Time for Pie

     Another of the cards I finished while I was doing the local Craft Fair on Saturday and this one will go to one of the grandkids on Thanksgiving Day.  

    The digital image was printed in reverse, colored polychromos pencils, blended with gamsol, and shading was added with alcohol markers.  I used one of my very first Spellbinders dies to cut the image, and the sentiment was cut with an Avery Elle die.  The background strip of dp was a scrap from the fall basket; the pumpkins are embossed for texture and touched with glitter for just the smallest amount of sparkle.  I hand-tied the bow using satin ribbon and called it finished.  Isn't she the sweetest little mouse ever?

     Challenges:

Can You Handle ...

Coloring w Pencils

Crafter's Cafe

Creative Moments

Cutie Pie

Inspiration Station (fall colors)

Lil Patch of ...

Outlawz SAR (Thanksgiving Pies)

Pammie's IP

     That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by again.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Holly Jolly Mouse

      I have a craft fair coming up just a few days before Thanksgiving in November and I've been working on lots of extra Christmas and Thanksgiving cards.  

     This is a digital coloring book image which I reduced in size to fit an A2 card.  I used my polychromos colored pencils to color that sweet mouse, then cut him with a QuicKutz die.  I photographed the image after I colored him and printed 6 of them so that I could make a half dozen, duplicate cards which will be a set of Christmas cards.  They are all the same but for the background color.  I used different sparkly papers on each one (this blue, plus red, green, white, silver, and gold) so there is some variety, even though the image looks exactly the same on each one. The sentiment was printed and fussy cut.  The background is glitter paper from DCWV.  Fast and easy with no embellishment!

     Challenges:

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Kitten's First Snow

      I have a dear friend who adores cats and kittens as much as I do and each Christmas I make her a card with kittens.  So, when I saw this adorable clip art image, I 'pounced' on it and made her Christmas card for this year.  Once again, I took a color image and printed it in light gray scale before coloring it myself.  The great thing about printing in gray scale is that you get all the shading and highlights which were in the original but you choose your own color palette.

     I colored with a combo of Sanjoki markers (sky and wall) and polychromos pencils (kittens, birds, and cherries on tree), plus white gel pen for snowflakes.  I cut the image with a square QuicKutz die and framed it with white CS, also cut with a Quickutz die.  The holly paper came from the scrap basket and I think it was from DCWV.  The sentiment is from Beccy's Place and I cut it with an Avery Elle die.

     Because this one has to be mailed, I left it very flat and without fancy embellishment.

     Challenges:

Christmas Kickstart

(In honor of Janis and her Cat Lovers Hop)

Digi Choosday

Happy...Stampers

Let's Craft & Create

Lil Patch of ...

My Favorite Things

Pattie's Creations

Peace on Earth

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie    

Sunflowers for FarmQuest

      I know it's been more than a week since I posted anything but my daughter has a vendor booth at our local County Fair and I've been hanging out with her, pretending to be a valuable co-worker, managing the behind-the-scenes technical issues while she handles customers and sales.  I have to admit I'm really tired of making all the little sleeves and envelopes for the myriad of coupons and give away items that funnel through the booth, but it's filled with fun activities even if it is busy, busy, busy!  :-D

     Today, we have a new challenge starting over at FarmQuest and our new theme is "Sunflowers."  Don't forget that all entries must be 'country' or 'farm' related but it's pretty hard to focus on sunflowers without being at least a little bit country.   I found this delightful clip art image in my collection of flower digis, printed it in grayscale, then colored it with my polychromos pencils.  I used gamsol to blend the coloring.

     I knew as I was coloring that I wanted to do a very simple design, partly because I had printed such a large image piece but also because I wanted the sunflowers to take center stage and not have to compete with too much embellishment.  I had added the sentiment before printing the image, so I just cut it square, then rounded the corners with a Uchida punch.  I put that onto a bright orange card front and called it finished.  

     BTW, orange is definitely NOT one of my 'go to' colors but it is my favorite harvest/autumn color because I use it so rarely all the rest of the year that it's kind of refreshing to use it for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or other autumn cards.  :-D

     Challenges:

As You Like It

Bastel-Traum

Coloring w Pencils

Crafty Gals Corner

Creative Inspiration

Digi Choosday

Outlawz Monday

Pammie's IP

Paper Funday

     I hope you're going to come play in our "Sunflowers" challenge this time.  You have a full 2 weeks (and a couple of extra days) because this challenge ends on October 13.  Don't let time run out on you.  

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Arctic Christmas

      We're back from our summer break over at Crafty Catz and our latest challenge has started.  Our theme for this week is "Getting Ready for Christmas."  You can create anything Christmas related.  

     I chose this fun clip art image, printed it in gray scale, and then used water colors, white pencil, and white gel pen to color the image.  I started with dark blue water color paint, and did the entire night sky, after masking the moon and polar bears.  I used a light gray on the ground, adding highlights to the gray scale.  I used a darker gray water color to emphasize the leaf branches at the very bottom.  I let that dry completely, overnight, and under a heavy book.

     I found my polychromos pencils and added highlights to the polar bears, the trees, and the moon.  I added yellow and aqua pencil rings around the moon, getting lighter and less distinct the further away from the moon. I blended those rings with gamsol.  Finally, I grabbed a white gel pen and added bright highlights to the treetops, plus a few strokes on the bears, and to create the snowflakes/stars.  I added a bit of sparkle gel pen to the tree tops and snow but it doesn't show very well in the photo.

     The sentiment was printed using my Word program, setting the text in yellow and the background in deep blue.  Once printed, I cut it with a die from Avery Elle.  I wanted a completely CAS card so I added no embellishment of any kind.  I understand that if you are a purist who demands lots of 'white' space for CAS, you'll be disappointed in this card.  But I wanted the scene to be the main feature and that meant lots of night sky instead of lots of white space.  :-D

     Challenges:

12 Months Christmas

Christmas Bingo (CAS/free/Hand color)

Classic Design

Creative Fingers

Creative Inspirations

Happy...Stampers

Kerst /Christmas

Mirtillamente

Outlawz Friday

Paper Shelter

     Come play with us.  It's already a week into September and you need to get a start on your Christmas cards.  Remember last year when you swore to yourself not to wait until the last minute to get started?  Unh huh, I thought so.  Use our challenge as an inspiration and then enter your cards in our challenge.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Purr-fect!

      It's time for another challenge at Crafty Catz, where our theme is always Anything Goes but we also offer you an OPTIONAL theme, if you want to use it.  Our option this week is "Hot Colors" and all I have to do is look out the window of my craft room and I can see heat and hot colors far beyond anything I care to see!  

     When is this heat wave going to end?  We're on day 14 in a row of being over 100 F and the 'good' news from the weatherman this morning was we may stay at 100 F today instead of going above it.  I suppose that's better than 110 but once it reaches 100, it pretty much all feels the same.  And the heat wave doesn't officially end until we have 2 days in a row of  99 F or below.  Yuck!

     Ok, information about my card - since we don't have a sponsor this week, we could use whatever we wanted on our DT projects.  I chose a cute image from Eureka Stamps called "Big and Little Cat" and a sentiment from QKR Stampede called "You're Purrfect."  

     I used Sanjoki markers to color the cat image and then fussy cut it with scissors. That image is mounted on dimensional dots.  I printed, colored (polychromos pencils), and cut the sentiment with a Die-namics die.  I found some lovely fiber paper for the background (DCWV), giving great texture to the entire design. 

I used colors from CRAFTalnica.

     Challenges:

Classic Design

Country View

Crafts Galore ...

I Love Markers

Let's Craft & ...

SUYP Cats

Word Art Weds

     Come play with us this week.  It's our last challenge before we take a summer break throughout the month of August.  We'll be  back on the first Friday of September and I hope to be able to tell you that things have cooled down some.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

3 Christmas Kittens

      Is this the most adorable image ever?  I mean, even people who are dog lovers instead of cat lovers have to admit these three are too cute to ignore.  :-D  This is a clip art image which I printed in gray scale and then colored.

     I used my polychromos pencils, blended with gamsol, for that soft fur look.  Highlights were added using white and red gel pens.  I cut the image with a Tonic Studios die, then framed it with gauze paper, trimmed closely with my Fiskars cutting board.  The sentiment was printed and fussy cut, and the little candy canes (which are 3D) came from K & Co.  Everything was mounted onto a green card base.

     Challenges:

Coloring w Pencils

C.R.A.F.T.

Crazy for Cats

Creative Inspiration

Friendship

Kerst Christmas

LeighSBDesigns

My Fav Things

Outlawz Friday

Pattie's Creations

SUYP Cats

     Have a wonderful day, stay cool in the hot weather (or dry if it's raining on you), and make your day one of the best, even if you have to just arbitrarily restart it every hour.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

4th of July - Independence Day !

      Happy 4th to all my American friends!  

    It's Independence Day in the USA and in my town, we're celebrating with BBQ hot dogs, hamburgers, a visit to the Museum of History Revolutionary War exhibit, a parade, and fireworks once the sky gets dark.

     My youngest granddaughter isn't home this summer because she's taking a full load of summer classes at her university, along with participating in a summer internship.  Because she's out of state, we put together a "care package" box for her to open today.  My other granddaughter (her older sister) decided the box should have a theme like the other boxes we sent to her during the school year (i.e. Exams, Valentines, St. Patrick's, etc.) and the theme became Red, White, and Moo - in honor of the silly 'Counting Cows' game, originally used to lessen the boredom of long drives back and forth between California and Texas when she was moving at the beginning of the academic year.

     Of course, as with each box, my job was to make a card to go in it and my daughter picked out the cow image for me.  The cow was pre-colored but I added highlights to it using gel pens and polychromos pencils.  The sentiment had to be the theme, and I cut the image piece with an oval die from QuicKutz.

     I found the fireworks for the background in a digital stamp set by Jan's Digi Stamps called Independence Day Friends.  There were two separate images, one red and the other blue, which I merged together after reversing one of them.  I sized them before printing so that they would fill the entire background.

     I chose scraps of red and blue CS to make the card front, added the panel of fireworks, and then mounted the image onto dimensional dots before applying it over the fireworks.  I love the way it turned out!  :-D

     Challenges:

Cupcake Inspirations

Jan's Digi Stamps

Outlawz Monday

Pammie's IP

Penny's P-C

Simon Says Stamp

Word Art Weds

     That's it for today.  Be safe and sane with all your celebrations.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Autumn Deer

      It's time for another challenge at FarmQuest and that means another "farm country" card with a  theme.  This time the theme is "Deer."  Pretty hard to find deer without finding 'country' (unless they are in the zoo) but I loved this clip art image which has a farm feel with the old, faded barn in the background

     I printed the image in grayscale, then used water color pencils, blended with gamsol, to color it.  The white highlights were made with a white, polychromos pencil, left unblended.  I cut the image with a die from Tonic Studios, and the white frame with the printed sentiment was cut with a QuicKutz die.  I used my "Linen" embossing folder on the gold CS I chose for the card front to give it all some texture.

     Challenges:

(links to be added when I return home after the Memorial Day weekend)

     I really think I'm reacting to the unusual 'summer-feeling' weather we've been having when the calendar keeps telling me it's still spring.  Maybe I'm hoping to jump right past summer (which is always miserably hot in my part of the world and I dislike heat more than anything) and into fall.  At least, I was thinking about the crisp evenings at dusk which come with fall weather when I chose the colors for this image.  Sigh... fingers crossed the air conditioning is affordable for the next four or five months.

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Vintage Perfumes

      My last two trips to the craft desk, I've been playing with some vintage ads I found on a clip art site and the two I turned into cards for Mother's Day will post on my blog today and tomorrow.  This first one is an advertisement for vintage perfumes in lovely fancy bottles.

     I printed the ad onto beige paper, added a bit of color to two of the bottles using pencils, then cut it with a QuicKutz die, and cut both frames with other dies from that same set.  The dark, metallic paper for one of the mats came from a very old stack by DCWV.   The small flowers are from Petaloo, and they have gems on them.  The ribbon came from the scrap basket and the sentiment was printed, then fussy cut.

     Challenges:

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Country Bandanas

      Welcome to the next challenge over at FarmQuest where we do projects inspired by the country and our theme this fortnight is "Bandanas."  No, not the fruit 'bananas' but those things you wear around your neck or pulled up over your nose to keep the trail dust out of your nose and mouth - banDanas!  My mom used to wear one like a scarf when we were out camping to keep her hair from flying everywhere when we were bouncing along in the 4-By-4.

     So, today, I combined a bandana with an svg cut horse and horseshoe.  The background bandana is actually a photo of a black and white bandana I happen to own.  I took the photo, reduced it in size and printed it on lavender CS.  I cut that with a QuicKutz die and used it as the background of my card front.  I cut the horseshoe with the horse head out of black CS, added white polychromos pencil to give the cut some definition, and mounted it onto dimensional tape.

     After looking at the die cut, I thought a bit more definition between the horse and the shoe would be a good thing, so I took a cotton swab. dipped it into a tiny bit of beach (just enough to moisten the cotton but not make it soppy wet) and then lightly stroked it over areas of the horse head.

     The sentiment was printed and cut with an Avery Elle die.

     Challenges:

Ally's Angels

Classic Design

Crafts Galore ...

Creatalicious

Outlawz Friday

Rabisco

YSBP

     Check back tomorrow when I'll have a new DT card for Crafty Catz and on Saturday one for QKR Stampede.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Happy EASTER !

 May EASTER blessings find all of you.

     I'm sending each one of you the warmest Easter wishes this morning and sharing with you an Easter card I made for our pastor.  I'm hoping this is how he sees his Congregation, even when it's filled with energetic kids looking forward to the egg hunt following the church service.  :-D

     Clip art, printed in grayscale, then colored with Polychromos pencils (still practicing with those but I'm happy with this one!) and water color paints.  Image was cut with a Spellbinders die and the edges were inked with a gray marker.  The dp square (a scrap) was cut with a QuicKutz die, and the sentiment was printed and cut with an Avery Elle die.  The background CS was embossed using my 'Linen' EF.

     Challenges:

Can You Handle ...

Crafty Calendar

Creatalicious

Di's Digi Designs

Gem of a Challenge

Lil Patch of ...

Polkadoodles

There's a Stamp ...

     That's all for today.  We're off to church to do our best to look just like this bunny family.  :-D  Happy Easter.  NanaConnie

Heading North

     There's a new 'Country' theme challenge which started up on February 7 and it will run until March 5.  It's a sister challenge to the one at FarmQuest and this one is called "FQ General Store."  The theme will always be "Anything Country Goes'' and you can find the challenge by clicking on the name above.  

      To quote from the challenge site itself, "What's included: farm, ranch, rural, country, dirt roads, gravel roads, picket fences, barbed wire, barns, farm animals, farm equipment, farmhouses, kitchens, canning, orchards, markets/farmer's produce markets/U-picks, sunflowers, scarecrows, hay, denim, plaid, gingham, burlap, frogs, fireflies, fishing, camping, pond life, brooks/streams, and much more.  What's not included: city life, city buildings, city parks, playgrounds, amusement parks, suburbia life, shopping malls/centers, etc."

      I just joined the DT and am excited to share with you my first card done for the "mid-month" reminder.  I thought that since the name is "General Store," it might be fun to use an actual General Store image on my card.  This was a coloring book page which I printed in grayscale, reduced in size, and then colored with polychromos pencils and ProMarkers.  I used white gel pen to add highlights and black gel pens on the geese flying north for the upcoming summer.  The sunlight rays coming through the tree were made by using bleach on a cotton-tip.

     I cut the image with a QuicKutz die and inked the edges with a ProMarker.  The background was dry embossed using my newest EF from Taylored Expressions.  It's a cable knit pattern and I thought it gave a very 'country' feel to the card.  The twine came from my stash.

     Challenges:

Can You Handle ...?

Carlin's Card ...

Classic Design

Crafts Galore ...

Crafty Catz

Creative Fingers

Gem of a Challenge

Outlawz Friday

Simon Says Stamp

Taylormadecards ...

     If you love anything country, this is the challenge for you!  We'd love to see you playing in our barnyard or field so come on along.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

"Frog Dandy"

      When I saw this image (sent to me by a friend who wanted a birthday card made), my mind immediately jumped to my childhood and I could hear my dad saying, "Well, aren't you looking frog-dandy!"  It was one of his expressions which I never really understood but it always made be think of a frog all dressed up in his finest duds.

     When it was given to me, the image was very pastel, almost grayscale, and I knew I wanted it to be brighter.  I used ProMarkers and colored pencils to bring up the colors and I also used my photo editing software to enhance the coloring.  I cut the image with a QuicKutz rectangle die and used a Fiskars corner punch on it.  I pulled out the scrap basket and pulled out various dp scraps which I thought would work with this image.  I played a bit layering them in different ways and finally settled on what you see here.  I used the corner punch again on the scrap that frames the image.  The sentiment was done with a computer font and cut with scissors.

    Challenges:

A Perfect Time ...

Classic Design

Crafts Galore ...

Creative Inspiration

I Love ProMarkers

Let's Craft & Create

Paper Funday

Penny's P-C

Word Art Weds

Your Scrapbook Place

    I hope this card brings a smile to your face.  I send a photo of it to my friend who ordered the card and she loved it.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Mid-Winter

      I made today's card to help celebrate a college exchange-student's first ever look at snow!  He's from Nigeria and is studying at a college in Texas, and late last month there was an unexpected snow storm which shut down the entire campus.  All of the students were excited about the event to one degree or another, but he perhaps most of all.  :-D

     I found this image online, reversed it, and printed it in grayscale.  Then I colored the buildings, trees and fence with polychromos pencils and used ProMarkers to color the sky and snow.  I cut the image with a Tonic Studios die, cut the sentiment with an Avery Elle die, and inked the edges of both of those before layering them onto the dp from Paper Studio.

     Challenges:

Coloring w Pencils

Country View ...

CRAFT-alnica

C.R.A.F.T.

Creative Fingers

Digi Choosday

Lil Patch of ...

Pammie's IP

Penny's P-C

Polkadoodles

     Enjoy your own mid-winter day, even if there's no snow at all.  For those of you in the southern hemisphere, winter is closer than you think and then you can begin celebrating your own Mid-Winter Deep with piles of snow.  lol  

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Candy Hearts

      Only House Mouse could make finding mice in your bowl of candy hearts something cute!  :-D  

     I used water color paints and pencils to color the image, then cut it with an oval die by QuicKutz.  The shiny, metallic CS frame for the image was cut with another QuicKutz die from that same set.  I used one of the smallest oval dies from that set to cut a scarp of the metallic CS and layered the sentiment on top of it.  The sentiment piece was cut with an Avery Elle die.

     I found a scrap of pink dp and layered it onto the white card bade,  then added a bit of ribbon, hand tying it just off centered above the image.  I thought the shine from the metallic CS, plus the ribbon, was enough 'splash' so called it finished.

