Thursday, February 28, 2019

3D

I mentioned before that I bought the Gemini Jr. Electric die cutting machine and today I am sharing a card that shows the 3D embossing folder I received with it and one of the die cuts.  If you are interested in the machine just a heads up, I have noticed that depending on who you buy the machine from depends on what embossing folders or die cuts come with the machine.  So you may want to keep that in mind, I bought mine at Hobby Lobby so this is the items that came with this machine.


I have decided with the price of postage stamps going up that I need to use my thicker items for hand delivered cards, so I went searching to see what was nice and thick to use and I came across these flowers and butterfly I had bought at Tuesday morning before they went out of business in our town. I added a die cut branch and leaves to go with them. It has been so gloomy here I thought this would be a nice bright pick me up card for my friend.



Gemini - Regency swirls 3D embossing folder and Opulent Swirls die
Ki memories - flowers and butterfly puffies
Tim Holtz - Small tattered Florals dies for branch and leaves

Hope if you are experiencing some gloomy weather like we are today that this brightens your day just a little bit.

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

Connie 

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Echo Bluff State Park

Back at the beginning of February, my hubby and I took a few days and went to Echo Bluff State park when we had an unusual warm weekend.  I finally downloaded the pictures I took and I found a few I thought I would share.  This is a rather new park in Missouri and we had never been there and heard they had some cabins and a Lodge inside the park so we went to check it out.

We were on the second floor of the Lodge overlooking the creek and when we arrived we went straight onto our little deck and sat in the rocking chairs listening to this creek flowing.  This picture was taken the next morning of the row of rocks that the water was flowing over that made the noise we were hearing, as you can see in the background is some sheer cliffs that ran all along the other side.


This next picture is of the Lodge we stayed in. Standing at the creek. The area is quite rocky, but we were able to walk all along the creek.




They had an outdoor patio where they had seating just off their restaurant for the summer months, I am standing up there, looking down onto the fire pit area, even in February they had a fire each evening we were there.  You can see the creek in the back and the rock hills behind it a little  better.




After we looked around there we got into our van and headed outside the park to see some of the other area parks, and other pull offs there were to check out. I believe this is the Current River, in the two next pictures.




The bridge below was what we came across when we went down a road that had a boat launch, it almost looked part wood from a ways off, but when we got closer realized it was all cement.



 I can't pass up an interesting tree.


We had our picnic for lunch here at Round spring. It always amazes me when I see the springs in this area, the colors are just amazing. 

As we were leaving this park we drive over a very small bridge and my hubby spotted this Heron standing in the creek, we were afraid if we parked the van and got out that he would fly away so we took pictures from inside the van.


Even just our talking and excitement from seeing him, he walked off a little farther away from us but stopped and posed again for me to get this next picture.





We went to this area once before but it was summer time, it looks a lot different now but was so nice not to be too hot it was just right!
I have some pictures of Alley springs, since we were so close we decided to drive down and see what it looked like this time of year, but I will share them at a later date.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Monday, February 25, 2019

In my thoughts

I wanted to send a card to a friend, let her know I am thinking of her and what she is going through and wishing her much brighter days ahead.  I found a double sided paper that had very bright colorful flowers and I used it for my inspiration to use my wreath builder template to make this flower wreath. 



It's hard to see with all the pattern going on but the paper I used for my inspiration seemed a little too much when I was putting the card together so I punched both sides with a flower punch and then added the butterfly which was already on my desk that I didn't use in a past project. I also added a few dots with my fine sharpie pen.

Gina K - Wreath builder template and stamp set
Mama Elephant - Butterfly Kisses  sentiment stamp
Verve stamps - Butterfly Grace butterfly stamp
Echo Park - Fine and Dandy paper
EK Success - Corner Rounder punch
Martha Stewart - Cherry Blossom trim punch
Nuvo Crystal drops - Glossy Carnation pink

Hope your week is off to a good start, we have sunshine so I am happy :)
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie



Saturday, February 23, 2019

Pink & White

Over at Double D challenge blog the challenge is to use Pink and White.  I have had this thick piece of ribbon for some time now and wondered how I could use it on a card, and since my girlfriends birthday is coming up and I will be hand delivering the card I could go all out and not worry about how thick the card will be :)



I first embossed the background white piece and then used some new border dies I picked up at a Stamp store over in Missouri. Applied the emboss piece to some paper and added my ribbon securing it to just the back of my paper so that I could take a separate piece of ribbon to tuck under and the tie a bow to the top, I like the ruffle effect that gave to the bottom piece of ribbon.  The stamp was in the same set as the embossing folder from a card making magazine, after stamping I added a little color to the bird with my sparkle pen. 


Cardmaking and Papercraft - Fantastic Florals - Stamp and Embossing folder
Spellbinders - Timeless Rectangled and Noble Rectangle dies
PPD - Stitched Mini Scalloped Borders
Spectrum Noir sparkle pen - Teacup on bird
Ribbon

If you want to play along you still have plenty of time, the challenge doesn't end until March 3rd.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Connie

Thursday, February 21, 2019

So Sweet

I received a package with all kinds of goodies from Gina over at Twigs and Branches.  She was so sweet to send all kinds of goodies for me to use in my card making, I just had to use some on a thank you card I sent.



Who doesn't love a heart flower :)  Just before I received her package I had spent my Christmas money and broke down and bought a Gemini Jr. die cutting machine.  It is electric and cuts like a dream, no more cranking a handle to cut my dies and I have tried it on those dies that normally I would have to run through many times changing the direction of them so I could get them all cut through, with this is cuts the first time, LOVE it!  I have noticed when I was using thinner card stock that it even cut too well and in delicate area's it cut even the part I you don't want to cut.  But as you can see on these papers from Prima it cut perfect.  The machine came with some dies and one of them was these heart, also came with an embossing folder I will share later.

The goodies that Gina sent that I used were these heart enamel shapes, aren't they ever so cute and they are so flat no need to worry about mailing, I love them!!  I popped up the hearts with dimensional foam tape and hand stitched a stem. You can see one of the enamel dots on the sentiment tag.



Crafters Companion - Loving tags die (hearts)
Spellbinders - Majestic Labels 25 and 5x7 matting basics A dies
Prima - Fairy Flora Collection paper
Cardmaking and Papercraft mag. - sentiment
Stampin up - Enamel shapes (hearts)
Martha Stewart - leaf punch

Thanks again Gina for the lovely package so thoughtful of you!

We have sunshine this morning, when it has been so gloomy it is so welcomed to see, even if it is supposed to turn cloudy this afternoon. Time to get out for a walk and soak it up while I can :)

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

Connie

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Just Because

I had this background and this butterfly laying on my desk for awhile now and thought they would look nice together. Once again the Tim Holtz stencil I used didn't quite make it to the edges of the card stock so I die cut a border on either side so it wouldn't be plain white.



I added some white enamel accents but you can barely see them, for the butterfly trail.



Shaving cream background using Tim Holtz stencil
Die'sire - Beautiful borders
SRM - thinking of you stickers
Butterfly stamp
Enamel Accents- white

Thanks for all the suggestions you had for my Robins :)

The eye doctor just figured I had an infection in my eye, all cleared up now, but he did say that the blurry is from my cataract and I have an appointment with a surgeon next month to have it looked at and see if he thinks it is bad enough to have surgery.

We had a coating of ice last night and so today it is quite slick out there but hopefully it will melt as the day goes on we are to get above freezing.  We just have to hang in there for another month and we should be out of this mess.

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

Connie

Monday, February 18, 2019

Birds

I bought this stamp last year and never ended up using it.  When I was googling Robins I found that the robins in the UK have a little different coloring than those I see around here, ours have orange or red breasts that go all the way down but I found some that were like this stamp that only go down to their breast and their belly and tails are a lighter gray than their backs, so I went with that to color these, since the stamp is from England.

On the first one I added a little gel pen.





I tried some blue shading around one and wasn't sure I liked it so I went with the yellow shading around the other two, which do you like better?



I used both Neenah cardstock and Bristol smooth card stock for these. The Neenah card stock is the one with the blue shading.  Not sure which I like better, think they are pretty close, I had never done a comparison before to see which I liked better. 

Woodware stamps - Fluffy Robin, colored w/markers, Image and sentiment

I feel like there should be more shading around the birds or shading around the edges of the card. What do you think?  The good thing about making them way ahead of time is if I want to change things I have the time to do it, usually I am getting the cards made and right out in the mail, no time for changes.



Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope that your week is off to a wonderful start.

Connie

Saturday, February 16, 2019

From Hubby

I decided to share the Valentine my hubby made me, but you have to know the story behind it first.
One evening, not too long ago while hubby was at work I heard noises on our deck, so I got up to check it out and here was a raccoon on my deck rail trying to reach out to the Bird Suet's I have on Shepard hooks.  I have them there so I can sit in my living room and watch the birds.  Now we have moved them over, since in the past they have not only taken the suet but they also took away the cage I have them in.  I also have a suet holder that looks like a house and luckily they can open the top and just take out the suet so they have left that behind although I have found it on the ground, but I think that was the squirrels that time.  Well this particular evening when I went out to scare it away I saw the shovel we still had on the deck from the last snowfall so I grabbed and yelled and banged the shovel on the deck rail to really scare it away for good hopefully.  I told my hubby the story the next day and he had a good laugh picturing me with the shovel and trying to scare the raccoon, and he was remembering that when he came up with my card :)


My hubby drew this raccoon and he also drew the Suet house on the inside, using some of his dies from Memory box for the shepherds hook :)  I am sharing the side that had to do with the raccoon, on the other side he wrote me a poem, but that is more personal ;)



Since we have had more snow I am working on some more Christmas cards.  There were more accidents yesterday for those trying to get home from work yesterday, and they are saying tomorrow morning there is another chance of freezing rain, snow just to the north of us, that would be two weeks in a row without church if they have to cancel again. 

Hope all is well where you are, thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Connie

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Happy Valentines Day

My hubby looks at my blog so I can't post his card ahead of time :)  I used one of the Shaving cream backgrounds I made Here.  This is one of his stencils, so since he bought it I knew he would like it :)

I used another of the calendar coloring page images.



Shaving cream background technique with stencil
Coloring for Calm coloring calendar image, colored w/markers
Spellbinders - A2 matting basics B die
Memory Box - Stitched Rectangle layers die
JoAnn Scrap essentials - emotions- Quotes and sentiments (vellum)

It is cloudy but we are to get into the high 50's today, then starting tomorrow the next 7 days will be in the 30's with snow Friday, Saturday and possibly next Tuesday.  So I am going to enjoy getting out today :)  Hope you have a good day!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Christmas in February

Well I only manage two cards so far but the month isn't over yet, I had caught up on all my birthdays and Valentines so I went with the challenge in my stamp group using something that starts with B, well I didn't go Christmas theme really with my letter, I chose bears and bunnies :)

I manage to color this little stamp with my bad eye, which is still blurry today but I go in for my check up to see what the doctor has to say today, I also have an appointment with an eye doctor next week.


I used some washi tape that I think I picked up at Target last year, the trees are glitter.


This is a cute set that came from another stamp magazine, I used my sparkle pens on the ice but it doesn't show up well in the picture.

Cardmaking and papercraft magazine- Christmas stamp 2011
Spellbinders - Lacey ovals and Lacey circles dies
Washi tape - Trees

The second is decoupage sheets from Quick cards magazine, I didn't have to cut these out, you can just punch them out, I have another sheet and think maybe next time I will cut them out because I am not sure I like the white around the images when they are stacked,



I am wishing now that I would have cut the circle down more so you could see my scalloped die behind it, that is what I get for going to quickly and not thinking things through before putting it together.




Quick cards - Decoupage 3 layers image, tag and papers
Stampin up Washi tape and Brad
Spellbinders - Big Scalloped circles die

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Connie


Sunday, February 10, 2019

Deer in the woods

Here today with a masculine card for my brother in law.  I first started out with the background, once again using that grass stamp I picked up at my stamp store, I just love the look of stamping the grass and going over it immediately with my sponge applicator it kind of smears the stamping and blends it nicely. I also used my homemade cloud stencil I made by using my big scalloped scissors and sponged on the ink.




For the tree die I added chalk around the marks in the trees and added shading on the deer and sign. The wing on the bird is separate, so you can added it anyway you want and gives the bird dimension.

Taylored Expressions - Birch Tree Plate and Birch Tree Accents dies
Distress inks for background - Mowed Lawn and Tumbled glass
Distress inks for Deer and sign - Gathered Twigs and Frayed Burlap
Home made cloud stencil

Thank you for your kind thoughts about my eye, I think my vision may be getting better although I have to apply this ointment 4 times a day and it keeps my eye pretty blurry using that, so won't know for sure until I can quit using it all together.

We had freezing rain this morning, closing the interstates all around us, it is a sheet of ice out there so everything has been canceled and they are asking people not to get out in it, this is the second time this year we have had to close church due to ice.

Hope you have a blessed Sunday,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Saturday, February 9, 2019

Chalkboard

I always liked these stamps but never got the impression on them like I wanted before the MISTI stamping tool, so now that I have it I thought I need to give these stamps another try and I just love the results I got from them now, so I decided to make cards out of both stamps.


Our Daily Bread designs- Chalkboard Birthday/Thank you stamp set
Spellbinders - A2 Devine Eloquence die
Lilybee designs - Head over Heels Paper
Martha Stewart - Flower punch
Candi minis for flower center


Our Daily Bread designs- Chalkboard Birthday/Thank you stamp set
Spellbinders - A2 Devine Eloquence die
Sassafras - Mix and Mend Paper
Martha Stewart - Flower punch
Candi minis for flower center

I don't know how I managed it but I got an eye infection at least that is what the doctor thinks, my eye is swollen and my vision is blurry.  I tried to make an appointment with the eye doctor on base but they won't see retired military anymore so I have to find an off base eye doctor, so I went to my family doctor. He gave me some oral antibiotics and ointment for my eye, no change yet.  It makes doing anything a bummer, especially trying to color anything, it is just like when I had my cataract in that eye.  Praying that my vision comes back after the infection or whatever is going on heals.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and have a wonderful weekend!

Connie

Thursday, February 7, 2019

New Baby

Our Church Music Director and His wife are having a baby boy very soon and we had a baby shower for them. This old stamp set I have had for years is usually my go to but I have never used this one out of the set before.  After coloring it I was trying to figure out what embellishments I could use with it and remembered I had a cattail die that would go with the ones in the stamp, after coloring them up I just wasn't sure about it but I was at the last minute making this so I just went with it.


Cornish Heritage Farms - Baby Dear stamp set, image and sentiment, colored w/ markers
Spellbinders - A2 matting basics A & B dies
Impression Obsession - Cat tails die, colored w/markers

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Super Star

I was in need of another teen boy card, for my great nephew, I like this stamp for teen cards. I have used it a few times so far so I think I have got my $1.50 out of it, I used another set for the banner that I stamped twice and hand cut,  remember those small stamp sets Michaels had a few years back. I wrote his name on the banner.



Studio G - stamped sentiment, colored w/markers
Spellbinders - classic rectangles lg and A2 matting basics A die
Poppystamps - Super stars dies
Crate paper - Party Day paper

Hubby and I went away for a few days down to Echo Bluff State park in Missouri, you can read about it HERE.  The weather was supposed to be in the 70's and we thought it was the perfect time to get away and do some hiking and just enjoying the new park we hadn't been to yet, we had a wonderful time.  We are back to the cold weather but am always thankful for some warm time in the middle of  winter.

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

Connie

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Shaving cream and stencil

I chose this challenge for last because I was worried it was going to be the most challenging and I think it was the easiest except for the preparation and clean up.  I did them in my kitchen and had a sink filled with soapy water so as soon as I was done with a stencil I just put it straight into the soapy water and cleaned it.

You can see the challenge how to's in THIS VIDEO.

You are to use waterbased reinkers, well I only have one color of waterbased reinker so I was trying to think what I could use, some of the girls suggested watercolor paint. Then I remember that my sparkle pens are waterbased and when you squeeze the barrel it give you drops of the ink. I don't know if this is good for the pens or not but I wanted to give the challenge a try, and it worked!!!

Here are all the backgrounds I did using the stencils.



Here is my first card using the stencil that looks like a quilt block.


The stencil is a square, I applied it to a rectangle piece of paper but I liked just the look of the actual star so I cut it done to a smaller square, I had some extra left over that I cut the sentiment out with,

Spectrum sparkle pens for my ink colors - harvest moon, Olive Jade and Smoked Quartz
TCW - stencil
PPD - mini stitched square and stitched banner dies
Spellbinders - classic square dies
Cardmaking and papercraft magazine - sentiment stamp
Recollections - glitter gem

For my second I went with the sun stencil.


I liked the marble effect it gave to this one especially.

Joggles - Sunshine stencil
Spectrum sparkle pens- Biscuit and Red berry
Spectrum Aquatint - Moonlight
Lawn Fawn - Fancy Scalloped rectangles
SRM - Thinking of you stickers
Craftaroo - clear gems

I hope the challenges this week helped spark your creativity and you can have some play time and try one of them yourself :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Friday, February 1, 2019

Marble 2

I was able to finish two more cards last night using the second set of colors I used using the same technique as in my last post.

I also spritzed this marble background, not sure if I liked the results as well as the last card.  Also I used a lighter sheet of kraft paper that is printed on the other side instead of my lightweight cardstock and I think you don't get as fine as marbling when you use the softer paper, but I do like the way the background came out against the kraft paper, but first the marble background,



Our challenge was to use a stamp on the these but I would like to try it again when I can use diecuts because I have some that I think would look great against the marble. I did some shadow stamping with this stamp, first stamped with black then moved it over and stamped to the left again without reinking, didn't think it showed up as well, so I used some grey ink for my 3rd stamping to the right.
Had to add some butterflies.  My sentiment didn't show up as well as I liked against the grey piece, but it was a sticker and I didn't want to chance things and mess it up.

Stampin up - Of the earth stamp set
Spellbinders - A2 Devine Eloquence Die
Hot off the press - tiny words and phrases stickers
Nuvo Crystal drops - Pale gold
Distress oxides for background - Wild honey, faded jeans and walnut stain

Here are my backgrounds that I made.


Here is my finished card using the crunched up piece.


It just felt antique to me so I once again went with an antique stamp using the same blue as the background onto a piece of Kraft paper that had text onto it.

Tim Holtz - The Journey stamp set
Spellbinders - A2 distressed edges and classic rectangle dies
PPD - Stitched Postage stamp die
Pebbles - Candy dots
Distress oxides for background - Wild honey, faded jeans and walnut stain

Thanks so much for taking out the time to stop by today, hope you are all staying warm that are going through this cold weather snap.  We are to get above freezing later today, YAH!!

Connie