Vintage Roses

I am sorry when I mentioned the MISTI in my last post I forgot I hadn't shared here that I received an early Christmas present (I realized I put birthday in my last post I meant Christmas) from my hubby.  I shared it with my on line card making group and was thinking I shared it here too.  When I asked my hubby for it and showed him what it was he said don't you want to get that before Christmas while making all your cards and I really did so I have been enjoying playing with it and it has helped so much, I don't know how many times I haven't been happy with stamping of a sentiment or a second stamp that I used with another but was to afraid to try and line it up again because I could never get it just right, I even had problems using my stamp a ma jig.  With this no problems I am happy with this purchase even though it was more than I wanted to spend but that's what Birthdays and Christmas presents are for, to get things you wouldn't normally spend that kind of money on....right?   HERE IS A LINK if you want to check out what I am talking about, there are many you tube video's out there too :)

For my nephews wife, I thought I would try stamping my triple stamped flowers using the Misti this time and it worked very well for me, a lot easier to line up when you can lay the stamp right where you want it instead of looking through a block and hoping you have it lined up right, at least for me it is so much easier. She is also a cardmaker in our family.

Altenew -- Vintage Roses stamps, used dye and chalk inks
Hero Arts -- sentiment stamp
Spellbinders -- Labels 8 and Decorative labels 8 dies
Raspberry Road Designs -- paper from cardmaking and papercraft mag.
Offray -- ribbon
Gems

I hope you had an enjoyable weekend, we are still trying to get through this rain but they are saying we should see the sun tomorrow, I so do miss seeing it.  Wishing you all a fabulous week to come!

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

Connie

Autumn Birthday

I am still getting through my Autumn birthday cards I sent out.  I used my MISTI tool that I got for an early Christmas present with this one and it was so nice because it didn't all stamp perfect the first time and I was able to go over it and then it was perfect, I like how you can also line up the sentiment just where you want it and with the grid lines you know you are straight, that is one thing I am not great at is stamping straight. Love that tool.  I used a few different inks on this to give it that Fall look.

Inkadinkado -- Foliage Trails stamp set
Penny Black -- Sprinkles and smiles sentiment  stamp
My Minds Eye -- The sweetest thing papers
Impression Obsession -- Feather die
Jute
Button

It rained all day yesterday and is still at it this morning, luckily it has been a light steady rain so no flooding here, I haven't heard if it is anywhere around us. The forecast is rain through Monday and that we will see the sun on Tuesday, but doesn't sound like we will be getting rain the whole time.  I am just thankful it isn't snow for all that time.  I know it is pretty but the shoveling is not something my back enjoys anymore.

Hope you are enjoying a nice start to your weekend, and have a little time to create or do whatever it is you love to do!!

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

Connie

Happy Thanksgiving

This is the only Thanksgiving card I made this year, it went to my Father in law.  Luckily I had one left over from last year that I sent to my daughter and son in law.  My LSS had these Northwoods stamps for 40% off so I just had to get it.

Northwoods -- Vertical Sunflowers, pumpkin & gourds stamp, colored w/markers
Spellbinders -- Long classic rectangles small and A2 matting basics A dies
DCWV -- Wild Splendor and Burlap papers
David Tutera -- Celebrate Sentiments

I think the older you get the more Thankful you become for everything in your life and not just the big things all the little things too.  I miss my parents very much but am thankful for the years I did have with them, I miss seeing my daughter more than twice a year but I am so thankful to God that he blessed us with a wonderful baby girl after losing one to stillbirth and miscarrying two more. I have 3 brothers and two sisters that I don't get to see as often as I would like either but I know they are there and so wonderful when we can get together. A Husband that is so supportive, loving and caring, I could not have asked for more in a wonderful man to share my life.  Great friends that I have had growing up and blessed I still do have them in my life.  A wonderful church family that keeps me focused on the one to whom I am the most thankful for, a Loving God who gives me grace daily, speaks to me through his word, shares in my joys and lifts me up when I am down.

I am also thankful to all of you that I have met through your blogs and mine, thank you not only for your wonderful encouraging words to me but sharing life too and being encouraged and inspired by your post as well. Wishing you and yours a wonderful day of Thanksgiving for our many blessings.

Hugs to you,
Connie

Love Life

This one went out to a very long time on line cardmaking friend from my group.  Isn't it amazing how you can get to know someone so much that you feel like you have met them but have never seen them in person.  That is what the internet has done for us, I just so enjoy the friendships I have made through groups and my blog.

Stephanie is back to having her Roses of Inspiration link up, you can check out what everyone is up to HERE ON HER BLOG . It's nice to have Stephanie back to posting, not only for her link up but all her other wonderful and inspiring posts she does :)

I added a small piece of foam adhesive behind the gate latch to give it a little dimension, and added a bird on the trellis.  Looking at it now I realize I forgot to add a fence on either side, oh my.... she has already received it so too late now.  I shaped the flowers with a stylus on a foam pad.

Taylored Expressions -- Garden Arbor & gate and Arbor Accessories dies
Fiskars -- cloud punch
Memory box - bird die ?
Stamps of life -- minis 4 circles sentiment stamp
WeRmemory keepers -- Anthologie paper
Pearl Pen -- bronze (flower centers)

Hope your week is off to a great start!!

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

Connie

Live for today

My great nephew turned 11,  these preteen and teen cards for boys are hard for me to do but this is what I came up with, the paper, tag and sentiments are all from the same paper pack I just cut the tag and words out and inked around the words and popped them up on the tag.  Added balloons to give it a bit of celebration feel :)

Recollections -- Awesome boy paper
Taylored expressions -- balloon die (string hand drawn)
Dazzles -- Black Dots

Looks like tomorrow is going to be the pick day as far as decent temperature to put up our Christmas lights and decorations outside.  When we were younger we always waited until after Thanksgiving to do that but the older we get we have just decided whatever day in the forecast looks the best just before or after is when they go up.  But I refuse to turn them on until Thanksgiving eve.  Then the tearing down of all my fall stuff inside starts and then Christmas goes up.  Do you have any traditions on how you decorate for these holidays?

Hope you enjoyed your weekend and the week ahead is full of Family and Friends and creative time!

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

Connie

Comforted

One of the ladies in my Bible study lost her mother.  I tried the Bokeh technique here is a link I just googled if you don't know about this technique HERE .  I first sponged on a few colors of distress inks and then I used  a template I made with spellbinder circle dies to sponge on the white ink, well I couldn't find the white ink pad I had used before but I did find another one to use and it was pigment ink so when I stamped the sentiment and the plant on top it just soaked up the ink and made it not stamp as dark, but I went with it cause I thought it looked ok in the end.

Distress inks -- Scattered straw, mustard seed, bundled sage, crushed olive and wild honey
Unity stamp -- Insightful meadow
Taylored Expression -- Care & Comfort sentiment stamp
Spellbinder -- classic circle dies to make template for the white dots (bokeh)

It has been raining all morning until just an hour or so ago and then it started changing to snow but none is sticking.  Hope your weather is just how you like it wherever you are :)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and for your comments, I love hearing from you,

Connie

Birds on a limb

My girlfriend from church is a cook and baker and is so sweet, after we started the Daniel plan way of eating she has been trying different recipes and all natural foods for us to try, I would have to say her homemade applesauce was the best and she just gave us some apple butter that I can't wait to try at Thanksgiving.  This is the card I made for her.

I took the center heart from the bird house and put it onto the sign.  The leaves were cut out and applied to the top of the branch over the brown leaves background. The wings come out of the birds so I colored them with markers and glued them back onto the birds.

Spellbinders -- Out on a limb die
Poppystamps -- Stitched Landscapes die
Stamps of life -- Minis 4 circles sentiment stamp
Bazzill Brads

Another week is over and it always makes me sad when Thanksgiving is over because that is when I feel Autumn is officially over.

Hope your enjoying a good week.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and your sweet comments, I really do appreciate hearing from you,

Connie

Deepest Sympathy

One of the girls in my cardmaking group lost her husband and this is the card I sent to her.

Hampton Art -- Hydrangea Collage colored w/markers and shaded with old paper distress ink
Colorbok -- Homespun paper
Hero arts -- Everyday sayings  sentiment stamp
Wink of Stella -- clear glitter pen on flower and butterfly
Making memories -- ribbon

It looks like we are done with the rain, and the ditch behind our house flooded but it didn't come up into our yard so I am thankful for that.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and your sweet comments they mean a lot,

Connie

In my prayers

My oldest brothers wife woke up a couple weeks ago to having a hard time breathing just getting ready for a doctor's appointment, by the time she got into the office she was in really bad shape, they did an ekg on her and sent her to the hospital in an ambulance, she was in need of a pacemaker.  I sent her this card. It is 5x7 card size.

She is taking it easy and doing the exercises she is told to do, was quite the scary situation for her, so thankful she had an appointment that day and was already going to see the doctor,

Martha Stewart -- Flourish Scroll, Frame border punch and tag punch
Memory Box -- Zinnia Bouquet die on watercolor paper and colored with distress inks
Our Daily Bread design -- mini tag sentiments stamp
Distress Stickels -- Aged Mahogany for flower centers

We are getting a lot of rain down here in Southern Illinois, been gloomy couple of days but they are saying we should see sun by Wednesday afternoon, that will be very welcomed :)

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

Connie

Lilies

My hubby's sister loves flowers and so I decided to color this stamp in some Autumn colors, I hope your not getting to overwhelmed with the colors I have been using, I just love this time of year and use a lot of oranges in my cards :)  Another stamp I picked up at the yard sale so I don't have a name to it, but it has a year of 1994 on it.

This is a 5x7 card.

PSX -- stamp from 1994, colored w/markers
Spellbinders -- Exquisite Labels eleven and Sentiments one  dies
Cosmo Cricket -- Everafter papers
Forever in time -- pearls

Since there is rain in the forecast for the next 3 days hubby and I went for a drive to get out in the beautiful weather we were having yesterday after church.  So nice to get out and enjoy the weather before it gets cold.  Hope you were able to enjoy your weekend and that the week ahead brings many enjoyable moments!

Thanks so much for taking the time out to stop by and your sweet comments, I really appreciate it,

Connie

Inchies

It has been awhile since I have used my inchie stamps so thought I would use some Fall colors with them.  Also want to share that Gina is having a give a way on her blog and you can find the link to it on my side bar, she has some wonderful goodies she is giving away.  I was lucky enough to win her last one, so stop by her blog and check it out!

Studio G -- stamps for inches and tag
BasicGrey -- Piccadilly paper
Martha Stewart -- border punch
Spellbinders -- Classic circle, classic square and Labels one dies
Bazzill -- Brad
Fiskar sentiment stamp

It is such a beautiful sunny day with temps in the 60's, just wonderful day for a nice walk and we had some steak on the grill.  Hope your enjoying a great weekend.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by, and saying Hi,

Connie

Pretty Peonies and More Springfield

This one went out to my closest friend I had while living in England, and it is so great that we still keep in touch.

Wplus 9 -- Pretty Peonies stamp set
Spritzer tool for the splattered background
Distress ink for shading
Raspberry Road Designs -- paper from cardmaking and papercraft magazine
Stampendous -- Gem stickers
Spellbinders -- A2 scalloped borders two die

Well I didn't care for much of the other pictures I took inside the museum so I thought I would share some pictures we took of the capital building and the supreme court building that was across the street, I love old Architecture and these buildings were so pretty.

The statue out front is of Lincoln

I loved this shot with the tree even though you can't see much of the building

This one is the side of the building that you can't see very well from the road shots 

Here is another closeup view of the left side

Close up of the pillars, I don't know if you can see it or not but there was netting all over the front porch around the columns, all I could think is to keep the birds out from nesting underneath.

I just thought this tree had a cool shape to it

Supreme court building

I think I mentioned before I have a thing about lights and this had such a cool design to them I just had to get a closeup of them also.

Does anybody have plans for this weekend, this is the first in a long time we don't have plans but I am sure my hubby will think of something we have to get out and do, LOL.

Thankfully we had no damage in all the wind and storms that went through the other night, hope you all did as well.

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

Connie

Happy and Dresses

One of the girls in my on line card making group gifted me some words die cuts to use on my cards, and this is one of them.  Also awhile back I did a bunch of backgrounds using this stencil and I used them in different ways, this one I just sponged the gold ink through it, so that is why I went with a gold paper for the flower, which I did a little shaping on it to give it a little lift :)

Stencil sponged with gold ink
Recollections -- lace on a roll
Happy -- die cut
Spellbinders -- Rose creation die
Bazzill -- brad
Inkadinkado -- Greetings/Salutations sentiment stamp

Daniela did a post on civil war dresses and it reminded me of the dresses I took pictures of at the Lincoln Museum we went to, so I thought I would share some pictures I took of the dresses in that time period.  If you are into that kind of stuff it is a real interesting read and you can find it HERE on her blog .  At the end of all her posts you can read it in English.

The only one I have of Mrs. Lincoln in her dress has me in the shot too, my hubby took this one of me.  These were not all her dresses it was others that came to the white house too, but I don't have the information and I can't remember.

I will have to say this last one was my favorite, I just loved the color, lace and the stitching, which is why I got a close up.

After taking the picture I realized I have this same pattern on the shower curtain off my master bedroom, except the flowers on my curtain are pinks and burgundy's, I just thought that was too funny.

I was going to share my Prom dress and wedding dress in this post but I would have to find them and scan them and I knew that wouldn't happen anytime soon so maybe I will share in another post, they were both hooped dresses also, and I made my poor bridesmaids wear them too.  Can you tell I just love this style of dress.

Well that is it for me today, we have some rough weather coming this evening they are telling us, high winds and possible tornado's, It is suppose to hit while I will be at the church for Ladies Bible study, which is safer than here since we have it in the classrooms in the basement of the church and here at home I don't have a basement.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and let me know you have,

Connie

Farm Scene

Last Masculine Fall birthday, this one went out to my brother in law.  I didn't get a real good picture of it the left side was kind of washed out.  Did a little bit of faux stitching around it, felt it needed a little something more.

Northwoods -- Farm scene in Rectangle stamp, colored w/markers
Graphic 45 - Steampunk Debutante paper pack
Spellbinder die -- corner treatment
Faux stitching

Our Pastor is doing a series of sermons based on the Disney Movie Inside out and sharing what we learn from the bible and all the different emotions, he did fear first and yesterday was sadness.  We decided to go rent the movie last night and it is very cute and like he said has a lot of adult connections, just thought I would share in case you haven't seen the movie yourself.

Hope you had an enjoyable weekend and have a great week ahead of you,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and saying Hi, love to hear from you,

Connie

Feathered Friends

My hubby's sister likes birds and she can tell you the name of almost any bird, myself I just enjoy birds, don't really know the names of many of them.  So that is why I went with this die cut bird and since I probably wouldn't have colored it the way it really should be I just cut him out of a patterned paper so it can be anyone's guess :)

Cheery Lynn Designs -- Feathered Friends die
Prima -- Doily die
Spellbinders -- A2 Matting basicsA die
Sizzix -- Branch w/leaves die
Lilybee design -- Head over heels paper
Penny Black -- sentiment stamp

We had a bit of frost last night, I guess this weekend it will be time to dump the flowers in my pots and get them cleaned up and stored away for next year, so sad when you have to take all that down for the winter it just looks so bare outside., so nice to have decorations up in the house, that way you can hold onto fall as long as you want :)

Hope you enjoy a fun and creative weekend,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and say Hi, so good to hear from you,

Connie

Simple Joys

I didn't get around to posting all the masculine cards I made for my October birthdays before the challenges started with my card making group.

I do like how this one turned out a little more than the last one I did for my other nephew but I could really use some classes on how to color reflection in water, I will have to search that on you tube maybe someone has posted a video on it, I learn much more by watching video's than reading how to do things.

Both stamps were again bought at my stamp stores yard sale and I can see why one of the ladies sold the sentiment stamp, as many times as I stamped it out I couldn't get the last part of joys to stamp even giving it extra pressure so that part I hand wrote copying it from the stamp. I tried looking up what the name of the image stamp is and I really couldn't find it, but I think it may be Lake with Loons.

Northwoods -- stamp from 2002, colored with markers
Mini perfect layers for framing of the image
My mind's eye -- Lost and found two paper
RI designs -- sentiment stamp
Dew drops

We have had a few foggy starts to the morning but today the sun is shining, looks like it is going to be a nice sunny day until the rain comes in later.

Wow another week almost over, it is going by way to quickly.  Hope all is well wherever you are.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and then letting me know you did, love hearing from you,

Connie

Fill er up

I still had one more card to share from our week of challenges.  This was to use a stencil, I made mine from a spellbinder die because I didn't have a big enough open stencil, and you were suppose to use those tiny stamps you have that you just don't know what to really do with them.  Well I have had this stamp set of little stamps for quite some time, and I think I may have only used it once or twice, so this was a great challenge to use this set with.

Take your open stencil, stamp your little stamps inside and then sponge some ink around the opening of the stencil before removing, I will have to say the sponging around makes a big difference because I just had to take a peek of my stamping before that step and the sponging around really defines it nicely I think.

I wish I would have done the butterfly stamp in a different color but other than that I really liked the way this turned out.  I used 5 different little stamps in this.

Rubberstamp tapestry -- butterfly blooms
Spellbinders --  Big scalloped circle lg (for stencil)
Martha Stewart -- Border punch
Fiskar -- Corner rounder punch
Technique Tuesday -- Happy Birthday sentiment

We have had a couple of really foggy mornings, my hubby took some neat pictures I will have to get them from him and share.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and say Hi,

Connie

Forgotten Treasure

I will admit I probably have way too many dies, and when you get a new one you just want to try it out, so the very first ones you bought tend to not see the light of day.... well I went and found some of the first ones I bought, I googled to see how old it was and LOOK on their site I found it for only $4.99 now.  This is the those steel dies that you can cut thicker material, so I cut this out with some of my thick watercolor paper and used some distress inks watered down to color it.

Sizzix -- Decorative accent w/flower and leaves die,  water colored w/distress inks (link above)
Martha Stewart -- Corner punch
Inadinkado -- all occasions sentiment stamp
Stickles -- Frosted lace (flower center)
gems ribbon

I really like the look of watercolor on this die, will be doing that again I am sure :)

We are having some very cool mornings but quite warm days yet, just love this time of year when you can have the windows and doors open.

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead,
Thanks so much for taking the time out to stop by, would love to hear from you,

Connie