Wise Old Bird

      Sorry for the late posting but only by a few hours so I'm sure I'll be forgiven.  :-D

     We have a new challenge that started earlier today over at FarmQuest, where we always want to see something farm/country and where we always have a specific theme.  Our theme this time is "Feathers" and you can enter anything with feathers from birds, poultry, fowl.

     I found this delightful owl in a digital coloring book by Maya Silvercat and I reversed it before printing it.  I colored using my Sanjoki markers and cut both the image and the brown CS frame with QuicKutz dies.  The sentiment was printed, cut with an Avery Elle die, and matted with a tiny scrap of left over brown CS. The background was made using a bit from the scrap basket and I have no idea what company made it.  I've had it in my stash for quite a while and I couldn't locate the original stack, though I'm sure I still have it.

     Challenges:

Aloha Friday

Creative Fingers

Creative Inspirations

Happy...Stampers

I Love Markers

Outlawz Friday

Paper Funday

Penny's P-C

Star Stampz

Word Art Weds

     I hope we're going to see you playing along with us this time.  We love seeing what you create.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Autumn Leaves

      The DT has had such a long summer break at Jan's Digi Stamps that I'm feeling the need to share some JDS fall images with you.  Autumn is right around the corner and the leaves on my neighborhood trees are already turning bright fall colors and a few have even dropped to the ground.  In a couple more weeks, the rakes will be taken out and everyone will be making big leaf piles perfect for kids who want to jump into them.  Or for adults who just want to share the joyful memories of such times.  Sorry, I'm beyond any jumping into those piles any more but I can dream.  :-D

     I've used this fun image from a JDS set called "Autumn Friends."   I colored with ProMarkers and cut the image with a stitched Die-namics die.  All the papers are scraps left over from other projects.  They were previously cut with dies from Spellbinders and Tonic Studios.   I found a black feather which just seemed to shout "It's Fall!" and I hand-tied the little bow.

I pulled 6 colors from the chart at CMH Color Dare #460

(Smoothie/Canary/Almond/Blue Belle/Pebble/Lilac)

     Challenges:

Cardz TV

Crafty Catz

Colour Crazy

Creative Inspirations

Cute Card Thurs

Passion for Markers

Penny's Paper-Crafty

Polkadoodles

Word Art Weds

     Our challenges at Jan's Digi Stamps will begin again in November.  In the meantime, Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Dance from the Heart

     I love the sweet little ballerina image which is the freebie for the monthly progressive challenge at Dragon's Lair.  It brings back such wonderful childhood memories.  Strange as it may seem since I was a true tomboy in all other aspects of my childhood, I was in ballet classes from age 6 to about 12 and I loved dancing!  Our ballet school was prominent enough to put on 3 performances per year in our local municipal auditorium and I participated in all of them.  We were quite famous, locally.  :-D

     At first, I thought about a pink and girly color theme but then decided that pale lavender would work just as well and I could use dp with both lavender and pink in it.  I colored with ProMarkers, then fussy cut the image.

     I chose a lavender card base, found dp from Recollections, trimmed it to size and added it on top of the card base.  I wanted it to be a bit more feminine so I added the lace to it after weaving through the pink, satin, ribbon.

     The feather is a peacock feather from a 'white' peacock.  My granddaughter collected a huge number of feathers at one of our local parks where they have a peacock enclosure.  She only gathered the ones which have been shed naturally by the birds.  Until she brought these to me, I had no idea that the 'white' peacock feathers were so beige.  :-D

    I mounted the ballerina on Pop Dots, then put it right over the feather.  The sentiment is printed, hand cut, and inked before layering it onto the ribbon.

     Challenges:
Allsorts
Aloha Friday
Aud Sentiments
Crafting with Friends
Creative Fingers
Creative Inspirations
Ellibelle's Crafty Weds.
Outlawz Twisted Thurs
TTCRD

     Hey, we're halfway to the weekend!  For those of you not yet retired, that's important.  For those of us who are actually retired, weekdays often feel like weekends and vice versa.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Light as a Feather

     I was browsing around several of my favorite monthly challenges, hoping to be struck by something that would inspire me, and I found this at House of Cards.

     Using both feathers and the colors, here's what I did.

I started with the sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday.

     This is a little different from the way I normally color my images.  I started with just one feather, colored it with ProMarkers and Lyra polychromos pencils, then I photographed it and used my editing software to add a very light grayscale background.  I saved that photo into my hard drive.  For the next paragraph to make sense, you need to know that the feather was photographed standing on its 'stem' so that the feather is standing instead of floating horizontally - more like the ones in the inspiration photo.

     I opened the saved file using MS Word, adjusted the size to what I wanted (see the square, middle feather,) then did a copy and paste two more times to get three feathers.  On the two outside feathers, I 'squeezed' the sides in to narrow them from square to a rectangles.  I printed that, now having the three feathers in a row as my image and then, after I matted it, I turned it on end so that the feathers seemed to be floating downward.

     If you're looking at the three feathers, thinking that they are all colored exactly the same way, now you know how I did it.  One colored feather, photographed, duplicated and size adjusted to give me three identically colored feathers.

     Next step was to choose cardstock in colors from the inspiration photo.  Rather than cutting into new sheets of paper, I went through my bin of scraps and found each of the vertical strips.  The strip on the far left was cut with a Cheery Lynn die (Scandinavian Boutique) and is one of the pieces from the outside edge of the frame (which was used on another project.)  In order to get the darker blue of the color combo, I added a strip of sheer ribbon to the background and also used a snippet of it to 'mat' the sentiment.

     I added three, tiny, brass, 'pearls' to the top corner and another three to the bottom corner.  What is it about sets of three that is so magical in card designing?  Three feathers, three strips, three pearls...  This is my first work with "mixed media" and I hope to get better at it but mixing photography, fabric, die cuts, and metal with textured papers was the best I could manage this time.  I stayed with all simple, geometric, shapes for a clean, somewhat 'industrial' and masculine feel.  

     Challenges:
A Vintage Journey
Catch the Bug (top row)
Crafting with an Attitude
Creative Fingers
Jo's Scrap Shack
Pixie's Snippets
Scrapper's Delights

Word Art Weds.

     This week has sped by so quickly!  Maybe it was all the Easter celebrations or the Monday holiday along with the half day at the beginning of last weekend for Good Friday.  Whatever it was, the weekend is nearly here and I'm sooo ready for it!  I plan to do very little and be a couch potato most of the time.  If the Creative Muse knocks, I'm probably going to debate answering that door.  :-D  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Rest Easy

     Friday means a new challenge is starting at QKR Stampede and we have a new theme of "Mother's Day."  Most of you who follow me already know that I have a weird, perhaps even bizarre sense of humor so hopefully you'll appreciate this card I made for a wonderful lady who has a family of 5 and says all she does is laundry, laundry, laundry every day of the week.  I, on the other hand, live alone and sometimes go a full 2 weeks with barely enough laundry to separate it into different loads.  Remember, we're conserving water out here in drought stricken California so I have to have a big load before I run the machine!  Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Laziness has nothing to do with it!  :-D

     This is Digi 24224 "Resting Heavy" and, while I had good intentions of using a sentiment from QKR, I have to take the full blame for the sentiment this time.  :-D  It just popped into my head as I was getting ready to print the digi.

     I added the 'frame' and the sentiment with some editing software before I printed it, a new technique for me.   Then I used ProMarkers to color the image, and cut it out - frame, sentiment, and all - with my Fiskars paper cutter.

     I used my 'Linen' embossing folder on the card front before adding the image piece.  The ribbon has been in my stash for at least 2 years, maybe 3.  I found the yellow feathers last week when I reorganizing the craft space so I knew exactly where to put my hands on them.  The flower is from Recollections.  This card took less than 15 minutes to put together (not counting coloring time) even though it looks complex rather than simple.

     Challenges:
613 Avenue Create
Addicted to Stamps
Crafty Boots
Crazy 4 Challenges
Design Team Showcase
Hiding in My Craft Room
Love to Scrap
Perfectly Rustics
Pink Elephant
Sister Act

     That's it for this post.  Come play with us this week and have a great weekend, folks.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Aloha (and I wish I was in Hawaii)

     Fair warning to those of you who've gotten used to my doing CAS lately -- this one is NOT clean and simple!  Although I'm becoming very fond of my CAS designs, I reverted to something more in line with frilly, fancy, and over-the-top.  :-D

    I used this image which came from the Rick St. Dennis Progressive Challenge.

I chose to use the colors from Color My Heart

although I admit that my "juniper" feather looks more emerald green

but IRL it is that blue-green of a juniper bush.

     I used ProMarkers to color my image, then die cut it and the mat with dies from Spellbinders.  I used one of my favorite embossing folders (SU) to emboss the pink CS.  I added Flower Soft to her arm and neck leis, and glitter to the stamen of the flowers in her hair.  I used lace ribbon to make the wrapped bow and found three perfect feathers in my stash.  The rose embellies are from Recollections.

     Challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks

Allsorts (middle row)

ArtbyMiran

Card Mania

Crafting with an Attitude

Crafts 4 Eternity

Die Cut Divas

Emerald Faeries

Graph'It

Our Creative Corner

Paper Creator's Crafts

Ribbon Girl

Sentimental Sundays

     Is it OK if I tell you that I'm very pleased with this card?  It's been a while since I did that much embellishing and it felt good to just let things go with no worries about having to be minimalist this time around.  :-D  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie

Save the Eagle

     Did you know last Tuesday (January 10) was national Save the Eagle day?  Neither did I until I read about it over at Outlawz.  I can't enter this card in their challenge because that's a color challenge (and I didn't use those colors) but I have to give credit to them for the inspiration to use a feather or two on a card.

Sketch from Fetch a Sketch.

     This is another of those vintage images which seem to have me hooked lately, printed onto parchment paper, then die cut with one of my new die sets (hexagon), and matted with chocolate CS, cut one size larger.  I cut the background dp with scissors (after adhering it to the card front - cut all the way through the card), turned the cut off piece and adhered it to the back edge of the card.  Then I added a strip of brown CS to set off the wavy front edge and complement the wavy back edge.

     The striped dp is another piece from that same dp mat stack, Linen Closet - DCWV, matted with brown CS and wrapped with sheer brown ribbon.  I added the feathers (no, those aren't eagle feathers!) and punched a hole for the pearl brad before mounting the strip onto the card front.  Pearls were added to the image panel and then it was mounted last.

     TIP:  Here's a tip for getting feathers adhered to a card without having them glued down the entire length of the feather.  I scraped the tip of the "feather stem" with a craft knife to flatten it as much as possible, then put down a tiny drop of craft glue right where the feathers were to go.  Before adding the feathers, I punched a tiny hole for the brad right next to the glue spot.   Then, I added the feather tips to the glue spot, and put the brad in place.  The brad overlaps the feather tips and holds everything in place while the glue dries.  It's also securely glued in place.

     The eagle feeding new chicks is so symbolic of New Beginnings and certainly has lots to do with saving the eagles.  Without offspring, there will be no eagles left to save.

     Challenges for this card:
Anything Goes Challenge -- Anything Goes week
Bunny Zoe's - inspiration photo - lots of pastels and browns
Card Makin' Mamas -- Something New
Craft Garden -- monochromatic
Crafty Cardmakers -- no floral embellishments
The Crazy Challenge -- Pearls or lace
Daisy Doodles  -- New Beginnings
Divas by Design - New Beginnings or Thanks
House of Gilli -- Anything Goes
Ooh La La -- New Beginnings
Party Time Tuesday - Save the Eagle Day
Top Tip Tuesday -- Anything Goes
Truly Madly Crafty -- Anything Goes

     Hope your week is going well and that you may have found some inspiration while browsing around.  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie