Saturday, May 31, 2014

Hello There

My Brother found out at his last check up that he has prostrate cancer and he will be having surgery next week.  Since I can't go to Michigan at this time I decided to make him a card to let him know I am thinking about him and praying all goes well with the surgery.



I hadn't used this stamp set from Papertrey ink yet so I pulled him out for this card.  I inked the background side of the embossing folder to get the sky background with tumbled glass distress ink. Added a bit of chalking to the birch trees with gray chalk.

Darcie -- Birch Tree Embossing folder
Papertrey ink -- Hello, Foxy stamp set for image and sentiment, colored w/markers
Fiskars -- Grass punch and cloud punch
Dazzles -- Black jewel stickers
Memory Box -- flying birds die

We are planting  a rhododendron out front today, we didn't have any luck with what we planted last year so hoping this plant takes off.  My strawberries came in this week and I picked a whole big strainer full of them, I may have to freeze some for smoothies, don't know if I can eat them fast enough.

Hope your all enjoying your weekend,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and commenting, I really appreciate it,

Connie

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

3rd Anniversary

So weird to think my daughter will soon be married for 3 years, I wanted to make a special card for them.  On Mothers day Hot off the press was having a sale so I decided to order the cd called Amazing Folded cards, it has 52 different folded cards to make and I picked the trifold card with hearts for their card.  The cd has patterns for the cards and video on how to make them.



I will have to say I made a little mistake but I fixed it and it doesn't look too bad, when I drew around the template for the heart on top I did it backwards so I had to do a little trimming to get it to work, but I think it turned out all right :)  I could not get it to shut totally to take a picture.

This is what the card looks open to the first fold.



Here it is fully open, I will write my message on the inside here.


Here I leaned it up against the back of my board to see if I could get it to close a little more, with not much luck.


The ribbon matches the color of the card better in real life.

Hot off the press -- patterns for the tri fold card, Amazing folded cards cd
DCWV -- Rustic Stack paper
Diamond Mesh
Jo-Ann -- Scrap Essentials, emotion pack vellum quotes (inside saying)

11 days and counting until I see my daughter, getting so excited :)
Hope your week is going well and your enjoying beautiful weather,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Monday, May 26, 2014

Congratulations

I ended up cutting out another Grad image from the Silhouette for my other Great Nephew.  His school colors are red and white.  I don't know if you can see it or not but the cardstock has some shimmer on it.



I sponged ink through the stencil, wherever there were dots in the stencil I added stickles on them.  I used dimensional adhesive on the graduate.

All-silhouette.com -- image
Stamps of Life -- Stand up 4 sentiments
Tim Holtz -- Stencil Rays
Stickles -- x-mas red

I am wishing all those who have lost their loved ones that have served in our Military much peace, and thank them for the ultimate sacrifice their loved one has made.

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time out of your busy schedule to comment,

Have a wonderful week,
Connie

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Flowers in jar

I have really liked all the flowers in jars cards I had been seeing so when I saw this stamp set at Michaels and it was 40% off  I thought I had to get it and give this a try.  I used a piece of transparency and added alcohol ink  on it to give it a look of those blue mason jars that are really big right now, turned it over and stamped the jar with stazon ink. The little charms hanging from the jar and flowers are stamps in the same set.



Recollection-- jar stamp set (Michaels store)
Spellbinders -- Curved rectangle
Paper doily
Savor the moment -- papers
Elizabeth craft designs -- Bees die
Queen & co. -- Iridescent rhinestones
Transparency
Alcohol ink -- stream
Jump ring (to hang the charms)
Floss

To add the floss to the jar I poked holes on either side of the jar and strung the floss from the back of the card to the front and added the charms and finished it with a bow.

This one is going to our Pastors wife, who is also the church secretary.

Hope you have a great Memorial weekend.  We are doing some work that needs to be done around the house, first off this morning we are painting our shed, it needed it last year actually but it got so hot so quickly we didn't get around to it.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Graduation

Two of my Great Nephews are graduating from High School, that just seems crazy too me.  My nephews that I babysat when I was a teenager,  now have kids of their own that are graduating from High School.  In a few years I may be seeing some great great nephews or nieces.

This great nephew is graduating from the same High School I attended, so I knew the right colors to use :)  That brings back a lot of  memories. A couple of years ago they had our 30th High School reunion but we haven't made it to one reunion, being in the Air Force we were never close enough and the timing was always off.


I asked Greg if he had seen any Graduation cuts for the silhouette, and he said yes and he found this one Here .  I felt like it needed something a little extra and told him I wished we had some small confetti and he went away and brought back a little container of a bunch of pieces that he had saved when cutting out some spellbinder dies, isn't that cool, they were cut out of metallic papers and I think they worked perfectly here.  He said I should add more what do you think?

Silhouette file from all-shilhouettes.com
Spellbinders-- A2 matting basics A, Banner Ribbons dies
Hero Arts -- Everyday Saysings
Cuttlebug-- Swiss Dot embossing folder (yellow piece)

After stamping the sentiment on the banner I went over it with ink.

Ever since planting my green peppers we have been getting enough rain so that I haven't had to water them, that is nice, just waiting for my strawberries to start showing up, if I can get to them before the birds, I may have to get my netting out again.

Hope your having a great week,
Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment, it is much appreciated!

Connie

Monday, May 19, 2014

Roar

My great nephew asked last year when I made his birthday card if the next year I could put an animal on his card.  You see when he grows up he plans on working with animals, it will be interesting to see if that is what he ends up doing.  So I found this lion at a thrift sale and thought I would buy it and use it for his card.



Inky Antics-- lion stamp, colored w/markers
My mind's eye -- Boy crazy paper
Memory Box -- Flying birds

I believe them tree and clouds are also memory box dies but my hubby bought them and doesn't keep the name of them with the dies.  I didn't glue the whole tree down, just bits of it, colored some copic marker under for shadow and popped up the lion with foam tape.

Hope the start of your week is going very well.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and leaving your comments,
Connie

Saturday, May 17, 2014

ODBDSLC202

It has been awhile since I have had a chance to do the Our Daily bread designs challenge, in this challenge you had to use supplies or techniques using at least 4 letters in the word FLOWER.  You can find out about all the details HERE on their blog .

Since I mainly do birthday cards I had to use a different sentiment then what comes inside this stamp, so I stamped onto typing paper, cut out the words and made a mask to cover that area so I could use the versamark ink only on the image.  I used copper embossing powder for the image.


I used the following letters in this card :

F -- Flourish
O -- Oval die
W -- Washi tape
E-- Embossing powder

Our Daily Bread designs -- Finch collage stamp set, colored with distress inks and copic markers
DCWV -- Natural stack paper
Spare Parts -- Birds cage washi tape
Spellbinders -- classic oval and foliage flourish dies
Stampendous -- Birthday assortment sentiment stamp

This will be going out to my little brother for his birthday.

We went to the flea market this morning, I didn't find anything but it was fun looking through all of the goodies people had.

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend.

Thanks so much for stopping by,
Connie

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Melissa with Papertrey Ink Inspiration

This was a tough one to say who the inspiration was from because Melissa Phillips did the video but she did it for Papertrey Ink.  The girls on the design team take turns doing the Make it Monday video's.  If you are like me and you learn easiest buy watching this is something you may want to check out every Monday, and papertrey ink has great stamps and dies too :)

Here is a link to the video that gave me the inspiration for this card.


I did do things a little different from how Melissa did them.  First I did not have a triangle die, I suggest you get one, I used a ray die from Taylored Expression that I already had and it didn't match up right because the rays aren't exact triangles.  I also didn't leave my background plain which I think might be better so it doesn't take away from my flowers.  and I didn't use any dimensional tape to keep it more mailable.

I used a brayer with ink over the backside of the embossing folder, so that the embossed leaves would have the color instead of the background. I hand stitched the felt flowers to the center for the flowers.

Spellbinders -- Blossom (Big cutouts) and Cherry blossom(for the little flower centers cut with felt) dies
Cuttlebug -- Leafy Branch
David Tutera -- Celebrate sentiments
Felt
Taylored expressions -- Ray of Sunshine die

We have had a bit cooler weather lately, but next week will be warming up again, it is nice not to go from winter right to HOT summer like past years, like to enjoy a little bit of spring in there.  Hope you all are having a good week.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and for leaving your comments, I really appreciate that.

Connie

Monday, May 12, 2014

Tiles

I can't remember where I saw this technique awhile ago but when I received this stamp set with my Cardmaking & papercraft magazine this month it reminded me of it and I decided to give it a try.



I gave it to a lady friend at church who also just turned 50 and she was very happy with it :)

The square is 3 inches and I scored at every 1".  I stamped this 3 times and every time some of it went down into the scoring so I decided not to waste anymore paper and just go with it.  I wish I would have had more time for it to dry I might have tried to put some kind of gloss over it but maybe I will try that on one that I haven't spent all that time coloring.  I just thought this technique would be perfect for those few background stamps I have that are small squares and maybe you have a few of them in your own collection.

I stamped the image with Desert Sand Memento ink, gives it a little lighter touch then if it was done in black, next time I will have to try the black and see what I like more.

The country diary of an Edwardian Lady -- Stamp set, colored w/markers
Stamped with Desert Sand Memento ink
My Mind's Eye -- Indie Chic paper
Spellbinders -- Fancy Framed tags one die
Stampendous -- Birthday assortment stamp
Spare parts -- mini heart brads
Martha Stewart -- Butterfly punches
Vellum
Paper Studio -- Pearls, colored w/markers

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead,
Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Thanks Brother

I have been busy getting my flowers and green peppers planted that I got last Sunday and am helping a friend make T-shirt quilts for her son and daughter for their graduation presents and this is the first sewing project she has ever done, she is doing a great job, she is a natural, I can see her going on and doing more projects.

All the images and papers are from a K&co. pack, you can buy them from Jo-Anns.  The sentiment is from a set that my secret sister also gave me, getting good use out of the goodies she gave me :)


K&co. -- Flora & Fauna die-cut cardstock and vellum pack
David Tutera -- Celebrate sentiment, I used distress inks on this to dull down the white background.

The bird image has been popped up with dimensional tape.

Hope you all will enjoy your Mother's day tomorrow, I will be seeing my daughter the first week of June, can't wait :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and for your comments,

Connie

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Masculine thanks

The two thank you cards for yesterday were for my sisters, today I have a couple for two of my brothers, I still have to make one more for my other brother.

The first one I colored the tag with distress stain and the stamped. The little bird is wooden and I colored him with markers


DCWV -- Tattered time paper
Tim Holtz -- Kraft glassine pockets
7 gypsies -- naked tabs
Spare parts -- Birds cage designer tape (washi)
Distress stain -- Weathered wood
Hero Arts-- all occasion messages stamp
Recollections -- wooden birds colored w/markers
Card minis colored w/marker

Here is the tag outside the envie:



My second card measures 3 1/2 x 5 1/2.  I can't remember why I had a couple of these sizes left over but I decided to use one for this card.  The washi tape kind of blends right in with the paper but there is a strip on either side of the sentiment.



DCWV -- Tattered time paper
Hot off the press -- Cardmakers quotes & definitions w/ yellow chalk
Spare parts -- Birds cage designer tape
Cloud 9 design -- Rain dots

We are having a very windy day today, knocking off alot of those pretty flowers on the trees, it is blowing some storms our way.  Hope you all are enjoying a wonderful week.

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to leave your comment,

Connie

Monday, May 5, 2014

More Rays card

Do you remember this card I made back in March using 4 sheets of paper that I stacked and then cut into strips, well I have finally done something with two more of them.  Instead of doing a square card this time I glued the strips to a 4x5 1/4 cardstock and cut off whatever was hanging over.  These die cuts came with the paper pack so they match perfectly.  I used foam tape to pop the sentiments up.  Inking with distress inks before gluing them down.



I did the first as a horizontal card and added the sentiment to the heart.

Kaisercraft -- Sweet pea paper and die cuts
Taylored Expression -- Many mini's occasions stamp set


Kaisercraft -- Sweet pea paper and die cuts
Hampton art -- sentiment stamp

We have been enjoying such beautiful weather.  Yesterday I got my order for my green peppers and flowers that I ordered through a boy at church selling them for his boy scout troop, last year they were just great so I went with him again this year and they look terrific again, so I need to get them planted, oh how I love to watch things grow.  My strawberries don't look good this year so I don't know how many of those I will be enjoying.

Hope your week is starting out wonderfully,
Thanks so much for stopping by,

Connie

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Sincere Sympathy

While we were in Michigan little Brooklin lost her fight.  I can't imagine what this family is going through, I wanted to send a card and since they are doing a celebration of life and not a funeral I decided to go with brighter colors.



Spellbinders -- Decorative Labels 28, carnation creations and bitty blossom dies
Taylored Expression -- Care & Comfort II stamp set
Teresa Collins -- Tell your story paper
Studio G -- Flower stamp on sentiment label
Sizzix -- Branch with leaves die that has been cut apart
Liquid Pearls -- Mint green (flower centers)
Queen & co. --- Baby blue pearls on label
Lace from Sabrina :)

We are having lovely sunshine here today and the temps are warming up, we should be able to open the windows and doors .... YAH!!!

Hope you all enjoy your weekend,
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

Connie

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Linda's Inspiration

Good Morning everyone, I saw this card from Linda and it gave me the want to give the Spellbinder Lily die a try. I loved that I didn't have any dies like it so I bought it then I was to afraid to give it a try. I have been following Linda for some time now, I think I found her when trying to find spellbinder die ideas way back when I started buying them.  She does such Beautiful work, you will have all kinds of inspiration after visiting her Blog .


Now I don't think that I would try mailing a card with this flower on it but I will be hand delivering this one, so it will be ok.  The background die and embossed background is another from a set that my Secret Sister gifted me, all I did was add some distress ink to the background, and popped up the top portion with dimensional adhesive.  Flower started off as white cardstock and I used distress inks and a fine tip sharpie.

David Tutera -- Celebrate A2 layers background (can be found at JoAnns)
Distress Inks -- Tumbled Glass, worn Lipstick and spun sugar
Spellbinders -- Create a Stargazer Lily and Foliage Flourish dies
Technique Tuesday -- Happy Birthday sentiment stamp (cut a notch for a banner)
Dried Baby Breaths from Michaels

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and your comments they are much appreciated,

Connie