Collie Christmas

    I'm not done with doing Christmas cards quite yet and since there's still more than a week left in July, I guess I can continue to increase my stash of Christmas-in-July cards.  :-D

     For this one, I used a darling image from AuroraWings.  The minute I saw it, I knew I had to color it as a collie puppy.   I have a friend who has raised and bred collie show dogs for many years and this will make a perfect card for her this year.

     The puppy is colored with ProMarkers, then die cut and framed (die from Spellbinders.)  The background is embossed with Swiss Dots.  Both ribbons came from my stash and the sentiment is from QKR Stampede, hand cut and matted with a scrap of the embossed CS.  This is a small card, only 4" x 4".

     Challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge
Christmas Card
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas
Di's Digi Designs
Jo's Scrap Shack
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
Outlawz Festive Friday
Ribbon Girl
Send a Smile 4 Kids

     I'm off now to get errands run, do some shopping, and then come home and get some of that dreaded housework done.  No time for crafting today but I do have a post already scheduled for tomorrow, a result of staying up late last night.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Frogs' Teeth

     Let me start by wishing all the Moms out there a very Happy Mother's Day!

     We all know that dental checkups are very important but how many teeth do frogs actually have?   This is my second week as a Guest Designer on the CAS challenge at The Outlawz and the theme is "Use a Frog" in your design.  I had so much fun with this one, using one of my favorite images from House Mouse to make a fun, CAS, masculine card.

I started with the sketch from Sketch Saturday

but, by the time I had added my sentiment,

I decided not to embellish the corners

because cleaner seemed more masculine.

     The image is colored with pencils and gamsol, then cut with a die from Spellbinders.  I layered that onto a scrap of green CS which I had run through my "Linen" embossing folder before adding the image.  I added those to a piece of brown CS, embossed with my Swiss Dots folder.  The embossing adds lots of great texture without being 'fussy.'   I added only the printed sentiment (another scrap saved from the dust bin) rather than any embellishments, leaving it very CAS, as I mentioned before.

     Challenges:
Brown Sugar
Colour Crazy
Creative Fingers
Cute Card Thursday
Hiding in My Craft Room
House Mouse
Lemon Shortbread
Outlawz PAM
Polkadoodles

     Well, I'm finally making decisions about some summer travel plans this year and may be MIA for quite a bit of it, especially in June and July.  I'll post as often as I can but there will be days and weeks when I'm just not around the internet.  For all of those times, I'll just be thinking of all of you and wishing you Happy Stamping.  :-D  NanaConnie