Sodus Point Light

I have some pictures to share of our trip out east this past October but first I will share another Autumn card I made using the coloring calendar images.

Have you noticed I have been using more of my ribbons lately :)  I forget to use some of my goodies when I am making my cards, if it isn't right in front of me it tends to be forgotten.  I added one of my die cut leaves to it and a tag, with a pattern paper background.

Coloring for calm daily coloring calendar image, colored w/markers
Sassafras - mix and mend paper
Sizzix - Branch w/leaves die
Our daily bread designs - mini tag sentiment stamp
Martha Stewart - Tag punch
Wink of stella clear sparkle pen

On our way out to see our daughter in Connecticut we decided to take the upper New York route and we stopped in Sodus Point New York to check out the light house there.  It wasn't open when we came we were a bit early but we did get to check out the grounds of the lighthouse,

They did a beautiful job of landscaping the yard here.

Above is the view you would see from the water.

This light was out farther in the water and just as we were looking out over the water a sailboat was leaving the harbor. It is a little grainy I had my lens zoomed as far as it could go.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, hope you enjoy your weekend.

Connie

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow American bloggers! 

I am thankful to all of you all around the world that I have been so blessed to get to know through the blogging world.  It is so great to learn and share so many of life's events and creativity!

Cheerful Journey 2018 coloring calendar - colored w/pencils and markers
DCWV - Wild Splendor paper
Spellbinders - A2 matting basics A & B dies


May this day of Thanksgiving last all year as we thank our Lord for all he continues to do in our lives!

Hugs,
Connie

Water color wildflowers

I just had to try water coloring these wildflowers for another Autumn birthday card, I don't want Autumn to end can you tell :)

I cut the flowers from water color paper and just loosely painted them, I really like how it turned out, I used distress inks for my coloring, I put the ink onto my palette and then add a bit of water to it and then painted it on.  I used some foam tape to lift some of the flowers to give it a bit of dimension.

Tim Holtz - Funky Florals #3 and Wildflowers #2 watercolored using distress inks

We had some rough storms go through last night, Tornado watches and warnings, we had a funnel that was between our town and the one south of us but luckily it didn't touch down as far as I have heard. All last night and today we are having 60 mph gusts, so quite windy, lets just say it was hard getting sleep last night.  Thankful this wasn't a winter storm it would have been terrible.

Hope you all are well and thanks so very much for taking the time to stop by and say Hi.

Connie

Dahlia

I bought these layering flower dies a few months ago, I already shared what I did with the rose but this is my first time trying the dahlia flower, now I am not sure that is what it looks like but I just like the look of layered die flowers.

I added a bit of inking to the base of the flower it seemed to light to me when I was doing the layering, also some clear glitter pen to the middle. Using more of that Autumn ribbon.

Gemini - Elements - Dahlia flower die
Recollections - Pumpkin Spice paper
Making Memories - Autumn Splendor ribbon
Nuvo - Golden Sunset Glitter drops
Spectrum Noir - Crystal clear pen

I can't tell you if I have the flower lined up correctly or not but it seemed to look good no matter how I did the layering.

I know this is a busy week for everyone getting ready for Thanksgiving coming up, I appreciate your taking the time to stop by and say Hi,

Connie

On your Birthday

I am sharing another card made with a stamp and die combo from Spellbinders, I was just going to use the wreath and then in the end I added the pine cone for an accent with the sentiment. I love how this set can be used any time of the year but with the pine cone too it gave this birthday card and Autumn feel too!  I had never used this ribbon before, the leaves have a velvet feel to them.

Spellbinders - Wreath stamp and die set, colored with markers  == Grommet tag die
Making Memories - Autumn Splendor Ribbon
Gina Marie stamps - Birthday words stamp
Brad

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend ahead.
Thanks so very much for taking the time to stop by today and for letting me know you did :)

Connie

Flower and stripes

There is a challenge over at the Flower challenge blog to use stripes or spots with your flower.  I had this piece of paper out for while that I was going to use on another project and it didn't work out and I thought that would make great stripe background for my flower from my daily coloring calendar.  The leaf is also from the calendar but it was a different day with leaves so it worked out good to go with my flower.  I just used the colors already in my background for the flower and leaf. I sewed the button right onto my card base.

Coloring for calm 2017 daily coloring calendar, flower and leaf, colored with markers and fussy cut
Plaid - 47237 sentiment stamp
PPD - A2 stitched banner die
Foof-a-la - button

You have a couple more days if you would like to join in on this challenge.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, and letting me know you did.

Connie

Sympathy

A fellow card maker lost her mother recently.  I usually go a little dark but I decided to go with a little more bright approach this time.

The white piece I put in the middle of the yellow polka dot band was a left over piece after I had punched a border before and I thought I might be able to use it and I think it worked just perfect here.

Spellbinders - Asters and Poppies die
Teresa Collins - He said, she said paper
Elizabeth Craft Designs - with sympathy die

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

Connie

Family Tree

Poppystamps Blog Challenge for this month is Fall Frolic.  I used one of their frame dies to frame this family quote.  I first started with watercolor paper and some colorburst for my background. I added a little spray of water before adding the colors and then added more water after to blend them all together.  I used some of the liquid metallic that was watered down just a bit and then splatter over the whole piece.  After die cutting the frame I had some extra from the middle so I cut out the extra leaves too.  The sentiment is from an old book of Vellum quotes and sentiments.

Poppystamps - Thicket Frame die
Memory Box - Marvelous Maple Leaves
Colorburst - Naples Yellow, Marigold and Wisteria
Liquid Metals - Metallic Mandarian (splattered)
JoAnn Essentials - Vellum Quotes and sentiments Family pack

You have until November 27th for this challenge.

I am pretty excited that the week ahead we should have more close to normal temperatures, so I am hoping to get out side and get the rest of our yard work done and we are also thinking of putting up the Christmas lights but not actually turn them on until after Thanksgiving, that is my rule, no Christmas until after Thanksgiving :)

Hope you all have a wonderful week ahead and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today and letting me know you did.

Connie

Forest Friends

Sisterhood of Crafters Blog had a challenge for Forest animals, now I only used one on mine, a little fox, making a wish upon a star. Colored him with markers and fussy cut him out. I used a few Distress inks and Distress Oxides to make up my starry night. White embossed my stars in the sky and made a little hill for him to sit on.

Lawn Fawn - Upon a star stamp set, colored w/markers
Distress Inks - Dusty Concord and Hickory Smoke
Distress Oxides inks - Pumice stone and Faded jeans
Poppystamps - Stitched landscape die
white embossing on the stars

You have until the 24th to join along on the challenge.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and for letting me know :)

Connie

Neutral Fall

Over at Double D challenge blog this month the challenge is to make a Fall card in neutral colors, you can also use a touch of orange and or green too, they have an inspiration photo to go by and I just love it.

Isn't that gorgeous, I loved on the top picture the grey container with the cotton, I found this stamp that also had something like that so I added a touch of orange to the flowers and the pumpkins, green to the leaves and then went with neutrals for the rest.

Great Impressions - Fall Garden stamp, colored w/pencils

Spellbinders - Labels 3 and Ferns dies

Lawn Fawn - Outside in Stitched Scalloped Rectangle die

Fiskars - stamp sentiment

Recollections - Pumpkin Spice paper

You only have a couple days if you want to play along in the challenge.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today and letting me know you did!

Connie

Ted E Bear

This is for the youngest of my great nieces, she is turning 2. I colored the stamps with markers and then fussy cut him out, I wanted to add more embellishments but then remembered it is going to a 2 year old and decided against it, don't want any small things swallowed by accident.

Rubber Stampede - Ted E. Bear stamp, colored w/markers
Martha Stewart - Border punch
Making Memories - Autumn Splendor Lace
Hero Arts - It's your day sentiment
Savor this moment paper

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, and letting me know that you did.

Connie

Make a wish

Today I combined one of the coloring calendar images with some pattern paper and some extra pieces left over from my instant card art images, this time using the sentiment tag.

I will have to admit when I first saw this paisley type image in my coloring calendar I thought now how would I use that on a card, well this time going through the book of extras I had in my instant card art I thought one of those images may work with it and sure enough I think they worked great together.

I liked the glitter that the pattern paper already had on it so to carry that through to the card I used a little bit of gold embossing powder around my sentiment pieces and then after matting it onto a scrap of yellow I had I went around the matting and the scallop on the image with my gold Uni-ball pen. I topped it off with some crystal glaze drops around the card.

Maybe you can see it a little better with this side view.

Hot off the press - Instant card art, Pretty colors ( sentiment ) gold embossing around edges
DCWV - Once upon a time paper
Coloring for calm, calendar image, colored w/markers and gold uni-ball pen around scallop
Spellbinders - lg deckled rectangles die
Nuvo Crystal Glaze

We had our first snowfall yesterday, I don't think we got anymore than 2 inches but a lot of it is still on the ground, we didn't get above freezing today and normally we are in the high 50's.  Hopefully the forecast for next week is right and we will once again see some 50 degree weather, this is too soon for winter for me.

Hope all is well where you are, I know many are dealing with fires and drought, my prayers are with you.

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

Connie

Congrats

My daughter is in her third year of getting her Doctorate Degree at Yale and just before we went out and visited her back in October she had went through her first Comprehensive tests and she did very well, so I just had to make her a card to take with me to Congrats her on her achievement.

I used a new Spellbinder stamp and die set that I had coloring it with markers.  The sentiment is also a stamp and die combo.

Spellbinders - Flower Bouquet stamp and die set, colored w/markers
Papertrey ink - Hodge Podge paper
Lawn Fawn - Big Scripty words die and stamp set
Pearls
Wink of stella - clear glitter pen

As we were walking around Yale my daughter said oh that is where I had to go for my Comprehensive test and interview and so I had her stand in front of the doors and got her picture (you can see my hubby in the reflection of the door window)

Hard to believe that my little girl will soon be turning 30, she has a lot of plans for her life and I hope they all work out for her.

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

Happy Day

Using my coloring calendar again for an Autumn birthday, well by my coloring I tried to make it Autumn anyway :)  This image just brought a smile to my face so I thought it would be perfect!

Colored this one with markers.

Cheerful Journey 2018 coloring calendar, colored w/markers
My Mind's eye - the sweetest thing paper
BoBunny - sentiment stamp
Sequins
Wink of Stella - clear glitter pen

Had to add a little sparkle to the flowers and sequins.

Hope you are enjoying a lovely Autumn weekend.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today!

Connie

Winning goodies

Awhile back I won a gift card to The Greetery blog and I was able to get a sweet collection of stamps and stencils.  I didn't purchase the dies so all of this was fussy cut. You really need to go check out check out Betsy's gorgeous creations she has come up with, she is so talented and so creative and her layering stamps are the easiest I have used!!

This is my first card I did with the stencils and stamps

Betsy has many tips in video's she has done about coloring and great examples using her stamps and stencils.  I just love this layering effect starting off with a stencil for the very background, then I stamped the individual goodies and cut them out and layered them to make the bouquet.  I love how she has done her stencils too, they are so easy to line up.

The Greetery - Budding Beauties Autumn stamps, Mason Jar fillers stencil and Just Mason around stamps
Momenta - Card stock
Liquid Pearls - Chestnut

I love how this just fills up the whole card, you can see a bit more of the dimension here in this picture.

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

Connie

Cape Hatteras Light

I have got some good use out of this stamp over the years, I colored it with markers this time and for some reason I just could not get the base of the light house to look right to me, so I decided that is where my sentiment would go :) problem fixed.

I haven't used my eyelets in awhile they were feeling neglected so I went with framing the lighthouse with jute using my eyelets to string it through.

Stampendous - Cape Hatteras Light, NC, colored w/markers
Spellbinders - Scalloped Classic Ovals Lg and A2 Distressed Edges dies
October Afternoon - Seaside paper
Whimsy Stamps - Simple sentiments
Eyelets
Jute
Wink of stella on light

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

Connie

Snow/Ice

I manage to get the last challenge done last night for the group and this one was to make a scene with the theme snow and/or Ice.

I went with a snowy scene.  I am hoping the way I stamped these that it looks like the house is up higher on a hill and then the group of trees with the deer are farther down a hill.  I did mostly just stamping other than I did give a little color to the house.  Then I used the glue right out of the bottle to make snow drifts and added snow to the top of the house and the trees.

The sentiment stamp was from the same magazine that had these other two stamps.  I added a bit of wintery clouds in the sky with my gray marker.

Make Special Cards Magazine Christmas 2018, stamps colored w/markers
Stampin up - Iridescent Ice

That is one more card closer to my card goal :)

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

Connie

Stencils

The next challenge was to use four stencils we hadn't used before to make backgrounds and then make one of them into a card.  I only had two maybe 3 because I can't remember if I had used one of them before that I hadn't used yet.

The one I chose to work with was the children with the kite stencil, I put them on the corner of my panel on purpose because I knew I would want to make a scene with them.

The stencil comes with the children with an option to use a balloon or kite with them, I went with a kite. I had to draw in my own string and added the bows all the way down.  The tree is a die cut and I added some of my clouds and grass to make the rest of the background.  I didn't realize until after I was sizing the pictures that I had smeared the sentiment so I am going to have to see if my sand eraser will be able to fix that.

Deco Art - Andy Skinner - Children Stencil
Tree die
Fiskars sentiment
Home made cloud stencil

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, we have sunshine once again, that makes this girl very happy!

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

Connie

Shaker

The next challenge I did was to make a shaker card, but to frame it with stamping, I don't think I have ever done that before and I almost forgot that point when I was making it, I had a nice paper picked out for the background and then remembered I was suppose to do some stamping around it, so I went back to my papers and found one that had a small amount of pattern at the top and some faint lines, I didn't want it to be a white background, all the rest is my stamping.

I first started out with my stamped image, I think it is suppose to be a spring image but I made it a little more fall like. After coloring it with my markers I went to my set of shaped foam pieces I bought a few years back to make shakers and found one that was about the size of my image and then found a circle die that was about that same size and to make my shaker frame I used another circle scallop with it to make the frame.  I laid that down on my paper and lightly traced the die so I knew where to stamp around. Those are the very first stamps I ever bought.

I used my distress inks as watercolor to color in the image.

Art Impressions - Memories window stamp, colored w/distress inks
Queen & co. - Pop ups for shaker
Spellbinder - circle and big scalloped circle dies for frame 
Stampin up - Leaves 1997 stamp set
Sentiment - unknown
Shaker goodies 

Hard to see the shaker items so I took a side view picture.

This shaker card went the best I have ever done so I am hopeful that they are getting easier to do the more I do them.

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

Connie