Thin Cuts Blog Hop

Welcome to our Thin Cuts Blog Hop!  If you've come here from Kathy Burrows blog, you're on the right path.  You can see the entire list of participants at Melinda Everitt's blog.

I wanted to make a card for some dear friends who are retired from the ministry. To coordinate with the stamp set I chose to use, Bible Verses, B1665, I used two sets of heart Thin Cuts. (This stamp set is only available as a hostess reward through the end of April.) The Basic Hearts  are slightly bigger than the Stitched Hearts, so they work well for mats behind the Stitched Hearts.

The black heart below is the 2nd largest one in the Basic Hearts die set and the pink Ballerina heart that I stamped is the 2nd largest one in the Stitched Hearts set.  I used the largest Basic Hearts die to cut the window, papers from I Heart Us and a Mint Shimmer Brush on the smallest heart. The Blush Shimmer Ribbon is a good match for the Ballerina cardstock stitched and stamped heart. To make a window card like this you can pop up the top panel with 3-D Foam tape  and the small Mint heart with Thin 3-D Foam dots.

The Decorative Borders dies are great to decorate the edge of the inside of cards as well as the front.  I used the scalloped die which is outlined with stitches, but they don't show up too well with the patterned paper.

Thank you for visiting! Now you're ready to move on to see Brandi Robinson's creation and more ideas for using Thin Cuts Dies.

Simple Divinity

I love to encourage others with scripture cards. Over the years I've collected a good number of stamp sets with Bible verses, many from Our Daily Bread Designs. Did you know they've recently changed their name to Divinity Designs? I've also been hoarding a lot of papers from previous Basic Grey collections, My conscience has been pricked again to attempt using them up. So I pulled out the Lemonade collection and began making simple cards with scripture and those beautiful retired papers. Here are the simple results :

I decided to make larger cards using the same design in order to create faster and use up more paper. Here's one with the same scripture that I already had out and on a block. I decorated both of these with stickers. The owl and sentiment are from Green at Heart, but it had similar colors as Lemonade. It's for my granddaughter who loves anything with owls.

Next I decided to use die cuts from my drawer of previously cut shapes. I inked the edges with long-retired CTMH Kiwi ink. I matched scriptures from the first set I had purchased from Papertrey Ink years ago. Both of these cards used smaller scraps of Basic Grey. I cut each scrap in half to make two cards:

I finished each card with some old CTMH embellishments. The entire process took three hours and I still have most of the paper pack left. I really need to do this faster and more often. If you have any suggestions for making more cards, using more of some long hoarded paper, feel free to share your idea in the comments.

Thank you for visiting! Blessings to you always!

I'm sharing this with the following challenges:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge #23 - anything goes with a critter
613 Avenue Create Challenge #218 - anything goes/ optional add a critter
Crafty Friends Challenge #102 - animals/birds
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper February Challenge - anything goes with patterned paper
Word Art Wednesday Challenge #372-373 - anything goes

Verse of the day: 

But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.

Psalm 59:16 ESV

Seeking His Strength

I've been enjoying Ginny Maxim's blog for several years. She often shares images and word art that we can use in our own artwork. Here's a card I made with one of her images with a verse of encouragement. There are a lot of verses in scripture encouraging us to seek the Lord. Those verses assure us that when we seek Him, we will find Him. I love the verse on Ginny's image that encourages us to seek the Lord and His strength. I'm at an age when strength seems more elusive, so I'm frequently praying for strength as well as guidance and wisdom. I made this card to share the encouragement with someone else.

After printing the image, I colored it with Copics and fussy cut it. The left flowering branch is tied with a ribbon. I colored it yellow and painted it with a gold shimmer brush to match the gold dots in the pink paper.

An image like this looks best on solid cardstock or paper with no pattern, but the tiny gold dots on this paper seemed to enhance the image.
The papers are from DCWV Wildflower. The black and gold ribbon is CTMH.





I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Colour Crazy Challenge - anything goes with coloring
Craft-Dee BowZ - anything goes with handtied bow
Crafty Calendar Challenge -  Make it flowery
Simply Create Too #145 - anything goes
Word Art Wednesday Challenge #370 - 371 - anything goes

I like to share the promises and photo from the daily 365 Promises. Click on the link to see more on the daily devotional.

365 Promises - Promise #20: If you search for Me with all your heart, you will find Me.Jeremiah 29:13 (WEB)
You shall seek me, and find me,
when you shall search for me with all your heart.

Be Your Own Kind of Rock Star

While I was playing with some Stargazer papers I thought about a friend's son who is a music major working on his master's degree in music education. His wife was working at a really difficult, overwhelming job. I'd been praying for her.

I love to see how God works out the details of the answers to prayer. An opportunity came up in a rural town for the husband to teach music now, in the middle of the school year,  and the wife to teach an elementary grade she was prepared for next year. In the meantime, she could be a classroom aid, giving her some much needed relief from stress. Her hubby was going to be able to finish his courses online! God opened unexpected new doors at just the right time! What a blessing for them both!

This is the card I made for them using new Stargazer papers, black glitter paper, silver sequins with red glitter glue, and some old stamps along with a few Cricut cuts from the Quarter Note cartridge:

The stamp sets on the front come from retired CTMH Rock Star and Dakota workshop. The inside scripture is from ODBD God Verses 2:  "I will praise God's name in song and glorify Him with Thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30"

Thank you for visiting! May you be blessed by the Lord and be amazed as you see the way He answers your prayers!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Inspire Create Challenge #15 - masculine
Moo Mania and More - Masculine
Simply Create Too #137 - use Die Cuts
Word Art Wednesday #328-329 - anything uplifting

Easter Blessings!

For many, Easter's blessings may be dressing up for church, decorating Easter eggs for an egg hunt, baskets of chocolate bunnies and eggs, and brunch or dinner with family or friends. These are lovely traditions! I especially like to think of this day as Resurrection Sunday when I focus my thoughts on what kind of amazing love God has for you and me . He knew that none of us could be sinless and since something had to shed it's blood and die to pay for our sins, He sent His own sinless Son to die on a cross to take our punishment for all of our sins. He didn't love me because I was sinless, but while I was sinful! That's the focus of the verse below that I used to make this Easter card: "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8" This verse is one of the free verses from Word Art Wednesday's February 28, 2018, post.

But His death wasn't all that He did for me. His second gift was that He rose from the dead like He'd said that He would to show us we also had the gift of eternal life when we believe in Him and what He did for us! His amazing love for us wasn't just words! What a blessing! I will forever be thankful!

Here's one of several cards I made to share that message with family and friends. 

The two background circles were both from Spellbinders, the sentiment is MFT's Wonky Stitched Rectangle,  and the silver-embossed cross is an older CTMH stamp that I fussy cut. The light gray flowered background paper is from the CTMH Basics Fundamentals paper pack.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Always Fun Challenge #51 - Easter
Deep Ocean Challenge #178 - Easter/spring
Die Cuttin' Divas #362 - Easter with die cuts
Fab 'n' Funky #387 - Easter
Word Art Wednesday Challenge #328 - 329 - anything goes with uplifting message

Wishing You Easter Blessings

Each year I always seem to make a lot of Easter cards. Artistically, I love the pastels and lovely colors of spring after a gray, white and brown winter. Practically, I enjoy having an occasion to spread love and the message of God's love. Today I made half a dozen using scraps from my scrap drawers. I have an Ikea chest of nine drawers and put one color in each drawer, arranged like the rainbow. Today I focused on the lavender and purple drawer but added more colors for contrast. Here are the two I made using the colors of Sunday Stamps challenge and the sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch #257.

I've been using CTMH paper and stamps for 16 years so these scraps are very old. The top blue strip is a satin ribbon. The chicks and sentiment are from a new stamp set, Easter Animals.   The chicks are so cute and reminded me I need to tell my grandkids about the chicks and ducks I got for Easter as a child.  This card is for a sweet young first grade girl I know. 

I had an extra silver embossed CTMH cross left from making several other cards, so I added it to my second version of this card.  I think the design works well for an adult card that focuses on the spiritual meaning of Easter as well!

I kept the inside simple with room because I like to write a personalized message.

I used another lavender scrap and a verse you can save and print from Word Art Wednesday, February 28, 2018: 

Thank you for visiting! May you be blessed as you make your own lovely creations to share with those you love. 

I'm sharing the first card with the following challenges:

Atlantic Hearts Sketch #257 - sketch

Dragonfly Journeys Challenge #114 - Bunnies, chicks and ducks

Hiding in My Craft Room Challenge #345 - any holiday

Make My Monday Challenge #67 - Easter fun

Sunday Stamps Challenge #175 - Easter color palette

Encouragement on St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! My ancestry DNA test shows that I'm 9% from Ireland/Scotland/Wales. I did find that one of my 6th great grandmothers came to the United States from Dublin Ireland in the 1700's. Our family was always told that my grandmother, who was born on March 17th, was part Irish. All I know is that I inherited her green eyes and love of crafting and history.

Robert Morgan, in one of his books about the stories behind hymns, wrote an inspiring account of the teenage Patrick being kidnapped from England by Irish pirates, taken to Ireland as a slave, and later escaped back to England. What amazed me in his story was that he had a passion to return to Ireland to spread the message of Christ. His family thought it was dangerous and he faced many trials, but he had learned to trust the Lord for his guidance and safety. Today as we celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I like to focus on the fact that he is responsible for the spread of Christianity in Ireland in the 400's A.D.  I thought this verse summarized the importance of trusting God in every situation.  The next verse in Proverbs says in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.

I used a few retired CTMH papers from my drawer of green scraps and the leaves and die from Chelsea Gardens Cardmaking stamps. The white embossed verse and die stamp for "Lord" are from PTI.

Thank you for visiting! May you trust in the Lord both in good times and bad! He will never fail you!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Always Fun Challenge #49 - shades of green
CCEE Stampers - die cut words
Crafty Gals Corner #161 - green
Dragonfly Journeys Challenge #113 - going green
Heart 2 Heart Challenge - going green
Papercraft  Challenge #7 - sentiment as focus
Word Art Wednesday #326-327 - anything goes

As long as I have breath...

A dear friend lost her husband this week several decades too soon, so I've been frequently praying for her. Another family at our church lost a sister/daughter/aunt this week.  I seem to need sympathy-type cards frequently. Here is the first. It simply started with this blue and kraft colored image from Graphic 45's Botanical Tea, which I've nearly used up. I had wanted to make it for this week's Color Throwdown challenge using light blue, kraft, and white, but of course mine also has the neutral cream color so much a part of Graphic 45. I added white glitter tape, white sequins, and white for the sentiment and card base.

I  chose two Psalms about prayer for this card from Verve's Scripture Medley Five: "Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath." Psalm 116:2 and "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you." Psalm 55:22. The truths in these verses will be needed for life's challenges to come. I'm so glad the Lord listens, cares, and is always near to help those who take their cares to Him. 

I embossed the Sky blue cardstock with the CTMH Rose embossing folder. I used a PTI border die to cut the kraft border and added the leftover inside. Some burlap twine seemed to go with all the kraft.

Thank you for visiting. May you, too, take your cares to the Lord who wants to sustain you if you'll only ask.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks #386 - with Sympathy

Aud Sentiments Challenge #195 - anything goes

Color Throwdown Challenge #476 - kraft, light blue, white

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Birds of a feather

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - add a sentiment

Word Art Wednesday 318-319 -  anything goes.

Lord Bless and Keep You Wild Sunflower Card

This week a sunflower farm in our area started allowing visitors. People come from all over, even other countries, to take photos of the acres of sunflowers. We have a smaller, wild variety that blooms along fence rows around our farm. I chose a flower stamp for this card that looks like our wild ones.

I needed more encouragement cards, so once I made this one that I liked, I made three more. I love the message of this new CTMH sentiment stamp set: May the Lord bless and keep you. I originally made it for one of our daughters to send to a sorority sister fighting cancer.

The sentiment has a small sprig of leaves on each side, so I enlarged it by stamping four more outline leaf sprigs from this month's stamp of the month that I colored with alcohol ink markers. Then I added two large leaf stamps under it from Falling for You-Cardmaking. The large flower came from Falling for You-Scrapbooking. The flower does have a matching die, but I fussy cut mine because I didn't want the white border this time.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Dream Valley Challenge #162 - use a stamp or digi

Heartful Stamping Challenge Sept. 3-10 - anything goes with stamping
Hiding in My Craft Room Challenge #316 - Fall Colors
Scrap and Craft #7 - Colours of Autumn
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stamp It
Word Art Wednesday #298-299 - anything goes, positive

Stamp sets used:

Falling for You - Scrapbooking

Falling for You - Cardmaking

God's Blessings

Feel So Blessed stamp of the month

Life is Tough Encouragement Cards

Life us full of ups and downs, some small and some catastrophically huge.  Here's a set of encouragement cards I made using Prickly Pear papers. When I was almost four years my family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. While driving there, my grandmother showed me a small cactus and told me to watch out, it had stickers that would hurt. Of course, I got stuck in less than five minutes. Just a little problem, but I thought the cactus on these papers could represent any sort of prickly problems. Since the cacti images are more whimsical than realistic, I thought the marker style sentiment fit perfectly. It's from the retired CTMH Sunshine on a Cloudy Day stamp set.

I made several of this card design and couldn't decide which encouragement verse to put inside, so I used this week's free word art scripture from Word Art Wednesday which was perfect for my intent and three different ones from the retired CTMH set, Look to the Light, some with the cactus from Prickly Pear - Cardmaking stamp set..

I'm sharing this project with the following challenges:

Dragonfly Dreams - Patterned Paper
Eclectic Ellapu September Challenge - Flora or Fauna/Nature
QKR Stampede Challenge - Wild West or anything goes
Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #171 - Anything goes with ribbon
Word Art Wednesday #298-299 - anything goes

Under His Wings

I'm writing this post as I watch the news about protestors fighting, a car running over protestors, a man pushing a lady in front of a bus that managed to swerve and not hit her, and medical workers in Syria killed. This world can be such a dangerous place. Scripture always encourages me, so I'm sharing this set of cards that I made this week with this encouragement:

Under his wings you will find refuge.

I think I'll be trying to use up my CTMH Paper Fundamentals for a long time. I made four of these cards using an older Whimsy pastel design in Glacier. I combined it with a gray leaf pattern from the old Lollydoodle papers. I made three of them using the Glacier and White pattern and only one with the reverse side that has the same pattern with shiny clear embossing. Here are the two side by side.

May you find comfort and help for life's problems by taking them to the Lord. He loves you and wants to shelter you like a mother bird shelters her babies. Thank you for visiting!

I'm sharing this project with the following challenges:

Cardz 4 Galz #53 - Pretty Pastels
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper August Challenge - anything with patterned paper
Moving Along with the Times #51 - Things that fly
WordArt Wednesday #294-295 - anything - a great wordart verse this week!

5.5" x 4.25" Card Recipe:
Paper - Whimsy Paper Fundamentals, Lollydoodle dp, retired White Daisy Textured Cardstock
Stamps - CTMH retired C1600 Happy Birds; sentiment: Papertrey Ink's Walk by Faith
Ink - Lagoon, Memento Tuxedo Black
Copic Markers
Embellishments - Recollections flowers, retired CTMH yellow buttons, white crochet thread, paper doily,
Tool - Cricut for stitched circle

Under His Wings

I've been away from my blog too long thanks to a week with a stomach virus and migraines, then too much kitchen work with my orchard producing cherries, apricots, and especially peaches. What a harvest of peaches we've gotten when I thought the late freeze would have destroyed them.  I'll be freezing lots of quarts of peaches for at least a week, as well as making  more peach pies to share.

I have a P.E.O. sorority sister who is in a nursing home being treated for cancer. Our group decided to sign up for making encouragement cards for her, one to be mailed each day for the next couple of months. Here's an encouraging verse I'm sending that came from PTI's Year of Psalms mini stamp for the month of March:  "He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge. Psalm 91:4." I visualize running to hide from trouble, to be protected and comforted, whenever I read this verse. In fact, after making these cards,I continually heard the old hymn, Under His Wings, playing in my mind. The words and piano version are in that link. I've also liked the message of a newer version sung here.

I remembered having this feathered CTMH paper from the retired Free to Be Me pack. I made several cards with this paper piece and took a photo of these two.

Thank you for visiting.  I hope you'll find peace, safety, and comfort in this verse, too. If so, pass it on.

I'm sharing these cards with the following challenges:

Make My Monday Challenge #49 - Summer Brights
Path of Positivitiy Challenge #50 - anything goes (I didn't use option of faith, hope, and/or love)
Stamps & Fun = Creativity #304 -  inspired by a song
The Crafty Addicts #37 - anything goes with option of summer colors
Word Art Wednesday #288-289 - anything goes

Psalm 20:4 Flowery Card

My last two cards inspired me to play with flower stamps again. I  love reading the Psalms. I know that God loves and cares for us even more than we can realize. In His Word I can understand what he desires for my life so I can desire and plan the kinds of things that are within His will.

I made one using the April PTI Year of Psalms stamp along with the CTMH May Stamp of the Month flowers (and leaves and tiny blossom from November 2014 SOTM It's the Little Things). I had seen one of the PTI designers make a card with a flowery wreath around the verse and decided to try my hand making one with two different CTMH SOTM sets. The one in my last post had a black sentiment but I think I prefer this one stamped with Gypsy ink.

For the inside I used a verse from ODBD "All Occasions Sentiments" that I thought matched the Psalm on front:

Thank you for visiting! "May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed."

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments Challenge #180 - anything goes + sentiment
Craftaholics R Us May Challenge - spring colors or flowers
Crafty Calendar May Challenge - Flowers
Creative with Stamps May Challenge #14 - Flowers
Word Art Wednesday #284-285 - anything family friendly

Very Retro Rubber Flower Card

I was looking for a color challenge for a flowery card and found this idea at Retro Rubber. Since I have lots of older stamps (not to mention a treasure of new ones) I love challenges that inspire me to use them.

I've had the  CTMH stamps called Endless Friendship since 2009 and the sentiment from my days of teaching at the scrapbook store, Technique Tuesday's "Big Mouth" with super big sentiments for cards. I purchased those in 2008.

I wanted a profusion of flowers for the Crafty Cardmakers challenge to fill the edges and a large sentiment in the middle. Here's my card for a friend who is going on a mission trip next in June.

The inside verse is a rubber stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Collection 1 that I've had at least five years. I chose this verse because she plans to travel in several different countries while she's abroad and I'll be praying that she will trust God for every need and direction as she travels across Europe.

Thank you for visiting. May God make your paths straight as you trust Him with your plans.

I'm sharing the first card with the following challenges:

Double D Challenge - Flowers Galore
Crafty Cardmakers #189 - Floral Profusion
Retro Rubber Challenge #63 - color challenge

The Crafty Addicts #36 -anything + add a sentiment
Word Art Wednesday #284-285 - anything goes

I made a second card like this with a vertical sentiment that is new, the April PTI Year of Psalms stamp.