You are so special

 It is hard to write this one, I try to make all my cards ahead of time, like a month ahead of time if I can, because I never know if things are going to get busy and I won't make it into my craft room, or other things come up that I want to make a card for get well, thinking of you ect.  Well I had just finished making this card for my brother when I got the news that he was going into Hospice care.  I thought about sending it very early but then I told myself hang on wait you never know what God's plans are.  Then as time got closer to his passing my mind was on that and not on his card.

After I got home from his funeral and was getting around cards to send out, I realized that I still had his birthday card. I finally decided that I could not send this to anyone else and as I hadn't written inside it yet I decided to send it to my Sister in law and wrote a note inside to her.

• Hot off the press - Instant Card Art (pretty colors)
• Ms. Sparkle & co. - Wood paper pad
• Starform - Silver text stickers sentiment
• Brads - Copper and silver screw 

Do I wish now that I would have sent the card early, yes I do, but I know he knows how much I loved him, and that is the main thing.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Stay cool!

Connie

Bloomin Birthday

 My great niece is turning 15, I was stumped for what to do for her so I just started going through all my goodies and came across these watercolor birthday panels and thought that would be cute. I went with coloring them with my sparkle markers to add a bit of shimmer to the flowers and sentiment. I also used some Aqua tint markers.

• Taylored Expressions - Birthday Watercolor Panel, colored w/ Spectrum noir Sparkle markers and Aqua Tint markers
• PPD - Postage stamp Rectangle die
• Papers from friend

Thanks so much for stopping by today, 

Connie

Get well

 My brother in law has been going through some terrible health troubles ever since February of this year, just before he went in for yet another surgery I sent this card to him.  I didn't put a sentiment on the front it just already seemed quite busy to me.

• Hampton Art - SC1029 Fern & Specimen stamps
• 49 and Market - Pascale's 3x4 Grammar Stamp on striped pattern paper
• Memory Box - Stitched rectangle layer die
• Wintertime Crafts - Old Papers (Background) Mini decorative (dots stamp)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, hope you are able to keep cool for those in the extreme heat areas.

Connie

Butterflies

 I saw this set of stamps at JoAnn's I believe and thought they were so cute with their different patterns.  I paired it with some 49 and market papers and ephemera. That is faux lace that was in the paper pack, I used it between the two papers I chose to use as my background.

• Park Lane - Butterflies stamp set (stamped with a gray color ink)
• 49 and market - Coral Mini 6x6 collection (paper and lace)
• Simon Says stamps - Tiny words birthday sentiment stamp
• Martha Stewart - Pastel mini pearls

I am sharing today with the Triple B Challenge 

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

Connie

Snowflakes

 Maybe the thoughts of snowflakes will cool us down with most of the country dealing with HOT temps.

Once again I am using some lovely laces my sister gifted me, there were two kinds of laces with snowflakes and that just happened to be the challenge in my Cardmaking group, so I made two cards with each of the laces and just changed up the way I used my snowflake dies.

• Wrights - Keepsake Snowflake lace 
• Memory Box - Winsome snowflake die
• Sara Davies - Frosty Christmas snowflake die
• Dieverson - Joyeux Noel sentiment die

I used all papers from my bin that I had cut down my scraps to card front sizes.

• Wrights - Keepsake Snowflake lace 
• Memory Box - Winsome snowflake die
• Sara Davies - Frosty Christmas snowflake die
• Stampendous - Chainletter Christmas sticker

These last two cards used a piece of ribbon that had wire in it but I was having a hard time adding it to my card, so I just removed the wire on the ends and it wrapped around to the back much easier. Now I have my mind thinking what to do with the wire I pulled out :)  If you have any ideas let me know.

Tis the Season - Laced with Frost Ribbon

Spellbinders - Holiday Sentiment  dies

Taylored Expressions - Snowflakes dies

• Tis the Season - Laced with Frost Ribbon
• Memory Box - Winsome snowflake die
• Stampendous - Chainletter Christmas sentiment sticker

I would like to share my card with Peace on Earth Challenge blog

Well I am caught up with my May Christmas cards so now I need to get busy on June to catch up, that will have to be the challenge in my other group.

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

Connie

Teen guy

 Using more of this paper I got for another masculine card, this time for a my great nephew in his teens.

• Cia Bella - Engine of the Future papers, Creative pad double sided 12x12
• Memory Box - Deluxe Gear set

I love all the tags and ephemera bits in these packages, makes for putting together a card so easy!

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

Connie

With Sympathy

 Our friend lost his Mother just a day after we lost my brother. I went with a simple card using a stencil to ink inside to frame my flower and sentiment.

• Penny Black - Stencil Background Basics
• Distress inks - Faded Jeans
• Honbay - Stamps

Sharing with the following Challenges

CAS on Sunday Challenge 

Simply Clean & Simple

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

Connie

Grad!

 My great nephew is graduating from high school. In the pack of lace, ribbons and trims my sister gave me there was this ric rac and it just happened to be the school colors for my great nephew so I decided I had to figure out how to use them in his card.  I have had these image stickers for many years, I would say 10 or more, I came upon them a couple months ago and left it out on my desk just for this time so I would remember to use them on his card.  The stars and sentiment are from a sticker pack I had bought last year for graduation cards.

I forgot to get a side view of the card, and it is already on it's way to him.

• Dimple Street Gang - image sticker
• The Greetery - Crimped Frame die
• Ric Rac in blue and yellow, added using fabric tac
• Paper Studio - Graduation stickers (stars and sentiment)

I would like to share this with the Double D Challenge 

Something old - Image sticker from 2000

Something new - Ric Rac

Something blue - Background paper, ric rac and stickers

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

Connie

Thank you

 Last time I shared a card for my friend that sent flowers, she sent them with her sister, our family grew up next door to their family and the one this card is going to is the girl that was my sisters age.  When I was back in Michigan for the funeral my sister gave me a bag with a bunch of ribbons and lace, when I saw these I thought they were so pretty and just had to use them, so I used all 3 that I thought matched pretty as borders for this card. This way there is a little of each of us on this card :)

The "You" was first cut then I stamped on top of it, instead of trying to stamp and line up the stamp, it is so much easier I think.

• Simon Says Stamps- You matter stamp and die set
• Laces from my sister
• Sequins

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

Word Art Wednesday

Word Power Challenge 

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

Connie

Group Skype

 Our group is no longer doing zoom but now we are on skype.  We got together for the first time in a long time, Some were moving and others on vacations and just life happening, but we were able to get together at the beginning of this week and made this card with a new technique to me and a different fold.

The first thing we did was to stamp image onto vellum using pigment white ink and then embossing with white embossing powder. Then turn over and using oxide ink, stamp the image again but this time embossing with clear embossing powder, then you pick which side you want to face up and glue it to another piece of cardstock, I went with green cardstock and I used a very thin layer of Simon Says glue stick to adhere the vellum to the cardstock.  We embossed a piece of white paper to go on the outside piece, we were to have a colored cardstock base but mine happened to not be colored on the other side so I ended up adding a piece of pattern paper to the inside.  Sorry I don't have any of the dimensions or anything, plus I think I messed up on some of the dimension, not sure.

Above I added a paperclip to the bottom so you could see what it looks like closed.

The next picture is it opening naturally, maybe needs a bit more bone folding.

This last picture is both sides opened, I took the picture before writing in my thanks for a friend sending flowers to my brothers funeral.

• Crafters Companion - Advent calendar stamps and butterfly stamp and die 
• Distress ink - worn lipstick
• Stampin up - Square Lattice embossing folder
• Basic Grey - Rub on sentiment
• Spellbinders - Classic oval die

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

Connie

Masculine

 I have another guy card today, this one went to my little brother, or should I say younger, he is taller than I am :)  I had to use my filmstrip again, this time I just found an image in the paper pack and cut it with the film strip die and placed it into the piece I cut with black paper.  The little tab off to the right from the same die set as the filmstrip, was cut from scraps in my bin, I stamped the sentiment in the middle, sorry forgot to write where the stamp is from.

• Ciabella - Engine of the future 12x12 paper pack
• Elizabeth Craft designs - 1656 Planner Filmstrip die set

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

Sisterhood of Crafters Men challenge

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Masculine

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

Connie

Poinsettia's

 These cards are for last month, I only managed to get two of 6 that I wanted done so time to make up this month.  My stamp group challenge was to use die cuts and my cardmaking group was to use the colors red and gold so I combined the two challenges with these flowers.

With this first one the background was so busy that I skipped putting a sentiment on it.

In this second one I held the epoxy sentiment sticker up to the card while it was still on the transfer sheet and it looked great, so I took it off and applied it to the card and the sentiment just disappeared into the text paper :(  If you hold it just right you can see it, so I left it that way. I also did a little inking of the leaves.

• Spellbinders - Christmas Bird Poinsettia die set
• Wintertime Crafts - Collection of old papers
• Sentiment Dimensional ad ons sticker on second card

I would like to share my card today with the Peace on Earth Challenge 

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

Connie

Cosmo's

 I would first like to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers after my Brother's passing.  My sister had pointed out that it is our Great nieces having babies not our nieces that I mentioned in my last post, I went in and fixed that :)

When I was making this card I decided to use more of my pattern paper for the flower, I know I have plenty of it for sure.  I was looking through my paper packs and I had cut the background piece using a border die and then didn't end up using it, so that was my starting point, then I found more scraps in the pack that I could use with it to make the flower.  I added a sentiment under the leaves but that was a bad place because you can't see it just blends in with all that pattern.

• Gemini- Cosmo's dies
• Teresa Collins - Tell your story papers
• Spellbiners - A2 Scalloped Borders two die
• Pearls

I am sharing my card today with Word Art Wednesday  and Simon Says Wednesday Challenge blog 

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, I will be catching up on all your blogs soon, in between unpacking, clothes washing ect. 

Connie