12x12 Canvas

I found this 12 x 12 canvas at Big Lots for $5, when I saw Tim Holtz's Vintage Shabby paper I knew that would look great in our Main bathroom that we just redid in Tan's and whites and my accessories are pink.  I used Tim Holtz Tattered florals die by Sizzix to cut out the flowers onto grungepaper that had been covered with the Tan sheets of the Vintage shabby paper. I used Beate's grunge flower tutorial to make the flowers on the bottom of the canvas. I added tattered rose glimmer mist to the flowers.  The leaves were from silk flowers I had torn apart, made me realize I need the new spellbinder leaf die if I do anymore of these :)

I used the cricut "bloom" cartridge for the bird cage, added some dew drops to the flowers on it.  The flower in the top right corner used a Basic Grey brad for the center. 
This first pic is taken with natural light.

Top left corner uses a Mellisa Frances corner adornment.  Across the bottom I used lace found at the local Flea Market, the small flowers have a prisma rose in the middle, added moss with the bottom arrangement.

This picture was taken in my bathroom, the walls are tan, you can see the trendals I made using DMC memory thread.  Seam binding is from Martha Stewart and I made the bow with my bowdabra, added a pearl to the center which is from the $ store.
The Verse which is computer genereated is from Psalm 104:12, thought it went perfect with this paper. I cut it out with spellbinders.

In this shot you can see the bird and the music notes which go with the verse.

Hope your all having a great weekend, Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment, it is much appreciated!
Connie

Retirement

Joan did this cool retirement card a few days ago and I just loved the idea, My sister in law is retiring this month and I had been trying to figure out what I was going to do for her but when I saw Joan's card here I thought that is just perfect!!  All stamps are Studio G, I used various brand markers to add color to some of them. The paper behind was a scrap but I think it is K&co., but not sure about that.  I also forgot the maker of the brad. 

I hope you get a chance to stop by Joan's blog and check out her creations.
Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment,
Connie

Dragonfly

Well I am hoping this looks masculine, I used the Purple Daisy Designs dragonly stamp and the EK success punch that goes with it to punch it out. Flowers and sentiment stamps are from Studo G, layered on spellbinders dies.  The green piece of paper is Basic Grey, the brown  strip next is Daisy D, and the outside strip is cosmo cricket.  The corners seemed bare so I added the pebbles glitter dots.

I woke up to my deck having a sheet of ice on it, my poor dog Peanut slid getting up and down, but the sun is coming out and it is all melting.  Hope your enjoying a sunshine day!
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment,
Connie

Rainbow

I found this stamp at a Flea market and it says Manco, Inc. on it.  I colored it with pencils, except the grass and sky was done with copics and added stickles to the rainbow were the ink was all black on the rainbow,  the sunshine rays and also added it to the hearts on the K&co. paper, I cut the image out with spellbinders.  Kept it pretty simple since it is going to my great niece who is turning 4.

We lucked out and only got rain in the last storm that went through, we are suppose to get more rain on Thursday too, as the rain was coming down I was so thankful it wasn't snow because if it had been I think we would have gotten alot.
Hope if you are were there was snow that you aren't too buried and if you are that you are taking the time to create :)
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment,
Connie

Cards Request

A girl at church was given a card last year similar to this one on Valentine's day and she asked if I could duplicate it.  I told her I didn't have that stamp but I could look for an image in all my clipart programs.  I could not find one at all that I liked so my Husband was sweet enough to draw something similar to the stamp but changed it enough so he wasn't copying it, then I scanned the image into Adobe photoshop, my husband made a heart paintbrush that I could add the hearts around his image and I saved it imported the image into printmaster where I added the sentiment and printed 5 images off.

The inside heart was made with the printmaster program and the sentiment added with printmaster too, she wanted the heart torn out like that.

We are getting rain today it is very dark and dreary, but we aren't getting snow and that makes me happy.
Hope that if you are getting snow it isn't too bad,
Thanks for stopping by and for taking the time to leave a comment!
Connie

Birdsong

This card uses the stampers anonymous stamp from the Tim Holtz collection called Birdsong, I just love this collage stamp, I stamped it on HOTP designer paper to give it a textured look background. Mounted that onto a spellbinder die. My background paper is from DCWV, and I just used my coupon to buy this cool raindrop edge punch from Martha Stewart.  Tag was cut with my cricut, I think it was the Don Juan cartridge but not positive, and stamped the greeting.

Sorry I took such a bad angle shot of this, but the other two shots I took weren't the best quality of showing the card.
Hope you all enjoy your Friday,
And thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment,
Connie

Stylish Blogger Award

Good Afternoon, it has been a crazy busy day.  Sarah was sweet enough to give me this award, and I am suppose to post 8 things about myself and 8 people to pass it onto.

 The 8 things about myself:

1. I am #5 of 6 kids
2. I grew up in Michigan
3. My mom was a big crafter too, I think that is where my love of all crafting came from (although she never made cards)
4. Ever since my daughter was born I was a stay at home mom and never did go back to work
5. My husband retired from the Air Force and so we have lived in 5 states and 1 country, England
6. I love gardening and watching it all grow, even pulling weeds can be fun (remind me of this when it is very HOT out this summer)
7. I have two cats that we adopted in England and brought back with us, and a dog that we adopted in New Jersey
8.  I don't really care for cooking

Here are 8 people whom I enjoy visiting their blogs:

Tosh
Laurie
Amy
Christine
Beate
Sabrina
Becca
Pam

Hope you are all enjoying a sunshine and warm day!
Connie

Valentine Bag

Beate gives such great inspiration, and her Genie bag was a great idea to put some candy in for my husbands valentine.  He had been mentioning for a week or so before that he was craving Milky way bars, so when I saw Beate's bag I thought that would be perfect to put a bag of milky way minatures in.  Of course I had to try and make it a little more masculine.  I used the colors of cardstock that he said he liked one time when he went to the store with me.

Cuttlebug embossing folder, leaf border and leaf punch from Martha Stewart, Cloud 9 design epoxy sticker, mounted on cardstock and cut out with scissor and mounted on a spellbinder die. Button from Flea market top border punch is Fiskar

Here is another view, I probably should have taken pictures without the candy in there, it bulges out a bit.

Here is a view of the other side of the bag. Martha Stewart branch punch for the bottom edge, fiskar border punch for the top, Cuttlebug embossing folder and sizzix leaf die. Another cloud nine epoxy sticker for the sentiment, both buttons were wood but this one had a wooden shank that was all in one with the button so I cut a hole with my punch put the shank through and then put mounting tape on the back to accomadate it.  I also ended up deciding not to put a handle on it, but kind of wished I had now.

I think in this pic you can see how the candy is making the bag bulge.  Well I sure hope you can get over to Beate's Blog she does great video's and I so appreciate that since I am quite the visual learner!!

Thanks so much for stopping by, Hope everyone is enjoying some warmer weather :)
Connie

King of my Heart

The image is a crafty secrets stamp set, I stamped the crown on a separate piece of cardstock and embossed it. The bird was colored with pencils. Spellbinder dies to frame him. DCWV paper, the hearts below are a rub on and I forgot to write down who made them.  The glitter heart is another one in the package Debby RAK'd to me. Used my Dymo for the sentiment.

Hope my Hubby likes it and hope you all are able to enjoy this day with the one you Love!
Thanks for stopping by,
Connie

Butterfly swirls

I just loved the swirls on these wings, the butterfly is from the Give a Hoot Cricut Cartridge.  I added a little bit of shading with ink to it and for the body some gems from Me and My big ideas. K&co. paper which I added faux stitching and stamped flowers to the centers of the designs in the paper. The sentiment was from the same Hero arts stamp set.
I used liquid pearls to do the butterfly path but they didn't come out all that even, I need more practice with that stuff, I even did the taping thing from behind to get them to lay flatter. The border punch edge is from Martha Stewart.

Thanks for stopping by and your comments,
hope your enjoying a warm, sunny Saturday!
Connie

Sweet daughter

Well hopefully my daughter is so busy in college that she won't have time to check my blog :)
I used the songbird cricut cartridge for the flowers and letter U. mounted the flowers on a spellbinder die. The background paper is 7 gypsies. I double punched the Martha Stewart flower border punch.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend, we are suppose to get up to the 50's by Sunday, I am so excited to have some warmth again and maybe all this ice can finally melt!
Thanks for stopping by,
Connie

Valentine

The magnolia image and glittered heart were both RAK'd to me from Debby, I colored him with pencils and then did the shading around him with copic marker. Fiskar corner punch. The heart paper was from a scrap pack I bought when I first started making cards, the bottom piece is DCWV paper.

We just started a new Ladies bible study last night called Loving God will all your mind, by Elizabeth George, has anyone done that study?  It looks like it is going to be a good study.
Hope your all enjoying a bright sunshine day!!
Thanks for stopping by, and your comments,
Connie

Heartfelt Wishes

Oh Boy is it cold..... makes you wish you didn't have to get out of the house, but yet I do need to get out and do some errands.  I am keeping my eye on Sunday which is suppose to get up to 50!!!!  I live for those mild days in the middle of winter :)

For my card today I used some Tattered Rose Glimmer mist on a spellbinder die, I cut between every other scallop and cut two of two different sizes, for a total of four layers. Sprayed on the mist and then crunched it up and then held it up to my space heater to dry (I couldn't wait).  The paper was cream before I added the glimmer mist.  I needed a big center and thought this button I found at a flea market would work perfectly.  I used the same spellbinder die for the sentiment tag, the sentiment stamp is from hero arts. Applied liquid pearls under the sentiment.

The bottom background was made by putting ink on the cuttlebug embossing folder so that the ink would be on the background piece, I love the effect that gives.  The leaves are a sizzix die.

Thanks for stopping by and hope your staying nice and warm,
Connie

Military Appreciation

This card is for a Man at our church who is over in Afganstan for 4 months, we wanted to let him know we are thinking about him and he is in our prayers.
I used Star Fabric scraps that I had left over from my Dad's quilt to use for the corner and border of the card. Stitched on using my provocraft sew mini, wish I would have dragged out my big sewing machine, I have alot better control with it, but I didn't. the star is a Coaster board die cut, I just added a silver glitter border. Torn corner reveals the sentiment stamp from My sentiments exactly.

The Sun is shining bright oh how I love it!!! Only 16 degrees but just to have the sun shinning is so nice :-)
Thanks so much for stopping by, and for your comments,
Connie

Herbs

I think this has been the hardest thing for me is coming up with a title for my posts..LOL!
The image is a Hero arts stamp colored with pencils, framed with spellbinder dies. Background paper is K&co. I think, didn't have the name on the back. Strip is Basic grey and I added buttons I found at the flea market on top of it.

Thank you so much for stopping by and your comments,
Have a GREAT day!
Connie

Chickadie

I cross-stitched this design from a calendar with cross-stitch designs. This is for my Dad who is celebrating his 80th birthday today, so bummed we couldn't be there with him. I didn't tape down the ribbon and sentiment just incase he wants to slide it off to display the card.

Well we are getting more snow I would say there is a good 3 inches out there now and it is still snowing, they are saying more for sunday too.  I am so ready for a break from all of this, my dog peanut has been cooped up too long too!
Hope you are enjoying a good weekend wherever you are and thanks for stopping by,
Connie

Birds

I liked how the inkadinkado image went with the Martha Stewart border and edge punch.  The image is stamped on Daisy D paper Background paper and strip is from K& co.  Studio G sentiment stamp, all layered on spellbinder scallop square die.  On the strip I have used K & co. paper ribbon inked with vintage photo distress ink, and under that I stitched a scallop using the sew easy  for my guide and cut out along the scallop.

Well we were planning to drive up to Michigan tomorrow to celebrate my Dad's 80th birthday, but have decided against it.  Now I don't know what to do with myself.  I hate it when you make plans and they don't turn out then I just feel like I am in limbo.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all are enjoying a good day and staying warm.

Connie

For you

I love it when the paper does the work for you and this paper from K & co. seemed to be perfect with this Dollar store 3-d sticker, it allready had gold glitter on it so I added gold stickles to the paper to tie it in, added a spellbinder die behind the sticker for dimension. Nice quick card.

Storm update, we didn't get all the snow they were expecting but we did get quite a bit of freezing rain, thankfully didn't lose power though.  Hope everyone else that was in line with this storm faired OK.

Connie

Amy Sheffer inspiration

Today I am posting a card for a girl going through breast cancer treatment, she is a friend of one of the girls at church that I have craft night with every other week.
My inspiration for this card came from Amy's card here, I first stamped Inkadinkado script in a very light lilac ink, then stamped the inkadinkado image in brown on top of that, added a few stickles to the flower centers, mounted that on top of a spellbinder die.  Instead of Amy's awesome banner I use a fiskar border punch. Background paper is from Daisy D.  Ribbon was RAK'd to me from a friend.

I hope you have time to stop by Amy's blog and check out all her lovely Creations!
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and for any comments you leave!
Connie

Update on the storm in southern Illinois, we have ice covering everything but so far we still have power. They say the freezing rain will end around noon and then this afternoon our snow will start, up to 7 inches in our area, just north of us they say can get up to 19 inches, been one of those crazy winters.