Checking His List

     We all know that Santa checks his Naughty or Nice list at least twice for accuracy, but the truth is he knows if you've been bad or good even without checking.  lol  So, since it's another Friday, and since you've obviously been "good" enough, QKR Stampede is bringing you a new "Anything Goes" challenge.

     I've used a QKR image called "Checking It Twice" and I think it's adorable!

     I colored with water colors and used ProMarkers to add the shading and highlights.  I cut the image with a pinpoint die from Memory Box.  The two matting pieces were cut from red and green CS using a Lawn Fawn, cross stitch, die.  I layered those three pieces together and found a pale green card blank for the base.

     I cut one more piece - the snowflake (Intricutz die) - added glitter to it, and then began laying out all the pieces onto the card front.  I printed and hand cut the sentiment, matting it before adding it to the card.

     The design is pretty CAS but that will make it good for mailing and so many of my family cards go out of state.  It's also a great masculine card for one of the grandkids (or even great grands!)

     Every year, as the holidays get closer and closer, it's always a toss up for me as to whether I love winter and Christmas best or autumn and Thanksgiving.  Both are family times and I love that the cold weather means staying inside in the craft room so thinking about that today, winter wins!  Tomorrow, who knows?  :-D

     Challenges:
Addicted to Stamps
As You Like It
Crafty Hazelnut's 
Creative Fingers
Di's Digi Designs
Hiding in My Craft Room
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
Outlawz Festive Fri.
Pattie's Creations
Winter Wonderland

     Come play with us, won't you?  It's Anything Goes and you are not required to use a QKR Stampede image.  However, if you do, then your entry goes into a separate draw for QKR only and that really increases your chances of winning!   Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Poinsettia Girl

     Look, after all the Halloween and Thanksgiving cards this month, I've actually done a Christmas card!   That beautiful image is from Lemon Shortbread.

I used the sketch at Try Stamping on Tuesday 

for inspiration, but turned it sideways.

     I colored with ProMarkers, added yellow Nuvo Crystal Drops to the centers of the poinsettias, then used a Memory Box die to cut the image.  The dp is from an old stack by K & Co. found in my stash, and the deep, forest green is CS which I embossed with my "Linen" folder.  The leaves were cut with a Cheery Lynn die and I added glitter to them for some Christmas sparkle.

     The card base is made from kraft CS and, after the papers were added but before the leaves or image, I wrapped sparkly, golden, ribbon around the bottom, then added all the other pieces, including the sentiment.

     Challenges:
Addicted to Stamps
Angie's Digital Stamps
Crafty Sentiments Designs
Digi Choosday
I {heart} ProMarkers
Outlawz Festive Fri.
Scrappy Land
Tuesday Throwdown

     OMGoodness, it's nearly the weekend!  I have lots of crafting planned because the first of the month is almost here and I have DT projects which will be posting that day.

     Happy Crafting, my friends.  NanaConnie

Apples and Ants

     Yesterday I promised you a second card inspired by the challenge photo at Catch the Bug and here it is, again using an image from Bugaboo Stamps.

Here's the challenge photo.

     I colored my image with water colors and white gel ink, then cut it with a die from Spellbinders.  I backed that piece with some olive CS and trimmed the edges to size.  That went onto an embossed card front.  I printed and hand cut the sentiment.  I added one of my signature bows, leaving it white this time.  I added a tiny, red button to the center of it and called the card finished.

     Challenges:
Crafty Sentiments Designs
Creative Inspirations
Pammie's Inky Pinkies
Scrappy Land
Stamping Sensations (bug, bow)
That's Crafty
TTCRD
Tuesday Throwdown (red/green)
Words 2 Craft By

     I hope your week is going well and that the crispness of fall has arrived for you.  In my neck of the woods, it looks as though we're going to have to wait at least another week for cooler weather, and even then, that may mean temperatures in the 80s instead of high 90s.  Sigh...  Hey, Mother Nature, if you send fall now I promise not to complain about the weather throughout the entire winter.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Apple Pie Happy !

     My dad loved apple pie more than any other dessert and it was probably the only way he ever ate apples.  My mom, on the other hand, hated making pie of any sort (cakes, cookies, sweet rolls, even candy was fine but she didn't like making pie crusts) so home-made apple pie in our house was something to celebrate.  As apple harvest season rolled around, the whole family would drive up into the foothill country for a day of picking apples at the orchards and we'd come home with bushel baskets which would be stored in the cellar for as long as they lasted under the onslaught of kids craving fresh fruit long after it had disappeared from the trees.  Usually we picked so many during the harvest that we still had apples well into the winter - certainly through Christmas and the New Year.

     When Mom broke down and made the first apple pie of the season, my dad would declare himself to be "Apple Pie Happy!" and we'd all celebrate and declare it was the best she'd ever made.  :-D

     Here's a salute to my mom and her harvest-season, apple pies. 

Both the memory and this card were inspired by the challenge photo at Catch the Bug

and I used an image from Bugaboo Stamps.

     This card is a combination of old and new things.  The childhood memories made me appreciate and reach for things from my stash which are the old.  The dies I used are my newest ones and the yellow CS is from a package I just purchased.  I was getting low on fall colors in my CS stash so had to purchase replacements. 

     I colored with ProMarkers, then cut the image and the yellow frame with my newest cross-stitch dies from Lawn Fawn.  I found a scrap of forest green CS to use on the card front, then printed, hand cut, and matted the sentiment.

     I had another scrap of that net mesh and I added it to the side of the card, tucking it under one side of the image.  I also found the leaf embellie in my autumn stash and thought it would look good tucked into the mesh.  I added three, tiny, brass, brads to the bottom corner but they're hard to see in the photo.

     Challenges:
Crafter's Cafe
Cutie Pie
Do Al(l) Creatives (Diagonal: top left to bottom right)
Double Trouble
Incy Wincy
Lawn Fawnatics
Pammie's Inky Pinkies

     I'll have another card tomorrow inspired by the same photo from the Catch the Bug challenge but completely different.  The only common thread between the two cards would be the "apple" theme.  Check it out tomorrow to see what I mean.  :-D

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie