Taking a Hike

     This card was made for my grandson who is heading off for summer camp in a few days.  My daughter asked for 5 masculine (and somewhat camp related) cards to mail to him while he's there.  I used a Penny Black stamp and modified it to look like a cliff drop-off.  I think it's fun and funny.  :-D

Sketch #565 from Sketch Saturday.

     Colored with Promarkers
     Die cut with Memory Box
     Scraps of CS and burlap
     3 gems

     Challenges:
A Bit More Time to Craft
Addicted to Stamps
Crafts Galore Encore
Die Cut Divas
Dies R Us
Friendship
Outlawz SAR
Penny Black Saturday
Pile It On

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Basket of Chicks

                                HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

     A huge "Thank You" to my dear friend, Donna, for this adorable Irish dancer!  Now, let's get to my post for today...

     Probably the best way to get little spring chicks to 'follow you home' is to transport them in a basket!   As a child, "It followed me home" was always the best excuse I could muster for keeping the latest stray pet who needed to be loved and cuddled.  Those were usually kittens or puppies, but bunnies or baby chicks would have been welcome, too.  I admit I didn't think about transporting them home in a basket but if I had, I would have done it!

     This sweet Penny Black stamp takes me back to childhood.  :-D

     I colored with a combination of water colors and ProMarkers, then cut the image with a Sizzix die.  Both of the smaller circles were cut with Sizzix dies also.

     I wanted the card design to be CAS so I added no embellishment beyond the die cut circles, simply laying those onto a deep gray, CS, background.  The CS was embossed with my Linen folder.

     Challenges:
2 Sisters on the Blog
Addicted to CAS
A Gem of a Challenge
Brown Sugar (Carried in a basket? lol)
Ching-Chou Kuik
Jo's Scrap Shack
Penny Black Saturday
Penny Black and More
Scrap from Your Heart
SUYP Cats

     I think this will be the only post for today but since I gave you a twofer yesterday, that should be sufficient.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Halloween Sewing

     Gosh, I got so busy yesterday that I never got a post written!  Sorry, but today's post should make up for it. 

     Most of us who love Halloween (and who are crafters) get into making cards with witches or ghosts, or goblins, or Frankenstein, or other creepy things that go bump in the night, to send to friends and loved ones.  But I remember the days when my kids (and then the grandkids) were wanting Halloween costumes.  I loved making them and I've probably sewn 2 dozen or more over the years, and that doesn't count the home-made-but-not-sewn costumes. 

     I decided to do a card which celebrates that kind of creativity and salutes all those moms and grandmoms who slave away at the sewing machine making all those good things the kids love to wear.  :-D

     The Penny Black image is colored with ProMarkers, cut, and then framed with a decorative cut from a Spellbinders die.  I grabbed a scrap piece of orange CS to make that frame.  I layered those together and matted them with an embossed and glittery scrap of CS. 

     I was trying to stick with Halloween colors and use up some of the scraps still on my crafting table from all the Halloween cards I did this year.  The orange ribbon with the stars was a scrap left in my ribbon basket and it seemed a good place to use it.  I added one of my signature bows, 'dyed' lavender with a ProMarker.

     I printed the sentiment, hand cut it, and added it to the bottom of the black card front.

     Challenges:
Crafting from the Heart
Di's Digi Designs
Hiding in My Craft Room
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
Outlawz SAR
Paper Girls
Penny Black and More
Penny Black Saturday
Pile It On
Pixie's Snippets

     Have a great day and Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Hedgie Witches on the Move

     I haven't done a tall and skinny card for ages, it seems, but this one for Halloween (done with a Penny Black stamp) just had to be tall to get the effect of the entire scene.  Take a look - you'll see right away what I mean.

     I adore hedgies and finding these two as witches on their broom just made me happy!  I also love making Halloween cards so that made me even happier.  :-D

     I colored the cute hedgie witches on their broom with my ProMarkers and die cut them with a Sizzix die.  I inked the edges with a deep, purple marker.  I printed and cut the sentiment with another Sizzix die.

     The background is done entirely with papers from a Making Memories Halloween stack.  I had to trim things to fit the card size but I loved figuring out the how and where of placement for the papers and scrap bits.

     I decided that I only needed minimal embellishment so I tied a black ribbon bow and added a tiny gem to it.

     Challenges:
Crafty Creations
Crafty Sentiments
Cute N Crafty
Cutie Pie
Die Cuttin' Divas
Dream Valley
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
Penny Black Saturday
Penny Black and More
Scrappy Land

     OK, I'm going to take all my happiness to the kitchen and fix some dinner, then do an early bedtime.  I was up at 4:30 this morning, didn't have a nap, and sleepy time is fast setting in.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Father's Day Celebration !

