"V" for Vintage Victorian Christmas

      Today I'm sharing my "V" card for the 30 Days of Holidays over at Beccy's Place and it's another of my collaboration cards with my SIL.  She colored this clip art image and used watercolor pencils after I had printed it in gray scale.  She loves the coloring part but I haven't yet gotten her into the card making side, so she colors and I create the cards.

     For this card, my "V"s are: Vintage, Victorian, Verdigris green, Vermillion red on the berries, and white Velvet on one layer of the snowflake.  I cut the image with a Tonic Studios die, then did a white mat, inked with a vermillion marker on the edges.  The sentiment was cut with an Avery Elle die and those edges were also inked.  

     The background is a scrap of dp from DCWV (!) and the snowflake was made with Cottage Cuts dies.  I put the two layers together and added a touch of glitter and a rhinestone for sparkle.  The final embellishment was the row of flat-back pearls.  A Victorian card seemed to call for sparkle and gems and a fair amount of embellishment.

     Challenges:

Crafty Catz

Digi Choosday

Gem of a Challenge

Outlawz Friday

Outlawz Thurs (Dickens' Christmas Carol)

Polkadoodles

Rudolph Days

Simon Says Stamp

     That's all for today.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Kitten Love and Lady with Roses

     Today I have two more recycled, vintage Valentines to share.  Of course, the one with the kittens has to come first.  -D

     This time, I fussy cut the kittens and added them to a heart shaped doily with dimensional tape.  I found two scraps of red dp from a stack by Paper House, and used those to cover the front of a square card base.  The doily went on top of that and I added a red, epoxy flower with a heart in the middle.  The bow is one of my signature, hand-sewn bows with a pearl.

     Challenges:
Crafting by Designs
Crafty Sentiments Designs
Cute N Crafty
Digi Choosday
Get Creative
Paper Shelter
Simon Says Stamp & Show
SUYP Cats
TTCRD
Unicorn 

     The second card has a fantastic image of a Victorian lady with roses.

                               

     I cut the image from the original card with a QuicKutz rectangle die.  The "frame" behind it was a negative left over from cutting out a frame with a die from Spellbinders.  I took that piece, cut it diagonally, and offset the pieces behind the image.  That piece was previously embossed but I don't remember which of my embossing folders was used.

     The deep, pink card front is dry embossed and I used a scrap of white lace threaded with a piece of pink, satin ribbon and layered those along the left side of the card front.

     Challenges:
Crafting from the Heart
Crafty Creations
Cupcake Inspirations

Cuttlebug Mania
Dream Valley
Double Trouble (Flowers + Bouquet)
House that Stamps Built
Lemon Shortbread
Paper Girls
Outlawz SAR

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Spring Roses

     I have the most exciting announcement - I was selected to join the DT at World Wide DT Open !!  As I type up this blog post, it dawns on me that I need to calculate the time difference between California, in the USA and Sydney, in AU.  My apologies to my teamies for being so late getting this post up and live.  I'll be on time next month, I promise.

     Our theme is always "Anything Goes" but you must be a member of a Design Team somewhere or a member of the Julia Spiri FB group in order to enter.  We are sponsored by Julia Spiri and that means we get to use the fabulous images she supplies to us.  Anyone cans be a winner but if you also use one of her images, you qualify to be one of our "Spotlight Winners."  I started by using "The Victorian Hat."

     I printed the image and the sentiment directly onto the card front since I knew I wanted a fairly CAS card design.  I used my favorite purple and lavender ProMarkers to color this image, adding skin tones and hair color ProMarkers as well.

     For a touch of vintage, I found some lovely lace, added a violet ribbon behind it, and wrapped it around a bit of CS before adding it to the card front.  I tied one of my bow-tie bows, using lavender satin ribbon.

     Challenges:
Aloha Friday
Brown Sugar
Colour Crazy
Crafter's Castle
Crafting with Friends
Crafty Friends
Creative Fingers
Jo's Scrap Shack
Polkadoodles
Take It, Make It

     I hope you'll come and join our challenge this month.  It's open for entries from the 15th of each month until the 13th of the following month, but remember those are Sydney, NSW, Australia times.  See you soon.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Victorian Lady

     This is an image I've had in my collection for a while but I can't remember ever using it.  It came from Rick St. Dennis (Sparkle n Glitter) and it seemed perfect for doing a "Spotlight Technique."

     I started with two of the images, leaving one completely black and white and coloring most of the second one with my ProMarkers.  I really love subdued shades of pink, green, and yellow for vintage cards.

     I used one of my diamond shaped dies from Spellbinders to cut out an angled section of the colored image, but I trimmed that to make it narrower than the die shape.  I matted that colored piece with a double layer of sandalwood CS to give some dimension and texture, then layered it onto the black and white image, lining it up with the image below.

     I matted the white image piece with some green CS and wrapped that with pink and green polka dot ribbon.  I used my bow maker to tie a 5-loop bow using two different ribbons.  All of that went onto a pink card front.  I added a die cut butterfly (Cheery Lynn) and put pearls on it's body and also on the lower corner of the card.

     Challenges:
Allsorts
Angie's Digital Stamps
Cards in Envy
Craft-Dee BowZ
Crafty Calendar
Jo's Scrap Shack
Lemon Shortbread
Ribbon Girl
Scrapy Land
TTCRD
Tuesday Throwdown

     I'm heading back into my craft room to work on some DT cards.  I like to be ahead a couple of weeks on those just so I'm not scrambling at the last minute but, somehow, time too often gets away from me despite my best intentions.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, my friends.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Vintage Roses

     A dear friend gave me a box full of vintage and retro cards she picked up at a yard sale.  She told me she wasn't even sure why she grabbed them but as soon as she remembered that I make cards, she knew they were supposed to get into my hands.  Most of them have a beautiful aged patina on the papers and they are so worth cutting up and up-cycling onto new cards.

     Here's the first one I've done, cutting the image piece from one of the old cards.

     The card base itself is kraft CS and I've added different shades of pink CS to make layers both inside and out.  I set the front layers over to the left and then tore the front kraft layer and the bottom of the pale pink layer to give it a more distressed look.

     The original roses and bird in the image piece were just outline drawings but I colored them with my ProMarkers for a pop of color.  The sheer ribbon was wrapped around the pale pink CS and the ribbon rose was made using my new bow maker.  I'm probably going to use this for an anniversary card but it would also make a great birthday card.

     Challenges:
Colour Your World
Crafting from the Heart
Crafty Creations
Crafty Gals Corner
Deep Ocean
House That Stamps Built
Inspiration Destination
Love to Scrap
Through the Craft Room Door
Tuesday Morning
WordArt Wednesday

     That's all I have for today but tomorrow I have an announcement with some good news.  Be sure to stop by, won't you?  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie