Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day my American Friends!

I know it has been a while since I have posted - sorry!  I had to slow down my creating for a while - I had medical issues and then I was packing to move, then we moved and now we are living in temporary housing waiting for our house to be built since we could not find one that accommodated all of my physical limitations and Ty's.  All of my stamping stuff is still packed up at the moment (sniff sniff), I imagine I will unpack the basics soon but I have been doing some crocheting, and I wanted to share my latest two creations.

The blanket was made as part of Fiber Flux's Springy Stripes C2C CAL (for those of you who aren't crocheters - C2C means 'corner to corner blanket', one that is crocheted diagonally, and CAL stands for 'crochet along' where patterns are released in pieces to play along with).  I used one skein each of the four Red Heart With Love colors.  I made my blanket so that it is a 36 inch square and was happy to finish it for Ty baby before July 4th this year, to help comfort him during the fireworks.  

I had yarn left over so I decided to attempt Sarah Zimmerman's Patriotic Popsicle Crochet Cuddle Buddy ragdoll pattern over at Repeat Crafter Me.  Here directions were really clear and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to finish the little guy in only 2 days!  

Ty is not a destructive pup by any means, but to err on the side of safety I decided to swap out the safety eyes Sarah used for crocheted ones instead (8 sc into a magic ring, easy peasy) and sewed them to the body.  Sarah's came out much cuter of course...  I will keep trying.  I thought Ty could use him as a pillow, but so far, he has not shown much interest.  

Hope all of you are having a happy and safe 4th and keeping your furbabies safe and comforted too.  

Thank so much for stopping by and for not giving up on me - I will be able to post more regularly once we are unpacked in our new home.  

~ Crafty Math Chick

Inky Paws Challenge 59

Hello everyone!  I know it has been a while since I posted, I am still making cards, crocheting and knitting a whole lot, I just haven't been taking photos of all of my creations and posting them here for you.  One reason is my laptop that has Photoshop elements loaded on it (as well as Vista if you can believe it) isn't working anymore, and I don't want to spend another $100 for a new version that mostly likely will be obsolete again in a few months.  

I was making a birthday card for my dear friend Barbie who LOOOVES dogs and coffee, and when I was finished I realized I had used the colors in the current Inky Paws color challenge: 

Here is my card:

I used one of my favorite NND sets, Fetching Friendship, along with Newton Loves Coffee and a Tim Holtz embossing folder, fussy cut them by hand and colored them with Copic markers.  I sure hope she likes it.  Am I the only one who finds it most difficult making cards for your husbands and closest friends?  Nothing seems 'good enough' you know?

Thanks so much for stopping by - I will try to find a free online photo editing program (PicMonkey has started charging a monthly fee that is more expensive that buying PE) so I can post more often.  I have a lot of crocheted, sewn and knitted projects to share with you too!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving American friends!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Happy 4th Anniversary Newton's Nook Designs!!

Hello everyone!  Newton's Nook Designs is celebrating their 4th YEAR ANNIVERSARY (WOO HOO!) and Jen was kind enough to ask me to play along with the current Design Team members.  I was so honored and humbled.  

Earlier this week Jen debuted the new Winston's Lake House stamp set and its coordinating die:

Well the current Design Team members really knocked it out of the park showing off this new set with their beautiful creations.  When I first saw this stamp set I was really drawn to the loon bird (did Jen hit it out of the park with this illustration or what?!!  She even got the petite white stripes on the bird's neck!  Way to go Jen!)  and the goofy romantic sentiment 'I'm still looney for you' - it is just the kind of thing my hubby would love to get from me for our anniversary, Valentine's Day, or as a little love note (probably because he thinks I am a little looney, LOL!) so I made a card I thought would appeal to him on the masculine side:

I thought the black & white polka dot paper complemented the white dots on the loon's back nicely and created a little eyebrow for expression simply by not coloring that part of the head in black.  I added a little pop of color with the red flag and red rhinestone hearts.  

Jen also introduced a brand new line to the Newton's Nook Designs family this anniversary as well - FOUR new stencil designs!!  That's right - not one, FOUR!  Here is a graphic depicting all four of them:

I think they are all really terrific and the NND DT did such a terrific job showing them all off earlier this week, didn't they?!!  Since I love making dog-themed and cat-themed cards so much I decided to make a birthday card using NND's Pug Hugs stamp set and the brand new Paw Prints stencil :

I just secured the stencil in place with a piece of blue painter's tape and sponged the plum perfect ink over the open paw prints and VOILA!  Pretty neat huh?  My first time working with a stencil too!!  I also tried it with my new Crayola Airbrush kit I got back in December - worked nicely with that too!  And both times, all I had to do to clean the stencil off was run it under the faucet and the ink and marker just washed right off, good as new again - can't get much easier than that!  :)

Would you like to try NND's new stencils for yourself?  Well as part of Newton's Nook's 4th anniversary celebration, you can receive the Paw Prints stencil FREE with a $75 purchase from Newton's Nook Designs!  Cool no?  But the promotion only runs for one week so don't wait too long!

Celebrate with us and enter to win!

To celebrate 4 years Newton's Nook Designs is giving away a $25 store credit to spend in their online shop to 4 lucky winners! 

Here's how to win: 

Comment on the NND Design Team and Special Guest blogs (see list below)! The winner will be chosen at random from the collective blog hop posts. Make sure to check out each of their 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 Sunday, July 16th at 9pm CDT to comment. Winners will be announced on NND blog post on Monday, July 17th and will need to contact us to claim their prize so make sure you check back to see if you've won!

Special Guests:

Taheerah Atchia
Crafty Math-Chick (<-- you are here)
Danielle Pandeline
Stephanie Muzulin
Nina-Marie Trapani
Kimberly Rendino

Newton's Nook Design Team:

Newton's Nook Designs
Amanda Bodine
Holly Endress
Ellen Haxelmans
Larissa Heskett
Samantha Mann
Juliana Michaels
Naki Rager
Jennifer Timko
Tatiana Trafimovich

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and seeing my creations.  Danielle Pandeline is next on the hop, I am sure she has created something spectacular for you to see.  Enjoy!  And have a wonderful weekend!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Cactus' Cactus

Hello everybody!  Certainly has been a while since I posted - sorry about that - I was sick from before Christmas until after Valentine's Day and have been making cards, I just haven't been up to photographing them, Photoshopping those photos, then uploading them here.

I also have really gotten into crocheting and knitting more lately, so some of the time I used to spend making cards is now devoted to playing with yarn, which I can do from the comfort of the sofa in the family room rather than at my craft table.

My favorite type of things to make are blankets and toys for animals in the local animal shelters.  Those of you who know me are aware of my passion for helping animals, and since I can't adopt them all, I want to do what I can to keep them happy, healthy and comfortable while they are waiting for their forever homes.  Having a soft blanket to snuggle with can help a scared pet feel calm, which can increase its chances of being adopted sooner - good things!  I have seen videos of dogs rescued from puppy mills who have only lived in wire cages being placed on soft blankets and pet beds for the first time - their reactions are heart-warming & heart-breaking at the same time.  If you are interested in donating towels (shelters ALWAYS need towels!), blankets, etc. to animal shelters in your area The Snuggles Project has a worldwide directory HERE.

I saw a video of this little pup named 'Cactus' after she had beaten parvo (WOO HOO!) and just fell in love with her!  I have wanted to adopt a sibling for Ty for some time, but after his second spine surgery, his neurosurgeon said his spine is just too fragile to risk him getting accidentally hurt playing with another dog, and he really needs to be 'an only dog'.  Since I would do ANYTHING for Ty, that means I can't adopt Cactus, which breaks my heart a little but I am SO overwhelmed with gratitude to have Ty in my life.  So instead I pray for her and the kind family who is fostering her every day, and purchased a cactus pattern I found from Flo and Dot on etsy and made Cactus a cactus toy to play with and keep her company while she waits for her forever home.

I used Lily Sugar & Cream cotton yarn in Hot Green.  I worked really hard to get my stitches TIGHT since you can see the stuffing through the previous amigurumi items I had made - I yarn under'd for the first part of the sc and then YO'd to complete the stitch - boy, what a difference that made!  Since this is a puppy toy I could not use buttons or safety eyes (don't want to risk them falling off, being swallowed and causing choking or an obstruction) so I crocheted the eyes with 6 sc into a magic ring and added some white highlights using Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn in black and white.  

I created a card using Lawn Fawn's 'Stuck On You' set for her foster parents to read and mailed it off this morning along with some puppy treats I purchased from smile.amazon.com so the Fredericksburg SPCA gets a little donation from my purchase courtesy of Amazon  - have you heard of Amazon Smile?  SUCH an awesome way for a charity of your choice to receive a portion of your purchases at no additional cost to you!  

Be well little Cactus!  Hope you like your goodies and find your forever home soon!  

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Newton's Nook Designs Farewell Post from Crafty Math Chick

Well my friends, they say all good things must come to an end, I am afraid my time as a Design Team member for Newton's Nook Designs has reached that end, at least for now.  Jen has been an AMAZING boss, always supportive and encouraging, and I will always be grateful to her for taking a chance on me.  And I could not have asked for sweeter, more talented Teamies every single term I was blessed to represent NND.  

Unfortunately, I have been faced with some new health concerns, which are also the primary reason I am not returning, and they prevented me from creating something new using Jen's adorable and beautiful designs today I am afraid.  SO I figured instead I would get nostalgic and take you an a trip down memory lane revisiting some of my favorite creations with Newton's Nook Designs stamps and dies.

The first time I ever saw little Newton kitty he drew me into his heart and I made this card for the very first Inky Paw Challenges before I was even a member of the Design Team using one of the first two sets I purchased, Newton's Antics:

And then this one for the same sketch challenge using the other set in my first NND order, Just Say Cheese:

I had so much fun creating my first waterfall card when Jen released NND's Love a la Carte:

I had so much fun creating this little three-dimensional birdhouse using NND's Tweet Talk:

I had fun using Just Say Cheese again to make this fun cheese-slice-shaped card:

I had fun playing with color when Jen released NND's Simply Sentimental with this CAS card ('I'm happy 'around you' - get it?):

did love how this card came out using NND's Spooky Street and lots of fun punches by Martha Stewart and EK Success, doesn't the background just glow?

I really like the elegant appearance of simplicity in Jen's quite ornate designs in NND's Beautiful Blizzard and loved this soft color combination:

I was SO excited when Jen illustrated Flaky Family and included a SNOW PUPPY and a SNOW KITTY in it - THANK YOU JEN!!

Canine Christmas continues to be one of my most favorite holiday sets (hel-LO - Jen included SO many breeds of cute DOGS - and you all know how much I LOVE dogs by now):

As does Newton's Holiday Mischief (my neighbors absolutely LOVED this card - I colored the kitty to look like theirs and had fun designed the front door):

NND's Sweet Summer set still continues to be my 'go-to' set for punny thank you cards like this one:

Fetching Friendship graduation card for our neighbor - I have found that the labrador could easily be turned into a beagle using the right Copic markers:

I have fun thinking out-of-the-box, sometimes my mind goes in unpredictable ways, as it did in this fun card I made when Jen introduced Mermaid Crossing (maybe because I am kind of thinking about Christmas ll year long, even though I am Jewish, LOL!).  The tree was created using a coral image from Tranquil Tides and the crab and fish were from SEAsonal Greetings:

There was just something about this CAS card made with NND's Fox Hollow set that I have always loved (maybe it was because it took me SO many tries to manually cut out the green continents so they looked authentic:

I was PSYCHED when Jen came out with NND's Splendid Stag dies - talk about awesome for masculine cards, which I actually enjoy making, like this rustic one of my favorites (the '#1 Dad' sentiment is from Winston's BBQ):

AS my little furbaby Ty is the sun of my solar system you KNOW I am going to LOVE any supplies that allow me to show him off, like this card using NND's Garden Starter Stamp Set and Garden Window die set (I SO wanted to order a ton of photos of Ty using Shutterfly and use holiday patterned papers and make THIS my holiday card this year!  Maybe next year, if I am lucky.  

Even my husband admits that this card using Newton's Boo-tiful Night was one of his favorites (and he is a tough critic of my work!)  It worked with the DP so perfectly:

A recent favorite used the newly released Serene Silhouettes Stamp and die sets - I love birch trees and all the ADORABLE woodland critters you can incorporate, and the fact that it coordinates with Whispering Pines is a bonus!)

Most recently, I created my birdseed bell ornament tag using NND's Holiday Tweets - this ranks with my most recent favorite as I just love our feathered friends and this beautiful set:

(Okay, so I had planned on sharing my top ten favorites... oops... guess I love Newton's Nook Designs WAAAAY too much to only stop at ten...  sorry for the lengthy post!  But I want Jen to know how much I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of NND, what an honor and pleasure it was to represent NND, to thank ALL Of my Teamies over the terms for all of their inspiration & friendship, and to thank you ALL for all of your kind comments.  I enjoyed reading every single one!  I would LOVE to know which of my cards (here or others I have posted in the past) were YOUR favorites!  It would really warm my heart this holiday season.  :)  PS - it irks me that none of the doxie sets that I love deeply were represented here, sniff sniff!!  

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a very happy & healthy 2017 with lots of crafty goodness to enjoy!  

Warmest Wishes,

Crafty Math Chick

Deck the Halls with Inky Paws 2016 Blog Hop

Welcome to the 2016 'Deck the Halls with Inky Paws' Blog Hop by Newton's Nook Designs!  This is when all of us on the Newton's Nook Designs Team, along with a few special guests, have some fun getting our paws inky and show off how much we LOVE NND and inspire you with some holiday themed creations.

Anyone who knows me is aware it is no secret how much I love dogs, so you know I had to feature one in my hop creation:

I used three different sets by Newton's Nook Designs to create this card for one of my doxie-loving friends.  The snow loving doxie, colored with my Copic markers (E07, E08 & E09) and accompanying sentiment are from NND's Holiday Hounds set.  The grateful-to-have-been-undetected bunnies, as well as the playful red birds, are from NND's new Serene Silhouettes set AND purr-fectly coordinating die set.  The snowy trees in the back are from NND's Whispering Pines set; I really love how the images from these two silhouette sets can be used interchangeably to create wintery scenes of all sorts with all the cute critters in Serene Silhouettes as well as the cute kitty & puppy (thanks Jeff!) silhouette images from Whispering Pines. (NOTE - if NND is out of a set  you are looking for - check Simon Says Stamp - they carry NND too!)

Deck the Halls with Inky Paws Sale! 

Newton's Nook Designs is also having a sale starting today! Spend $25 and get a mini tree tag stamp for free along with FREE shipping on US orders ($3.50 off international) Use code TREETAG to redeem this special! Free/Discounted Shipping is valid through Friday, December 16th. Free stamp is also valid through Friday, December 16th or while supplies last. 

Enter to Win! Deck the Halls with Inky Paws Hop Prizes! 

We will be choosing two lucky winners to win a $20 store credit for Newton's Nook Designs online shop! To enter, just leave comments on the Design Team Member and Guest blogs (see list below)! Two winners will be chosen at random from the collective blogs in the blog hop. Make sure to check out each of their 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 Sunday, December 11th at 9 pm CST to comment  -- winners will be announced on the NND blog on Monday, December 12th.

Newton's Nook Designs
Melody Rupple
Lynn Put
Ruby Naz
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Lydia Evans
Jess Gerstner
Larissa Heskett
Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick  (<-- you are here!!)
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Naki Rager
Kimberly Rendino
Yukari Yoshioka
Gladys Marcelino
Anika Lerche

I hope you have enjoyed my card and it inspired you.  Stephanie Muzzulin is the next stop on the Deck the Halls with Inky Paws Blog Hop, I am sure she has created something spectacular for you to see!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Newton's Nook Design's Inky Paws Challenge #38

Hello Everyone!  Time for another Inky Paws Challenge from Newton's Nook Designs!  This month Jen has picked out a fun & festive color challenge to inspire us for the Inky Paws Challenge #38  inspired by this lovely photograph:

Since I am WAY behind on my Christmas card stash for the upcoming holiday, I decided to go with a traditional Christmas card that was CAS yet elegant at the same time using NND's Beautiful Blizzard and Beautiful Baubles stamp sets:

I added some rhinestones and silver sequins here and there and VOILA!  Card complete!  It really is easy to make such pretty cards that are elegant AND mailing friendly with these sets (and that is SO important as the holiday nears closer and closer!).

Now, the question is what will YOU create with this color combination?  I can't wait to see and hope you will play along with us too because the Challenge winner will receive a $10 store credit to our online store and a Inky Paws Challenge Top Pick Badge to add to your blog! AND - If we get more than 15 participants, we will choose two winners so be sure to tell your friends to play along! 

You have TWO WEEKS to play along - until Friday, December 16th, 2016 at Midnight CST to enter. The winners will be announced on the NND blog.  Good luck!  And have a great weekend!

~ Crafty Math Chick