Beach Birthday

     I always envied my school-days friends who had summer birthday because, even though they complained about the lack of classroom recognition of their special day, they could go to the beach for their birthday!

     This cute image from Sasayaki Glitter is my way of celebrating all that summer fun.  Ice cream, the beach, and her kitty - what else could a gal need on a summer day?

I started with the sketch from Tuesday Morning,

turned sideways,

and the Color Sisters had some great inspiration.

   

     I colored the image with ProMarkers, then cut it with a die from Spellbinders.  I inset that cut into the frame die, also from that Spellbinders set.   I printed and fussy cut the sentiment, matted it with CS, hand cut that, and applied it at the bottom of the image.

     The bow is one of those I sew together by the dozens and toss in my stash for future use.  I mounted everything onto turquoise CS which became the card front.  CAS but more complex looking because of the complexity of the framing die.

     Challenges:
Crafty Sentiments
Cuttlebug Mania
Digi Choosday
Everybody Art
Lemon Shortbread
TTCRD
Tuesday Throwdown

     Catching up on all my 'favorite blog' visits is turning out to be very time consuming!  Even though I checked email pretty regularly, I had more than 200 in my inbox yesterday and that's without Blogger sending me any notifications of comments on my blog.  Whew!  So, I'm working on it but if I leave you one comment on all your posts, please forgive and understand.  :-D

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Baby Shower

     In our extended family we're all looking forward to the birth of new baby.  The really special part of this one is that, after a long line of three big sisters, this one is a boy!  Of course, he'll be treated like royalty.  I had the honor of designing and making invitations for the baby shower coming up later this month.

  Front

Inside

I started on these after being influenced

by the blue (for a boy) and gold (for a prince) colors in the

inspiration photo at Color Sisters.

     I can't believe how long it has taken me to get these made.  Typing up the text and choosing the font was the easiest part.  Laying those out onto a sheet of cardstock so that I could use dies to cut them individually took a little thinking and fussing about but I got it.

     For the front, I used a Fiskar's corner punch on the royal blue CS and mounted that onto the white card base.  The text was printed on white CS, die cut with a die from Spellbinders, and then I used a gold ProMarker to ink the edge.  The crown and the decorative gold triangle at the bottom were added to enhance the 'little prince' theme.  I used dimensional dots to ad those and they give some great dimension to the front.

     On the inside, I cut the blue CS with another Spellbinders' die, then used the first die to cut the text pieces, layering them together on the inside.  After cutting all of those pieces by hand (I made 30 of these!), I inked the edges and added gold paint to some of the embossed areas on the blue CS.

     Although they look fairly CAS in design and layout, each invitation took almost 2 hours to complete.  Then there's all the addressing and stamping of the envelopes.  A time consuming project but fun to do and well worth it.

     Challenges:
A Bit More Time to Craft Extra
Crafting with Friends
Crafts Galore Encore
Creative Craft Cottages
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
Outlawz PAM
Take It, Make It

     Thanks for visiting and Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Outlawz 'Songs and Rhymes' Challenge

     I have the honor of being the first GDT on the brand new Sunday "Songs and Rhymes" challenge over at the Outlawz and I'm delighted to participate.  :-D  Each week, they will have a song or a rhyme as the theme and you can create something which was inspired by it.  This week, I was inspired by the whole "English Garden" idea and I am convinced that English Gardens are filled with fairy circles and all that comes along with those, including fairies and dragons and tiny-but-meaningful gifts. 

     My card uses a delightful image from A Day for Daisies.

I started with colors from Color Sisters 

and loved the inspiration photo of this lovely garden at 

ARTastic.  Don't you just know there's a fairy in there somewhere?

  

     The image, which is printed directly onto the card front for a single-layer card, is colored with a combination of ProMarkers and polychromos pencils.  My version of the color combo is soft, springtime pastels to enhance the feeling of a garden.  I added some Wink of Stella shimmer to the fairy's wings and sparkly glitter to the dragon's wings.  As a salute to the previous requirement of CAS designs for the Sunday challenge, I kept this card very CAS, adding no embellishments other than the sparkle.

     Challenges:
Catch the Bug
CCC Digis
Crafty Calendar
Crafty Friends
Jo's Scrap Shack
Not Just Cards
Paper Nest Dolls
Send a Smile 4 Kids

     Come join us at The Outlawz.  There are new challenges each day, a monthly progressive challenge, and membership at the Outlawz is free.  You'll find lots of new (and old) friends, crafters just like you who are warm, friendly, and wonderfully helpful when needed.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie