Gold Embossing

The monthly challenge in our stamp group for Christmas cards was to use heat embossing on our cards.  I am in a time crunch since it was the second to the last day of April when I was making these so I decided to find something I wouldn't have to color. I decided to emboss in gold on pattern paper for my color and do a light background.  As I was getting these ready I decided to also stamp a second stamp onto light colors and do a colorful background to put them on, I am glad I did because I think the embossing shows up much better on the second.

It all needed something extra so out came a branch die I cut it up and added it behind my raised sentiment, along with some sequins.  I did fussy cutting around each stamp.

Inkadinkado - Holiday Silhouettes stamp set, embossed in gold
Bobunny- Father Christmas collection paper for stamping, other papers from stash
Memory Box - Botanical stems die
Sequins

Inkadinkado - Holiday Silhouettes stamp set, embossed in gold
My Mind's eye - Lost & Found Christmas papers, background and stamping
Memory Box - Botanical stem die
Sequins

Hope you had a great weekend and your week is off to a great start, Thanks so much for stopping by and saying Hi,

Connie

Vellum Rose

This card all started out with a piece of tissue paper that had been laying around from one of the wrappings from a birthday gift.  I have seen people using tissue paper on their backgrounds before and had never tried it.  I started out with crumpling my tissue paper to get some nice creases going.  Then flattened it back out but not too much, I wanted to leave some good texture.  I then took a little container I had of dried colorburst I had used on another project and added some Modge Podge to it and it worked perfect to moisten the dried ink and I used that on my piece of watercolor paper to hold down the tissue paper to the cardstock, I also added some to the top of the panel too, gave it a little more intense color.  I let this panel dry over night.

The next day I rubbed some Nuvo mousse over the raised areas so the creases would stand out a little more, I had a little left over on my finder so I applied what was left to the edges also.

Next I cut several Rose sizes from my die out of patterned vellum and cut the leaves and the happy die from glitter paper, I also cut the happy 3 other times from white cardstock to give the sentiment some height.  The gold gems are quite thick but since I was hand delivering this to my girlfriend who LOVES pink, I didn't worry about it going through the mail.

Here is a closeup to see the texture.

Spellbinders - A2 matting basics A and Rose Creation dies
Tissue paper with Modge podge and Colorburst mixed for background
Nuvo Mousse - Indian Gold, rubbed on creases
My Favorite things - Label Maker sentiment stamp and Happy Greetings die
Basic Grey - Brad
DCWV - Gold glitter paper
Gold Gems

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Connie

Duo Embossing

I forgot to write down where I got this embossing folder, I believe it was in one of the British card making magazines but I am not positive, but I do have the name of it :)

I must confess I had a bit of a problem when embossing this. I left the paper in the folder as I was rubbing on the mouse on the bottom half of the folder and sanding the top. I then went to take it out of the folder and the paper was in two parts, it had come apart right at the middle seam. Since I had already done all that work I thought I would try to put it back together onto my card base and it seemed to look ok so I went with it.  I am thinking next time I might spritz the paper before embossing, I have heard that helps with the paper ripping but I have never had problems with that so I never tried it out.

I really love the patterns in this embossing. I have had this metal embellishment for some time, in fact so long that I didn't keep the packaging so I can't tell you who made it, but I wanted to use something that was small to add to this but not take away too much from the pretty embossing.

Jennifer Ellory- Duo pattern embossing folder, sanding on top half
Nuvo Mousse - Indian gold on bottom embossing
Sentiment embossed in gold powder
Metal Embellishment

We are going to have 6 days straight without rain, I can't remember how long it has been since we have gone that many days without rain, the weatherman mentioned and it was over a month.  It was a bit damp yet when we mowed yesterday for the first time but it had to get done the grass was getting very long, so nice to have that done now :)  Hope you are enjoying good weather, I think spring just might be here for good now!

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

Connie

Framed challenge

Poppystamps blog has a challenge of making a card with a frame.  I don't have any frame dies from Poppystamps, but as I was looking through my dies I thought maybe I could make my own, so I combined the Eyelet stitches and Colonnade Corner dies and made my own.

Once I had the frame made I had no idea what I was going to put in the middle, after looking through my dies I thought I would put together two other dies and put a flower in the center.  The centers of these flowers are very delicate so I added some oxide ink to my kraft card stock first and then cut out the flowers. I have added ink to the kraft before cutting the tendril die also. To give a little lift between the flowers I rolled up some scorpal tape into a tiny ball and added it to the center.

 The colors in the close up turned up a little too pink it is actually like the first picture, but this gives a better look at the detail in the flowers.

Poppystamps - Eyelet stitches, Colonnade Corner, stitched Bloom trio and Lovely Tendrils dies
Distress Oxide - Worn lipstick ink
Distress Ink - peeled paint
Nuvo crystal - Autumn Red
My Favorite things - More Essential sentiments

It is fun to get more use out of our dies using them in different ways. The challenge runs through April 28 so there is still time to play :)

I am also sharing my card with Cropstop blog anything goes challenge . You just have to use items from companies they carry in store.  I used Poppystamps, Distress Oxides and Distress Inks.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, hope your week is off to a wonderful start!

Connie

With sympathy

Sharing another sympathy card I needed, I am sorry I can't remember where I got the idea for this card but how I did it was I cut out the shape, took the negative and using my inks I sponged in the opening to give the flowers a base.

Spellbinders - A2 matting basics B and A2 Distressed edges dies
Distress inks - Dusty Concord, Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar
Inkadinkado - Garden delight stamp set
Taylored Expressions - care & comfort sentiment stamp
Martha Stewart - Butterfly
Distress Stickles - Dusty Concord

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Shaped card

The Flower Challenge Blog has a Shaped card challenge this month.  I haven't done a shape card in some time, so I thought now is the best time to do one again.  I started out with a Grand die from Spellbinders, which gave me a nice 4 3/4 inch size to work with.  I folded my card base then positioned my die so that the die hung over the folded edge just a little bit so that I could have that fold.  Then out of my Patterned  paper I cut a full die piece and applied it on top so you can't see the fold.  I am sorry I am not very good at giving directions but wanted to add that for those that haven't given a shaped card a try.

This flower stamp is one I found at the yard sale by Heartfelt creations. It must be an older stamp because when I tried to search for it's name I couldn't find any but it works with the Spellbinders Blossom die.  The little yellow flowers I used I think are from Prisma but not sure of that either.  I shaped one, added a pearl to the center than added that to another to give the flowers a little more dimension.  The sentiment came from an old sticker calendar set.

Heartfelt Creations - HCPC 2262 stamp, colored w/spectrum markers

Spellbinders - Grand Decorative Circle one for base and Blossom die for cutting flower

Sizzix - Branch w/leaves die

flowers layered and pearl added to center

Sentiment sticker from daily calendar

                                

The flower challenge is until April 25th so there is still time to play along.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all enjoy a fun and creative weekend!!

Connie

Spring scene

I had a little more trouble with this card.  I bought some new colored pencils from a sale that Spectrum noir was having, I think they were trying to get rid of these pencils to replace some nicer ones they just came out with, anyway I thought I would try them out on a stamped image a friend gave me, and I wasn't totally thrilled with my results so I need more practice with my pencils but I needed to get this out to my 13 year old great niece for her birthday. I decided to add a few diecuts to the scene after I finished coloring.

Stamped image from friend, colored with pencils
Sassafras - Mix and mend papers
Impression Obsession - Rectangle 6 in 1 frames and Rabbit dies
Poppystamps - Cheery cardinals
Butterfly die
Liquid pearls - Chestnut (butterfly)
Nuvo crystal drops - Autumn red ( flowers)

I am entering this in the following challenges:
House that stamps built blog -- All Creatures, great and small
Sisterhood of Crafters blog -- Bunny Rabbits

My hubby took off work yesterday and we went out to a State park in Southern Illinois, it was beautiful weather, sunny and warm, one of the trails was a little challenging for me but hubby got me through.  I will share if any of them look good, I haven't had a chance to look.  We picked the right day to go, today is quite windy but the sun is shining and it is warm, oh could it be possible spring has arrived, I sure hope so.  Hope it comes very soon to all in the north too!

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy day to stop by and say Hi,

Connie

Pink and Green/Springtime Challenges

The Impression Obsession Blog is having a pink and green challenge.  The first thing that came to mind was flowers, but who am I kidding any colors would make me think of flowers :) The Dies R Us Challenge blog is also having a springtime challenge, you have until April 28th for that one :)

I used the following dies from Impression Obsession:
Rectangle 6 in 1 Frames
Layered Floral set
Grass

Other items:
SRM - happy birthday stickers
Nuvo Crystal drops- Carnation pink
Enamel Accents - white
Dew drops - pink

There is only one day left if you want to play in this challenge.

Hope everyone is making it through the storms going through everywhere in the country and through the fires in Texas and Oklahoma.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you have a great week,

Connie

New homes

My Niece and her family moved to a new home in Texas, and my Nephew and his family moved to a new home in Michigan, so I sent out some cards to Congratulate them.

First up is my Niece's card, they moved to a two story house so I went with this die cut for their card. I went with coloring just one house to emphasize like the one they moved into, I saw this done on another blog but for the life of me I can't remember who's it was and didn't save it, so if it happened to be yours let me know :)

In this first one I applied yellow papers to the backside of the dies for the windows and colored the doors, lamp posts and houses with markers. The tree was done with inks. I went with a gray card stock base so that my clouds would show up against it.

Taylored Expressions - Neighborhood Border and Evergreen dies
Memory Box - Country stitches die (grass)
Fiskars - Cloud punches
Our Daily Bread designs - Mini tag sentiment stamp

My second card I was going to apply some leaves to the trees but decided to keep them bare since they moved when the trees in Michigan were still bare. On this border die the doors open, but I went with keeping them all closed except the one that I cut again in white card stock and applied on top, this time instead of adding paper behind the windows I went with using my Sunshine yellow sparkle pen to color in the windows. My cloud stencil for the sky.

Poppystamps - Breville Houses, stitched landscape die
Impression Obsession - Tree Row die
Memory Box - Flying birds die
Homemade Clouds template, sponged w/ tumbled glass
Hero Arts - Everyday sayings sentiment stamp
Sunshine yellow sparkle pen for windows

Both these house dies were ones my hubby picked up for his art projects and I ended up getting good use out of them too :)

We had some wild storms go through last night and this morning with very heavy winds, the house was making all kinds of noises, but it seems to have finally quieted down.  Hope if they are headed your way that you do as well.

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

Connie

Hang in there

My daughter is under a bit of stress right now, gearing up to take her finals. She is getting her Doctorate Degree from Yale and so I thought she needed a card to let her know I am thinking of her.
I had to go with this cute little stamp set, and I used the sketch challenge my card making group had for us this week.

Inky Antics- Furry Friendship stamps, colored w/ Spectrum Noir markers
WeRmemory keepers - Anthologie paper
DCWV - pattern stack
Spellbinders - Matting basics B die
Kaiser - Rhinestones

It was so nice to be able to open the doors and let some fresh air in yesterday, can't get better than that :)
Thanks for stopping by and saying Hi, Have a great day!

Connie

Dogwood Blossom

I am in need of a few sympathy cards here lately and decided to go with a simple flower die cut from textured card stock.  I will be sharing this over at The Memory Box blog for their floral challenge this month.

I started with an Alcohol background, cut out a shape from white card stock to frame it, leaving a little edge around to see the background peeking around the edges. Finished off with my flower die cut and a rub on sentiment.

Memory Box - Dogwood Blossom die
Spellbinders - Decorative Labels 28 die
Alcohol inks - Sunshine yellow, Carmel and Pearl Mixative
Pebbles Inc. - thinking of you rubons

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, hope you are enjoying a nice week.  We had a high in the 50's yesterday and today they say we will reach 70, have to enjoy it since by Sunday we will be back in the 40's, talk about roller coaster of temperatures.

Connie

Tea and Roses

This is such a pretty and feminine stamp, I have colored it with my Spectrum noir markers. My hubby bought me a big jar of gems of all different sizes and I always thought when will I ever use these big ones but when laying them out to see how I wanted to use them I picked up one of these big ones and when I laid it on my strip of washi tape it just seemed to work, hopefully it isn't taking away from the stamped image, as I am now seeing that I have already sent the card out.

Hero Arts - Roses in Teacup stamp, colored w/ Spectrum noir markers
Pawsitively Pawsome designs - Mini stitched square die
Martha Stewart - Swirling lace border punch
Paper Studio - Washi tape
Elizabeth Craft designs - Happy Birthday die
Sew pretty paper - cardmaking and papercraft magazine
Wink of stella - Clear on roses
Gems - hobby lobby

Hope you enjoyed a nice weekend and have a great week ahead!

Connie

Thanks

I needed a few thank you's, so I went with a few embossing folders and a sparkle coloring card.

My first card I used an embossing a friend sent to me, so all I did was cut it down to my card base size, sand the image, stamp the sentiment and layer some already made flowers.

Thank goodness for the Misti, since this was embossed on textured cardstock, I had to stamp the sentiment a few times to get a good impression.

Embossing folder image from friend- Sanded
Inkadinkado- All Occasions sentiment
Prima flowers
Brad

The next one is using another embossing folder I received.  This time I used Distress inks and Sparkle markers to color it.

Darcie - Small floral sprigs embossing folder, Colored w/ Distress inks  and Spectrum Sparkle markers
Hot Off the press - Tiny words & phrases Dazzles sentiment , colored w/Spectrum Noir Marker

Tip:  I happened to get a bit of the sparkle marker off the edge of my embossing and I quickly reached for my Tombow Mono Sand Eraser and that worked like a charm to take it right off, love that new little tool.

Lastly I have shared these before but I thought I would again. The cards come with the image already on the card and it is all sparkle so when you color with your Alcohol markers it gives such a pretty shimmer.

Spectrum Noir Colorista - Wild Daisies card, colored w/Spectrum noir markers

We are only 34 degrees this morning and the high should be around 38, when our normal is 62 this time of year, but I will take it because the Sun is shinning bright, no rain now for 3 days in a row :)

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful and fun weekend!

Connie

Spring

Visiting around blogland I see that all of us are so ready for spring to arrive, it has been a bit lower than normal temps and quite rainy for a lot of us, I am a little encouraged about next weeks temps although we still have rain in the forecast.

Maybe this card will brighten things up a bit :)

The images are stickers and the little rabbit on the punched border is an epoxy sticker,

Debbie Mumm - Spring II stickers
Hallmark - Stickeroni sticker (epoxy bunny)
Pawsitively Pawesome Designs - Mini stitched Square die
Martha Stewart - border punch, colored w/markers
Sew Pretty paper (cardmaking and papercraft magazine)

I thought I would share a new park we found in the town next to ours that we had never heard of in the 13 years we have lived here.  While out test driving our van we came across the sign but didn't check it out then we waited until the week after we bought the van and took a drive over to see what it looked like, they had a neat old building and pretty rolling hills, trails in the woods but we didn't check them out since it was muddy and there was a steep hill to both of the trails we went to check out so we thought we had better try them when things dry out.

I loved the way the evening sun was coming through the trees.

It was just a tad windy that day we went but as you can see we had a day with clear skies :)

We had thought we had been to every park in the area so it was so nice to have come across this one. Looks like we need to do more driving around and see what else we are missing out there. Do you like to explore different and new places?

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

wish upon a star

In my stamping group after we have had our week of challenges a lot of us pick someone from the group that gave our challenge a try and then we gift them with some goodies, well after this last winter challenges one of the girls picked my name and she gifted me this cute stamp set.  I had been loving the cards I saw from the set but hadn't decided yet whether or not I would buy it and then it came in the mail and I was so excited, and I knew I wanted to use it for my great niece's birthday card who is turning 10, but honestly I could use this for any age I think, I know I love it :)

I used a combination of Distress inks and Distress Oxide inks sponged onto the background.  I embossed the stars with detail white embossing powder and added a few more dots around with my white gel pen. Colored the bunnies with a gray marker and used pattern paper for the grassy hill.

Distress Oxide inks - Walnut stain, faded jeans and iced spruce (for background)
Distress inks - Black soot (For background)
Lawn Fawn - Upon a Star stamp set, colored w/markers, white embossing for stars
White gel pen, smaller stars
Stickles - Star dust ( star centers )

We haven't had a chance to see many stars lately with all the cloudy rainy days we have been having but I know this to will pass.

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

Connie

He is Risen!!

He is Risen Indeed!!  There is not a better phrase, he has conquered death, and he lives so we may live with him!!

I am sharing one last Easter card, this image is from a sheet of clipart I bought from a stamp store in Missouri, the whole sheet of different images was around $1.

Added a few punched leaves and flowers, added a little marker and stickles to the flowers.

Marianne designs - Country flowers spring image
Sassafras - Mix and mend paper
Lawn Fawn - Fancy scalloped rectangle die
EK Success - Flowers
Martha Stewart - Leaves and butterfly
Enamel Accents - white (on butterfly)
Stickles - Yellow and scattered straw (on flowers)


Wishing you a blessed day of celebrating our Risen Lord!!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie