Grapevine wreath

This was a card for my girlfriend and it was going to be hand delivered so I could make it as bulky as I wanted, and did I ever.  To make the rose buds (this was my first try at them)  I used an EK Success punch, and a smaller ek success punch for the little flowers which I shaped also.  The bigger flowers I used a spellbinders die and shaped them after cutting and layering.

My mind's eye -- indie chic paper
Memory Box -- Grapevine wreath die
Spellbinders -- Scalloped Borders Trio, Rose creation and Back to basics tags dies
EK Success -- Flower punches ( rose buds,  medium white flowers and leaves behind the buds)
Martha Stewart -- Leaves punch
Taylored Expressions-- tiny white flowers dies
Stamps of life -- mini's 4 circles stamp sentiment
Stickles -- broken china
Pearl Pen -- Salmon
BasicGrey -- brad

Here is a close up of the dimension on the flowers:

I am sharing my card once again over at Stephanie's Roses of Inspiration Link up .  Thank you Stephanie for featuring my heart I posted last week on your blog today.  Head over for great inspiration of all kinds there.  She is also hosting a tea cup/ mug exchange if that sounds interesting to you also.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and for sharing your thoughts,

Connie

Belated

This was for one of the newer members of our church that I found out when her birthday was because her husband invited me to a surprise party for her.  I wasn't able to make it to the party so I made her a card and gave it to her the following Sunday at church.

I colored the flower die cut with markers.

April Rose Illustration-- paper from cardmaking and papercraft magazine
Memory Box -- Distressed Baptisia collage die and Verona Bouquet
Stampendous -- Birthday Assortment sentiment stamp

I didn't get a clear stamp on the background piece, it is times like this that I am seriously thinking of asking for the MISTI for Christmas this year.  Have you seen it?  A lot of the girls in my on line cardmaking group have purchased it and can't say enough good things about it.  There are all kinds of you tube video's on it too.  I have a stamp a ma jig but this looks even easier to use.

Evelyn update:  Had a check up yesterday and she is up to 12 lbs. 7 oz. They burnt off some skin near her G tube and snipped open the blister on her incision needless to say not a happy girl with all that. She is now up to 6 feedings of 82 ml and only 6 hours of continuous feeds at night so she is constantly improving, Praise the Lord!

Here is a picture at her Doctors visit.

We are having a great visit with our friend, he will be moving on after lunch today. Facebook is a great way to keep in touch but there is nothing like hanging out in person and catching up and talking about old times too :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Marriage

My friends son was married a couple weeks ago and this is the card I made.  Of course I took the picture just before putting it into the envelope and so it was long gone before I viewed them on my computer, which is the way it typically goes, and I didn't have one good picture in the bunch, this was as good as I got :(  I used Christmas paper for the background but I thought it worked great for a wedding card too.

Anna Griffin -- Christmas scrapbook cardstock pack paper and background die
K&co. -- Elegance Hearts and flowers 3-D stickers
Fiskars -- Just married quotes stamp
Forever in time -- Pearls (on the die cut frame)

We are having some company this weekend, my husbands childhood friend is coming to visit he is back in the states, he is a missionary, it will be so good to catch up.

Hope you are all well and enjoying your week, summer is quickly coming to a close so we need to enjoy it all while we can.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and would love to hear from you,

Connie

Vintage Heart

My girlfriend likes vintage things so I went for a more vintage look in making my heart.  I first will have to say that I found Christine Kelly's Blog called Gentlework through Stephanie's Roses of Inspiration link up  and I have been following her ever since, if you love looking at beautiful hand stitch work this is the blog to check out, she does the most amazing and creative works with her stitching, her stitchings were the inspiration to stitch up this heart.

I found the fabric at a thrift store and I loved the color, I am not really sure what it is, kind of like linen. I added a few bits of lace, did a little stitching between them and added a flower.  I just drew out my own template for the heart shape.

Here is a more closeup shot.

I added the pearls to the wide lace strip, it was to bare to me.

I took a little closer shot of the flower I made, I used fabric from my daughters dress she wore as a flower girl in my brothers wedding about 20 years ago, thought it was time to get some use out of it then just hanging around in a closet.  The pin is from Industrial chic I bought it to use on cards but they are pins and charms and I thought they would work better on a project like this then a card.

I cut the flower with Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals die, the two smallest dies in the set two of the tulle in the larger size and one small of the satin fabric.  Those dies cut fabric perfectly.

You can see I was wearing pink the day of taking these pictures the white diamonds are picking up my reflection.

It was fun to stitch again, I have been working on a cross stitching, but this is the first of this kind of sewing I have done in awhile.

Once again I am sharing my card over at Stephanie's Roses of Inspiration you may want to check it out, you never know who will give you inspiration over there :)

Thanks so much for taking the time out to stop by, I really appreciate you taking the time to let me know you did also, Have a great week,

Connie

Goals

My girlfriend that started The Daniel Plan with me a little over a year ago, has met her weight goal and after her run a couple weeks ago met her goal of running a 5K also.  This was her time on the banner that she ran it in.  I just sponged the background in with inks and added the stickers.

Paper -- RAK
Susan Branch -- Exercise Stickers (image and sentiment)
Spellbinders -- Classic Rectangle lg. die
Distress inks -- peeled paint and tumbled glass
Die Versions -- Peppermint font (numbers) die
EK Success -- flower punch
Banner- hand cut (inked around it)
American Crafts -- twine

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Vintage Birthday

It has been a long time since I needed a male card, generally the fall time is when I have the most masculine birthdays.

I used mega flakes on the gear border, the base was kraft cardstock.  I do like the look of it on the kraft.  Still learning though on how much glue to use. I tried it first for the truck but wasn't really liking my results so I ended up embossing the truck with gold embossing powder.

Tim Holtz -- The Journey stamp set, embossed with gold embossing powder
Spellbinders -- Lg. Deckled Rectangles dies
Memory Box -- Gearworks Border die
Indigoblu -- Mega flakes, Morris Dance
DCWV -- Old world and metallic papers
Photo Corners

Hope you enjoy a lovely weekend, yesterday and today are great temps here, we will be getting a little bit of rain Sunday morning, but that is always a good thing for the garden.  Continued prayers going out to all those dealing with drought and these terrible fires.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, love hearing from you,

Connie

August Challenge

The August challenge with my on line cardmaking group was to use a solid stamp and to use white pigment ink to stamp it with, on a dark colored card stock, give it a little time to dry or heat dry it, I decided to let mine air dry, I can't seem to be able to use my heat gun without curling the paper.  I used a yellow and orange to color the bird and then used greens on the leaves and brown on the branches.  I also added some stickles to the berries to highlight them a little more.  It does give the image a nice textured feel but it doesn't look as neat as the example one of the girls shared with us.  My husband said it looked almost metallic looking. The sentiment banner was hand cut.

Inkadinkado -- Birds Galore, stamped w/white pigment ink, dried and colored w/colored pencils
Spellbinders -- LG Deckled Rectangles and A2 matting basics A dies
My mind's eye -- Lost and Found 2 paper
Martha Stewart -- Flowers and leaves punches (shaped flowers and scored leaves)
Gina K Designs -- tag lines sentiment stamp set
Liquid Pearls -- Chestnut
Stickles -- Diamond (berries) Antique Linen (flower center)
Lace


Evelyn update -- She has moved up to 64 mls today but she has a little blister on her incision, mom is doing a lot of cuddling today since Evelyn is a little grumpy.

Wow our temp is at 74 in the middle of the afternoon, can you believe it.  It was weird this morning walking out of the grocery store and not being hit with such awful heat.  Looks like we are going to have a couple days like this before it goes back up, this is just perfect for me :)  Hope your weather is nice wherever you are.

Thanks for stopping by, and your sweet comments,
Connie

Garden Fence

I have been following Leslie's Blog for a many years and she has been with me ever since the start of my blog being such an encouragement for me.  She has just retired from her job and I so wanted to share in her excitement by sending her a card to celebrate.  Not only does she have her blog of beautiful card creations she does, you really need to check it out she brings her scene's to life with her coloring, but she also shares her love of her garden and her sweet furbabies on this Blog .  So when I was thinking of her retiring I was thinking how she will have more time to enjoy her wonderful babies and beautiful gardens with her hubby so that is what made me pick this scene.  Of course my coloring isn't even in the same league with her but I know she would know the thought and love that went into the card.

Northwoods Rubber stamps -- Spring fence and gate
Papertrey ink -- Hodge podge papers
Spellbinders -- A2 Curved borders one die
Hero Arts -- All occasion messages stamp set
Queen &co. Baby blue gems
American crafts -- twine
wink of stella -- clear glitter pen

I am sharing my card once again over at Stephanie's Roses of Inspiration .  I see she has a sale 25% off your order on her Etsy page. Stop by and get the code, perfect time to shop, especially if there is something you have your eyes on :)

I just had to share too that Evelyn was able to come to church on Sunday, it was so special to see her there and even the Pastor was quite chocked up during our prayer time sending thanks to God for bringing her through all of this, quite emotional time and an answer to prayer.  Here is a picture that her Mom posted before leaving for church.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and letting me know of your visit,

Have a great week,
Connie

Embossed Stencil

A little while back I told you that I bought this new stencil and made 4 different panels with it, well here is my next try I did.  Using Versamark ink I added it through the stencil and then embossed with white embossing powder.  If you want to get a refresher of what I did with the last one you can see it HERE .

 

I just had to add a few dots in the center of each one with stickles :) The metal sunflower is one that I purchased early on and I think I found it at the $ store, I still have a few more in the pack.  I added foam adhesive behind it to give it a little lift.

Studio 490 -- Vintage quilt stencil, embossed with white embossing powder
Penny Black -- Sprinkles and smiles sentiment stamp set
Metal flower -- $ store
Ribbon
Stickles -- Gunmetal

Evelyn Update:  She did go home on Aug. 11th.  She just had a doctors appointment yesterday and they have put her up to 55 ml every two hours 6 times a day but still has to be on the feeding tubes at night.  She can be completely unhooked from all her machines for 6 hours a day. Sharing a picture of her hooked up so you can get an idea of what they have to take care of.

This is just a couple of days ago after she came home.

I also wanted to share this one because I love it, this is the first day they thought she was going to be able to come home.  You see after most of their post they would put there is light at the end of this tunnel and on this post they put her future is so bright she has to wear shades.

She is such a little cutie, I can't wait for the time she will join us back at church again.  God has truly blessed this little girl and her family, I am so thankful for all your prayers and well wishes for this precious little girl.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and commenting it means a lot I know how busy everyone is.  Have a wonderful weekend,

Connie

Forgotten Treasures/ Fragments

How many of you bought Tim Holtz's Fragments..... now how many of you used them?  I loved the idea and the look but never gave it a try and yes I bought the fragments and then when the charms came out I had to have those too, you will be seeing those in the future.  This being my first try with them I think I did a pretty good job, but had a bit of bubbles in there.  I used an image from a calendar and the image is on slick and very thin paper, next time I will try it with thicker paper and no gloss to it. For those of you that haven't heard of these Here is a video of Tim showing them.

I also used papers from my scrap bin for my background, it is getting quite full again.

Tim Holtz - Fragments
Calendar image
Inkadinkado -- All Occasions sentiment stamp set
Martha Stewart -- Gems
Scrap papers

Even though it is still getting hot in the afternoon we have been blessed with some cool mornings that I have been able to open the doors and windows and let the fresh air in, Love it!!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by, love to hear from you,
Connie

Summer Blossoms

I have a lot to share this morning, with a few links.

Debbie Olson shared a sketch she had drawn a few days back and it was right at the same time I was putting this card together, at the time I was going with a different main image but when I saw This post from Debbie , I just knew I had to change to this image.  Isn't that a lovely flower image and please check out her blog because her coloring just brings the flowers to life, mine still needs work.  She even shares the colors and a picture tutorial on how she colored hers.  I don't have many copics but I do now have all the Spectrum Noir markers so I mainly use them when you see anything colored with markers but I do also use my copics I do have with them.

Image from Debbie Olson colored w/markers
Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady -- papers and tag
Spellbinders -- Lacey circles, classic squares and lacey squares dies
Faber Castell -- Gold metallic pen (flower center)
American Crafts -- twine

Thank you again Debbie for sharing your talent and inspiration!!

I am sharing my post over at Stephanie's Roses of Inspiration link up .  Stop by and check out her wonderful blog and great inspiration links.  I did buy that bag from her Etsy store and got it within just a couple days with lovely packaging and a few extra lovely goodies too, she does excellent work with her creations. Thanks to Stephanie too for sharing her tutorials on the creations she makes also.

I forgot to mention in past post that I went over to visit with our friend Randy and his wife last week and he is still on the mend, still moving kind of slow, still hurts when he sneezes or laughs but he is mending.

I have a little sad update on Evelyn, she was suppose to go home yesterday but the place that had her IV medicine that she needed to have to be released home had lost their power and so they couldn't get the medicine they needed to let her go home, it was quite the let down for her parents I will have to tell you, no other update as this morning but I hope the next time I post I will be able to tell you that she is home and well.

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy day to stop by and would love to hear from you if you did.
Hope your having a great start to your week,

Connie

Steampunk Debutante

All images and papers from the same paper packet.  I cut the butterfly from the paper and added some glitter pen to the it and the gears.

Graphic45 -- Steampunk Debutante papers
Doodlebug designs inc. -- sentiment stamp
Distress ink -- hickory smoke
Wink of Stella -- clear glitter pen
Pearl pen -- Bronze (dots with the sentiment)

Thanks so much for stopping by today and hope your enjoying your weekend.  It is way too hot out there today, the humidity is so high it is hard to breathe so it has been an all indoor day today.

Connie

More 3 step stamping

Here is my yellow version of the 3 step stamping of the roses.  I only had one set of the stamped leaves and it just looked way to bare to me so I added some Martha Stewart leaf punches that I did a bit of scoring on to give it a little more dimension.  The base of the card was cut on my Silhouette. Using white card stock I inked the embossing folder with a light tan so that the background of the embossing would be a tan color and then when done embossing I swiped some yellow ink over the raised areas.

Silhoutte -- Card Base
Papers were in my scraps not sure of the maker
Paper Studio-- Silk screen embossing folder
Spellbinders -- Classic Square die ( for framing of the embossed part)
Altenew --Vintage Roses stamps (Rose and leaves)
Memory box -- Leavenworth Butterfly die and the small butterflies
Recollections -- Lace on a roll
EK Success -- small punch flowers
Martha Stewart -- leaf punch
Hero Arts -- Birthday messages stamp set
Stickles -- Cinnamon
Black enamel for the small butterflies

Evelyn update:  They are keeping her right at 27 mls so far but it still looks good that she should be able to come home on Monday.  My friends are getting so much info given to them about what to do when she comes home it is getting a little overwhelming for them.

Hope you will enjoy a great weekend. Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and your comments, so good hearing from you,

Connie

Forgotten Treasure/ Flower pin

Do you remember back when everyone was using pins on their cards, I think we need a comeback :)
I don't remember where I purchased the set of pins, I still have a few more that at the time I couldn't part with, but now I am ready to let them go.  Do you have items in your stash that you just can't part with right now.
The stamp I think  came from the $ store because there is no writing on the wood mount stamp.  I colored my Martha Stewart water based craft pens directly to the stamp before  stamping.  After 3 attempts I finally had a decent stamped image, then I decided to add a little antiquing with some distress ink, well as you see the sponge I used already had a darker brown on it and it ended up so much darker than I wanted, I was so bummed especially since it took me so long to get the stamping right, I decided to go ahead with it since the papers were a bit dark too.

Bouquet stamp -- $ store? colored direct to stamp with water based markers then stamped
Flower pin -- EK Success
We R memory keepers -- Anthologie paper
Our Daily Bread designs -- mini tag sentiments and mini tags dies
Ribbon

We had some heavy rain storms yesterday, we were under a flood watch, but thankfully no flooding.  Praying for all those that are dealing with fires and drought at this time.

Update on Evelyn:  She is up to 27 mls and they have taken her off lipids which they are happy about because being on them too long can cause liver problems. I can't remember if I said in an earlier post but she is now being unhooked from all tubes for a few hours every evening and they are able to take her for walks around the hospital, they even took her down to the cafeteria to have their dinner with her one evening.  So wonderful to see smiles on everyone's faces.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Roses

I have been eyeing the step stamping that you do to achieve the look of dimension in flowers.  There are many companies making them, my LSS just happened to be selling this set so I decided to go for it.  Thankfully Altenew has on their site a template to show you how to line them up which is very helpful.  This was my first attempt at them and I think they turned out pretty good.  I don't feel I am very good at mixing colors well but this was my favorite combo of stamp colors for the pinks I tried.

The leaves in the set also has step stamping, I think here I only did the two steps instead of 3, but I can't remember I have since done a sheet for myself and wrote the colors of ink I used for future reference.   I hand cut them all out to add to the card, I popped up only the center flower since this was being mailed to my nephews wife.

Altenew-- Vintage Roses stamp set
Spellbinders -- Fancy Lattice and Labels 8 dies
April Rose Illustrations -- paper pack
Penny Black -- Sprinkles and smiles stamp set for sentiment
Queen & co. -- Baby blue gems

I am once again sharing this post over at Stephanie's Roses of Inspiration Link up post.  If you have some extra time on your hands stop by and see all the wonderful links of inspiration that is over there, you won't be sorry.  I see she also has posted some new things in her Etsy store.  I am eyeing one of her bags she posted, I try not to buy things I can make myself but I don't think I am going to be able to hold back on this one.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and I would love for you to comment and let me know you stopped by,

Thanks and have a wonderful rest of your week,

Connie

Napkin card

Yes you read that right this is a napkin background that has been applied to a piece of cardstock with Mod Podge.  One of my cardmaking groups was challenging each other to make napkin cards, I didn't know there were so many wonderful napkins out there.  This napkin is left over from a project I did years ago when I took a simple white trash can that I wanted for my bathroom and I added the cut outs of the roses to the can to go with my rose theme in my bathroom.  That is now in my craft room.

Napkin & Mod Podge
Paper trey ink-- One Liners, Happy Die set
Technique Tuesday -- Happy Birthday sentiment stamp (Birthday)

I won the happy set of dies from Susan's blog, I had to make a card using one of them right away. I cut the die 3 times out of kraft card stock then glued them all together. Before I added the top one I gave it some deeper brown color using Walnut Stain Distress ink. The birthday was stamped onto cardstock and the happy die was laid on top of it. If you haven't had a chance to see Susan's blog head over and check out her wonderful talent!

Baby Evelyn update: She is up to 21 ml an hour as of yesterday, no update yet this early in the morning. Still going strong :)

Hope your week is off to a good start, sounds like some of us will be having a cool down in temps this week, that will be a nice relief, we still have another 90 degree day today but starting tomorrow we should be seeing the 80's again!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

Paris

The image and papers are all from the same Graphic 45 paper pad, I just had to add a few embellishments to it.  I really love how this one turned out.

Graphic 45 -- Curtain call paper pack
Spellbinders -- Classic Rectangles lg, Marvelous Squares (corners) and Back to basics tags dies
Inkadinkado -- Greetings/Salutations stamp set
Martha Stewart -- Embroidered Floral border punch
Brads -- colored Black with marker

Great Update on Evelyn, she is up to 13 ml an hour through the feeding tube, and 3 still by mouth, the doctor says that if she does well he will continue to increase 2 ml a day until she reaches 35 ml.  They are saying she may even be able to go home August 10th.  What a blessing that will be.  Her parents have only had her home for a couple of weeks before they found out her problem, so she has been in the hospital for 2 whole months.  I can't imagine how much her parents just want to get her home again.

Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and let me know you did,

Connie