Lake Winter

     I'm so tickled to announce that I'm now designing for the challenges at Quirky Crafts!   We're now a monthly challenge instead of every two weeks, but we'll do a reminder post each mid-month so that you don't forget to play along.  :-D  We'll start on the first Sunday and each challenge will end on the 28th of the month to give the team time to choose the winners.

     This month our fabulous sponsor is Stitchy Bear and our challenge theme is "Celebrate."  I'm celebrating "New Snow" for all of you who didn't have a white Christmas but got snow by New Year's Day.  I used a beautiful image from Stitchy Bear called "Lake Winter."

Color choices came from Digitally Sweet.

     I used my ProMarkers to add touches of color to the image, and used gel ink to make the snowflakes.  The image is matted with textured CS and the background paper is done with alcohol inks.

     The ribbon bow is my first ever dual-color bow and I'm really celebrating having gotten a new Zutter bow maker for Christmas!  I'm having so much fun checking out all the instructional videos available on You Tube.  Instructions for this one came from Bonnie at Really Reasonable Ribbon, and the ribbons are also from RRR.

     Challenges:
Artistic Stampers
Card and Scrap
Card Mania
Crafter's Cafe
CCC Digi
Digistamps4Joy
Paper Creator's Crafts
Petal Lu
Southern Ridge Trading Co.

     I hope your weekend is going well and that you are enjoying the New Year.  Hope we're going to see you playing along at Quirky Crafts this month.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Activity, Feline Style

     Good morning and happy Saturday!  It's the weekend, the Easter festivities are over and summer is just around the corner.  It's time to begin a new challenge at Open-Minded Crafting Fun with four more fantastic sponsors.  They are: Art by Miram; Kenny K.; Pholkart; and Stitchy Bear.  Our theme is "Sports or Activity."  I used a delightful image from Pholkart.

     I call this card "Window Staring" for obvious reasons.  Since the theme is Sports or Activity, I guess I should explain that "Window Staring" is one of the premier events in the Feline Olympics!  This particular 'Folk Art Cat' has been at it day and night for 2 straight days.  :-D

     The image is colored with Copics and ProMarkers and cut with a rectangle die.  The papers are from Close to My Heart and are also die cut.  The long strip isn't ribbon, it's also dp from the same CTMH set.  I tied a triple bow using cord and added a flower and a rhinestone.  The sentiment is printed with a computer font and then cut with a fancy frame die.  I added distress ink around the filigree edges.

     Challenges:
Addicted to Stamps & More -- Make your mark (Coloring)
Crafting from the Heart -- A/G
Everybody Art -- Cute card
Fan-Tastic Tuesday -- A/G
Incy Wincy Designs -- Furry friends
Just Inspirational -- Bingo: dies/ Flower/ Glitter/ Twine
My Craft Creations -- A/G
Outlawz Twisted Thurs -- A/G
Pholkart Studio -- A/G

     Come join us in our challenge at Open-Minded Crafting Fun.  If you check out the rest of the DT projects, you'll find all kinds of activities that are a lot more 'active' than Window Staring, but my life is ruled by felines, especially those who love to Window Stare!  Our challenge run for two weeks so you have plenty of time to get something made and entered.  Remember, with four different sponsors, you have four times as many changes to win something great so it's definitely worth entering!  See you over there.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Stitchy Bear Sponsors Tuesday Throwdown

     Good morning, all my lovely followers and friends.  It's a glorious Tuesday morning here in Northern California after a weekend of rain or snow, depending on your elevation.  While my own back yard doesn't get snow, after seeing all the beautiful pictures of the fresh snow, today's card is done to celebrate snowy, white Christmases.  The challenge at Tuesday Throwdown this week is sponsored by Stitchy Bear (they generously supplied all the images to the DT), and our theme is Favorite Color Combo.  While most of you know that purple is my favorite color, teal/turquoise and white is one of my favorite color combos for cards.

     Isn't this the most adorable snowman (hmmm, snowpeople) family, all together for Christmas?  The sketch is from Eat, Sleep, Stamp and I had to push it a bit to get the window effect I wanted.  I think Tracy will forgive me for that since square cards and window cards are things I rarely do but I took it as a challenge and did both in one card!  Thanks, Tracy, for the inspiration.  :-D   Christmas Stamping All Year Long wants us to use a favorite sketch, and you all know by now that Tracy's Eat, Sleep, Stamp is my favorite place to find a sketch.

     The image is colored with teal, turquoise, and blue-gray Touch Twin markers (loving those more and more all the time!) and I added almost no other colors because I wanted to stay with the teal, which is the color challenge this week at Do You Stack Up?  I added Stickles Diamonds and also Stickles Frosted Lace for all the sparklies on the image.  There is also sparkle in the dp, which is from the Linen Closet stack by DCWV.  I chose it because it looked like it could be wallpaper.   I used 1/16" teal, satin ribbon to make the window, and a scrap of lace from my stash for the curtain.  That lace has flowers in it so they have to serve as the flowers on my card.  Crafty Ribbons had a Bingo chart this week (Glitter, Flowers, Gems), as did Truly Scrumptious, (Lace, Flowers, Ribbon.)

     My final touch was the sparkly gem swirl for some added bling.  I have to say this is one of those cards which pleases me greatly!  I was a bit concerned that it wouldn't look the way I had it pictured in my mind, but it is even better than what I imagined!

     Other challenges (and there are a ton of them this time):

Allways Something Creative - sparkle

Crafty Purple Frog - sparkle

Delightful Challenges - sparkly Christmas

Crafter's Companion - Celebrate a Holiday

Bah, Humbug - Snowmen

Crop Stop - Make a Snowman

Cupcake Craftroom - Sweet Christmas

Floweret - Christmas

I Did It Creations - Winter/Christmas (also sponsored by Stitchy Bear this week!)

Freshly Brewed - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz - Anything Goes

Really Reasonable Ribbon - Christmas

Jellypark Friends - non-traditional Christmas colors

Sundays with Chrissy - Christmas in non-traditional colors

Crimbo Crackers - (must be Christmas) Anything Goes

Fabulous Friday - Family

Paper Crafting Journey - Use a Digi

Winter Wonderland - Make it sparkle

The Squirrel & The Fox - Hats or Flowers

Party Time Tuesday - sparkle and bling

Heart Song Inspirations - Anything Goes

     Hope to see you playing this week at Tuesday Throwdown.  How much easier can it be?  Just pick a favorite color combo and play along.  See you there.  NanaConnie