ink embossing

For our last challenge it was anything goes, I went to my little container of unused items I have and this embossing folder was one I bought at the yard sale at my stamp store awhile back and I hadn't given it a try yet. I decided to break out my metallic rub ons, although this link isn't the colors I have this is what I used to ink the raised area's of my embossing folder. You can find it Here.

The color in my set was called Nubian and it was a cross between black and gray and I used a cream card stock for my base. When using this product I have always used my fingers to apply it but this time I decided to use a finger dauber and that worked much better I think.  I used a dark gray card stock for the base of the card. Added my sentiment and some pearls.

This card is a 5x7.

Anna Griffin, cuttlebug - Wildflower Gate embossing folder
Metallic Rub ons - Nubian color over raised areas of folder
Jillibean Soup - Enjoy stamp and die sentiment
Pearls

This close up give you a better sense of what the colors actually are.

Thanks for stopping by,
 I hope you all enjoy a safe holiday weekend, and praying for the safety of all those in the path of the Hurricane.

Connie

Stenciled background

The next challenge is to use a stencil with inks. I blended 3 colors together but the top two don't look that different.  I added some sticker balloons that I placed onto cardstock so I could give them some lift, my clouds kind of blended in the background so I inked around them and added some wink of stella.

I used the same ink as in the bottom portion of my stencil for the sentiment tag.

Crafters workshop - stencil
Distress Oxides - Peeled paint, Wild Honey and Scattered straw
Balloon Stickers
Bobunny - Sentiments
Spellbinders - Labels Trio die
Fiskars - Cloud punch, w/ wink of stella clear sparkle pen

I am really big on reaching for my patterned paper so it is good I do these challenges that force me to make my own backgrounds.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by once again,

Connie

Mixed Media

Today I have a card to share for our last week of challenges in our group, I have two more to go :) This one we were challenged to do a mixed media card, using at least three different items from a list she gave, I used a stencil, paper perfect for my medium to use on the stencil, die cuts, jute, button and then topped it off by using some pewter distress stain to splatter over the entire card.

I have had the paper perfect stuff for many years like over 10 and it still was wet, it came in a natural color so I added a bit of color with my sparkle pens and mix before putting on my stencil.  This stuff does not work as well as modeling paste, it was a bit too wet so it went under the stencil but I will have to say it gave some neat texture and so I went with it. I cut the sentiment die 3 times to give it more dimension.

A picture to show the shine the pewter splattering gave to it.

Carabelle Studio - Cosmic cubes stencil
Deco Art - Paper Perfect Medium mixed w/ Spectrum noir Sparkle marker, Forest walk
Spellbinders - A2 Distressed Edges and Feather dies
Die Versions - Celebrate die
Jute
Button
Distressed Stain - Brushed Pewter, splattered on background

Thanks so much to take out the time to stop by today,

Connie

Bookmark and trip

I gave my friend a journal for her birthday and decided to add a bookmark with it.

Used my distress inks for the background. I stamped the image and then cut it out, cut the bookmark die and added my stamp image to it so that I could add a button to the top.

Our Daily Bread Designs - Book mark tree stamp and dies, background distress inks
Button

I haven't shared any of the pictures I took on our trip to Minnesota at the beginning of July, I thought I had better share before summer is over :)

When we woke up the morning we would be going into Minnesota it was a bit cloudy, and foggy by the water.

When we made it to Two Harbors it was quite foggy

By the time we walked around the area the fog started lifting around the main light house.

But the light station out in the water still had fog around it, you can just see the sun hitting the tip of the copper.

On the boat ramp these two were having a good time together that they didn't even notice me :)

Next stop was an over look to view Split Rock.

Our last stop before reaching our hotel was Black Beach, I think this is the first time I had ever seen black sand.

They had picnic tables on the beach, I sat down to rest and looked up, we always have to remember to look up :)

We had some bad flooding yesterday after we got home from church, this is the first time that we had rain come up the driveway and into our garage, thankfully it was slow coming in so our drain in the garage was able to handle it.
Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Connie

Cherry on top

For my son in law that likes cherries, when they are back here for his birthday I usually make a dessert with cherries in it, so since they didn't come home this time around his birthday I sent it to him, LOL!  This is from my coloring calendar, colored with markers.

Was hoping it had the look of a summer time table cloth in the background.

Coloring for calm - 2017 Calendar, colored w/markers
Lilybeedesigns - head over heels paper
Spellbinders - A2 matting basics A, Labels 11 and distressed edges dies
sentiment stamp

 Hope you are enjoying a great Sunday with a cherry on top!
Thanks for stopping by,

Connie

Blues

I was finally able to do the last challenge in our group, I had ordered these dies off of HSN when they were having there craft day and I wanted to try using them with the challenge to use 3 shades of blue.
Although this set of dies have 4 layers I just used white as my final layer. 

I first used water color paper and my Spectrum Aqua markers to color 3 sheets with different shades of blue, then I cut out two flowers of each of them.  I thought that on the 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch card that one flower seemed to be enough so I thought I would make two cards with them.  I used pattern paper in gray tones for my leaves and since I couldn't find a piece of cardstock to use for more second layer that matched it well I colored a piece of card stock with my alcohol marker then cut it out.

Since I seemed to lose the detail in the flowers when I would put it up against any papers I decided to use the same colors I used in the flowers to paint splatters onto the background of a white piece of paper and then cut them with dies.  I also used the extra inside pieces that came out of the leaves for extra greenery around the flowers.

Crafter's Companion- Rose, double sided dies
Spellbinders - Lattice Rectangle dies
Taylored Expressions - Many minis occasions sentiment
Ek Success - Sparkle stickers

Crafter's Companion- Rose, double sided dies
Spellbinders - Labels 29 die
Gina K designs - sentiment stamp
Pizzazz Aplenty - 3 mm rhinestones

Here is a close up of the detail of this die, it is weird to have double sided dies but having them this way you cut them out faster as you cut out two layers at once.  You can only use them so far in the Gemini machine and you have to have special double sided plates that you use with the dies.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoy a great weekend!

Connie

Flower Cart

I am sharing another card that I made using some new stamps that I won off of Donna's blog a little while back, what is better than getting a whole cart full of flowers for your birthday :)

After I had finished it I thought oh my this is a little dark for a summer time birthday  but I sent it on it's way.

I believe this ended up being a 5x7 size card, I forgot to write down the size.  I colored it with markers and cut it out with a fancy die frame. Added some fine dazzle border sticker where the two different papers came together and added a sentiment and some sequins.

Sparkle n Sprinkle - Flower cart stamp set, colored w/markers
Spellbinders - Timeless Rectangle die
Lilybee designs - Head over heals paper
Dazzles - thinline border stickers
StarForm stickers- transparent glitter gold sticker on tag
Papercraft Inspirations - Greetings sentiment and tag
Sequins

Hope your week is going well so far, and you are keeping cool, there is so much of the country dealing with severe heat, we have had heat index's in the 100's once again, but I am trying not to complain because we could be dealing with extreme cold.

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

Connie

Blossoms

I don't use my spiral flower die cuts that often since they are so bulky but this card was being hand delivered to a friend so I was able to make it as bulky as I wanted.

I forgot to get a side view of it but I think you can see the dimension they have in them, the bright pink little flowers were some that came in a package of goodies that I bought at the yard sale at my stamp store, there was no packaging to them so I don't know who the maker is but they are a very hard plastic. The doily is purchased and the leaves are a die cut.

Spellbinders- Bitty Blossoms, Spiral Blossoms, Mosaic Vine and Back to basics tags dies
Graphic 45 - Botanical Tea (background paper)
Tim Holtz - Vintage Shabby papers for the flowers
Little pink plastic flowers unknown
Queen & co. - Bubbles
Fiskars - Essential sayings stamp

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

Connie

Water

The next challenge in our group was to have water as the theme of the card, I went with this Lake house stamp.  All I can say is you win some and you lose some, I didn't get the water color feel of it very well, I need more practice on these very small images, I think it is much easier with larger images.

After water coloring I was going through my dies deciding how I wanted to cut the image and thought this die would make a lovely frame for this scene but the piece I stamped my stamp on wasn't big enough for this die so I cut it out and then cut just the image portion out by hand so I would have a guide on where to cut so it would fit inside the cut I made with green cardstock. I added a little ink to just the leaves to give them a touch of color.

Art Impressions - Lake House window, on water color paper, using Spectrum Aqua markers
Spellbinders - Decorative Curved Square die
Hot off the press - Black Jewel Dazzles

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

Connie

Mojo Monday Sketch 520

There is only one more day to play along in the Mojo Monday Sketch, when I saw the sketch I thought I would use it to make a card for my nephew's birthday.  I used an art impression stamp set.

This was a fun sketch and worked perfectly with these stamps, I colored them with markers and hand cut them all out. I tried to mimic the pattern in the paper for the parachute :)

Art Impressions - His & Hers Flying High stamp set, fussy cut
Sassafras - Apple Jack paper
Spellbinders - Baby buntings die
Nuvo drops - pale gold

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

Connie

Barn Mouse

Over at House-Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge blog they are having a back to school or anything goes challenge, I don't need a back to school card but I thought I would share this cute mouse celebrating a birthday in the barn :) I bought this barn door slider die at the Stamping convention and I am finally getting around to using it.  Every one I could find people were only using a sentiment on each side and I wanted to do an image on one side and the sentiment on the other, that is where this cute mouse came in, his little tail goes to the other side, but I didn't mind that.

When you slide the door over it reveals the sentiment.

I used a wood embossing folder for the door, rubbed my ink on the raised portions and added some nail marks with my sharpie pen. The little door handle comes with the die kit.

Creek Bank Creations - Barn Door Die
Stampabilities - Amanda blows candle stamp, colored w/markers
Crafters Companion - Wood grain embossing folder
Spellbinders - A2 matting basics B die
Hot off the press - Life happens greetings

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

Connie

New Technique

The next challenge is to try a new to you technique. Now I bought some Alcohol lift ink a while ago and have never tried it. Tim Holtz did a whole video on it, you can watch it HERE. So I thought this challenge was good to get me to give it a try.

I used a few colors of my new alcohol pearl inks and one of the old alcohol inks.  I can't see a lot of shimmer in it but wonder if I should have used more ink as my base.  I like the results of the first one where I lifted the inks off my background.

I added some corrugated paper and jute to hang my tag from.

Alcohol Pearl inks - Villainous, enchanted and envy
Alcohol ink - Latte
Hero Arts - Leaf Cluster stamp
DCWV - Corrugate Neutrals paper
Jute
Spellbinders - back to basics tag
Taylored Expressions - Many mini occasions sentiment stamp

I didn't want a plain background to stamp the ink I had lifted off the first background so I used a striped grey pattern paper to stamp it onto, maybe you would be able to see it better if it had been on a plain background.

I made a frame around it using washi tape and I mittered the corners. Added a punched dragonfly and a sentiment.

Alcohol Pearl inks - Villainous, enchanted and envy
Alcohol ink - Latte
Hero Arts - Leaf Cluster stamp
EK Success - Dragonfly punch
Tim Holtz - Rose design tape (washi)
Gina Marie stamps - Birthday words

I like how you can get two cards out of one technique.

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

Old Supplies

Next challenge was to use our old products, before I had many stamps and dies I use to buy stickers for my cards, these are from 2001. I added a die cut heart to stamp my sentiment and add the flower sticker. For the background I added a few dots with my extra fine sharpie marker.

Sweetwater stickers
Sassafras - Mix and mend paper
Bobunny - sentiment stamps
Dots on background with sharpie pen

Do you have old stickers leftover from your scrapbooking and cardmaking?

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

two of the same

Our next challenge in the group was to use a stamp or die in two different ways.  Many of you may know of the Twofer card challenge blog. They have the same thing with different themes, too bad this times wasn't flowers I could have made these for both.  I went with a new stamp that I had purchased. First I started off trying the no line watercoloring, and it actually turned out this time, I am not sure if it is because I used some Daniel Smith watercoloring paints, or that I am finally getting it, I plan on trying other supplies and seeing if I do as well.

This is a large stamp, I made a 5x7 card with this one. The flowers I stamped using Spun Sugar distress ink and stamped the butterfly using Old Paper distress ink.  The sentiment I used memento dye ink.

Hot off the press - watecolor roses stamp
Daniel Smith - Holiday Palette paints
Prima - Fairy Flora collection paper
Spellbinders - 5x7 matting basics A&B dies
Iced silver sequins

The next card I just used a portion of the stamp and only colored one set of the flowers, using colored pencils this time.

Hot off the press - Watercolor roses stamp, colored w/pencils
Memory Box - Stitched circle layers die
Spellbinders - Big Scalloped circles lg die
My mind's eye - The sweetest thing paper
Our daily bread designs- mini tag sentiments stamp
Liquid pearls - Lemon Yellow

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

Connie

Christmas challenges

Every month my stamp group has a Christmas challenge, this year we are doing the letter of the alphabet and we are on G for this month.  I went for Gold and I used my gold pen to go around the border and used on the tops of the ornaments too.  I also used my sparkle pens to color in the ornaments.

I would like to also add this card to the CAS Christmas Card Challenge, the theme is glitter.

You can see the sparkle a little better with the close up view.

Hot off the press - Christmas Ornaments for Colorist, colored w/Spectrum noir Sparkle pens
wink of Luna gold pen for frame and tops of ornaments

In my card making group the Christmas challenge was to do a quick and easy card.  I bought a sheet of Christmas images from my stamp store that you cut out to use for your card tops.  All I had to do is find some papers that were closest to the colors in the image and cut a die cut frame for it. I haven't decided if I will put a sentiment on it or not.

Marianne designs - Forest dream image
PPD - Stitched Postage stamp rectangle die set
Lilybee desings - Jingle papers

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

Connie

Scraps

The next challenge in the group was to use your scraps, I have so many paper scraps it is just crazy, I am so tempted to just recycle them and start with a brand new empty scraps container but I haven't done it yet. I saw on Pinterest these flowers made from scraps and the petals were two layers thick, so I went ahead and stamped out all these wings from an old butterfly stamp set and hand cut them out, I started arranging them to see how many I would need and found that I didn't like how it looked doubling them so I went with just one layer around, that gave me enough to make two cards.

 To match the faux stitching on the petals I did a little bit of that around my paper and added a few pen dots to the background.

Faux stitched petals stamp, on scraps of pattern paper and hand cut
HOTP - Dazzles - tiny words & phrases, colored w/marker
Faux stitching around card
Spellbinder die for flower center

For the second one I used an Epoxy sticker for my sentiment and added tiny sequins to the background

I have the next challenge almost done, so I will share that next time.
Hope you all have a wonderful and creative weekend!

Connie

Special Fold

My cardmaking group is having challenges all month since this is the anniversary of when the group started. This challenge we were to make a special fold in our card, I haven't used this die in awhile so I thought I would break it out for this challenge. The card base, the shapes to the front of my card cut with pattern paper,  the tag for my rose to sit on and the decorative piece on the inside to keep it open are all in this die set.

I die cut the flower and the leaves, molded them with my mat and styles and added a gem to the inside.

It looks so much better opened. I added the sentiment to the inside and I cut two of them to give them a bit more lift and dimension, added a little pearl to dot the "i".

Sizzix - Royal Stand ups dies
Spellbinders - Rose Creations dies
Elizabeth Craft designs - Happy Birthday die
Teresa Collins - Tell your story papers
Recollections - Iridescent gem

Thank you for taking out the time to stop by today, hope your week is going well,

Connie

Dog Loss

Our friend's dog passed away, this little dog was her baby, I didn't have a stamp that looked like her dog but her dog was black and white so I colored it that way. This is from another stamp set that came with a magazine a few years ago.

Docrafts - Daisy & Dandelion stamp set, colored w/markers
Spellbinder - Circles, eyelet circles and Back ti basics tags dies
October Afternoon - Campfire Paper
Impression Obsession - small grass die
My Favorite things - More Essential sentiments stamp set
Brads

She asked if I could print out a saying she had seen on the internet and if I could print it out for her, I guess there are a couple versions because this is close to the one she had seen but not exactly.  After printing it off I did a little stamping around the edges with some paws and bones from the Newton's Nook designs, Fetching Friendship stamp set. Coloring in the bones with white pen.

This is before I cut it down to 8 x 10. She already had a frame picked out for it. My Hubby picked out this paper that he liked to print it out on.

I hope you all enjoyed a nice weekend and the week ahead will be a good one.  They are calling for the high humidity to come back for a few days.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie