Friday, April 29, 2016

Grace and peace

My Son in laws mother lost her sister to cancer and I wanted to send her a card.  I found these little coloring messages at our Base Exchange, it was the last set and they have encouraging sentiments and some bible verses, I thought this one was a good verse.


These cards are made out of a very heavy cardstock, almost a board feel to them, the surface seemed a little slick to me, so I don't know how watercolor would do but my Specturm Noir alcohol markers worked fine. They measure 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches. You can't see it in these pictures but I put a bit of glitter pen on the wings and center of the flowers.  I added the die cut around it, thought it gave a garden feel to it.



Creative Expressions -- to calm and inspire images, colored w/markers
Spellbinder -- Lattice Rectangle die
Martha Stewart -- Swirling lace border punch
Recollections -- Iridescent rhinestones
Wink of stella-- clear glitter pen

We went to a lake near by and were able to take some pictures of Geese and their babies yesterday, I haven't had a chance yet to download them, hopefully I got some good pictures, if I did I will share them next time.

Hope you all have a wonderful, fun and creative weekend,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,

Connie

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Happy Birthday

I am using an image cut from my Silhouette machine.  My hubby really bought the machine thinking it would be better than the Cricut machine I own but like me I think it is too much of a chore for him to get it out and set it up. When I use it I usually sit down and cut out a whole bunch of things at once and then put them in envelopes to use later, I would not get the machine out to just cut one thing like I do when I use my dies.  Maybe if it was always set up and connected to my computer but we have them stored away, no room to have them out all the time.   How about you do you own one of these cutting machines?



The framing was done with a spellbinder die, added some pearls to the flowers, and some stickles to the leaves but it doesn't show up well.

Silhouette Cameo -- Happy Birthday sentiment cut
Spellbinders -- A2 matting basics A and Decorative Labels one dies
Liquid Pearls -- Lemon Yellow
Stickles -- Rock Candy
Jute
Button

It looks like the Mid West is getting hit with more storms again.  Yesterday we were coming home from grocery shopping and we saw this wall of clouds coming so my hubby pulled over onto a dirt country road and was taking pictures until there was some close lightning and very loud thunder, he asked if I would drive and he could take pictures from inside the car so we switched places, I didn't even get down the road a 1/2 mile and we had such force winds and heavy rain that it was hard to stay on the road and I had to cut my speed quite a bit, it was that way all the way home. The roads were flooding over quite quickly but we made it home and I was so thankful we have a garage so that we could unload the groceries without getting soaked.

Here is one of the pictures he took.


I hope everyone is keeping safe through these storms, and that your week is going well,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today :)

Connie

Monday, April 25, 2016

Awesome Blossoms

Yes I am doing a coloring page from the Awesome Blossoms colorist I bought at the Scrapbooking convention.  Our Pastors wife's birthday isn't until this week but I gave her the card yesterday so I can share :)

I started out with this paper there were so many different colors on the flowers so I thought I would just pull the colors from it and match them, welllll as you can see after cutting out the panel it took up most of the card.  I may have to make bigger cards using these panels from now on :)



There are little labels in this pack so that you can add sentiment to your cards and this one matched the style of this panel, so I cut it out and sponged a little ink into the center to darken it a little more than the background panel and stamped my sentiment, I also added some foam tape to the back to give it a little dimension.

Hot off the press -- Awesome Blossoms for Colorist pad, colored w/markers
Gina Marie -- Birthday words sentiment stamp
BasicGrey -- Picadilly paper

Hope you had a good weekend and they week ahead brings much joy!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving me a little comment to let me know you did,

Connie

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Confetti Birthday

I have another card for a great niece this one has turned 14.  I am using another die that my hubby bought for his art and I am using it before he has :)  The confetti in this die set is very small, I suggest cutting it out of paper that you have already added adhesive to it, makes putting the little pieces on a lot easier.  I only have pieces left to my paper pad so I decided to use it on this card, thought it gave a little bit more of a festive look to it, also used a pattern paper for the confetti so it wasn't a flat color.



I took a closeup picture so you can see the confetti a little better, also did some stenciling through the die before I took the paper out to frame the sentiment.


I have no name for the birthday stamp and can't even remember where I got it.

BasicGrey -- Lilykate paper
Spellbinders -- Ironworks Accents dies (sentiment, framing and border)
Taylored Expressions -- Celebration Confetti
Happy Birthday stamp

I thought I would share some pictures my hubby took of a couple of baby owls that he heard of through my hubby's on line photography group.  They were at a park in one of the suburbs of St. Louis we found the first one still in the nest.




This next picture is of one of the babies that have flown the nest.

 You can see how their feathers are still a bit fluffy, so neat to watch them.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today,
I hope you all enjoy a wonderful weekend, full of fun and creativity.

Connie

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Hooray!

I have a card today for another great niece who is turning 11. She is a bit of a tomboy and that is what this little girl reminds me of :)



I added the little kitty watching her play.

Hot off the press -- Janie's girls stamp, colored w/markers
Tim Holtz -- Ideology Vintage shabby papers
Spellbinders -- A2 mattting basics A, labels 8 and Ribbon tags trio dies
Impression Obsession -- Cat die
SRM stickers -- Thinking of you sentiments
Offray Ribbon
Queen & co. -- Sunshine yellow gems

Hope your week is going well.  My heart goes out to all those involved in flooding and earthquakes this past week.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop in today and letting me know you did,

Connie

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

RAK

RAK -- Random Acts of Kindness.... Quite a few years back one of the Ladies in the card making group I belonged to gave me these papers and flowers and I still had a few pieces left and that is how this card came about.  I had come to a wall and had no idea of what I wanted to do for my friend that loves pink.  So I just started going through my stuff hoping to get an idea, when I came across these papers and flowers, but then I didn't know what I wanted to do with them, so I started looking through my saved card sketches and I settled on MoJo 355, if you are ever stumped on what to do with your cardmaking they have a lot of neat ideas.


RAK -- papers, ribbon and flowers
BasicGrey -- Brad
Martha Stewart -- Border punch
Spellbinders -- Classic Circle and Blossom dies
David Tutera -- Celebrate sentiment

Hope you all are having a good start to your week... it seems that Monday's are the day we tackle the lawn and the dreaded weeds, I need to get some more mulch and rocks because this is getting back breaking for me, and I can tell I don't do enough physical work in the winter because using the weed trimmer every spring about kills my arms.  I do all that stuff while my hubby mows the lawn.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today, love hearing from you,

Connie

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Flowering branch

If your like me you are enjoying all the beautiful blooming trees, so I just had to capture that in a spring birthday card for a friend.

I love the Memory Box Woodland Branch die because you can use it in so many ways and you can have it bare or add as many leaves as you want, in any size you want too.  I decided to use the Memory Box Grove leaves for my branch today. For the flowers I used the bigger set of flowers from the Taylored Expressions Arbor Accessories die set.  The big cardinal is from the Cheery Lynn Designs Feathered Friends die set, there are 4 different birds that come in this set. Finished it off with Memory Box Happy Birthday garland .  Finished it off with a couple small cardinals perched on the garland from the Poppystamps Cheery Cardinals die set.  You may recognize the little cardinals I used them on my first project I did for the design team.



For the background I just cut a piece of cardstock with my scalloped scissor and then took my Tumbled Glass Distress ink and sponged the sky.



My tips:
Add details with your markers as I did with the cardinals eye and beak. I added a little bit of darker red chalk to his wing.  Isn't the details on these birds terrific and all in the set are that way.  I've also added a bit of Fruit punch stickles to the inside of the flowers for a bit of shimmer.

Another tip is when you have small pieces to apply to a project like the little leaves, run a strip of the paper or card stock you are using through your Xyron and then cut using your die, peel off the backing with your nails or your piercing tool like in the picture below and add them to your project.



All links to the dies are in the description above.




click below for:
STORE
CHALLENGE BLOG
FACEBOOK
INSPIRATION BLOG

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Connie

    Saturday, April 16, 2016

    Tag card and the Zoo

    Another tag card from the tag art book of images.  This time went for a masculine card for my great nephew.  This age group is hard for me he is 19 or 20 now, not quite a teenager anymore but not quite into adulthood.  The tag art book has all kinds of embellishments with them and so on this card I used one of the squares, cut it in half for the corners and another I decided to add on top of the tag and had a hidden stamp underneath, I sent a message inside telling him to open it :)


    It lines up pretty well with the tag underneath I thought, and here it is opened:


    Hot off the press -- Tag Art #2, tags and corners
    Hot off the press -- Sarabooks ivory papers
    Inkadinkado -- Neo Victorian Inchie bundle stamps
    Bazzill -- brad
    Paper Studio -- Gems

    It was hard but I picked out 9 pictures to share of the St. Louis Zoo.

    These baby elephants were just too cute, I think I got the most pictures of them they were playing so cute together.


    Here they decided to join Momma


    This picture of the bear was taking through a glass panel, he was enjoying playing in the water


    We watched the seals swim in the water here, they had a glass tunnel for you to walk under and the were swimming all around us, but none of those pictures turned out very good.



    This flamingo picture was the favorite of my hubby that I took, he liked how they formed a heart here.


    The pelicans were very closeup here, just on the other side of a brick wall.


    I am sorry I forgot what this guy was, I think it said he was in the Egret family, but not sure.  It was funny because when we went into the bird house he was right on the edge of the path sleeping with his wings spread out, we were wondering if he was dead, well he all of a sudden stood up and stretched his wings like this, he was quite entertaining.


    I am assuming these are some kind of donkey but I have never seen these kind of markings on their legs before.


    The Giraffe was checking out how the leaves tasted in the lot next door to him :)


    Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you have a wonderful weekend,

    Connie

    Thursday, April 14, 2016

    Coolest Cat

    I thought this stamp set was cute and could be used for any age.  This went out to my great niece who turned 8 years old.

    This set has the matching dies for the cats, the stitched marks were in the paper so I just used that to ground them, I thought the sentiment was cute.


    I tried to make my own enamel dots by adding glossy accents to the little circles that came out of the die cut that frames the cats, but I don't think I added enough glossy accents.

    Taylored Expressions -- Max & Muffin stamp and die set, colored w/markers
    DCWV -- Crafty stack paper
    Spellbinders -- Classic circle and Eyelet circles dies

    It is suppose to be a beautiful day today, we are thinking about heading to the zoo, but you never know where we might end up, hope you have a very enjoyable day!!

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

    Connie

    Tuesday, April 12, 2016

    Sending Prayers

    A long time friend in my card making group Mother passed away and this is the card I sent to her.

    This has kind of a two step stamping to it, I thought I would use white embossing powder to it on cream cardstock and it just didn't show up like I was hoping so I decided to go with sponging on a soft blush color of ink to let  the white embossing show up better and I really liked the results.  Don't forget to go over the embossing with a paper towel to take up any ink that may be on your embossing.


    I added a gem to the center to help bring out the green background stamping a bit.

    Here is a closeup of the flower.


    Papertrey ink -- Meadow Greens stamp set w/ white embossing powder
    Basic Grey -- Lily Kate paper
    Spellbinders -- A2 matting basics B
    Martha Stewart -- Border punch
    Ribbon
    Button
    Gem

    Hope your week is off to a good start, we are still getting down quite low at night but they are saying we should start seeing more like normal temperatures for our daytime highs so that is nice.  Hope it is good where you are!

    Thanks so much for taking the time to stop in today and for sharing your thoughts,

    Connie

    Monday, April 11, 2016

    Enjoy the Journey

    Good Morning, I am sharing a card I made for my nephew today.  I am sharing today over at the Dies R Us Blog .

    Some people have trouble making masculine cards but there are so many great dies at the Dies R Us Store.  I decided to use Cheery Lynn Designs- Steampunk Corner and Memory Box - Mini Gears. I also used Spellbinders A2 Distressed Edges dies.


    I started out with a Kraft card stock base, cut brown and cream card stocks with my Spellbinder A2 distressed edges dies. Used DCWV Foiled Cardstock to cut my corners and gear dies.  On the cream card stock I used distress inks of crushed Olive, tea dye and Rusty hinge with a sponge dauber to add color to the background and then stamped the background using Tim Holtz, The Journey stamp set for the sentiment, arrow and clock face.

    I couldn't get a good picture with both corners showing the shine of the corner die, but you can see it on the top right die and the gears.


    TIPS

    I love using metal papers and dies for cutting out my gears but you can also emboss a piece of card stock with silver, gold or bronze embossing powder and then cut out the dies.

    My other tip is to use removable tape or if you have bought more washi tape then you could ever use in a life time, then you could also use that to hold your item that you are cutting out in place as it goes through your machine, that way you will get a clean cut, with no slippage.


     
    Click below for:

    Thanks so much for stopping by today, 

    Connie

    Saturday, April 9, 2016

    Glittered wreath and convention goodies

    A couple years ago Big Lots use to sell scrapbook items at good prices, I haven't been in that store in quite some time so I don't know how their selection is now but I bought a couple sets of Martha Stewart glitter kits back then and I decided to get them out and make a thank you for my sister.



    After I glittered the wreath and flowers I thought it was a bit dark so I found some lighter paper to brightened it back up a bit, these cute fairy stamps are part of the paper pack I used and thought they would be cute with it.

    Martha Stewart -- Glittered Botanical card kit
    Graphic 45 -- Once upon a springtime paper
    Offray ribbon
    David Tutera -- celebrate sentiment

    I mentioned in last post about attending the CK convention yesterday, my hubby went with me and he even found some goodies to use with his art work and pictures he takes, if he gets around to using them I will share with you, but I may just use them before he does ;)

    This is all the goodies I picked up, mostly stamps but I did find the little bottles to put your glue in and I am hoping that since they have those pins in them maybe they won't clog up on me, glossy accents is the worse at clogging for me.  The little owl stamp was free with my purchase and since I bought 3 sets I got 30% off one of the more expensive sets so that was cool.  I know I don't need it but I bought even more colorist sheets from Hot off the press.  Told my hubby not to let me buy anymore! On the bottom right corner are some wobblers, when you attach a picture or stamped image that you cut out, you can attach it to them and it will wobbble,



    Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful weekend!

    Connie

    Friday, April 8, 2016

    Watercolor Panels with H20's

    I am just loving these watercolor panels and this time around I used Twinkling H2O's on them. I googled them and found THIS VIDEO that a girl demonstrated how to use them if your interested in trying them out.


    It is hard to see the twinkle of them in this picture.

    Taylored Expressions -- Keep in Touch watercolor panel, watercolor with Twinkling H2O's
    Teresa Collins -- He said she said papers
    Fiskar border punch

    I am heading to the CKC Convention today.  Hoping to see some new product that I can't find at my Local stamp store or craft stores in my area.

    Hope you have a fun and creative weekend ahead!!

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

    Connie

    Wednesday, April 6, 2016

    Hummingbird

    I want to thank you all for your great encouragement on my first design team post for Dies R Us . I am a bit nervous wanting to do a good job. I was able to go see him yesterday and I gave them the announcement and asked if I could update my page with the actual picture I meant to go with it and Momma said sure so I have updated the post with the actual picture of Owen if you want to scroll down and check it out, he is a little cutie :)

    Today I am sharing a card I made for Stephanie, who celebrated her birthday this past weekend.  I am so bummed that we have not seen our hummingbirds yet this year.  I thought I read that they should arrive back in this area Mid March, but so far I have not seen one, maybe because we are still having quite cool mornings I don't know.

    I used my Spectrum Aqua markers again for the coloring, added a little clear glitter to it all when I was done to give a little shimmer.


    Inkadinkado -- Hummingbird with flowers, colored w/ Aqua markers
    Spellbinders -- Big Scalloped Circles lg., Majestic Labels 25 dies
    Distress ink-- Hickory smoke
    Our daily bread design -- Mini tag sentiments stamp, inked center of tag with spun sugar distress ink
    Colorbok -- Homespun paper
    Wink of Stella -- clear glitter marker

    Hope you are all having a great week so far,
    Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and letting me know you did,

    Connie

    Monday, April 4, 2016

    Baby Announcement

    Hi all, today is my first post I am doing for the DiesRUs Design team!!! I am so excited to share my project with you today!

    Our Youth Pastor and his wife just had their first baby, so I made this little desk top photo display and announcement for them. Since I haven't given it to them yet, I didn't get their permission to use the photo of their son so I used a picture of our daughter that is 26 years old. They have a picture of their son in a baseball uniform laying next to a baseball bat which gave me the inspiration for this project.  They are St. Louis Cardinal Fans so I just had to use my Poppystamps Cheery Cardinals on top of his name Memory Box - Parker Upper Alphabet. Instead of putting two pictures on the base, I made a tag with his stats using Poppystamps Pinpoint Main Street tags. For the letters on the tag I used Die-versions Editor in Chief font for the numbers I used Die-Versions Peppermint Font .

    That is just what I love about this craft is how we can personalize a project.  You could use this same idea on a plaque or Scrapbook page.

    Editing to my post, I gave this to the couple today and Momma gave me permission to share the picture of little Owen with this:




    Here is a view from the side



    Items also used:
    Tim Holtz -- Idea-ology, Memo pins
    Crate Paper -- Little boy blue paper
    Hole Reinforcements, colored red with markers
    Offray ribbon

    For the base I started out with a 12 x 4 inch piece of cardstock. On the 12 " length of the cardstock score at 1 3/4, 3 1/2, 5 1/2, 6 1/2, 8 1/2 and 10 1/4. All will be mountain folds except 1 3/4 and 10 1/4. In picture below I am showing how I curved the Memo pins so that they can be added to the middle piece.


    Here they are attached and taped down, if I do this again I would use more scor tape (heavy duty tape) to tape on either side of the pins. I cute a piece of cardstock to go over the pins to hide the underside.


    The last picture is to give you an idea of how I folded the bottom together, I also used scor tape to keep it together better.


    The DiesRUs blog has 12 design team members with more inspiration on using dies, so head on over and check out what the other ladies in the group are sharing.  Then you will want to stop by DiesRUs and check out their wide selection of dies they have, I know I have a long wish list of fun dies I can't wait to play with. They are also on Facebook so you won't miss a card!

    I am also sharing my project with the Memory Box, anything but a card challenge .

    Thanks so much again for stopping by today, Hope your week is off to a great start!!

    Connie

    Friday, April 1, 2016

    Celebrating you

    Before I share my card today I want to share some exciting news.  I have been selected to be on the Dies R Us Design Team !!!!!  You all know how much I love using dies so this is very exciting for me.  My first project will be posted on Monday April 4th. So please stop by and check it out.

    Now on to the card I made for a friend at church that is also one of our Sunday School teachers.  At HSN I bought a subscription to Crafter's Companion Inspiration Magazine.  Inside the issue I received was these poppy stamps and matching dies, I colored them with Aqua markers then shaped them with my stylus and a mat to give them some dimension and hand cut the leaves and buds.


    Sheena Douglas -- Victorian Floral, poppy stamp and dies, Colored w/Spectrum Aqua markers
    Rasberry Road design- love lives here papers
    Spellbinders -- Classic Ovals and Floral Oval dies
    Penny Black -- Sprinkles and Smiles sentiment stamp set
    Cuttlebug -- Swiss dots embossing folder

    Wishing you a very creative and happy weekend, and may you all stay safe through these spring storms the country is having!

    Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today and letting me know you did,

    Connie