Bridge card

 It was my turn to share a challenge in our group and I decided to go with Jennifer McGuire's Bridge card tutorial .  I like trying new designs and this looked like a fun one.  She did a couple sizes I went with her second card size so it would fit in an A2 size envelope. It folds up flat and when you take it out of the envelope it pops up and stays together.

I used a leaf die that I cut twice so that it would have a little more thickness to span the card and not be too flimsy.  I also cut the bird die twice too.

• Spellbinders - Mosaic vine die cut twice and layered
• Cheery Lynn designs - Feathered Friends die cut twice
• Fiskars - Stamped sentiment
• Enamel Accents - Black for bird's eye
• K & co. - Blue Awning Paper

I thought of another idea so I ended up making another one, this time a little more masculine. I used all paper from the paper pack, just fussy cut the leaves from the paper and added some cardstock to the back to make it stiffer, and cut the sentiment from the paper and also added a couple pieces of cardstock behind that to make it stronger, so there is a bridge at the top and bottom.

• Heartfelt Creations - Woodsy Wonderland Collection papers

Here are some pictures of the scoring and folding I did to give you more of idea how it goes together. If you decide to make one just be careful when you are adding your glue that you do not get it on the middle section or you will glue it together and it won't pop up for dimension.

Cut paper at 10 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches. Score at 1 1/4, 2 /14 and 3 1/4 from each long end.

Fold the 3 1/4 inch score toward the center of the card on both sides and then accordion fold the rest until it looks like this.

If I am not clear enough watching the video link at the top is your best bet :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and hope you have a great week ahead!

Connie

Masculine

 Our next challenge in my group was to make a Masculine card with a calendar on it, well a lot of you know I have made a few of them over the years and when I went to see who was the next guy card I needed, I had already made them one like that, so I went on to the next guy and sure enough he had one too, so I had to go all the way to October to my nephew, and no I hadn't made him one yet :)

To keep myself straight with things I buy $ store calendar that isn't on display and it just happened to have some small calendars at the bottom of the page so I used that in today's card but she did mention you can google free mini calendars and get them from on line. Like I have done on other ones I circled his birthday.

• Artistic Outpost - The Outpost stamp
• Spellbinders - Lg. Deckled Rectangles die
• Simon Says stamps - Tiny words birthday sentiment stamp

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, we have one more day of Extreme heat to get through and we will get a tiny bit of relief for a couple days.

Enjoy your weekend,

Connie

Something new

 The next challenge in our group was to make a card using something new, that we hadn't used before.  I bought this die when Hobby Lobby was getting rid of all their dies, I thought I might as well try them since it was at a good price and if I didn't like it I didn't spend too much on it, well I actually enjoyed stitching it up, and it went fairly quickly once I decided on what color floss to use. I used 3 strands of floss on this, except for the very center, I think I did just two strands.

• Spellbinders - Stitched Petal Frame die, using DMC floss, die cut from white cardstock, and layered onto a cream cardstock base
• Tim Holtz - Metallic Sticker book sentiment

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and hope all those effected by the heat can stay cool today, we are to hit 99 with a heat index into the 100's.  No working out in the yard today.

Connie

1 year old

 Our great nephew on hubby's side of the family turned 1.  I really like this teddy bear for little ones.

Our cardmaking group is celebrating 9 years and our first challenge is to make a kids themed card.

• Rubber Stampede - Ted E Bear stamp, colored w/markers
• Gemini - Torn Edge circle die
• Sassafras - Apple Jack paper
• Taylored Expressions - Whimsy #s die
• Spellbinders - Eyelet circle die

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

Connie

New Home

 My niece just recently bought her first home, I usually go for my house dies to make a card but as I was looking though my goodies I found this sticker I had bought from the $ store and thought that could make a nice card for a new home.  I added the wood background paper, one of my birds and a sentiment. These stickers have great dimension to them.

• Crafter's Square - Pop up sticker
• Ms. Sparkle & co. - wood paper
• Memory Box - Contempo bird die
• ODBD - Mini tag sentiment stamp
• Pink & Main - Sentiment strip die

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

Connie

Collect moments

 I mixed some of my 49 and market goodies with another die from Gemini, I usually have these dies vertical but decided to try it horizontal and I thought this one worked great that way. Before releasing my die from the paper I added ink through the holes in the die and then took out the paper and softly added more ink to fill in the spots.

• Gemini - Create-a-card Cherry Blossom die, colored w/inks
• 49 and Market - Artoptions Avesta 6x8 paper and Ephemera bits (tickets and sentiment, Rub-ons for the butterfly
• Gems

I hope you all with the flooding and the Heat can get some relief soon.  Starting today this weekend we are down in the 80's and then back to the 90's and close to 100's next week so I am thankful for a little relief from the heat and especially less humidity today.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend,

Connie

Clean and Simple

 I don't do these clean and simple cards often, I think it is because a lot of white space just doesn't feel right to me, I need things to be filled in, with patterns or something going on, but I thought I would give it a try for my girlfriends card.  I googled what color rose is for friendship and it said yellow, so since I couldn't find paper with the right yellows I wanted I inked up some paper to cut out my rose. Since I did that with the rose I also decided to do that with the stem and leaves so it would blend well with the flower. I had to at least ground it with something so lightly inked through a stencil.

• Elizabeth Craft Design - Rose die
• Distress inks to color die cuts : Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey and Mowed Lawn
• Crafter's Workshop - Mini Believe Script stencil
• Tim Holtz - Metallic Sticker book

I am sharing my card today with the following challenges:

The Flower Challenge Blog CAS Challenge

Simply Clean and Simple blog 

Update from last post my friend from church made it through surgery and has to stay in the hospital for at least 3 days, if all goes well then she can go home.

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

Connie

Birthday Cake

 This birthday card went to my friend from church a couple weeks ago, she had some major surgery this morning and I haven't heard yet if she is out. 

The layered stamp was given to me by April, we are in the same stamp group and when we have challenge weeks we put all the names of those that have done our challenge into a bowl and pick a name and she picked mine last time and gifted me this stamp, I think it was pretty easy to stamp the layers, you just have to decided which colors to use for everything :)

• Gemini - Afternoon tea layering stamp and die
• BasicGrey - Porcelain paper
• Spellbinders - Majestic Labels 25 die
• 49 and Market - Coral lace paper to cute the spellbinder die
• Tim Holtz - Crochet die

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, and hope you have a good week ahead.

Connie

In the garden

 What do I see in my garden?  Birds and flowers :)  Sisterhood of Crafters has in the garden challenge and so I went to my Bird Watcher paper pack once again to make a garden card.

Right now I am watching my hummingbird feeder as I write this up and the Ants are also having a feast. Have any of you had that problem and what did you do about it?  I have my feeder hanging from a steel Shephards hook.  I usually place some ant killer at the base of the hook, but with our rain it must get washed away and they come right back before the ground even dries.

• Graphic 45 - Bird Watcher 8x8 paper, I cut the banner from a die and fussy cut the flower out of the paper and popped it up, cut the border strip out too.  Ephemera pack for the tag and bird
• Spellbinders - Baby buntings die
• My Mind's eye - Lost and found paper (background)
• Brad

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

Connie

Slimline Trellis

 The July Challenge over at Stencil Fun blog is to make a birthday theme card.  I went with a Trellis stencil for my flowers to climb, for my friend's birthday card. I inked around the stencil trying to keep it lighter on the sides. Colored my stamped flowers and then fussy cut to add to the trellis popping them us with foam tape. I added white gel pen to the centers. I stamped the bee twice, once on my background then again on a scrap piece and colored and fussy cut just the body so I didn't have to mess with the legs and wings.

• Cardmaking magic - Climbing Flowers stamp set, colored w/markers and white gel pen for center of flowers
• DL Trellis stencil
• Gems

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

Connie

Great Outdoors

 I am in need of a masculine card and when I saw the Challenge over at Double D Challenge for Outdoors I thought I would go with that theme for my card.  I hadn't used my wood slice in quite some time and I had just purchased this stamp set from Tim Holtz at Joann's a few weeks ago, so I thought it would make a great woodsy feel card.

I started out by using my Distress inks in Walnut stain and Vintage photo to make the background by placing the inks on my mat and then spritzing with water and smooshing my paper in it picking up the inks and drying between each application.

The Mushrooms, labels and top right are all from that stamp set, I cut the mushrooms and the Label out with my die, inking around the edges, added some white gel pen to the mushroom tops after coloring.

• Smoosh Background using distress inks - Vintage photo and Walnut stain
• Tim Holtz - THMM112 stamp and stencil set, colored w/markers and white gel pen spots
• Spellbinders - Lg. Deckled Rectangle dies
• The Greetery  - Wood Slices die

I am also sharing with NBUS Challenge since I never used this stamp set before.

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

Connie

Bird Feeder

 Retro Rubber Challenge RRCB210 is having a sketch challenge this month, I haven't used this stamp in quite some time, there is no year on it but when I tried looking it up, it looks like it is from the early 2000, so I would say it is at least 15 years old.  I think it was a little big for the sketch but I didn't think of that until it was all colored and I was trying to figure out how to cut it out.

• Inkadinkado - Bird Feeder stamp, watercolored w/Distress inks
• Papertrey ink - Hodge Podge paper
• Spellbinders - Labels 25 die
• Fiskars - Essential Sayings stamp, hand cut banner w/faux stitching

I would also like to share with 

Word Art Wednesday anything goes challenge

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

Connie

Zoom Card

 Our stamp group had a zoom meeting last month and I forgot to share my card.  I really need to share them shortly after because I totally have forgotten what technique we did on the front.  I know we used 3 inks and a stencil but can't quite remember what we did.

• Tim Holtz - Wildflower stems #1, Wildflower stems#2 dies
• Distress inks - Rustic wilderness, Fossilized Amber and Faded jeans
• Fun Stampers Journey - Flower Power stencil
• Inkadinkado - For the birds stamp set for inside flaps
• Inkadinkado - Spring is here for inside squares
• Martha Stewart - tag punch
• ODBD - Mini tag sentiment stamp
• Fiskars - Essential Sayings sentiment stamp on inside

For the inside I believe we cut a 10 inch piece of cardstock, it should be a light wait because this gives a lot of bulk to the inside of your card.  Score piece at the 2, 3, 4, 5,6 inches. We were to have the square pieces cut with stamps on them, and we could do what we wanted on the two sides.

another view to see the square stamps a little better.

I will be hand delivering this card it is a little bulky to send through the mail.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by, 

Connie

Graduation

 This is the card I made for my other great nephew who graduated this year, he had his open house this past Saturday.  We didn't make it since we were just in Michigan a couple weeks ago but even with the thick stickers they said it made it :) I was able to make two cards with this sticker pack and I still have some I can use on another card.  The background and the grid die are his school colors.

• Paper Studio - LaPetites dimensional stickers
• Frantic Stamper - Color Block card Panel die

I hope you all enjoy your 4th of July.

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

Sweet girl

 My friend lost her sweet little furbaby girl recently. I tried to color the dog to have her fur coloring. I think it is just as hard to make a furbaby sympathy card as it is a human one, we get so close to them they are such a huge part of our lives.

• Stamp from cardmaking magazine, colored with markers
• PPD - Mini stitched square die
• Spellbinders - Lacey Squares and A2 matting basics A dies
• Inky Antics - Simple sentiment stamp
• BasicGrey - Porcelain paper
• Impression Obsession - Grass die

We have had some rain finally but it has come with some bad storms, there are a lot of people without power and many trees and fences have not faired so well.  One girl died when a tree fell on her car.

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

Be safe this weekend,

Connie