Great (Hair) Day

      My granddaughter, the one who's away at college in Texas and who has a thing about cows - especially highland heifers, is having a birthday soon.  I haven't been able to decide which cow image I wanted to use for her card so I've done a couple of collaboration cards with my sis-in-law in which she colors and I turn her colored images into cards.  This is one of them and it's definitely in the running to be the birthday card!

     After Lainy colored the image with Ohuhu markers and colored pencils, I cut it with a large QuicKutz die.  I rounded the corners with a Fiskars punch.   I dug through the scrap basket and found the bits I used for the background; a dp strip from a Recollections stack, some orange CS, and a rectangle of beige which had been run through an embossing folder making a leather-look embossed pattern.

     I hand-sewed a small bow, 'dyed' orange with a marker.  The sentiment was printed and cut with an Avery Elle die.

     Challenges:

Crafty Catz

Creative Fingers

Double Trouble (green, blue, orange, brown, yellow)

Night Owls

Pammie's IP

Passion for Makers

Word Art Weds

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Milk Bath

      Today is the 14th of April (tax return deadline is tomorrow!) and we have a new challenge starting over at FarmQuest.  We always want to see something country or farm on your entries but in addition to that, we have a specific theme; this week the theme is "Baby Farm Animals."  That was such a fun theme that I had a marvelous afternoon searching through all my clip art to find a perfect image.  Any time I can find a "cute" image of anything, that's going to be the one I grab.  Besides, in this case, how can a baby calf be anything but cute?  :-D

     Those of you who follow my blog probably know that one of my granddaughters loves cows so she gets 'cow' cards from her Nana all the time.  (Nearly always cute in some way! lol)  This is another one which will get mailed to her without the need for any particular occasion.  

     I printed the image and colored it with my Sanjoki markers.  The image was cut with a Spellbinders die and I used a Fiskars punch on each of the four corners.  I printed and cut the sentiment with another Spellbinders die.  The bit of dp was found in the scrap basket and I can tell from the plaid design that it's from an old Recollections stack.

      Challenges:

As You Like It (Cute is always a favorite, and baby critters are always cute!)

Cardz 4 Galz

Creative Fingers

Creative Inspiration

Creative Knockouts

Di's Digi Designs

Outlawz Thurs

Pattie's Creations

Polkadoodles

Star Stampz

     Dig through your stamps, digis, or even dies and find one that works for the Baby Farm Animals theme, then come play in our challenge.  We love being inspired by what you create.   :-D  

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

A Lazy St. Patrick's Day

      I'm one of those lucky individuals who celebrates her birthday on St. Patrick's Day but I'm also of Irish decent on both sides of my family tree!  My way of celebrating my Irish heritage is to make St. Patrick's cards for all the kids in my family; a way of reminding them that they, too, have an Irish heritage.  :-D

     Those of you who follow my blog probably already know about the running "cow" theme with my youngest granddaughter and St. Patrick's makes no exception.  I searched for cow images related to St. Paddy's Day and found an entire collection of them in digital coloring book form.  I've used many of the pages for cards this month, reduced to accommodate my need for card size, and colored most of them with either water color pencils or Sanjoki markers.  Those same images also come in pre-colored versions, but I print those in grayscale and color them myself.  I do that because the shading and highlights are still there and that gives my own coloring a marvelous 'finished' look!  Try it, you'll be delighted with the results.

     I cut this image with an old QuicKutz die, then snipped off the corners with deliberately different sizes, although the angle is the same on each corner.  I managed to do that by using one of my quilting mats, penciling in the line I wanted to cut, then cutting those with scissors.  The background paper is from K & Co.   Pretty CAS except for the design in the paper. 

     Challenges:

Colorful Options 

Daisy Chain

Double Trouble

Inspiration Station (St Pat's celebration)

Inspired By

LeighSBDesigns

Outlawz Friday

Penny's P-C

Simon Says Stamp

Simply CAS

     I'll share another couple of these with you later in the week.  In the meantime, Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie