Newton's Nook Designs' March Release ~ Day 1

Greetings!  Welcome to the first day of Newton's Nook Designs' March Release!  Jen has created some adorable sets for you (doesn't she always?) starting with 'Hello Spring':

Some images of our cute soon-to-be-named bunny, some chickies , flowers, Easter eggs, butterflies - something for everyone!  I decided to show some of the little chickies some love with a CAS card:

It doesn't show up well in the photo, but my friend Anna (who happens to raise chickens) taught me this technique using a ruler and a tracing wheel to create a faux stitched border around the outer edges of the card - the sponging really accentuates it, I love the effect!

Would you like to win a 'Hello Spring' 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, March 17th at 9 pm CDT to comment -- the winner will be announced on the blog post on Friday, March 18th. 

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
Kelly Latevola - Guest Designer

Jess is the next stop on the release hop - I am sure she has created something spectacular for you to see!  Enjoy!  Have a great day - and thanks for stopping by!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Newton's Nook Designs Post ~ Newton SPINS over YARN!

Hello.  Today it is my turn to be featured on the Newton's Nook Designs Blog.  When I first saw Newton kitty on the BIG ball of yarn from the newly released 'Newton Unwinds' set, I immediately pictured it on a spinner card - so that is what I made for you today:

I created the background of yarn balls in all the colors of the rainbow using images from Newton Unwinds and the previously released 'Newton's Antics' set.  I colored Newton's HUGE yarn ball to match this pretty variegated yarn I purchased at Michaels (Loops & Threads Charisma Baby yarn, in the color 'Toy Train', you can kind of see it to the right of the card in the picture) that I am going to use for a prayer blanket for my Ty Baby (he is having a lump removed on Friday, we are praying that is all that will need to be done and he can heal afterwards without further treatment; any prayers or positive thoughts you can offer on his behalf are appreciated more than you know!).  Since it common in crochet to finish things off with a scalloped shell stitched border, I used my shell shaped Martha Stewart edger punch to highlight the sentiment at the bottom.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and thank you for any prayers offered up on our Ty Baby's behalf.  

~ Crafty Math Chick

SNSDC77 ~ Stitching

Happy Friday Friends & Followers - you know what that means - time for a new Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Challenge!  This week we are challenged to incorporate stitching into your digi image card.  I figured it was the perfect opportunity to showcase Sew Happy Cocoa Mouse:

I used a paper piercer and punched holes around the edge of the image and then hand stitched with 2 of the 6 skeins of a pink embroidery floss (I envisioned it coming out a lot better in all honesty).  I topped the card off with a sentiment from the Sew Happy Cocoa Clear Stamp set so it will also qualify as Patricia Hayes' (a fellow SNSDC teamie!) HYCCT Challenge (also sponsored by SNSS - WOO HOO!) You Have Me In Stitches Challenge - to incorporate stitching into a humorous card for one of the patients at the Anderson Cancer Center.  It also fulfills the requirements of the following additional challenges:

• Delightful Challenges Stitching Challenge,
• Chocolate Coffee and CArds Challenge 24 - Stitching, Real or Faux. 

     Hope you will join us and play along with our Digi Challenge - you don't need to use a SNSS digi, any digi will do, but we spotlight one person who uses SNSS digis on their card or project every week, and it could be YOU!  And every card you enter throughout October, you will get one entry to be eligible for winning 3 digis of your choice from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Store - so play along every week to increase your chances to win!  Happy Stamping!
~ Crafty Math Chick

TGF Customer Chat & Challenge

Hello Friends & Followers!  Last night I had the honor of hostessing The Greeting Farm's April Customer Chat & Challenge over on Splitcoaststampers - it was a BLAST!  The chat might be over, but you have until Monday at 1 pm EST to upload your card - so I hope you will play along (also, the prize is AH-MAZE-ZING if you need that kind of extra incentive).  The theme was 'musicals' and the challenge was to create a card using a musical play or movie as inspiration using your TGF stamps.  Here is the first one:

(Please click on the photo for clearer resolution - I have no idea why Blogger is making my photos look fuzzy lately, they look fine once you click on them).  I don't have a lot of TGF stamps, so I had to kind of work backwards, looking at the stamps and saying 'What musical could these represent?"  When I saw this kitty image in TGF's Fur-ever set (LOL, which had puppies in it of course) I thought of the poster for the Broadway play 'CATS' which is predominantly black with a yellow cat's eye in the middle with folks dancing over the pupil, so that is what inspired this layout.  This card also fulfills the following additional challenges:

• Annabelle Stamps Challenge - Say it in Black, 
• Paper and Such Online Challenge - CAS Challenge,
• Crafter's Companion Monthly Challenge 23 - Four-legged Friends,
• Critter Sketch Challenge 110 - Critters (fitting no?  LOL!),
• Crafty Catz Challenge 128 - Animals, and
• Fab 'n Funky Challenge 116 - On All Fours.

I made a second sample for the challenge as well.  This time based on the musical movie 'White Christmas' with Bing Crosby:

I thought little Holiday Anya's outfit reminded me of that scene at the end of the movie when the main characters are dressed up like Santa & Mrs. Claus standing around the Christmas tree and they open the back door to see it is finally snowing at the lodge (sorry if that was a spoiler for some folks who haven't seen the movie yet).  I created a snowy scene tearing some pre-glittered white paper by DCWV (doesn't show up super sparkly in this photo, but it is IRL) and used a piece of patterned paper from their winter stack to make it look like it is snowing in the background as well.  I punched the tree out of Garden Green cardstock with an EK Success tree punch and added some rhinestones as ornaments and the star on top (I meant to string some silver or gold cord back and forth to look like a garland, but forgot and attached it to the card first, DOH!).  This was my first attempt coloring 'TGF hair' - what do you think of how it came out?  This card also fulfills the requirements of Do You Stack Up's Challenge 67 - Glitter & Bling (sponsored in part by TSG - WOO HOO!!)
     Thank you all for stopping by to see my creations and read my ramblings!  I hope you have a GREAT weekend and hope to be posting more for you to see later today or tomorrow.  Cheers!
~Crafty Math Chick