Living Water

When I saw this stamp set at the store it reminded me of all the Mills we have gone to so I had to pick it up.  I colored this with my Spectrum Aqua markers, by applying to acrylic block and picking up the color with wet paint brush and colored pencils.  Used distress ink for the sky.  I know the jute is a little bulky for mailing but I took this back home with me and had my sister in law give it to my brother on his birthday.

I used the same die set for the framing of the image and the sentiment panel. I also added Spectrum clear sparkle pen to the water to give it a little shine, the camera didn't pick that up even on the close up I tried.

Our Daily Bread designs - Living Water stamp set, colored w/Spectrum Aqua markers and pencils
Distress ink - Tumbled glass for sky
Spellbinders - A2 matting basics A die
Pawsitively Pawsome Designs - Stitched Postage stamp rectangle dies
Ms. Sparkle & co. - Fall paper
Paper studio - Enamel dots
Just
Spectrum clear sparkle pen in water

There are a lot of people from the Midwest to the East coast that are dealing with excessive heat this weekend, I hope you all will stay safe, we woke up this morning to all of our windows wet from the humidity out there, needless to say we will be doing a lot of indoor activities this weekend.

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

Connie

Evening in Michigan

When the sun was starting to set we headed back down to the bridge area to get the sunset. This time of year the sun doesn't set directly across the bridge, but it was still pretty.

Have to get those bird pictures too :)

In this photo you can see the bugs we had to deal with just above the bridge. I am surprised I didn't get more pics of bugs the way they were all around us.

Hubby didn't like where the sun was hitting the bridge and wanted to know if I wanted to try and get on the other side, so we walked quickly back to the van and headed to the other side of the bridge and got there in time.

We were so excited about getting there in time for the sunset that I almost forgot to turn around and get the sun setting on the bridge.

Now onto a quick card I made Using goodies from the Cardmaking & Papercrafts magazine.  The button was sewed onto the paper using floss.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today.  We are off to plant some lavender and a big bush of Ornamental grass, hope they do ok with this extreme heat we are having again today!

Connie

Northern Michigan

Finally getting to the pictures I took on our trip back to Michigan a couple weeks ago.

After all the celebrating of graduations and seeing family we headed up to Mackinac Bridge.  We got there at lunch time so we thought we would go ahead and have a picnic overlooking the bridge, when we pulled up our van was covered with these bugs that kind of looked like Mosquito's but a little bigger, hubby asked one of the park workers and he said they were Midges and wouldn't bite us, but let's just say it wouldn't make for a fun picnic so we had our picnic in the van :(  Thankfully the parking lot overlooks the bridge and water so that was nice.

The water had such great contrast in colors this day.

There were some good waves making some cool splashes that day too. Next we went over the bridge, now I don't care for going over bridges and this day they were working on the bridge that made the journey over even longer and all the noise and such was getting me quite anxious, but once we went down Highway 2 and pulled over and saw the following site of the bridge from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan it was worth it.

I was trying to get a good picture of the way the waves were coming in on the rocks and I got it all right, myself and my camera got a bit wet, I had to clean off my lens.

It was a pretty drive along the highway stopping and enjoying the water. I will share the evening photo's in another post.

Thought I would share a simple card I made for a friend :)

Hope your week is off to a great start, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and say HI,

Connie

Postcard

Paperwishes had a big sale on the stamp sets and there were a few that I have had on my wish list so when they came up at such a great price I couldn't resist, I was able to get 3 sets for almost the price of one.

I stamped this onto patterned paper and colored it, I think the markers worked pretty good on this paper, I found it at Hobby Lobby and I really like the thickness it has. I tried to match the colors in the bird to go with the papers.

Hot off the press - Postcards Stamp colored w/spectrum markers
Art - C -- paper to stamp the image onto
Basic Grey - Picadilly paper
Spellbinders - A2 matting basics A die
Martha Stewart -  tag punch
Our daily bread designs - Mini tag sentiment stamp
Queen & Co. - Chocolate Delight pearls
Wink of Stella - Clear glitter pen on Feathers
Button

I missed a day of posting yesterday but we finally had some decent weather, I actually enjoyed my walk and the humidity wasn't so high.  They say one more day like that and then we will be heading back up to 97 by the middle of the week with heat index in the 100's again, so you bet I will be out enjoying the day again today :) 

Hope you all enjoy your weekend and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and say Hi :)

Connie

House Mouse Challenge

Over at the House-Mouse and Friends Blog their challenge is anything goes with an option theme of Birthdays.  Well since probably 90% of the cards I make are birthday cards and I needed one for my great nephew I went with this stamp I had purchased on clearance when Hobby Lobby had clearance sales on some of their stamps.  Can you hear them playing Happy Birthday :)

I added a little sparkle pen to the harp and the horn.

House Mouse Designs - Musical Mice, colored w/markers
Spectrum Sparkle pen - Biscuit on harp and horn
memory Box - Stitched Rectangle layer die
Spellbinders - A2 matting basics A die
Hero Arts - It's your day stamp sentiment

I just love these little guys they always bring s smile.

Hope your week is going well, we had a little bit of rain last night and a cloudy morning so that helped keep the heat down, until the sun came out that is, but we got the rest of our yard work done just in time.

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

Floral Dazzles

All the Dazzles (stickers) are from the same set, they have borders and corners and flowers and butterflies, and enough to make many cards.  I made this card with all left over pieces from other cards, that always feels good to use up those smaller pieces I have.

Hot off the press - Dazzles - Florals
Patterned paper to back all the dazzles

Do you tend to save odd pieces from whatever your craft or hobby may be?  I can't tell you how many small balls of yard I have just incase, and little scraps of fabric that I might just be able to use on some project, but either I need to use more from my paper pile of scraps or recycle what I have in there and start over again.

Thanks so much for stopping by, hope your week is off to a good start!

Connie

Masculine Bird

We were in Michigan this past weekend and week, celebrating my great niece and nephews graduations and family reunion.  Oh it is always good to get a dose of family :)  We also went up to Mackinac bridge and back down through an area we haven't been before, it's great visiting those old familiar places but exciting to see new things too.  I am getting caught up on visiting all your blogs.

The beginning of June my little brother celebrated his 50th birthday and this is the card I sent to him, using a clipart image of a bird from Anna Griffin, wish I could color that well.

I used the wood embossing folder and added a bit of ink with a brayer after embossing, then a little burlap paper and kraft cardstock for the sentiment.

Tim Holtz - Woodgrain embossing folder
Anna Griffin - Avian Collection (bird)
whimsy stamps - simple sentiments
DCWV - Burlap paper
Button
Jute

It is HOT here in the 90's with heat index in the 100's, we should get out of the excessive heat warning by Tuesday, this is way too early in the year for these temps.  So thankful we were able to go to Michigan and enjoy some normal temps.

Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and say Hi :)

Connie

Song Birds

I have used another image from this stamp set before, it is a big set.  Loved the birds with the cage.

Stamped onto a soft patterned paper and colored with makers.

The colors are more true on the picture of the whole card but thought you might like a close up picture of the stamp itself, it has pretty detail.

Hot off the press - Song birds stamp set, colored w/markers
Spellbinders - Classic Square Lg. die
Art - C - Cardstock for image
We R Memory keepers - Anthologie papers
Memory Box - Stitched Rectangle Layer die
Fiskar - border punch
Gina K - Tag lines sentiment, onto hand cut banner
Nuvo crystal  drops - Golden Sunset

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

Connie

Grad cards

This is my last two cards, Wow 4 graduations in one year in our family is quite crazy, I am thinking next year we only will have one, but not sure on that.

I went again with their school colors and since I was running out of time decided to do both of them the same.

First the school colors are red and white, so I went with embossing the stamp, which happens to be flowers but we are going to say they are fireworks, shhhh. Then applied the red ink on top, well as you can see my ink was not covering very good it was looking too pink and I was running out of patience so I took ink pad to card directly and it left a few marks but it makes it look a bit more rustic we will say :)

I tried the eclipse technique, can you see the Congrats in the middle of the card, I cut out the Grad from tile dies and applied them too, it looks much better in person.

Heidi Grace - Winnefred St. stamp, white embossed, red ink background
Memory Box - Parker Upper Alphabet and Alphabet tile letters dies

Next this great nephew graduated from the same High School I went to and our colors are Blue and Gold, now this gold isn't the right color, our gold is a little more yellow but I didn't have that color so we went with actual gold embossing, doing the same technique as above but instead of using just two layers I used 4 and that looked a lot better.

I also used the inside of the letters from the previous tile dies and colored them with gold marker and added it to this card.

Heidi Grace - Winnefred St. Stamp embossed in gold
Taylored Expressions - Whimsy #s die
Memory Box - Alphabet tile letters die (inner portion)Colored w/Pilot Gold marker

Thanks for stopping by and saying Hi,

Connie

Anniversary

Sharing another stamp from the yard sale find.  This is a wood mount stamp and all it says is Magenta.  My daughter and her hubby celebrated an anniversary a few days after they left here but we had an early celebration here :)

After coloring and deciding to stamp a sentiment on the inside of the heart,  I cut the heart out and started searching my goodies for what to put behind it, and I found a doily a friend had given me a few years back that I had been saving, decided to finally use it, aren't you ever proud of me :)

Magenta stamp, colored w/markers
Impression Obsession - Sentiments II stamp set
Sassafras - Mix and Mend paper
Crochet Doily
Kaiser - Yellow rhinestones
Martha Stewart - Green gems

Do you have a stash at home that you just keep and admire but never use?  I am trying to break that habit very slowly :)

Have a great week ahead,
Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

Hibiscus

New stamp set I picked up at my Stamp store, I loved the different details in the stamps and leaves, stamped them with Versamark ink, embossed with white embossing powder onto patterned cardstock and then using my markers gave a bit of shading to the  flowers and leaves.

Fussy cut the flowers and leaves and did a little bit of shaping with the handle of my paint brush.  Put two of the die cuts together to cut out the frame and used the same die set for my sentiment piece, I used a black marker around the edges so it matched more with the frame.

Prickley Pear - Hibiscus 2, embossed in white powder onto patterned cardstock and shading with a marker
Art-C - Cardstock
Leisure Arts - Savor the moment paper
Spellbinders -- Labels 20 and A2 matting basics A dies
Our Daily bread designs - Mini tag sentiments
Dew drops

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

Connie

Grad

Sharing a graduation card today, that was sent to my great nephew who graduated from High School this past weekend.  His school colors are Blue and Silver.

Cut the balloons from silver metallic paper, cut the letters and numbers from two different die sets my hubby had, sorry no name, he doesn't have his dies organized :( I believe it is from Die Versions though.  Washi tape and Silver pen to add a little more celebrating to the background.

Taylored Expressions - Balloons Die
Alphabet and number dies - possibly Die versions?
Spellbinders - A2 matting basics A dies
Tim Holtz - Rose set washi tape (silver)
Silver pen

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

Connie

Get Well

My sister recently had foot surgery and I wanted to send her a card wishing her quick healing.  Luckily the die I ordered came in on time and I was able to use it for her card.  Paperwishes sent me an email a day after they sent my items on some ways to use the die, well I already had in mind what I wanted to do so I didn't watch it before making the card.  I finally got around to watching it after I sent the card and I did the one rose wrong, you can see the background paper behind the rose.  They say on the video to turn your paper to the backside of the paper when cutting out  the second small rose and then it will cover the whole back of the second rose.

I have seen a lot of embossed flowers that are colored in and that is what gave me the inspiration to try that look but with a die cut and use patterned paper behind it.  I used metallic paper for the die cut outline.  My sister liked the look of mirror card but the colors I had in that I didn't like the looks of with what I had in mind for this card.  The metallic looks a lot like the mirror.

Hot off the press - Rose Spray die
Tim Holtz - Kraft Metallic cardstock
Raspberry Road Design - Love lives here (background paper)
DCWV - Once upon a time paper (Flowers)
Hot off the press - Dazzles - thin line border stickers
Spellbinders - Labels Trio die
Hero Arts - Every day sayings sentiment stamp (gold embossing powder)

Hope you enjoyed your weekend and that your week is off to a great start.

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

Connie

Birthday boy

Thank you all for the advice on getting my email updates of comments to my blog. It worked, I sure hope they get it back to working so we don't have to comment on our own cards.

Wow June already, this year is just flying by, and it has been busy.  Our daughter will be leaving to go to her in laws today, it has been nice seeing her and our new grand puppy, I have enjoyed it but watching all the work it is to have a puppy I am not sure I am ready for that, he seems to have unlimited energy :)

Sharing a card for my great nephew today.  Trying to figure out coloring of the balloons was interesting and I am sure I didn't get it right but hopefully he will like it :) I went with stamping my sentiment on one of the balloons.  Fussy cut him our and used foam tape to pop him up from the scene.

Stampendous - Balloon Kiddo stamp, colored w/markers
Carta Bella - Alphabet Junction paper
Fiskars - Grass and cloud punches
Our Daily Bread designs - Mini tag sentiments stamp

Hope you enjoy a fun and creative weekend.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and say Hi :)

Connie