Sleds

 Well here I am again finishing up my Christmas cards for the month at the last minute.  The Christmas challenge in my stamp group is to make cards with sleds, I managed to find two stamps that had sleds.

They are both from cardmaking magazines that had stamp sets included.

This one is my favorite it is just too cute. I cut the top of the border die so that it didn't cover the whole piece and look more like a border die, added some stickles for the snow.

• Cardmaking and Papercraft - Stamp, colored w/markers
• Paper Pizazz - Paper
• Die-namics - Cross-stitch rectangle die
• Lawn Fawn - Fancy scalloped rectangle die
• Gemini - Mistletoe and Pine die
• Crystal stickles (snow)

This card I used 3 different stamps from the set to make a little scene.

• American Crafts - Festive Merry Days stamps, colored w/markers
• Kat Scrappiness - Mini Slimline Double stitched die
• Flower soft - Polar white (snow)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by, stay cool and stay safe this holiday weekend!

Connie

Happy Birthday Sis

 Today is my sister's birthday, she stops by my blog, so I always wait until I know she has received the card before posting :)

There is a little story behind the die I used, when it came out I just loved it but told myself you have enough of background dies no more buying of those, well I went on Amazon one day to look at something and this die came up on my suggested items and I thought oh this is a sign I should buy this, LOL, you know free shipping and all, and since my sisters birthday was coming up I thought I should get that so she will have a special card :)

I cut the die twice, first from a yellow patten paper and then again in white, took the white piece and popped it up for dimension and then added the yellow center in the middle gluing directly to the card base.

• Spellbinders - Infinity Punch and Pierce Plate die, Be Bold Blooms dies and Sweet Birdie die
• Queen & co. - Twinkle goosebumps (yellow gems)
• Paper studios - Pearls
• Martha Stewart - Tag punch
• Stamps of Life - Minis4circles sentiment stamp

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

Connie

Santa

 In my cardmaking group this month the Christmas challenge is Santa, since the month is quickly coming to a close I chose to use my paper packs with Santa images to make my cards.

A year or so ago I signed up for The Graphics Fairy email updates, you receive free images every week, they are not all vintage and they even send coloring pages every now and then too.  This Santa image and advertisement piece are both from those emails, they print up very nicely, I just added my own paper.

• The Graphics Fairy images - Santa and advertisement
• Scrap of paper for background

• Stamperi - Classic Christmas paper pack (paper and Santa image)
• Martha Stewart - Holly punch, colored w/markers
• Nuvo Crystal Glaze on Holly berries and on Santa image berries)

• Graphic 45 - Christmas emporium paper pack (Santa image and Faux stamps)
• Tim Holtz - French Design tape

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, I am still playing catch up on everyone's blogs.

Connie

Time to Play

 I am hoping to get time to play this afternoon. We have been in Michigan since last Friday and made it home yesterday. We had a great time visiting with both our families then headed to the U.P. to go to a State park up there I hadn't been to since I was a kid, and spent some time near the water, have to get our by the water time when we go home :)

My friend who I sent this card to does cardmaking too, so I thought she might like that sentiment :)

I used a lot of rub-ons and one of the laser cuts to frame the sentiment. Spellbinder die to make a little banner for another rub-on.

• 49 and Market - Artoptions Avesta 6x8 paper, Avesta Laser cut (Frame) Avesta Rub-ons  for sentiment, butterfly and flower
• Spellbinder - Baby Buntings die
• Gems

I am trying to catch up on everyone's blogs, usually I take my computer when we go and in the evenings I try to catch up on emails and blogs but I forgot to take my computer this time so I will be busy over the next few days trying to catch up with you all.

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

Wish Big

 Another teen guy card needed, my great nephew turns 14, so I found this bingo type card in with the paper set that had a 14 on it and I circled that with my white pen, cut out the star to put on top and added a stamped sentiment to the other piece that looked like a notebook.

• Recollections - Awesome Boy paper and ephemera 
• Papercraft Inspirations - Greetings stamp set for Wish Big
• Circled the age my nephew will be
• EK Sucess - 1" circle punch to cut out stars

I know I have used this paper pack a lot lately but the boys are getting older and I have quite a bit of paper left to use up :)

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

Connie

Great Brother

 I have only used this die for my oldest brother so far and from a friend who has a sister with Alzheimer's  she said that it is good for them to have activities they can do with their hands even if it is repetitive. So I thought this would be a great card to make for my second oldest brother who is suffering from that.

I gave it some extra thickness so that the door has no problem sliding back and forth.  Before putting the door together I added a sign with Jute to hand over the section. I also ran the door through and embossing folder to get wood look on the door.

• Creek Bank Creations - Barn door dies
• Crafters companion - Wood grain embossing folder
• Taylored Expressions - many minis Occasions stamp set for sending you love
• Great brother sticker is from a set I have had for over 10 years
• Hero Arts - Birthday message stamp set for balloons and dot on second picture
• Jute

I stamped the balloon and dots on pattern paper.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

T

Sympathy fern

 Another friend from church recently lost her brother, these gold foiled birds and ferns were add ons to go with this paper pack, they show sanding them to reveal the silver underneath.  Just a heads up if you have never tried Tim Holtz's sanding disk that go on the ink tool, it is very course, it scratched way too much on the bird as you can see.  I finished with a nail file and the fern and that is a much nicer sand, you may want to try them out on something you aren't planning on for your card before using them on your projects.

In the pictures I took you can not see the gold embossing I did of the sentiment on the banner toward the bottom of the card, I could see it well in person but just blends in with the banner too much to see in the pictures.

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

Connie

Flowers in Basket

 I saw some cards using baskets and I just knew I had one somewhere, LOL!  Found this one which also has different flowers you can stamp also to put inside, I fussy cut all the pieces before adding them to my card, I popped up the roses and one of the roses at the base. The stamped handles are separate also in case you don't want handles on your basket.

• Gina K - Holiday Basket stamp set, colored w/markers and fussy cut
• 49 and Market - Coral Mini collections 6x6 papers
• Spellbinders - Lattice Rectangle die
• ODBD - mini tag sentiment stamp
• Martha Stewart - Tag punch 
• Pearls

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

Connie

Wedding

 My great nephew got married recently and this is the card I made for them, not your traditional wedding card but I thought since they had an outdoor wedding this would be a good choice. These colors are what the girls wore for the wedding too. The ephemera from the pack was on the last page and I fussy cut them all out, the butterflies had extra little wings to cut out so you could layer for dimension.

• 49 and Market - Vintage Artistry Coral 6x6 paper pack for everything, the ephemera were all fussy cut
• Fiskars -  Essential sayings stamp on tab

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

Connie

Light theme cards

 I was going through more of my pictures trying to clean up my hard drive and realized I had one more group of cards to share that I had posted while on the Dirty Dozen team.

I had never used these dies before but they worked perfectly for the light theme. I really loved how this turned out, I did a little inking behind the lanterns first to give it a glow, cut all the pieces out and colored the flames, added some stickers to hang the lanterns from.

I love this lighthouse stamp and have used it quite a few times, this time I did a very limited coloring so that the light would be the showcase!

The last was sunrise on the water, I cut the circle and had that in the background and popped up the rest of the scene with foam tape. Coloring in only the portion that I cut with the circle to emphasize the sunrays.

Hope you all enjoy a nice weekend, we are having some air quality alerts for the past few days, we are only in the Orange though, mainly because we are so close to St. Louis, so nothing like what the East Coast is experiencing, praying they can get a handle on the wild fires soon.

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

Connie

New Grad!!

 Two of my great nephews have graduated from High School this year and when I was at Hobby Lobby recently I was looking at their stuff on sale and they had these stickers on sale that week and I thought they could make some neat graduation cards.  They have foam tape on them so they are dimensional which gives them that extra special touch.  I went with a mini slimline size for them and it worked perfect! I went with his school colors that are red and white.

• Momenta - Pattern cardstock
• Kat Scrappiness - Mini Slimline stitched rope die
• Hobby Lobby stickers

The last picture let's you read the banner a little better since it is all in gold foil.

We are actually getting some rain today, it has been a long time, and it has brought a few degrees cooler weather along with it, so thankful!

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

Connie

Awesome Birthday

 I used some papers and flower die cut from another UK cardmaking magazine.

• Kaisercraft - Sweet Pea Paper and die cut flower
• Simon Says - Tiny words Birthday sentiment stamp
• Spellbinders - Lg. Deckled Rectangle die
• Marth Stewart - Pearls

Hope you are enjoying your weekend, we are HOT here, so early morning and late evening yard work for us :)

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

Connie

Teen Birthday

 I was in need of a teen guy card and so I went to my trusty paper stack that has these great ephemera to go with it, simply cut and punched out and put together. I added the stamped sentiment and metal pieces too.

• Recollections - Awesome boy papers, cut out license plate and punched the stars
• papercraft Inspiration - Greetings stamp set
• Ki - Metal Accents

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

Connie