Besties

      I absolutely adore the image I used on this card today!  I also love the idea of a cat and a mouse being besties.  :-D   The sentiment was printed along with the image, then the image was colored with Ohuhu alcohol markers.  After coloring, I cut it using my Fiskars paper cutter.  (Reminder to self - it's time to replace the blade.  lol)  I rounded the corners with a Uchida punch from Marvy.  

     I found a dark green CS in my stash and cut it to size for the card front, then added a wide strip of dp to the left hand side (scrap from a DCWV stack.)  The bow is one of my hand sewn, butterfly-shape bows with a pearl.  I spend an entire afternoon hand sewing those by the dozen and tossing them into my stash for future use, sometimes with a pearl, sometimes without.  Over the years, I've learned to buy only white ribbon to make those because it's so easy to 'dye' them with markers to get the exact color I want,  matching up one of the colors used on the image.  This time, I kept the bow white.

     Challenges:

613 Avenue Create

Creative Fingers

Double Trouble

Gem of a Challenge

Pammie's IP

SUYP Cats

Word Art Weds

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

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

Silver Fox

      Maya Silvercat is one of my favorite artists and I've introduced my sis-in-law to her artwork and digital images.  The image on this card was colored by my SIL, using Ohuhu markers (she has so thoroughly mastered alcohol markers in less than 2 months!)  I love how she decided to make the fox a silvery white.  Really masterful !

     I still haven't gotten her to actually make cards (or even scrapbook pages) with her colored images but we have this marvelous collaboration going, and I make cards out of her colored images.  Of course, I continue to color images myself, but this one is another of our collaborations.  :-D

      The image, once colored, was cut with a Tonic Studios die, and I inked the edges.   The background for the image was made by running a piece of charcoal gray CS through my Linen embossing folder. That added a delightful bit of texture.  The birthday sentiment was printed and cut with an Avery Elle die.  For the bow, I used white ribbon, dyed green with a marker, then hand sewn into the butterfly shape.  

     Challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms

Digi Choosday

DL Art

Pattie's Creations

Penny's P-C

Simon Says Stamp

Word Art Weds

     That's all for today but check back tomorrow for another post.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie  

Trick or Treat Cats

      When I ran across this adorable clip art image, I just had to see how it would look printed in grayscale and colored.  That's exactly what I did!  I colored with Ohuhu markers, added white highlights to their eyes and collars with a gel pen, then cut the image with a Spellbinders die.  I used a Fiskars punch on the corners.

     Although it's hard to see in the photo, I used my Linen EF to emboss the background, charcoal gray, CS.  The sentiment was printed and trimmed on my paper trimmer.  I sewed the little bow and dyed it orange, using a marker.  Bows have to be my favorite embellishment, partly because it's so easy to use them as the only embellishment.  There's a tiny, half-pearl in the center of the bow.  Very CAS design.

I pulled colors from AAA Colourful.

     Challenges:

Classic Design

Crafter's Cafe

Creatalicious

Creative Knockouts

Inspired By

Outlawz Thursday

Starz Stamps

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Garden Cat

      I needed a birthday card this past week and found this delightful digital coloring book image, which I reduced in size to fit onto a card.  Colored with Ohuhu markers and colored pencils, then cut with a QuicKutz die.  I used the next size larger die to cut the navy blue frame for the image.  The sentiment was printed and cut with an Avery Elle die.

     The background dp is from a DCWV stack.  The butterfly-shape bow is hand-tied and dyed with an old marker.

     Challenges:

Creative Friday

Inkspirational

Lil Patch of ...

Polkadoodles

SUYP Cats

Triple B

     That's all I have for today but tomorrow will bring you three DT post!  Be sure to stop by then.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

The Hat that Doesn't Fit

      There's a story behind this card today and I will share with you the short version.  Belladona, the cat image from Beccy's Place, really wanted his own witch hat to wear on Halloween.  But his witch was so busy preparing potions and spells for the big, spooky night that she had no time to make one for him.  So she found one of her old hats (also a Beccy's Place image and it's a freebie on the challenge post today) and tossed it over to Belladona.  

     You can see Belladona's reaction in both his expression and in the sentiment.  :-D

     I merged the images together before printing it.  Even though the images are mostly silhouettes, I used Sanjoki markers to color the cat's eyes and the flowers on the hat.  They are from different sets but I think they work perfectly together.  I cut the merged images with a QuicKutz die, then rounded the corners with a Fiskars punch.

     The dp is from Recollections, the glitter CS is a scrap, and the bow is hand-tied, then dyed with a marker to get the exact orange I wanted.  The ribbon started out white.  The sentiment was printed and cut with an Avery Elle die.  I inked the edges of both the image piece and the sentiment with a marker.

     Challenges:

A Perfect Time ...

Conjurer of Dreams

Crafting Challenge

Crafts Galore Encore

Critter Crazy

Die Cut Divas

Passion for Markers

SUYP Cats

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Summer Campfire

      As the state of California opens up again after 15 months of lockdown due to COVID-19, I'm looking forward to summer campouts, camp fires, and toasted marshmallows!  Another new challenge has started at Pammie's Inky Pinkies today and the theme is our usual "Anything Goes."  

     Our sponsor this week is Jan's Digi Stamps and they provided images for the DT to use in their inspiration projects.  I used "Alone Together" and I love the end result of merging images from that set.  I used ProMarkers to color the image and cut it with a die from Spellbinders.   

     I love using a 'fancy' die to cut an image and then make a CAS card which looks very fancy simply because of the die cut.  This card is quite literally nothing more than the cut image and the green card base.  CAS cards are always easier to mail than those which are too fat with embellishments to fit into an envelope!

     I added one of my signature bows, made from white ribbon which has been 'dyed' with a ProMarker, and with a single pearl sewn on.  Once I learned to 'dye' ribbon, this became a technique I love because I can use nothing but white ribbon and I can make the color match one of the colors in the image or in dp if I've used any.

     Challenges:

Angie's Digitals

As You Like It

Cardz TV

Crafty Catz

Get Creative

Ike's World

Lil Patch of  ...

Penny's Paper-Crafty

Simon Says Stamp

Stamping Sensations

     I hope we're going to see yo0u playing in our challenge this week.  Remember, it's Anything Goes and you certainly can't lose with that theme.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Hybrid Rose

      I have to share a minor 'tragedy' which has affected my ability to use digital images for the time being.  A little bit of history before I explain - about 5 years ago, I suffered a huge computer crash, had to replace my computer, and was unable to retrieve anything from my hard drive.  At that time, I probably had close to 1,500 digital images from 50 or 60 different companies.  Needless to say, I was heart broken.  But I learned from my mistake and, when I began rebuilding my digi collection, everything was saved straight to a thumb drive.  No more hard-drive-crash-danger in my future!

     A little over a week ago, I went to the thumb drive to get an image I wanted to print and discovered that all my digi files (saved in folders by company name) between the letter "C" through and including most of those starting with "S" were gone!  Those missing files happened to include digis from three of my Design Teams so this was a rather serious problem.  From now on, I'm downloading all digis to both a thumb drive and the hard drive!

     I began searching with various tools to see if they could be recovered (I'm NOT technologically skilled) and while I had little luck in actually finding them, I did figure out that the files were probably still on the thumb drive, but for some reason they had just become "invisible."  At that point, I turned the thumb drive over to someone much more savvy than I, and began looking thought my physical folders of stamped images waiting to be colored and used.  Many of those had been stamped by other people and given to me over 3 or 4 years of meeting with my craft group.  

     I also dug out the rather limited number of rubber stamps I still have (I did a through clearing out job a couple of years back but there are always certain stamps one just can't give away.)  When I say "limited number," I'm comparing that to the literally hundreds of rubber and clear stamps I had at that time which now has been narrowed to about 100.  So, I'm not precluded from card making but over the next few weeks, you may find me talking about stamps from unknown sources which means I'm using an image someone else stamped and gave to me.  That's the case with today's card which has these lovely hybrid roses.

Colored with gel pens and ProMarkers, then fussy cut with scissors.  Pop Dots used to mount it to a scrap of pink CS.  Mesh ribbon and sheer ribbon for the bow are both scraps and the bow was 'dyed' with a ProMarker to get the exact green I wanted.

     Challenges:

Artsy Stamper

Aud Sentiments

Creations in Pink

Creative Crafters

Creative Knockouts

I love ProMarkers

LeAnn's World 101

Outlawz Festive Fri

We Love Choc Baroque

Word Art Weds

          Have yourself a great day and Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie