Wedding Magnolias

      I absolutely adore this magnificent image & sentiment set from Jan's Digi Stamps, new this month and called "Wedding Magnolias."  It's also on sale for the rest of April so grab it while you can and save some money.

     I merged the sentiment with the magnolia image before printing, then colored with ProMarkers.  I cut the image with my largest QuicKutz die.  I found the pink-purple-aqua, ombre glitter paper in my stash (from Recollections) to use for the background.  I wrapped a piece of iridescent cord around the card front and tied it into a bow.

     I stamped a dragonfly onto a scrap bit of white CS, colored it with water colors, added glitter to it and, after it dried, fussy cut it with scissors and secured it to the card front with dimensional dots.

     Challenges:

     This is just a reminder that our April challenge will run until Sunday, May 1, so you have another 2 weeks to enter your project into our April "Always Anything Goes" challenge.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Laughing with Dragonflies

      Yesterday I saw a post on one of the blogs I follow (Her Peaceful Garden) and Janis had shared about a new challenge blog she'd discovered, Paper Dragonfly, where entries must feature Dragonflies (and follow a theme.)  Janis shared that she wasn't crazy about crawly bugs of any kind, nor did she much like dragonflies, but she did have a dragonfly die she wanted to use so she made a card and shared about the challenge.  Thanks, Janis, for the information and the inspiration!

     I dug out three different dragonfly dies from my stash (Impression Obsession, Cutz, and Memory Box), and got to work cutting scrap bits of dp and CS, plus some glitter CS.  (I chose icy blue and white papers for the Winter Dragonflies theme at the Paper Dragonfly challenge.)  I have a little basket of paper scraps sitting on my desk with left over pieces from all the cards I've created in the last six months.  I've been digging through it, using up whatever I can, and everything on this card came out of that basket.

     Even the sentiment had previously been stamped onto a scrap but not used, so it ended up in the basket.  Talk about serendipity!  :-D

     Challenges:

Aud Sentiments

Creative Inspirations

Digi Choosday

Outlawz PAM

Paperbabe

Paper Dragonfly

Simon Says Stamp

TTCRD

Word Art Weds

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Bunny Hugs

     This sweet bunny image came from The Dragon's Lair and is for their Progressive Challenge on FB.  I know it would make a cute Easter card but I also think it would be great for a new baby card or even for a first birthday.  With the little hearts in the image, it would even work as a Valentine.

     I colored with ProMarkers, deciding to use mostly my favorite lavenders and purples.  The image is cut with an Unbranded die.  I embossed the front of my card with my "Linen" folder, then wrapped a strip of lace around it.  I added a narrow strip of ribbon to the center of the lace and, unfortunately, it looks deep pink in the photo when it's actually lilac.

     The image oval went on next, and finally I added the embroidered dragonfly as an embellishment.

     Challenges:
Crafty Creations
Crafty Gals Corner
Cute Card Thurs.
Digi Choosday
I {heart} ProMarkers
Mod Squad
Passion for ProMarkers
Penny's Paper-Crafty
Word Art Weds.

     That's it for me today.  Be sure to come by tomorrow when I have another DT card for QKR Stampede.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Dragonfly Box

    What I'm sharing this morning may not seem like that big a deal to those of you with electronic cutting machines and a huge variety of .svg files for boxes but those of you who have manual machines and who know how limited we are on the sizes of our dies for making boxes, you'll understand why this IS a big deal.  :-D

     I personally have three dies for cutting box shapes; one gives me a 1" x 1" x 1" box, perfect for one piece of fancy chocolates; another gives me a 4" x 4" x 2" box (for which I've found very little use); and the third gives me a 2.5" cube.

     I was wandering through my local craft store about a month ago and saw a Box Maker which allows you to make boxes of all shapes and sizes with a few simple score lines -- limited only by the size of card stock available to you and your imagination.  Today, I'm showing you one I made which is 5" x 5" square and 4.5" deep.  I'm just so excited about this because now I'll have boxes for the hand made Christmas ornaments I make every year for all the kids, kids-in-law, grandkids, and great-grands!

     I used two sheets of heavy white CS to make the box pieces (one top and one bottom which fits inside the top) and used double stick tape to adhere the box corners.  I decorated the top with a black scalloped-circle which had been die cut (Spellbinders) and added three layers of the dragonfly die cut (Memory Box) on top of it.

     I cut the dragonfly piece three times, then used a glue pen on only the bottom corner, leaving the upper parts of the dragonflies and grasses loose so that they could be lifted to add some delightful dimension.  It worked even better than I had visualized in my mind.  :-D

     Challenges:
A Bit More Time to Craft
Crafts and Me
Create with TLC
Die Cut Divas
Love to Craft
Mix It Up
Monochrome Magic
Not Just Cards
Sparkles Forum
Stempelsonnen

    I'm heading back to my craft room to score and fold more boxes of this size since I'm going to need more than a dozen of them by Christmas time.  I'm playing with some ideas of using sheets of scrap booking paper on top of heavy duty kraft CS to make a few so that they'll be already "decorated" when they are folded into the box shapes.  I have a ton of old 12" x 12" Christmas papers and I can't think of a better way to use up some of it.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie