Hymn Card

For pastor appreciation month in October, I am trying to make a set of 10 cards (10 different designs) for my pastor and his wife. This year, I wasn't able to get to it until March! I usually end up just taking some out of the stash of cards I already have made, but I like to have at least a few one-of-a-kind cards designed with one or the other of them in mind. My pastor's wife's favorite hymn is "Like a River Glorious," so each year I do a card with that theme. Last year I actually scanned the entire hymn, shrunk it to 5.25x4 and printed it out on vellum. This year, I just quoted one line of it, using my computer.


The wonderful deer image is the only stamp I have with anything remotely like a river on it. There was a flaw on the bottom of the image, so I had to trim off that edge. I had no time to make another image.

It's not about me...

I absolutely love this text stamp from smARTworks. So, so true in every way! We do right because ... it's right! Not for what we will get for doing so. :-)

I am about to walk out the door and go to the first art class I have ever taken in my life (outside of required school art, which was always a disaster for me). It's a drawing class, and I am VERY nervous. I've always been embarrasingly behind everyone else in art ... the last kid to learn how to color inside the lines in elementary school, as I often tell people (quite truthfully). I don't mind admitting I'm not naturally artistic, but it does seem I ought to have some modicum of ability if I'm taking a class, right?

So back to my card: this is as simple as it gets: Stazon ink stamped on vellum, attached with brads to a couple of layers of cardstock, including one Martha Stewart-punched border. Much easier than gulp, actually drawing something...

If I don't post for a few weeks, you'll know I was completely humiliated tonight.

Am I being melodramatic here?

;-)

Springtime thank you

I thought up this card design ages ago, and had this card just needing to a text to be stamped. I put it aside somewhere, and ended up making a French card with the same design first. When I came back to this, I was in need of thank you cards, and remembered the metal embellishments I had. Perfect!

Graduation cards

I love this darling little mouse from smARTworks. When I saw this card from Dini at Mama Dini's Stamperia, I knew I had to have it! I planned to make a similar card with it as I also owned the roses. Shortly after I received the mouse, I realized I needed graduation cards in time for college. As soon as I saw this cap from Biblical Impressions, I knew the size of the image was perfect. And having a diploma small enough to fit in the sign was the icing on the cake!

More Birthday

This was such a cute, simple design to make!

Spanish Birthday card

My daughter, Abigail, is making her first quilted quilt. Before, she's just tied them off. The design she is using inspired me to make this card. When she was trying to decide what to do for a border, she imported my card into Paint Shop and was able to figure out what she wanted to do from that. It was definitely a unique use for one of my cards! :-)

The stripes were very time consuming ... which is why I'll never make a real quilt ... way too much for me! I cut 8.5 inch strips of cardstock and attached them to an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. Then I cut it into quarters, using some for this quilt card. I did this a few months ago, and have played around a bit with my cuttlebug with the remaining strips, but haven't actually finished any other cards yet.

Tea Party

I had just heard something on the news, I think, about the Tea Party movement, and happened to be looking at a page of stamps that had the tea pot outline stamp. I remembered that I had a couple of stamped flage images, and immediately I knew what I wanted to do! I then also remembered my Mad Hatter set, and so of course, I had to make one of those too. I am needing to put new cards in at the college, so instead of coloring the Hatter, I decided to do the card in black and white. And of course, this way someone who has a friend who just likes drinking tea could also be interested in it. I love multi-tasking! ;-)

Don't write in the dust!

This is definitely one of my favorite humorous stamps! It makes me smile every time I look at it! I made two of these, but evidently forgot to photograph one. Oh well!

smARTword challenge: Fresh

This month over at the smARTword challenge, the word is "Fresh." Trish, who did the first card, made a perfect card for it, and I would have done something similar. As I tried to think of something entirely different, and I remembered I had a text stamp with the word fresh, in the form of "refreshing." Perfect!

There is a random drawing for FREE stamps just for participating in these monthly challenges, even if you don't have smARTworks stamps! So hop on over and join the fun!

Chinese Congratulations

I love Yuzen Washi Papers! These are cloth-like papers that are amazingly elegant!

Congratulations ... to me!

I did not think I would make my cardmaking goal today, which was important as I am already behind schedule. I also didn't think I'd get a chance to post today either, but here I am! I love ending the week feeling like I completed something good! :-)

Dearest Baby

I borrowed some Paper Bag Studios stamps from a friend, and made several images for later use with them before returning. I'm actually not sure why I chose this one; sometimes it strikes me as an image for a sympathy card. But I left it without text and perhaps it would work for an adoption card or just a vintage card featuring a little one.

Card Redo

This was one of the first cards I made. Too simple, and the fringe may have been a cute idea, but it looks rather tacky the way I put it on! I trimmed the card to a panel and placed it on a blue card, added the paisley cuttledbug pieces, and changed the text. Still a very basic card, but an improvement nonetheless.

Adoption

The photo stamp used here is one that I've had for years, but didn't know very much about stamping detail stamps at the time. Dye inks tend not to give a great impression, but chalk inks make a much crisper image.

The company from which I purchased the stamp is was in the process of going out of business, so I can't give stamp credit.

Once again I thank You

This is a card I made for a Salt challenge last year, and seemed appropriate for Good Friday. I used square brads to represent the nails in Jesus' hands and feet; Roman nails, I believe, were square instead of round. The wood background paper is for the wooden cross, the red background for His blood shed for us, and the torn paper representing His body broken for us.

Thank you, Jesus.