For Hubby

I forgot to share the card I made my hubby for Father's day.  It is such a weird feeling not to be making any of our parents cards anymore.  I like to be able to give my hubby a card to just let him know he did a great job raising our daughter.

I colored this die cut with my Spectrum Sparkle markers, and did a little tearing of my corrugated papers.

Cottage Cutz -- Fancy cattails and Butterflies die, colored w/Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen
DCWV -- Corrugated papers
David Tuttera -- Celebrate sentiment, shaded with hickory smoke Distress ink
Pebbles -- Black candy dots
Jute

I finished the deck floor, now I just have to do all the spindles on the railing, but it has turned very hot again and that paint doesn't do well in the heat so I may have to wait until we have some more cooler days, at least I hope we will have some more this summer, so now I will be working on the front porch, hopefully that paint will be ok, it isn't quite as thick as what I was using out on the deck and it is in the shade in the mornings :)

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

Connie

Wine Labels

Jacqueline does beautiful stamping over wine labels and I have always admired her cards, I have even been lucky enough to receive one of her label cards to see in person.  I just love the neat ways that she uses them. Check out her Blog HERE scroll down to April 20th to see the neat ways she uses them, and the rest of her lovely creations!!

 Well she was sweet enough to send me some to give it a try on my own.  Now this first one I didn't quite use it the same way that she does, but I loved this scene on this label and decided to color it with pencils instead of stamping over it. Although I did use a butterfly stamp set and dies that I won from Verve, not to long ago to go with the label.

Wine label -- colored w/pencils
Verve -- Butterfly grace stamp set and Graceful Butterflies dies
Starform-- transparent glitter gold stickers
Martha Stewart -- border punch

This was a sympathy card but I didn't end up putting any sentiment on it.

I should have the deck finished tonight, YAH!!! well the floor part I have all the spindles to the railing to do but that can be done after I bring everything back up on the deck.  Then it will be time to  start the front porch railings.  It is a lot of work but I am loving the results!!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, I appreciate you leaving a comment to let me know too, I know how busy everyone is this time of year.

Connie

Felt pieces

I recieved these cute felt pieces from a fellow cardmaker and I never used them because they were 6x6 inches and I just don't make that size cards, it also came with some birds too, the other day when I came across them again I thought I need to try and figure out how to use these and I decided to cut them apart and use them on different cards, this is my first attempt.

The packaging said Oriental trading company on them, so if you are interested that is where you might be able to find them, they already had sticky tape on the back so they were perfect for applying to cards :)  I added the gem in the middle of the butterly and added the  stamped sentiment and pretty paper and I was done.

Oriental trading company -- Felt piece
Paper Smooches -- Happy Birthday stamp set
Craft smith -- Chelsea Lane paper
Paper studio -- Gem

Well after seeing how bad the deck looked in the pictures I washed it all down with the power washer yesterday and this evening when it was out of the sun I started painting, oh my the paint we got for it said heavy duty and I guess it is because it spreads like frosting and I couldn't roll it so I am bending over and painting it with a brush. I only managed to get a 1/4 of it done before my back just said that is enough, so I will try to get out there and see how much I can get done tomorrow morning before it gets to hot.  I sure hope this last for a few years, I am getting too old for this stuff.

Thanks for stopping by,

Connie

Summer birthday/Carrots

I really meant to go for a summer feel to the card and by the time I was done I think it looks like it would be good for Autumn.  This is one of those cards that what was on my mind to do did not turn out at all how I had planned.  It had a mind of it's own, LOL!

I tried using this set once before it has two step stamping and I used different inks with it and they didn't work as well, not sure if I was too happy with my color choices here but it did seem to get better coverage using the chalk inks.

 I will have to say I like the enamel accents they give me the nice rounded dots :)

Stamps of Life -- Thanks 4 one year(flowers), mini 4 circles (sentiment) stamp sets
BasicGrey -- Picadilly paper
Spellbinders -- A2 matting basicsA, Decorative Labels 28 and back to basics tags dies
Martha Stewart -- butterfly punch
Stickles -- Diamond (flower centers)
Enamel Accents -- white
Brad
Ribbon

We went over to Missouri to a few parks the past two days, oh my the first day it was in the mid 90's and we went hiking again on some trails and by the time we got back to the car you would have thought I had just gotten out of the shower, I so hate that feeling, but it was pretty and we had fun.
The next day we had a bit of soft sprinkles on our walk to these springs, but once again it was so humid that we got back soaked again between the sprinkles and the himidity.  I haven't had a chance to look at the pictures yet but I will share if any of them turned out :)

I mentioned a while back that we bought this new system to plants some carrots to have on the deck and I thought I would share how they are coming along.  We planted them right from seeds directly into the pot, it came with a black plastic sheet and big rubber band that goes over it so when you water it the moisture stays inside and you just water from that black tube that is in the lower right corner in the picture, well hubby didn't like that at all so he took it off and we water the tube and when it rains it gets it from the top also, it seems to be working well even though we don't have the black plastic on top.

Please excuse the deck, yes it needs to be painted again, I didn't get to it before it has been so HOT! I like this planter because it is on rollers so you can put it anywhere on the deck you like.

Here is a visitor we had the other day, he is getting a tad to close to the carrots for my comfort, I have a feeling we may come out and this may be empty.

Thanks so much for stopping by today :)  Have a wonderful weekend!!

Connie

Garden Bench

There are not to many times that I finish a card and I am totally happy with my results, but this is one that when I was done I was happy with it.

Since this is a smaller detailed stamp, I took another close up of the image, that I colored with markers.

PSX -- Birdhouse Bench stamp, Colored w/markers
Memory Box-- stitched circle layers die
Spellbinders -- Peony, A2 curved borders one dies
Basic Grey -- Picadilly paper
Hero Arts -- It's your day stamp sentiment
Poppystamps -- Leafy sprig die

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

Brother Birthday

When we went home I took this card with me so I wouldn't have to mail it and gave it to my Sister in law to give to my brother who just turned 65.

The background comes in the paper pack, I stamped and die cut the leaves across the top to hide the flowers, both tree groupings, the bird and the deers, which I cut in half so that the buck is on the opposite shore from the Mom and baby.

I colored everything with my Spectrum markers.

I took a few close up pictures too since this was a 6x6 inch card and I couldn't get the whole card and get good close up pics.

I used foam adheasive to apply the deer and some of the leaves at the top to give a bit of dimension.

Heartfelt Creations -- Woodsy wonderland kit, colored w/markers

Thanks so very much for taking the time to stop by, I really apprecaite it, I know how busy summer time can be :)

Connie

Flower Bouquet

I needed this card made just before we went on our trip so I grabbed for my Hunkydory collection with images already to go, the sentiment is from the same pack. The images have a silver border around them that was hard to photograph without the shine.

I diecut the bottom of the card after I had added the paper to the front. I only diecut the front I left the back plain.

Hunkydory -- Flutterbye wishes (image and sentiment)
Spellbinders -- A2 scalloped borders two
Recollections -- Iridescent rhinestones

It is another scorcher here today, we went to the flea market this morning, some of it is outdoors and the rest is inside the building, I got quite overheated, hubby said I didn't look to good when we got inside.  I hope this changes at some time, I just can't seem to take heat well anymore.  Didn't find anything either, well nothing I was willing to pay the prices they were asking anyway.

Hope you are enjoying a nice weekend,
Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

Spring Mill part 2

I am starting off today's post with a few flowers in the garden I took.  It was kind of hard to find some that were in nice shape, most of them were tattered and worn looking.

I liked this one just because the bug added some interest to it :)

The next one I just loved the colors in it.

This next picture is looking at a house through a trellis they had outside another garden, a bit more rustic garden than the one with the stone arches in my last post.

Now the following pictures are from the second day we were there.
First off the inn, I took this standing on the parking ramp they had there.

I think I took some pictures of the inside but they must be on my cell phone, it is very rustic inside.

On the trail leading to the Pioneer village was this cool tree.

Every hour at the top of the hour they run the mill to show how they grind the corn on the inside, but I stayed outside to catch the water going over the wheel.  I stood on the other side of the creek to get this picture. If you look close you can see the water going over the top.

Then I ran over the bridge and right under it to get this next picture but it was already slowing down by the time I managed it.

I just loved this shot of the way they hung candles in their windows.

I just loved this door handle too, isn't it cool how the leaves have actually turned green on it.

This last building I will share today wasn't opened the day we went but I just loved how it was all tucked in the woods.

Hope you enjoyed this little trip we took, I would say this was a nice park to get away, and if you like trails there were plenty to go on, not all as rugged as the one with the stairs I showed.  The inn has it's own restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, so there is really no need to leave the park, although there is the town of Mitchell that is real close by if you want to go and eat somewhere else.

I was shocked to hear that a man from our town had went to Washington and shot those Congressmen, we had never heard of him but we live in a big town of 42,000 so that is understandable but still a shock when it is so close to home. My prayers go out to the families and I just pray that we can get over our division of politics and realize that we must all work together not divide us more.

Thanks so much for stopping by today,
Connie

Spring Mill Part One

Ok I really tried to cut down on the pictures I wanted to share of our trip we took last week , but had a hard time narrowing it down so I will share some today and some next time I post :)

We were heading to my family's side family reunion on the weekend so we decided to take a couple extra days before hand and check out a State park in Southern Indiana that also had an Inn also.

As soon as we checked in we decided to go straight to some trails, well we decided to go on the toughest one first and I would have known that if I read the little pamplet that gave us.

Here are a couple pictures of the stairs, it felt never ending both ways, by the time I made it back to the top the arthritis in my knees was letting me know it wasn't happy with all of that climbing.  I can't show you what the cave looked like because once we got down to the bottom it was a bit more than I wanted to tackle and I knew I still had to get back up all those stairs.

This whole park is very thick in the woods, it was so funny when we left the park we thought how wide open everything looked, after two days being in such thick woods.

The sun was so pretty coming through the opening in the trees.

They have a Pioneer village in the park and during the day they have volunteers who are inside the buildings telling you about the families that lived and worked there.

This first house a lady worked on a loom, she said that the lady who owned this home raised 12 kids in it, can you imagine!

Here is the Mill, they still use it to make corn meal.

There was a beautiful stream that went through the village!!

I sat down by this stream to wait for my hubby to take his pictures and I saw this little squirrel digging in the grass, I grabbed my camera and went to take a picture and as soon as he saw me he went running.

They only run the sall mill on the weekends and since we were there in the middle of the week we didn't get to see this in action, one of the ladies said it was very impressive.

Isn't they stone garden gates cool, love the design.  I will show a few pics of flowers I took inside next time.

I really thought this planter was neat, my hubby said it looked like a coffin.

This tree was really neat to me too, such cool texture it had.

I really enjoy walking through these villages, and so much easier on the knees than all those stairs.

I am still working on catching up on everyone's blogs while I was away.  It has been so hot here, in the 90's with heat index close to 100,  so taking my walks very early in the morning, looking forward to next week when it should be back in the 80's.

Hope you are enjoying your week so far, thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

Love Reading

My nephew showed a picture on facebook of his son reading on the way to school in the car, and mentioned how much he loves to read, so I decided to go with that theme for my great nephews  birthday card.

Isn't this little bear too cute, he fell asleep reading :)  That is me when I go to read anymore, maybe that is why I don't read books so much anymore, they can even be real exciting books it doesn't matter it just puts me to sleep.

Stampablities -- Bedtime story stamp, colored w/markers
Carta bella -- Alphabet Junction paper
Memory Box -- Stitched circle layers die
Spellbinders -- Lg. classic inverted scalloped circles die
Martha Stewart -- zig zag punch
sentiment sticker

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

Connie

Anniversary

Our Daughter and son in law recently celebrated their anniversary and this is the card I gave to them, this is about clean and simple as I get, I resisted for the longest time but at the end I added some blue ink around the edges.

I think it was all looking very good until I tried adding the Nuvo crystals, I just can't get the hang of them, after seeing other people use them I got mine out again to give it a try and that just don't want to lay flat for me no matter what I try, so this was after a lot of messing around with them.  I have learned one thing, even if I mark it out first I will no longer try to make a line of them.

Darcie's -- JCS 140 stamp set, colored w/markers
Scor Pal -- Scored line above sentiment
Nuvo crystal drops-- Carnation pink

Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead!!

Connie

Vintage birthday

I was going for a vintage/ mixed media looking card today. When I found this mixed media paper pack at Michael's I decided to pick it up, even though I have more paper than I could possibly need, for one thing it was one sale and I loved almost all the papers in the pack.

I stamped the old postcard first and added some distress inks in old paper to give it that aged look, then stamped this collage stamp from hampton art and added a little pink color to it to tie it in with the papers.

Washi tape was added to the top and bottom of the card and I also stamped the sentiment onto the postcard, and who doesn't like gems :)

Stampendous -- Carte Postale stamp
Stamps of life -- Postmarks2stamp
Hampton Art -- sorry no name, colored w/markers
Recollections -- Mixed Media paper
Paper Studio -- Bird's cage washi tape
Spellbinders --A2 Matting basicsA die
Gems

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

Connie

Butterly Collage

I started out making this birthday card and half way through a bell went off that this stamp would look great with blue ink on black paper and since I needed a thinking of you card also I made two cards with this stamp. The butterfly used on this first card is also in this stamp set, I embossed it with white embossing powder and colored it in with marker.  It is hard to see the lace I used at the bottom of the card, it was some that my mom had when she passed.

TPC Studio -- Butterfly Collage stamp set, white embossing on the butterfly below, colored with Spectrum noir marker
DCWV -- Linen closet paper
Calendar sticker -- sentiment
Studio G -- gems
Lace

TPC Studio -- Butterfly Collage stamp set- image and sentiment
ART- C -- Cardstock
Spellbinders -- A2 matting basics A die
Gems

Wow did we have the rain yesterday, we had flooding again but it stayed in the ditch thankfully, the peppers and the carrots are taking off like crazy but so is the weeds, never ending but when it isn't too hot I don't mind and tomorrow is suppose to be nice, so you know what I will be up to tomorrow :)

Hope you all are enjoying whatever your weather is like.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Grad and day out

One of the kids from our church is graduating and going on to college to get a history major and he would one day like to teach and I think he will be an excellent teacher.  The school colors are blue and white.

Hero Arts -- Friendly flags stamp set
Cam & Chloe -- dots background stamp
David Tuttera -- Celebrate sentiment
American crafts -- Twine
Pebbles -- Candy dots

I am terrible about getting posts done of when we go out and take pictures, but I picked a few to share from back in mid May.  I have shared pictures before of this place, we like to go and see the baby ducks, well because of all the rain we had we didn't get out there in time and the babies aren't so small anymore.  As we were walking up they ran to the farmers field.

We have bunny's in our backyard all the time but I still think they are cute, this little guy is cooling off in the shade.

I wish I could remember what kind of tree this is, my hubby looked it up when we got home, but I can't remeber what he said. They are sharp thorns, never saw a tree like that before.

We stopped to have a picnic and while I was finishing eating my hubby went up to get some pictures, I just got everything back to the car and it started raining so I jumped in and drove up to where he was so he and his camera didn't get wet.  We decided to just drive slowly through the park until it quit raining and my hubby saw this rainbow and I saw how it was coming down over this farm so I stopped the car and took this picture, it was still sprinkling at the time and it was far away but you can still make it out.

Lastly another rainbow shot this time with a tree :)

Wishing you a fun and creative weekend, Thanks so very much for takng the time to stop by today!!

Connie

Masculine?

Oh boy have you made a card for a guy and after you sent it and looked at it on the computer you thought, hmmmm I don't know if that says masculine or not now?
Well I hope that my brother sees all the love that went into it anyway :)

I first started off with sponging ink on the background, I used my home made stencil for the clouds. The trees in the background were stamped directly onto the cardstock ,  I love how this set has the matching dies to cut out the stamps after coloring them, that way you can arrange how you want it to look and the glue it all down.  I did put some foam tape on the back of the rocks so that it would look more in the foreground of the scene. Even the bunny and squirrel dies cut them out great!

Heartfelt Creations -- Woodsy Wonderland stamp and die set, woodwsy treescape
Distress inks -- Mown Grass and Tumbled glass for background sponging
Spectrum markers to color

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

Connie