Photo card

My dad took marvelous pictures. He saw things in ordinary scenes that others would miss. I think he could have gone professional had he so desired. I scanned a few of his pictures, and decided some would make great card fronts. I'm still trying to figure out my new scanner; so far it is not doing justice either to scans, or prints, so I probably will not make more of these types of cards until I can have better results.

John 3:16

The Salt challenge for this week is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life." I immediately knew that this was going to be a light, fun card - I love my "I'm a whosoever" stamp!

Journal for Abbie

Yes, another journal before the year ends! Our oldest daughter is at a "One Thing" conference (a part of "International House of Prayer" in Kansas City, MO. She journals constantly, and told me a few days ago that she needed a new journal before she left (early this morning). This is the first journal I've made in awhile that wasn't for sale. Wow, it was soooooo nice to make a journal that could have errors, lol!

The purple of the ribbon actually matches the purple in the stamped images, the scanner struggles with color! The scripture is from Eureka, and the quilt squares from Sunday International. As I was in a hurry to get the journal done in time, I had searched through my already stamped images for something to put in the corner, and found the quilt squares. The colors were a perfect match!

Abigail plans to be a missionary to Italy (and other regions), and has been studying Italian for years, and spent the summer in Sicily last year, after an honors program tour in the Balkans in May. I asked her to give me a scripture in Italian to put in her journal (she also chose the cover scripture); she chose Psalm 23.

Lawyabella journal

It's becoming almost a joke in my family; I can't seem to stop making journals! I had posted a journal I had made toward the end of November, saying it was the last of the year. I was so relieved! But then I got a phone call from a lawyer, who had seem my journals at the City News where my cards/journals are sold, and wanted me to make a memory journal for another woman in the office who was moving to a new practice. Since I would not lose commission on this, I agreed, even though it was already December and they needed it by December 21st! My friend who owns the City News was agreeable to ferrying everything back and forth. (The store is 45 minutes away, but she attends the same church as I do). It was quite an adventure trying to find legal or lawyer stamps, and the woman I was dealing with gave me only her work number/e-mail for contact, and is a very busy lawyer. So communication was also an adventure. I finally found the right stamp at stamping bella. But until I had gone back and forth a couple of times for info from the owner, I did not realize the company was in Canada, meaning shipping on short notice was not going to be cheap! But the lawyers absolutely loved the stamp, so I placed the order. Meanwhile, I was sending design ideas down, cardstock for them to choose, etc. I received the stamp, found an agreeable layout (simpler than I would have liked for them, but so hard when working with long distance)... then the blizzard of the year caused church to be cancelled, so my friend could not bring up the chosen pages for me to bind! It was rather amazing, but it all worked out and the journal arrived on time! It was close, though - when I suddenly got a call from someone headed toward the town it needed to get to, I had not yet scanned it, as we had just replaced the horrible scanner my dh had bought only a few months ago with a new model, and I had not yet used it. So I never checked the scan, but just grabbed the journal and got it to my friend! So, excuse the poor quality.

The project did mean an early end to Christmas card making, though that really was fine, it just meant a few stamps I'd bought for the season did not get used, but that will help me exercise self-control next year, lol!

O Christmas Tree

I love taking a stamp that strikes me as cute or quirky and turning into something that seems (to me) elegant. I originally wanted a light-hearted card with this tree, but I had been wanting to use my foil flakes for awhile, and suddenly I thought of using it for this stamp, with which I was planning to make a wordless card for a thank you, and I really liked the result. After making the first card, I just had to keep going! I think it may be my favorite for this year's Christmas. The images are all from smARTworks. I absolutely love doing business with this company!

Finding Storage

I found a battered old medicine cupboard in our basement from the previous owners. I knew it would be absolutely perfect for my ink pads! I painted the outside white because it was such a mess I could not have stained it nicely (and one side is sawed off, so it looks a bit odd anyway).

The shelf to the right of it was a cast-off of my sisters, and the one on the left came from a goodwill store. So, if money is an issue for you, be creative!

Life at the Kornhauses

I haven't had much stamping time lately, as we've been running a youth hostel.

Well, not quite! But we have had a household full of young people! Due to complicated arrangements, weather issues, etc, we had our four, ages 16 to 20, and three other college students for three nights. In addition to that, one of them volunteers at the local YFC, and brought one of his kids from that to our house, where he was there for the better part of the next few days. Sunday our church closed do to weather, and we had all of the above, plus three other young male college students for "house church" and then lunch. Today we're down to just two extra college kids, who leave tomorrow. It's been absolutely wonderful, but not conducive to stamping, lol!

Oh, we also had our annual tree trimming party. I make (with lots of help from Susannah now) a huge variety of party foods to eat, including lots of Christmas cookies and punch, etc, and we spend the evening doing the tree. I grew up with a gazillion ornaments on the tree, and my family is continuing the tradition. Some of the ornaments are absolutely stunning; many are really strange ... can you see the funky stork in the middle of the tree?

The Reason for the season

It was looking for Christian stamps in Spanish that I found Biblical Impressions. I was so happy to find them! I made this card the first year I found their website (under the former owners. All of their Spanish stamps have English equivalents.

This card was made for someone in prison with whom my husband struck up a correspondance with. Friends of ours had visited their son in prison, and had met this man, who did not speak much English, and was from a latin American country we visit. They thought Bruce, who is always looking to improve his Spanish, would enjoy encouraging this man.

wise men

Remember my odd wise men card of Tuesday's post? The scrap used for that was from trying to make this card. I could not get the wise men stamp to make a crisp, unmottled image. I was using Stazon, and I've since learned that when using Stazon, it's important to ink and stamp your image quickly, applying it firmly, but removing it from the cardstock immediately.
I wanted to make some Spanish Christmas cards last year, primarily for dear friends in Cuba. When I tried to get inspired by looking up Spanish Christmas cards on the web, I was surprised to see that Latino cards do not focus on the American/European combinations of red and green as primary colors. Instead, their Christmas cards are as vivid and multi-colored as any cards. I did not realize how much I was tied to that, even though I did venture into occasional blue or purple dominated Christmas cards!

The wise men stamp is from Eureka , and the text is computer generated, and printed on pink vellum. I used a Big& Juicy pad on glossy for the colors underneath the vellum.

Copper Buck

Hunting season is a big deal where I live. Often people from other states are thinking "city" when I say I am from NY, but here in Allegany county, we're far from the city in every way! Our town of Wellsville, with a population of 8,000, is the largest in the county! There are lovely hills, the Genesee River, and a good bit of farmland. When our children took ballet lessons in another town, we enjoyed, toward the end of winter, pulling over at a couple of different places just to enjoy seeing the cows, accustomed to being fed by truck, come charging up to us to see if we had something for them to eat!

Our house is just barely outside the town proper, and we enjoy seeing the deer here regularly. They like our decrepit and neglected apple trees!

Anyway, I did not intend to emboss with copper, it just sort of happened! I like how the buck turned out, but I was not thinking, and stamped the trees in the middle, then glued the green panel to the card without realizing the trees should have been placed higher or lower, so that I could put either an embellisment or greeting above or below. It seemed tacky to do both, and I finally just assembled it without anything.

Humor?

My family has probably an over-developed sense of humor. Mostly we focus on puns, but just about any (clean!) humor is appreciated. This card started out as a nice Christmas card, but then my husband or my youngest daughter (I sure hope it wasn't me!!!!) quipped the "got myrrh" line when I was mentioning my frustration with getting the wise men image to work on glossy. They decided I should not throw out the scrap, but should make it into a card with "got myrrh" and send it to our daughter Karen at college, who loves off-beat humor. I was not going to do it, but they wore me down! She and her friends all got a kick out of it!

I could not bring myself to remake one for sale or to even post it in my galleries - it could possibly offend someone. But I did decide that maybe with the stress of getting ready for Christmas, this might bring a few chuckles.

Bach

This is an appropriate card to post today; our family just came back from an amazing classical Christmas concert our daughter participated in at Houghton College. Truly inspiring music, really well performed. I remember a similar event I participated in as a Houghton student, though I sang, and Abbie did ballet.

Anyway, this card has one of my favorite music quotes, and will be part of the next sheet of stamps I put together.

Music stamp is from Stubby Stampers.

Salt Challenge: Light

I love these challenges! I knew just the scripture I wanted to use, and was so glad I had a full sheet of stamps from Biblical Impressions that included it. It's one of the prophetic scriptures from Isaiah.

I used opalite inks, which are wonderful interference inks. I have the refill bottles as well, which are great for painting in designs on dark colors, or just to swirl in unique designs. They take a bit of time to dry, so I usually heat set. If used on glossy, opalite ink needs to be embossed with clear embossing. Even then, if it is put on too thick, it will be very easy to smear, so be careful how much you use.

The circle is actually raised, and more gold in color than the scan shows it to be.

Note: I used this stamp, and two other stained glass style stamps I own to create a personal coloring book for a young friend. I embossed each image several times in gold, silver, and copper. I stamped them on index cards (really inexpensive cardstock!), created a simple cover, calling it "Gracie's book" or something like that so it was very personal for her, and used my bind it all to assemble it. Having the images embossed seems to me something children would really enjoy, and for those that have more trouble staying inside the lines when they color, this makes things easier and neater! (I still remember the humiliation of not being able to do that! That's probably why I hated art for decades, lol!)

College dorm door hangers

I made a bunch of these last year for an annual craft fair at a local college. It's that time of year again, so I'll see if I can sell some more. Text is all computer generated.

Joy

I made a background to use for the card I last posted, but it didn't look right. But I so liked the look of the flourishes, that I tried it on burgundy, and used it for this card. The "joy" image (Eureka) was on a scrap that I had stamped, planning to closely trim and affix to another card, but changed my mind. When I went to trim it for this card, I just decided I liked the odd shape and left it alone! I tend to like everything straight and even, so this was not a typical thing for me to do!

Just for fun!

I've been putting off getting a package to our daughter, Karen, at Patrick Henry College in VA. Our oldest daughter attends Houghton college, which is only 45 minutes away, so we see her Sundays. Karen is not into decorating by any stretch of the imagination, but she loves frogs (toads are close enough!), so I threw this ornament together last minute just for the fun of it. I'd had the watercolored toad image from last year's cards, so I just needed to cut it out & glue on google eyes. I had one circle the right size already cut, and a cute little Christmas skunk stamped and colored for this year, that somehow never made it onto a card. I'm so glad I save everything, lol!

Noel ... again???

I save anything I stamp and decide not to use at the time, or have made duplicates of, into a couple of plastic drawers. Christmas, however, is in a separate folder. Well, in cleaning out my folder from last year, I started to toss a scrap away that I did not like, when I realized I had also stamped on the other side. It was the noel image that I have already used in two different ways, but the holographic embossing looked so sparkly and bright, I decided to make it into a card (it is much crisper than the scan shows it to be). After figuring out the layout, I could not find anything that satisfied to put beneath the noel. I looked at brads, buttons, etc, but nothing worked. I finally decided velveteen bows might do, but I didn't have any, and the thought of making my own seemed too much. I glanced at my punches, and noticed a little bow punch that I have never used (I don't even know where it came from!). I had no clue if it would punch through velveteen, but obviously it could. The bows did not look right, however, until I thought of poking brads through them. They looked odd to me at first, and frankly, not my style. But, as you see, I went ahead and attached them!

Now I really, really am done with my noel stamp! :-)

Encouragement

Have you encouraged anyone today?

I'm in the middle of writing someone a thank you for a note of encouragement she recently sent me. As I thought about why her letter encouraged me, I realized that she probably did not expect it to have the impact it did. Not only did she bless me, she gave me something to think about in an area of my life that has been lacking lately. I am grateful. I've read it several times now...

If you haven't written anyone lately, I hope you will today. Or tomorrow. If you're waiting until you have time to make the person on your heart a really nice card .... don't. Just grab a piece of lined paper from your desk and scribble out that encouragement that your friend, spouse, child, or neighbor needs to hear.

Blessings!
Sarah

Peacocks

This is my last journal, I hope, for the rest of the year. I was needing a break from making Christmas cards, and as I browsed through my stamps, this peacock feather, from Eureka, caught my eye. I used opalite inks with it, and it really looks dramatic. Scanning does not do justice to embossed images or opalite inks, so it looks a little dull. But, even looking at in person in the wrong angle of light makes the jewel colors of opalite look matted and dull. :-/

For Unto Us

This is the card my friend chose from my music-themed Christmas cards I designed for her. The design she chose last year had the same scripture, so I was a little surprised she chose it!

Now I'm technically done with Christmas cards, though I have a few new stamps yet that I haven't used, so I know that I will make a few more anyway, and be ahead for next year! :-)

The background was done with alcohol inks (wow, hope I can replicate the same look for my friend!!!), the scripture is from Biblical Impressions. The background text stamps are from Eureka or Biblical Impressions, the music from Merry Stamper.

Note: The inspiration for this design came from Barbara Nick, who posted in the Stubby Stampers' gallery.

Silent Night

...and another music themed card for my friend to choose from. Silent Night from Eureka, music from Merry Stamper, and text from Biblical Impressions. My scanner makes the embossing look multi-colored, but it is silver. :-)

A child is born

I worked at a department store for a few months before our first child was born, and I remember a lady who came up to the register with a load of Santa and infant Jesus decorations. "I just love these Baby Jesus things," she gushed. I smiled at her excitement, but as she talked, I realized that to her, "Baby Jesus" was only that; a wee babe born at Christmas. It was as if she did not connect Him to the fully human, but fully God, Savior of the world. The One Who died on a cross out of love for her, for me, for you.

I designed this card with hopes that the chosen scripture, "For unto us..." would bring the strains of Handel's Messiah to mind, remembering that the infant born in the manger was Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace...

Music background from Stubby stampers, small music image from Merry Stamper, infant (designed by Jacki at Card Castle and scripture from Biblical Impressions.

smARTworks challenge

I was so glad when my friend Trish posted the smARTworks weekly "tea party" (read: challenge). I don't know what it is about a challenge, but it always inspires me. I've been working on music-themed Christmas cards today, and when I saw Trish's card, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my carolers stamp from smARTworks! So thanks, Trish!

The poinsettia is from Eureka, and the music notes from Merry Stamper. The hymn background is computer generated.

Joy to the World!!!!

Joy to the World, the Lord is COME!

This Christmas hymn never fails to fill me with joy and gratefulness that God humbled himself to become like us, so that He could rescue us!

The hymn was "miniaturized" by photoshop. The stamps, embossed in gold and painted with Twinkling H2Os, come from Biblical Impressions and Eureka.

I was planning to play with my new stamps from Stubby Stampers and smARTworks today, but a friend called last night to ask if I would make her a set of music themed Christmas cards. Thanksgiving, when we'll drive past her house on the way to family, is the only chance I'll have to show her anything, so music is my focus today and tomorrow...

Carolers

I absolutely love caroling, especially with a large group of people who love to harmonize! So when I saw this stamp at smARTworks, I had to get it! This card is of course, for my card sets; I am looking forward to doing a little more with it on a "regular" card. I embossed the snowflakes in white, but they look a little odd in the scan. They are a simple white, and add texture rather than color to the card!

Clear stamping

Well, I finally did it! I entered the world of clear (or acrylic, or polymer, depending on your choice of label) stamping with this set that I've been dying to purchase for forever! I'd been searching high and low for unmounted rubber flourish stamp, but been completely unsuccessful. This set was exactly what I was looking for, but I just did not want to experiment. In fact, someone offered to sell me their set awhile ago, but I just couldn't bear the thought of wasting my money if I didn't like them. But, while having to place a small order, and having a free shipping offer if I spent a certain amount, I spied the set, and decided to be brave!

So, am I a convert? Am I going to buy only clear from now on and ditch my rubber? No way!!! I admit to loving how precisely I can place the stamp, knowing it will go exactly where I want it to, but I don't think they stamp quite as smoothly as rubber. I did, as suggested on Gingerwood, stamp in versamark ink first, and I think that made a difference, because the one I did not do that for did not stamp as well. They're a little harder to wash; they don't stay on the mount when I use scrub pads to clean them. I tend to create a mess when stamping, as I am usually working on several cards at once, and clear stamps on clear mount are just easy to miss when doing a visual sweep across the counter. Still, they work fine enough for me, and while I still prefer rubber, I won't be so reluctant to order clear again.

This card is for my card sets, but I'm not real happy with it because the middle circle is not completely on the card. Should I have placed the square shadow stamp to the left, instead of center? Skipped the middle joy altogether? I had a little bit of doubt when I designed it that it was "right," but I was so excited about using my flourish stamps I went ahead and did them all anyway! It's not the first time I've been stubborn about making a design that really needed to be set aside for a day... anyone relate?

Wise Men

I realized several things when making this card:

1. When embossing with silver on dark card stock, there is almost certainly going to be a fine dust wherever embossing powder has been. This may or may not be an advantage. My husband pointed out that the "dust" on my first card would be nice where the sky was, adding to the starry sky look, but shouldn't be where the wise men were. Could I fix that? So, when pouring the powder, I tilted the card "upside down" to pour on the powder making sure to start no higher up than the very edge of the scripture reference, and it worked nicely (though you can't see it with a scan).

2. I stamped the wise men with versafine, right over the embossed scripture. Stamping it first, no matter what ink I had tried before, resulted in embossing dust covering wise men. If you try this, note that the ink will appear to not be covering the embossed image, but the ink will be there nonetheless, and it will not dry, as I found to my dismay. I had been so careful that the white underside of the two-sided cardstock not touch anything on my counter, but at some point I had several of the cards on top of each other ... where they happily removed the "invisible" black stazon on the scripture of the card below. I was not having one of my "brighter" moments, and I could not figure out what had happened when I went to fold the cards later on. (Embossing this cardstock temporarily warped it, so the cards were spread out to "flatten" again.)

3. A little chalk on the edges of the wise men and camel (if you look closely you can just make it out) give the sense of the light of the star lighting on them. It doesn't need to be super precise to the outline, and can easily be smudged in if too much chalk has been applied.

Snowflakes

Continuing to work on card sets...

I use this same layout for a card set each season. I stamp the element three times with my castaway pad (it bleaches out the color) onto Arcobellano paper, then restamp in color, deliberately off-center. Then I stamp it three more times and emboss, and emboss the thinking of you with the same powder. For fall I used a leaf stamp, for summer, a dragonfly. Different colors and embossing powder for each.

I bought a craft iron to use with the castaway pad, but it does not get hot enough, so I rely on a regular iron. The little iron is nice to have for ironing ribbon, so I'll hold on to it.

It's all in the paper!

I have discovered that people enjoy even the simplest of designs if the paper is right. This card is as basic as it can be, but the wonderful earthy look of the paper spruces up the card nicely (sorry, our family loves puns!).

Noel - again!

I'm back to making card sets, which I try to keep simple, with no layers or embellishments. It's fun to see how differently the same stamps can appear. This is the same stamp used on the Nov 6th entry. My scanner never does a good job with gold embossing, the actual card's colors are much more vibrant. I used Twinkling H20s which give a rich, sparkly look to the image.

Melting organdy ribbon

I love this technique: it not only adds flair to an ordinary tie, but also takes care of dealing with frayable edges at the same time. Making sure to cover up the part of the ribbon I did not want to curl, I used a heat gun to bend and curl the ribbon. You can also direct it to some extent; using a long implement, you can hold the ribbon to position it a little.

"It is well with my soul" journal

I was waiting for the SALT challenge this week to decide how to design my next journal. I love the theme, "From the Hymnbook", and did not need to think at all about which hymn I would choose. I love the lyrics, by Horatio Spafford, and the inspiring medley, composed by Philip Bliss. This is my first real attempt at collage, and while I was not satisfied even before permanently attaching everything, I finally realized I just don't know what I'm doing yet, but as I continue studying the techniques of others, I'll figure it out! :-) I like "space" in my designs, my favorite cards on many blogs will be ones that are simpler and not full of images, so perhaps that's why collage is such a challenge to me, lol!

The sheet music is from Stubby Stampers, the music notes from Merry Stamper, the cross, Peace, and "river" design are from Eureka. The bottom half looks blurred, due to the imbalance the "nails" created in the scanner.

Inside the back cover I posted the story of the author, Horatio Spafford. It's a truly amazing story if you do not already know it.

Fifth, optional, workshop card

Trying to be sensitive to those that might not really be into Christmas, I made a fifth card as substitute. I'm not sure where the snowflake is from, but the text is from Biblical Impressions.

The background is from the blue glossy in my Nov 2nd post. The flakes were embossed with white craft ink and SU winter white embossing powder onto white vellum. I also tried it on blue dark blue vellum, which worked fine as well. The blue gloss cardstock is especially slippery, so I did not want my workshop ladies to risk ruining their cards with messy flakes. The background is silver.

4th workshop card

This card was a bit too time consuming for a workshop, so I would never do it again. :-/

I stamped pine-needles from Biblical Impressions over the alcohol-inked panel with Stazon Green. The text is also from Biblical Impressions, and the ornament is from Eureka. I used a slot punch after stamping the image with versamark, on the top of the ornament (where the hook is attached). Then I used a versamark pen to fill in the space and embossed in gold. I glued all but the top to the panel, so that the hook could be easily inserted.

Third workshop card

Ah, a simpler card! If I had duplicates or triplicates of all my supplies, I would have started with this card, then worked up to the fifth card (skipping the fourth card altogether, instead of having the option of choosing two out of the three Christmas/winter themed cards). But I have cards being worked on simultaneously because of supply limitations.

Anyway, the stamp on this is from PSX.

Second workshop card

This is a more vivid mix of alcohol inks; I wanted a "fruity" look for the harvest theme! After cutting the alcohol ink panel diagonally, I stamped the text on one diagonal, using Stazon Ink. Glossy cardstock is slippery, so it's important to be careful when stamping on it. the grapes were stamped with ordinary black dye ink, and colored in with markers.

Stamps are from Biblical Impressions.

First workshop card

I felt so badly ... my cards were too time consuming for the women to finish. They were all new to stamping, and there were eight, which is quite a few when they are beginners. The workshop was held through the local art center, and was not inexpensive, so I feel doubly bad. Most of them were amazingly gracious about it, and I hope I haven't scared them away from stamping!

The featured technique was polished stone. I applied the inks in stripes across the felt pad, and the alcohol in striped as well. The cardstock on this is sort of "half glossy", more of a matt finish, but slippery like glossy, and works as well as glossy. The moose, from Biblical Impressions, was chalked.

Not all glossies are alike!

I am really seeing a lot of differences in the various glossy cardstocks I use. Some make colors look very vivid, others are dull or alter the shades. Some take heat embossing, others bubble. For a workshop I am doing tomorrow, I have been using alcohol inks, and have discovered that even colored glossies differ. The black from yesterday's post took the alcohol inks well. When I tried the same effect on blue, however, the blue came off of the cardstock, and left white specks. In all honesty, I didn't get it at first; I thought perhaps there was left over silver from a previous use. At any rate, as you can see, the effect is rather neat. The upper panel looks a bit like a gentle snow fall, the other, like a blizzard.

Workshop: polished stone technique

I am doing a workshop with alcohol inks on Saturday, and tonight I finally got a chance to prepare. Actually, it's more like I finally got a chance to play! It's nearly midnight, and I haven't completed a single card since I started four hours ago ... I'm having way too much fun!

This design took me completely by surprise. I decided to see if the inks worked on black glossy, but it really did not ... until I added gold fixative. Then wow, what a difference! It still seemed a little dark, so I added one more drop of gold directly to the paper. Then I paused, and watched it spread. What a perfect moon! If you can see by the scan, there is an odd "aura" around the moon, but I don't think that hurts it. Sort of like Saturn's ring(s).

He is Lord

I found myself making journals again this week! I hadn't planned to, I really prefer cards! I decided to let the SALT challenge for this week, "He is Lord," be my theme.

I still am in the learning process. I made a really huge error with this one. I accidently punched the holes with the cover upside down, so they didn't line up when I went to assemble the journal! Far too much time and effort to redo the cover. So, here is my compromise. Hopefully none of you will ever make this mistake, but if you ever do, just take two wide strips of cardstock that coordinate (my choice of yellow was not wise: you want it to be a subtle coordination, not something that draws the eye, as this yellow does), and punch them through making sure to count holes carefully, and leave yourself an extra half inch or more on the "top" strip to overlap to the other side. Trim the strip so that it does not overlap too much of your cover design. (Don't cut the strip first: it may crinkle in the bind-it-all.) Then trim second strip to slightly less than the full measurement of the cover, and attach to the back.

The Names of Jesus stamps are from Biblical Impressions, Eureka, and Stubby Stampers. Isaiah text is from Biblical Impressions, the other is computer generated. The lettering for "He is Lord" is from a set called "Hebrew Latino," I do not know the origin.

Sailing

I had two close friends in high school, and none of us live near our hometown. But we still try to connect from time to time. While I live in western NY, and Claire lives in Virginia, we are getting to see each other more often as my daughter Karen attends a college just an hour away from Claire. When we went to visit Karen last weekend, we took the opportunity to go sailing with Claire. Sailing is her passion, so of course, I had to try to make her some sailing-themed cards! All the stamps on this card, except for the birds from Biblical Impressions, are from Alextamping.

Leaf Pile

Now we're really back from vacation! We stayed with close friends the first weekend, in the beautiful grape country next to Lake Erie, then a couple of days in Ohio with my lovely in-laws. On our way home, we stopped at our daughter's college flat at Houghton for dinner, left off our son who is taking a couple of classes there and could not afford to miss a whole week. He spent the night with the son of our close friends we had just visited. Our youngest stayed in her sister's flat for the night. Then Friday we all left again to visit our other college daughter at Patrick Henry in Virginia. I think we did close to 30 hours in the van, but it was great fun!

This card is one I made for a friend overseas, I didn't want to post it until she received it. I embossed the leaves (from Biblical Impressions) in gold on various vellums.

Wallpaper Fun

We've been away on vacation, and one stop was at friend's of ours whose daughters are learning to stamp. I had brought them a bunch of wallpaper to use for cards, and wanted to show them examples of cards made with wallpaper. (Our local Sherwin Williams used to allow anyone to take their wallpaper sample books when they expired). Unfortunately, when I went to my website to show the girls some sapmes, I realized I only had a couple in my galleries; I'd forgotten to upload them from a separate "wallpaper cards" file. So, this post is for them. The background is a very textured piece of wallpaper that reminds me of birch bark. I had a beautiful birch tree outside my bedroom growing up, and I absolutely loved to look at it. I hope it wasn't my fault for the times I just could not resist peeling it, but it was taken down years ago by the next owners of the house. I was so sad when I learned that! Anyway, wallpaper can be absolutely wonderful to make cards with!

Enjoy Life Journal

I need to learn how to use our new digital camera, scanners are great, and so much quicker to do then a photo, but I can't always get a great image. This is actually a paler color than shown here, and the "Enjoy Life" is actually embossed onto blue vellum. In person, you can more clearly see it.

I did not realize until making this journal how focused I've been on "greeting" type text stamps (thank you, miss you, thinking of you, etc). I have a lot of scripture stamps which work well on journals, but I don't want all of them Christian themed. Hmmm ... I'll have to work on that!

When I went to attach the back of the cover (after already applying the glue!), I realized I had already punched the cover! Because of the eyelets on either end, it was very difficult getting the cover into the bind-it-all as it was, so I couldn't just attach my cover and hope I could re-punch. So I grabbed a back of an EZ mount sheet (I keep a bunch on hand for anytime I am working with glue I might not want to dry), attached the inner covering, and punched. Then I applied some extra glue and attached it.

I just have one more journal to make after this, and then I'll send them to my friend who sells my cards at her gift shop.

Oh, make that two more ... my mom is down for a visit, leaving tomorrow, and wants to take back a prayer journal with her. Let's see, how late am I willing to stay up tonight???? :-)

Horse themed journal

I've been working on journals for a few weeks now, still in the learning process. This one is a fairly basic journal; there is a "secondary cover" with a pocket, but other than that, no extras as there are in the prayer journals I have done.

Still in the process of "moving in!"

I decided this card would be appropriate for this post, especially the part about patience! I am having difficulty finding the time to finish this blog, but hopefully by the end of the week I'll be able to. (Deadlines definitely help me reach goals!) I still am primarily blogging on yahoo 360 ...

I'm working on cards for my next workshop, with the theme of resist stamping. This is a simplified version of a card I made last year. I love this technique, though it can be a little time consuming. :-)

I own three simple "blessings" stamps. One I received in a grab bag, but as I want people to receive God's blessings, all three get used frequently! This one is from Eureka , and the leaves are from Biblical Impressions. I stamped the solid leaves with versamark, and used a jumbo pad for the color. Then I used Stazon with the outline stamp of the same leaf.