Easter Blessings

 I used the same stamp set in both of these cards.

• ODBD - The Shepherd stamp set, colored w/markers
• PPD - Distressed Edge Rectangle die, inked

This next one I was trying to think how I could use it differently and I went with first stamping the lamb and then stamping the cane around it to frame it, don't think I did the greatest job lining it up, but thought it worked ok.

• ODBD - The Shepherd stamp set, colored w/markers
• Spellbinders - Marvelous Squares die
• We R memory keepers - For the record paper

I would like to share my card with Simon Says stamps Wednesday Challenge Anything goes

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

Connie

It's your birthday

 Although this dog does not look like our great niece's I thought she would like this card :) I colored the stamp with markers and hand cut the little banner, added a little punched flower that matches the ones in the stamp to go with the sentiment.

• Stampavie - Daisy Chain stamp, colored w/markers
• Echo park - Fine and Dandy paper
• Spellbinders - Labels one dies
• Simon says stamps- Tiny words birthday sentiment stamp
• EK Success - punched flower
• Hand cut banner

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

Connie

Kraft Cards

 Before I finish sharing my Easter cards I thought I would share my Christmas cards I finished for our stamp group challenge this month that is use Kraft cardstock on your cards.

I am thinking last month I forgot to do one of my stitched pieces from my Spellbinders 2024 stitched advent calendar, so I made sure I would do one this month and the next door was this cute penguin. Yep I gave him a pink belly :) After embossing the kraft background I directly swiped the background with my white ink pad. The little snowflakes are part of the penguin die set.

• Spellbinders - 2024 stitched advent calendar - penguin, pink floss for the stitching
• Sizzix - Snowflake embossing folder, swiped the raise areas with white ink
• Simon says stamp - Tiny words Christmas sentiment stamp
• Pink & main - Sentiment strip dies

The next two cards uses the same stamp I just stamped them in different areas of the background and one is colored w/markers and the other is colored with pencils.

• Sentimentally yours - Poinsettia Perfection stamp, colored w/markers
• Strathmore - Toned Tan mixed media card stock

• Sentimentally yours - Poinsettia Perfection stamp, colored w/pencils
• Strathmore - Toned Tan mixed media card stock

Next card I stamped the deer in brown ink and then added some clear sparkle pen to just the snowflakes

• Sentimentally yours - Poinsettia perfection stamp set, with clear sparkle pen on the snowflakes
• Kat Scrapiness - Mini Slimline - Stitched Rope die
• White gel pen for snowy background

Lastly I stamped these snowflakes, I am still debating on whether or not to add some white gel pen lines coming down from the top of the card so it looks like they are hanging on from a string or just to leave them floating, what would you do? I also am leaving this under some weight the card did a little bowing after heat embossing the stars and sentiment.

• Sentimentally yours - Poinsettia perfection stamp set, white heat embossing of the star stamps and sentiment
• Strathmore - Toned Tan mixed media card stock

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

There you have it my Christmas cards are done for this month :)

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

Connie

ATC Challenge

 The last Challenge in the group was to make an ATC (Artist Trading Card). Our group has an ATC swap every month, but I am not really into that so I don't do that. But I thought I would do this challenge because I could use my own ATC to use on a card.

Here is my Trading Card I made using one of Tim's Pocket cards as my base. I added a few items from his snippets and my own faux cello tape.

 For my recent birthday my hubby took me over to the stamp store in Missouri and I picked up a package of music note papers, and I used that for the base of my card.

• Tim Holtz - Pocket Cards, and Field Notes Snippets
• Hunkydory - Musical Notes Paper
• Simon Says Stamps - Tiny Words Birthday sentiment stamp
• Martha Stewart - Swirling lace border punch
• Prima Flowers
• Gems
• My Faux cello tape using alcohol inks

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

Connie

Inspiration

 Another Challenge in my cardmaking group was to make a card inspired by another member in the group. I found one of the girls who used 3 different leaves and put them together, I thought that would make a good sympathy or thinking of you type card.  

Now those that have been with me for many years know that every card I share goes to someone, maybe one or two a year I have no plan for at the time of making it and this is one of those, thankfully no need for it right now but I always thought it would be nice to have some on hand that I can send out right away if need be, so this will be set aside for that reason, hopefully it won't be needed any time soon.

I added rub ons to the card base instead of pattern paper.

• Spellbinders - Foliage die
• 49 and Market - Vintage Artistry Essentials Foliage and Vintage Artistry essentials Rub ons for background
• Memory Box - windswept stems die
• Simon Says stamps - Tiny words Faith sentiment stamp
• Pink & Main - Sentiment strips die
• Twine

I would like to share my card today with Seize the Birthday challenge Green as main color

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

Connie

Scraps Challenge

 Another challenge in our cardmaking group was to use scraps, now I was keeping my scraps to just a basket but now I have 4 different containers that I put smaller scraps, I really need to stop this, but I just hate throwing away paper I think I may be able to use at some point.

I started with the circle die and went from there, cutting scraps out with my dies. I just kept looking through my die container for things that would go together. The circle the sentiment is stamped on was the leftover piece from the circle die.

• Memory Box - Surely stitched circle die,  Pennington Rose Blossom  and Leavenworth Butterfly Trio dies
• Stamps of life - Postmarks 2 stamp sentiment stamp

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

Sketch

 My Cardmaking group has a sketch for this month, and it is a circle with a sentiment strip at the bottom. this is what I came up with for the next birthday card I needed.

• Melissa Frances - Wreath die
• The Greetery - Robin and Wren stamp and dies
• Diamond Press - Sentiment stamp from advent calendar 
• Spellbinders - Labels Trio die
• Scrap paper

These bird stamps are layered, you stamp multiple times with different stamps lining them up to get the different colors. I also did a bit of inking around the wreath with a little darker color of green.

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

Connie

Spring

 Since I am starting to post my spring cards I need to change my header on my blog.  We are actually getting snow flurries down here in Southern Illinois but it is only sticking a little bit to our deck.

This card I used some old stickers I have had around for awhile, they came from one of those daily calendars were every day had a sticker.  The bottom half of the card is a smooshed ink background, I added some inks to my glass mat and sprayed a little water and took a piece of watercolor paper and dabbed it in the ink.

• Daily calendar stickers
• Smooshed ink background on bottom
• Anna Griffin - Advent calendar tag die
• Twine
• Scrap paper

I would like to share today's card with Four Seasons challenge Spring.

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

Connie

What we love

 Using some of those things that have not seen the light of day in quite some time Probably many years for the Neglected Stuff Challenge I looked on the packaging for the tag book and it says 2003, I know it had been awhile since I bought it but didn't know that long. I tried to look on the Paperwishes sight to see if they still sold them but couldn't find it. I used two tags from the booklet of cut outs and the little leaf, these papers are thin so I did add the leaf image to some cardstock so that it was stiff enough to pop up on the bottom tag. The embossing folder was gifted to me a few years ago, I have know idea what the name of it is .

• Stampin up - Embossing folder (sorry no name)
• Hot off the press - Tag Art #2 book
• Brazzill - Brad

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

Connie

Faux Step

 Our stamp group got together over Teams again to make a Faux step card. I didn't have enough time to get a stamp around ahead of time so I went with some ephemera I had to embellish it, we did do some heat embossing with a few different colors of embossing powders before putting the card together that we used on the panel behind the image and for the front bottom piece.

• Stampin up - Vine stamp 2000, embossed w/ gold, silver and Opaque sparkle embossing powders
• Provocraft - Textile Embossing folder
• American Crafts - Ephemera pack (flower and butterfly)
• Memory Box - Greeting tabs

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

Connie

Make A wish

 Sharing some new goodies, I have had them for a little while but finally got around to using them. I got some Wood Veneer cardstock from Amazon and tried it out making the nest from it, hoping it would look more like twigs. I also did a bit of inking on it. My new bird is nestled inside.

• Simon Says stamps - Rustic Nest die cut from Wood Venner cardstock and Sweet Songbird die
• Graphic 45 - Botanical Tea papers 
• Poppy stamps - Eyelet stitches die
• Tim Holtz - Funky Floral #3 dies and Quote Chips
• Queen & Co. - Baby Blue Pearls

I would like to share my card today with the following Challenges,

Triple B Challenge 

NBUS (Nest and Bird dies)

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

Connie

Just for you

 Once again I only managed to get head on pics of my first card, and it has already been mailed. But I did add a bit of dimension with foam adhesive tape, to some of the ephemera in this paper pack.

• Studio Light - DIY Block Vintage Roses paper pack. Papers and ephemera
• Diamond Press - Heart Gem

I would like to share this card with Love those pretty papers challenge.

The next card is one I sent to one of the older ladies in our congregation that is home bound. I am sure like us all she is dreaming of spring.  I haven't used these stamps before.  The bird stamp is solid and the actual bird is clear, I stamped onto pattern paper so the bird would have some kind of pattern to it, and fussy cut it out, as well as the umbrella, and the two sentiment tag, the dream was also stamped onto pattern paper and punched the circle out.

• Autumn Leaves - Wellies n Brellas stamp set (fussy cutting)
•  Martha Stewart - Circle punch (dream stamp)
• Spellbinders - Lattice Rectangle die

 

 

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

Connie

 

Hello

 I went to my Graphics Fairy collection once again to make a card for a lady in the church who just went through surgery. They have a great collection of vintage images, clipart and such if you are interested.

• Graphics Fairy - Vintage images
• ODBD - Hello Die
• Spellbinders - Sequins

I would like to share my card today with the Double D Challenge Postal Challenge

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

Connie

Let us begin

 Went with more Ciabella products for the next Masculine card I needed, adding some die cut gears cut from metallic cardstock to go with the theme of the ephemera.

• Ciabella - Engine of the future 12x12 paper and Creative pad Ephemera elements
• Memory Box - Deluxe Gear set dies
• Tim Holtz - Vintage Labels dies and stamp

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

Connie

Balloon Kitties

 I thought this stamp would make a cute card for a preteen birthday. Colored it with markers.

• Inky Antics - Balloon Kitties stamp set, colored w/markers
• Echo Park - Fine and Dandy paper
• Gemini - Torn Edge circle dies
• Diamond Press - Advent calendar star gems from 2025 calendar

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

Connie