Red and White Christmas

      This is my second post today but I wanted to enter the November challenge at Conjuror of Dreams.  

      I love red birds in the winter!  They bring so much visual joy to an otherwise bland, some might even say bleak, landscape of leafless trees buried in snow and ice.  Today's card features a bright red cardinal clinging to a snowy branch.  It's a pre-colored image from Conjuror of Dreams and pre-colored always means a quick and easy card..

     I cut the image with a Spellbinders die, matted it with white CS trimmed to fit, and added the sentiment (cut with an Avery Elle die.)  The poinsettia dp originally came from a DCWV stack, but it was a left over scrap with a piece punched out of it from a previous project.  I managed to cover that hole with the image piece!  Waste not, want not.  :-D

     The snowflake embellies are from Jolee's, and this card took me just under 15 minutes to make.  How's that for quick?

     Challenges:

Ally's Angels

Alphabet Challenge

Classic Design

Crafty Catz

Creatalicious

Dream Factory

Outlawz Friday

     That's it for today but I'll have another post tomorrow for another 30 Days of Holidays card.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Cardinal Time at FQCC

      We have a new challenge starting today over at FarmQuest Country Christmas.  Our theme is always "Anything Country and Christmas Goes."  In keeping with that, I found this delightful clip art image of a cardinal on a tree branch.

     I did something I hadn't tried before; I found a piece of distressed dp in blue with snowflakes and printed the cardinal image onto it.  Then I colored the bird and the branch with watercolor pencils and gel pens.  I cut the image with a QuicKutz die, then cut two different mats (one steel blue and the other white) with other dies from the same set.  I layered those all together and put that piece onto snowflake dp from DCWV.  I hand-tied a bow using wired cord, then printed and die cut the sentiment with a die from Avery Elle.

     Challenges:

Creative Inspirations

Digi Choosday

Let's Craft & Create

Outlawz Sketch

Penny's P-C

Triple B

     We'd love to see you playing along in this challenge.  It runs until December 5 so you have lots of time.  Remember, tis the season to get started making your Christmas cards!

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

FarmQuest Country Christmas January

      I'm still sharing Christmas cards and will be doing so each month for the FarmQuest Country Christmas challenge which runs for a month at a time, starting on the 7th of each month throughout the year.  Each challenge ends on the 5th of the following month.  

     The theme is always Christmas and it must have a country flair.  No big city scenes or modern crowded city streets, just open country scenes of wood land animals or fields.

     This beautiful cardinal image is a coloring book page, sized to fit a card.  I printed it in light sepia tone (20% saturation), then colored the bird and branch with water colors.  I used a Spellbinders die to cut the image.  I printed the sentiment, cut it with an Avery Elle die, and matted it with a scrap of red CS.   I took another scrap strip of red CS, punched one corner with a Fiskars punch, and used it as background.  A really CAS card but one with eye appeal.

     Challenges:

Crafts Galore ...

Kerst Christmas

Merry...Christmas

Morgan's ArtWorld

Outlawz Friday

Peace on Earth

SheepSki Designs

Triple B

     I hope you're not too tired of Christmas to come join us in our Country Christmas Challenge.  We love seeing what you create.  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Christmas Horse and Cardinal

      Good morning (or afternoon or evening, whatever time it is when you visit.)  Today I have two posts done within minutes of each other and both are for different FarmQuest challenges.  This one is for the FarmQuest Country Christmas Challenge (FQCCC.)  In case you missed it, the FarmQuest General Store post is immediately before this one.  Be sure to check it out, too.

     The card was amazingly quick to make.  I know horses aren't exactly traditional CHRISTMAS critters, not like polar bears or penguins, but I found this incredible clip art image, pre-colored, and I just had to use it!  It was perfect for a country Christmas.  I merged the sentiment before printing it.  I added a few white highlights using a polychromos pencil.  I cut the image with a QuicKutz die before layering it on top of a background made with glittery mesh ribbon strips and burlap/baker's twine strings in the very middle.  Rather CAS and the whole thing took less than 15 minutes.

     Challenges:

Christmas Kickstart

Colorful Options

Digi Choosday

Happy...Stampers

Holly & Ivy

Outlawz Friday

Peace on Earth

Triple B (bird, blossoms)

     I hope we're going to see you playing along this month.  I know we're all focused on Christmas (and other December holiday) cards this month, so why not find an image with a country or farm theme and use it to enter our Country Christmas challenge?  See you there.

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie