Nativity Cards

      I have two more Christmas cards to share with you this morning.  I hadn't really intended to make any more Christmas cards this month but I happened to get a new, Crafter's Companion, double die I had ordered and, since I've never had one of those before, I had to try it out right away.

     The die is made to cut two layers of CS at the same time, which then can be used on one card.  I used two shades of brown CS for the cuts, then layered them together.  I had already run them through my Cuttlebug using my Linen EF before cutting.  

     I chose some blue, glitter CS for the background, and I think it made a delightful night sky.  The 'star' is also part of the die (as you'll see on the second card.)  I used a gold paint pen on the star before adding it to the sky, and also used it on the cut outs of Mary and Joseph.  I saved the cut out pieces for yet another project.  The sentiment is from QKR Stampede and I fussy cut it.

     Being a frugal crafter, I simply couldn't bear to toss out the leftover negatives from the original die cutting, so I made a second card, layering the two pieces together after reversing the one which had the 'negative' star.  This time I used the two shades of brown CS, plus a bottom layer of cream CS. 

     I found a scrap of lavender CS for the background.  I added some sparkle to the star by coloring the space with a Sakura glitter pen.  The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is from Eureka Stamps, printed and fussy cut.

     Challenges:

12 Months Christmas

Christmas Crafts ... (7 palm trees)

Crafter's Cafe

Happy ... Stampers

Peace on Earth

Sparkles Christmas

     Happy Stamping (and die cutting!)  NanaConnie  

Purr-fect!

      It's time for another challenge at Crafty Catz, where our theme is always Anything Goes but we also offer you an OPTIONAL theme, if you want to use it.  Our option this week is "Hot Colors" and all I have to do is look out the window of my craft room and I can see heat and hot colors far beyond anything I care to see!  

     When is this heat wave going to end?  We're on day 14 in a row of being over 100 F and the 'good' news from the weatherman this morning was we may stay at 100 F today instead of going above it.  I suppose that's better than 110 but once it reaches 100, it pretty much all feels the same.  And the heat wave doesn't officially end until we have 2 days in a row of  99 F or below.  Yuck!

     Ok, information about my card - since we don't have a sponsor this week, we could use whatever we wanted on our DT projects.  I chose a cute image from Eureka Stamps called "Big and Little Cat" and a sentiment from QKR Stampede called "You're Purrfect."  

     I used Sanjoki markers to color the cat image and then fussy cut it with scissors. That image is mounted on dimensional dots.  I printed, colored (polychromos pencils), and cut the sentiment with a Die-namics die.  I found some lovely fiber paper for the background (DCWV), giving great texture to the entire design. 

I used colors from CRAFTalnica.

     Challenges:

Classic Design

Country View

Crafts Galore ...

I Love Markers

Let's Craft & ...

SUYP Cats

Word Art Weds

     Come play with us this week.  It's our last challenge before we take a summer break throughout the month of August.  We'll be  back on the first Friday of September and I hope to be able to tell you that things have cooled down some.  :-D  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Happy as a ...

      Yep, if you read the post title, right now in your head you're finishing that sentence with "pig in mud!"  lol  At FarmQuest this next two weeks, we have a theme of "Pigs," plus we've partnered with Double Trouble and that means also using something with a wood grain on our cards.  

If you enter our challenge and you use a wood grain, you can enter at Double Trouble, too.

     I used a clip art image of two pigs happily sharing a mud puddle, colored it with watercolor paints, and cut it with a Sizzix scalloped die.  I printed the sentiment and deliberately cut it on an angle using an Avery Elle die.  The wood grain dp is from a Brutus Monroe paper stack.

I pulled colors from the challenge at My Favorite Things.

     Challenges:

Butterfly

CRAFTalnica

Creative Fingers

Digi Choosday

Happy ... Stampers

Pammie's IP

Paper Funday

Polkadoodles

Simon Says Stamp

     Come play along this challenge.  All you need is something 'farm country' and as long as your pigs aren't dressed in tuxedos or spats, I'm pretty sure any pig will be 'farm country' enough.  Use something wood grain and you can play at Double Trouble, too.

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie