Masculine

 A couple months ago I picked up this Magazine at Barnes and Noble with these masculine themed papers and images (card toppers).  I just mounted the image onto a die cut that I cut from one of the papers in the pack and added some Liquid pearls in the corners. It is always interesting trying to get pictures with all these cards with foil on them.

Papercraft Essentials Magazine - Highland Collection, papers and card toppers
Spellbinders - Labels 37 die
Liquid pearls

I can see me using this set throughout the winter season for masculine cards :)

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

Connie

Mosaic Candle

 I have seen many people coloring on their embossing folders and then I remembered I tried that with this folder last year but this year I went with using my Spectrum noir sparkle pens.

• Darice - Mosaic Candle cut from watercolor paper, colored w/Spectrum noir sparkle pens

You can see a little of the sparkle in the picture below.

It is supposed to be very cold tomorrow, high winds with wind chill in the 20's so tomorrow is going to be an indoor day I have a feeling :)  Maybe should start addressing my Christmas cards :)

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

Connie

Stencil

 In our last zoom meeting we did a card using a new technique to me and I totally forgot to share it with you, we also made a tea holder for gift giving but I haven't done anything with it.

In this technique we were to lay down a colorful background using different color inks. Then take a stencil and apply black ink over that, I really love the way it turned out.  For the card shape we score the front panel of the card again, sorry I don't remember the amount and I have already sent the card out, but I think it was an inch, glue that portion down, when it is opened you have a smaller place inside to write, gives it a interesting shape from the normal card, we glued a coordinating cardstock panel to the piece that was glued down and the stencil piece goes on the other side. Added a ribbon and bow to the side panel and then we were to decorate it anyway we wanted. I went for some small butterflies because I didn't want something too big to take away from the panel.

Tim Holtz - Doily Layering stencil, dye inks on background using black ink through the stencil
Simon Says Stamps - Tiny words Birthday sentiment stamp
Ribbon
Martha Stewart - Butterfly punch
Gems

The outside is decorated with at least the lights that were still working, ugggh!! And the tree is up and partially decorated, so far so good our cat has decided not to bother with it so that makes this momma happy :)

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

Hope you have a great weekend!

Connie

Sending Love

 One of the girls in my cardmaking group sent me a few backgrounds awhile ago.  Every now and then I try to break up where I get my goodies that I am using from, sometimes I look into my not used basket, or my coloring images, or the way too many cardmaking magazines I have and the other place is the little extras that I get when a fellow cardmaker has sent me a card and that is what I used today.  It looks to me like she did some Alcohol ink background and then embossed it, I thought it would work great for another Autumn birthday, so I paired it with my layered flower die and to tone down the metallic I added some lace, what do you think of combining the two? It was white lace but too me was a little too white so I sponged some brown ink over top.

I was a little disappointed in the tag, after I had stamped it I could read it very well, but by the time I went to take a picture of it I noticed that it had lightened up quite a bit.  I could read it ok in person but it looks even lighter in the picture, hopefully my niece will be able to read it :)

Embossed background from friend
Gemini - Dahlia die (flower and leaf)
Lace - sponged ink over it to dull it out a bit
Papercraft Inspiration magazine - Greetings stamp and tag set

I am in head for a busy day, I have to take down all my Autumn decorations, dust and sweep, then put up Christmas, I have a feeling it won't all get done today as it is nice weather today so we have decided to put up all the outdoor lights too.  Have you started your Christmas decorating yet?

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

Connie

Happy Thanksgiving

 A very Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends. But to you all I want to say how thankful I am for the friendships I have made through my blog, and how that has helped me get through this crazy year we have had. I wish you all  a day that you can reflect on all the things you are thankful for.

I have shared this tag with you already when I made it for a challenge but I decided I liked it so much that I wanted to give it in a card, so I thought I would share how I used it on this card.

Thank you for the encouragement with your sweet comments and as always I am so thankful for the time you take to stop by and say Hi,

Hugs,

Connie

Seven

 My great nephew is turning 7 this year and I was looking through my stamps and just didn't see anything that stood out to me to use for his card, and then I remembered one of my coloring calendar image had these dragons on them and that reminded me that his costume this year for Halloween was a knight riding a dragon, so I thought he might think this is pretty cool.  

Do you see the dragon holding that little slip of paper?  I decided to write his age on it. I used my pencils to color this in, I keep forgetting to try out my blending stump on these pages I will have to do when again soon and try to remember to blend the coloring better.

Johanna Basford 2020 coloring calendar, colored w/pencils
Fiskars - Grass punch
#7 added to the paper for the age of my great nephew

I can imagine how busy you all are here in the U.S. getting ready for Thanksgiving, even though it is just the two of us we are making the normal thanksgiving meal. So I appreciate you stopping by today.

Connie

Refuge

 I love this verse from the bible. I am hoping it will bring peace to an older gentlemen that use to attend our church, until he and his wife needed to go to a nursing home. It took them a few months but they were finally able to be together in one room, I know he will miss his companion for life, as she has passed on to be with our Lord. This image and verse are from the Psalms in Color series of coloring cards. I went with Autumn colors.

Christian Art Gifts - Psalms in color, colored w/markers
Ms. Sparkle & co. - Fall paper
Spellbinders - Candlewick Rectangles die

I certainly hope this is the last sympathy card I have to make in some time, there has been 3 in the past month and that is more than enough.

Wishing you and yours good health!

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

Connie

snow

Our challenge this week in my cardmaking group was to make a card with snow on it.  I found these coloring activity books in the front section of Target, they are meant for kids but when I was going through I thought they would make some quick coloring for Christmas cards.

The first one I did was these penguins, a friend loves them so it will be going to her :)

 I added some stickles to the igloo lines and the snow mound by the trees. The rest just colored with markers.

The second card the snowman was standing on an igloo and I didn't care for that so I just cut that part off and too hide where the igloo touched the snowman I just cut a snow mound with my scalloped scissor. I added some faux stitching around the sides of the image and diamond stickles for the snow falling and along my snow mound.

I realized I never put a sentiment on either one of these, wow I was in a hurry. Times getting close.

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

Connie

Birdie

 This little birdhouse and bird die came from the Gemini advent calendar I bought off of HSN. First time using it and it is just too cute, I cut both the house and bird out of some scraps of watercolor paper I had, and just added a bit of brown ink to both, the wreath was also a die from that same set.  

The paper had this great image at the bottom all I had to do was add a stamped sentiment to that circle, and decided to use the heart in the center of the house for a little accent on the card. Used some nuvo drops to add some berries around the wreath.

Gemini - Wreath, bird and house dies
My Mind's Eye - the sweetest thing paper
Ranger - black enamel accents for bird eye
Stamps of Life - minis4circles sentiment stamp
Nuvo crystal drops - Autumn red

These dies are so small but as you can see in the photo above they have great detail to them.

I have already purchased the advent calendar for this Christmas, it is supposed to have matching stamps and dies so can't wait to start opening them on December 1st, yes I have been waiting since October when I bought them, I do have patience for some things, LOL!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend, our Saturday and Sunday looks to have a bit of rain, but that's ok I have plenty I need to catch up on doing in the house.

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

Connie

Magical Day

 My great niece is turning 3, I thought a unicorn and fairy would be a good theme for the day! She has red hair so I had to have the fairy have red hair too.  Added a bit of sparkle to the unicorn after coloring with markers. A piece of washi tape was used to grown them.

Hero Arts - CL392, colored w/markers
K&co. - Classic Basics paper
PPD - Stitched curvy coved rectangle die
Spellbinders - Ribbon banners die
Spare parts - Washi tape
Stampin up - enamel shapes

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

Connie

Cupcake Time

 I thought this cupcake stamp had a nice elegant feel to them with the frosting looking like flowers.  I decided to try my hand once again at no line coloring, I stamped it first with a soft brown ink and then colored with my alcohol markers, I think it is getting a little better but still needs more practice. I added a few white gel pen dots to the center of my flowers.

Precious Marieke - Flower collection, PMCS10011, colored w/markers
My Minds Eye - the sweetest thing papers
Pink Fresh - Classic edger's die
Technique Tuesday - Happy Birthday sentiment stamp set
Sparkle Confetti

White gel pen

I will be sharing my card today over at the Flower Challenge Blog, where the challenge is to use a sentiment along with your flowers.

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

Connie

Prayers

 There has been another death, our friend has lost his Dad. Because all his sisters and brothers live all over the country and the traveling with Covid problems they have decided not to have a funeral for him,  that is so sad to me, I know how much he loved his dad and so many prayers are going his way as he gets through this time of loss.

The dry embossing was done on foil cardstock, then clear embossing ink rubbed across the panel, then I added a combination of copper and gold embossing powders and heat set them.

I will be adding this to the Sisterhood of Crafters blog challenge which is embossing.

Cuttlebug - Textile Embossing folder w/ gold and copper embossing powder on Foiled cardstock
Dollar tree - praying hands stamp
Pebbles - Rub on sentiment
Spellbinders - Classic Rectangle die

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

Wishing you a good and safe week ahead,

Connie

60th

 When Hubby and I were at Barnes and Nobles last month, I was deciding on whether or not to buy this magazine with stamps inside, and hubby came up and asked if I was going to get it and I said I wasn't sure, I had similar bird stamps and greenery that was in the set but not quite the same sizes and I wasn't sure if I would use the numbers and alphabet set and he said his sisters 60th is coming up next month you should get it and use it on her card, and as you can see that is what I have done :)

 The border die was cut with patterned paper, I like the look of that and I added some die cut corners and cut the sentiment using one of the dies I bought when I went to the stamp store for our anniversary.

Let's Make cards Issue 82 - American crafts- Personalize with me and Wild Flourish stamp sets, colored w/markers
Gemini - Opulent Swirls die
Tim Holtz - Crochet die
Simon Says stamps - tiny words birthday sentiment stamp
Pink & Main - sentiment strip die
My Mind's eye - The sweetest thing paper

Wishing you a fun and creative weekend,

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

Connie

Colors of Autumn

 We all know how much I love Autumn, so when I saw the challenge over at Poppystamps Blog and it was for colors of Autumn I just had to play along.

I first sponged the background with different color inks that would be soft enough to still be able to read the sentiment I planned on stamping in the middle. Then I cut my frame die from Patterned paper, applied it to my background and stamped my sentiment in the middle.  I felt like it still needed a bit more so I also die cut some leaves out of a background I had made using Mega flakes, and a few nuvo drops.

Poppystamps - Thicket Frame die
Memory Box - Marvelous Maple die
Bo Bunny - Beautifully brisk paper
Heartfelt Creations - Cards from the heart sentiment stamp
Mega Flakes - Autumn Blaze
Nuvo Drops - Autumn Red

You can see the shimmer of the mega flakes on the leaves in this close up.

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

Connie

Make your own background

 My friend who I have known since we were babies has lost her second brother, I am so thankful that I still have all my siblings.  Wish the miles were not so far apart and this Covid thing was not going on right now, but thankfully we have ways to send love and thoughts across those miles.  It is so hard to think of where to start when making a sympathy card but I had just recently watched one of Tim Holtz's videos on making backgrounds with inks and seen the challenge over at Mix it up challenge blog where they challenged to make your own backgrounds and I decided to just start there.  I took 3 Tim Holtz oxide inks applied them to my mat, spritz them with water and applied my paper picked it up and dried it, and did this a few more times until I got this background.  Next I just started going through my things when I came across this rub on that was just the size of my card and thought that might look nice against the background, I also came across these butterfly stickers, for some reason I associate butterflies with us rising up to heaven, not sure where that came from, probably something from my childhood. I didn't make a card for her two sisters, so I found this sentiment and on the inside asked that she pass on my sympathies to them also.

Background, Distress inks - Old paper, Frayed Burlap and Antique Linen applied wet, peeled paint applied dry
Cosmo Cricket - Fleuriste Rub on
K&co. - Traditional butterflies sticker
Taylored Expressions - Care & Comfort II stamp sentiment

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

Connie

Pinecones

 A couple that started going to our church just as the pandemic was hitting gave us a little container of their homemade apple butter that they made using apples from their own yard.  I wanted to thank them for thinking of us and to say how happy we are that they have joined our church, they have jumped right in and have become a great part of our church family.

I went with Double D challenge blog where they have a mood board for you to pick from with the challenge of using pine trees or pinecones.

I went with pine cones for this card, these pinecones have 3 layers in the dies, and one large and one small pinecone, so I did each with just a slightly different shade of kraft cardstock and added a little bit of inking to them.

Le Crea' - Pinecones 3D dies
Impression Obsession - Pine branch die
Mama Elephant - Butterfly kisses stamp for sentiment
Sequins

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Wishing you a great week ahead!

Connie

All your wishing for

 Another masculine card, my great nephew is turning 16, time to get a drivers license so I always do an automobile card, I went with a car.  My sister gave me some paper when I saw her back in October and they have gold in the paper so I decided to go with a gold car too.

I will be sharing this with the Sisterhood of Crafters challenge which is use gold.

I had a very hard time getting a good picture the metallic cardstock on the card kept wanting to show me in the picture.

Frantic Stamper Inc. - Convertible Roadster
Hot off the press - Metallic Gold paper
Tim Holtz - Metallic cardstock and small talk for sentiment
PPD - Wavy stitched rectangle die

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

Hope you enjoy a nice weekend, we are continuing to be in the 70's and sunny so I will be enjoying more outdoor time :)

Connie

I love you

 My hubby and I celebrated our anniversary last month.  We love taking pictures of sunsets and we love the Autumn season so I combined the two in my card to him.

First I stamped the trees using brown ink and then embossed using clear embossing powder so I could ink my sunset behind without messing up the trees. I made a little mask for the sun and then using my foam blending tools I inked up the background using distress inks.  I used my flower soft for the leaves on the trees.

Inkadinkado - Fall tree stamp, w/brown ink and clear embossing powder
Art C - cardstock
David Tutera - Celebrate sentiment
Flower soft - Autumn
Corner tabs

Hubby didn't make me a card this year but he did write me a sweet note and then had a surprise for me, since my local stamp store closed down a few months ago, he took me over to the stamp store in Missouri, and told me to get whatever I wanted.  I didn't take advantage of that, I did get a couple of dies I had been eyeing and some specialty papers I can't find at my local craft stores.  It was a cold rainy day but it was fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

New Home

 One of my close friends for the past 13 years is moving away, 5 hour drive away. I am happy for her because now they will be close to her father and her son's family but sad for us.

I won this die set from a blog awhile ago and she did not know who was the maker of the die set, but it comes with the trees, house, light post and fence, I cut them all from white card stock and colored them.

I used my home made stencil for the clouds and a grass stamp for the lawn and inked over it.

Village scene dies, colored w/markers
D.R.S. designs - Easy grass background
Distress inks - tumbled glass and mowed lawn
Spellbinders - Sentiment one die

I hope your week is starting off well for you, we have sunshine and that always makes for a happy day!

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

Connie