Get Well Soon

Hello everyone!  I received some sad news recently, a friend, who is one of the most positive people I know, is having a medical struggle.  In the hopes of cheering her, I made her this card using kitties from Newton's Antics (which has a matching die BTW, which I also used, so handy!) & Newton's Sick Day:

I wanted to include a little something in the card, so I found a pattern for a support ribbon by the Crochetbug HERE in the appropriate color and crocheted a small ribbon for my friend.  I didn't want to adhere it to the card and make the back all sticky in case she wanted to repurpose it.  So I stacked two 1/4" Pop It's on top of one another to bring the kitties up to a 1/8" height, which is the width of the ribbon, and strategically placed one kitty at the top and one kitty at the bottom so that they hold the ribbon in place during card viewing but it can also be easily removed and pinned on a label or a hat or tucked into a pocket as a little reminder that she is strong and that I am thinking of her and praying for a successful treatment and a smooth & speedy recovery and that I care about her very much.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by my blog!  Have a great day!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Newton's Nook Designs Holiday Release ~ Day 4

Welcome back for the FOURTH (WOO HOO!) and final day of Newton's Nook Designs' Holiday Release.  I am SOOOO in love with today's set - MORE FOXES!!!  EEEEE!!  Introducing 'Fox Hollow': 

For some reason, when I first saw this set, I envisioned the gentle fox sleeping peacefully on top of the Earth, like this:

I couldn't find a globe die or an image of the Earth in any of my Cricut cartridges, so I did my best to cut out the land in green free hand (hope you geography majors out there will be kind, cutting out the continents is trickier than I originally imagines) after punched circles from green & blue cardstock.  I think it loos pretty good considering I did it using scissors...  Ty frequently sleeps in this cute position too, dogs and foxes are related after all, do your dogs sleep like this too?

I also envisioned the side view fox looking up at a starry sky, taking a deep breath, and enjoying the cool winter air and sense of goodwill towards men (or foxes in this case) and peace on Earth that is so prominent this time of year.  I was excited to bring that vision to life with this card:

  

This is another card where I 'let the patterned paper do the work for me,' starting me off with a snowflake flurry filled sky.  Of course, I added plenty of my own heat embossing, rhinestones and sequin elements.  The snowdrift was die cut from pre-glittered white cardstock (the sparkle isn't showing up well in this photo, but it is there IRL).  Of all the cards I made for this release, thee two are my favorites!

And in case you didn't notice - this set has coordinating DIES too!  A little tip: I leave the dies for the main images stuck together, removing only the smaller pieces with a scissors, and run the whole thing through my Cuttlebug at once - I stamp them all right away and put the ones I don't use immediately in the backside of the plastic envelope for the corresponding NND stamp set - that way if I need to whip up a card super quick, some images are all set, ready to go!  :)  

Would you like to win 'Fox Hollow' Stamp wet?

This set will be given away to ONE lucky winner!!

 Here's how to win:

 Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)! The winner will be chosen at random from the collective blogs' release posts. Make sure you check out each of the blogs and comment for your chance to win. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning! You have until Thursday, October 15th at 9 pm CDT to comment -- the winner will be announced on the blog post on Friday, October 16th. 

Check out all these awesome Design Team & Guest Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs

Lydia Evans
Larissa Heskett
Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick
Jess Gerstner
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Nina-Marie Trapani
Kimberly Rendino
Yukari Yoshioka
Anette Allen - Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Jess Gerstner is the next stop on the hop, I am sure she has created something spectacular for you to see!  Enjoy!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Newton's Nook Designs Holiday Release ~ Day 3

Welcome back to the THIRD day of Newton's Nook Designs' Holiday Release Reveals!  Today's set is going to thrill all you Newton & kitty lovers out there - introducing Newton's Christmas Cuddles AND the matching dies too!

I have a confession - I have a LOT of designer paper, more than I could probably use in a lifetime, so I am trying to make more of an effort to use more of it rather than hoarding it.  So the 'technique' I invoked for today's card I call 'making your patterned paper work for you' where you find papers that matches your stamps in fun ways.  Here I used another slice from a Recollections holiday stack.  I thought about the display windows and decorations that they set up in the middle of shopping malls and when I saw the bottom border of this sheet of cardstock I envisioned a display of BIG presents or maybe presents lined up under the tree with Newton peeking out of his gift box hidden among them:

I feel kinda bad not using the images where Newton was actually 'cuddling' like the title of the set, but I wanted to make sure this image got some love too - and it is perfect for any gift giving occasion really - birthdays, anniversaries, valentine's day, you name it!

So, are you like me?  Do you have a lot of patterned paper stashed away?  More than you can use?  Or am I the only one? 

Would you like to win 'Newton's Christmas Cuddles' stamp set?

This set will be given away to ONE lucky winner!!

 Here's how to win:

 Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)! The winner will be chosen at random from the collective blogs' release posts. Make sure you check out each of the blogs and comment for your chance to win. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning! You have until Thursday, October 15th at 9 pm CDT to comment -- the winner will be announced on the blog post on Friday, October 16th. 

Check out all these awesome Design Team & Guest Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs

Lydia Evans
Larissa Heskett
Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick
Jess Gerstner
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Nina-Marie Trapani
Kimberly Rendino
Yukari Yoshioka
Anette Allen - Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Jess Gerstner is the next stop on the hop, I am sure she has created something spectacular for you to see!  Enjoy! 

~ Crafty Math Chick

Newton's Nook Designs Holiday Release ~ Day Two

Welcome back for the second reveal hop day for Newton's Nook Designs' Holiday Release!  Since Jen's Flaky Family Flamingo set was such a hit she decided to design a holiday set using her pretty pink feathered friends - introducing 'Festive Flamingos':

Aren't they sweet?!!  I decided to combine the adorable wreath-wearing flamingo with some Recollections patterned paper with pink sparkly trees on it for my card:

I wish you could see this card in person, those trees and the Stickles I added to the punched icicle border at the top and to hot pink wreath (I know it looks red in this picture) sparkles SO MUCH in real life!  

Would you like to win 'Festive Flamingos' stamp set?

This set will be given away to ONE lucky winner!!

 Here's how to win:

 Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)! The winner will be chosen at random from the collective blogs' release posts. Make sure you check out each of the blogs and comment for your chance to win. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning! You have until Thursday, October 15th at 9 pm CDT to comment -- the winner will be announced on the blog post on Friday, October 16th. 

Check out all these awesome Design Team & Guest Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs

Lydia Evans
Larissa Heskett
Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick
Jess Gerstner
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Nina-Marie Trapani
Kimberly Rendino
Yukari Yoshioka
Anette Allen - Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Jess Gerstner is the next stop on the hop, I am sure she has created something spectacular for you to see!  Enjoy!  

~ Crafty Math Chick

Newton's Nook Designs' Holiday Release ~ Day 1

Welcome to the first day of Newton's Nook Designs' October Release!  Jen has created some ADORABLE sets for you this month, you'll want 'em ALL!  Today she has decided to sneak a whimsical set of animal couples - prefect for the holidays, valentine's day, any time to you to let someone know you love them.  Introducing 'Holiday Smooches':

I was inspired by this pretty wreath ornament I saw Chari Moss create years ago to make a wreath ornament (not sure you can really call it an ornament, it is about 5-6 inches in diameter) of my own:

I wrapped a sheer ribbon around the wreath (purchased from the dried naturals department at Michaels) and tied it to create a hanger, then I took a piece of red tinsel ribbon and tied it to the base of the hanger for a pop of color and sparkle.  The 'holly berries' were part of one of those holiday picks - I simply cut off some of the wire stems off and woe them through the wreath (the wire stems bents nice and easily to secure them in place!)  I was going to add punched holly leaves around them but thought it looked better this way.  Then I stamped the bears and doves and colored them with my Copic markers and fussy cut them out by hand and nestled the polar bears into a cotton ball 'snowbank': 

and hung the love birds with a silver cord tied around the wreath so that the mistletoe dangled above them:

So, what do you think?  Would you hang something like this on your door or tree?  Should I make more of them with different critters?  It was really quite easy and fun to make, I hope you like it!

Would you like to win 'Holiday Smooches' stamp set?

This set will be given away to ONE lucky winner!!

 Here's how to win:

 Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)! The winner will be chosen at random from the collective blogs' release posts. Make sure you check out each of the blogs and comment for your chance to win. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning! You have until Thursday, October 15th at 9 pm CDT to comment -- the winner will be announced on the blog post on Friday, October 16th. 

Check out all these awesome Design Team & Guest Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs
Lydia Evans
Larissa Heskett
Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick
Jess Gerstner
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Nina-Marie Trapani
Kimberly Rendino
Yukari Yoshioka
Anette Allen - Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Jess Gerstner is the next stop on the hop, I am sure she has created something spectacular for you to see!  Enjoy!  

~ Crafty Math Chick

Newton's Nook Designs Sponsors The Hop to Stop Domestic Violence

Today it is my turn to post on the Newton's Nook Designs blog and I wanted to use this opportunity to let you know about a blog hop going on (Newton's Nook Designs is one of the sponsors too!  WOO HOO!  Aren't Jen & Jeff crazy generous?!!) to increase awareness about domestic violence -- The Hop To STOP Domestic Violence, hope you will check it out HERE.  PURPLE is featured as it represents Domestic Violence Awareness and it is National Domestic Violence Awareness month!  Did you know 1 out of every 3 women experience domestic violence in their lifetimes?  One in THREE!  That's a HUGE number, and quite tragic in my opinion.  And not everyone affected by domestic violence is female!  Please stop by Becca Cruger's Blog for all the details of the hop and to learn about how YOU can participate, show off that purple, raise awareness for this important issue and perhaps win one of $500 worth of prizes too!  

I decided to incorporate my purple in a birthday card for my MIL using images and sentiments from NND's Winged Wishes and Holiday Wishes:

I used one of Martha Stewart's punch-around-the-page punch kits to create the fancy shell border for the  the purple (Blackberry Bliss actually) cardstock and though it would look regal placed on top of some silver foil to really make the shell pattern stand out.  My husband loves heat embossing, he thinks it looks so classy & elegant, so I decide to use it on his Mother's card.  My in-laws have more CAS-style tastes, so I tailored the card to fit their preferences.  I hope you like it!

If you have extra cards in your stash Community Violence Intervention Center in Grand Forks, ND, a non-profit center that provides emergency shelter, legal advocacy, housing assistance and therapy, is happy to accept them for the people who seek their help.  Becca has more info. on her blog about that.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember... 

If heaven forbid you ever experience domestic violence yourself, PLEASE reach out for help and call the 24/7 confidential National Domestic Violence Helpline at 1-800-799-7233

~ Crafty Math Chick