Stained Glass Window

Today's card went to another blog friend, Shaz from Calligraphy Cards.

 Some people I just know what I want to do for them and other's I really have to put my thinking cap on :)  Shaz lives in Australia and she shares many pictures of the beauty around where she lives including the lovely beaches. I think that is the one thing I really miss about living in Michigan is the lakes, being by the waters edge is so calming to me.

  Well back to the card, I just didn't know what to do for a water theme and so I went with another thing that she shares, and that is her love for God, she shares verses from the bible and she does lovely cards with verses on them.  When I think of God's house, the church and that had me thinking of stained glass windows.  I love the old churches with the ivy growing up them.

I started with a piece of transparency that I used alcohol inks to get the stained glass effect, and glued the window die cut to it and cut around it. A little inking on the ivy because the green looked a little to bright for me after all.

I inked the embossing folder to give the background a tan color.

Tim Holtz --Bricked embossing folder, inked with Memento Desert sand
Poppystamps -- Gothic stained glass die
Transparency with Alcohol inks : Cranberry, Meadow, Eggplant
Spellbinders -- Ivy die
Martha Stewart -- Butterfly punches
David Tuttera -- Celebrate sentiments
Gems
Wink of stella -- clear glitter on butterflies

Thanks once again for taking the time to stop by today, I so love hearing if you have,

Connie

For you

To those of you that are new to stopping by my blog, I gave myself a challenge to get a card made this year for all those people that stop by my blog regular and give me such encouragement.

The card today is one I sent to Monika over at M.A.D. Stamper.  I have been following Monika for years and she has been an encouragement to me on my blog also.  She has such a great style to her cardmaking and my favorite thing she does is the ways she uses Vellum, especially with flowers.  I hope you have a chance to check out her blog and her lovely creations.

This was sent in a padded envelope with all this dimension.  I cut the wreath out twice and layered them to give it a little more thickness to it.  The flowers with the dimension are the rolled flowers, I don't use them often because they are so big but when hand delivering a card or home projects they are just wonderful to use.

Sharing a couple close up pictures the first is this cute bird, this is my first time using it and he is too cute, you cut it in 4 sections and put him together, I cut it all out of white card stock and then colored them and put him together, added a dot for his eye :)  love the dimension it gives to him.

And the flowers, I did a little inking on those and the leaves, the punched flowers were shaded with my stylus and foam mat

Memory Box -- Grapevine wreath die, 2 put together
Spellbinders -- Bitty Blossoms and fern dies
Memory Box-- Contempo birds
punched little flowers
My mind's eye-- The sweetest thing paper
Recollections -- Lace on a roll
Hampton Art -- sentiment
Stickles-- broken china

We are having more rain, but they say we still need it so I can't complain, getting a little break tomorrow so I will be looking forward to going out for our walk.  Hope all is well where you are :)

Thanks so much to all of you that take the time to stop by and to let me know you did, I do so appreciate it.

Connie

Sanded Tree

One of the girls in my stamping group sent me many papers that she had embossed some of the embossing folders she had, This one I think she stamped the background first, then embossed the tree and sanded to bring out the tree details, isn't that cool looking, all I had to do was trim down the paper to fit on my card base and I took the silver Hot Off the Press tiny words and phrases Dazzle stickers I had and colored them brown with a marker and added it to the bottom and inked Walnut distress ink around the base of the card and I was done, this was so nice to have on hand because I needed to get this card in the mail before my brother came to visit, I knew I wouldn't get any crafting time in.

I am running late for church so I will see you next time,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today :)

Connie

Cat in window

Hi, I am back, my brother ans sister in law left just a little while ago, I thought I would have some down time while they were here to post but that just didn't happen.  It was a great visit and we did a lot of walking, let's just say I didn't have any trouble getting my steps in each day :)

Today I have a card to share for my niece who has a cat. I watercolored the background with distress inks and added the cut from my Silhouette Cameo machine, and added a few sequins :)

Now I am off to catch up on all your blogs :)
Hope you have a fun and creative weekend!!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Contractor birthday

My sister in laws significant other is a contractor so when I found this stamped image that one of the girls in my cardmaking group shared with me many years ago, I thought it would be perfect for him. I believe it is an old Stamping bella stamp.

Spellbinders -- Lg. Deckled Rectangles die
Memory Box - Gearworks border die cut from DCWV - metallic paper
Hot off the press -- Ivory papers and tag
Our Daily Bread design -- Mini tag sentiments stamp
Bazzill basics - brad

I hope your week is off to a good start, I am getting excited my brother and sister in law are coming from Michigan for a visit. I may get behind on visiting your blogs but I will catch up sooner or later :)

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

Connie

Inking embossing folders

One of the girls in my stamping group challenged us to inking our embossing folders by swiping our inks across the folder and using a few different colors, Here is a video she shared with us.

I used 3 different colors of Distress ink in the cube size across the embossing folder on each of my cards, I wrote all the colors of ink I used on a piece of paper, well I set everything aside because the next day I needed to make some other cards and when I went back to working on these I had lost the paper I wrote all the colors I used, how does this stuff just get up and walk out of the room, I am sure I will come across it someday and wonder what all that meant.

I took a closer picture, wasn't sure if you could see the different colors that were used very well in the over all picture of the card. I cut the branch so that it would fit better on the card.

Crafters companion-- woodland embossing folder
Recolletcions -- owl stamp
Memory Box -- Woodland branch die
Making memories -- woven labels


Here is my second card, I think you can see the colors a little better on this one.  The stamp is one I had just bought at my stamp stores recent garage sale, people were getting rid of spring stamps so you will be seeing a few of them.  I accidently stamped it in blue, then I stamped it again in black and even using my MISTI, I must have moved it a little bit, I tried to find markers that would kind of match the colors of the ink I used for the background.

Holly Berry House stamp
Darcie -- Doily lace Embossing folder
SRM sticker --  thinking of you sentiment set
sequins

Awww the day warmed up and the sun is shinning, spring may be on it's way once again :)  Hope it stays this time.
Wishing you all a wonderful remainder of the weekend!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Holly Berry House stamp-- Daffodil, coloace Frame embossing folder
SRM sticker -- thinking of you sentiment
Sequins

Masculine Birthday

This one went to my Hubby's boss, he won't tell them how old he is, it took a few years to find out when his actual birthday really was, so I wrote on the inside Happy 25th birthday....again, cause he just says he is always 25.

Now I have colored this stamp in so many different ways but this time I used chalks to color it. I actually think I may like this way over markers.

Stampscapes -- Old Mill Lg. colored w/chalks
Spellbinders -- A2 matting basics A and labels trio dies
Hero Arts -- It's your day sentiment stamp
Pebbles-- Glitter candy dots

We are getting rain today I guess they say we need rain we are in a moderate drought since we didn't get much in the way of snow this year.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, last night we went out with the kids to celebrate my birthday and my daughter going into a Ph.D. program at Yale this fall.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, I appreciate you taking out the time to comment to let me know you did :)

Connie

Strength and Hope

I was in need of a sympathy card for a dear fellow cardmaker who had recently lost her husband.  I just froze and couldn't come up with an idea so I turned to some of the card idea's I had saved for times like these and ended up going with Esther's lovely card HERE.

I stamped a few different background stamps and then diecut a flower instead of stamping a flower.  I thought I cut the die from dark brown paper but it shows up looking black here.

Inkadinkado -- Script 8347 Stamp
Provocraft -- background stamp (no name)
Memory Box -- Verona Bougquet die
Stampendous -- Sincere Sentiments stamp
Nuvo Crystals drops -- Pale Gold
Distress ink -- Antique Lines (shading around the edges)

My birthday was yesterday and my hubby has been so busy that he didn't get time to make me a card so he told me to order some dies that I want instead :)  He just couldn't see buying me a card when we have all this stuff to make one.

We had a very hard frost last night and they are saying it may have ruined our peach crop.
Hope if you are in the east and have been hit with that snow storm that it all melts soon for you and we can get onto spring!

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

Connie

Baby Boy

I want to share a baby boy card that with these Memory Box - Alphabet tile letters you can personalize your card to include the babies name.  I thought it would be neat to make a quilted card with the tiles, so I used the Memory Box - Country stitches, to give it that quilted look.

Here are a couple pictures showing how I lined up for the stitching.

Next I die cut the tile letters, glued the bases down in the middle of the squares I made, inserted the letters back inside so I could add the inside pieces of the letters. Here I had already finished the "B" and and now doing the "A"  at the top of the picture you can see the little piece of the "A" that I will add, then take back out the A.  What is great about these letters is you can use both the negative and the positive of them.

Next I have a tip for you, if you don't happen to have a die that you need look at how you may take bits from other dies you have by cutting away the pond I was able to use these ducks from Die-namics Duck pond die. HERE you can find an assortment of all kinds of ducks in the store.

I also used the Impression Obsession- rabbit set and the Impression Obsession buttons dies to fill in the other quilt squares.

I ended up cutting down my card because I didn't like the left side having extra room, so my card measures 4 1/4 x 5 1/8.

Here are the dies used in the card.

This is my last post for Dies R Us inspiration design team, it has been so much fun being on this team, I would like to thank all the ladies for their encouragement and support as this being my first time on a design team.  I would also like to make a special thank you to Darlene who is the best and sweetest Coordinator to head up the team, and to Dies R us for giving me this opportunity.  If you would like to also be a design team member you still have a few days to try out HERE is a link that will give you all the info you need.

Follow Dies R Us!

 

Click below for:

Store

Challenge Blog

Facebook

Remember, there is a new inspiration sample shared each and every day of the month

on our Dies R Us Inspiration Blog using a variety of dies from several different companies.

Then of course you'll want to come join us at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog.

There's a new challenge theme offered on the 1st & 15th of each month with

a gift voucher prize to one lucky winner each challenge!

OH!  And did you know we have a FB Page and PINTEREST Page?

Thanks for stopping by today!

Botainical Gardens

My husband and I went to the St. Louis Botanical Gardens the other day, he was itching to take pictures of flowers and there just wasn't enough blooming around here.

These are the pictures I took that day, I didn't have time to go through all of them so these are from only the beginning of our day.

Check out the bee in this next picture.

This one is from my Favorite tree in the whole garden, every time we go I tell my husband I want a try just like this one, but I don't have one yet.

Hope you have a very blessed Sunday!!
Tomorrow I have a post for Dies R Us blog,
Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

Joy

It just so happens my nephews fiance's name is Joy so this sentiment could be used either way :)

Using some more forgotten treasures, I had been hoarding these last two Making memories leather flowers and decided it was time to let them go.  I made the banner by cutting one out by hand and then using the Memory box - country stitches die to make the stitched marks on it.

Making Memories -- Leather flowers
Spellbinders -- Ironworks Accents dies
Memory Box -- Country stitches die
Stamps of life -- Minis 4 circles sentiment stamp
Paper from cardmaking and papercraft magazine

Esther was sweet to leave some links to ideas on what to do with our left over letters in my last post, here they are :
Here's some fun ideas for using leftover letters (stickers and chipboard):
1. https://sweetpapertreats.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/makeover-monday-use-up-those-letter-stickers/
2. http://scrapyourscraps.blogspot.fr/2014/07/use-your-leftover-thickers.html
3. http://mypapersecret.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/case-study-challenge-70_28.html
4. http://www.jennifermcguireink.com/2009/02/happy-wednesday.html (monogram card)

Thank you so much for sharing with us :)

Well now they are saying a dusting to an inch of snow so it won't be too bad with the snow and the temperature is suppose to get up to 42 on Sunday so I am thinking it may just all melt.

Wishing you all a fun and creative weekend ahead.
Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

Happy

Using more of my forgotten treasures, these chipboard letters are from a few years ago, soon I will be running out of any words I can make with them. Back before Pinterest it seems like I saw a post about what to do with those extra letters, but I have forgotten where on my computer I saved that link.

The letters already come foiled.  I took the little flowers that came from punching the border and used them to sprinkle around the card. The paper I used was double sided so I used the backside, except for the birthday banner.

Well we are on another roller coaster, yesterday we were in the 60's today in the 70's and then the 40's and 30's for the next 5 days with a possibility for snow Saturday night.  Oh how I wish it could just stay spring.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and letting me know you have.

Connie

Heal Well

My friends husband was recently in the hospital and has a long road of recovery in front of him, so I wanted to send him this card to let him know he continues to be in our prayers.

Heidi shared HERE, how she used the new Distress Oxide's to stamp on colored cardstock, and I just thought the results was so neat that I had to give it a try myself.  I used Walnut stain on kraft with this card, my hubby even loved the results.  Since the image was so dark I tried to go a bit lighter with my papers.

Here is a closeup of the stamping. Inked up the stamp and then sprayed with water and then stamped. I let the stamp sit on the cardstock for a little longer than I normally do to make sure I got a good stamp.

Inkadinado -- Fall trees Silhouette stamp
Spellbinders -- Lg. Deckled Rectangles and A2 matting basics A dies
Distress Oxide - Walntu stain ink
g.c.d, - Funhouse papers
Words to the rescue -- Get well sentiment stamp
Martha Stewart -- border punch

Thanks so very much for all your sweet comments and sharing your thoughts, I really do appreciate you taking the time out to stop by,

Connie

Mum Blooms

Now I know spring is coming and usually we think of Mums in the Fall but I just got these Memory Box - Magnificent Mum Floral blooms dies and had to use them from the new release. The Memory box - Windswept stems are new too and thought would look great with the mums.

First I cute the mums out of brown cardstock, then I applied them to a piece of paper that I liked the colors but wasn't a heavy pattern to it and loosely cut around them.

Since I only had 3 flowers I decided to cut off one of the stems and add it to the previous set to get the 3 stems I wanted. Dies are so much easier to adapt for our cards than stamping.

I also added a pretty border using the Poppystamps -- Tailored Stitches die and then took my distress inks and added a bit of shading to the borders to give it a bit of a vintage feel to the card.

In case any of the dies are out of stock at the time of the posts there is a tab you can click to put you on a waiting list.

Also you still have time to apply for the new design team for Dies R Us, you can find out all the details HERE.

Here are the dies used in the card today.

Follow Dies R Us!

 

Click below for:

Store

Challenge Blog

Facebook

Remember, there is a new inspiration sample shared each and every day of the month

on our Dies R Us Inspiration Blog using a variety of dies from several different companies.

Then of course you'll want to come join us at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog.

There's a new challenge theme offered on the 1st & 15th of each month with

a gift voucher prize to one lucky winner each challenge!

OH!  And did you know we have a FB Page and PINTEREST Page?

Thanks for stopping by today!

Stamping with watercolor paints

I thought I had already posted this but I missed it. Last month my stamping groups challenge was to use watercolor to paint onto your stamp and then stamp it onto paper, instead of stamping onto watercolor paper I chose to stamp onto designer paper so the flowers would have a pattern to them.  I didn't have any watercolor paints so I just bought an inexpensive set at Hobby Lobby, it seemed to work ok, but it was really puddled up in places so I took a paintbrush to try and smooth it out a bit, not sure if I liked the end result or not, but it was fun to play with.  I added a bit of pen work around the stamp to frame it a bit.

BasicGrey -- Picadilly paper
Hero Arts - Silhouette flower stamp, watercoloring directly onto stamp
EK Success -- Flower punch
Martha Stewart -- leaf and tag punches
Ribbon - from Rak
Stamps of life -- Mini's 4 circles sentiment stamp
Nuvo crystal drops -- Golden sunset

Don't forget that you still have time to try out for the new Dies R Us design team, you can find out all the info HERE. 

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

Connie

Sending Hugs

My father in law turned 88 recently and this is the card that I sent. It was hard to get a good picture of this vellum image and the stickers in the corner are really black but they are kind of glittery and the shine off those was hard to capture also.  The embossing folder used in the background is one my hubby bought for his artwork, so I thought his Dad might also like it :)

WeRmemory keepers -- Geometric embossing folder
K&co. - Floral & Fauna Diecuts and Vellum pack
Spellbinders -- Labels 18 die
David Tuttera -- Celebrate sentiment
Hot off the press -- Black Round Jewel stickers

Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead, and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Bride and Groom

My hubby's long time friend lost his wife a few years ago. But he recently got remarried to a lovely lady who works in the same field that he does and we couldn't be more happy for him. We were not able to attend their out of state wedding but they did stop by and spent the night and we had a great visit. This is the card I made for them.

I love when the paper does most of the work for you. I just cut out the die cut heart, the letters Love and the corner die, added the sentiment and I was done.

Webster pages -- Petite papers
Spellbinders -- Lacey hearts and Font one upper and lower case dies
David Tuttera -- Celebrate sentiment

I am kitty sitting my grand kitty for a few days, my daughter and son in law had to go speak at a conference.  It is so nice to have a furbaby in the house again, even though she is a stinker and is getting into a few things and woke me up at 3:30 am.  The sun is shinning and the birds are singing so pretty, what could be better this morning :)

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy day to stop by and for letting me know you did,

Connie