Monday, December 30, 2013

How I roll

For my Great nephew turning 17, Yes I have great nephews that are older than my nephew, that is what happens when you have a large family.


When I saw this set of papers I thought they would make some great guy cards.  My nephew is living in Michigan so the license plate was perfect :)  I cut out these words and used dimensional adhesive on those and the plate.

Recollections -- Awesome Boy paper
Kraft Cardstock
Distress ink -- Walnut stain
Mark Richards -- Mosaic tiles (corners)

We had our Christmas with our daughter and son in law and my favorite gift would have to be a cross-stitched book mark she did for me.  Over the years when she was younger she tried all the different crafts I was into and did some drawing like her Dad, but she never really liked any of them, but last summer she started cross-stitching again, she didn't say anything to me because she wanted our gifts to be a surprise and it was, so neat that we can share this love of crafting together.  We went out last night and bought some floss and fabric so that she can start on a big project for herself, I can't wait to see it all finished!

Hope you all enjoyed a relaxing weekend!
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,
Connie

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Back to Birthday

This is a card that went out earlier this month to my youngest nephew, as you can see he is turned 13 this year.


K&co. -- Birthday and celebrate vellum sticker (sentiment)
Spellbinders -- Classic Rectangles lg and Lg. Deckled Rectangles
Fiskars -- Border punch
My Mind's Eye-- Boy crazy paper
DCWV -- Bright's mat stack paper
Making memories -- Alphabet rubons ( number 13!)
Fiskars -- All boy arrow stamp
Ki -- metal accents

Well I received a bit of sad news on the 26th, Spellbinders is disbanding the Action Team I was on so I will no longer be doing the Demonstrations at Hobby Lobby and Michaels anymore, I didn't realize how much I loved sharing the fun of making items with the dies until I was told I was no longer needed.  So I will be doing my last demo's for January and I will be done.  I keep wondering if I would like to work at my Local Scrapbook store part time, who knows what the new year will bring.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Woops

Well I thought I was done posting Christmas cards but as I was going through my folders I found one I hadn't posted yet so I thought I would share it today.


Impression Obsession-- pines dies
Memory box -- Blooming Poinsettia die
Lilybee designs -- Jingle paper
Spellbinders -- Grommet tags dies
Diecut sentiment from Cardmaking and papercraft magazine
Making memories -- star brads

Quite a few of my family back in Michigan have been without power or water since last Saturday and are being told it won't be back until this coming Saturday, I know the workers have been out in the icy cold trying hard to get it all back up and running for them.  My Father in law was able to get his back on Christmas eve, but others have been without for some time.  I guess the hotels in the area that do have power are booked solid.

Today is the 1st anniversary of my Dad's passing, it has been a rough Christmas.  I think when one of your parents dies, like my mom did 11 years ago you put all your love into the remaining parent and get much closer, at least that was my case.  When you lose both of them it hurts like nothing I have felt before.  No one ever speaks of this so I thought I would share.  I am so thankful to know that he is no longer in pain and that he is with our Lord and Savior, singing his praises with my mother, I just miss them so much.

Sorry for ending this post like that, I guess I just needed to get it out.
Thanks for stopping by,
Connie

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas

I have a few more cards left to share.


Simple Stories -- 25 days of Christmas papers
Spellbinders-- Classic circle die (around the 25)


Simple Stories -- 25 days of Christmas papers
EK Success-- flower punches
Martha Stewart -- leaf and snowflake border punches
Stickles


My Mind's Eye -- Lost & Found Christmas papers
EK Success -- Corner punch (tag)
Martha Stewart -- Snow flake punch
Melissa Frances-- Glass Glitter


Simple Stories -- 25 days of Christmas papers
Kraft Cardstock
Distress ink-- Walnut stain
EK Success -- Flower punch
Stickles -- Burgandy


Simple Stories -- 25 days of Christmas papers
Kraft Cardstock
Button Snowflake
Crochet thread


Simple Stories -- 25 days of Christmas papers
Martha Stewart -- Snowflake and snowflake border punches
Sprarkly Glitter Glue

I want to take this time to thank all of you that stop by my blog and give me such great encouragement on my cards and other crafty items I make, I feel blessed to have you in my life, you all give me such great inspiration, May God bless you and your families this Christmas with Love, peace and Joy!!

Thanks so much for stopping by,
Hugs,
Connie




Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Christmas Eve

Cards for my siblings, I found these stickers also at my Local scrapbook store and didn't have anybody in mind when I bought them, just thought they would work neat with my pine and branch dies. These too have been colored with markers and a little glitter gel pen.  I have used flock for the snow in some of them too.


Memory Box -- Woodland Branch die
Impression Obsession --021-n die
Starform stickers (ornaments) colored w/markers
Doodlebug designs--crushed velvet flock
Graphic 45 -- Christmas past papers

Well I have two sisters and 3 brothers and only 3 ornaments came in the pack so for my two oldest brothers I had to find an ornament stamp to use.


I believe I found these sticker sheets at the $ store years ago, and thought they would make pretty and quick backgrounds and they did, I layered them on kraft cardstock.  The ornaments were colored and then at the last minute I decided to add glitter to them.  The sentiment was done in brown stazon because the sticker sheet had a slick top to it.  I went around the edges with distress paint for a more snowy look.

Inkadinkado -- Christmas season stamp set
Tumblebeasts-- Background sticker sheet
Impression obsession-- 021-N pine
Memory box-- woodland branch

I hope you all have a chance to go to a Christmas eve service tonight, to me it just wouldn't be Christmas eve if I didn't attend a service to celebrate the birth of our Savior, the real reason for this season.  My hubby has to work tonight and Christmas day this year, but his boss is allowing him to take an hour off work to attend the church service.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!!
Connie

Monday, December 23, 2013

More Inspiration

I have a card today that was inspired by Monika, she has such a unique style that I love, and when I saw the card she posted HERE that is just what I needed to give me an idea for the cards that went out to all my niece and nephews that are married. I ended up making 11 of these.


I started out doing the ones on the right which I cut out with white cardstock and colored the flowers with markers, but I soon realized that it was just going to take too much time to color 22 flowers since I had two size dies I was using, so I only did two that were colored the rest were cut out of designer paper as well as the leaves, I liked the look of the colored ones and my hubby liked the cardstock ones he said he liked the deeper color.

Here is a close up of each card. First the one I colored.





  I didn't end up shaping the flowers either, just popped them up on dimensional adhesive.  Stamped the background with the snowflakes, added the sentiment, punched the designer paper with a border and I was done.

It is so nice when you just can't think of what to do and you go to someone's blog and they give you just the inspiration you needed to make your own.  If you have time check out Monika's Blog, you are sure to find some inspiration.

Memory Box -- Blooming Poinsettia dies
My mind's eye --paper
Inkdadinkado -- snowflake and sentiment stamps
Martha Stewart -- snowflake border punch

I finished the last of my Christmas cards last night, so I need to get them ready for the mail today, a couple of them are out of town so they will be late but hoping the ones closer will get to them tomorrow.

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy days to stop by,

Connie

Friday, December 20, 2013

Exquisite

This is a 5x7 card. I was going for a Christmas season look to it but this is a birthday card.  I found the peel off stickers at my local stamping store and I just love how they look like you embossed but all you have to do is peel off the sticker outline and stick it onto your cardstock and start coloring, I used spectrum noir and copic markers on this.


Elizabeth Craft designs -- peel off sticker (colored w/markers)
Spellbinders-- Exquisite Labels eleven, Bitty Blossoms dies
Impression Obsession- - Spiral flowers dies
Sizzix -- Branch w/leaves die
EK Success -- punched flowers
Forever in time -- Gems, colored w/markers
Stickles -- Frosted lace

I will share more Christmas cards, just want to make sure they have arrived before I start posting them.

Our Grand furbaby came last night and she has been going non stop, after being cooped up in a car for 13 hours she was ready to go, and our cats being almost 17 years old are like calm down, but they seem to be getting along good this morning.  My daughter thought I wasn't going to stop hugging her when she came, oh how I miss her being so far away.

Hope the start of your weekend is going well and you are enjoying your time.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Yo, Yo's Inspiration

Stephanie always has such great inspiration on her blog, whether it is Great words of wisdom from our Lord and Savior, lovely poems and hymns of praise, to Beautiful photo's that just show all of God's glory, to fun, cute and Lovely crafts to inspire you to get out your supplies and create, to yummy recipes to try, I will have to say you won't leave her blog without a smile on your face, she is the sweetest lady.  I thought I would share with you a fun coaster I made and here is a link to her blog she has all the details on how to make them there, but I encourage you to check out all the pretty ornament ideas she is sharing and other Christmas goodies also.


Here is a pic of a candle holder with it.


I have seen scarves made out of these and curtains for windows and have always wanted to try making them but this was a quick one to do and I just love the texture it gives. 

I also thought I would share with you the wr memory keepers Pillow box and Gift Bag punch board projects I made.


Just incase you have seen them and were wondering I thought I would give my two cents on them.  I saw the pillow box demonstrated at Archiver's and it looked easy enough, I can't remember how many sizes you can made but there is one smaller than this one that is a square, I bought this for giving small presents and gift cards in and I believe it goes up to 12 inches long so you can give away long things too.  This bag is made from a piece of 11x 6 inch paper.  The pillow box is easy to do, it took about 3 tries to get the bag correct, but that could just be me, but I think I have it down right now, I really like them and of course I had coupons so that made the cost even better, so to me they were worth the money.  They also have boxes and envelope punch boards.

The papers are from My mind's eye, O Christmas tree paper pack.  The tag is from a recycled Christmas card and I cut it out with my Spellbinders die.

Finally have my tree up and now the middle strand doesn't work it went out last night :(  This is only the second year we have had it, and I had bought one of those trees that have the lights already on it, so I get to try and figure out how to fix it, not what I had planned for today.

Hope your week is going smoothly, we are having warm temps today so I think we will be grilling out.

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to stop by,
Connie


Monday, December 16, 2013

Rejoice

Wow Christmas is coming quick, just found out last night that my daughter and son in law may be coming here for a day before they go on to his parents house, I am so excited, although we won't be able to see them for very long, they have to do some Ordination things they have to take care of with their church that is based about an hour from here but it means I get to see her for a little while a week before I thought I would be seeing her.  We will be taking care of our little fur grand baby while they are attending their meetings :)

I did manage to get some more cards done.



Inkadinkado -- Holiday Silhouettes and Christmas season stamp sets, embossed with silver embossing powder
Spellbinders -- Fleur de lis rectangles and Labels 23 dies
Graphic 45 -- Christmas past papers


Same stamps and paper packs as above
Spellbinders -- Labels eighteen and Labels eight (two outside dies)
Sizzix -- Tags rounded for middle card
Martha Stewart -- corner punch (middle card)

The first two cards were embossed with gold embossing powder, the last card was stamped with gold ink and has clear detailed embossing powder, two different gold looks.

Another busy day ahead, hope your week is starting off well!

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

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Christmas Emporium

I love how these Graphic 45 paper packs have such great images in them that coordinate with the paper to make creating cards so easy.



Graphic 45 -- Christmas Emporium, (images and paper)
Martha Stewart -- Holly and snowflake border punches
Mark Richards -- Glitter dome gems (berries)



Graphic 45 -- Christmas Emporium paper pack
Spellbinders -- Resplendent Rectangles dies
Martha Stewart -- holly punch
Mark Richards -- Glitter dome gems

Well I am hoping to get to work today and get a lot of my Christmas cards done, I didn't manage to do so well this week, I decided to clean my carpets before putting up our tree, the carpets are cleaned but the tree still isn't up, these days just fly by so fast for me anymore.

We are getting a lot of snow today, I would say at least 3 inches so far and it is still coming down quite hard, I love these days that I don't need to get out and can just enjoy the beauty. 
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and get a chance to create :)

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

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Spellbinder felt ornaments

I made these ornaments for the Demonstrations I am doing at Michaels and Hobby Lobby, so I thought I would share them here also :)



Spellbinders dies used--
1st ornament
Lacey Circles ( I offset the front and back dies to make it look more lacey)
Classic Circles
Anemone Flower topper

2nd Ornament
Lacey Ovals (these I lined up)
Classic ovals

I cut two of each base ornament so that I could put stuffing in between, then I hand stitched them together, added French knots to the center of the flower and straight stitches with French knotted ends for the snowflake.

Tip for cutting craft felt out with the dies, it cuts a lot cleaner if you use wax paper between your die and your felt, without it the felt is a little stringy.  If you are cutting wool felt  you don't need the wax paper, this cuts with no problem, just like butter.  The wax paper is great for the detailed dies that Spellbinder has also, it will come right out of the die if you use the wax paper between the die and your cardstock or paper.

Hope this gives you some ideas of more things to do with your dies :)

Hope you are staying warm, it got down into the single digits last night and with the wind chill I am sure it felt like below zero.  It feels like it may be a long winter.....

Thanks so much for stopping by,
Connie


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

I've started

Yep I started my Christmas cards last night, fingers crossed I will get them all done by Christmas.  These two will be heading for England so I thought I had better get them done first.


Fancy pants designs -- Saint Nick paper
Eyelet outlet -- snowflake eyelet
Echo park -- Seasons Greeting stamp set, the snowflake has been stamped using Distress Paint in Picket fence


Can you see the little stamp at the top of the banner, I thought he was too cute peeking out from behind the sign :)

Fancypantsdesigns-- Saint nick paper
Adam Pescott -- stamp colored w/markers
Paper studio -- snow flake brad
Crochet Thread
Button

The ladies from our church are having a Christmas party this Friday but we are in store for more freezing rain and then turning to snow on top of that once again, so it looks like I will be missing it this year if they don't cancel, it has been just crazy this year with the cold and freezing rain.  Have you seen the video of the people in Wisconsin on the highway, that was a terrible driving experience for all of them I am sure, just so scary.  Must be getting older, when I was younger it didn't bother me as much.

Hope this finds you all well and may you all have safe travels and stay warm!

Thanks so much for stopping by,
Connie

Monday, December 9, 2013

Starburst

Ok I did a card a little while back and I called it rays because I didn't know what the technique was really called, my hubby thought the technique was really cool so I decided to make him one and then I found this link on Splitcoaststampers for the tutorial on how to do it and this one came out nice I think.  My hubby has been into grey and yellow as of lately and this is the paper that I have, that had those colors, he really liked it.  As you can see he turned 50 this year :)


Teresa Collins --- Carolina Breeze paper
Spellbinders -- Hexagon die
Cricut -- Ornamental iron cartridge
Stampendous -- Birthday assortment stamp
Me & My big ideas -- gems

Brrrr it is still cold here, been below freezing for the highs and our lows are getting down to the upper teens.  I am half way done with my Christmas decorating, need to clean the carpets before I set up the tree and I will be all set.

Hope your all doing well, thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie


Friday, December 6, 2013

First Storm

Well we have our first snow storm of the season, it started out with sleet, mixed with snow, this morning it is all snow.  One of those days it would be nice to stay in but we have errands that need to get done, hope everything is open. Schools are all closed so there shouldn't be as much traffic as normal.

The big thing for today... it is my daughters birthday.  Talked to her last night and she said not much celebrating will be going on, her day starts at 8:30 and she won't be done until 8pm tonight.  She is attending Duke Divinity school and is going through her finals this week and next, so she has classes and studying to do..  She said finals are a lot harder in Grad school.  She also has to work.

This is the card I sent her.


Believe it or not exercising is what calms her and helps her to relax, so I thought a picture of nice summer time bike ride might bring a smile to her face today while she is under so much stress and tension of finals.

Inkadinkado -- stamp, colored w/markers
Spellbinders -- A2 distressed edges dies
Cosmo Cricket paper
Stampendous-- Birthday assortment stamp set
Queen & co. -- yellow sunshine pearls
This card measures 61/2 x 5

Hope if you are getting snow that you can stay in and enjoy it's beauty, stay safe.

Thanks so much for stopping by,
Connie

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Just for you

My great niece turns 1 today and I have only seen her once, it is so hard living so far away from family.  But I am thankful for the internet where we can keep on our families :)  She has a touch of red hair so that is why I colored this little girl with redish hair.  The stamp is another bought at a thrift store and it had no info with it, but you can tell it is precious moments.



Precious Moments stamp, colored w/markers
Spellbinders -- Labels eight and Decorative Labels eight, middle section has dimensional adhesive
My Mind's Eye -- quite contrary paper
Wild rose studio -- die cut sentiment

Well the end of our lovely weather is coming.  By tomorrow we are going to be hit with freezing rain and sleet, possibly snow too, we are right on the edge of the system so we will see what we end up with, I have to work today so I am hoping I can get my groceries tomorrow morning before it starts.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!!!
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Indian Summer

Oh Wow we have been enjoying some very Beautiful days down here, warm and sunny, I so enjoy these days that God gives us just before the winter sets in for good.  We enjoyed a cook out after church and took Peanut, Jip and Anna outside so they could explore the back yard :)

This card was for my niece's Birthday, she said she loved the shape of the card!


I used Spellbinders Labels Eight die for the base and then cut the decorative paper out of Decorative Labels Eight die.

Stampin up -- Seasonal Birds , colored w/markers
Spellbinders -- Captivating Squares, Labels eight and decorative labels eight dies
DCWV -- wild Splendor paper
Martha Stewart -- tag punch
Inkadinkado -- Greetings stamp set
Offray ribbon

Hope you all are enjoying a great weekend where you are and hope the coming week is just as nice!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie