Faithful

 My friend went in for brain surgery and when looking through my stuff to see what I could use for her card I came across these stickers and I liked this set that mentioned Faithful, and the first thing that came into my head is how God is faithful to us in all things.  I added a die cut under the flowers to match the black background of the sentiment and felt it needed more so added the die cut corner too.

She made it through surgery and the doctor says he doesn't feel the mass is cancer but we are awaiting the results to come back.

• Crafter's Square - Pop up stickers
• Provocraft - Soft Serenity paper
• Spellbinders - Scalloped Classic Ovals Lg die
• Gemini - Opulent Swirls corner die

I have another friend in our Life Group from church that was going through some health problems too, I had come across these Pre embossed papers I had bought along time ago and couldn't find them, Yah!!! I came across them and thought I would use one for her card, I just used my sponge daubers to apply the ink and added the sentiment.

• Hot off the press - Color me flowers papers that are pre-embossed, colored with ink daubers
• Simon says stamps - You Matter stamp & die set
• Sequins

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend!

Connie

Serenity

 I just love this set from 49 and Market I just had to use it for this next birthday card.

• 49 and Market - Vintage Artistry Serenity 6x8 paper, Serenity Laser cut elements (flower, leaves and sentiment)
• Queen & co. - Baby Blue Rhinestones

I would like to share my card today with the following challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge

Triple B Challenge

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

Connie

Spring birds

 Last week I had decided to take some time and make up quite a few of these birds I have had for many years, I think I have only used them a couple times but wasn't sure I liked them so I decided if I had a bunch of them made up already maybe I would use them.  Then I saw the challenge over at

 Double D Challenge blog which the theme is Things that fly and I thought now is as good as anytime to use them and it gave me inspiration for the next birthday card I needed.

• Memory Box - Contempo birds and Woodland Branch dies
• Die-Versions- Beautiful bird cages die
• Martha Stewart - Flower punches (formed with stylus and foam mat)
• Stickles for center of flowers
• Fiskars - Cloud punch
• Stamps of life - Minis4 circles sentiment stamp

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, Hope you have a great week ahead,

Connie

Cardinals

 In my cardmaking group the Christmas challenge was to use our papers that have critters of any kind on them.  I have wanted to use my new cardinal die so I remembered I had cardinal papers I could use, so I brought them together for these cards and I believe now I am caught up on the amount of Christmas cards I wanted to have by the end of April :)

On this card I got the die cut that my bird is in out of my bin of unused die cuts and I can't remember where it is from, I backed it with some paper from my scraps bin.

• Spellbinders - Tweet Cardinal die
• Paper Studio - Have a cozy Christmas Paper
• Hot off the press - 31 white jewel border stickers

Spellbinders - Tweet Cardinal die

Paper Studio - Have a cozy Christmas Paper

• Spellbinders - Tweet Cardinal and Ironworks accents dies
• Paper Studio - Have a cozy Christmas paper
• Stampendous - Chain letter Holiday Silver sticker (sentiment below the plaid piece)

Love those cute little cardinals :)

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

Connie

Vintage postcard

 I was going for a touch of vintage look to this card.  I used a piece of pattern paper for my base and then lined up my stamp so that the colors on the paper would be were the rose would stamp.  The butterfly seemed kind of plain to me so I added a little ink to it with a sponge dauber.

The sentiment and postage was from the same stamp set, I just inked them with red instead of the gray I used on the postcard stamp.  Added some pearls that I tried to color to match the paper but didn't do so well.

• 49 and Market - Coral Mini Collection
• Hot off the press - Postcards stamp set (2015)
• Spellbinders - Candlewick Rectangles die
• Pearls colored with marker

I would like to share my card today with Retro Rubber Challenge spring scene

The stamp is from 2015

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

Connie

Make a wish

 I needed a teen card for my great niece, so I went with this cute little mouse sticker I bought, the set was so cute and I meant to use them in my journal but I thought it would work good on her card. The sentiments and papers are all from the same paper pack.

• My Mind's Eye - Quite Contrary paper (sentiments, circles and Papers)
• Pink Fresh - Classic Edgers die
• Spellbinders - Labels 8 die (mat for the make a wish sentiment)
• Park Lane - Mouse Sticker

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

Connie

Beautiful Day

 I haven't used these flowers in a very long time, so I got them out to play, there are stamps that go along with them but I decided to layer pattern paper with cardstock for the flowers.  I only did two layers for each flower but if you layer them all together they give a very nice thick flower, but thought with mailing I should keep it down to just two layers. I added a little color by sponging on ink to the flower centers and then added some stickles too, the leaves come with the die set and then I also added the leaf flourish and of course had to add a butterfly also cut from pattern paper.

• Heartfelt Creations - Delicate Asters dies
• Spellbinders - Foliage Flourish die
• Basic Grey - Picadilly paper
• Stickles - Vintage Photo
• Gemini - Butterfly die
• Tim Holtz - Remnant Rub on tiny text

I would like to share my card with the following Challenges:

Triple B - Birds, butterflies and Blooms  I used blooms and butterfly

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge 

We had some rough storms go through Saturday evening, two F1 Tornadoes hit in our town and the one next to ours but we did ok, many signs down, trees down onto houses, the cats are not happy when you lock them into a bathroom, it would be much nicer if we had a basement.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and say Hi, hope you have a good week,

Connie

Patterns

 Another friend just broke her foot, I was stumped on what to do and that is where going to challenges help, Stencil Fun blog has a pattern challenge this time and I do have a few stencils with patterns and I really like this one, so I started with some light spring colors (sorry I forgot to write down what I used) then the rest of the card just came together using a flower I had already stamped, cut out a leaf die and a sentiment.

• Hero Arts - Kelly's Floral Tile stencil
• Simply Cards and Papercrafts - Layered Peonies stamp
• Greetery - Crimped frame die
• Spellbinders - Mosaic Vine and Labels 29 dies
• Words to the Rescue - Get well stamped sentiment
• Gems

Hope you enjoy a nice weekend, we are supposed to get some bad storms this afternoon. 

Thanks for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Garden Wall

 I bought another papercraft magazine with a stamp set included, I liked that it had different elements for garden stamping, the brick wall stamp was jagged, but I was able to stamp it into a solid brick wall very easily.  The flowers and butterfly were fussy cut, but the brick wall I stamped directly onto the background as well as the stenciling of the sky, I added a few blades of grass with my peg stamp.

• Creative Stamping magazine - Cardmaking magic - Climbing flowers stamp set, colored w/markers including the brick wall, flowers, butterfly and sentiment
• My Favorite things - Cloud stencil
• RS Tapestry - Grass Blades mini peg stamp
• Spellbinders - Labels trio die

I would like to share my card today with the following challenges:

Four Season Challenge Spring

Colorful Options Pastels

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

Connie

Four Corners Christmas

 I have done a Christmas version of these cards HERE.  In our stamp group the challenge this month is to use snowflakes, so I broke out a few different snowflake stamps I have to make the background and then just added sentiments to them after cutting them up.  I will share the piece I stamped at the end of the post.

The top two I had stamped with a blue I had but it just seemed to blend in with the stamping and I wanted it to stand out a bit so I went over with black ink, but then I went looking a little more and found a darker blue color that stood out well, so I used that on the bottom two and I also changed the direction of the cards.

• Inkadinkado - Holiday Silhouette's stamps set for big snowflake and sentiments

• Inkadinkado - Holiday Silhouettes stamp set (snowflakes)
• Diamond Press - Happy Holiday's stamp set (sentiments)

Here is what my sheet looked like before cutting it up into 4 panels for my card fronts

If you want a one layer card for mailing and quick cards for Christmas this is a good one to do.

I would like to share my card today with Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge, they have a great inspiration board but I did not use it this time.

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

He is Risen!!

 He is Risen indeed!  May you all rejoice in our Risen Savior!!

I am sharing the last of the cards I made for Easter.  Luckily I had colored these images from a sheet of paper last year but ended up not using them and went a different way, things all work out the way they should because it made it much easier for me to get the cards done I wanted to send out for this year.

The first two I am sharing, I just went with embossing the background since the images were already clean and simple.  I am using some of the embossing folders that were given to me, this first one I do not know the name of it, but that it is Stampin up, so if you know the name of the folder could you please let me know, thanks :)

• Photo Play Paper - Color me Easter Joy
• Stampin up embossing folder 

• Photo Play Paper - Color me Easter Joy

Stampin up - Square Lattice embossing folder

Photo Play Paper - Color me Easter Joy

• Sassafras - Mix and mend paper
• Stamps of Life - Praise 4 Him sentiment stamp
• Distress ink - fossilized amber around image

• Photo Play Paper - Color me Easter Joy
• Ms. Sparkle & co. - watercolor paper
• Simon says - Tiny words faith 
• Cloud 9 designs - Rain dot

• Photo Play Paper - Color me Easter Joy
• Stamps of Life - Praise 4 Him stamp
• Gold pen on cross and around frame

Hope you have a blessed day, as we celebrate all Jesus has done for us and continues to do every day!!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

Easter Basket

 Well I wasn't smart to get my Easter cards made ahead of time and so when I caught covid I was a bit behind on getting them done.  I saw this challenge over at Beccy's Place and she had the most lovely Easter basket all colored up and ready to use, so I thought I would give it a try and I will have to say that her image printed out beautifully.  I printed onto Matte photo paper.

I put the image onto a die cut, added a bunny die cut, a couple punched eggs and a sentiment and the card was done. Thank you to Beccy for sharing a lovely free image.

• Beccy's Place - precolored image (eggs in basket)
• Sunny Studio - Gingham pastel paper
• Spellbinders - Floral Ovals
• Cheery Lynn Designs - nesting eggs dies (Rabbit)
• Punch Bunch - egg punch
• Simon Says - Tiny words faith stamp
• Pink & Main - sentiment strip die

I have one more preprinted image I used, this one is from Graphics Fairy. I shaped some flowers and added stickles in the center to go with the flowers in the image.

• Graphics Fairy preprinted image
• Prima - Alla Prima paper
• Scallope Frame die
• EKSuccess - Flowers punch, shaped with stylus and foam mat
• Stickles - Worn Lipstick

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

Connie

One Layer cards

 Ok so this is the first challenge I tried after getting Covid and I totally read the instructions wrong, but I thought I would share these anyway.  We were supposed to cut out a shape from a scrap piece of paper the same size as our card to make a stencil to stamp inside, I got that part right, but then we were supposed to stencil inside of that opening and also stamp, so when you take off the stencil you made your stamping is in the shape of the die you used for your opening.  I hope I explained that understandably for you.

For my first card I used a stamp set that has many stamps to make your own scene. I chose 6 different stamps in this set to make my scene, then colored in with markers and sponged in the sky.

• Spellbinders - Labels 29 die
• Stampendous - Meadows Edge stamp set (I used 6 stamps to make the scene) color w/markers
• Distress ink - Tumbled glass applied with foam applicator

Then after looking back at her example I was thinking maybe I should have done it differently so I got out my peg stamps and did another one. Yep still didn't use a stencil on the inside.

• Spellbinders - Labels 4 die
• Rubberstamptapestry - Butterfly Blooms stamps (6)
• Mama Elephant - Blessed sentiment stamp

I did not right down any of the inks I had used, by this time I was just getting way too tired.

So I am sharing because this is a neat idea for a one layer card to stamp inside of a shape that you have masked off.

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

Connie

Infinity Shaker card

 The next challenge I did was a infinity shaker card, I will have to say they are much easier than the traditional.  I did not have the actual plastic you can buy for these, so I used the clear packaging that came over my dies, the real thing stuff. I cut it at least a half an inch larger than my background piece.

HERE is the video that was shared with us to make the infinity portion.  We were to stencil a background first by using a rainbow of colors, and then lifting the stencil and using the same colors to fill in the background.  I added a sentiment on the inside but one tip we were given that I forgot to do is glue some of the goodies to your background so when it isn't shaking you have something there.

I stamped the cat and glued it to the outside of the shaker using glue dots.

• Tim Holtz - Rays stencil
• Distress inks - Saltwater taffy, salvaged Patina and fossilized amber
• The Greetery - Crimped frame die
• Penny Black - Bubbly stamp, colored w/markers
• Inkadinkado - All Occasions sentiment stamp
• Sequins and pearls
• Thin plastic packaging from die envelope for shaker

As you see all my shaker goodies fell to the bottom when it stands up.

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

Connie

Ombre Resist

 The next challenge I have done is an Ombre Resist.  We were too emboss a background and the swipe an ink pad across the middle and taking a baby wipe, using small circles go from the center to the ends blending the inks, I was going for a vintage feel with mine, still not sure what I think about it, that is why no sentiment, not really sure what kind of card this should be.  I cut some wildflowers from kraft cardstock and added some ink to them with marker and little blending foam. Wrapped them all in some jute.

• Distress ink - Gathered Twigs
• Fun Stampers Journey - Lace Background stamp w/ clear embossing powder
• Tim Holtz - Wildflower stems #2
• Jute

We are both feeling much better, have a bit of coughing, worse in the morning and still a bit tired than normal but so thankful it didn't last two long :)  Going to try to get back to normal things this week, we will see how that goes.

Thanks for stopping by,

Connie