New Year Lovers

     OK, it's my first Friday since leaving the Delicious Doodles design team and I begged Teri to let me come back one more time as a Guest Designer so that I could do this card using her fabulous silhouette image, "Lovers."  She said "yes," and here I am!   The theme this week is "Let's Party" and I can't think of a bigger party than the one to start off the New Year every year.  I hope we'll see you playing along.

I chose sketch #173 from Sunday Sketch & Stamp.

     This image is also fantastic for a wedding, engagement, or anniversary card.  Or maybe a New Year's wedding?  Just change out the sentiment.  I printed the image, added some Stickles (Diamond) for a bit of glitz and sparkle, then double framed it with two negative die cuts, one black, one white.

     The embossed paper is a leftover from another project (you'll see it next year) and I used my brand new embossing folder from Sizzix (which actually is flowers, not snowflakes, but I thought it made great flakes, too.  :-D )  I have some wonderful new tools to use this year.

     The silver ribbon was in my stash and the background dp was made by painting a scrap piece of  paper with Royal Blue paint from Creative Inspirations and then adding snow to it with a white gel pen.  The sentiment is also an image from Delicious Doodles and is a freebie on the Facebook page over there.

     Challenges:
Artistic Inspirations -- Anything goes
Craft-Dee Bowz -- Anything w/ handmade bow
Crafter's Cafe -- New Year
Crafting by Designs -- New
Crafty Bloggers Network -- Girly
Crazy Challenge -- New Year
Creative Inspirations Paints -- Anything goes
Cuttin' n Stampin' -- Anything goes w/ leftovers
Fan-Tastic Tuesday -- Punches & dies
Friends of Speedy TV -- Wedding or engagement
My Craft Creations -- Anything goes
One Stitch at a Time -- Anything goes
Outlawz Monday Greeting -- Tie it up (ribbon/lace)
Paper Pretties Weds. -- New Year
Pink Elephant Monday -- Anything goes
Rhedd & Rosie's -- Snow
Robyn's Fetish -- Silver or gold
Scribble n Scrap -- Anything goes
Twisted Tuesday -- New beginnings + use something new (emb folder)
Vintage Stamping/Flonz -- Cold & frosty colors
Whimsy Inspirations -- Party time

     So, one last time as a favor for me, won't you play along in the "Party Time" challenge at Delicious Doodles?  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie  

Delicious Doodles Kingfisher

     Good Friday morning to you all, and that means it's another new challenge at Delicious Doodles.  This week we want to see "More than one fold" on your cards.  I've done an offset-left, gate fold card, using one of the "Kingfisher" images.  There are two images in the set, this is the more feminine of the two.  The more masculine one doesn't have the butterflies.

Sketch from Sunday Sketch and Stamp.

     Isn't he magnificent?  I colored him with Promarkers, then fussy cut the image and layered it onto an oval mat allowing the butterfly to be outside the frame.  I die cut a larger oval from digital paper, and then punched three small butterflies from that same dp.

     The card base is embossed with a folder which was in the blog candy I won over at Amanda's blog (more on that later today) and I really love it!  That one's going to get lots of use this spring.  :-D I took a piece of white CS 5 1/2" X 8 ", scored it at 1 3/4" and again at 6 1/4" for the folding.   That puts the front opening slightly left of center.  I embossed it by putting one side into the folder and embossing, then put the other side in (inserting it from the oposite side of the folder), lined it up so that the butterfly meets exactly, and embossed it.  That took some work and some pre-planning (because I wanted the butterflies flying in an upward direction) but I managed it.  :-D

     Finally, I adhered the punched butterflies over three of the embossed butterflies and decided it was finished without any further embellishment.

     Challenges:
Addicted to Stamps -- White card (color in image OK)
A Little Bit Crafty -- Anything goes
CDAC Anything Goes -- Anything goes
Digi Makeover -- Anything Goes
Emma's Cards UK -- Butterflies
Lia Stampz -- Birds, nests, or eggs
Little Claire's -- Cards with folds
Marker POP -- Anything goes
Mema's Crafts -- Anything goes
Natalie and Amy's -- Monochromatic
One Stitch at a Time -- Spring
Sparkle n Sprinkle -- Use a digi
Sparkles Forum -- Birds
Stamp and Create -- Use a die cut

    OK, now, I want to see you playing along in our "More than one fold" challenge this week at Delicious Doodles.  You can be as fancy as you choose (step cards, easel cards, twisted easels, accordians, etc.) or do something more simple like my gate fold.  No excuses -- just come play along.  Remember, it's one entry per person (unless you use a Delicious Doodles image) and you could win 5 of Teri's gorgeous digis!   See you there.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie