Sparkling ornaments

 Do you remember this post where I used plastic wrap to make the backgrounds?  I showed both backgrounds and the red one was kind of messed up when I pulled the plastic wrap off, I decided that they would make lovely ornaments so I went about cutting a couple out, at first I was going to make two cards out of them but when I put them together on the card I liked that look so I went with both of them on one card.

I added a few sticker snowflakes I had to decorate the ornaments. A little inking on the pine branch, cut the tops and the hangers with metallic card stock.

Plastic wrap technique for ornaments using Luminarte Polished Pigments- Cranberry, Passion and Garnet, sprayed with Glimmer mist in Pearl
Dreamweaver stencils - Nested Ornament die
Memory box - Ornament Caps and Hooks dies
Tim Holtz - Metallic card stock
Stampendous - Snowflakes Holograph stickers
Anna Griffin - Christmas card stock and paper edged with Pilot - Silver marker around paper
Simon Says - Tiny words Christmas stamp sentiment

I am kind of bummed I only managed to get 2 cards for Christmas finished this month, but better than nothing I keep telling myself :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, Have a wonderful week,

Connie

Faux Watercolor

 The challenge this week in our stamp group was to use a watercolor with a twist, well as I went back and read it I don't think I did it correctly but this is my outcome.

We were to lightly mist our water color paper with water, stamp our solid stamp and then as it dries stamp it again, well I did the first part correctly but my second stamping was with the outline stamp.

I am also sharing this with the Sisterhood of crafters blog where the challenge was to use our senitment as the focal point.

W Plus 9 - Pretty Peonies stamp set w/Distress inks
Worn Lipstick, Fired brick, Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar, Fossilized Amber, Cracked Pistachio, mowed lawn, bundled sage, peeled paint, tumbled glass, faded jeans, gathered twigs and Distress Oxide - Scattered Straw
Lawn Fawn - Fancy Scalloped rectangles die
Spellbinders - Fancy framed tags one die
Gemini - sentiment die
Vellum
Bazzill - Brads
Sequins

It was interesting how some inks seemed to wash out more than others and I noticed I had to keep misting my paper in order for there to be enough for the inks to spread out, but it was a fun way to stamp.

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

Connie

Use a picture

 Our last challenge in the group! I made it just in time, I had to get ink for my printer the only color I had in there was black.  We were to use one of our own photo's on a card.  I love these challenges because they push me to try things that I have been wanting and meaning to do but never got around to it.  My hubby's hobby is to take pictures, hopefully it will make us money when he retires.  When we go places on our vacations it revolves around taking pictures, mostly of nature.  I have his old camera so we do it together and so I went searching through my photo's to find one that I thought I could add some of my die cuts to enhance the scene a bit, and came across this one I took on our trip last year to Minnesota.

 I added a deer taking a drink out of the creek and a couple more pine trees. Since this is a 4x6 photo I didn't have a die quite the right size to frame it so I pulled out my decorative scissors, you know those things we used before punches and dies came out :)

My Photo, framed with black card stock cut from provocraft decorative scissor
DCWV - Old world paperImpression Obsession - small deer die
Frantic Stamper - Oregon Fir and small Oregon fir dies
Momento - cardstock for trees
Fiskar - sentiment stamp

It was kind of hard to get a close up of the picture without a glare since I printed it on glossy cardstock.

Thanks so much Diane for sharing how to keep my supply list together instead of  adding spaces, it Worked!!!!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and hope you enjoy a nice weekend!

Connie

Posy

 Keeping with a flower theme :)  I purchased this stamp and die set of layering stamps not to long ago and I sat down one afternoon and just stamped and cut a few flowers.  My stamp store has gone out of business but one of the times I went in there I came across this bag of Ephemera and thought it would be nice for some quicker cards, and the tag with the printed flowers is one of them.  

I added some punched leaves that I put some veins in them with my stylus and a mat.  Also some punched flowers molded with stylus and my mat, finished off by adding the sentiment and corner die.

• Carta Bella - Farmhouse Market Ephemera (tag)
• Gemini - Perfect posy layering stamp and die set
• Martha Stewart - Leaf punch 
• Spellbinders - A2 Distressed edges die
• Kaisercraft - Sweet pea paper
• Gina K - Sentiment stamp
• EK success - Flower punch
• Stickles - Diamond (flower center)
• Gemini - Opulent Swirls (corner die)

Diane let me know in the comments yesterday how to take away the double lines in the formatting but it didn't work for me, Thanks for the try Diane :)

Thanks so much for stopping by and continued prayers for all those in harms way, because of fires and hurricane and remnants from it!

Connie

Cherry Blossoms

 Ok I know it isn't spring time, but I meant to use this in the spring time and totally forgot about it, and thought it may still work for a summer time card.  When I was out the other day there were some trees in the parking lot of the shopping center that had flowers on them and so I am sure anyone would enjoy a flowering tree right now :)

I did a little inking of the center of the flowers and then added some pen dots for the centers.  I didn't want to go to over board on the flowers but didn't like the empty spaces so much so added some enamel accents in white to the branches.

• Spellbinders - Cherry Blossom die
• Distress ink - Spun Sugar
• Scalloped Rectangle die
• Memento Cardstock paper
• Stamps of Life - Minis 4 circles sentiment stamp and stamped scallop
• EK Success - Circle punch
• Enamel Accents - white

We are still in our heat wave of in the 100's with heat index but we are told this weekend we will get some relief, can't wait!!

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

Connie

Masculine

 The next challenge for this week, make a masculine card with a calendar with month on it.  I went to Print-a-calendar.com and was able to print off the whole years calendars in small enough that it would work for a card. I cut out the month I wanted it and circled his birthday. Got it done just in time to get it out in the mail :)

I went through all my stamps and found one that I thought could go with the calendar and I stamped a birthday message on it. Sorry I don't know the maker of this stamp.

This is my first time using this embossing folder for the background too, I just embossed it and then inked over the raised area. I cut the stamp piece out with scissors and matted the calendar onto some black cardstock. Added a few metal accents and that was it.

• Spellbinders - Laser beams embossing folder, inked raised areas with brown ink
• Print-a-calendar.com for calendar
• Stamp unknown
• Decorative Scissors
• Ki - metal accents

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

Connie

Banner Pop up card

 Last week of our cardmaking groups challenges, today's is a Banner pop up card.

I used one of Power poppy digital sets, so I will be adding this to their Keep it simple Challenge .

This was a freebie offered awhile ago. Marcella is still having a great sale on her digital stamps so I would run over and check that out.

I also would like to link it with Double D Challenge of Sunflowers 

• Power Poppy - digital stamp, colored w/markers
• Memory Box - Stitched Rectangle Layer die
• Inside - Hot off the press - Song birds stamp set, colored w/markers

I have only bought this set of markers from Altenew but so far I really like the way they blend.  I had to also use my Spectrum markers for the brown center of the flower as the set of markers I bought were, oranges, greens and grays.

Hope your week is starting out well. Continued prayers for those battling fires and those in the path of the hurricanes coming.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Plastic Wrap Challenge

It was my turn this week in our stamp group to host the challenge and I saw this technique on Pinterest and thought it gave a very interesting look to the background.  The first ones I made didn't turn out as well so this was try #2.

If you want to give this a try you can find the details HERE .

When I tore off the plastic wrap to this one I thought oh wow that would make a neat night time scene.

I am also using this card for the Memory Box Challenge which is Happy Holidays.

• Background - H2O's - Blue Flame, Majestic Blue and Sunburst, then sprayed w/ Pearl Glimmer mist
• Memory Box - Grand Forest Archway, Small Forest Archway and Valley Deer Trio dies
• Marvy - Snow marker for trees
• Flower soft - Polar white for ground

When pulling off the plastic to my second base I ripped some of the paper so I will probably just use sections of the red one for die cutting instead of a background.

You can really see the glimmer that the backgrounds have in them, it is neat to move the card back and forth and get such pretty shimmer.

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

Connie

Relaxing

 I believe when I have colored this stamp in the past I have done it with colored pencils and markers, this time I tried my hand at water coloring it.  I used a combination of three different products to get all the colors I needed but I think it came together pretty good.

• Northwoods Rubber stamp 2010, colored with Daniel Smith watercolor paints, Spectrum Aqua markers and Zig clean color markers
• Spellbinders - A2 Distressed Edges die
• Distress ink - Old Paper ink
• Corner tabs
• Watercolor paper

I love combining the distressed die with old paper ink, and using the corner tabs give it that look of an old photo.

I want to share my card today with the Sisterhood of Crafters Blog Challenge which is Masculine, I have a lot of masculine birthdays coming up the next two months.

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

Connie

Ribbons

 The next challenge in my card making group was to use ribbons on our card. This is a good challenge for me because I tend to forget to go to my ribbons when making a card.

I had this pretty paper my sister in law gave me that would work good for a scrapbook page but not so much for a card until the slimline cards became popular again.  I thought this would be the perfect image to use for this challenge as I added borders to it using ribbons and then tied a bow to go with the pretty flower on the paper.

I also added a sentiment tag with my ribbon and some liquid pearls.

• Paper unknown
• Offray and A touch of ribbon
• Martha Stewart punch tag
• Our Daily Bread design - mini tag sentiment stamp
• Liquid Pearls - Chestnut

Quick card but loved how it turned out!

Connie

Inchies

 The next challenge in my card making group this week is to use inchies on your card 1x1 inch pieces of art :)

• Inkadinkado - Flower garden stamp set
• My mind's eye - Quite contrary paper
• Marvy - Square punch
• Spellbinders - Long classic rectangle small
• Tag from my scraps pile
• Basic Grey - Brad
• Clearly Whimsy stamps - Simple sentiment

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Thanks for stopping by,

Connie

Two Ways

 I am starting on the challenges for next week in my card making group. This one I am sharing today is using one stamp two different ways in two different cards.

I chose the butterfly as my same stamp.

On the first I used it as part of my wreath.

• Gina K wreath builder stencil
•  stamps unknown
• Memory Box - Butterfly delight die
• Liquid pearls - Chestnut

On the second card I used it as a compliment to the flower, now I am not sure what this flower is supposed to be, but it reminded me of a bleeding heart.  

• Stamps - Unknown, inks for stamping and flower colored w/markers
• Memory Box - Stitched Rectangle Layers die
• Tim Holtz - Rose design tape
• Spectrum noir - Clear sparkle pen

I added sparkle to the word sweet, butterfly and flower, but this is the only picture I took that really let it show up.

I am sharing my last card with the Flower Challenge Blog the challenge is to add sparkle.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying the end of the weekend.

Connie

Fall Tag

 The last challenge this week in my cardmaking group was to make a Halloween or Fall tag.  Well I usually don't make too much Halloween stuff anymore, so I went with Fall.  I also don't use tags that often so I am sure this will be going on a card this Thanksgiving :)

• Poppystamps - PinPoint Main Street tags
• Art Impressions - Filled with thanks stamp, colored w/Zig clean color and Spectrum Aqua Markers on water color paper
• PPD - Mini Stitched Square die
• Taylored Expressions - Mini leaves die cut, cut from Brusho background
• Our Daily Bread designs - Mini tag sentiments
• Ribbon
• Twine

I still had a piece of background I had made from Brusho powders and I used that to die cut my leaf, I am going to make another background just to cut Autumn leaves from, love having that on hand.

Hope you are all doing well and enjoy your weekend ahead!

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

Connie

Paint and embossing

 In my stamp group this week the challenge was to use a brayer and add paint to the flat side of the embossing folder so the color would be in the background, much like I have done with inks in the past.  I had never tried that before and I will say I probably will never do so again, LOL!

I was not really happy with my outcome, had to throw the first one away because I had too little paint on it. This attempt I went with just because I wasn't in the mood for all the clean up that is involved. But I know there are those of you that don't mind getting messing and like working with paints and such so I thought I would share here just incase you would like to give it a try. 

We were to use at least two paints on the folder and I went with a yellow and green, brayerd the green over the leaves area and the yellow onto the empty area.  

You can see in this next picture is what it looked like coming out of the embossing folder, I had a lot of areas around the leaves that were white and I just didn't like that, so I took a bit of the paint with my paint brush and filled in the spots.  I still didn't care for the leaves and all that to be white so I decided to use some rub on metallic to go over the birds and branches.  Still not sure what I think about it.

Recollections - Bird on branch embossing folder

Ranger Acrylic paint - Adirondack, Lettuce

Ranger Acrylic paint - Jenni Bowlin - Lemon drops

Craf-T - Metallic rubons

Hero Arts - Everyday sayings sentiment stamp

Studio G - gems

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and have a great day!

Connie

Butterflies

 For the challenge over at Double D Challenge blog it was to use butterflies, this is my biggest butterfly punch so I went with that, had to dress it up a bit with some pearls of course :)

For my background I used a sheet from a pad that already has foiling and embossing, all you do is add the color, and I used a few different inks that I watered down on my mat and did a bit of smooshing to blend them. The tag is the same way and comes from a package of tags.  Instead of just having a rectangle piece I cut the whole background with a die to give it a bit more interest.

Spectrum Noir - Happily Ever After, Foil and Gloss resist paper & tag, colored w/smooshed inks

Martha Stewart - Butterfly punch

Spellbinder -  Labels 29 die

Paper Studio - pearls

I popped up the tag to give a bit more dimension.

Thanks so much for taking the time to pop in today, I appreciate it!

Connie

Birthday Bird

 I broke out my coloring calendar images again, this little bird is too cute, sending love to my great niece.

I believe this is the first time I used this cloud embossing folder, I really liked how the clouds were arranged on this folder. I inked the back of the folder with blue so the clouds would stand out a bit more. Had to add a die cut branch for him to perch on :)

Coloring for calm calendar 2017 - colored w/markers

Parklane - Cloud embossing folder, inked w/blue

Sizzix - small tattered florals die for branch and leaves

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

Connie

Positive Affirmation

 Still going with the challenges in our cardmaking group this week and this one was to follow a sketch she shared and she also wanted a positive affirmation for our sentiment. This one is going to a cat lover :)

• Whimsy stamps - Cat stop thinking about you stamp set, colored w/markers
• Crate Paper - DIY shop
• Recollections - Fabric Tape
• Nuvo - Pale gold dots on pattern paper

I added a few dots of Nuvo drops on the bottom pattern paper.

I wanted to thank all those that had suggestions for listing my products all together.  Using the bullets list did look like it was going to keep them together as I wrote it up but after publishing it they are separated again, so I just don't know. Maybe that is something they will fix in the future.

Another hot one today, heat index still in the 100's.  Hope you are enjoying the start to your week/

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

Connie

Make a Frame

 This coming week I am hosting a challenge in our cardmaking group and I have seen so many stamp sets that frame a card and then you can add a sentiment inside or what ever you chose.  I thought I have so many stamps that I could do my own instead of buying another stamp. So I am challenging my group to get out our stamps and make a frame for a sentiment. I am asking them to use at least 4 different stamps.

Unity Stamp- Insightful meadows stamp

Paper Smooches - Happy Birthday sentiment stamp

Inkadinkado - Garden Delight stamp set

Papertrey Ink - Meadow greens

Recollections - Stamp set (bees)

Stickles- Diamond (bees wings)

Here are the stamps I used

Just imagine all the themes you could do too :)

I have a question for you all on this new blogger I can't seem to keep all the list of my supplies together anymore when I hit return it automatically gives me an extra line between and I don't want that, can't figure out how to have it not give me an extra space in between.

The heat is coming back we are already in the 80's this morning.

Hope your weekend is off to a good start.

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

Connie

Generation Stamping

 In my stamp group the challenge this week is Generation stamping.  You stamp three times with the same stamp without reinking the stamp, so your image gets lighter as you go.  I was in need of another sympathy card and I thought this image might be pretty to stamp for it but trying to figure out the best way to use it and came up with this idea, very different for me but I liked the end results.

Unity Stamp- Flower of fall stamp- stamped three times without reinking

Distress Oxide - Ground Expresso ink

Sweetnsassy - Jesus Cares stamp set

Distress ink - Old paper

I like this verse from the bible for a Christian sympathy card because knowing that our love one is free from pain and living once again with our Lord and Savior brings much peace, it is still sad not to have them in our lives anymore but knowing that they are in a wonderful place now eases that sadness.

I did a little bit of sponging around the images and outside of the card.

I hope you enjoy a great weekend, the heat and humidity hits us once again this weekend with heat index in the 100's but I sure did enjoy our little bit of relief we have had this past week :)

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

Connie

Stencils

The last challenge for this week in my cardmaking group was to use two stencils on a card.  First thing I thought of was this flower stencil that came from a card making magazine but I forgot to write on it which one. Now to figure out what stencil I could use for the background, I found a little 3x3 inch dotted stencil, so I had to line it up and go across and down with it, trying not to stencil on my flower or leaves, when doing the flower I went from dark to very light with my inks so it was hard to see any of the light pink through the little holes on the stencil.

Floral Blooms stencil

American Crafts - Moxy stencil set (dots)

Distress inks - Victorian Velvet, Worn Lipstick, fired brick, Peeled paint, crushed Olive

Words to the rescue - Get well sentiment stamp

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

Connie

Summer flowers

I decided to go to my coloring calendar images once again to see if there were any flowers I could color and I came across this flower and it just brought  smile to my face, that let me know that was the one to color  :)

Coloring for calm 2017 daily calendar- Colored w.markers

Crate Paper - DIY shop paper

Kraft paper

Pink Fresh - classic edgers die

My Favorite things - More Essentials sentiments stamp

I never thought I would find a use for this pattern paper, but when I was looking for paper to go with my flower and I laid it against this piece I thought it gave the card a vintage feel.

Prayers go out to all those that were effected by the Hurricane and the resulting Tornadoes, flooding and power outages.

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

Connie

Spotlight technique

It is the 5th Anniversary of our cardmaking group and for the month of August we will be doing 3 challenges a week to celebrate.

My first card is using the spotlight technique, so many stamps to chose from but I went with this wishing well, I liked the thought of spotlighting the top of the well and adding a birthday wishes sentiment to it for my girlfriend.

Trying new paper to color on with my pencils, I had cut out the image before I started coloring and when I popped it back in after coloring I thought oh wow that doesn't show up as nicely as I had hoped, instead of throwing it all away and starting over with white card stock I decided to go ahead and mat the image and the background with bright yellow paper to give it a pop of brightness!

Stampendous - Wishing Well stamp, colored w/pencils

Gemini - Torn edge circle die

g.c.d. - Melody Ross collection papers

Simon Says stamps - Tiny words Birthday sentiment stamp

Another gorgeous day, I just love having the doors open and having fresh air in the house!

Hope you all are having a great start to your week!

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

Connie

Stamp & Watercolor

The challenge this past week in my stamp group was to Stamp a card using Distress inks and then using a paint brush to color it in.  On my first card I am afraid that my brush had to much water in it, but I thought it still turned out ok so I went with it.  

I had a need for two sympathy cards this week so I used this challenge for them.

Penny Black - Effulgent stamp w/ Candied apple, festive berries Distress inks and Brushed Corduroy distress marker and Tombow 992 marker for stem

Hero Arts - Everyday sayings stamp 

Watercolor paper

I think you can see more of the details in this one because the stamp set was not totally solid.

Hero Arts - Real Flowers stamp, w/Milled Lavender, shadded lilac, Brushed corduroy and forest moss Distress inks

Hero Arts - Everyday sayings sentiment stamp

Watercolor paper 

We are having lower than normal temperatures right now, todays high in the low 70's, after feels like temps of the 100's this is amazing, such a difference.

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

Connie