     Challenges:

House Mouse

Pammie's IP

Rabisco

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Full of Best Wishes

      Welcome to the April challenge at Jan's Digi Stamps. where our theme is always Anything Goes.  My post today will be really short and to the point because I'm running late getting it written, it's nearly midnight, and I'm very tired.  :-D  I'll edit and add to it later.

     Jan has some really beautiful Spring sets which she created this year (and many others from previous years, all of which are on sale) and I really fell in love with one called "Best Wishes."  My card features the main image from the set along with one of the sentiments merged onto the envelope.  This set is on sale this  month and you really should check it out.

     I used; ProMarkers, QuicKuts die, Uchida punch, 'Linen' EF on purple CS, embossing on pink foil, signature bow with pearl.

     Challenges:

     We'd love to see you playing in our challenge this month.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Shamrock Wishes

      This is my second card in a row with a delightful image from Jan's Digi Stamps!  Scroll down one post to see the card DT that I did for Pammie's Inky Pinkies which is being sponsored by Jan's this week.  Today is the first Monday in March and our new monthly has just started at Jan's Digi Stamps.  Our theme is always "Anything Goes" and the challenge will run until the first Sunday in April.  

     My DT card for today features one of Jan's most recent releases, a set called "Shamrock Wishes."  You really should check it out.  There are 5 different images in the set plus sentiments!   Everything on the card was done with scraps, including the ribbon for the bow.  I used polychromos pencils to color the image, then cut and framed it (with scraps of black and white CS) using QuicKutz dies.  The papers are scrap bits from an old K & Co. stack and the ribbon for the bow was the last I had of it in my stash.

     Challenges:

4-Season

Double Trouble

Inspiration Station

Lil Patch of ...

Pixie's Snippets

Polkadoodles

Simon Says Stamp

Stamping Sensations

We Love Stamping

     I hope you're going to come play with us this month.  We love being inspired by you.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Luck o' the Irish

      Top o' the Mornin' to ya, as the Irish would say.  We're celebrating a new challenge this week at Creative Knockouts and our theme is "Sparkle and Shine."  We are sponsored by LeAnn's World and they generously supplied the two images used by the team.  I used "Luck of the Irish" which I reversed before printing.

     I used both colored pencils and ProMarkers to color the image, adding Stickles to make the sparkly elements.  The image was cut with a die from Dare 2B Artzy, and the frame piece was cut with a QuicKutz die.  All of the papers are from a K & Co. stack.  The sentiment was printed and cut with an Avery Elle die.  Finally, I sewed one of my signature bows using shiny, satin ribbon which I dyed gold with a ProMarker.

     Challenges:

Allsorts

As You Like It (Definitely NOT interactive cards because the very idea of making them intimidates me!  Besides, I mail the majority of my cards and need them to be flat and simple.)

Colour Crazy

Gem of a Challenge

Outlawz PAM

Paperbabe

Penny's Paper-Crafty

Simon Says Stamp

     I hope to see you playing in our challenge this week.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

A New Home

      A new, weekly challenge just started at Creative Knockouts and our theme is "Lots of Layers."  We're sponsored by Twinkle Lane Designs and they are offering a gift certificate as the prize.  You can go to their online shop and buy some really adorable images with it.  :-D

     They generously provided images for the DT to use and I chose "Toadstool Homes."  I am perfectly certain that gnomes and fairies must live in them.  I colored with a combination of ProMarkers and polychromos pencils, then cut the image & the frame with dies from QuicKutz.  Using dies to cut images and frames is probably my favorite card making technique.  I used a Fiskars punch on the corners.  

     The sentiment circle was cut with a Dare 2B Artzy die.  The large bow was made with 1 inch wide, grosgrain ribbon.  Even though the card has 4 distinct layers of CS, plus the bow, I tried for a relatively CAS design to really showcase the image.

     Challenges:

4-Season

Allsorts

Clever Dexter

Die Cut Divas

Digi Choosday

LeAnn's World

Morgan's Art World

Passion for Markers

     Come and play in our challenge.  Layer up  card and enter it before the week runs out!  

Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie