Day 24, Letter "U" - Beccy's Place 30 Days of Christmas

     I had to do a bit of thinking for the "U" prompt at the 30 Days of Christmas at Beccy's Place.  I thought about all the "Under the tree, mistletoe, starry sky,...etc." but decided to reflect something from the famous Nutcracker Ballet and use Uniform worn by the Nutcracker.  I also made a U-fold card.  You can find a tutorial for them on Beccy's blog.

Here's another photo taken at an angle which will let you see the inside side panels a bit better.

Back and side panel photos from Nutcracker Suite ballet (found in online search)

Nutcracker image from Beccy's Place fussy cut w/ scissors

Brown wood grained CS for the 'stage'

Sparkle Tulle for the top theater 'curtain' 

     Challenges:

A Gem of a Challenge

Creative Fingers

Cute Card Thurs

Dragonfly Dreams

Outlawz PAM

Penny's Paper-Crafty

Polkadoodles

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Nutcracker

     Here's my post for the 'curve' Beccy's Place threw us on Thursday when she gave us a prompt of "CASE Yourself" instead of the letter "T" which I was expecting and had prepared ahead.  We have to take a previous card we have made and CASE it.

     Here's the card I CASEd, one I did last year for the 30 Days of Christmas.  You can see the post HERE.  I used one of Beccy's freebies.

     I decided on something really quick and printed out 

     a pre-colored version of one of her new Nutcrackers. 

I also took my cue from the sketch

at Sketch Saturday.

     I decided to reverse the reds and greens from last year's card while still keeping the single character as the main focus.  I punched the corners of the image with another Fiskars corner punch, and began searching through my Christmas ribbons.  I was looking for that same plaid ribbon but it was not to be found.  I really love the one I did find and I think it goes well with the masculine Nutcracker image.

     I used an Art Impressions die to cut the snowflakes, made the center one with 2 layers, and added glitter and a gem to the top snowflake.  The sentiment was cut with a Die-Versions die and it echos the sentiment from last year.

     Challenges:
Crafty Friends
Crafty Hazelnut's
Di's Digi Designs
Lemon Shortbread
Outlawz Twisted Thurs.
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
TTCRD
Word Art Weds.

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Christmas Nutcrackers

     My daughter absolutely loves nutcrackers inspired by the traditional Christmas ballet, "The Nutcracker."  I can hardly blame her since that's one of my favorite ballets, and is one in which I danced during my childhood years.  Wonderful memories sweep over me whenever I hear any of the music from it.

     I've done a couple of Christmas cards this year with nutcrackers on them and this is another one.   But this one was made using papers entirely from my oldest stash and Christmas scraps.  There's nothing I like better than using up old stash items.  I always feel so frugal and self-satisfied when I can use up things which I bought so long ago and which have been languishing, unused.  Besides, it makes me feel like a new shopping spree is in order.  lol

     The Nutcracker is made with a Die-Versions die, cut three times in different colors, then put together.  The plaid paper is cut with a window (the black CS is behind the image and the plaid dp) and that's a die from Spellbinders.  The little snowflake and the embossed sentiment are done with dies from Cheery Lynn.  I used a white marker to highlight over the embossing on the "Merry Christmas" so that it stands out a bit more.

     I kept this design very CAS so it can be easily mailed.  I'm about half-way done with all the Christmas cards I need for this year and time is getting short!

     Challenges:
As You Like It
Christmas Card
C.R.A.F.T.
Crafting from the Heart
Crafty Catz
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Extra
Craft Your Passion
Double D
Outlawz Twisted Thursday
Pixie's Snippets
Word Art Weds.

     Today is my daughter's birthday but I'm not telling her age (because I'm not old enough to have a child her age much less have my baby child be that age!)  But I hope to take her to lunch to celebrate.  After all, she had lunch on me the day she was born so why not today?  :-D  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Nutcracker Christmas

     Here's another of the cards I did using a set from Deedee's Digis.  In case you haven't heard the sad news, Deedee's is going to be closing at the end of the year.  I've so enjoyed my time on her DT and I'll miss seeing new sets from her each month.  But for you folks, this means that you can get those "Wish List" sets you've wanted for 75% off!  Every set in the store is less than a dollar.  How can you beat that?!

     For this card, I used the "Nutcrackers" set.  You'll see a couple more of these from the set on some tags I made and I'll share those later.

     The image is fussy cut and adhered to the red, die cut, CS.  I used an embossing folder (Darice) on the glittered CS background piece (a scrap from another project) after it was cut with a die from Spellbinders. The sentiment was done with a computer font, then hand cut and mounted.   Everything was mounted using dimensional dots for depth and texture.

     Ribbon and hand tied bow are leftover scraps also and the green snowflakes are punched out pieces, scraps which I had tossed into my stash for use later.

     Challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge (March of the Toy Soldiers)
Aud Sentiments
Cards in Envy
Christmas Card Challenge
Come and Get It
Crafty Catz
Crafty Girls
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas
Creative Moments
Cuttlebug Mania
DL.ART Thursday
DRS Designs
Glitter n Sparkle
Graph'It
Jingle Belles
Melonheadz Friends
Outlawz Twisted Thursday
Quirky Crafts
Star Stampz
Whimsy Inspiration
Winter Wonderland

     I'll have another post later today so be sure to stop by again.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

 Nutcrackers