Thursday, April 30, 2020

O Holy Night

I made this card a little while ago but I was so hoping to get more made but my crafting time has gone to making cards for those alone at this time, so I didn't manage to get anymore than one made, well I did make another but let's just say the technique I tried on that one using my color burst metallics was so bad it went right in the trash.

I used my distress inks to make the background, I first made a mask for the light using a sticky note and a round die, I place the opening of the die where I wanted the star to be on the card and sponged my ink in the center, then I took the piece that I had cut out and put it over the circle and did my blue sponging all around, this took a long time to do, so I was trying to think of a quicker way to make the card, but never got to that.  After inking I embossed my image on top lining up the star with the circle I sponged, and embossed it with my black embossing powder, I do like how it turned out though.


Stampendous - Manger Scene stamp, embossed w/black powder
Distress inks - Fossilized Amber, Tumbled glass and faded jeans for background

I know some of you are saying I don't want to think of Christmas right now, so I am sharing the first spring pictures I took back on March 22nd.

We came across these deer up on a hill, they didn't seem to mind too much that we were there.






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

Connie

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Encouragement

I came across this set that I hadn't used yet and it had some nice sentiments that I thought would work at this time.  I went with watercoloring the first one and then on the second one moving the arrangement around a little and coloring with my alcohol markers.

 I used 140 lb. cold press paper w/Daniel Smith watercolors in the first card. I embossed the stamp first with Antique gold embossing powder. I scribbled some Spectrum Aqua marker onto my palette, and using my water brush I painted the color onto my background.


My Sentiments Exactly - Floral Encouragement Cards stamp set w/Daniel Smith watercolor
Altenew - Antique gold embossing powder
Spectrum Aqua pen for background
Spellbinders - Lattice Rectangle die
Craftaroo - clear gems



The bud in this set is a separate stamp so I changed it around but I do like it with the sentiment, I used the same marker that I used on the rose to color over the word Brighten.


My Sentiments Exactly - Floral Encouragement Cards stamp set, colored w/markers
Spellbinders - Decorative Labels 28
Sassafras - Mix and Mend paper
Wink of stella on Rose
Crafter's companion - Pretty borders stamp



I took the last few days to just have a break from my usual day to day work except for dishes, so now I need to get back in the swing of things, sometimes it is good to just take a break from everything.

Hope your week is off to a good start,
Hugs,
Connie

Monday, April 27, 2020

Think Spring

I missed posting yesterday, after our on line church service, we cooked out, steak on the grill with baked potato and salad, YUM!  I had taped on our DVR the very first Fixer Upper, neither one of us had seen it on the DIY network,  we still have to watch the other one and then they had a show on their new network and what to expect, I am looking forward to seeing it.

Anyway after that we went for a long drive up the Mississippi River, we hadn't done that in awhile, there was a good amount of traffic, especially those out on their motorcycles , but everywhere we stopped everyone was keeping a big distance from one another and we were able to stop places where we were the only ones, which is quite unusual.  The towns along there that are normally so full of people were so quite with hardly anyone around, it was so strange looking.  We finished the day watching a pretty sunset, we were both exhausted when we got home, but was very good to get out.
I haven't looked at the pictures yet, if any turned out I will try to share, I haven't shared any of the blooming trees or anything that I have taken.

Now to my cards, I was having a hard time thinking of what to do for those in our church and I found these set of Library cards that Esther had given me for every season and thought I needed to use one for them.  She had already stamped the sentiment and the flower, I added the punched dragonfly, I matted it all on a die cut, and added some ribbon and a flower.


Library card
EKSuccess - Dragonfly punch
Lawn Fawn - Fancy Scalloped Rectangle die
Papertrey ink - Hodge Podge paper
Prima - Forever flowers
Brad
Wink of Stella clear sparkle pen on wings and stamped flower

My next card I used a combo of a stamp set with an umbrella die I haven't used yet, the die set comes with different die centers you can use for the pattern in your umbrella. I used a silver pen to color the handle of the umbrella.  I added a punched border and some liquid pearls to the center of the flowers.



Autumn Leaves - Wellies n Brellas stamp set
Spellbinders - Umbrella trio die
g.c.d. - homespun chic paper
Martha Stewart - border punch
Liquid Pearls - Mint green (flower centers)


Thanks for taking the time to stop by today and hope you have a good week to come!

Hugs,
Connie

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Spring Blooms

Over at Power Poppy they are having a Color Cues challenge.  I used Marcella's Rose Digital for this challenge.  You have to use the colors Warm yellow, soft blue and bright green.  I went with a yellow rose, the leaves green and the shadow around it in the blue.


The sentiment came from another of her sets but this one is a clear stamp set that I have.

Power Poppy - Rose digital stamp, colored w/markers sentiment from Lavender stamp set
Spellbinders - Labels eight die
PPD - Stitched Curved Coved Rectangles die
Signature Collection - Homespun paper
Sequins

Well I planted some green pepper plants in my garden on Wednesday, then I decided to go ahead and plant all my seeds in my planters on my deck.  I planted Spinach, Romaine Lettuce and Beans.  We have had quite a bit of rain ever since, there has been some dry moments here and there, but a good amount of rain, I am just wondering what all that is going to do to my seeds, the pepper plants seem to look good for now.  We are supposed to get a break on Sunday and Monday, so hopefully they get some chance to dry out a little bit and get some good sun.

I hope you all are staying well and have a creative weekend!

Hugs,
Connie

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Triple Stamping

It was my turn this week to have the challenge in my stamp group and I saw This Card HERE and thought it was so pretty.  Now I have seen where you layering your papers on top of one another and stamp but never seen them offset like this and I just had to give it a try, and I finally got around to doing it last night. 


I forgot when stamping the dragonfly and sentiment with these leaves that I need to allow for the matting of each layer after stamping, so I barely got in the other side of the wings and my sentiment is right on the edge but I liked how it turned out.  Instead of doing a silhouette image I used one that I colored first and then did my ink shading afterwards.

Inkadinkado - Beauty stems from here stamp set, colored w/markers
Sentiment stamp unknown
Carta bella - Alphabet junction paper
Distress inks for shading - Old paper, antique linen and frayed burlap


I would like to try this again with a silhouette stamp too.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop in today,
Hugs,
Connie

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Super Hero in Scrubs

I want to give a big shout out to My Favorite Things for manufacturing these great stamps and to Torico for designing such great images and sentiments, so we can thank those in our lives that are super heroes in our eyes. For the month of April they have been so sweet to share these digital images for free, isn't that great of them!!

The Nurse Super Hero in my life is my great nephew, he graduated from Nursing school in Mid December, got a job at our hometown Hospital in Early January and was taken off of Orientation to the different areas and is working solely in the ICU now, quite a time to become a nurse.  I am so proud of him and was so thankful to have this digital stamp for a male nurse to let him know.


I colored him with markers and put him in a frame.  That sentiment comes as part of the digital images.  The dots along the edge came in white so I used the some ink to color them green as well as coloring the frame that was white. I added a little glaze to the stethoscope too.

My Favorite things - Super Hero in Scrubs Digi stamp, colored w/markers
Impression Obsession - Rectangle 6 in 1 frames die
Candi Minis - Icing sugar inked w/ peeled paint distress ink
Nuvo crystal glaze on Stethoscope



So thankful for all that our Nurses and doctors and those working on a vaccine are doing for all of us!

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

Connie

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Wood

Simon Says Blog has a challenge to use wood in any form on your card, with an option to use Tim Holtz products.  I just love his Funky Foliage dies and haven't used them enough :)  So I was happy to make a couple cards with this theme for our music leader at church and our behind the scenes guy that brings us the video every Sunday morning.


On my first card I used one of Tim's embossing folders that I swiped some ink over after embossing.  For the die cut items I cut them all out of white cardstock and then colored them up with my distress inks, I think I enjoy that more than cutting out all the small pieces from different cardstocks.  I added some of Tim's washi tape and a sentiment.

Tim Holtz - Woodgrain embossing folder, Sizzix - Funky Foliage dies, colored w/distress inks, tissue tape
Clearly Whimsy - Simple sentiments stamp



The second card I decided to frame my dies. I also used wood paper.


Tim holtz - Funky Foliage dies
Impression Obsession - Rectangle 6 in 1 frames die
Ms. Sparkle & co. - Wood paper
Crafter's companion - Thank you die
Jute


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

Hope you are all staying safe and well, I see a lot of governors are making the decision to open their states back up, I pray this is the right decision, I totally understand both sides of this but just pray that there isn't a huge break out of the virus again.

Hugs,
Connie

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Earth day challenge

In my card making group they have a new challenge to use recycled items on our cards.  Now I have used Tissue boxes before on my card and I have a few of them in my stash so I have used that as the base of my card.


For my flowers and leaves I was looking around at other things I have that I save that I think I may use on a card and I came across these safety seals on my big cans of cashews I buy, they are a textured foil, I decided to use my alcohol inks on them and then cut them out with my dies, for the centers I used card stock.

Here is the tin I used. Before it was inked.


Close up of the flowers



Tissue box
Spellbinders - Scalloped Square small die
Memory Box - Fabulous Phlox, cut from cashew safely foil with Alcohol inks to color it
Memory Box - So many things stamp set for sentiment
Ribbon off packaging
Gems

For my second card I used another portion of the tissue box, and added some different flowers



Tissue Box
Spellbinders - Carnation Creations dies, cut from cashew can tin, colored w/alcohol inks
Ms. Sparkle & co. - stamp sentiment
Gems
 Brad

Thanks so much for stopping by today, hope you are enjoying a nice weekend!

Hugs,
Connie

Friday, April 17, 2020

Blues

Since I am making a lot of cards to send to people in our church and am finding it tough to think of something new each day, if I can't find a challenge I like I have been challenging myself to use items from my box of unused goodies, those things that were meant for another card but didn't end up there.

These layering stamps that I did I just wasn't happy with the way they stamped out and the colors I used but I didn't throw them away, so today's challenge make them into a card.  I decided they needed a few more flowers to go with them so I just cut out some small ones out of pattern paper to go with them, shaping them with my stylus and mat,  adding a bit of sparkle to the centers.

I didn't want them all just floating in the air so I broke out my doily die and using more paper in my scraps pile cut out the doily.  I loved how this piece of pattern paper for the background had a little square at the top, thought that was a perfect place to stamp a sentiment, worked out perfectly!


I am glad I didn't throw away these flowers, I really liked how this card came together.

Hampton Art - Flower Amaze stamp set, big blue flowers
Sizzix- Tim Holtz - small tattered flowers
BasicGrey - Periphery paper
Rectangle die - Unknown
Prima - 8 point doily die
Stamps of life = Minis  4 circles sentiment stamp
Stickles - waterfall, centers for small flowers


We haven't been to any stores in 3 weeks, today it is time to get some more groceries, I have been hearing some horror stories about shopping so I am hoping that we have a good experience getting out and about.  Hope you are all doing well and staying safe,

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

Connie

Thursday, April 16, 2020

clean and simple

The challenge in our stamp group this week is clean and simple, not sure if my first one will qualify or not just because there wasn't a lot of white area, the flower takes up most of it, but I didn't add any extras to the card so to me that makes it simple :)


Both of these cards are going to people who have lost Aunt and Uncle at this time.  Not because of the virus, but still not to be able to have a normal funeral at this time is so sad to me.

Impression Obsession - Camellia Japonica, colored w/pencils
Hero Arts - Everyday sayings stamp

The second I went with a new embossing folder, I don't know if it was how thin my cardstock was that I used or the embossing folder wasn't that great but it didn't seem to make a very good impression and I even went over it again with a couple extra pieces of paper in my machine to make it a little tighter.


This one colored up real quick with markers. Probably the fastest card I have made in awhile.

Pink Petticoat - Pretty Potties stamp set, colored w/markers
Recollections - Frame embossing folder


I hope you are all staying well and can find some time to be creative!

Thanks so much for stopping by today,
Hugs,
Connie

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Ribbons

A little while back my cardmaking group had a challenge to use ribbon on our cards, now I have not been a big user of ribbon on my cards and at the time I couldn't think of anything, well the other day I was making up some die cut layering flowers and I after I went over to my ribbon drawer to look for something and saw this ribbon I had purchased a few years ago on one of our trips, I had no idea what I would use it for but I just loved it so I picked it up, well I thought it went really well with the colors I had used on my flower so I tried to figure out a way I could use them together and this is what I came up with :)


The ribbon has that vintage feel to it so I tried to find some papers with a vintage feel to it also. To make my flower I inked up white cardstock with inks in 3 different colors before cutting the pieces out.

Gemini Elements - Peony die with Altenew  Red Cosmos and Spring bouquet inks
DCWV - Rustic paper
Ribbon
Our Daily Bread designs - Hello die



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

Stay safe and well,

Connie

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Easter Blessings

HE IS RISEN....HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Although every day we celebrate our risen Lord, today is the day we come together as a world to celebrate that day many years ago when the ladies went to the tomb and found it was empty, it must have been a scary moment but lead to such overwhelming joy for years since and years to come. Jesus conquered sin and death for us! May we never take it for granted, and be thankful every day!

I know it is hard this year not to be able to celebrate with our church family in person but there are so many on line church services out there. If you don't have a church of your own my church is at BFCN.org or you can watch it on Facebook live at Belleville First Church of the Nazarene.  Even though we can't be with extended family and friends today, one thing is we always have Jesus, he would love to celebrate with you!

I have one last  card today to share.  I wanted more than just one flower that this stamp had, so I first stamped the center one on the card base and then onto a sticky note, cut it out and laid it over my first flower so that I would have a mask, now I was able to stamp the two on either side.


Holly Berry House - Daffodil stamp, masked and stamped 3 times, colored/wmarkers
Spellbinders - A2 matting basics B
Sassafras - Mix and mend paper
Mama Elephant - Blessed sentiment stamp
Wink of stella -  clear glitter pen on stamens

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Hugs,
Connie

Saturday, April 11, 2020

Partial Stamping

In my stamp group this week the challenge was to do partial stamping on a background we had in our stash, this was from another challenge we had in the group but I really couldn't say what that was.  I decided to use colors that were close to ones in the background already, I picked this one because there were spring colors in it.  I dug out a stamp set that has a bunch of different background type stamps in it. 


Glitz designs - Distressing stamps
Lawn Fawn - Fancy Scalloped Rectangle die
Wendy Vecchi- Bravo stamp set, colored w/markers
The Greetery - Thinking of you stamp set

You can see a little better in the closeup some of the stamps I used:
Stripes, Music, Text and flowers
I also used some other flowers and leaves behind the flower with the Wendy Vecchi stamp set



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

Connie

Friday, April 10, 2020

Good Friday

As I woke up this morning, I thought what day is it, and remembered today is Good Friday.  I am in Awe of this day, I have been ever since a little girl in our church going to the Good Friday service, it just touches me so to know that Jesus came down to this world with all it's sin and hurt and lived a life to show us how we should be living our lives. Since we are sinful people there is nothing that we could ever do to deserve an eternal life with God in Heaven, so Jesus gave himself for us by dying on that cross for our sins, can you imagine a more wonderful gift.  I always feel like there should be more on my part to give back for such an amazing thing. All God asks from us to believe in him.

By our believing in him as our Savior, then comes out of that a love for our neighbors, as he showed so many times in the his lifetime.  We are seeing examples of that over and over again these days, we have noticed on our walks around our neighborhood more people are taking out the time to actually wave hello to each other and smile, this virus is slowing us down and allowing us to appreciate all the gifts of this life that comes from God.  I pray all this continues when this is all over and we go back to "normal" life.

I have another card today to share last week when our group had that Ombre challenge, I did this watercolor background and I had forgotten about it, I paired it with a branch and one of the birds I had stamped earlier.


I used just one color of green for the watercoloring and tried to go lighter as I went up. The branch was done by sponging on ink.  Adding a few nuvo drops.

Watercolor ombre background
Memory Box - Fresh Foliage die
The Greetery - Robin and Wren stamp set
SRM - thinking of you sticker
Nuvo - Carnation pink drops



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

Hugs,
Connie

Thursday, April 9, 2020

On my mind

As I continue to make cards for friends and family at this time, I am finding it hard to think of what I want to do, so I have made myself go to my basket of stashed goodies to see if I get any inspiration there, and this card just seemed to flow together.  I had stamped these roses and leaves awhile back and just wasn't sure I was happy with them so into my stash folder they went.  The background is one that I had done in my stamp group awhile ago and never used.  The vellum piece was in there too, too small to put back with the vellum so I grabbed that and decided to die cut that piece, then I started arranging the flowers and leaves, looked back and thought this might just work, added them to the background and all was good.  I almost wish now I would have left off the butterfly stickers seeing it on this photo but before I sent it I thought it looked good.


Altenew - Vintage Roses stamp set
Spellbinders - Labels 20 die
Fiskars vellum
Lawn Fawn - Fancy Scalloped Rectangles die
The Greetery - Sentiment Suite: Thinking of you sentiment stamp
Hot off the press - butterfly dazzles


Thank you for stopping by today,
Connie

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Spring Squirrel

Ok I know there isn't much different from a winter squirrel to a spring squirrel but I am running out of things to name my posts, LOL!

This little guy is from the same stamp set that the owl I did recently.  This is for another older gentleman in our church that lives alone.  I colored him up and decided to make a little scene using some papers from my stash, when I was putting it together the little stump of the tree looked so lonely, I went back to the stamp set and saw these little mushrooms and thought they would be cute to put with it, so I colored those up too and cut everything out.  I layered a couple pieces of stamped grass border, and some punched clouds and finished it off with my sentiment.



Cardmaking and Papercraft - Autumn wonder stamp set, colored w/markers, fussy cut
Fiskars - Border punch grass and cloud punch
The Greetery - Sentiment Suite: Thinking of you stamp
Papers from my scraps pile


We have enjoyed a couple days of Sun and temps in the 80's, tomorrow it is back to the 50's and some rain but I am thankful for the days that are so beautiful, like I hope that when this virus thing is all over with we can be thankful for all that we have and can do.

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

HUGS,
Connie

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Easter Wreath

I was going through my stamps for another Easter card and I remembered I had some of these watercolor panels with images already on them from Taylored Expressions, so I picked this pretty wreath. I colored it with markers and added a little flower border to go with it.


I added a few gems to it and then some dots with my fine point sharpie.

Taylored Expressions - 3x4 watercolor Panels, Easter, colored w/markers
Graphic 45 Botanical Tea paper
Martha Stewart - Border punch
Me & My big ideas - purple gems


Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and say Hi,
Hope you are staying well,
Hugs,
Connie

Sunday, April 5, 2020

Turtle Fun

One of my online cardmaking friends of about 15 years has asked that a few of us girls could make her granddaughters birthday special by making her a card for her birthday, she is turning 9.  You know I like to try and make cards for the person so I asked what she likes and she said she likes turtles and the color blue.  I thought oh my I don't have any turtles that I know of, then I thought of my coloring calendar images and so I started looking through them and guess what I found.  I googled turtles and actually found one that had blue in it, so I colored this little guy up like him.


I tried the Ombre' coloring of the background with this one too to make the water, and added a few white gel pen for some waves.  The image was fussy cut so that you could see the ocean through all that coral.

Coloring for Calm 2017 calendar image, colored w/markers and fussy cut
Distress ink background
White gel pen


Hope you all were able to enjoy a lovely Palm Sunday as we get ready for the week ahead!

Take care and stay safe,

Hugs,
Connie

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Blessed Easter

I just love the combo of Purple and Yellow for Easter and Spring cards.  When I was trying to decide what to do for my daughters Easter card, I saw this challenge over at Time out challenge to use Purple, and I thought well here is my chance to figure out what I want to do with purple and I went with cutting a cross out of my purple metallic paper and I was trying to find some small stamped flowers to put with it and I just couldn't find anything I liked when I remembered my Tim Holtz botanical Ephemera, and I found just the one to go with it.

  I was thinking it looked a bit plain but I didn't want to do a splatter on the background so I decided to add them myself directly from the sparkle pen and I wish I would have just covered the cross and flowers now and splattered it on, things we learn when creating.


Tim Holtz - Botanical layers, emphemera
Spellbinders - Labels 29 and Cross collection dies
Ms. Sparkle & co.- Watercolor paper
Mama Elephant - Blessed sentiment stamp
DCWV - Metallic paper for cross
Spectrum noir - Sunshine yellow sparkle pen




Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,
Wishing you all well physically and mentally as we take this journey together!

Connie

Friday, April 3, 2020

Ombre'

In our stamp group we have a new challenge for this week and it is using the Ombre' technique of going from light to dark in color, I have done a few backgrounds now to make them into cards :) 

My first will be going to one of the guys in our church that is helping with getting the church service to us every week.

I started with yellows for my background, I tried blending them with the blending brushes, I still can't get the hang of using them, but it turned out ok, then I took my stamp and stamped in different shades of green , both going from my dark at the bottom to light at the top.


Hero Arts - Leaf Cluster stamp
Altenew - Fall Harvest inks and Spring bouquet inks
Stamp in up- Enamel shapes
Hot off the press - 130 tiny words and phrases stickers, colored w/markers

Thanks for stopping by today!
Stay safe at home!

Connie

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Hello

Sharing a card today I made for an older gentlemen in our church that lives by himself. 
This is from a stamp set that came with a cardmaking magazine, it has great images for masculine cards. I colored him up with markers and added a strip that was embossed with a folder that also came with this set.  The background is from a bag from a shop we went to while on vacation, had to save it and finally using it :)


Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine - Autumn wonder stamp set, colored w/markers and embossing folder, inked with gathered twig and embossed
Spellbinders - Labels 37 die
Hot off the press - 130 tiny words and phrases sentiment sticker, colored w/markers
Paper bag background

I hope you are all staying well!

Connie