Boot Full of Flowers

     I'm so excited about today's card.  I made it because I was invited to be a Guest Designer at Pixie's Crafty Workshop, better known as "The Playground."  Each challenge runs for two weeks and we're already one week into the current challenge so this card serves as the half-way reminder.  Themes are always Anything Goes but there is a requirement that you use 'snippets' - you know, those bits and pieces of scrap that we feel so good about using up instead of tossing them into the trash.

     The image is from Bugaboo Stamps, printed onto a scrap of white CS, and colored with ProMarkers and polychromos pencils.   I used a Sue Wilson die to cut it.

     The striped dp is from Stampin' Up and it, too, was a scrap.  I trimmed it into a rectangle, then used a Memory Box die to cut the scallops.  The die is actually a circle but because the paper was a scrap, that's the shape which resulted from cutting a narrow rectangle with a circle die.  I rather like it!  :-D

     The yellow dp on the upper part of the card is another scrap and I trimmed it to fit the width of the card.  I cut the double butterfly with another die, this one from Presscut, and the paper was double sided so I got two layers for the butterfly even though the paper was nothing more than a very tiny scrap.  I layered them together and added three tiny pearls which were left over from another project.

     Challenges:
Catch the Bug
Crafting from the Heart
Creative Fingers
DL.ART
Dream Valley
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
Outlawz Festive Friday
Outlawz Twisted Thursday
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
Path of Positivity

     Check out The Playground this weekend and then come play along.  Dig out some of those left over snippets and join us.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Going Home

     One more Mother's Day card, this time with a whole scene and lots of texture.  :-D  I adore images from Di's Digi Designs and have been slowly collecting them.  This is yet another image from them and I'm entering the card in their challenge.  Isn't that just the sweetest bear?  I love all his little forest friends, too.

I took most of the colors from Catch the Bug's color challenge.

 
     I colored the image with my ProMarkers, and cut it with a stitched die from Memory Box.  I do love my ProMarkers, and for all of my practicing with pencils, chalks, and other media, I love the way alcohol markers flow and blend.  They just do that better than anything else I've found.

     The sentiment was also cut with a smaller die from that same set, as was the cloud.  I die cut several tiny mice in two different colors, cutting them from heavy CS, which added to the texture on the card.  I used two different ribbons which I found in my stash, one deep Navy blue and one polka dot for the bow.  Again, more texture!  The tiny butterfly was saved in my stash and, off the top of my head, I don't remember who made that die but I think it's from Presscut.

     Challenges:
As You Like It
Aud Sentiments
Crafting When We Can
Cut It Up
Glitter n Sparkle
Outlawz Festive Friday
Send a Smile 4 Kids
Southern Girls

     Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Butterfly Spring

     Grab a cuppa, this is a long read today but I do want to share it all.  :-D   I have to brag on both my granddaughters today!  A couple of weeks ago, I shared with you about my younger granddaughter's Competitive Cheer team taking First Place in their division and her gym program taking overall Grand Champions at the competition held that weekend in our state capital, Sacramento.  This week, her team received an unexpected invitation to "The Summit," for the national Cheer championships held in Orlando, Florida, the first weekend in May!

     As it turns out, each team from her gym which competed throughout the season has now received an invitation to one level or another at the national championships.  Some of those invitations are fully pre-paid and others are just the invitation to compete.  My granddaughter is on a team which must pay their own way so we're now scrambling around, doing fund raising since that trip will cost about $3,000 for each child (with their chaperone) on the team.  Yikes!   Makes me wish we lived in Florida instead of California.  Or at least had more time to raise the funds.  We have barely three weeks before everything has to be paid.

     But she has worked so hard this year, keeping up with the team's choreography and practices despite an injury which sidelined her for almost all of the fall schedule, and despite facing changes in the entire coaching staff at her gym, and losing several team members who had been with the program for the previous 3 to 5 years.  Everyone expected this to be a "building" year for all the teams so their high scoring so consistently that it led to getting invitations to the national competitions is really incredible!   Somehow, we have to find a way to send her to Florida!  She's gone above and beyond everything asked of her and her academics have stayed above a B+ throughout the year.  She's a freshman in high school so there was also the adjustment to new school, new teachers, new curriculum, and all the other things which go with turning 15.  :-D

     If you're interested in reading more about her goals, you can find a letter she's written on her "Go Fund Me" site.  Here's a link: https://www.gofundme.com/summit-2017-rebeccas-wish

     Now, as for the older granddaughter, she's the one who spends time coloring with me and she's truly an artist in her own right.  She's a senior in high school and will be graduating in May.  She's already focused on college and a career working with Special Needs kids.  She's so caring, so gentle, and has an inner strength that always amazes me!   For several years, she has saved every card I've made for any of her family members, treating them as though they are some kind of golden treasure.  :-D

     Last week, I posted a card with an image she and I had colored together.  I was pretty impressed with what she did because it was really the first time she had worked with colored pencils.  Today, I've made a card with an image from Ching-Chou Kuik which she colored entirely by herself.   See what I mean about her being an artist?  She's fantastic!

     I took her colored image, cut it with a Gina Marie die, and mounted it onto a pink card base.  I added sheer polka dot ribbon and bow.  The sentiment is computer printed and hand-cut, then matted.  The butterfly is double layered (dies from Presscut) and adhered as a complement to the butterflies in the image.

     The die cut frame is so elegant and lovely that I let it be the primary embellishment, minimizing the other things to some degree.

      Challenges:
A Bit More Time to Craft
A Perfect Time to Craft
Card Mania
Ching-Chou Kwik 
Craft-Dee BowZ 
Creative Ladybirds
Cute Card Thursday
Dies R Us
Do-All Creatives
World Wide Open DT

     Thanks for bearing with me during that long read but you know how 'proud Nanas' can get!  I'd love it if you'd pass along the info about my granddaughter trying to get to Florida.  Every little bit helps and I will be heart broken if we can't raise enough for her to go.  She's worked so hard and she deserves it.  The entire team deserves it. :-D  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie