Great Outdoors

The first thing my husband saw this card he just started laughing, I said what is it, why are you laughing and he said you can't see it and I said NO.... he said it looks like that poor deer just got goosed by that sign and he is turning around to see what is going on.  Of course I was once again running behind on my cardmaking and wanted to get this out in the mail so it was sent on it's merry way just like this... My nephew loves to hunt, fish, quite the outdoor guy so that is what I was going for, may have to adjust how I use this set in the future.

After embossing the background I colored it with watered down distress inks, regular chalk was used to color the bird, deer, sign and add a little grey to the trees.

Taylored Expression  -- Birch tree accessories dies
Darcie -- Birch Trees embossing folder
Hero Arts - Birthday message stamp
Distress inks-- Tea dye and tumbled glass
Stampin up chalks

Just saw on the news last night how bad California is doing with a drought this winter, and that many areas are running out of water, seeing reservoirs and lakes totally dry is just so sad and I am sure very scary for those living there, my prayers go out to all those living in that area, the west as a whole could use rain, may God bless you with rain very soon. 

Hope you all enjoy a great weekend!!
Thanks so much for taking out the time to stop by,

Connie

17th birthday

My Great Nieces birthday was a couple days ago, she came into our family as a young girl and is now a young lady.  You see my nephew and his wife went over to the Ukraine to visit my brother and sister in law who are missionaries over there and they help out at an Orphanage, so on one of the trips my nephew and his wife went with them and they fell in love with this little girl.  God put it upon the hearts to try and adopt her, it was a very long road, but with their parents help after years of trying, they finally adopted her.
 As some of you may know by the few reports on the news that Ukraine is fighting right now and in the city of Kiev where my brother and sister in law live.  I heard from them last on Monday and they were doing well, they are not allowed to say anything about what is happening there,  being told it wouldn't be good for them, but know they are in God's hands.  I sure would appreciate any prayers that all of this can be resolved peacefully and that life can get back to normal for all the people of Ukraine.  Thank you.

Now onto the card :)

This was one of those cards that when done I was totally happy with it, doesn't always happen that way for me.

Crate paper -- Party day
Hero Arts -- Friendly Flags stamp (banner)
Spellbinders -- Font one lowercase, ribbon banners and flower bouquet dies(stenciled with ink on the flower)
Inkadinkado -- All Occasions sentiment stamp (birthday)
K&co.-- Berry sweet gems and paper ribbon

We are suppose to get above freezing today, right now we are at 13 so we have a ways to go but that will be nice.  Hope you are all staying warm where you are, I know it has been a mess for the south and the east.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and your sweet comments,

Connie

Cards and Box

Here are the other two cards I made for my Secret sister and the box I made to put them in. I used images from the same stamp set for both cards.

Papertrey ink -- Meadow greens stamp set (flower and sentiment)
Stickles -- Yellow
Spellbinders -- Classic Ovals and Lacey Ovals dies
Martha Stewart -- Border punch
DCWV -- Old World Paper
Cloud 9 design -- Rain dots

This next one I decided to go for a more masculine feel since I had done 3 more feminine feel.

I stamped the text background first and then stamped the two different fern stamps overlapping them.

Papertrey ink -- Meadow Greens stamps
Inkadinkado -- Text stamp
Spellbinders -- A2 matting basics A and matting basics B sets dies
My sentiments exactly -- Thinking of you set

I have shown this box before I think about a year ago but for those of you new to my blog or had forgotten about it, here is the link to the box I made.  The first time making it I made a template so this time it went a lot faster, so I do encourage you to make a template the first time you make this for future boxes.

Gina K -- Box template (link above)
Best Occasion -- Textured cardstock
DCWV -- Linen Closet paper
Spellbinders -- Font one Upper and lower case and Decorative Labels 28 dies
Offray Ribbon

Here is a side view of the box.

All 4 cards with their dimension fit in there quite well.

We were in the high 50's yesterday, it was just beautiful, then last night some high winds came through, felt like the house was going to blow away, it shredded our grill cover out on the deck, and I woke up to temps in the teens this morning, with wind chills we are close to 0.  I just can't get over this roller coaster we have been on.  I feel so for all those out east and north of us getting slammed with all of this.  Hope your all able to stay warm and safe on the roads.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and leave your comments, it is so appreciated!!

Connie

ODBDSLC 187-Inspiration Challenge

Our Daily Bread Designs challenge for this week is a picture and you can find it on their blog here .

I used the picture on the right for my inspiration.  I just love those colored jars and the pretty flowers with them. I sprinkled gems around like they have on the table, some of them I colored with markers. The die I used for the background I went with the color of the jar.

Vellum w/Adriondack Stream Alcohol ink and blending solution
ODBD-- Quaterfoil pattern die
ODBD -- All Occasion sentiment stamps
Spellbinder-- Cherry Blossom die and grommet tags dies
Recollectons -- Button Brads

The flowers have been inked around the edges and I used a red marker for the centers. 

If you would like to play along with their challenge you have until Sunday to make your card.

Today was my last demo at Michaels with the Spellbinders dies, I will miss the excitement people have when they see a demo for the first time. I appreciate Spellbinders giving me the opportunity to do the demonstrations.  Ever since my daughter has been in school, I have either volunteered for things at school, and when she got older I do all my volunteering at church now, so it was good to get out and work outside the home again.

We did hit above freezing today but it is suppose to be up and down for the next week, hope your all staying warm.

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

Ruby Rose

I was going through my pictures of cards I made to see what I was going to post a couple weeks ago and realized I had all the info on a card I made for our niece but I never took a picture before I sent it out.  I always like to have pictures of the cards I make so that I don't make them the same card again, so since I was going to make cards for our Secret Sister reveal at church I decided to make the one that I made for my niece once again.

Papertrey ink -- Ruby Rose stamp set (flowers and sentiment)
Spellbinders -- Decorative Labels eight die
DCWV -- Old World stack paper
Memory Box -- Riviera corner die ( cut two)

I then decided to do two cards from the set so I made this one also:

Papertrey ink -- Ruby Rose stamp set (flowers and sentiment)
Spellbinders -- Decorative Labels twenty-eight die
DCWV-- Old world stack paper

I forgot to take a picture of the canvas bag that I also made for my secret sister. So I will have to tell you just incase you would like to make one for yourself or for a gift.  I found at Office Depot a few years ago some canvas that you could print on, was hoping it would still work and it did.  I printed off my secret sisters favorite bible verse onto the canvas.  Then taking fabric I made a border around it like you would do a quilt.  Then I put the heat bond on the back and hoped I could iron that on to the bag.... well it didn't quite stick well around the edges so I ended up hand stitching it on.  I also hand stitched some flowers I cut from the Tattered Rose die of Tim Holtz with fabric and felt onto the bag in the corners to make sure it was good and reinforced.  I know a picture would have been nice to show you, maybe if I ever see her at church with it I will ask to take a picture :)

We have lived here in Southern Illinois for almost 9 years now and I think this is the coldest winter we have had since moving here, poor peanut goes outside to do her business and that is about all, it is just too cold for her to be out in it for too long, I think she dreams of spring as much as I am.

Have a Great day,
Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

5th birthday

My nephew is marrying a girl that has a daughter and this card is for her.  I don't know if you can see the background paper on the bottom has a faint tan dot pattern, that is what gave me the idea to do her pants with that dot pattern.

Elisabeth Bell -- stamp from Quick Cards magazine, colored w/markers
Spellbinders -- Romantic Rectangles, Labels Eight and Font One Upper and Lower case dies
g.c.d. -- Fun house collection papers
EK Success-- flowers punch
Martha Stewart -- leaf punch
Stickles -- worn lipstick

Hope you all enjoyed a great weekend!!
Wishing you a terrific week ahead,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

ODBDSLC186 Sketch

Our Daily Bread Design is doing a sketch for their challenge this week.  You can find the sketch and all the info on their Blog here.

I needed a card for my nephew, it is going to be late, but better late than never right :)

I found the burlap paper at JoAnns and it is much better to work with then plain burlap.  Also tried out my new stencil from Tim Holtz on the background of the tag.

Our Daily Bread Designs -- You will find Refuge stamp set and the Chickadee die colored w/ markers
Spellbinders -- A2 matting basics A
DCWV -- Burlap paper and Once upon a time paper pack
Tim Holtz -- Dot Fade stencil

Archivers is closing down in town here.  We went over to St. Louis and a stamp store that we haven't been to in a while is now gone, it is so sad.

Thanks so much for stopping by,
Connie

Fishing

For my great nephew, I am loving these boy stamps from stampendous :)  I used the two smallest dies from the grand set of the spellbinder dies

Stampendous-- Fishing kiddo stamp, colored w/markers
Crate paper -- Party day pack
Kraft cardstock (strip across the center)
Spellbinders -- Grand Labels one
SRM -- happy birthday stickers
Piercing around the edges
Memory Box -- Flying Birds dies

Well we are off to check out some stores over in St. Louis that we haven't been to yet!  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

Leslie's Inspiration

I will have to start out to say that I had a bit of trouble with this card, some of it you can see and others were behind the scenes. 

I have been following Leslie's blog for quite some time.  She use to be on a design team but then decided to just create for herself and I am so glad she didn't stop sharing her creativity with the rest of us.  Her coloring is just out of this world, great beautiful designs.  She also shares her furbaby stories and Lovely flower gardens she has, which I only dream of having, it is always a treat to stop by her blogs.
You can find the card that I used for inspiration at this Link.  I loved them all but went with the second card in the posting.  I loved the window idea and that she used a corner flower treatment.  I have a few of these stamps and loved her idea of using them.

I didn't realize that I cut the window a bit crooked until I was putting the sentiment tag on at the very end, I guess that is what I get for eye balling it instead of measuring.  I am also thinking there is just way too many patterns going on here, so if I did it again I would change it but I just finished it this morning to get it on my blog for the 15th. 

Jennifer Ellory -- Stamp set from Quick cards made easy magazine, colored w/ markers
K& co. -- Blue Awning paper pack
Spellbinders -- Labels four, fancy Lattice and grommet tags dies
Dazzles -- tiny words & phrases stickers (sentiment)

I hope you take the time to stop by Leslie's blog and if you want to catch up with her furbabies, Wally and Lulu she has a link on the sidebar.  Thanks Leslie for being such a great inspiration for me.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by, and you sweet comments,

Connie

Thanks

I love how clipart can give you that ability to make a quick card and it still looks nice, I used this image from vintage workshop.

Does the background paper look familiar, I just love that color :)

Vintage Workshop -- clipart (image)
Spellbinders -- Floral ovals
K&co. -- Classic K paper
Recollections -- Bling on a roll
Gina K -- tag lines sentiment stamp
Sponged ink around edges of card, banner and around the die

Wow what a difference a week makes around here, almost all the snow has melted, only left in areas that are in the shade or have been piled high.  Yesterday we made it into the 50's for our highs, that is so much different then our below 0 temps we had just a few days ago.

Hope your week is starting off well,
Thanks so much for stopping by,
Connie

ODBDSLC185 2-0-1-4 challenge

So I decided to try again for this weeks Our Daily Bread design challenge and it was to use the numbers in the new year and use that number of supplies.  It is too plain for me, I wanted to keep adding to it but wasn't sure you could do that with the challenge.

 

I used the Bird and Butterfly Labels stamp set again, the card last time used the smallest stamp in the set this time I used the biggest stamp in the set.

 

2 - Die different die sets

0- Ribbon

1- Rhinestone

4- ink colors

 

Our Daily Bread -- Bird and Butterfly stamp set

Spellbinders -- Labels 18 and classic oval dies

Memento ink -- Rich cocoa

Distress inks -- peeled paint, wild honey and tumbled glass

Gina K -- tag lines sentiment stamp

tracing wheel for the pierced border

 

instead of leaving the butterflies, grass and flowers white I used the distress inks to watercolor those areas.  If you have not done this before you just dab your ink pad onto a block or like I do, sponge it onto my Tim Holtz sheet and take water pen and pickup the color and paint it onto your image.  I didn't get a solid stamped background from my memento ink so I went over the image in areas to fill that in also.

 

Since I used the biggest die in that set, I traced around the outside of the die and cut that out to get the layered piece to the die.

 

We received another inch of snow yesterday, poor peanut was not happy when she went out for her morning bathroom break and saw the deck had snow again, I think she has had it with all this snow. The plow finally came and did the whole street so we had quite a bit more shoveling to do to clear the end of our driveway, that stuff was so heavy.  Hope you all that are dealing with the snow are doing ok.  We are warming up this next week starting today, so hopefully there won't be too much flooding.

 

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a wonderful weekend,

Connie

Too late

 I made this card for the Our Daily Bread design anything goes challenge, but I was too late getting it posted.  I hadn't used this stamp set yet and I just love it, I will have to use others in the set soon :)

Our Daily Bread designs -- Bird & Butterfly Labels stamps
Spellbinders -- Labels 18 dies
Martha Stewart -- Swirling lace border punch
Hero Arts -- Birthday message stamp set
Queen & co. -- gem stones
DCWV -- Linen closet paper

I already had the spellbinders dies so it was perfect to frame the images with.

Well we are digging out around here.  I haven't been out on the roads yet but my hubby tells me yesterday the main roads around town were at least cleared it is just the side roads that are still slippery.  The plow pretty much went down the middle of our road so we had a few feet in the road we had to shovel too so that we didn't get stuck leaving our driveway.  Can I tell you that I am already for spring to come. I fell Monday afternoon pushing our car from getting stuck in the road, I was pushing so hard and rocking the car that when he finally was able to get it freed I just went down.  I have arthritis in my knees and I was very lucky that the snow was there because I think it cushioned my fall so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The older I get the more I don't look forward to the snow, it is beautiful to look out at but when you have to deal with leaving the house, it just brings big headaches.

Hope all those dealing with the snow are able to dig out and stay safe.

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

Connie

Sympathy

Both our Adult Sunday School teachers lost family members just before Christmas and these are the cards I made for them.

First our female teacher lost her Grandmother.

Spellbinders -- a2 matting basics A, A2 distressed Edges dies
DCWV -- Primrose papers (image)
Hero Arts -- Everyday sayings sentiment stamp
Heidi Swapp -- Bling colored w/markers

Our male teacher lost his Father.

Stampendous-- Sincere sentiments stamp
K&co. -- Flora & Fauna diecut cardstock and vellum pack
Graphic 45 -- Steampunk debutante paper (black background paper)

It is COLD today, we received at least 14 inches of snow yesterday and it has drifted high in places, it was blowing so hard that all that I shoveled just flew back, still windy today but we need to try and tackle some of this snow today.  We are at -4 right now with a wind chill of -35, it hasn't been like this in 20 odd years I guess in this area. 

They have cancelled or closed almost everything around here, but since my husband is an essential worker on base he had to go in yesterday, well he got stuck trying to leave so his boss came with his big SUV and picked him up for work.  The plows still haven't made it down our road yet so he may have to pick him up again for work today.  I am just so thankful that the kids ended up leaving a day early and made it home safely without any bad weather.  If you are impacted by these storms and cold temps, I hope you don't have to go anywhere and can stay home and safe.

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

Empty Home

Well the kids took off for home this morning, they were going to leave tomorrow but they are telling us that starting tonight it will snow again and we should be getting 6 - 10 inches with the hardest snow in the morning so we suggested they leave a day early so that they don't have to deal with all that snow and bad driving, so yesterday was filled with packing and last minute things we wanted to do.  I sure miss them already.

I found another stamp for the boys in my family, had a rough time with the balloons tried to use some old stuff I had to give it a glossy feel and it didn't work out well.  But once again it had to go in the mail, it looked better once it had all dried., but it didn't really have that glossy look I was going after.

Stampendous -- Balloon kiddo, colored w/markers
Crate paper -- party day paper
Spellbinders -- Curved Rectangles, A2 Distressed edges and Banner ribbons dies
Stampendous -- Birthday assortment (sentiment) stamp

Well I have a lot of work to get done that I put off while the kids were home, so I guess I am off to get that done.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Happy New Year

Starting off 2014 with snow coming, we haven't had any for quite some time but they are saying this evening we will be getting 2-4 inches.

I have been thinking about what new I could do on my blog and since I have done some cards and craft projects that have been inspired by blogs that I follow, I have decided to keep that going, so on the 1st and 15th of every month I hope to bring you a card that I have done that was inspired.

Today's card was inspired by Chat . When I saw this I thought I could use my new Poppystamps die I received for Christmas. Click on her name and you can see the card that inspired mine!  She has unique style that I just love.  Today I have another link for you this is how to do a bow.  Gina K has video's almost every week and this one was how to do a triple bow, mine ended up being a double bow, but it is a neat way to do a bow, you have to go through more than half the video before she shows how to do the bow.

Spellbinders -- Classsic Circle Lg and Decorative Labels One dies
Poppystamps -- Lovely Trendril die
EK success -- flower punch
DCWV -- Crafty stack paper
Melissa Frances -- Pleated Ribbon
Offray -- Ribbon (bow and to cover pleated stitching)
SRM Stickers -- Happy Birthday pack

We had a quiet New Years eve here, my two cats, dog and our daughters cat where all hanging out on the couch with me watching the New Years eve shows. 

Hope you have a great start to 2014, and may God send many blessings to you this year!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie