baby Bear)
One Stitch at a Time -- Anything goes
Paper Creations Ink -- 1 image, 2 papers, 3 embellishments (flower, ribbon, pearls)
Robyn's Fetish -- Square cards
Stamps R Us -- Anything goes
Truly Scrumptious -- All Creatures Great & Small

This is going to be a long, busy day for me at work, and I plan to sleep in tomorrow morning so I may not have another post until the weekend. Enjoy your day and find something wonderful and creative in it. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Just Inspirational & Fresh Brewed Designs

2012-02-16T01:00:00.001-08:00

Good morning all my followers and friends. It's a glorious winter Thursday and not terribly cold today where I am. My almond tree is in full bloom, my apricot tree has just a few blossoms, and it feels almost like spring.

I'm sitting here with a mug my favorite coffee blend, thinking of a dear friend who is a complete coffee addict! I've already sent her today's card for her Valentine, and it's the one I made for my DT card at Just Inspirational this week, sponsored by Fresh Brewed Designs. The image is "Coffee Bouquet", drawn by Heather at Fresh Brewed (their monthly challenge theme is Love.) The photo inspirations this week are about love and flowers (suitable for February) and the one with the bouquet is the one which inspired me. I used a sketch from CPS - Sketch Challenges.

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I chose the colors from Crafts 4 Eternity, where they have a wonderful array of "Raspberry Delights" as the colors. Even though Valentine's Day was 2 days ago, it seems to me that there's never a day that can't be better when it's filled with love. Besides, there are so many of the challenges that are still doing love themes, including our own inspirational photos this week. :-D

The image is colored with Copics (Color Me Creative Copics), then I added glitter gel pen to the vase. I rounded the corners with a hand punch, matted it with pink CS, then cream, then raspberry. The dp's are from Webster's Pages, and both of the lace/ribbons are from Really Reasonable Ribbon. I added the large pearl to the lace bow & little pearl swirls to each side of the image for the finishing touch.

Challenges for this card: (Most have a love theme of some kind and since this is probably my last Valentine posting for this year....)

Catch the Bug -- photo inspiration: a bouquet
Crafty Catz -- Valentine
Fairy Fun Fridays -- Let Me Call You Sweetheart
Fairy Tale -- Love, love, love
Fussy and Fancy -- Love
I Brake for Challenges -- Love
Jellypark Friends - Shades of Love
Just Tracy's Crafts -- Feminine w/ something that flows (Lace, ribbon, etc.)
Mad for Markers -- Copics in the RV family -- RV11 and RV13
Mami Doodles -- red, pink & white
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle -- red, white, & pink
The Stamp Man -- Texture

If you haven't played at Just Inspirational Challenges before, please come and play with us. Your project doesn't have to be for love or Valentines. Let the colors in the photos be your inspiration or just let your imagination run away. We'd love to see what you do this week. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Mighty Eagle

2012-02-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

I've had some great comments on the new look to my blog and I have to say a wonderful "Thank You" to my friend, Donna (affectionately known to many of us as "de") for the incredible photo on the masthead. She had it on her own blog last spring and I begged to use it. I couldn't figure out how to get my blog title into the photo, so she kindly took the time to do it for me. Then, she e-mailed it to me with complete, step-by-step instructions for using the design feature on Blogger to make it the masthead. Donna, huge hugs, my dear friend! Donna is also somewhat responsible for my foray into the card making world and I thank her for that, too!

Today's card is another one for Operation Write Home, that wonderful organization helping our military folks stay in touch with loved ones by sending them handmade cards which they can use to write home. I thought the eagle (one of the images from the Creative Freebie Challenge at Outlawz) was especially appropriate for a masculine card, and I know OWH always needs more of those.

Sketch comes from my favorite Thursday sketch place, Eat, Sleep, Stamp, although I used a rectangle instead of a circle. But Tracy always allows us to 'tweak' her sketches slightly. :-D

The entire image is done with watercolor pencil. Hard as it is to believe from the picture, the hills are actually colored with chartreuse and lime pencil (blended with Copics blender fluid), but in the photograph, it looks more yellow. IRL, it is much more green.

DP is from DCWV's Linen Closet stack, and the die cuts were done with Spellbinders scalloped rectangles. The verticle strip is kraft CS, with black ribbon, both from my stash. No further embellishments because I wanted a very CAS design on this masculine card.

Challenges:
Charisma Cardz -- Things with Wings
Colour Create -- Light & dark browns, w/ cream or white
Crafty Ribbons -- For men or boys
Digi Doodle Shop's Best -- For the boys
Here Come the Boys -- Favorite song inspiration: "Wind Beneath My Wings"
Hotshot -- One for the Boys
Outlawz Twisted Thursday -- Masculine

OK, enjoy your Wednesday. We're half way to the weekend when there'll be plenty of reason for crafting and creativity. Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow with a new DT card for Just Inspirational. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Tuesday Throwdown with Fred, She Said

2012-02-14T00:09:00.001-08:00

I'm so sorry I missed out on doing a DT card for last week's Tuesday Throwdown challenge but the computer is now up and running and I'm happily back to my DT duties. This week, our challenge "EnTWINEd" (use twine) is sponsored by Fred, She Said, who generously provided the digi images for the entire team to use. I chose "Emma in the Strawberry Patch", which comes with both the main image of Emma and the strawberries which I used as background. I sized the strawberries to be much larger so that I could use them as background (one of the benefits of digital images.)

I used a sketch from My Time Made Easy and the color scheme is from Lily Pad Cards, pink, red, and green.

Both Emma and the large strawberries (which I used as the circles in the sketch) were colored with my Touch Twin markers. The sentiment was printed on my computer and both it and the image were matted with black CS, then adhered to red CS. I used a corner punch on all the corners of the image and the matting. I added the twine to the side of the matted image. There's a story behind the sentiment, too -- my hubby loved his strawberries more than anything else in the world and he always told me I was the only thing he loved more than strawberries. If he was still with us, I'd have to give him this as his Valentine card. :-D God keep you, sweetheart.

I used polka dot dp on the card front, then layered on the large strawberries, and the matted image. Each piece of dp or CS is from a scrap. I didn't cut into anything new or full size. I put a gem on the CS bow (another gift from Brenda!) and added three more to the bottom of the card. I wanted a CAS feel to this card so left the embellishment minimal.

Challenges for this card:

Craft Us Crazy -- Anything Goes

Crafty Emma -- 3 or more layers

Cupcake Craft -- Twine

Hiding in My Craft Room -- Use scraps

Make It Colorful -- Spring Colors

Pixie Dust -- 2 or more images

SJ Papercrafts -- Something happy & Use a Punch (New Challenge)

Totally Gorjuss -- Love (Lurve)

So glad you stopped by. Be sure to check out the rest of the DT inspirations at Tuesday Throwdown and then come over and play with us. All you need is a bit of twine! See you there. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

CFC Outlawz Card - After the Crash

2012-02-13T16:06:00.001-08:00

Most of you know I suffered a complete computer crash, and as a result I was unable to play in the Creative Freebie Challenge at Outlawz last time around. Since it's a progressive challenge (you must play in the previous one in order to get the images for the next one), I was afraid I'd miss out on all the CFC challenges from now on. But Sandi and Anne are really super -- if you just use one of the previous images in the current challenge, they'll send the newest images right out. So, this is my card card using Sandi's image from last challenge. Sandi, you gals at Outlawz are fabulous! Thanks.

Sketch from The Sketch File.

Colored with ProMarkers and matted with black and raspberry CS. All the dp came from scraps of SU papers that have been wasting away in the desk drawer. I added the gingham bow and the pearls, plus the sentiment printed with a computer font. This is for a lady who celebrates her birthday on Valentine's Day.

Challenges:
Clear It Out -- Use old supplies; scraps of pink and red
Creative Craft Challenges -- Bingo: Ribbon, Pink, Gems
I Love ProMarkers -- Love
Party Time Tuesdays -- Anything goes
Shopping Our Stash -- Hearts, Valentine or Lace
Simon Says Stamp -- Love

Brief post but I want to get it up right away. The day is running out! Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Birthday Celebration

2012-02-11T10:40:00.001-08:00

In honor of celebrating my First Blogaversary, I've done a birthday card to share with you this morning. Since it didn't do any good to make cards while my computer was on the blink (no way to download the photos or post them), I spent a lot of time making my favorite ribbon flowers and getting my stash stocked up again. I also tied a lot of ribbon bows! I used some of those on today's card.

The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil (where there's a bingo challenge this week -- gems, ribbon, & flowers), fussy cut and adhered to a die cut square of purple CS. I used a sketch from Card Positioning Systems. The colors came from the inspiration photo at Sketchy Colors.

I used a Spellbinders die to cut the patterned dp, and punched the corners of the CS matting the sentiment. Nothing difficult or complicated about the rest of it since the ribbon flowers and the bow were ready after my marathon of flower making for the last couple of weeks.

Challenges for this card:
Anything Goes Challenge -- Bingo: make own flowers, your choice (die cuts), bling
Celebrate the Occasion -- Birthday Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments -- Let's Get Girly
Creative Craft -- Bingo: 4 corners; ribbon, flowers, gems, blue
Hybrid Chick -- ribbon (in the flowers and the bow)
Operation Write Home -- Cut It Out
Outlawz Greeting Card Challenge -- Anything Goes
Pile It On -- For a 'Tween
Sassy Studio Designs -- Birthday
Sew Many Cards -- Birthday
Squigglefly -- Birthday
Sundays with Crissy -- Birthday
Truly, Madly Crafty -- Ribbon and bling

I hope your day is wonderfully creative. Feel free to browse around while you're here and don't forget to leave me a comment, and tell me a story about your own 'grammy' on the First Blogaversary posting, here. Your name could be drawn for the blog candy!

Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Just Inspirational Challenges

2012-02-09T00:45:00.000-08:00

Good Morning again. Even though it's not my team's week to post a card for Just Inspirational Challenges, I wanted to remind you that the next challenge starts today and runs for two weeks.

Here's the inspirational photo, and it has a nice spring time feel, too. The challenge this time is sponsored by Lily of the Valley stamps.

Let that inspire you in whatever way it will and come post a card or other project with JIC in the next fortnight. No back linking, please, and please link to your project, not just to your blog. You can enter up to 3 times over the fortnight, and you can enter as many other challenges as you like. Winners and Top 3 are chosen by the DT each time. Don't forget, the closing time for each challenge is 11:00 p.m. GMT on the Wednesday night prior to the next challenge. Won't you come along and play in this fun challenge?

Oh, it feels so good to be posting again! Happy crafting. NanaConnie

First Springtime Card

2012-02-09T00:05:00.000-08:00

With all the problems created by the computer crash, many of which now have been resolved with a new computer (yay, hooray!), I just needed something to lighten the mood so decided it was time for a card that felt like spring.

Sketch and butterfly stamp are from Sparkle 'n' Sprinkle and colors were chosen from the challenge at Clearly Inspired.

I had to flip the sketch because of the way I wanted to build my scene with the dp and the butterflies, but I still stayed with the overall design -- just in reverse. The gingham patterned paper was in my stash but the dp with the trees and flowers is from a die cut pack by Webster's Pages. I cut the gingham dp to complement the shape of the Webster's die cut paper.

I layered both papers onto a card base of deep purple before stamping the butterflies (Sparkle n Sprinkle set: Fancy Butterflies.) They were stamped, one at a time, with VersaMark clear ink, then heat embossed with Dragon Fruit, Forest Green, and Amethyst EP (all from Sparkle n Sprinkle.)

For embellishments, I added the pink, green, and purple pearls to the butterfly heads, teeny white pearls to their bodies, and three white pearls to the pink gingham dp. I punched two of the card corners, and added lace to the opening edge. I think it made a great, springtime scene with beautiful, spring colors.

Challenges for this card:
Allsorts -- Free and Easy
Crafty Pad -- Fresh spring colors
Crazy 4 Challenges -- Make a scene
Cupcake Craftroom -- New beginnings: butterflies are a new beginning
Cupcake Inspirations -- Photo inspiration: made me think of spring flowers and colors
Let's Ink it Up -- ribbon/lace
Lily Pad Cards -- Patterned papers
Our Craft Lounge - Up in the Air
Pattie's Creations -- Embossing
Poodles Parlour -- Anything Goes
Scrappy Frogs -- Die Cuts
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle -- Die cuts/punches
Stampin for the Weekend -- Anything Goes

So glad to be back posting and sharing my cards with you! :-D At least I have the photo downloading and editing software back, and it's looking as though many of the software programs from the old hard drive are going to be retrievable so I'm saying a huge prayer of thanks for that. It will be good to get back to my regular DT commitments (some of which I missed during the 'crash') and I need to say a grateful Thank You to all my teamies who jumped in and helped out while my computer was incapacitated. You've all been wonderful!

Thanks for stopping by today and for being patient while I was out of commission. I dearly appreciate all of you who follow and/or visit my blog regularly. Tomorrow, I'll have some news about celebrating my First Blogaversary so please, stop by again. Happy Stamping NanaConnie

Sharing a Pad

2012-02-05T08:27:00.000-08:00

I have a dear friend whose wedding anniversary is in February and she & hubby are celebrating 40 years this month! She asked me to make a card she could give him, but she didn't want anything too sweet, sentimental, or syrupy. Humor is one of the things they share that keeps them strong and happy together. When I showed this to her earlier this week, she laughed and pronounced it "perfect."

Sketch is from Midnight Madness and image is from Doodle Pantry, although the sentiment is mine, printed with a computer font.

Not only did I turn the sketch a 1/4 turn, I used an envelope fold and tucked the top-fold piece into the ribbon at the bottom corner. The image is adhered only to the top flap and the ribbon is wrapped around the bottom flap. This card opens with two, triangular flaps -- one above and one below. I wish I had remembered to photograph the inside before I gave the card to Shirley. Inside is a smaller version of the same image with a sentiment that says "Happy 40th, Frog Prince." The smaller version image is hidden behind the front image when the card is closed, although if you look closely, you can see the black CS matting of the smaller image.

Papers are from my scrapbook papers stash and ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. With the stripes and polka dots, it just didn't need a lot of embellishments. Besides, it is a guy card!

Challenges for this card:
City Crafter -- Use an envelope
Digi Doodle Shop's Best -- Love is in the Air
Do You Stack Up? -- Anything goes
Fab 'n' Funky -- Use a digi
Little Darlings -- Polka Dots
Party Time Tuesday -- Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp -- Animal Antics
Sisterhood of Crafters -- Stripes

Hope your week has been fruitful and that some humor has blessed it. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Gladys Salt's Valentine Plea

2012-02-04T16:20:00.000-08:00

Those of you who follow my blog or visit often already know that I love the digi stamps from Boni over at Dude Time Doodles (use a touch of red for their challenge this week) because it's so easy to make "Guy" cards when you use them. This one of Gladys Salt in no exception. I've used her once or twice before, but I love her for many different occasions. Today, she's in Valentine mode and letting everyone know what she deserves. Digi is from Dude Time and the sentiment is mine.

The papers are from DCWV and that fabulous punched heart was sent to me by a good friend (Thanks, Brenda). I border punched one side of a piece of deep red CS and matted the two dp pieces onto it, than added the matted image. I used Copic markers to color Gladys, then added a bit of sparkle gel pen to her glasses and necklace. I used rhinestones for her earrings, and the red twine was the final touch.

I sure hope Gladys' fella listens to her plea and that she gets chocolates for Valentine's Day. Since I don't have a Valentine fella, I'm sending this to my daughter. Maybe her hubby will take the hint! :-)

Challenges for this card:
C.R.A.F.T. -- Colors: red-orange-pink spectrum
Crafty Ribbons -- for men or boys
Crafty Sentiments -- Punches or dies
Delightful Challenges -- Punches
iCopic -- Red Love
My Sheri Crafts -- Love is in the Air
Pals Paper Arts -- Any reds
Squigglefly -- I'm Seeing Red"
Victorine Originals -- Anything Goes

Hope you're having a great weekend. See you tomorrow with another post. Hugs and Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Horrific Computer Crash

2012-02-04T12:49:00.000-08:00

NanaConnie's computer has died (perhaps of natural causes -- perhaps from one too many viruses), taking with it her photo editing software, internet and e-mail access, and ability to check on her blog every day.

With luck, the important things on her old hard drive can be rescued and put into the new hard drive in her new computer.

She does have some things scheduled to post through Blogger, but probably won't be able to post anything new for the rest of the week and maybe even the week after. That means she won't have her regular DT projects for the upcoming week, and will be playing it by ear until the new computer arrives and the old hard drive can be mined for the programs it has.

Apologies to all her followers and friends. Leave her a little love if you like -- she can sneak a peek at her e-mail when she's at the office.

Thanks for understanding.

Wonderful News and New Challenge at Just Inspirational Challenges

2012-02-02T00:10:00.000-08:00

OK, I've been sitting on this news for many days now and am about to burst! I was invited to join the Design Team at Just Inspirational Challenges and jumped at that chance. I've played in their challenges and they really are fun. Instead of a particular theme each week, we post a photograph for inspiration and let you take your imagination and run with it. The sponsor for my first challenge as part of the DT is Sassy Studio Designs and they generously supplied the images which the team is using.

Here's the inspiration photo, and it's totally "Steam Punk" !

I don't need to tell you this is a bit out of my comfort zone, do I? But I jumped in with both feet and I like the end result. The only problem is, because I haven't done anything Steam Punk before, I had none of the typical steam punk embellishments; gears, cogs, wheels, timepieces, etc. Hope you can bear with me and be kind with your comments. I did love the image!

Sketch came from Fetch a Sketch.

The colors are from Guylou's Inimitability (blue, white and gray), and I colored the image with colored pencils and sparkle gel pen, then matted it with black CS, and border punched one side. Sentiment is printed from my computer. I decided since Steam Punk wasn't in my traditional style, I'd do a Valentine card that was also non-traditional. The blue background CS is dry embossed, as is the charcoal gray paper from which I punched the heart. I added the metal heart charm, then wrapped the blue CS with narrow black ribbon. I added pearls between the two ribbon strips and put three more on the paper heart. Finally, I tied a bow with black gingham ribbon and added it to the ribbon.

I'm pleased with the design, even if it isn't strictly Steam Punk. I just like the way the card looks.

Challenges for this card:
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards -- Thinking of You/Missing You
Di's Digis Designs -- Valentine
Ditzy Craftymess -- Anything Goes (New challenge blog!)
Hiding in My Craft Room -- Non-traditional Valentine
Mami Doodles -- For a Loved One
Pattie's Creations -- Embossing
Stamp Man -- Embellish it
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle -- Anything Goes
Stampin' for the Weekend -- Embossing
Stamps R Us -- Valentine/Love
Stemplesonnen -- Valentine

Thanks for visiting today. If you haven't played in the challenges at Just Inspirational Challenges before, why not wander over there and see all the inspiration from the rest of the team, and then join us this week. You could be a winner! We have two teams (A and B), so I won't necessarily be posting a card every Thursday but I'll probably do a reminder and post the inspiration photo for the alternating Thursday just to remind you. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Fluffy Bunny Love

2012-02-01T09:28:00.000-08:00

This morning, I'm sharing a card I did for no particular reason although it does have a "Love" theme so I guess it could be for Valentine's Day. I used an adorable bunny digi from Meljen's Designs, where the theme is "Hearts." I haven't played at Meljen's for a while and this morning seemed like a good time.

I used a sketch from 2 Sisters and chose colors from Colour Create, pink and green.

The bunny is colored with ProMarkers and matted with two Spellbinders die cuts, and on the smaller one, I used an 'outside the box' cutting technique. I wanted that adorable bunny to be sitting on top of the fabric heart so I needed his feet to be free of the die cut. (Did you notice that his little feet have hearts on them?) The large heart is gingham fabric, with a fancy satin stitched border and long satin stitches on the two inside hearts. Creative Belli wants to see "Hearts", Our Craft Lounge wants to see felt or fabric hearts this week, and One Stop Craft Challenge wants to see stitching, real or faux.

The marbled pink dp and the striped dp are both from SU, while the background dp has been in my scrapbooking papers stash for a couple of years! I added some distressing (by sanding it) so that it would look older. Hmmm, as long as it's been in my stash, do you think it needed to look any older? lol OK, I wanted a distressed look for the background to set off the clean look of the SU dp.

The ribbons are both from Really Reasonable Ribbon (gotten a year ago), and the lace has been in my stash nearly as long as the background dp. The sentiment is from an unidentified, rubber stamp (I'd guess I've had it several years) and I colored it with gel pens. Final touch -- the three, pink pearls. For some reason, pearls have always been my favorite gemstone -- even more than diamonds. I love this fun, frilly, girly card and I think it's already been sold. At least, I have someone who's professed interest in giving it to his girlfriend. :-D

Challenges for this card:
Card Makin' Mamas -- Something old (papers, lace, ribbon, & sentiment)
Creative Craft Challenge -- Bingo: ribbon/pink/gems
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge -- Hearts or Flowers
Die Cut Dreams -- Pink, red, & a heart
Die Cuttin' Divas -- Anything goes
Digi Makeover Challenge -- Be My Valentine
House of Gilli -- Love
Incy Wincy Designs -- Flowers (in the dp)
Kaboodle Doodles -- Make it Girly
Lily Pad Cards -- patterned papers
Lollipop Crafts -- Anything goes
My Craft Spot -- Anything goes
Oldie, but a Goodie -- Have a Heart
Outlawz Greeting Card Mondays -- (Must use a sentiment) Hearts
Paper Playtime -- Anything goes
Paper Pretties -- Use ribbon
Pile It On -- Just Because (and always as many challenges as possible for one project)
Stamp and Create -- Anything goes
Stamptacular Sunday -- diamonds or Pearls

I hope your "half-way day" is simply spectacular, filled with creative energy and time to use it. I'm so glad you came by for a visit. Stay a bit and browse around. Maybe you'll find a bit of inspiration somewhere. For certain, you can pour yourself some coffee or tea, and munch a cookie or two from Grammy's cookie jar, right over there on the counter. Enjoy and Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Tuesday Throwdown with Dearie Dollies

2012-01-31T00:35:00.000-08:00

It's Tuesday again, which that means Tuesday Throwdown Challenge, and we have a completely new sponsor this week. Dearie Dollies is not only a new sponsor for TT, I've only just discovered them, and I'm so glad I did! Adorable and fun digis, and Mary Ellen, owner/artist, supplied the team with the digis we are using this week. Our theme is "From the Heart" and we want to see hearts on your projects. I used Dearie Dolly Daisy Girl, and while I used her for a Valentine/Love card, she's really very versatile and could be used for any spring or summer card, including Easter.

I used a sketch from My Time Made Easy and then added lace and ribbon flowers and hearts for embellishments.

I colored her with markers and watercolor pencil, then die cut and matted the image using Spellbinders dies (Ovals and Scalloped Oval.) I sponged one layer of oval with lilac ink. The dp is from SU, and the sentiment was printed with my computer, then matted with black CS. I added the lace and the ribbon flowers. The hearts were punched from holographic CS and pierced with a sharp awl.

Challenges:
Allsorts -- 1 or more Hearts
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards -- Thinking of You/ Missing You
Craft Us Crazy -- Valentine/Love
Crafty Purple Frog -- Valentine/Show Some Love
Crazy 4 Challenges -- Layer It On (there are a total of 11 if you count embellishments)
Digi Doodle Shop's Best -- Anything Goes
Ditzy Craftymess -- Anything Goes (new challenge blog!)
DRS Designs - Hearts
Mark's Finest Papers -- At least 4 layers
Paper Play -- Lovely Lace
Scrappy Frogs -- Lace
Secret Crafter -- Ribbon
Shelly's Images -- Text/Sentiment on the front
Simply Create, Too -- Valentine/Love
Stampin' with the Dragon -- Anything Goes

I hope you have a fabulous Tuesday and that you'll find something you want to share with us at our Tuesday Throwdown challenge this week. See you over there. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Who's the Boss?

2012-01-30T08:21:00.000-08:00

This image I just got from Bugaboo, "Crabby Cat", cracks me up! He reminds me of every husband I've ever known who thinks he is in charge of the home front. He also reminds me of my Cleo-cat, acknowledged around here as 'the Duchess', due to her demeanor with Honey, the younger cat (who doesn't acknowledge Cleo as 'the Duchess' or the boss!). Come to think of it, Cleo has the same demeanor with me! :-D

Sketch is from Stella Says Sketch and colors are from Catch the Bug.

Crabby Cat is shaded with markers and colored pencils, then fussy cut and matted with brown CS along with the sentiment. The sentiment is part of the stamp set from Bugaboo. The card base is made from embossed/textured CS which I just bought, and I'm loving it for card bases. It's heavy, sturdy, and I got it in 6 colors. I punched the circle with a hand punch and the polka dot ribbon is from my stash. I added the rhinestone brads to both the sentiment and the circles before adhering them. That gave just a touch of bling but kept the card pretty simple since it's a "guy" card and doesn't need tons of embellies on it.

Challenges for this card:
Cards for Men -- Seeing red
Digistamps 4 Joy -- for the Boys
Drunken Stampers -- Something new (image is new for me and card base CS is new)
Heart Song Inspirations -- Buttons OR brads
Operation Write Home -- Bling without glitter (rhinestones)
Outlawz Twisted Thursday -- with a twist of red
Sweet Stampin' -- Animals

OK, have a Happy Monday to start your week off really well, and Happy Stamping! NanaConnie

Happy Mail and Seahorse Love

2012-01-29T16:16:00.000-08:00

This first card was scheduled to post this morning but when I came to write a blog for another card, I discovered that Blogger failed to post it at the scheduled time. So, I added my second card to this post and you now get 2 for 1 ! Isn't that a great Sunday bargain?

Good morning to all. I have a fun child's birthday card (the theme at Phindy's) with an image from Phindy's Place, and I want to share with you the story behind the sentiment. First, the card and the sketch I used from Willow Sketchie.

When my eldest grandson was a youngster, he referred to his birthday as a "happy mail day" because that's when he got birthday cards from his grandparents, all of whom live in other states. So, since this is a birthday card for a child, and the image is called "Happy Mail", I decided on the sentiment, "It's a Happy Mail Day."

The colors came from the Card Chain Challenge at Lily Pad Cards. Everything is matted with CS or dp from my stash, and I added the flowers then put either pearls or rhinestones in the centers. I painted them with Creative Inspirations white paint for a little shimmer (challenge theme this week -- for Someone Special.)

I wanted to keep it pretty CAS since this card is going in the box of cards for Operation Write Home. Simpler tends to be better for those cards so that they aren't too bulky for a standard A2 envelope.

Challenges for this card:
Charisma Cardz -- Pretty in Pink
Crafts 4 Eternity -- CAS
Moving Along with the Times -- Blooming Marvelous - flowers
Paper Crafting Journey -- Floral
Sweet Stamping -- Animals
Try It on Tuesday -- In the Mail

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's the card I added to this post, with an image called "Seahorses" from Stitchy Bear. The challenge at One Stitch at a Time is to "Use a Digi." What could be easier than that? Aren't these seahorses obviously in love?

I chose a sketch from Operation Write Home and this is another card that will go to one of our troops who can use it to write home.

The colors of light blue and brown came from Sassy Cheryl's, and I used both Copic markers and sparkle gel pen (Robyn's Fetish - Make It Sparkle) to sparkle up the bubbles in the water and the eyes on the seahorses. Those are great colors for oceans and water, but not so typical of Love/Valentines/Anniversary cards. Both Paper and Such Design and The Ribbon Carousel have "non-traditional colors" for their themes.

The starfish ribbon just had to go with this image, especially since it was an appropriate light blue. I added one, polka-dot ribbon bow for embellishment, and left it at that. The seahorse image was the focal point and I didn't want to detract from it.

Challenges for this card;
Anything Goes Challenges -- To the One I Love
Crafty Pad -- Valentine/Anniversary Love
Digistamps 4 Joy -- for the Boys
Dream Valley Challenges -- Animals
Pile It On -- Just Because
That Craft Place -- Oh, I do like to be beside the Seaside!
Whimsical Wednesdays -- Love is in the Air

OK, that's it for this weekend but I'll have more to share with you throughout the week. Thanks for your visit and feel free to browse around while you're here. I love it when you leave me feedback, and always look forward to your comments. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Celebrating Ourselves

2012-01-27T03:18:00.000-08:00

Today's card is done as a celebration of one's self. It could be for a birthday (that's how I'm going to use it), or for any day that is special for someone. The fairy silhouette with the rose is by Floppy Latte Designs and I just love it!

Sketch is from my favorite place to find a sketch on Thursdays, Eat, Sleep, Stamp. Thanks, Tracy, for another fabulous sketch!

I chose the silhouette for several reasons, but one was because Quirky Crafts has 'using a silhouette' as their challenge theme this week. I used a glitter gel pen to sparkle up the wings of the fairy but no other coloring was needed. She's done on parchment, and then cut with QuicKutz and Spellbinders dies, as is the second circle. The polka dot ribbon (Really Reasonable Ribbon) was wrapped around the dp (SU), and I then tied a bow with ruffled white ribbon (also RRR.) The pearls in the corner were the last embellishment. Critter Sketch wants us to use 3 embellishments on our projects so mine are the ribbon, the bow, and the pearls. I kept it pretty CAS because I didn't want to distract from the fairy or the sentiment.

Challenges for this card:
Crafts and Me -- Pink and sparkly
Crazy 4 Challenges -- child's birthday card
Daisy Doodles -- Anything Goes
Do You Stack Up? -- photo inspiration: colors - pinks with a bit of black
Hybrid Chick -- Die cuts or punches
Little Darlings -- polka dots
Lollypop Crafts -- Things with wings
Mark's Finest Papers -- birthday
One Stitch at a Time -- Round and Round (the circles)
Sentimental Sundaes -- Die cuts
Sew Many Cards -- circles
Simon Says Stamp -- Anything Goes
Sisterhood of Crafters -- striped paper
Stamp and Create -- Anything Goes
Victorine Originals -- Anything Goes
Whimsy Stamps Inspiration -- pearls or bling

Have yourself a fabulous weekend (it's nearly here!) and spend some time celebrating yourself -- especially if you have a birthday. Thanks for visiting and Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Valentine Princess

2012-01-26T04:09:00.000-08:00

I was a lucky winner at Heart Song Designs (red & white OR ribbon OR both) earlier this week and one of the digis I chose is called Poinsettia Princess. I know, sounds like it could only be used at Christmas, but take a look and tell me what you think. Doesn't it look like she could be carrying spring lilies or blue dahlias?

Sketch is from Sketches by Carly and colors are from Just Us Girls (JUGS) -- Red, Pink, White

I paper-pieced her dress and then used the same dp for the panel behind the image. I colored her flowers and hair with markers, then added a touch of glitter to the flowers. The second dp (on the left) is from a 12" x 12" scrapbook paper and is distressed by sanding it. All the papers are matted with black CS, and I used one of my Spellbinders Nesties to die cut them.

The hearts have glitter on them, and I painted over the glitter with Creative Inspirations red paint. It gives a wonderful shimmer. I thought the pearls, ribbon, and hand punched & layered flowers were good embellishments for a card with a princess. I used two different colors of sheer ribbon (Really Reasonable Ribbon) wrapped around the card front and also tied together in a bow. The ribbon has a bit of sparkle to it.

Challenges:
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards -- glitter
Corrosive Challenge Blog -- I {heart}You
Creative Inspirations -- Pink
Hotshot Crafts -- Flowers
Lily Pad - Inspiration photo with hearts.
Paper Sundaes -- Paper piecing
Totally Papercrafts -- make your own flowers

We're winding down to the weekend and the last few days of January. Can you believe the first month of 2012 is almost gone already? Time flies when you're too busy to enjoy life! Best excuse I've heard for taking some quiet time and doing something marvelously creative. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Hearts to Emboss and Punch at Cooking It Up with Katie

2012-01-25T00:15:00.000-08:00

Wonderful Wednesday morning to all of you and welcome to another Cooking It Up with Katie challenge. This week we want to see you using hearts, punches, and embossing on your projects. Our sponsor is Robyn's Fetish and I used an image of little Lucy with a heart and flowers for her Valentine guy.

Both the heart and Lucy's dress are paper pieced (not the easiest piecing job I've ever done!) and the rest of her is colored with ProMarkers. I fussy cut her before layering her onto deep pink CS. The white lace is threaded with red satin ribbon, which is tied into a bow. The background paper is embossed and on the large flower, I've highlighted the stamen with gel ink. The mat piece for the image is border punched and also embossed with a Swiss dot folder. I punched the top corners of the card to lend a bit more decoration. The pearls and the single flower with rhinestone are the final embellishments.

Challenges for this card:

2 Sisters -- Embossing

Alota Rubber Stamps -- Hearts

Cardmadfairy's Digi Days -- Ribbon/Bow

Crafter's Companion -- Love is in the Air

Craft Us Crazy -- Valentine/Love or Animal

Creatalicious Challenges -- Love plus punched border, ribbon, flowers, and bling

Desert Islands Crafters -- 3 from the list: monochromatic, embossing, no pattern dp

Paper Crafting Journey -- Floral

Pretty Little Ribbon Shop -- Be My Valentine

Really Reasonable Ribbon -- Valentine's Day

You're halfway to the weekend and I hope all is going well. Thanks for stopping by to visit and lounge about. Hope we're going to see you in the challenge at Cooking It Up with Katie. You have a whole two weeks to get a project made and submitted. See you over there. :-D

Bugaboo and Tuesday Throwdown

2012-01-24T01:35:00.000-08:00

This week, Bugaboo Stamps is sponsoring the challenge at Tuesday Throwdown, where we want you to "Use a Charm" on your card or project. Bugaboo generously supplied digital images to the DT and I chose to use Morning Margaret because she so resembles my attitude when the sun dares to peek through my window before I'm ready to arise! :-D

I chose a sketch from Crafting Life's Little Pieces.

I wanted to do something that would feel spring-like or summery so decided that the "Green and Gold/Yellow" in the challenge at Emerald Faerie Garden would work really well, and besides, green-on-yellowgreen or green & gold fits in with my favorite color combos. I chose a green that was more of an avocado but I still like the end result. Mostly I chose that particular shade of green because of the dp I used. It's one of my all time favorites and I have only a small scrap of it left. I've horded it and used it sparingly for fear I'd run out and now that's exactly what's happened. It's been long discontinued, having come from a stack of scrapbooking paper which must be more than 3 years old at this point. I haven't seen it anywhere in such a long time. :-( My second inspiration for colors came from the photo at For Your Inspiration, filled with trees and bushes glorious in greens, golds, and yellows, -- mmmm, luscious!

I colored Margaret with watercolor pencils and added a glint of sparkle to her glasses and lips with sparkle gel pen. I used two different baker's twine, wrapped them around the card front and tied a bow, then added the gold star charm (metal). The circles on the corners are done with a hand punch from two different colors of CS, layered onto each other. I wanted to maintain a CAS feel to this card because Margaret just isn't a fussy, fluffy, frou-frou kind of gal. She's pretty plain and outspoken, in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of way. No fancy lace or pleated ribbon or piles of flowers for her!

Challenges for this card:

Craft Garden -- Monochromatic

Crafty Purple Frog -- Anything Goes

Desert Islands Crafters -- at least 3 from the list: monochromatic, metal, sentiment

Gingersnap -- Favorite paper

My Mum's Craft Shop -- Favorite color combo

Scrap It Girl -- C.H.A. - Use things that begin with C, H, & A: Charm, Humor, & Avocado green (This is a new monthly challenge started this January)

Shelly's Images -- Anything goes

Whimsical Wednesday -- Anything goes

OK, that's the easiest challenge you've had this year - make something and add a charm to it. We really want to see you play at Tuesday Throwdown this week so get started and come share with us. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Fancy Folds for Lexi's Creations

2012-01-23T01:39:00.000-08:00

Good Monday morning, my friends and followers! I hope it's warm where you are and that your toes aren't frozen.

Today we have a new challenge at Lexi's Creations with a theme of "Fancy Folds". The Stamping Bazaar is our sponsor this week, and I chose to use their "Nancy Bouquet" stamp because it just oooozed sweet romance with this adorable little critter, wrapped in her cape to stay warm, her shy smile, and her tiny bouquet of flowers.

I did this close up so that you could see the image really clearly. Here's one showing the fancy fold -- an easel card done lengthwise. This is my second easel card this week, and I'm really starting to like them.

The image is printed onto parchment paper and colored with my ProMarkers, then die cut with a simple oval and framed with another die cut, a Beaded Oval from Spellbinders (another new one from Santa and this is the first time I've used it.) I added glitter to the 'bead' part of the oval frame and also to the center of the flower in her hair. The dp is from K & Co., but it's been in my stash for so long, I can't tell you which mat stack.

The purple ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon and I threaded it through the lacy border piece and used that to decorate the inside of the card. It also makes the 'stop' for the easel to stand up. Originally, that border piece was in my Christmas stash and I had planned on using it as snowflakes, but that didn't get done so in the interest of using up things that have been hidden in the stash drawer for holiday crafting, I used it here.

The flower is made from mulberry-paper 'daisy' petals, wrapped around a long, narrow bead and then splayed out as the rose got to the size I wanted. The green part was made with a 5 pointed star punch.

This card will be entered into the following challenges:
City Crafter - Pretty inside and out
Clear It Out - Keeping Warm and use up holiday scraps
Creative Belli -- Fancy frames (the glittery, beaded, oval die cut framing the image)
Digital Tuesday -- Romantic card
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations -- Die cuts
Hotshot Crafts -- Easel Card
I Brake for Challenges -- Fancy folds
I Love ProMarkers -- Anything Goes
Paper Pretties -- Glitter
Sassy Studio Designs - Frosty colors, like blue, purple, gray, white, silver, etc.
Shopping Our Stash -- Border detail
Stamping Boutique -- Die Cuts

That's it for today. I hope you find lots of creative time these next two weeks, and that you'll make something with fancy folds to enter into our challenge at Lexi's Creations. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

My Funny Valentine

2012-01-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

That song, "My Funny Valentine" has been running through my head all morning and I don't know how to get rid of it! But it's appropriate for the card I want to share with you, which was inspired partly by the sketch with a twist challenge over at The Sweet Stop. The twist is to make a 'non-traditional Valentine.' So, I used a newly released digi from Sweet 'n Sassy (make an easel card) and added a silly sentiment for a bit of humor. :-D

Here's the sketch, but I turned it on it's side.

I colored the image with ProMarkers (Passion for ProMarkers -- Humor), and added the computer-printed sentiment, modifying the digi slightly to make it work. The digi is from a new set called "Cheer Up" and only the question mark is actually in the "text balloon." I adhered my sentiment next to the question mark and then made the balloon surround the entire thing. Papers are from DCWV (I think -- they've been in my stash for a while), and the twine is the only embellishment. I tied big loopy bows from blue and brown twine (with one gold) and added them to the blue and brown twine wrapped around the card front before attaching it to the easel. I'm fairly new at doing easel cards, and this is the first one I've done with an A2 style card which is folded on the 4 1/4" side. So, new image and new technique.

I think this is a perfect Valentine for a kid -- not too sloppy or smoochy, and with a bit of fun. It seems to me that's exactly the kind of thing a kid would think if the girl who liked him (oooh, yucky) ate his chocolate Valentine heart! lol

Challenges:
Corrosive Challenge -- I {heart} you
Crafty Ann's -- "What's New, Pussycat?" (New image, new easel style)
Crafty Creations -- Valentine
Crafty Pad -- Something for the Boys
Digi Doodle Shop's Best -- Blue & Brown
PanPastel UK -- 2 of something: 2 cats, 2 twines, 2 patterned papers
Paperminutes -- Anything Goes
Pattie's Creations -- Fancy folds
Pixie Dust Studio -- We're going dotty
Poodles Parlour -- Valentine
Scrap It Girl -- C, H, A -- cats, heart, appetite or animals
Send a Smile 4 Kids -- Anything goes for kids
Simply Create, Too -- Love is in the Air
Squirrel and the Fox -- Critters
Stampin with the Dragon -- Anything Goes
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturday -- Have a heart
Wags 'n Whiskers -- Valentine
Whimsy Inspiration -- Blue & Brown

I hope you found a smile somewhere in today's post. The weekend is nearly over and by the time this one posts, I'll be on my way to watch the 49ers football playoff game. I hope it's not going to be a long evening! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and I'll see you tomorrow, right here in Grammy's Attic. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

January Twins

2012-01-21T12:43:00.000-08:00

I just can't wait to share this card with all of you! I was commissioned to make a card for a gal who gave birth to twins earlier this month; one boy, one girl. Can you think of any kind of "New Beginnings" better than that? Had to decide on a color palette since we are celebrating both a boy and a girl. I chose a pale lavender card base on which I could build both pink and blue.

The winter owls is a digi stamp from Sweet n Sassy, and I thought they would be prefect to represent these particular twins since one is obviously a boy and the other a girl. The lace photographed as though it is lavender but it's actually pastel pink. I used pink gingham ribbon around the body of the card, and sheer blue ribbon threaded through the border-punched top of the scalloped card. I cut a paper doily in half, added it above the lace, and then added the fussy cut owls. Two pink pearls on one side and two blue pearls on the other, then I added the paper flowers made with a pink sequin and a blue sequin in their centers. Sentiment was printed from my computer and matted with blue and then pink CS.

Mrs. Gallagher was as tickled with this card as I was! She has knitted sweater and booties sets for the twins - one pink set and one blue set, and she told me she used lavender satin ribbon for the ties on both sets! She and I must have been thinking along the same lines. In any case, the card really fits with her gift, which I hadn't seen before I made the card.

I'm so happy with this one that I'm going to enter it in a thousand challenges! OK, not 1,000 but lots!
Clearly Inspired Challenges -- Pastels
Corrosive Challenges - Ring in the New Year (how about with two new babies?)
Crafty Boots -- New Beginnings
Crazy Challenge -- Tic Tac Toe: Ribbon/lace, Image, Pearls
Cupcake Crafts -- Born on a Winter's Day
Divas by Design -- New Beginnings
Forever Friends (always use an animal) -- Shaped Card (Scallops)
Freshly Brewed -- Something New
Heidi's Hobbystuggu -- Winter
Inky Impressions -- Any shape but Square
Just Inspirational Challenge -- photo of babies in pinks and blues
Little Red Wagon -- 2 different ribbons
Moving Along with the Times -- Things with Wings
Nettie G's -- Pastels only
Ooh La La -- New Beginnings
Outlawz Twisted Thursday -- Birthday (doesn't the Birth day count?)
Ribbon Girl -- Blue & Pink
Scrappy Frogs -- Lace
Some Odd Girl -- Bling it up
Stampin' Sisters in Christ -- Something New
Whoopsi Daisy -- Anything but square

OK, I hope your weekend is being blessed with warmth and lots of creative mojo! Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

"Guy" Card Fix for This Week

2012-01-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm doing another masculine card with a Dude Time Doodles digi and this week they're doing something different. They have a Bingo challenge and, since I love Bingo/Tic Tac Toe, I had to play in this one! I used the first vertical row: Brads, Eyelets & an Easel card. The image is Ernie Carpenter and, being a typical male, he's both proud and protective of his toys! Cards for Men says we should do a card about 'Boys and their Toys.' I think this one fits since "boys" never outgrow their toys -- they just become men with more expensive toys. lol

Sketch is from Stella Says Sketch.

I colored Ernie with ProMarkers, fussy cut him, printed and distressed the sentiment, and matted them together onto blue and then black CS. I added sparkle to the hammer and nails (though it's very difficult to see it in the photo). The striped paper is from DCWV Linen Closet stack. The turquoise CS is linen textured and I distressed it by sanding it. I added the eyelets before adhering the striped panels to the card front. The gingham ribbon bow became the perfect stop for the easel to stand. Everything on this card, from dp and CS to the brads and eyelets were taken from my stash, and I hate to tell you that I'm using up eyelets and brads that I've had more than 3 years! Oh, well, if I keep using them, I'll finally be able to go buy some more. :-D

Challenges:
Crafty Pad -- Sparkle (on the hammer and nails)
Crafty Sentiments -- Anything Goes
Creative Craft Challenges -- Color blue
Crop Stop -- Distressed
Delightful Challenges -- Distressed
Digistamps 4 Joy -- aquamarine/turquoise
Heart Song Inspirations -- Glitter (on the hammer and nails)
I Love ProMarkers -- Anything goes
Little Miss Muffet -- blues/creams
Oldie but Goodie -- Back to Work
Paper Pretties -- Glitter (on the hammer and nails)
Passion for ProMarkers -- Humour
Sentimental Sundays -- Ribbon

OK, this is the second (and last) post today. Hopefully, I'll have another to share over the weekend although I admit that I'm being dragged to a friend's house for the playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants. I'm not a fan of either team, but SF is somewhat "local" and they've had such a tough decade that everyone I know is thrilled they made all the playoff games so far, and are saying mantras that they get to the Superbowl. OK, my turn to say, "Go, 49ers" -- did I sound like I meant it? :-D Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

CFC Challenge at Outlawz

2012-01-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

One more Valentine to add to my growing collection and this time I used one of the images drawn by Sandi Huggett for the Creative Freebie Challenge at Outlawz. I chose to use Tracy's Sketch from Eat, Sleep, Stamp, although I used a narrow oval instead of a circle for the image panel. By the way, thanks so much to all of you who played and entered a card using Tracy's sketch last week. She had a great turn-out and I appreciate all the support you showed her! A few more weeks like that and she may just decide to keep the sketches going every Thursday. That will make me soooo happy 'cause I love her sketches!

I also chose colors from the Tuesday color challenge at Outlawz, black, white and red. There's a twist with that challenge and we also had to add embossing. I used a VersaMark pen on the heart and then heat embossed it with Rosebud matte EP. The rest of the stamp was colored with ProMarkers.

The piece directly behind the image is border-punched felt, matted with black CS. The heart dp is also matted with black CS, and before adhering it to the card front, I wrapped it with red, polka dot ribbon, and tied on a metal heart charm. I added the black, polka-dot, ribbon bows and the card was finished.

Challenges for this card:
Crafty Bloggers Network -- monochrome
Crafty Ribbons -- Love is red and black
Creative Card Crew -- Seeing red
Daisy Doodles -- Anything goes
Ladybug Crafts Ink -- Bows
My Grafico -- Love & Valentines
Paper Creations Ink -- Love/Romance
Paper Play -- Ribbon every which way
Ribbon Reel -- pink & polka dots
Stamp & Create -- Anything goes
Stamps R Us -- Cards for Kids

The weekend is almost here and I hope you'll find some creative time while the guys are watching the football playoffs. Thanks for visiting today and I'll have another post later today (since I didn't post yesterday, you get 2 today!) Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Valentine Blues

2012-01-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

OK, the camera has a new battery (rechargeable), the computer is back up and running, and I have another Valentine card to share. This one uses an image from Just Some Lines and I'm also using the Haberdashery Hues from their color challenge. I know I used them once already, but this image of a bird in her nest (Home, Sweet Home) just seemed perfect for them.

Sketch from My Time Made Easy.

I did very little in the way of coloring the image, wanting to maintain the "primitive" feel of the image. The ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon, and the dp has been hoarded in my stash for far too long! I love hounds tooth check but I hoard it instead of using it! lol Stampin' for the Weekend has challenged us with a theme of "Out with the Old", so.... The flowers, rhinestones, and the pearls have also been in my stash for a while. I added a brad to one flower and a rhinestone and a sequin to the others. Faux stitching seems to work with the dp.

Challenges for this card:
Addicted to Stamps -- Use blue
Dream Valley -- Anything Goes
Drunken Stampers -- Love
One Stitch at a Time -- Anything goes
Pan Pastel UK -- Anything Goes
Paper Play -- Stitches
Phindy's Place -- Tic Tac Toe: pearls, ribbon, & flowers
Pile It On -- Fuzzy Friends (Baby birds are fuzzy, aren't they? Well, she's sitting on the babies!)
Pixie Dust Studio -- Put Your Heart into It
Robyn's Fetish -- Animals
Secret Crafter -- Anything Goes with blue
Send a Smile for Kids -- Valentine for kids
Some Odd Girl -- Bling it up
Sparkles Forum -- New crafty goodies (square Nesties)
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle -- Winter Birds
Sweet Stamping -- glitter, bling, shine or sparkle
That Craft Place -- Home, Sweet Home (the nest)
The Squirrel and the Fox -- Critters

OK, I'll have more for you during the week, and next week another three DT cards! Thanks for visiting, and I so appreciate all your comments. The encouragement you give is wonderful and inspires me more than you can imagine. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Stuck in Neutral !

2012-01-17T00:07:00.000-08:00

Being "Stuck in Neutral" has nothing to do with driving a car or operating machinery; not this time, anyway! It's the theme of our challenge this week over at Tuesday Throwdown, and we want to see you do a card or other paper project using all neutral colors. Our sponsor is Stitchy Bear Stamps and they generously provided digital stamps to the DT for our cards this week. They are also providing the prize package for this challenge.

I loved this silhouette the instant I saw it! I see so many possibilities for it. Can you imagine it printed on deep pink paper so that the flowers on the hat are all pink? But, for this one, I printed it onto ivory paper and used my markers to add a bit of tan and light brown to the flowers. I was inspired to use the warm neutrals, instead of black & white or cold grays, when I saw an inspiration photo at Papercraft Star last week. It was filled with warm wood-browns and beiges. Can't enter that challenge because it's already closed but it was a wonderful source of inspiration for this card so I'll give them some credit. After using a corner punch, I layered the image onto dark brown CS and corner punched that layer.

The card base is made from oatmeal CS and I wrapped it with two brown ribbons (one sheer and one satin) which came from Really Reasonable Ribbon. The dp with the leaves is actually a recycled piece of cardboard backing from a package of flower embellishments I bought. It just had the perfect color and print for this card. I layered it along the side of the card, and then added the image piece.

All the flowers, except for the brown rose, are actual dried flowers which came from my own yard, as did the silver "fern". I adhered all of those using brush on glue and tweezers. Dried flowers are very delicate and will break, and flake off the card. That's why I "paint" them with glue to adhere them completely. To cover the shine of the glue, once it dried I painted each flower and stem with white Creative Inspirations paint. That made the shine deliberate and a bit sparkly. The final flower was the paper rose adhered on top of a dried daisy. I really like the open feel of this card and the rather minimal embellishment. There's nothing other than the flowers and ribbon.

Challenges for this card:
Crafty Emma's -- Vintage, Dahling!
Fab 'n' Funky -- Recycle
Gingersnap -- Use ribbon
My Mum's Craft Shop -- Here Come the Girls
One Stitch at a Time -- Anything Goes
Polkadoodles -- Vintage
Rainbow Lady's Challenge -- The many faces of women
Simply Create, Too -- more than 2 layers
Sweet n Sassy -- Monochromatic
Truly Scrumptious - shabby pastels and paint

Thanks for coming by to visit and won't you do a neutral project for our Tuesday Throwdown challenge this week? We'd love to see how you interpret the theme and you could win a fabulous prize from Stitchy Bear! Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Another Kid's Valentine

2012-01-15T11:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm not having much luck with my camera. I'm afraid it's going to need an entirely new battery and I won't be able to get one until Tuesday because of the long weekend. My fav camera store is closed until then. The battery isn't holding a charge even when it's fully charged up. So, I can't share with you the other two birthday cards as I promised yesterday, but I did manage to photograph this morning's Valentine card before the newly charged battery died. Not the greatest photograph either, but the best of the few shots I was able to get before the camera completely died. :-(

The darling little skunk is fussy cut from a scrap of CS and popped up with Pop Dots onto CS from my scrap box used to make the card front. The spotted ribbon is also from my stash, as are the little red pearls in the corner.

Again, I stayed really CAS and this will probably go to my youngest grandson next month. He's 5.

Only a few challenges this time:
Annabelle Stamps -- Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments - Any sentiment but must use scraps
Dutch Dare Challenges -- For the boys
Flutterby Wednesday -- Bright Colors
I Brake for Challenges -- CAS
Moving Along with the Times -- Spots or stripes
One Stop Craft Challenge - Spots and Ribbon (mine are together)

That's it for today. Good thing I already have my DT cards for this week photographed and scheduled. I'll post again this week once I have another camera battery. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Birthday Cards

2012-01-14T15:50:00.000-08:00

I was organizing the next box of cards which will be shipped to Operation Write Home and discovered that I didn't have a single birthday card in the whole box. So, I spent the morning making 4 birthday cards, two of which I managed to photograph before the battery on my camera went dead. So, while it's in the charger, I thought I'd at least share the two which are ready.

This first one is a single layer card, something I've not done in a few years. The single layer is CS (folded in half to make the card), printed with the owl, to which I've added the birthday sentiment.

The Less is More challenge wanted us to do single layer cards and I don't need to tell you that this one took me less than 10 minutes. Even though cards like this are really simple, I know they're going to be appreciated by the soldiers who will be able to use them to write home. If you don't know much about Operation Write Home, please click on the button to the right of my blog and read about this fantastic organization!

Challenges for this first card:
Birthday Sundaes -- birthday card
Celebrate the Occasion -- child's birthday
Digistamps 4 Joy -- Use aquamarine/turquoise
Make My Monday -- Nature or animals

OK, I had to stop there and post that much because I was about 8 minutes away from the deadline on one of those challenges. :-D Now I'm editing to add the second card which is going to be entered into different challenges.

The first thing I want to tell you about this card is that I CASEd a card from my friend, Lynn, Creative Crafts by Lynn, which can be seen here. I loved her embossing, and the way she focused attention on her image. I warned her I just had to CASE it and now I have to say a special thanks to her for giving me such great inspiration! Thanks, Lynn. :-D

The image is from Bugaboo, and Catch the Bug just happens to be celebrating their 2nd birthday this week so naturally their theme is birthday cards. The colors I took from Just Some Lines, what they are calling "Haberdashery Hues", denim and other blues plus a pop of red. Interestingly enough, that also allowed me to enter the challenge at Allsorts, "A Celebration of Nations", which can include your own nation and colors of your particular flag. My flag colors are red, white and blue.

The image is colored with markers and I used Creative Inspirations paint to shimmer up her wings. The embellishments are the blue twine bow (4 strands) and the red buttons.

Challenges for this card:
Addicted to Stamps -- Use blue
Catered Crop -- Buttons
Challenge Up Your Life -- Bingo: flowers, buttons, & sparkle
Crazy 4 Challenges - monochromatic blues
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations -- glitter (will sparkle do?)
Sweet Stamps -- Hearts (on her pocket)

OK, maybe I'll get the other birthday cards posted tomorrow assuming I can get them photographed. I have no idea how long it'll take for the camera battery to charge up but I'll do the best I can. In the meantime, Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Valentine -- Count Vladimir

2012-01-14T01:40:00.000-08:00

We're one month away from Valentine's day! Can you believe it? Where did the months go since Halloween? Seems like only last week we were talking about getting a serious start on Christmas cards. Sheesh!

Most of you know that I used to be on the Dude Time Doodles DT, and without my "fix" of Bonibleaux digis every now and then, I'd probably perish as quickly as the Dear Count Vladimir at sunup! This week, there's a challenge at DTD and you have to use the freebie they supply on the challenge blog. Here he is, in all his Valentine glory (not gory!) -- Count Vladimir!

I used one of Tracy's sketches from Eat, Sleep, Stamp and, if you follow my blog at all, you know that's one of my favorite places to find a sketch on a Thursday morning. Apparently, Tracy likes to see my Dude Time Doodles cards almost as much as I love her sketches. Thanks for the compliment, Tracy. :-D So, I need to ask a favor of you -- if you like sketch challenges, won't you try out one of Tracy's and enter the challenge over there? This is really a selfish request on my part because there's a chance she'll stop doing the Sketchy Thursdays since participation has been down for a couple of months (holiday effect?), and I'll be broken-hearted if her marvelous sketches go by the wayside. Thanks. Here's this week's sketch.

Count Vladimir is colored with my Promarkers and I added a tiny dot of sparkle gel pen to the center of each flower in the bouquet. The sentiment is mine, printed with a computer font. Both the image and the sentiment were cut with one of my new, narrower rectangle dies (QuikCutz), and then matted with black CS. I added three brads to the image panel.

The argyle dp is from a new DCWV 12" x 12" scrapbooking pad, and the red, handmade-paper is recycled from another card I started but had to toss when I decided the red paper was worth saving. After matting the dp with black CS, I wrapped it with twine (also new -- found in the bottom of my Christmas stocking) and tied a double bow, then adhered it to the rescued, handmade-paper. The image and sentiment panels were applied last. A really simple design that makes a perfect, masculine, Valentine card with just a touch of humor in it. What do you think?

Challenges:
Cards for Men -- recycling
Clearly Inspired -- Valentine's Day
C.R.A.F.T. Challenges-- Celebrations: Valentine's Day
Craft Your Days Away -- New Beginnings
Craft Your Passion -- Mythical Creatures (I hope vampires are mythical)
Crafty Calendar -- Use something new
Crazy 4 Challenges -- Use something new
Cupcake Craftroom - Anything Goes
Designed 2 Delight - with a Heart
Drunken Stampers - Love
My Grafico -- Love & Valentines
Papertake Weekly -- Die Cute Special (use die cuts and make it cute)
Passion for ProMarkers -- Song title : "Looking for Love"
Pile It On -- Masculine cards (sponsored this week by Dude Time Doodles)
Sassy Studio Designs -- Let's Celebrate: Valentine's Day
Simon Says Stamp and Show -- Red Letter Day: Valentine's Day
Stamp Man - Red
Sweet n Sassy -- monochromatic

What fun I had making this card! I hope you got a grin out of it, too. One more reminder -- won't you try the sketch at Eat, Sleep, Stamp? Tracy always picks a Top Designer from the submissions each week and your card could be featured there! What an honor that is! Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Simple Rose

2012-01-13T00:24:00.000-08:00

My card today is done with a Bugaboo digital stamp of a simple, single rose. I decided that a CAS card would be in order to best show it off, and I chose a sketch from Seems a Little Sketchy (though I tweaked it a bit for simpler proportions.) The arrow becomes the bow and the circle becomes the butterfly.

I colored the Rose with my Touch Twin markers, using the color palette from the challenge at Touch Twin Challenges (I love these markers and keep adding to my collection all the time! Yes, I also have and use both Copics and Promarkers, but the Touch Twins are equal to both those brands and have a lower cost.) :-D

The dp was in my stash and the dp on top originally had very pale beige flowers but I colored over the entire piece with the yellow Touch Twin. The ribbons are also from my stash. I added sparkle gel pen to highlight the rose petals and the word "rose" in the image, sealed with Crystal Effects, applied with a tiny paintbrush, so none of the sparkle can flake off. The butterfly is a dimensional sticker in a complimentary red.

Other challenges:
Catch the Bug - Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenges -- Anything Goes
Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps - Floral Fantasy

This card is already in the next box of cards going off to Operation Write Home so that one of our deployed troops can use it to write home. Wouldn't this be perfect for a Mother's Day card from one of our soldiers to his or her mom? If you want to know more about OWH, click on their name above and read about this incredible organization. Maybe you'll want to join in yourself with making cards for them.

The weekend is almost here and I hope you're going to stay warm and cozy and find lots of crafting time. I appreciate your visit and you'll find hot tea, cocoa, and fresh baked peanut butter cookies there on the counter. Help yourself and have a browse around while you're here. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Save the Eagle

2012-01-12T02:51:00.000-08:00

Did you know last Tuesday (January 10) was national Save the Eagle day? Neither did I until I read about it over at Outlawz. I can't enter this card in their challenge because that's a color challenge (and I didn't use those colors) but I have to give credit to them for the inspiration to use a feather or two on a card.

Sketch from Fetch a Sketch.

This is another of those vintage images which seem to have me hooked lately, printed onto parchment paper, then die cut with one of my new die sets (hexagon), and matted with chocolate CS, cut one size larger. I cut the background dp with scissors (after adhering it to the card front - cut all the way through the card), turned the cut off piece and adhered it to the back edge of the card. Then I added a strip of brown CS to set off the wavy front edge and complement the wavy back edge.

The striped dp is another piece from that same dp mat stack, Linen Closet - DCWV, matted with brown CS and wrapped with sheer brown ribbon. I added the feathers (no, those aren't eagle feathers!) and punched a hole for the pearl brad before mounting the strip onto the card front. Pearls were added to the image panel and then it was mounted last.

TIP: Here's a tip for getting feathers adhered to a card without having them glued down the entire length of the feather. I scraped the tip of the "feather stem" with a craft knife to flatten it as much as possible, then put down a tiny drop of craft glue right where the feathers were to go. Before adding the feathers, I punched a tiny hole for the brad right next to the glue spot. Then, I added the feather tips to the glue spot, and put the brad in place. The brad overlaps the feather tips and holds everything in place while the glue dries. It's also securely glued in place.

The eagle feeding new chicks is so symbolic of New Beginnings and certainly has lots to do with saving the eagles. Without offspring, there will be no eagles left to save.

Challenges for this card:
Anything Goes Challenge -- Anything Goes week
Bunny Zoe's - inspiration photo - lots of pastels and browns
Card Makin' Mamas -- Something New
Craft Garden -- monochromatic
Crafty Cardmakers -- no floral embellishments
The Crazy Challenge -- Pearls or lace
Daisy Doodles -- New Beginnings
Divas by Design - New Beginnings or Thanks
House of Gilli -- Anything Goes
Ooh La La -- New Beginnings
Party Time Tuesday - Save the Eagle Day
Top Tip Tuesday -- Anything Goes
Truly Madly Crafty -- Anything Goes

Hope your week is going well and that you may have found some inspiration while browsing around. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Delighted to be Back at Cooking It Up with Katie!

2012-01-11T03:49:00.000-08:00

Gosh, we've been on a long break at Cooking It Up with Katie and now we're going to be shifting to an every-other Wednesday format instead of weekly. That gives the DT more time to breathe between projects and gives you players more time to get project done. :-D I think that's going to be great ! This week, we're sponsored by Digital Delights and they have generously given the whole team digital images to use on our projects. I adore these little Love Birds, and they fit right in with the Cooking recipe this week: pink, pearls, & posies.

The image is printed onto pink parchment paper, and what little bit of coloring there is, is done with water color pencils. The image is die cut and matted with black. I adhered pearls to sequins and then adhered those to the edge of the circle. The background papers are from the DCWV Garden Party mat stack. The ribbon/bow is festooned with a mulberry paper posy with a sequin on it. The other posies are all in the dp.

While this is a Valentine, it has no sentiment on it because I have a more specific purpose. This card is going in the box for Operation Write Home and can serve as a "Love you" card any day of the year. OWH gathers up handmade cards, donated by cardmakers just like you and me, and sends them to deployed soldiers so those troops can send them to family and loved ones waiting at home. You'd be amazed at how much those cards mean to the ones who receive them (and to the soldiers who get to send them.) Read more about Operation Write Home by clicking on their button on my side bar.

This card will be entered into these challenges:

2 Sisters - Things with wings

CMIT Featured Designer Challenge -- Valentine

Delightful Challenges -- Have a Heart (It's in the digi image)

Gem of a Challenge - inspiration photo (colors)

Glitter Geeks -- Hand in Hand (Hearts & Flowers)

Joanna Sheen -- Celebrations (of Love)

Just Tracy's Crafts - Love in the Air

Pretty Little Ribbon Shop -- Be My Valentine

Sweet Stampin - Spots and Dots

Through the Craftroom Door -- Monochromatic

I hope love warms your heart and puts you 'in the pink' so that you can play along in our challenge. There are prizes to be won and fun to be had! Thanks for stopping by today. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Use It Tuesday Guest Designer

2012-01-10T00:52:00.000-08:00

Two posts today so be sure to scroll down to the earlier post or click this link for the Tuesday Throwdown DT card.

More wonderful news! I'm a guest designer for the Use It Tuesday challenge this week, where the theme is "All About Winter." I've played in their challenges fairly often because it encourages me to dig things out of my stash which either I'm hoarding or have forgotten were there (mostly hoarding!)

Sketch came from Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps.

You haven't heard me raving on about Operation Write Home for a while but that's because I was buried doing Christmas cards for family and friends. By late October, I had met and exceeded my goal for making 365 cards (397 altogether!) for OWH in 2011 so had lots of time to focus on my own Christmas cards. But now I'm back and will be making cards regularly for OWH every week. Oh, you don't know about OWH? Click on the button to the right and read about them and the fabulous work they do supporting our deployed service people.

OK, back to the card..... Both images are from The Graphics Fairy and I downloaded them ages ago but have never used them before. The silhouette is printed on pale blue parchment paper, and the image with the trees and reindeer is matted with that same parchment paper and then black CS. Both the papers and the CS have been in my stash for a while. Actually, everything on this card is from my stash. Nothing new; just stuff I've been hoarding forever, including the sheer ribbon and buttons. Even the pre-made card base was in my stash.

Challenges for this card:

Bearly Mine -- Anything Goes

City Crafter Challenge -- Back to Black - use a silhouette

Creative Card Crew -- Snow Day

Create Me Pink -- Splash of color with b & w

Do You Stack Up? -- Let it snow

I Brake for Challenges -- CAS

Just Inspirational - photo inspiration

Pixie Cottage - monochromatic

Play Date Cafe - colors

Stamps R Us -- Anything Goes

Top Tip Tuesday -- Anything Goes

Unstampables - Anything Goes (but no stamps)

I'm trying not to be too long winded today since I have two posts, but thanks for stopping by. Check out both of the challenges today and Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Tuesday Throwdown "Baby, It's Cold Outside"

2012-01-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

Brrrr, another cold January morning, fit only for staying inside! How appropriate that the challenge theme at Tuesday Throwdown this week is "Baby, It's Cold Outside!" Show us your cards and projects that fit in with that theme. We want to see your interpretation of it. Our challenge is being sponsored by Catherine Pooler, an independent Stampin' Up representative who is supplying the prize package for the challenge.

Here's my take on the theme:

The image is a digital from Heart Song Designs, and it was perfect for this theme. My own cats head right for the warmest place on cold days and, as often as not, that's the basket of clean clothes fresh from the hot dryer! I suppose yarn and an afghan serve the same purpose. I adore that image! The sentiment is printed with a computer font on pink paper, matted with black CS, and adhered with double-stick dimensional tape.

The papers are from SU, double sided CS really, and I made a stand up card using my new-from-Santa, Spellbinders Lattice Rectangle die to make a shaped card. Even though it looks like the top is cut off, here's another photo of the card standing up so that you can see it's still attached. I just placed the fold below the top edge of the die before cutting. The beige dp is cut with a smaller die from the same set.

I laced 1/8" ribbon through the lattice and tied it at the bottom (from Really Reasonable Ribbon.) Although the card looks rather fancy and detailed, it's really pretty simple. The sparkly satin ribbon is the only thing I used as embellishment. The CS and the die cuts made it "fancy." One advantage of using double sided CS to make the card base is that the inside of the card is already 'decorated'.

See what I mean? I added the cream CS for note writing, but the rest is just the back side of the card base, and it's perfectly color-coordinated! Thank you, Stampin' Up, for doing all the work! :-D

Other challenges for this card:
Crafty Cardmakers -- No floral embellishments
Creative Stamp Friends -- Winter
Cupcake Craftroom -- Anything Goes
Heart Song Designs -- Border punch
Papercraft Star -- Winter + inspiration photo (colors)
Paper Creations Ink -- Use die cuts
Really Reasonable Ribbon -- Ribbon and sparkle (on the knitting needles)
Stamp & Create -- Anything Goes
Truly Madly Crafty Challenge -- Anything Goes

I hope our theme this week inspires something and that you'll come and play along at Tuesday Throwdown. We'd love to see your creations over there. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

New Year, New Design Team!

2012-01-09T02:00:00.000-08:00

I have some exciting news. At least, it's exciting for me and I hope you'll think so, too! I've been invited to join the design team at Lexi's Creations, an every-other-Monday challenge. The theme for this challenge (my first as a DT member) is Anything Goes. I've used one of Lexi's digital images, "Claudia", which can be found here at the Fairy Dust Crafts store. New Year, New DT, New-to-me images all combined to result in this fun, monochromatic, new-January card.

Isn't Claudia just begging to go shopping at the January sales? Or maybe she's already been. Either way, she's dressed to the nines and a perfect January Child. What a great birthday card this would be! OK, I'm convinced and I'll send it to my aunt who is a January child and turns 95 this month. The image is colored with new Copic marker colors (left in my stocking by Santa!), and I used new dp and CS. It just felt right to use new things for this card. However, the flowers I combined at the bottom were all in my stash but I put them together to make a new flower. I used Creative Inspirations paint to make them all shimmery and shiny. Adding the two punched snowflakes (oh, new punch, too!) was perfect to enhance the wintry feel. I also used a corner punch to round the corners of the matted image.

Of course, I have to enter this into as many challenges as possible in keeping with Pile It On Challenges and their idea of doing one card for as many challenges as possible. I'm not entering this one in their challenge because it doesn't fit their theme this week, but I'll enter one later that does fit. I've said before that I like to select the challenges before I make my card so that I can make sure each card matches the theme of each challenge I picked. Sometimes I have to discard some of the challenges I've chosen because a card takes a different path but I try to include all the ones I've chosen.

Anything Goes Challenges -- Blue and one other color
Craft Us Crazy -- Anything New
Creative Belli -- Snowflakes
Creative Card Crew -- Snow Day
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge -- New Beginnings
Di's Digi Designs -- Something New
Fussy and Fancy -- Animal Print or Birthday (& Happy birthday to them!)
Just Some Lines -- Anything to do with the New Year
Ladybug Crafts -- Anything Goes w/ new stash items
Lawnscaping -- Birthday
Our Craft Lounge and Kathy's Lily Pad, partnered together this week for -- colors
Paper Creations Ink -- Die cuts or punches
Papertake Weekly -- Anything Goes w/ Something New option
Sassy Cheryl's -- New Beginings
Sparkles Forum -- Anything but a Christmas card
Stamps R Us -- What you got for Christmas
The Squirrel and the Fox -- Something new
Truly Madly Crafty -- Anything Goes
Winter Wonderland -- Let's Go Shopping

OK, I hope if you haven't played Lexi's challenges before now that you'll jump over there, look at all the great inspiration from the DT and do something for this one. How can you go wrong with 2 weeks to make one, teeny, little project? You don't have to use Lexi's images but how can you resist them?

Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Artist Trading Cards

2012-01-07T15:27:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to join a group of artists who make Trading Cards to share with the group. We have 11 in the group, and I'm learning about ATCs really quickly! I've never done them before, though I have seen lots of really fantastic artwork by others who excel at making them. But I wanted to try my hand at something new so this is my first one for the group. We have to make the same ATC for each person in the group (and one to keep for ourselves if we want) and we do these once a month. I decided to stay on the CAS side until I'm a bit more familiar and comfortable with the media.

Keep in mind, the entire card is only 2.5" x 3.5" so it isn't like working on an A2 or A7 greeting card. It feels really small ! I wanted to do something that felt wintry since this is the card for January. You'll see the deer again on a Guest Designer card later this week (done before this ATC but posted after) and, through making that card, I learned that printing onto blue parchment paper gives a perfect winter feel. The deer silhouette came from Graphics Fairy.

I layered the parchment onto hand-dyed, linen-finish CS, then added the ribbon to the corners. I mounted that onto white CS, previously cut to the finished size of 2.5" x 3.5". Everything had to be measured precisely so that the matting would work. I added the charm snowflake and the tiny white flower (punched from mulberry paper.) The flower has a rhinestone in the center.

Even though this is my first ATC, I'm going to enter it into the following challenges:
Bling It On -- New Beginnings
Fun with ATCs - Winter
Paper Pretties - CAS
Simply Create, Too -- More than 2 layers
Sir Stampalot -- monochromatic
Try It on Tuesdays -- all your own work; no stickers, no dp

Hope your weekend is warm and peaceful with a bit of creativity hanging about. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Huge Thanks !

2012-01-06T11:37:00.000-08:00

I love this image from Dude Time Doodles (of course, I love most of their digis!) and knew as soon as I saw it that I'd have to make a card for my SIL who is the greatest holiday dinner chef in the world. Mmmmm. Their challenge this week is Anything Goes.

Sketch came from my favorite place for sketches - Eat, Sleep, Stamp, finally back after a loooong time without sketch challenges (OK, only since before Christmas but it felt like months! When you're addicted, you're addicted.)

Image is colored with Promarkers and all the papers are from DCWV, the La Creme stack. I did sponge the papers lightly with Walnut Stain distress ink. Image is fussy cut, matted with black CS scraps left over from another project. The striped circle is punched with a 2" circle punch. Sentiment is my own, printed and matted with scraps of black CS. Everything is layered onto a black card base.

I'm entering this into the following challenges: (Yes, a lot of challenges, but so many had an 'Anything Goes' theme so how could I resist?)
Aud Sentiments - any sentiment + use scraps
Bearly Mine - Anything Goes
Cardmadfairy's Digi Days - Thank You
Christmas Cards All Year Round - Non-Traditional Colors
Christmas Card Challenges - Thank You
Clear It Out - Thank You and use up twine or ribbon
C.R.A.F.T. - Thank You
Crafts and Me - Christmas
Craft Us Crazy - Humorous
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes + distress
Create Me Pink - black and white w/ splash of color
Crimbo Crackers - Black and white
Gingerloft - Christmas or Winter
Heart Song Inspirations - Anything Goes
Inky Impressions - Anything Goes
Outlawz Twisted Thursday - Punches or Dies cuts
Paper Shelter - Anything Goes
Passion for Promarkers - Thank You cards
Pile It On - Anything Goes (+ always do one card for as many challenges as possible)
Pixie Cottage - monochromatic
Pixie Dust - monochromatic
Ribbon Girls - Black, cream & red
Sisterhood of Crafters - black, white, one other color

OK, I've had a great and creative morning. How about you? Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Guest Designer for Little Miss Muffett

2012-01-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy to be a Guest Designer for Little Miss Muffet during this challenge, which has a theme of "Something New." :-D I was so excited when Barbara sent me the invite and I'm loving the digis over there! The one on this card is 'Adela and Dida', and was perfect for the idea of a new puppy. That must have been inspired by meeting the new Brittany puppy, Samantha, now living with my California grandkids. What a wonderful, loving, cuddly pup she is!

Isn't that the most precious image ever? She's colored with Touch Twin markers and her wings are done with Creative Inspirations silver paint (though the shimmery sparkle of them just doesn't show in the photo -- sorry.) Aside from the theme of a new puppy, I have dp on my card which is brand new from SU, and the silver-heart ribbon I used for the bow is new from Santa. The image is new to me but not really new, as in not a new release. The flowers have been in my stash forever, as has the black CS which I used to mat the image, and the deep purple ribbon on the side. Jellypark Friends wants us to use something old and something new on our projects this week.

For a single touch of bling, I added the rhinestone to the largest flower before adding all three flowers to the card. The sentiment is printed from my computer, fussy cut, and then matted with black CS.

Challenges for this card:
Crafting for all Seasons - Fairies
Craft Us Crazy -- I chose the "Anything New" part
Delicious Doodles -- Anything Goes
Fabulous Friday at Frosted Designs -- Something New
Fairy Fun Friday -- Things with sparkly wings
Fashionista Friday - Use up stash (flowers)
Flutterby Wednesday - Open (must use butterfly, fairy or angel)
Glitter Geeks -- Brand Spanking New
Stampin' for the Weekend -- Anything Goes

Hope your first week of the New Year is going well for you and that you're finding time to relax after the bustle of the holidays. May you find something creative coloring your world, and Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Creative Freebie Challenge at Outlawz

2012-01-04T00:05:00.000-08:00

The digi on this card came from Ann Fenton and was a freebie for playing in the previous Creative Freebie Challenge at Outlawz. It's a progressive challenge but you can get in any time by joining the group and asking for the freebies for that challenge. There are always at least 2, and sometimes more.

Sketch came from Fetch a Sketch, turned on it's side and with the image panel placed on top of the "stripes". I love the way it turned out. Here's the sketch so you can see what I mean.

Everything on the card was done from scraps; even the card base was made from a large scrap of blue CS. Phindy's Place wants to see scraps used this week. The brown ribbon for the stripes and the polka dot ribbon I used to tie the bows were both from 20 inch remnants which came from a bow tied onto a florist plant. Recycling at its best -- and Cards for Men wants us to do recyling.

The digi image is painted with watercolors, and the woodgrain in the unfinished decoy is made with markers. I printed the sentiment with a computer font, matted it and added it below the image. The corners of the matting on both the image and the sentiment are punched with corner punches. Both Pollycraft and Victorine Originals wanted us to use punches this week. The rhinestones were the final touch of embellishment.

Other challenges for this card:
Cutie Pie Challenge - Use a sentiment
Outlawz Monday Greeting Cards - Sentiment plus a book image
Pile It On - Anything Goes
Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes (must use a sentiment)

I think that's it for today. Tomorrow, I'll have a card done for a guest designer spot at Little Miss Muffet. You won't want to miss that one! Happy Stamping, y'all. NanaConnie

First Tuesday Throwdown Challenge of 2012

2012-01-03T04:53:00.000-08:00

Happy first work day of 2012 and welcome to the first Tuesday Throwdown challenge of 2012. Our challenge this week is sponsored by Robyn's Fetish, and they supplied all the digital stamps used by the DT. Our theme is "Shiny New Year" and we want to see something shiny on your projects this week. If you use as much shine as I did, you might have a problem getting your project to photograph. I've never taken so many shots of one card trying to get the one shot without backflash glare! LOL

I used a sketch from My Time Made Easy.

Doesn't this snowman cone look ready for a party? He could be Christmas or New Year, or even a birthday, as long as he gets to the party! Ice Cream (the snowman kind or not) seems to always be a necessity for parties and celebrations of all kinds!

I colored the image with Copics and added Glossy Accents to the 'snowman' part of the ice cream cone. That's where the problems started with trying to photograph the card. Here's a closeup to show you how really shiny it is IRL. You can see the photography problems it would cause. :-D

The dp came from the new DCWV stack which Santa brought me for Christmas. Love all the snowflakes in those papers! I fussy cut the image and matted it with black CS. Each dp is also matted with black. I added the ribbon, the bow, and the shiny pearls as embellishments, all from my stash.

Challenges for this card:
2 Sisters -- Winter colors (purple, blue, white, or silver combos)
4 Crafty Chicks -- Something New (New Year, new dp, new image)
Craft Your Days Away -- Snowmen
C.R.A.F.T. -- New Year
Crimbo Crackers - Snowflakes
Critter Sketch - Celebrations
DRS Designs -- Snowflakes
House of Gilli -- Anything Goes
Incy Wincy -- Anything Goes
Kaboodle Doodles -- Celebrate
Mark's Finest Papers -- Snowflake
My Craft Spot -- Winter Wonderland
One Stop Crafts - Winter Wishes
Our Craft Lounge -- Inspiration photo (colors)
Pile It On - Anything Goes (plus always as many challenges as possible)
Robyn's Fetish -- Anything Goes
Secret Crafter -- Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp and Show -- Something Old, Something New
Stamps & Fun = Creativity -- Snow
Stamping with the Dragon -- Let It Snow
Totally Papercrafts -- Party Time

Sure hope you'll come play in the Tuesday Throwdown challenge this week. It's an easy one - just use something shiny. See you there and Happy Stamping. Welcome to 2012! NanaConnie

First Valentine

2012-01-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

So, here it is January 2nd and I was watching the Rose Parade on TV this morning, and trying to craft at the same time -- no easy feat! The roses inspired me to use a digi from Doodle Pantry, where all you have to do for their challenge this week is use one of their images. Somehow, roses lend themselves to love and romance, and that means Valentines, so I've done my first Valentine card for this year. Roses are one of my favorite flowers and I have tons of images of roses, in both digis and rubber stamps.

The sketch is from Card Positioning Systems, though I tweaked it a bit. The words became the 'box' and my ribbon is very narrow instead of wide, but I wanted the really CAS design with lots of open space for this one.

The sentiment is a freebie from Desert Diva and I printed it onto pink paper (set at 4" x 6" size in my software program), then trimmed it to A2 size. I printed the pre-colored roses twice, fussy cut the first one, and cut just the roses from the second, which I popped up with dimensional dots.

The ribbon came from my stash, and I wrapped it around the pink paper before I layered that onto the card base, then tied and adhered the bow. The two tiny hearts are self-stick gels from my stash. I added a tiny pink rhinestone to the center of the larger rose and it was finished.

I'm going to submit this to the following challenges:
Card Cupids -- Valentines
Charisma Cardz -- Anything Goes
Dutch Dare - Favorite Things (Roses)
One Stitch at a Time -- Use a digi
Poodles Parlour -- Song Titles - "Everything's Coming Up Roses"
Totally Gorjuss -- Something happy - "Love"

The more I look at this one, the more I like it. Picture me with a very self-satisfied smile on my face. :-D
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you find something creative in your day today and welcome to the new year. NanaConnie

Warm & Cozy New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T11:58:00.000-08:00

I'm finally back from the Christmas holiday and what a great time I had! Kids and grandkids, in-laws and out-laws, all sharing a wonderful dinner and delightful catch-up conversations. Now the New Year faces us with a promise of great things to come. This card today is a perfect depiction of how I'm going to spend my New Year's Eve -- home with a warm mug of cocoa and a good book. I did all my partying (probably overdid it) throughout my 20s so being home, safe and warm, seems more fun now. :-D

The image is from Little Miss Muffet, for whom I'll be doing a Guest Designer card later this week. Their challenge this week is 'Anything Goes'. The papers are new ones from Stampin' Up. The ribbon, both the sheer and the purple polka dot which I used to tie the bow, are from Really Reasonable Ribbon. The layout was inspired by the card at the CASE Study challenge this week.

I'm going to enter this one into a few challenges. I almost feel like I'm out of practice having been away from the crafting table for so long. :-D

Charisma Cardz -- Anything Goes

Digi Doodle Shop's Best -- Anything Goes

Do You Stack Up? -- Use at least 3 colors; pink, purple, yellow, and white
Fairy Tale -- Something Easy (the layout)
Just Inspirational Challenge -- photo inspiration with stripes
Outlawz -- Favorite things (color purple & hot cocoa) plus stripes
Rainbow Lady's Challenge -- Your Choice (anything goes)

Have yourself a fun and safe New Year's Eve and may the upcoming year be blessed with creativity and friends. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T12:36:00.000-08:00

To all my friends and followers -- Thanks so much for being so generous with your encouragement during my first 10 months of blogging. You've all made it a wonderful experience. May your Christmas be merry and bright. NanaConnie

Cooking It Up with Katie and Dude Time Doodles

2011-12-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

I was going to post this tomorrow, the regular day for Cooking It Up with Katie, when I realized that I wouldn't be near a computer tomorrow to link up all the challenges. So you get this reminder a day early. :-D

We're more than half way through the time for the month-long, "Anything Goes" challenge at Cooking It Up with Katie, which is sponsored by Dude Time Doodles throughout December. The digital stamp I used on my card today, Ebenezer Humbug, can be found at Dude Time Doodles.

Sketch is from Fetch a Sketch and there's still a few days to use it and enter their challenge.

It's a busy sketch but worked perfectly to focus on a single image.

All the papers were in my winter/Christmas stash and it's time I cleaned some of those out instead of hoarding them for yet another year! I've used stash papers on all the cards I made this week. I colored dear ol' Ebenezer with watercolor pencils (mostly pale grays and neutrals, with a hint of blue), then started die cutting and/or embossing papers for all the layers in the sketch. I stayed with basic blues for a monochromatic effect but also because the card could have gotten waaaay too busy if I had added other colors to it.

The twine was also in my stash and, combined with the flat rhinestones, acts as the only embellishment. While it seems busy and complex, it was really fast and simple to put together. I'm very pleased with the outcome!

Here's a list of challenges for this card, and it's a long one today:

4 Crafty Chicks - Christmas

Allways Something Creative - Christmas

Cards und More - Monochromatic

Christmas Card Challenges - non-traditional colors

Crafty Boots - Christmas

Creative Stamp Friends - Christmas

Crimbo Crackers - Embossing

Crop Stop - non-traditional colors

Cutie Pie Challenge - Use a sentiment

Delightful Challenges - Anything Goes

Di's Digi Designs - Christmas

Dutch Dare Challenge - Tic Tac Toe: bling, die cuts, twine

Fairy Fun - Holly Jolly but not red or green

Hiding in My Craft Room - Embossing

Hooked on Crafts - Christmas

Mark's Finest Papers - Christmas card

One Stitch at a Time - Christmas Anything Goes

Outlawz Paper A la Mode - for a kid or a teen (and what teen doesn't say "Humbug" at least once during the holidays!!)

Paper Crafting Journey - Christmas

Paper Play - Christmas

Paper Playtime - Anything Goes plus Sentiment -- "Humbug"

Sassy Studio Designs - Fav Christmas movie: "A Christmas Carol"

Scrappin Chic - Anything Goes Christmas

Shelly's Images - Anything Goes

Simply Create, Too - Embossing

Southern Girls - Let's Celebrate

Sundays with Crissy - Anything Goes

Victorine - Christmas

OK, let's see you play along at Cooking It Up with Katie. You have until January 3 to submit up to three entries, but only three. :-D

I won't be posting again until after Christmas so I'm wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and please make plans now to stay safe clear through New Year's Eve. Don't let the partying get so heavy that you endanger yourself or others by driving after even one drink! Designate a sober driver before going out or call a cab if everyone decides to imbibe. I want to see you back here browsing around in blog land. :-D

Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Angels We Have Heard on High...

2011-12-19T05:51:00.000-08:00

I adore this little angel, drawn by Sandi Huggett for the Creative Freebie Challenge at The Outlawz.

Sketch came from Simon Says Stamp and the color choices are from the Tuesday Color challenge at Outlawz, amethyst, white and blue. I'm not sure how the pale amethyst in the embellishments turned so lilac, but it isn't that pink looking IRL. Maybe it's mostly the glare from the camera flash.

All the papers came from my Christmas stash (the ones I've been hoarding for more than a year and now need to use), and that darling little angel is colored with a combination of alcohol inks, and gel pens. I used two scalloped oval die cuts, and added the bling and glitz with glittered brads, rhinestones, and pearls. The "Noel" sentiment is one appropriate for a Christmas card. Again, pretty CAS in design and took less than an hour to create it, including coloring and die cuts.

Challenges for this card:
Aud Sentiments - winter holiday sentiment
Bling It On - Christmas
Creative Belli - winter or Christmas
Flutterby Wednesdays - always requires a butterfly, angel or fairy -- Open/ Anything Goes
Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Angels
Stamps R Us - Angels
Use it Tuesday - Holiday

That's it until Wednesday when I have another card with a fabulously fun Dude Time Doodles digi as a reminder that they are sponsoring the challenge at Cooking It Up with Katie for the whole month of December. You can enter a total of 3 times in that Anything Goes challenge and you have until January 3rd. See you then. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

Creative Freebie Challenge on Outlawz

2011-12-18T17:34:00.000-08:00

Well, crafting time is at a premium this week so I've done two pretty CAS cards, both inspired by the Creative Freebie Challenge over at Outlawz. I'll share one with you now and schedule the other for later this week. In this first one, the image of the snow-covered, fence post was drawn by Anne Fenton and is a wonderful stamp for a masculine card. Since it turned out that I needed a last minute Christmas card for a man, this was perfect.

The sketch is one from last week at Stamps & Fun = Creativity. This week their challenge is to use our favorite materials, and mine has to be sheer ribbon.

The image is colored with Promarkers (I Love Promarkers - blue and white) and sparkle is added to the snow with heat-embossed, glitter EP. The dp has been hiding in my stash and I decided that since it's now past mid-December, it's time to stop hoarding the winter papers. :-D The bow is tied with sheer ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon (anything goes challenge.) Final touch -- the flat rhinestones at the corners of the image.

Other challenges:

Cards und More - Monochromatic

Color Create - photo inspiration

Creative Card Crew - 'Tis the Season

Digital Tuesday - Winter Wonderland
Do You Stack Up? - Winter
For Your Inspiration - photo
Going Grey with Scrap Creations - First Snow
Whimsical Wednesdays - Holiday fun with sparkle
Whoopsi Daisy - Sparkle and shine

OK, one more CAS Christmas project done and ready for the holiday. The schedule is really getting busy and I may not have more than two or three more posts between now and the New Year, so Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all. NanaConnie

Busy, Busy, Busy !

2011-12-18T10:07:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't posted since last Wednesday and I may not get to post again for a few days. I'm going to try to get some crafting time in yet today but no promises. My December schedule has just gotten soooo busy! I'm trying to get everything possible done at work before Thursday ends because, on Friday, I'm running off to spend Christmas holidays with my DD's family.

I have no DT commitments until after the New Year (and will be joining a new, every-other-week, DT on January 9) so I'm able to concentrate on fun and family over the days I'm gone. I may have time to get one or two things scheduled to post while I'm gone but if not, may you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Hugs.

See you again in January. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

Kris Jingle and His Tangle

2011-12-14T00:31:00.000-08:00

Dude Time Doodles is still sponsoring Cooking It Up with Katie for the 'anything goes' challenge which runs all month long in December. My card today is just to remind you that you can enter up to 3 times during the challenge and you'll love the digis from Dude Time Doodles!

Sketch is from The Sweet Stop.

Colored with Twin Touch markers; dp from Recollections; sentiment is mine and printed on my computer. Embellishments include a large button and a double-bow made from narrow, cream-colored ribbon. The plaid dp has a metallic gold stripe in it that makes it very festive and Christmas-y.

Challenges:

2 Sisters - Christmas

Allsorts - It Takes Two

Aud Sentiments - any holiday sentiment

Come and Get It Challenge - Red, green + your choice

Crafts 4 Eternity - Red, green, cream

Crafty Ann's - Red, green, gold

Crafty Catz - Anything Goes

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Traditional Christmas

Creations by Gill M - red & green

Hanna & Friends - Winter

Jingle Belles - Anything Christmas

Lily Pad - buttons

Little Miss Muffet - Buttons & ribbon

Meljen's - use green

Party Time Tuesdays - red and green

One Stop Crafts - Traditional Christmas Colors
Outlawz - All Buttoned Up
Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Trees & baubles
Squirrel & Fox - Christmas
Stampin for the Weekend - Christmas

Have yourself a great day and find a little bit of creative time. If you can, please join us at Cooking It Up with Katie, and check out Dude Time Doodles while you're browsing around, too. Happy Stamping. NanaConnie

My Grafico Sponsors Tuesday Throwdown Again

2011-12-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

Tuesday once again, and Tuesday Throwdown is on its last challenge of 2011. We are taking a break during the rest of the year so that the team can have their own Christmas/family celebrations without DT duties. :-D We'll be back on Tuesday, January 2. In the meantime, My Grafico is our sponsor this week and they provided the images for the DT to use. Our theme is "For Someone Special" and that's open to pretty wide interpretation. Come play along with us and tell us who your Someone Special is or why it is they're so special.

I used a beautiful cardinal image from My Grafico's "Nature's Christmas" set. Remember my vintage Santa card from a couple weeks ago? That was also from the "Nature's Christmas" set.

The sketch is from Scrap & Stamp, turned on end to better fit the shape of my image piece.

I colored the image with my new set of Promarkers, added glitter to the pine needles, cut it with a Nestie, and matted it with another Nestie one size larger. The papers are from a pad by Recollections, and the ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. I added the rhinestones and the sentiment (heat embossed with black EP) and it was finished. I'll use this for a special friend of mine who has a Christmas birthday that somehow always gets lost in the holiday shuffle.

Other challenges for this card:
Card Makin' Mamas - Christmas
Christmas Cards All Year Round - Anything Goes
Come and Get It Challenge - Red, green + your choice
Crafty Creations - card plus sentiment
Creative Belli - Winter/Christmas
Cupcake Craftroom - Traditional Christmas
Desert Islands Crafters - Recipe List: more than 5 layers, Christmas, glitter, embossing
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Nature
Freshly Brewed - Christmas
Hotshot - Promarkers
Inky Impressions - Ribbon
Scrappin Chics - Home for the Holidays
Simon Says Stamp - Inspiration photo - To me, that inspired an 'Old Fashioned Christmas'
The Squirrel & the Fox - Christmas
Sundays with Crissy - Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door - Happy Holidays + 3 embellishments (glitter, ribbon, rhinestones)
Whimsical Wednesdays - Winter Fun

OK, so won't you let us see your wonderful creations Celebrating the Season at the last 2011 Tuesday Throwdown challenge? I'm wishing a Merry Christmas to all -- NanaConnie

Not a card

2011-12-11T15:02:00.000-08:00

Just a quick share this afternoon and it's not a card. I know, that's a surprise!

My daughter loves decorating the holidays with snowmen and, over the years, I've made several for her. This is her snowman for this year.

I'll submit this to:

Corrosive Challenges - Anything but Christmas (OK, close call but really this is about winter, not Christmas!)

Craft Your Days Away - Snowmen

Fairy Tale - gift

Paper Play - Snowman

Pixie Cottage - Last minute gifts

Simon Says Stamp - Photo Inspiration (see the snowman?)

Thanks for browsing and have a great week. Happy Crafting. NanaConnie

More Christmas

2011-12-10T08:36:00.000-08:00

Today I have a couple of cards and a tag to share with you. The first card and the tag use digi stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps, designed by Deedee Anderson, a fellow design team mate of mine. I have been crazy about Deedee's designs since I first discovered them about a year ago. Tell me what you think.

Sketch is from Sketchy Colors.

The image, the background paper, and the sentiment are all part of the set, and this time I used the pre-colored set. However, I used Creative Inspirations paint to add some shimmer and shine to the snowman and snow on the ground. It's hard to tell but the snowman is fussy cut and popped up from the Nesties die cuts I used as the mat. The striped papers are from K & Co. The card base is sponged with red ink. I added glitter to the plaid bow, tied from ribbon in my stash. The last touch was all the rhinestones and the faux stitching on the corners.

Challenges for this card:

Come and Get It - Anything Christmas

Craft Your Passion - glitter

Cupcake Inspirations - inspiration photo

Dream Valley - Sparkle

Heart Song Inspirations - Christmas or red, green and white

Kaboodle Doodles - Christmas Colors

Karen's Doodles - recipe: 1 image, 2 papers, 3 embellishments (glitter, rhinestones & bow0

Paper Sundaes - Red, Stripes, Die cuts, Stitching

Here's a look at one of my tags, digi from this same artist, and also pre-colored. I added only the flower and the bow. I've done nearly a dozen of these tags and, using the pre-colored digis, the whole bunch took less than half an hour. Talk about time saver!

NEXT CARD TO SHARE:

This second card is completely different from the cute digi images above and has a vintage clip art image which I've used before but this time I fussy cut two parts of the image and used them.

Sketch is very CAS and comes from Paper Pretties.

The manger, the dove and the word "Christmas" are all adhered to brown plaid dp from my stash, and die cut with a Nestie. The card base is already printed with the light brown pattern. I added ribbon which is a bit sparkly, but looks much greener in the photo than it actually is, and a pastel mint, double-bow, tied from 1/8" satin ribbon.

Challenges for this card:
Crazy Challenges - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew - Tis the Season
Creative Stamp Friends - scene
Digi Makeover - Cut out a digi
I Brake for Challenges - Vintage
Incy Wincy - non-traditional Christmas colors
Little Red Wagon - vintage
Ribbon Reel - Anything Goes
Sassy Studio Design - Non-traditional Christmas colors
Stamp & Create - Vintage
Stamping Boutique - Non-traditional Christmas colors
Truly Madly Crafty - Christmas images

Have a great weekend and I'll see you after the first of the week with the last challenge of the year from Tuesday Throwdown. You won't want to miss this one! Happy Crafting. NanaConnie