Make your own background

 My friend who I have known since we were babies has lost her second brother, I am so thankful that I still have all my siblings.  Wish the miles were not so far apart and this Covid thing was not going on right now, but thankfully we have ways to send love and thoughts across those miles.  It is so hard to think of where to start when making a sympathy card but I had just recently watched one of Tim Holtz's videos on making backgrounds with inks and seen the challenge over at Mix it up challenge blog where they challenged to make your own backgrounds and I decided to just start there.  I took 3 Tim Holtz oxide inks applied them to my mat, spritz them with water and applied my paper picked it up and dried it, and did this a few more times until I got this background.  Next I just started going through my things when I came across this rub on that was just the size of my card and thought that might look nice against the background, I also came across these butterfly stickers, for some reason I associate butterflies with us rising up to heaven, not sure where that came from, probably something from my childhood. I didn't make a card for her two sisters, so I found this sentiment and on the inside asked that she pass on my sympathies to them also.

Background, Distress inks - Old paper, Frayed Burlap and Antique Linen applied wet, peeled paint applied dry
Cosmo Cricket - Fleuriste Rub on
K&co. - Traditional butterflies sticker
Taylored Expressions - Care & Comfort II stamp sentiment

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

Connie

Pinecones

 A couple that started going to our church just as the pandemic was hitting gave us a little container of their homemade apple butter that they made using apples from their own yard.  I wanted to thank them for thinking of us and to say how happy we are that they have joined our church, they have jumped right in and have become a great part of our church family.

I went with Double D challenge blog where they have a mood board for you to pick from with the challenge of using pine trees or pinecones.

I went with pine cones for this card, these pinecones have 3 layers in the dies, and one large and one small pinecone, so I did each with just a slightly different shade of kraft cardstock and added a little bit of inking to them.

Le Crea' - Pinecones 3D dies
Impression Obsession - Pine branch die
Mama Elephant - Butterfly kisses stamp for sentiment
Sequins

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Wishing you a great week ahead!

Connie

All your wishing for

 Another masculine card, my great nephew is turning 16, time to get a drivers license so I always do an automobile card, I went with a car.  My sister gave me some paper when I saw her back in October and they have gold in the paper so I decided to go with a gold car too.

I will be sharing this with the Sisterhood of Crafters challenge which is use gold.

I had a very hard time getting a good picture the metallic cardstock on the card kept wanting to show me in the picture.

Frantic Stamper Inc. - Convertible Roadster
Hot off the press - Metallic Gold paper
Tim Holtz - Metallic cardstock and small talk for sentiment
PPD - Wavy stitched rectangle die

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

Hope you enjoy a nice weekend, we are continuing to be in the 70's and sunny so I will be enjoying more outdoor time :)

Connie

I love you

 My hubby and I celebrated our anniversary last month.  We love taking pictures of sunsets and we love the Autumn season so I combined the two in my card to him.

First I stamped the trees using brown ink and then embossed using clear embossing powder so I could ink my sunset behind without messing up the trees. I made a little mask for the sun and then using my foam blending tools I inked up the background using distress inks.  I used my flower soft for the leaves on the trees.

Inkadinkado - Fall tree stamp, w/brown ink and clear embossing powder
Art C - cardstock
David Tutera - Celebrate sentiment
Flower soft - Autumn
Corner tabs

Hubby didn't make me a card this year but he did write me a sweet note and then had a surprise for me, since my local stamp store closed down a few months ago, he took me over to the stamp store in Missouri, and told me to get whatever I wanted.  I didn't take advantage of that, I did get a couple of dies I had been eyeing and some specialty papers I can't find at my local craft stores.  It was a cold rainy day but it was fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

New Home

 One of my close friends for the past 13 years is moving away, 5 hour drive away. I am happy for her because now they will be close to her father and her son's family but sad for us.

I won this die set from a blog awhile ago and she did not know who was the maker of the die set, but it comes with the trees, house, light post and fence, I cut them all from white card stock and colored them.

I used my home made stencil for the clouds and a grass stamp for the lawn and inked over it.

Village scene dies, colored w/markers
D.R.S. designs - Easy grass background
Distress inks - tumbled glass and mowed lawn
Spellbinders - Sentiment one die

I hope your week is starting off well for you, we have sunshine and that always makes for a happy day!

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

Connie