Christmas Reindeer in Blue

     My second post for the day and this one features a Bugaboo Stamps reindeer.  There's a back story to this which I want to share.  A friend and fellow DT member used the prettiest quilting die on a card last week and I fell in love with the die.  I emailed her and, being a good enabler, she shared with me a link to the online shop where she had gotten hers.

     When I visited, my plan was to mind my budget and buy only that one die.  But... well, if you're a true crafter, you already know what happened.  I saw another quilt die that I liked, couldn't decide between them so they both went into my cart.  Then I noticed that if I purchased additional products, I could get free shipping and the shipping cost was pretty much the same as another die (ok, maybe  two), so when all was said and done, I had 5 new die sets in the cart!

     I used one of them as the background on this card, turned as they say in quilting, 'on point.'

Colored with ProMarkers & sequins added for sparkle
Image cut with double stitched die from CUTplorations
Quilted die from Gina Marie
Sentiment die from Die-Namics
Flocked star from Deja Views
Glitter added to some of the quilting pieces

     Challenges:
Catch the Bug
Crafty Hazelnut's ("S"= sparkle, sequins)
Crafty Sentiments
Cute N Crafty Christmas
Double D
House that Stamps Built  (Brrrrr, Bird, Blue, Blocks)
I {heart} ProMarkers
Ike's World
Lemon Shortbread
Scrappy Land
TTCRD

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Tis the Season of Magical Reindeer and Elves

     Day 4 in the week-long, Christmas in July challenges at Catch the Bug and today's theme is BINGO + "Inspired by the movie Elf."  My BINGO choices were Ribbon & Bow/ Bugaboo image/ Die cut. 

     I have several Elf images in my collection of Bugaboo Stamps but the one I used today is one of my absolute favorites.   It has a sense of magic with a reindeer that flies and an elf who makes toys for Santa.

Don't they look like they're waiting for Santa to come back from vacation?  lol

ProMarkers
Sue Wilson (background panel) & Die-Versions (sentiment) dies
Satin ribbon & bow
3 gems
Kraft CS for card base
Almost everything was cut or put together from scraps, including the ribbon strip and bow.

     Challenges:
ABC Christmas
Crafty Gals Corner
Lemon Shortbread
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
Outlawz Greetings
Paper Girls
Pile It On
Pixie's Snippets
Scrappy Land

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Here Comes Santa Claus

     This morning, I have the honor of being a Guest Designer for the Songs and Rhymes challenge at The Outlawz.  The challenge always uses lyrics as the inspiration for their challenge and this week it's "Here Come Santa Claus."

     I've done a pretty simple card using all die cuts instead of a hand colored image but I really like it even though it's different from what I normally create.

     I used dies from Die-Versions (Santa Sleigh and Reindeer), Art Impressions (Snowflakes), and Die-namics (North Pole sign.)  All of the snowflakes are heat embossed with clear EP.  Everything was adhered to blue CS.  No embellies, just the die cuts.

     Challenges:
ABC Christmas
Crafty Gals Corner
Cute N Crafty Christmas
Double D
Double Trouble  (all 3)
Dream Valley
Paper Girls
{Pin}spirational
Scrappy Land
Three Amigos

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

The Reindeer are Loose!

     It's Friday and we have a new challenge starting at QKR Stampede.   Our theme is always "Anything Goes" but I stayed with the Christmas theme I've been doing since the beginning of last month.  This time, I used an image from our sister brand, Eureka Stamps, and it's called "Jumping Reindeer ES3202."

     In order to get the sense of a team of Santa's reindeer, I used the image 3 times in a row.  I colored with ProMarkers and Copics, plus white gel ink.  I used a border die from Spellbinders to cut the image, then layered them onto polka dot paper from DCWV. 

     I wrapped that with red, grosgrain, ribbon and added a hand-sewn bow with a tiny button in  the middle.  I printed the silly sentiment because they do look like they ditched the sleigh and are off on a joyriding (joy flying?) trip without Santa.  :-D

     I used my "Linen" embossing folder on deep blue CS, then used that for the card front.  Simple, fun, and flat for mailing!

     Challenges:
Aud Sentiments
C.R.A.F.T.
Crafting from the Heart
Cute Card Thurs.
DL.ART
Double D
Outlawz Festive Fri.
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
Sasayaki Glitter
Time Out

     I hope we're going to see you playing along this week.  We do love being inspired by you!  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Reindeer in Training

     You may not be aware that Santa has to train new reindeer for a very long time before they can become the next Dancer or Prancer.  Since we're doing "R" as a prompt at Beccy's Place today, I decided on one of her Reindeer images.  Doesn't he look like he's training to pull a full sleigh one day?

      I thought it would be fun to do a Rocker card since I haven't done one in at least a year!  The Rocker part is cut with a QuicKutz die.

     I colored with ProMarkers and cut the image with a Sizzix scalloped die.  I used Red CS for the upper part of the card and layered the image circle onto it and the Rocker.  I added one tiny snowflake (AI die) onto the card as embellishment and used one of my hand-sewn, satin Ribbon bows (left white this time) to use in the other corner.

     I printed the sentiment, hand cut it and matted it with deep Rust CS, then hand cut that, also, before adding it at the bottom of the image.

     Challenges:
ABC Christmas
Addicted to CAS
Cute N Crafty
Dream Valley
Outlawz Greetings
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
Penny's Paper-Crafty
Polkadoodles
Sasayaki Glitter

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Lead the Way, Rudolph

     Well, for the last couple of weeks, I've been doing Halloween cards with an occasional Christmas card thrown in and today I have one more Christmas card to share.  This one is definitely made for a child and it features an image from Bugaboo Stamps, a fun little reindeer which I turned into Rudolph (from the Christmas song fame) with his bright, red nose.

I started with the sketch at Stella Says Sketch,

although I let the bobble head be the circle shape.  :-D

     I colored with ProMarkers, pencils, and gel ink.  I used red glitter to his nose and colored the shine of its light onto his face.  The image is cut with a stitched die from Die-namics.  The dark blue dp is from DCWV - "Winter Magic" stack.  I used embossed dp for the white strip at the bottom (and filled in the top corner, also), then added the three snowflakes with sparkly, gem centers for embellishment.

     Challenges:
Cardz TV
Catch the Bug (bottom row)
Color My Heart
 
(Poppy, Pacifica, Nutmeg, Bashful, Crystal Blue, Flaxen, Tangerine)
Crafting with Friends
Crafty Catz
Creative Fingers
Outlawz Festive Friday
Polkadoodles
Take It, Make It

     That's all I have for today but enjoy your week and Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Bright and Brilliant (?) Christmas Animals

     This week I again have the honor of being a Guest Designer at The Outlawz CAS challenge and I chose an image from Bugaboo Stamps for my card.  I'm not sure just how "brilliant" these two critters are standing out in the snow with nothing to eat but a candy cane but they do look pretty 'merry' if not all that bright.  lol

     I printed the image on kraft CS and colored it with ProMarkers.  I used white gel ink for the snowflakes and snow.  I love the way white becomes so bright against the kraft.

     In the interests of keeping it CAS, I added the sentiment in white and decided on only one small bow plus a metallic brad in each of two opposite corners.    I used a white card front, added two small strips of red CS, then layered on the image piece.  Voila'!  Lots of open space, even though it's not white space.  :-D

     Challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge
Catch the Bug
Come and Get It
Crafty Calendar
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas
Delicious Doodles
Di's Digi Designs
Imagine That
Jo's Scrap Shack
Outlawz PAM

     I'll have another post later this afternoon.  I'm playing in the week-long Holiday Chaos daily challenges at Catch the Bug and one or two days this week, I'll have more than one post.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Q for Quilted

     There are certain letters of the alphabet which are nearly impossible to use as themes in crafting and card making, and "Q" is one of them.  "X" is another and I'm not looking forward to that one!  But I've managed one more card in the Month of Holidays at Beccy's Place and I thank my years of Quilting for the inspiration.  Beccy has a whole zoo of Quilted animals and I'm using the deer (reindeer?) for today's Quilted card.

     All of the Quilting is done by paper piecing with 4 different Christmas papers and beige or tan ProMakers to fill in the areas I didn't paper piece.  I used both gold and silver paint pens to color the jingle bell collar and bells.  After that was done, I fussy cut the reindeer.

     I die cut the light background piece (Spellbinders) and mounted the deer onto it with dimensional tape.  I added that whole piece onto the forest green card base, then added ribbon and 3D embellies.

     Challenges:
Beccy's Place
Ching-Chou Kuik
Crafting from the Heart
Crafty Hazelnut's
Daisy Chain
Do Al(l) Kreatives
Get Creative
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
Tinker Dream
TTCRD

     That's it for today.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Reindeer Christmas

     It's late in the day for me to be posting but Beccy (Beccy's Place 30 days of Holiday) tossed us a curve today and slipped in one of the non-alphabet themes so my planned post for the letter "G" will wait until tomorrow and I'll share this one for the BINGO theme instead.  The image is from her Dasher and Dancer set, but I don't know which one this is.  :-D

I was inspired by the sketch at Stella Says Sketch.

     I used the middle, vertical column on the BINGO board: Emboss, Add Ribbon, & Pencil or Markers.

     I colored the reindeer with my ProMarkers, added a bit of red glitter to his jingle bell collar, and die cut him with a stitched, Lawn Fawn, square die.  The sentiment came from the same set and I printed it and then fussy cut it.

     The embossed background was done with a folder by Sizzix.  I added two strips of ribbon (one kraft, one red) and one of the tiny bows I make by the dozens and then toss in my stash for future use.  It was white but I used my ProMarkers to 'dye' it red.

     Challenges:
Beccy's Place
Catch the Bug
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Extra
Cute Card Thurs.
Get Creative
Merry Monday
Morgan's Artworld
Take It, Make It

     Have to get this posted right away.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Naughty List?

     Ever wonder how Santa makes his decisions about who goes on the Naughty List?  Here's a hint.

     This card is for Day 5 of the daily challenges going on at Catch the Bug's Christmas-in-July all this week.  The last two years, I missed out on a few days of the CIJ challenges but this year I'm faithfully entering each challenge throughout the week, which is why you've been seeing double posts all week long.

     I thought this Bugaboo image was perfect and I've had it in my collection long enough that it qualifies as an "old" image.  I think I've used it once before.  :-D  For today, their theme is based on this inspiration photo and they want to see something humorous, too.

     I did another really CAS card by printing the main image and the sentiment right onto the card front and then coloring it with my ProMarkers, plus a little sparkly gel ink.  After I had that much done, I realized I could add to both the humor and the inspiration by using a Santa image and a Reindeer image, and I knew I had both in my collection of Bugaboo Stamps.  So I found them, made them considerably smaller, colored them, and added them to the card front, but seemingly in the distance.  Their expressions were perfect for the sentiment.

     Challenges:

12 Months of Christmas

ABC Christmas

Aud Sentiments

Bugaboo Crafty

Crafty Addicts

Merry Monday Christmas

     That's it for today.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

A Pod of Reindeer

     A couple of weeks ago, I realized that it was nearly April and that I had yet to start on my Christmas cards.  Since I need more than 50 each year, I try to do one per week at a minimum.  Then two of my blogging buddies each posted Christmas cards they had done and I got a jolt of inspiration.  Four days ago, I was talking to a friend in Arizona, who told me she had been stamping and printing Christmas images in order to start on her cards for this year.  Sigh, I still hadn't started.

     Today, when I checked my mail box, she had sent me a dozen Christmas images, each completely adorable and waiting to be colored.  What a wonderful surprize!   I immediately colored three of them and used the first one to make a card.  So, here it is -- my first Christmas card this year!

     How perfect is this given the fact of my granddaughter's competitive Cheer team having been invited to the national finals in Florida?  :-D  It's either that or this is what reindeer do in the off season to stay in shape for that long and sometimes arduous Christmas Eve journey.   I'd love to tell you where to get this image but unfortunately, when Sherryl sent me the images, she didn't include any information about the artists or the digi/stamp companies so I can't tell you who made this one.

      I used my ProMarkers to color it, then cut it into a rectangle and matted it.  Can you believe I cut it with my paper cutter and didn't use any dies on this card?  Good grief, you may not believe that I'm the one who made it!

     I added two different ribbons from my stash, (one red and white, the other sparkly silver) wrapping them around a piece of kraft CS and then added the image on top, canting it at an angle.  I used one of the tiny bows I make up by the dozens and toss into my stash for future use, first dying it red with a marker.

     Challenges:
Addicted to Stamps
A Gem of a Challenge
Crafting by Designs
Crafty Hazelnut's 
Inspiration Destination
Outlawz Festive Friday
Sweet Stampin' Christmas
Winter Wonderland

     Hopefully, I'll be able to make up for those missing 12 weeks of nor making any Christmas cards by doing a couple of extra ones over the four weeks of this month and on into May.  Finally, a special note -- Sherryl, thank you so much for your $5 donation to my granddaughter's Go Fund Me account.  You're such a wonderful friend.  :-D  Happy Stamping to all.  NanaConnie