Happy Father's Day to all the dads!

     Today I have another Father's Day card made with a Penny Black stamp.  I love this stamp and have used it several times for either gal or guys cards.  Today, it's on a very simple, masculine, card.

     This little hedgie just seems so content and happy sitting in his garden, communing with the bees about his daisy.  Wonderful summer fun.  :-D  

     I colored him with a combination of water colors and ProMarkers.  I wanted a really CAS design which would be easy to put in an envelope and mail so all I did was cut the colored image with a die from QuicKutz and mount it onto a turquoise card front.

     I printed and hand cut the sentiment, then added it.  A perfect masculine card.  :-D

     Challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers

Crafty Creations

Die Cuttin' Divas

Digi Choosday

Di's Digi Designs

Passion for ProMarkers

Penny Black & More

Penny Black Saturday

TTCRD

Unicorn

     Have a marvelous day and celebrate all the dads in your life!  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Father's Day Dog

     I do cards for all the "Dads" in my family every year and those include my son, grandson, and SIL.  My own dad has been gone many years now but I was so close to him, I always think of him on Father's Day.

     Today's card has one of the happiest little mutts ever and would have been perfect for my dad who was a true animal lover, but mostly dogs populated his life in the years when I was growing up.  The image is a Penny Black stamp.

     I colored with watercolor paints and a brush, then cut the image and frame with dies from Amy Designs.  The die cuts were so detailed that I simply layered the image onto the yellow card front, added the sentiment, and left it without embellishment.  It's a pretty CAS design that looks more complex.

     Challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge
Allsorts
Cards in Envy
Crafting from the Heart
Dragonfly Dreams
Jo's Scrap Shack
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
Penny Black & More
Penny Black Saturday
Pile It On

     Thanks for stopping by.  I'll be home soon and back to normal - whatever 'normal' is!  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

"Mice" Rose

     I did a huge clean-out of my remaining wood-mounted, rubber stamps and got rid of most of them but the ones from Penny Black had to stay.  I adore all the mice, hedgies, and cats in my PB collection and simply couldn't stand the idea of sending them off to live elsewhere.  But sorting through them made me realize how little I've used them since discovering digis some years back so I stamped several of them and put them into the "Waiting to be Used" file.

     Here's a hint for those of you who love the sizing ability of digis (probably my favorite thing aside from computer storage):  stamp the image onto paper or CS, then photograph it and save the photo as a .jpg image.  Open the .jpg in whatever software you use for opening and printing digis, then adjust the size from there before you print and color it.  I don't know if that will work with a cell phone photo because I only photograph with my Canon digital camera but it works great with those photos.

   

I loved the inspiration photos at Sugar Pea Designs and at Cupcake Inspiration.

  

     I used my ProMarkers to color the image, then die cut it with a fancy oval die from Spellbinders.  I printed the sentiment in red, hand cut it and added it to the image piece.  Everything went onto a blue background.

     I found a piece of beige lace in my stash and used a ProMarker to 'dye' it the coral-pink I wanted.  I tied it into a bowtie bow, wrapped with a bit of 1/8" satin ribbon.

     Challenges:

Allsorts

Crafting from the Heart

Crafty Sentiments

Digi Choosday

Di's Digi Designs

Jo's Scrap Shack

Penny Black Saturday

TTCRD

Tuesday Throwdown

     Thanks for visiting and for commenting, my friends.  I truly appreciate your time and efforts.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Cutting Out Snowflakes

     Many of you know that I live out in California where we have very little snow except in the Sierra Nevada range, those high mountains that run like a backbone up the length of California, into Oregon and Washington, and even on into western Canada.  That's how I love snow - up in the mountains where one can choose to visit for a day or even a weekend of playing in it, and then return to the valley where it's dry and warm and skid-free.  :-D

     I adore Penny Black stamps, especially the cats and the hedgehogs, and this one always makes me think of California winters since, if we want snowflakes, we pretty much have to cut them from paper.

I based this on the sketch at Sketch Saturday

turned sideways and 

kept even cleaner and more simple

by leaving out one layer.

     I stamped the image, colored it with my ProMarkers, and cut it with a Bo Bunny die.  The teal-blue frame was cut with another die which is part of that same set.  I added glitter to the snowflake and set it aside to dry. 

     I found two scraps of teal gingham dp, trimmed them and added them diagonally across the card front.   I layered on the image and the frame, then printed the sentiment, hand cut and matted it, and added it above the image. 

    I used no embellishments because I want this card to be very CAS.  I'm sending it to one of my grandsons who lives in snow country, relishing the fact that he has to shovel snow and I don't!  lol

     Challenges:
Addicted to CAS
Incy Wincy
Jo's Scrap Shack
Kreativeinkauf
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
Not Just Cards
Penny Black Saturdays
Scrappy Land
Word Art Weds.

     Enjoy your weather, whatever it may be on this lovely February day, and if you have no snow, count your blessings and cut out a snowflake or two.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Cozy Mice

     I'm not sure how a cat person can also be so taken by cute mice but I am, especially those I find on Penny Black stamps.   Hmmm, now that I think of it, I love Penny Black cats, too.  :-D  Anyway, today felt like a 'cute mice' day so how's this one?

     This time I stamped on matte photo paper so there's a very slight shine to it, but it can still be colored with alcohol inks.  I used a combination of Copics and ProMarkers and, truthfully, the ProMarkers work a bit better on the photo paper.

     I cut it and the two other 'layers' with rectangle dies; the smaller one (red) from QuicKutz and the largest ones from Spellbinders.  Those really aren't layers because each rectangle is inlaid into the larger one around it so the entire image piece is only one layer, not four.

     I turned it and adhered it to some deep red CS (on an angle), then added the red ribbon before putting it onto the card base.  The wreath was in my stash of Christmas embellies.  The sentiment is also from Penny Black.

     Challenges:
Crafting from the Heart
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas
Crazy Challenge
Dream Valley 
Hiding in My Craft Room
Jo's Scrap Shack
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
Paper Girls
Penny Black and More
Penny Black Saturday

     I'll have another post later today when I find out what the next theme is over at Catch the Bug's Holiday Chaos.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Warm Hearted Snowman

     This is my second post of the day but I'm trying to get Mother Nature to change her ways so ...

     This adorable snowman is a Penny Black stamp which I colored last weekend.  Since California is having an unseasonable heat wave (just in time for the start of the World Series in Los Angeles), I decided that it was time for more Christmas cards with snow and cold weather reflected on them.  Mother Nature being what she is, maybe she'll decide to cool things off if she sees us getting back to nature with beautiful snow all around.  :-D

     I used cool greens and icy blues and colored the image with my ProMarkers.  I die cut the image and a frame for it using dies from Spellbinders.  I found a scrap of winter blue lace, cut it in two, and added it to the card front before layering on the image.

     I made pale pink poinsettias by trimming the flowers off of a flower stem die by Memory Makers and stacking them together.  Then I added teeny, tiny pearls to the center of the flowers.  To offset those itsy bitsy pearls, I added some large ones to the top and bottom of the frame and along the side, next to the sentiment.

     Challenges:
ABC Christmas
Color Inspiration Monday
Crafty Hazelnut's
Outlawz Festive Friday
Penny Black and More
Penny Black Saturday
Ribbon Girl
Scrapy Land
Winter Wonderland

     I really hope this cools down the weather.  103F in Los Angeles is too hot for any time of year, but is certainly abnormal for late October!  

Holly Hedgie

     Time for another Christmas card.  I'm not yet caught up on my promise to myself to do one card per week between January and August, then 2 or more from September to Christmas, but that's because I simply did none at all in January, February and March.  So much for promises to self.  lol  But once I started in, I've been pretty consistent and have made several to make up for the missing 12 weeks.

     This darling little hedgie (Penny Black), prancing about with the holly branch, dropping berries everywhere, in sheer love of the season, is a favorite stamp of mine and perfect for a sweet but simple Christmas card.  I wanted to be able to use it for one of the many men/boys in my family so I held back on the embellies.

     The image is colored with ProMarkers and gel inks, then the oval is cut with an Unbranded die.  Both the papers are from the scrap basket and the green ribbon is also a tail-end left over.  The sentiment is from QKR Stampede and it's cut by hand.

     I must tell you that after I photographed the "finished" card, I kept looking at how flat it was and I went back and added tiny, red, pom poms to each of the holly berries.  It gave it great dimension and texture but I didn't have time to re-photograph it.  You'll just have to imagine it in your mind.  :-D

     Challenges:
ABC Christmas
A Snowflakes Promise
Crafting by Designs
Crafting from the Heart
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas
Crafty Sentiments
Holly & Ivy
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
Penny Black and More
Penny Black Saturday

     I'll have another post this afternoon, much more appropriate to our summer activities, but I did want to slip in one of the Christmas cards I've been doing.  I must have about 10 now that I've not yet shared but you'll see most of them as pre-scheduled posts when I'm traveling away from my blog this summer.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Hedgehog Celebration

     Today I'm sharing a birthday card, this time with a very masculine color combo.  Last week, I used one of the Penny Black images with mice.  Since I always have trouble deciding whether I like the PB mice or hedgies best, I didn't want any of my hedgie stamps to feel left out.  Hence, today's card with hedgies celebrating a birthday.  :-D

     The image is colored with ProMarkers, then die cut (Spellbinders) and matted twice with other die cut layers.  The sentiment is hand cut and matted twice with the same colors.  I love using stripes and polka dots together for kid's cards but I had no striped ribbon in these colors.  Instead, I added stripes to the candle on the cake.  The two birthday hats also have polka dots and stripes so I guess those will have to do.  :-D

     The final touch was to 'dye' two, sheer ribbon bows (using ProMarkers) and add them as the embellishments.

     Challenges:
Allsorts
Brown Sugar
Craft-D BowZ
Crafty Calendar
Crafty Catz
Outlawz PAM
Penny Black and More
Send a Smile 4 Kids
Sweet Stampin'

     Here we are, half-way through the weekend, and I've made 6 new cards so far.  I'm trying to work on things which I can schedule to post during the weeks I'll be gone during the summer.  I'm also working on more Christmas cards, some of which will be sent to the Card Drive for Little Hearts.  I'll have more about that in another post later this week but I made the name into a link to Christina Hor's post about it if you want to go and check it out now.  The card drive starts in July and runs through August.  You could be a part of it, too.  :-D

     Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Lemonade Summer

     I have four masculine birthdays in my family that fall in June and July, and another one in August so I'm adding to my supply of birthday cards for guys.  This one, with a Penny Black stamp (it's always a toss up for me whether I love the mice the best or the hedgies!), seemed a natural for a birthday that always rolls around during the hottest weather.

     I used my ProMarkers (and a blender) to color those sweet mice (clearly my favorites this week!), then cut the image with a die from Spellbinders.  The die is actually one of their lattice frames but I used it to cut the image as the center piece and saved the actual frame for another project.

     I layered the image onto dark blue CS, and put that whole thing onto sky blue CS.  After adding the two scraps of satin ribbon, I put the light blue onto a medium gray CS and that went onto the card front.  Because this is a guy card, the only embellishment I added were the two scraps of baker's twine which I tied into a bow around the two ribbons.  The sentiment was computer printed and matted before adding it to the front.

     The white flower is not part of the card; it's only there for visual dimension in the photo.

     Challenges:
Crafting from the Heart
Cutie Pie
Dream Valley
Incy Wincy
Mod Squad
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
Penny Black & More
Outlawz Greetings
Stamping Sensations

     Mid-way through the week and no plans for the weekend so that means I can do lots of crafting or absolutely nothing depending on how the mood strikes me.  :-D  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Pink and Red Christmas with Penny Black

     I just have to share another Christmas card with you because I love the stamp so much.  It's one of my favorite Penny Black stamps and it doesn't even have one of the Hedgehogs in it (which just happen to be my favorite PB critters)!   Don't you just love the little bird bringing a gift for the girl in the swing?  Too precious!

     I'm not sure how I decided black, white and reds for the color combo but it just seemed to work.  The image is stamped and heat embossed, which gives it some sparkle, and then colored with watercolor pencils and Copic markers.  The card base is metallic maroon-red CS.   The sentiment paper was colored with a broad tipped, gold-metallic paint pen before adding the sentiment.  Afterward, I painted over the sentiment with Creative Inspirations "Fairy Dust" paint for some shimmer, and then fussy cut the sentiment.

     The best part of this card is that it's going to be given to a young girl who's getting a swing set from Santa, so the card is perfect!

     Challenges:
Color Me Creative Challenge -- Metallic gleam
Come and Get It -- Anything Christmas
Crazy Challenge -- Christmas Time
Cutie Pie Challenge -- Cute Christmas
Creative Inspirations Paints -- Christmas Gifts
Dream Valley -- Christmas
Friends of Speedy TV -- Happy Holiday
Kaboodle Doodles -- Christmas
Penny Black and More -- It's your choice
Penny Black Saturday Challenge -- Glitter and sparkle
Send a Smile 4 Kids -- Winter fun 4 kids
Stamptacular Sunday -- Christmas Time
The Squirrel and the Fox -- Christmas
Without Words -- Monochrome Christmas

     We're creeping closer to the big day and Santa's really under pressure to get everything packed into his sleigh for Christmas Eve.  I'm having a wonderful time and feeling no pressure at all since my preparations were done by last weekend!  All that's left is enjoying family time and grandkids.  :-D  Happy Stamping, my friends.  NanaConnie