Trees

 Our Christmas Challenge for August was to use Trees on our Christmas card. and or watercolor.  I did the trees in most of the cards but only a little watercolor. 

 I know I am late posting last month cards but when I was at Michael's the other day and I saw this layered stencil, and our theme was trees I had to get it. I dotted some silver pen on the trees to give them a bit of snowy look, and you can't see it well but on the bottom I used glue pen on the base instead of ink and then added some glitter for a snowy base.  Stamped and fussy but the little snowman.

• Recollections - Tree Stencils, 4 layers, w/glitter at the base for snow
• Distress inks - Walnut Stain, Gathered twigs, Peeled Paint, Iced Spruce, Picket fence
• Crafter's companion - Snowman stamp, colored w/makers and fussy cut
• Starform - Merry Christmas silver sentiment sticker
• Silver pen around the image

Next I did a couple of those scratch cards from Brea Reese.

My hubby asked where his letter stencils were at and when I got in the drawer I keep them in to get out all the letter stencils I found these very old Plaid Stickers, that have to be over 20 years old.  I thought there is probably no way these are going to work, but as you can see in my next card this poinsettia came off pretty good, all I did was add a sentiment and done.

Lastly I tried my hand at watercoloring with Spectrum Auqa pens and I don't think it came out quite like I wanted but thought it was still ok to frame the stitched ornament I did from Spellbinders advent calendar. The branches and flower dies also came in the package.

• Spellbinders - Advent calendar 2024, stitched ornament dies
• Penny Black - Background Basics stencil, water colored inside with Spectrum sparkle pens 
• Inking around card with Fossilized Amber distress ink
• Hot off the press - 63 thin line dazzles sticker (ornament hanger)
• Spellbinders - Ribbon Banners die
• Penny Black - Cozy nights - sentiment stamp

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

Connie

Always with you

 Before we left for Michigan we found out that my brother in law was going on hospice, his lung cancer had come back and was now in his bones, he opted for no more treatments. I sent this card to him. I found these die cut images at Hobby lobby and thought they would be great for thinking of you cards, they don't put names on their die cuts, but they have some pictures on the back of the packaging to give you an idea of what is inside.   

Sad news is that he passed away a week after we saw him. I am so glad we had the time to stop in and see him before we left Michigan. He was in good spirits and was laughing and joking with us, great way to remember him :)

• Paper Studio - Die cut pieces (sentiment piece)
• K& Co. paper - K-ology Hannah pad
• Arden Creative Studio - Vintage Makers Essentials Vellum Ephemera (butterfly, tab and leaves)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by, 

Connie

16th Birthday

 For all the guys in the family I have been using cars for their 16th birthday, this one is from advent calendar die set. In the first picture you can see my reflection in the car, but I used bronze metallic cardstock for it. Added the license plate and a border for the car to ride on :) and die cut the sentiment.

• Spellbinders - Advent Calendar car dies
• Tim Holtz - Metallic cardstock
• Recollections - Awesome boy papers
• DieVersions - Celebrate die

I would like to share my card with the following Challenge: The Paper Players Tic Tac Toe Challenge, I did the Transport, Free and For the kids blocks

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

Connie

Wonderful Birthday

 I have not used my old block stamps in quite sometime, I picked these up at a flea market sale that were in a big bind with no names. 

The sentiment die cut (from Michaels store) didn't seem to stand out enough for me so I fussy cut a piece of glitter paper to go under it, I am sure my great niece will like the glitter part :)

• Stampin up stamps - Wonderful from 2005, cake from 2002 and Hat from 2004, colored with markers
• Spellbinders - Square swatches and Lacy Squares dies
• Recollections - Celebrate cutting dies
• Colorbok - Glitter paper
• Flower punch w/gem

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

Connie

Birthday Balloons

 Our cardmaking group got together for a teams meeting just before I went to Michigan and we made this card together.  We started out using one of our balloon dies to make a stencil. My balloon dies are quite small, but it still worked.  I think it was about a year ago I had bought some stencil sheets from Walmart. They are just plain clear sheets to make your own stencils so I was all set to make one and it did cut nicely with my die. Some of the other girls just used cardstock and that worked fine too.

Then we used our stencil on some pattern paper. We then took a 11x5.5 inch piece of white cardstock and scored at 1, 2 & 3 inch marks on each end of the 11 inch side to make the folds. Using strips of paper that were cut to 7/8 x 5.25 inches to put inside those fold parts. It is hard to see but we made a top fold card A2 size and glued that in the center and applied our piece we stenciled the balloons onto. I hand drew some strings and bows for the balloons.

• Taylored Expressions - Balloons dies cut from stencil material to stencil onto the card base of pattern paper
• Distress ink - Fossilized Amber
• Memory Box - Happy Birthday Garland die
• Scrap papers
• Hand drawn strings

I tried to get a picture of how the card opens to write your inside message.

I would like to share my card today with the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Anything goes

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

Connie