Blue Zinnias

      This beautiful image was drawn by Sandra at The Outlawz for their monthly Progressive Challenge.  I spent a lot of the month trying to decide between another Valentine card or a birthday card for my annual stash.  For the second day in a row, birthday won out.  :-D

     I colored with ProMarkers and white gel pen, then carefully fussy cut the image with scissors.  I wanted to use the sketch I found at There's a Stamp for That, so I added a delicate frame, cut from glittery, sticker paper with a die from Sue Wilson.  That frame is so detailed it's nearly impossible to add glue to the back so cutting from sticker paper is the only way to go.  Before cutting, I used Versamark clear ink, then added glittery, yellow embossing powder, and heat embossed the entire sheet.  

     I used textured fiber paper from DCWV which has been in my stash for so long, I had completely forgotten about it.  I added the glittery frame (deliberately tilted on an angle), then layered on the zinnia image, using an out-of-the-box technique with the leaves.  The sentiment was printed and cut with dies from Avery Elle.

Here's a shot of the sketch:

     Challenges:

Creative Fingers

Di's Digi Designs

Gem of a Challenge

I Love ProMarkers

Pammie's IP

Simon Says Stamp

Your Scrapbook Place

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

A Scrappy Snowman!

      I'm finding myself changing how I'm making cards because of the painful back problems and I'm trying to use either pre-colored images or images I had colored already but put away for later use because it means less time spent sitting when I can eliminate the coloring time.  Fortunately, for the 30 Days of Christmas at Beccy's Place, I found half a dozen images in a folder which I had colored but not used last year.  Additionally, Beccy has pre-colored images in most of her sets and I can use those, too.

     Today's card uses one of  Beccy's images I had from last year and this is for the third of the "Wild Card" themes, which is 'Use Scraps.'  All the bits and pieces of dp on this card were left over from an Echo Park paper stack which I have been using for many of the Christmas cards I've done this month.  The exception to that are the two bits of glittered red paper.  Those are from a sheet I made previously using sticker paper and loose glitter.

     Doesn't this snowman look a bit like a gnome?  Does that make him a Gnowman?  lol  

     I adore snowmen and would use them year round if I could find a reason to do so.  Of all the Christmas/winter characters, my favorites are penguins and snowmen but I use more snowmen because I have more snowman images.  Well, I did have more before the thumb drive crash!  Sigh, now that I'm starting over, who knows?

Colored w ProMarkers

Paper scraps

Sentiment from Memory Box die

     Challenges:

Art Impressions

As You Like It

Colour Crazy

Creative Knockouts

Cute Card Thurs

Outlawz Festive Fri

Paperbabe

Paperminutes

TTCRD

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Holiday Joy

     Let me start by apologizing to all of you whose blogs I follow because I haven't been around to visit or comment in a couple of weeks.  Right now, I'm having painful back problems and I can only sit at the computer keyboard for so long and then I have to quit.  The break periods are getting longer and more frequent and the periods of actual productivity are getting shorter and there are fewer of them.  I'm down to about 20 minutes of work, then a break of an hour or so before I can go back to the keyboard.

     By the time I get my DT commenting obligations done, and type up a post for the day, my back is pretty much done so there is little time for visiting and commenting on the blogs of those of you I dearly love.  I'm hoping it will get better with more rest so forgive me if you are visiting me regularly and I'm not returning the huge compliment that is.  My visits will return, I promise!

     Today I want to share a card I did for the Sketch Challenge at The Outlawz, which Jan's Digi Stamps is sponsoring this month.  My card features one of Jan's older sets, called "Holiday Joy," and it's one of my favorites.  It reminds me of those childhood days when we watched the mailbox, hoping for Christmas cards with interesting stamps and post marks, and even the occasional package because everything went through the US mail back in those days before Fed Ex.  Even though I know UPS existed back then, we rarely saw their brown trucks in residential neighborhoods because mostly they delivered big boxes which were beyond the weight limits of the post office and those went primarily to businesses.

     By the way, Jan's has a fantastic sale going on many of her holiday sets and there's even a freebie available over at the store.  Check it out by clicking right there ----->  Jan's Digi Stamps

 

I flipped the sketch top to bottom because the merged sentiment

fit better at the bottom than it did at the top.

Colored w ProMarkers

Highlights added w white gel pens

Image cut w QuicKutz die

Papers from Recollections

Glitter strips made using loose glitter & sticker paper

     Challenges:

Digi Choosday

Di's Digi Designs

Double D

Ike's World

Lemon Shortbread

Paperminutes

Penny's Paper-Crafty

Stamping Sensations

     Happy Crafting, my friends.  NanaConnie