More Thanks

The last two thank you's I had to give I sent in the mail so I went with some less bulky cards.  Still using a card making magazine image and paper, this one has the sentiment with the image,  I cut the image out with a square die that I layered onto a purple cardstock to mat it.

Making Cards July 2016 - flower image and paper
Spellbinders - Square dies

The second card I cut the flower out and added a sentiment with a die.

Making cards Magazine July 2016- flower image
Memory Box - Stitched Rectangle layer die
Crafters companion - Thank you die, cut twice and layered

Hope you all are staying safe and well, thanks for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Simple Life

For my birthday gift to myself I went to my Local stamp store and bought some new goodies.  I found this gorgeous paper pack that just said spring to me and I also found this little package of ephemera, aren't they ever cute.

I thought these would work great for the Sisterhood of Crafters Spring challenge.

Another card going out to one of the single ladies in our church. 

49 and Market - Coral Mini collection paper
Simple Stories - Simple Vintage, Garden District Bits and Pieces pack

As you have heard we are to stay apart for another month, I think I knew it was coming but I took it a bit hard yesterday, wishing he would have just said another two weeks.  But I do no this is the best thing for us all and we have to constantly be looking toward the positive in all of this and not lingering on the negative.  I wanted to share an update for those of you that may have prayed for my hubby's cousins daughter, after a week in the hospital and on the oxygen she is now off and doing so much better, Praise the Lord.  I know so many have not had the same outcome of their family members and my heart so goes out to them.  May we all do what is right in order that more families don't have to go through this.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, and hope you find some time to create!

Hugs,
Connie

Thank you

With all the challenges I have been doing lately I never did share the thank you's I had made for my friends for the gifts they gave me for my birthday.  I was going to hand deliver them so I went with some decoupage sheets that came inside the Craft Essentials Series 101 magazine.  I could have layered them thicker but I only did 3 layers on these.  You have to hand cut these out from sheets, and I wanted them to still fit inside the envelope too. These cards are a little bigger than I am use to making they were 5 x 6 1/2 inches.

The colors and prints on these are so pretty. They also had sentiment tags to choose from to put on them.

Craft Essentials Series 101 Decoupage sheets

I love the vintage feel these have.

This virus has hit a little closer to home for a family member, my hubby's cousins daughter has tested positive for the virus and is hospitalized, last update was that now that she is in the hospital she is doing better. I know many of us are praying daily for family and friends that still have to work everyday because they are considered essential and for those brave men and women that are working hard to take care of those hospitalized.  May God grant healing of our nation and world and end this very soon.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Rub on Watercolor

In my stamp group we have decided to take turns each week and have a challenge for us to work on and the first one is to use a technique where you use the sheet that comes with your clear stamp set, add your watercolor to the back of the sheet and then smoosh it onto your paper.  Now for these I used watercolor paper but the other girls in the group had better luck with regular card, so I am going to try that out in the future and see which one I like best.

You can watch the video HERE as you can see she does all the smooshing of her color first and then stamps here image over it, and that is how I did this first one.  I used Distress inks that I watered down on my palette for the cage, flower and leaves and the oxide ink for the butterfly.

Hot off the press - Mystic Garden stamp set and Black Jewel stickers
Paper smooches - Happy Birthday sentiment
Distress inks - Abandoned coral, Hickory smoke, Mowed Lawn
Distress Oxide - Scattered Straw
PPD - Distressed Edge Rectangle

The girls in the group were talking that they are going to try stamping first and then smooshing the ink on which to me sounded a lot easier so I decided to try another card using the same stamp set doing the technique that way. I added a few splatters of some yellow sparkle marker that I watered down for the background.

Hot off the press - Mystic Garden stamp set
Distress Oxide - Faded Jeans
BasicGrey - Periphery paper
Spectrum noir - Sunshine yellow sparkle pen
Recollections - lace on a roll
Cuttlebug - corner die cuts

Hope you are all staying well,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by, let me know if you decide to try this technique!

Connie

Tiger Lilies

Sharing in Hero Arts Stay Crafty challenge I am getting this in under the wire but I decided to do 3 cards so it took me some time to get them done.

I decided to go with 3 different colors.

I took a close up of just this one lily stamp, you layer 3 stamps on one another to get this look!

Hero Arts - Color Layering Tiger Lily stamp set
Spellbinders - Picot edge circle, Floral Doily Motif and classic ovals lg dies
Crafter's companion - die sentiment
Paper studio - gems

Hero Arts - Color Layering Tiger Lily stamp set
Graphic 45 - Botanical tea paper
Tim Holtz - Crochet die
Spellbinders - Grommet tags and Floral ovals dies
My Favorite things - More Essentials sentiment stamp
Brads

Hero Arts - Color Layering Tiger Lily stamp set
Spellbinders - Floral Ovals and A2 Scalloped Borders two dies
Raspberry Road Designs - Love Lives Here paper

Hope you all are staying well.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Just a note

Continuing to make cards for those in my church who are either in Assisted living or are single living alone. Today is for a lady living alone.  When you can't think of what to do it is best to turn to challenges out there to get your inspiration going and today I went with the Dies R Us Challenge of things with wings.  I decided to use a bird die that I don't know I have tried before, there are 4 birds in this set and I have used the cardinal a few times but thought I would change it up and use a blue jay this time.  I colored him using distress inks with a dauber and on the parts I wanted it to be a darker blue I used a Q-tip.  For the eye center I used some black enamel.

I framed it by using a die that only cuts out the center portion of the paper, Used a flourish leaf die for the bird to perch on and then thought I needed something a little more so went through my stash of already punched items and found these little flowers to add.  I put some white enamel dots for the centers.  The sentiment sticker comes in silver so I colored it with my markers to a brown.

Cheery Lynn Designs - Feathered Friends and Fanciful Flourish dies
Spellbinders - A2 Matting basics A and Noble Rectangles dies
Enamel Accents - Black for eye and White for flower centers
Punched flowers
Hot off the press - 130 tiny words & phrases sentiment sticker colored w/ brown marker

I hope this finds you all well and keeping busy with creating!!
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and say Hi,

Connie

Birthday Bouquet

I am sharing another card I did for a challenge, this time the theme was birthday, well that isn't hard since probably 95% of the cards I make are birthday cards :)  This time the optional theme was die cutting or fussy cutting, I used both in this bouquet, the stamped flowers were fussy cut and the dimensional ones were die cut.  You can find out more about Time out challenge HERE .

I started with stenciling the background, I stamped the mason jar next on and fussy cut that out, then stamped all the berries branches, fussy cut those, then decided to add more flowers this time with die cuts and added a few more leaves also to fill it in.

The Greetery - Mason Jar filler stencil, Just mason around stamp set and Budding Beauties Autumn stamp set
Tim Holtz - Tiny tattered florals dies
Nuvo  - Golden sunset glitter drops for flower centers

I know this looks a little on the Autumn side for a spring birthday but I just had to create with this set again, just love it!

I hope you all are staying well throughout this time, I was so excited to be able to worship with our church family on Sunday even if it was over the internet, I could close my eyes and just imagine everyone in their homes praising God at the same time.

Praying you all are staying well during this time.  Hubby and I got out yesterday and went to a few places and actually saw some budding trees with flowers, even though it was cloudy and chilly out it is such a welcoming sight in these times.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Poinsettia Bouquet

I am sharing the 4 Christmas cards I finished for the month of March.  I started off looking for a stamp to do for my stamp groups challenge and came across this stamp set that I hadn't used yet and just had to use it, so I will be adding this to the  CAS Christmas Challenge , which is winter flower.

On all of these I colored them with markers, and added wink of stella to the centers.  I just colored the bows different colors and as you can see I even forgot to color some of the leaves so each one is just a little different too :)

Taylored Expressions - Poinsettia Bouquet stamp set, colored w/markers
PPD - Stitched Curvy Coved die
My Mind's eye - O Christmas tree paper
Sequins

Lawn Fawn - Fancy Scalloped Rectangle
Sequins

Melissa Frances - Wreath
Spectrum noir sparkle pen - Forest walk on leaves of wreath
Sizzix - Tags rounded die

Melissa Frances - Wreath die cut twice and layered
Spellbinders - Lacey Ovals die

If I can continue to keep this up, I just may have what I need by Christmas :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, take care,

Connie

Color Challenge

My card making group had a new challenge and it is a color challenge, when I read the colors I thought oh my what am I going to do with those colors, when I couldn't sleep early this morning this card came to mind :)

The colors we were to use are... Lime Green, Brown, Pink and Turquoise.  Now I went through all my stuff and these colors are the closest I could come to Turquoise.  Before I put the gems onto the pink flowers they looked more turquoise. The embossed piece is one I had in my stash and I just cut it out and inked the inside while the die was still in the paper.

I have started to make cards for those in our church that live alone, starting with those that are in nursing homes or assisted living, I am hoping that the bright colors brightens her day.

Lawn Fawn - Outside stitched scalloped rectangle die
Spellbinders - Labels eight die
Tim Holtz - small tattered florals dies
Our Daily bread designs - Hello die
Me & my big ideas - gems

We have just got the word to shelter in place here in Illinois. We are told that we can go get groceries or to the pharmacy or doctor but that is it and not to be in contact with anyone else but those in our families.  I sure do hope all these precautions we are taking will stop this quickly and things can get back to normal.  The cases in Illinois has really jumped over the past 24 hours but when you hear all the deaths in Italy after the past 24 hours it hits home and lets you know how important this all is.

Pray that you all stay well, and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Easter Lilies

This is one of those stamps I picked up at my local stamp stores yard sales, it had the word Lilies on the stamp also but I didn't stamp that part since I wanted to use it as an Easter card.  I stamped it in gray ink, thought that might look better than black since I wanted them to be white Lilies.

PSX - K1276 Lilies stamp, colored w/markers
Spellbinders - A2Devine Eleoquence  and A2 matting basics A dies
Papertrey ink - Hodge Podge paper
Stamps of Life - Postmarks 2 stamp sentiment
Flower punch
Stampin up brad

I am adding this to the following challenges:

Sisterhood of Crafters
Flower Challenge blog

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

From me to you

I did a little bit of watercoloring on these dies using my distress inks, the water color paper was some old stuff I had that isn't very thick and it didn't take the color in spots like I would have liked and it was hard getting it to lighten up, paper quality sure does make a difference.

I am sure getting a lot of use out of these papers that Leslie was so sweet to gift me, that bird was so cool and I just had to figure out a way to use him and this is what I came up with.  I added some blue sparkle pen to the flower tips and a crochet lace die to bring out more of the blues that are in the paper.

Tim Holtz - Wildflower stems #2 and Crochet dies
BasicGrey - Periphery Paper
Distress inks - Faded Jeans, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint
Martha Stewart - Tag punch
Our Daily Bread designs - Mini tag sentiments stamp
Spectrum noir - Sparkle Teacup pen (flower tips)
Jute

We enjoyed beautiful sunshine yesterday, at these times it felt good to have the sun again. Today it is cloudy and raining, guess time to get some cleaning done and of course when I am done with that more crafting time :)

Hope you are all staying well, and hope you get some of that creative time in too!
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Oh Happy Day

Wow it sure has been some interesting times we are going through right now, lots of changes to the way we do things and our routine.  I thought it was time for me to make a happy card and when I came across this coloring calendar image with this sentiment I thought well there it is :)

I colored it all with pencil, except for the sentiment that I did with my fine tip markers to get into those little spaces. Little glitter pen to the water, windows and clouds.  Added some very colorful paper, matted it on some card stock  and I was done!

Cheerful Journey 2018 coloring calendar - image colored with pencils and marker on sentiment
October Afternoon - Seaside papers
Wink of Stella - clear glitter pen on Windows, water and clouds

Hope you are all well and able to have some creative time!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Special day

In my card making group one of the ladies challenged us to go in our craft rooms and use some of our older supplies and make some cards and get away from our televisions and whatever else that is giving us all this information about the virus and just enjoy some creative time.  This is the card I came up with.

I was hoping to use my flocking for the center of my flower but after my "organizing" now I can't find it, Uggghhhh!  I guess I need to quite trying to organize my room, LOL!

Hot off the press - Instant card art, pretty colors for the tag
BasicGrey - brad
K&co. - K-ology Hannah paper
Martha Stewart - border punch
Tim Holtz - Tattered Florals die
Art Glitter - Bananan , flower center

We are actually seeing buds on our trees, I am getting so excited for spring to come.
Hope you are all staying well,
Thanks for stopping by,

Connie

Thanks for everything

After I had whatever was embedded in my eye taken out, I was talking to one of the girls in my church about how thankful I was to have it removed and that the Doctor didn't give up on me that he kept trying to figure out what could be going on, I told her laughingly that I even felt like I should make him a card.  She said oh you should, how many times do they get that, probably not very much.  I know he knew how thankful I was I cried and must have said it 4 times before leaving but I thought, he would probably like to have a card saying it too, so this is what I came up with, since personally I don't know him very well I just went with a simple masculine design.

Hot off the press - Instant card art, pretty colors for sentiment tags
Impression Obsession - bare tree die
Ms. Sparkle & co. - paper

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Watercolor Roses

Practicing more of my watercoloring with my Daniel Smith paints.  I was pretty happy with them until I saw them close up on my computer screen, I see I need more work in blending out the harsh lines, but practice makes perfect right, we learn from what we have done.

I first embossed them with Antique Gold embossing powder.

I believe I mentioned before I have never taken art classes, so I have no idea what colors mixed makes what, hubby laughs at me when he tries to teach me stuff like that.  Well I only have four colors right now so I mixed my blue and green and got this Aqua looking color that I thought would be pretty for a flower.  I also did some mixing to get the colors for the butterfly too!

Hot off the press - Watercolor Roses stamp set
Altenew - Antique gold embossing powder
Daniel Smith - Watercolors paints

We decided to go to a Secretary of State office in a town about 40 miles away yesterday as to avoid the big crowds at the one in our town. We sat a little over an hour to be seen and then I didn't have my marriage certificate to get my real ID driver's license, so we headed back home, picked that up and went to the one here in town, I stood in a line for about 15 minutes to show all my papers I needed to get the license and she said my utility bill wouldn't work because I had torn the bottom portion off, I said yeah I have to do that to pay it, she said sorry it has to all be there, even though the two pages had my name and address at the top.  I think I started having a bit of a panic attack or something, but remembered hearing at the other place that someone could use their voter's registration card so while she was talking to another gentlemen, I got mine out of my wallet and handed it to her and she said ok that would work, it took another 1 1/2 hours to get my license after that but it was finally done, why that whole experience has got to go so hard I don't know, but I am good for another 4 years, YAH!!!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Wren & Wreath

I thought I would use another die that I got out of the Crafters Companion Advent Calendar this last year, I colored it up with some markers.  I spent an evening a little while back stamping some of these layered stamp birds so I would have them on hand, all I managed to get done was the Wren's in the set I need to do it again using the Robin's it is nice to be able to just grab and use them when I want.

I sponged in the center of the wreath with some blue ink and now I wish I would have added a little more, I popped the bird's body but left the feet to sit on the leaf.  Stamped the sentiment directly onto the pattern paper.

The Greetery - Robin and Wren stamp set
Crafter's companion - Wreath die, colored w/markers
BasicGrey - Periphery paper
Fiskars - sentiment stamp

I have to go and get my real ID driver's license today, wish me luck, it took us 3 hours to get hubby's done, hoping it is much less time for me.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Florals

Over on the Poppystamps blog they have a Floral Fantasy Challenge.  I decided to use some pattern paper for my flowers, added a stem to one of them.  A few little gems topped it off.

Poppystamps - Stitched bloom trio, Curvy stems and Tailored stitches dies

Homespun - Signature collection papers

Memory Box - Butterfly delights die

Queen & co. - Blue Jelly gems

Technique Tuesday - Happy Birthday stamp

 I am also sharing this with the Sisterhood of Crafters Pattern paper challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

Connie

Photo Inspiration

Time out challenge blog has a photo inspiration challenge going on right now.  I will have to say that the colors in this photo are not ones that I would put together or even have, I am a earthy tones kind of gal but it is a challenge right and I am hoping the person I am sending this too will find it fun and happy!

