Fun with Mosaics!

I had a lot of fun with this background.  I took goldenrod cardstock, embossed a mosaic background from Eureka with clear embossing powder, then sponged the various colors on.  The plan was to then iron off the clear embossing, but, well, I liked the glaze effect!

I am submitting this card for two contests; the Verve Autumn Lovelies challenge,  and the Our Daily Bread Designs "Ink up or emboss your own background" challenge.  I love doing backgrounds.  In fact, I would rather just experiment with backgrounds than make cards!

Not your usual fall colors!

Most of us don't see teal and silver leaves, but when I'm  making a bunch of fall cards, I like to take the original break from the "standard" (though glorious!) fall colors, and make a different kind of card.  I made this for my youngest daughter's birthday ... she likes thinking outside the box so will appreciate the color change.  The picture does not do justice to the beauty of the Indian background paper ... it's really lovely.  The silver embossed leaf also does not show it's true "sparkle."  I often have difficulty photographing cards to reflect shimmer.  :-(

Anyway, this is a submission for Verve's "Autumn Lovelies" challenge.

Thanksgiving Greetings

This is another entry for Verve's Autumn Lovelies challenge.  After the last card I made with these elements and colors, I was in love!  So, I recreated it for someone requesting fall/thanksgiving cards.  I am posting it now, instead of closer to Thanksgiving, for the simple reason that I've been requested to make three more of these ... and I do not have  any more of the gorgeous, deep green, crinkle paper (or cardstock, or whatever this should be called, lol), and it was made, I believe, by a company that is out of business.  If anyone can give me a source for this, I'd be grateful!

Seek the Lord Always

I love Word Art Wednesday's focus on scripture!  This week's challenge is from the 16th chapter of
I Chronicles, when David, not long after becoming king upon Saul's death, has had the ark brought back to Jerusalem.  It had been a tragic trip: the prescribed way in which to transport the ark, by poles carried by Levites, had been somehow forgotten or ignored, and a man had died because of it.  Now David has repented, made the necessary sacrifices, and ensured that the ark was transported correctly.  Now, it is time to celebrate!  This scripture is just one part of a beautiful song of praise; actually, the beginning states that David "appointed Asaph and his associates to give praise to the LORD in this manner".   So David was not just writing a glorious personal praise of God, but in his song, setting an example of worship for the priesthood to follow.  We, because of Jesus Christ, are now that priesthood. I encourage you to read verses 8-36 for a wonderful inspiration for thanksgiving and for worship.

8 Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
    make known among the nations what he has done.
9 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
    tell of all his wonderful acts.
10 Glory in his holy name;
    let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
11 Look to the Lord and his strength;
    seek his face always.
12 Remember the wonders he has done,
    his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
13 you his servants, the descendants of Israel,
    his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.
14 He is the Lord our God;
    his judgments are in all the earth.
15 He remembers his covenant forever,
    the promise he made, for a thousand generations,
16 the covenant he made with Abraham,
    the oath he swore to Isaac.
17 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
    to Israel as an everlasting covenant:
18 “To you I will give the land of Canaan
    as the portion you will inherit.”
19 When they were but few in number,
    few indeed, and strangers in it,
20 they[d] wandered from nation to nation,
    from one kingdom to another.
21 He allowed no one to oppress them;
    for their sake he rebuked kings:
22 “Do not touch my anointed ones;
    do my prophets no harm.”
23 Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
    proclaim his salvation day after day.
24 Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
25 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    he is to be feared above all gods.
26 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens.
27 Splendor and majesty are before him;
    strength and joy are in his dwelling place.
28 Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    bring an offering and come before him.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his[e] holiness.
30     Tremble before him, all the earth!
    The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
31 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
    let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!”
32 Let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
    let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them!
33 Let the trees of the forest sing,
    let them sing for joy before the Lord,
    for he comes to judge the earth.
34 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.
35 Cry out, “Save us, God our Savior;
    gather us and deliver us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name,
    and glory in your praise.”
36 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.
Then all the people said “Amen” and “Praise the Lord.”

Autumn: The Mellower Season

Here is another card for the Verve Autumn Lovelies challenge.  The quote and background paper were in my "card parts" box; I'm not even sure why I started this card, it has a bit of a limited audience.  But, in making fall cards for someone, I really wanted to focus on finishing started cards.

The author of the quote, Samuel Butler, was a novelist who had a lot of pithy statements that might be familiar:

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it.

Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.

Leaf Elegance

It's nice having a season, though it will be brief, of getting back into the stamping world.  In my rare participation with blog challenges, I came across two cards in which I so liked the stamped image (scriptures both times), that I looked up the source: both were from Verve Stamps.   I clicked on the blog link, and discovered they are having a fall challenge: Autumn Lovelies.  So, here is my card. :-)

Fun with Kraft-Core

I couldn't resist doing one more challenge for Word Art Wednesday.  I've been making fall/thanksgiving cards for a coworker of my husband's, and I got a bit carried away working with Tim Holtz' "Kraft-Core" and Darice's leaf embossing folder. I embossed the pieces, then sanded the tops to reveal the kraft brown beneath. This top card is my absolute favorite, though I almost tossed the panel; I thought the orange (not quite represented accurately in the photo) clashed with the brown horribly.  But, I had the pumpkin pieces from years ago when playing with that image, and the oranges and browns blended perfectly with the embossed/sanded ugly panel!  I was so happy!

This card, and the next, feature the embossed panels.  You can't really tell by the picture (and it's not overly obvious to begin with), but on the second card, I first brayered brown ink over the embossed panel, and then sanded it.   I'd like to try it again with a more contrasting color.  It does add more dimensionality to the panel.

Okay, now honestly, isn't this one a bit ugly?  I think so, and have not turned it into a card yet.  The problem is the colors, but I included it because I like the concept of the card: I laid the leaves onto the panel, embossed it together, than removed the leaves.  Then I sanded the panel, and replaced the leaves in the correct positions.  So if you look close, you can see how the pattern of the embossing folder is not broken by the leaves, but continued by them.  It might have worked just was well (and been less time consuming!) to have glued the leaves on before embossing, and then sanded the panel and leaves together ... maybe I'll try that another time.  And then I will pick a more pleasing combination of colors, lol!

Different Horizons

Once again, this is for the Word Art Wednesday challenge.  I was asked by someone to make her a some fall/Thanksgiving themed cards, so have been working hard at for close to a week.  I generally do not have time to make cards; it literally took two full days of trying to make cards to get back into the groove.  I'm really into it now, but am getting behind in my grad school work, so pretty soon  here I need to just quit and believe I have enough variety for my customer to choose from!

I love the perspective the quote on this image brings: so often disagreements are simply issues of perspective.  Of course, in today's world, there are those who wish to say that all issues are perspective, and there is never a time to say "this is right", or "this is wrong."   But we can all stand to remember the importance of considering the other point of view...

Some Trust in Chariots

I am posting again for the Word Art Wednesday Challenge; this time, I'm using the free digital scripture stamp provided for this week.  Years ago I had tried making horse cards, but not being gifted with coloring skills, nor being a "horse person," I felt very insecure, and never actually completed cards.   But, I rarely throw anything away that I might later find use for.  So, when I saw the scripture, I knew I finally had use for the horse panel!  I first wanted to keep the panel as it was, but when I tried to print the scripture onto a transparency to overlay the horse, I did not realize that I was low on ink, so it did not give proper coverage.  (That is why the print is a hair blurred and not truly black as well).  So, I die cut the panel and reprinted the scripture.

Silhouette Wedding

I was asked to make a last minute orange/peach wedding card.  I'm not a fast card maker ... I think it's the decision making part that slows me down the most ... but I managed!  This is for the Word Art Wednesday challenge.

The Grace of God

I recently made this card for a man in our church who had experienced God's grace in a beautiful and memorable way.   I chose the background (wallpaper) based on the Old Testament encouragements on certain occasions to erect memorials, often made with stones, as a remembrance of God's grace to the people. I have made journals with this pattern for the same reason; journals are a great "memorial stone" for us to use to record God's goodness to us, especially those life-changing or defining moments that He gives us.

I am participating in the Word Art Wednesday challenge.  This blog provides a digital scripture stamp for each challenge - I love that!  This is their 200th post ... I think that is certainly something to celebrate!  Now I need to go save some of those scripture digis to my files ...  :-)

ODB Color Challenge

This week's challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs is a Color Challenge.  I love challenges not only because of the fun of it, and the potential win, but it helps kickstart cardmaking for me ... I tend to get way behind.  For instance, I haven't mailed anything to my son, who lives across the country, anything for several months, and we do not keep in close contact by e-mail or texting.  So, this got me to finally get a card out.  Masculine cards are not my favorite thing to make: I feel more constrained with colors and embellishments, especially with a twenty-something male who is not likely to even notice the card, lol!  But, clean simple cards are what I prefer anyway; the focus for me is always the message.  As with my last card, this is not well photographed, this time because of dark, dreary rainy days.  The leaves are actually more like the peach color represented in the ODB challenge.

Layerless Scripture Card

My husband writes to a friend, John, in prison.  Layered cards are not permitted; if sent, they are torn apart before being given to the recipient.  So, I've been trying to create cards with no layers or embellishments of any kind.

I forgot to retake the picture ... this one was taken in the evening in poor lighting, so looks a bit blue and washed out.  It actually turned out really well.  I stamped the background image in gray, then stamped the scripture.  I then put an oval mask over the verse, and restamped the background in black, and chalked it in.

Our Daily Bread Designs has an "Anything Goes with Scripture" challenge going right now. They have lovely designs that work well on layerless cards, so for  my husband's friend, I'm going to submit this and maybe another card or two in hopes of winning a $15 gift certificate that will go toward making the next card for him!

I hope this will inspire anyone who has a friend or relative in jail to get creative and be a blessing to someone who could truly use one!