The Lord Is Good

It seems I have more and more friends that need encouragement or sympathy cards. Here is one I made for a friend I've had since high school. She lost her mother a few days ago unexpectedly, but we know she's in a better place. We are planning our 45 year high school reunion this week. Most of my friends have been Christians like me for more years than that. God has brought us through many trials and we are stronger and better for it. We lean on each other, pray for each other, and share our trust in a loving God.

 Word Art Wednesday's verse is a wonderful verse of encouragement, as it usually is. I used the 2nd May sketch from Viva La Verve to make this card.  I included some stitching for the challenge at Little Red Wagon. and two types of ribbon for the challenge at Crafts 4 Eternity.

Challenges:

Crafts 4 Eternity - Recipe #70 - Maypole Ribbons

Little Red Wagon Challenge #131 - Stitch it up

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #26- Nahum 1:7 or other scripture 

Viva La Verve May 2012 - Week 2 sketch

6.5" x 5" Encouragement Card Recipe:

Paper - Graphic 45; Close To My Heart "Elemental"(background pattern), Sorbet, Juniper, White Daisy cardstock

Ink - CTMH Sorbet

Other - CTMH Juniper ribbon, Colonial White waxy flax; Sizzix embossing folder "Musical Flourish;" Spellbinder's Nestabilities "Lacey Circles;" Recollections floral embellishments; white trim unknown

The Final Flutter By Wednesdays Card

I was sad to see that this would be the last challenge at Flutter By Wednesdays. I have a passion for butterflies. So I decided to make this last card special with my favorite butterfly stamp. They provided a great sketch for us to use this last time. I also used the challenge at The Paper Players for additional creative ideas.

I used the first row going down for the Tic Tac Toe - flowers, blue colors, and spring. The chick hatching is definitely for spring along with flowers that look like primroses. Little Red Wagon's challenge to use at least 3 flowers helped me with the finishing touches. I used 8 flowers.

I stamped the butterfly twice with Twilight ink- once on Twilight cardstock (bottom layer) and again on Crystal Blue patterned paper so that the pattern would show more. I inked the edges with Chocolate ink like I did all of the other papers.  In real life, my stamped butterfly matches the color of the one in the patterned paper, but lighting in my house changes things! I used an unusual piece of ribbon I'd been saving for something special. After wrapping it around the card there was a small piece left for a knotted-type bow. In the upper right corner I stamped "best wishes" for the Flutter By Team whose challenges and samples I've enjoyed.

May God bless you as you Fly on to New Pursuits!

Challenges:
Flutter By Wednesdays Challenge #200 Sketch
Little Red Wagon - Use at least 3 flowers
The Paper Players - Challenge #93 Tic Tac Toe

5" x 6.5" Card Recipe:
Paper - Graphic 45 - Once Upon a Springtime; Close To My Heart New England Ivy, Twilight, Colonial White Cardstock, Twitterpated patterned paper
Stamps - CTMH "Find Your Style" (butterfly), "A Little Buzz" (best wishes)
Inks - CTMH Chocolate, New England Ivy, Twilight
Other - Cuttlebug embossing folder, Recollections floral embellishments, Prima (small flowers), CTMH Mocha pearls, ribbon unknown

Kites in the Clouds

Here's a fun card I made using my packet of Dotty for You paper. When I spotted this sheet with clouds I knew it was perfect for Little Red Wagon's Challenge #126, Up in the Clouds. Then yesterday I saw two more challenges that went with this paper. The Friday Mashup Challenge #52 to use kites and/or colorful twine. I knew I'd use both! I also decided that three kites would look best, so I'm including this with Crafts 4 eternity's challenge #65 to have 3 of a kind. I used three kites, their tails have three ties each and the clouds had three hearts.

I used the back sides of three papers to cut out the kites. I love the variety of polka dot colors on the backs of papers in that pack. The stamp set I used would have stamped solid ink over the dots, so I used it to make a pattern to trace instead and added the dashed lines with a pen. I cut a second matching cloud out of the remainder of the paper and pop dotted it. You can just barely see that the hearts are traced with a Sakura glitter gel pen. The dotted lines around the clouds are also traced with that pen, but don't really show up in the photo. The inside of the card has the matching sunshine stamped in the corner to go with this sentiment.

5" x 6.5" Card Recipe:
Paper - Close To My Heart "Dotty for You" coming soon
Stamps - CTMH "Splendid Day"
Ink - CTMH Black, Sunny Yellow
Other - CTMH Baker's Twine; Sakura Glitter Gel Pen

God Bless You Birthday Card

Here is the last Viva La Verve challenge card for the month of February. I wanted to use a floral branch of chipboard that reminds me that spring is on the way. The Little Red Wagon challenge to use chipboard this week really did the trick. I love adding dimension to cards. I wanted to do something different with this simple Verve sketch. I used more papers from Basic Grey's Boxer. There were three greens. So I added an aqua scalloped "circle 2" cut at 3" on Cricut Art Philosophy for contrast. Since the verse I'd chosen to use from Verve wouldn't take up much room on my three inch circle, I made my inner circle only two inches and planned to put the branch across the circle and the horizontal strip for cohesiveness. I tied a little natural jute around two stems of the branch as the simple finishing touch. Here's the simple sketch from Verve:

5" x 6.5" Card recipe:
Paper - Basic Grey "Boxer;" My Mind's Eye "Lost & Found" (aqua)
Stamp - Verve "Joy for the Journey"
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Other - Basic Grey "Curio" chipboard; Close To My Heart - Cricut Art Philosophy, jute

ColourQ Sympathy Card

One of my best friends since age 12 just lost her husband to a long battle with cancer. I know that she's one of the most cheerful and encouraging people I know. But more than that I know she's been trusting God through this long ordeal. I made this card for her with the message from Verve. The entire verse is stamped inside (God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble), hopefully to giver her strength for the days ahead.

When I stamped the sentiment, I put tape over the bottom portion of the verse and only inked the first few lines. If you try this, be sure to pull off the tape after inking, before stamping.

I used the ColourQ palette for this week and the February Week 1 sketch from Viva La Verve. The challenge from Little Red Wagon this week gave me the idea of using the chipboard oval frame and butterfly, which really added dimension.

5" x 6.5" Card:
Paper - Basic Grey "Periphery" (and the orange); Close To My Heart Crystal Blue, White Daisy; Bazzill gray
Stamps - Verve scripture
Ink - Close to my Heart Black
Other - Close to my heart Cricut Art Philosophy (scalloped circle), gray Licorice Opaques pearls, gray flower, white grosgrain ribbon; Basic Grey chipboard butterfly and frame

CPS Day 13 Sketch with Stars

CPS (Card Positioning System) Card Sketches is celebrating their 5th Anniversary with a challenge to make card using the previous patterns they select over 15 days. This was sketch #121.  I combined this sketch with the Little Red Wagon challenge to use 3 stars on your card. I chose a strip of patterned paper that already had a star and I adhered two chipboard stars. I chose a sentiment that went with my intended message for my son to tell him tomorrow how proud I am that he just graduated with honors from Johnson County Community College while working full time, being a dad, and helping to care for his wife. (Of course, he changed his major many times before he found what he wanted to do, but that definitely gave him a well rounded education before he goes on to KU!)

 I used a Cuttlebug star embossing folder on the background. The card is 6.5" x 5" so I needed to add a blue border and cut the piece where the strip goes across so that it appears to fit. This was a great sketch for using the smaller embossing folder on a bigger card. The strip came from a new paper pack from Close To My Heart called "Victory." I outlined the star on the paper with a glitter gel pen but it doesn't show up in the photo. The sentiment is from their February Stamp Of The Month, Thoughtful Tidings. After I made it I realized that the sentiment added a 4th star, but that was the message I needed for tomorrow, so it stayed.

Warm and Fuzzy Kraft heARTwork

After a very busy weekend (two granddaughters' birthdays, a funeral, babysitting, two grandsons' basketball game) I'm starting today with an easy card. I didn't do any stamping for a change, but used a felt sentiment and heart as part of the Little Red Wagon Challenge #114 - Warm Fuzzies with felt or flocking.

 

I used Skipping Stones Design Sketch #109, a 1" heart border cut using Cricut's Paper Lace cartridge. But the stars of the show are Close To My Heart's felt heart and sentiment. I loved this combination of red, Colonial White, and black DP on Kraft CS. This has been one of my favorite color combinations for a long time, so I'm entering this card in The Kraft Journal's Make It Monday: Favorite Colors Challenge. I love the look of felt on Kraft cardstock.

More Vintage Christmas

At Christmas, I prefer giving cards that keep the focus on Christ. These two cards came together so quickly. After finding free vintage Christmas cards/clipart earlier this week, I just had to make one more card using vintage clipart for the challenge at Little Red Wagon. The rules at Vintage Holiday Crafts say that you can't use more than five on a blog, so I'm still safe. 

I took Freshly Made Sketch 14 and lengthened it vertically to accomodate a rectangular picture instead of a square one. I used 4 rectangles from Basic Grey's "Curio."  The papers are heavily "inked" on the edges already so I cut the pieces from two corners for each design. I used some long-hoarded gold cardstock that CTMH used to sell to mat the vintage print. A simple poinsettia that has a gold-rimmed pearl brad in the center provided the one embellishment. Easy and simple!!

The next card was also easy. I saw Kaboodle Doodles Challenge today to use Christmas colors: red, green, gold, and white. I had a pad of the Paper Studio paper at hand with those colors and knew that the Clean and Simple Stamping Sketch would be great with those colors and 3 stars.

I tried to combine a rustic look of Kraft cardstock signifying Christ's humble birth with elegant gold embossing to show his glory. The inside verse is simple: Wise men still seek him. Merry Christmas.

I used stylus to emboss a line .25" from all four edges on front. I had made the middle star a little bigger on white paper embossed with gold, like the sentiment. I cut the stars on the Cricut with the Art Philosophy cartridge. The two side ones were 1.5" with a one inch star stacked on top. The middle star was cut at 1.75" to match the star in the stamp set "Love Life." It's too bad the design doesn't show up as well in the photo.The embossed sentiment comes from CTMH "Everlasting Life." I think I'll make more of these!!

Vintage Angel Christmas Cards

On Sunday, I saw the challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ to make a card that had angels. This has been on my mind all week. When I saw the challenge at Little Red Wagon to make a vintage card, the two were wed, along with the beautiful color palette at Color Throwdown today.

My three angel stamps are either much too big, much too small, or lost. So I found fabulous FREE vintage angel files with a simple Google search. The one I selected for this card is from Angel-Guide in their section on Victorian angels. I knew this would work perfectly with my title and verse stamps from Close To My Heart.

My card is 6.5" x 5.25."  I must give credit to Viva La Verve for the design that I flipped horizontally from November's challenge. The background paper is a vineyard berry pattern from CTMH "Sweet Home"  (retired). The doily is from Little Yellow Bicycle. The olive patterned paper is from the Paper Studio pack "Faith." The sentiment on the strip reads: " May peace and happiness be yours . . ." inside it says, " throughout this sacred season." That comes from a CTMH stamp set called Festive Thoughts.  Under it inside I stamped a vintage looking Merry Christmas from "A Holiday."

I had looked for an angel that went with the title "Peace on Earth," which comes from a new CTMH stamp set called Glory to God. It includes this Bible verse that I stamped inside:

Glory to God in the

highest, and on earth peace,

good will toward men.

Luke 2:14

The angel in the vintage picture has the Latin for peace on earth written above her head. This is my hope for our world and my endeavor to make it happen in my own little corner of this world. Once I started on this little project I haven't wanted to stop! I have a feeling there will be more angel cards to come!