I used the colors in the photo and also the framing idea and you just have to add some flowers :)

Here is the photo we were to go by.

BasicGrey - Periphery paper
Impresssion Obsession - Rectangle 6 in 1 frame die
Jot - flower sticker
Melissa Frances - Vintage frames
Our daily bread designs - Mini tag sentiment

A couple weeks ago when I was trying to organize my craft room more I came across these little frames that I have had for quite a few years, I bought them thinking they were so cute but it is time to actually use them so when I saw this challenge I decided to get one out.

You can see more of the dimension in this picture.

It would have been neat to use them all that were in the package but there is a bit of weight to the frames and I am going to try and mail this.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Relax

Breaking out my coloring calendar images again, I don't think I could possibly use all of these in a year and I have 4 years of these calendars, they are so fun to look through and try to find something that will fit the person I am making a card for, this one is going out to our nephew on my hubby's side, hoping he can take out some time to just relax on his birthday.  Snails always make me think of slowing down and taking it easy.

I colored the image with pencils, then found some sticker letters for the sentiment but it still looked a little bare to me, since I was already using browns in the snail I colored the branch to be like an aspen tree, so I went through my dies to find some leaves that were close to looking like aspen leaves and inked them up, I love how these spellbinder dies you can ink through the die while the cardstock is still inside and get the veins in the leaves to pop!

Coloring for calm 2017 calendar, image colored w/pencils
Art -C - cardstock
Spellbinders - Fall Foliage die (leaf)
Letter stickers

I am feeling much better today, I think getting the flu shot this year sure helped us not get the flu so hard as I have when not getting the shot.  Hope you all are well. We are getting into the 60's how great is that, need to sit out on the deck and soak up the sun!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by

Pretty Birthday

More goodies I received from Esther, this flower layered goodie, the papers and the sentiment piece were all some sweet lovelies she sent, I have been waiting to use it for cards that I hand deliver since there is such great dimension to the flower, don't you just love the layering she did, the paper didn't quite fit my card so I added some corrugated paper I have and I added a stamped sentiment to the tag along with some gems.

DCWV - Corrugated Neutrals papers
Papers, tag and sentiment label from blog friend
Gina K - sentiment stamp
Me & my big ideas - gems

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Pattern Papers

Sisterhood of Crafters Blog has a new challenge to use Pattern papers. I had just a small amount left of these papers and so I decided to use them for every part of this card.  I had  cut a piece out of the background paper awhile ago and used in another card but I saved the remaining piece and it worked great for this card, I just added a piece of tan paper behind, you know to use more of pattern paper and then stamped my flowers using brown ink onto more pattern paper trying to align the center of the flowers with the pinks in the paper, hand cut them out.

This paper is double sided so I used the back of it for the leaves and the sentiment tag.  Since I thought I had enough leaves around the flowers I used the other two that I had bunched out to lay on the ribbon I used and added a gem to top them off.  I still have some small pieces left so I got out my butterfly punch and added them too, I was trying to use as much of the paper I could without looking to busy, not sure if I pulled it off or not but I liked the finish product :)

Autumn Leaves - Flower stamps
Spellbinders - Blossom and Labels trio dies
Martha Stewart - Leaf and butterfly punches
Stampendous - Birthday assortment sentiment stamp
Stampin up - Rhinestone large
Nuvo - crystal drops - Carnation pink
Distress stickles - Worn lipstick
Ribbon

I think hubby and I have been hit with a very light form of the flu, I am thinking probably because we actually got our flu shot this year, this is the first I have ever gotten and they say that if you do catch something it helps to make the symptoms not so bad and in our case it hasn't been too bad at all, mainly headache, mild body aches and very tired.  Hope you are all able to stay well, hopefully it won't be long and spring will come and we will be over the bad part of flu season.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie