Encouraging Impressions

Masculine Birthday Card

2012-01-23T08:25:00.002-05:00

Because of the college classes I'm taking, I tried to get a good head start on cardmaking this year, and had today's Biblical Impressions design team card finished a week or two ago. However, as is very typical for me, I suddenly remembered a family birthday - myhusband's - is today! It's almost a family joke how I tend to forget my own family member's birthday cards until last minute! So Saturday morning found me hastily making a card while my husband shoveled the driveway! Bruce is not really into cards, but some time ago he saw me with a stack of notecards I was beginning to color in, and he requested I make one for him to give someone ... but he liked the black and white, and asked me to put just the smallest dash of red somewhere on the card, and leave the rest without color. Remembering that, I decided to make him a card with the same color scheme, though I did use some grey as well. I used the plaid stripes (second row) and the happy birthday for a simple, masculine look.

Snowman Block

2012-01-17T08:54:00.001-05:00

When I was making this Snowman card last week - about the only snowman I've seen in this strange winter - I had some blue, white, and silver plaid ribbon that I thought would make a really nice blue and white card. The snowman is so charming, he doesn't need any coloring. But then I decided to just add a little color by doing paper piecing with the scarf (using a red marker every other panel). Oh, and wouldn't it be great to do the hat in with black glossy cardstock? And by the time I had embossed the hat portion of the image, it seemed obvious I should continue with the rest of the snowman "parts". I am a word person, so I put this greeting of blessings underneath, backed with a scrap of the same paper used for the scarf.

Biblical Impressions Blog Hop!

2012-01-13T00:01:00.009-05:00

Welcome to the next stop on the Biblical Impressions blog hop! If you are arriving here from Jessica B.'s blog, then you are at the right place! If not, then head to the QKR Stampede blog for a complete hop order. This month’s theme is winter!

This was a fun card to make! First, I used a square punch on a scrap of paper, to give me a “frame” to stamp in; I also could have created a frame with four post it notes. I stamped the upper part of the pine grove repeatedly (re-inking only after stamping several times) inside the punched out area. Then I sponged blue ink for the sky, and removed the scrap. Next, I used white embossing ink to stamp the snowflakes repeatedly over the image (stamping off onto scrap paper before re-inking so as not to get colored ink mixed into the pad), deliberately allowing a little overlap into the white space of the card, and embossed with white embossing powder. I then embossed the Thank you in white, cut out the oval, then sponged the same blue ink over that. I used the cuttlebug to emboss a snowflake panel, which I then tore and glued to the panel, attaching the layered oval.
This could very easily be a card without layers. The thank you could be embossed right on the card, sponged over, then masked with an oval. Multiple snowflakes could be embossed in white down the side, the mask removed, and then the outer edges of the card sponged in blue.

Thank you for coming by, now it's on to Jessica S. for the next hop!

P.S. Jessica is going to mention the lack of snow we've had here in Western NY ... but it's coming down hard this morning! So pretty!

Ooops!

2012-01-11T12:45:00.001-05:00

We have lived in our present location for about fifteen years. We have an unfinished basement that, because we live on a hill, will flood after heavy rain. If rainfall has been particularly heavy, it may take overnight for the water to drain out. Last month, the town replaced the culvert for a ravine that goes under the road. In this strange winter that should have been depositing snow, we had a huge amount of rain. Our basement filled up about five inches ... and stayed that way for two weeks. Clearly, it must have been because the work on the culvert; presumably the drain had somehow gotten blocked. We called the town highway super's office, and asked if they could check to see if something they had done had caused it. We were not irritated, these things happen. But wow, I'm so grateful we were not! The superintendent himself came over with another gentleman, and actually located the drain pipe as further down the the property than the culvert. They sent a snake up through, discovered that something had gotten lodged up in the drain and were able to dislodge it. How embarrassing! While our assumption may have been logical, we should have searched harder for that outtake! But it was really neat to see what a genuine public servant the highway superintendent is!

It seemed appropriate to use a local map for a thank you. The only thing we had was a simple full county map, in really bad shape. So I decided to scan it, and crop it down to focus on our town of Wellsville. I deepened the color a little, sharpened the image, and mounted it onto a red panel. For the thank you background, I cropped the picture down even further, and significantly "faded" the image. I had planned to add some embellishments after attaching the thank you to the card, but suddenly felt really subconscious about that, and left it unadorned.

Eureka Blog Hop!

2012-01-09T00:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the next stop on the Eureka blog hop! If you are arriving here from the QKR Stampede Blog, then you are at the right place! If not, you can head back there for a complete hop order. This month’s themes are Love and Valentine’s Day.

Cards like these make me realize just how limited my crafting skills are, lol! I thought these lovecats needed a porch swing, but I wasn’t very confident I could make it happen, so I used a pair of cats that were rather messy as I tried to work out the project, planning to replace them if my idea looked like it would work. Of course, by the time I got it together to my satisfaction, I had forgotten I needed to make a new cat image, but it was already glued to the “swing!” Anyway…

The bench is just about 1” wide, and just over 2.75” long. After cutting it, I scored lines across for a wood plank look. I cut the cat image about a quarter of an inch from the bottom, folding right where the tails begin. The top quarter inch of the image was attached to the back of the bench at the fold. I used embroidery floss for the swing, to resemble rope, though it occurs to me an old tarnished chain from a necklace would work nicely too. Because of the light weight of the floss an the bench, I had to weight the bench down to pull the floss straitght. For the porch roof, I used a thin wood laminate sheet. It’s very fragile, so had I soaked it in water, then bent it to attach one side to the frame, and slant the other side for a roof look (I realize it does not appear slanted in the photo, but it actually worked quite well). I used an eyelet setter for holes to pull the “rope” up through.

If I were skilled/efficient with crafting, I could have created porch walls as well, creating a box frame for it all. However, I’d already spent an embarrassing amount time figuring out this much, and I just couldn’t go that last step. So, I propped the frame up against designer paper to photograph. However, I hope I’ve inspired some of you to try your hand at making a truly adorable image! If you had a scenic photo from the recipient’s honeymoon for the love cats to look at, it would make a sweet anniversary card!

Thank you for stopping by, now it’s on to Molly for the next hop stop!

The Wonderful Names of Jesus III

2012-01-07T12:18:00.004-05:00

As I was creating cards for the design teams, I came across a damaged panel using Stubby Stamper's Names of Jesus stamp. As you can see, I did some kind of watercoloring on this Eureka rose, and evidently I used too much water, and the panel warped significantly. Still, I never got rid of it. Already posting two companies' NOJ stamps, I decided to see if I could use the panel after all. I attached it to some beautiful marbled green glossy cardstock, placed it under a large pile of books, and left it for a couple of days. Hurrah - the card flattened out smoothly! I wish the glossy cardstock showed up better, it's truly a beautiful pattern, giving added beauty to the card.

By the way, another name for Jesus is "Rose of Sharon," part of why I chose a rose to place in the center. :-)

The Wonderful Names of Jesus II

2012-01-06T07:52:00.003-05:00

As a design team member for both Biblical Impressions and Eureka, I thought it might be fun to occasionally post similar images from each. My first post featured Eureka’s Names of Jesus image; here is Biblical Impression’s Names of Jesus image.

This was one of those designs in which what I planned to do and what I ended up doing were very different. I had embossed the NOJ with clear powder, planning to ink not quite to the border of the stamps, so that the border words were legible, but sort of fading off into the background. Then I planned to iron off the embossing, and tear the edges. But in an ADD moment I forgot my original plan and did a more traditional inking (using Brilliance ink pads), and having already messed up my original idea, went for straight edges. While most of my cards are standard A2 designs, this one is slightly larger so that I could frame the stamp better, and cover up less of it with the smaller scripture, which is Psalm 113:3, available on the full sheet, Be Still.

The wonderful names of Jesus

2012-01-03T09:35:00.007-05:00

After nearly a year and a half of very little card making because of my return to college (online this time), I am actually involved with two design teams! Biblical Impressions and Eureka are actually sister companies, and I have been using their stamps for years.

I love Names of Jesus stamps, they give reminders of the many facets of the Lord; he is our Savior, our King; he is our Shepherd, and so much more. The script-like font of Eureka’s Names of Jesus image is very classy looking. Starting the new year by reflecting on the character of Christ is a great way to go!

For this card, I used metallic/mica powders to achieve an embossed copper effect for a masculine recipient. The green powder (not what is sold at Eureka or BI) has some flaw in it, and smears on any cardstock used. However, I deliberately used it here to accomplish the aged effect. I had planned to add a small scripture text stamp to the card, but when I finished the NOJ panel, I decided the antiqued, elegant appearance did not need anything added to it other than the miniature brads.

It may be my own lack of photography skills, but embossed images never seem to photograph as well as I would like. The text is actually very readable, despite what you see in the photo.

Simple Christmas cards

2011-12-21T17:12:00.004-05:00

I pride myself on making average cards, lol! Seriously, I am not a fast cardmaker by any means, so when I can come up with something very simple, it's a good thing! These cards could not be easier ... though I still managed to take awhile to decide what I wanted to do! With Christmas just days away, this seemed an appropriate design to show.

Last foreign language cards made for sale

2011-12-20T11:14:00.004-05:00

I have been selling cards at Houghton College for about two and half years, but with new management and, understandably, with their different ideas, it seems time to move on. I had almost stopped anyway, as I don't really have a lot of time for cardmaking, and when time is limited, making "have to" cards - making sure I have new designs for each category - leaves no time to make just what I want to make. Anyway, while I still have reasons to make the occasional Spanish card, I will no longer have any cause to make foreign language cards. Those that I have left over I will just re-make into English cards, unless I can find some place to sell them online. With the fairly simple designs I have, that may not be possible. So, these two cards, made this summer to sell at the college this winter, are the last in their language I will make.

Christmas Cardinal

2011-12-19T10:50:00.002-05:00

I have had this image for years, but never used it before. The spellbinders' circle die was the perfect frame for it!

Winter Snow Scene

2011-12-14T10:26:00.005-05:00

>Winter Snow Scene, is one of a series from Eureka, and each image is offered in two sizes. I have a smaller image from this set of the three wise men. I love embossing, and the small circle is just too detailed to handle embossing well. When I received this stamp, I tried embossing with silver just to see if it would work, not necessarily to make a card with, but I liked it enough I decided to go ahead and finish it. I decided it needed a little "warmth," so I embossed the moon in gold.

It's all about grace

2011-12-13T18:15:00.005-05:00

I love the sentiment on this text stamp! So original and thought provoking, especially with all the provocations that can come along with the Christmas season! May God give us grace to be gracious!

I had the ornament already finished from last year, but never made it into a card until this year, and then it was in a flying hurry, and there would be some changes I'd have made if I'd taken my time. Ah well, it's out of the house and will hopefully bless someone!

Joy to the World alternate

2011-12-12T15:55:00.002-05:00

I wanted this card to have a softer, muted look. Again, simple design.

JOY to the world!

2011-12-10T17:00:00.004-05:00

I so not remember where this stamp came from, but I think it is such a creative stamp! If anyone knows the company that made it, I'd like to give credit.

This is an extremely simple card, but I wanted the design to be the focus. I also just really like a lot of empty space on a card.

Dovely Joy

2011-12-09T11:46:00.001-05:00

I love this stamp from LimeLight. I've made a number of cards from it, especially enjoying using gold leaf! In fact, I went a little crazy with it a couple of years ago, making a number of panels that slowly turned into cards. This is the last, which I did this summer.

Rejoice some more!

2011-12-05T11:44:00.000-05:00

Now this is a switch ... instead of not showing the sparkle, a problem I sometimes have with glitz, this one shows sparkle where there really isn't any! The embossing powder is from a line called "Antiquities," which I believe may now be itself antique! It's very similar to Tim Holtz distress powder, I believe, more of a sandy look than glittery.

I stamped the image too close to the edge of the cardstock, hence the "interesting" cut of the cardstock!

Rejoice!

2011-11-29T16:31:00.003-05:00

Hurrah! Time to post the Christmas cards I made this summer! It's so strange to do them then, but I knew with college I didn't dare wait until November!

I love this stamp from Biblical impressions, and it works perfectly with gold leaf. I had a difficult time photographing this card; the light just was not right. The gold leaf mix I used had a bit more of the color of the card in it, for some reason it doesn't come through in the photo. :-(

25th Anniversary

2011-11-17T08:54:00.004-05:00

Wow, married for a quarter of a century! God blessed me with a fabulous husband, and I'm grateful!

Unfortunately, I just was not inspired for the card. I couldn't seem to get past the fact that I didn't have a 25th anniversary stamp! Silly, but I just kept putting off the card until it nearly was too late. I didn't want a feminine card, and definitely wanted silver, so this wallpaper print seemed a good choice, with the flecks of silver in it. I was in a hurry when photographing the picture, so it's a bit blurred.

In-a-hurry re-make

2011-11-14T09:56:00.003-05:00

Wow, Thanksgiving is nearly here, time to post the other fall season card I made this year. I am really terrible about dates, and although we had already given our October birthday daughter her gift (she live a couple hours away, so when we connected with her for a wedding a few weeks before it, we gave her our gift then), I wanted to have a card in the mail for the actual birth date. Of course, I remembered it two days before the day, no time to create a new card. So, I resurrected this old card from 2006 and covered up the text with cuttlebugged leaves and a happy birthday stamp. It's not a fabulous card, but it looks a little better than what the camera indicates. :-)

Pumpkin Vine

2011-10-24T09:25:00.004-04:00

Our annual women's retreat this year featured a really special speaker. Her text was John 15:5, and she used a story of a pumpkin vine that mysteriously appeared on her lawn for the illustration. College classes had started, meaning little time for cardmaking, but I had this pumpkin image I made last year but never used. Knowing I had the scripture in a stamp, I just couldn't resist making Nancy a card!

Encouragement Card

2011-10-17T10:27:00.003-04:00

It's hard to make cards while I'm doing college classes, but I had a real burden for a woman in our church; she and her husband are having unforeseen complications in the adoption of their son, which had seemed to be a "done deal." I had hoped the card, and the words I shared inside would be an true encouragement, but when she thanked me for the card saying it was "sweet," I realized genuine ministry had not occurred. Sometimes I make a card just to be amusing, and sometimes, quite frankly, just because a card is required for an occasion and I want to save money by making one. In those cases, especially the latter, I'm not really concerned about reaction. But my reaction to this person's "sweet" comment, and the thought going through my mind of "why bother taking time I can ill afford to make a card that probably won't be appreciated?" makes me wonder if I'm looking to bless .... or impress? I did what was in my heart to do for this person, and I know it caused me to pray for her situation more faithfully. Can I learn to let this be enough for me?

Butterflies!

2011-10-06T11:03:00.002-04:00

Wow, October already? How did that happen? I had hoped to have a summer of cardmaking, but life is just too busy! However,I did manage a few; this one was made early August for my oldest daughter's birthday.

I love the butterfly stamp used in this card! Actually, it's three stamps, two for the wings, one for the body, making for a lovely 3D effect, which is lacking a bit in this picture. After I photographed it, I found a pencil-width metal mystery tool, and I laid it across the body, then put dimensional dots beneath the winges to raise them. With the metal rod holding down the body, the wings could curve up without weakening the bond holding the body to the card. It worked perfectly!

Joy in the Journey

2011-08-31T15:43:00.003-04:00

Wow, the summer has flown by, and now school is in session again. I thought I would get to do so much more cardmaking than I did, but with my son home for the first time in nearly two years, a family reunion to help plan activities for, getting my youngest ready for college, and catching up on everything I didn't do during my 39 credit school year ... it just didn't leave a lot of time! But, I did get a few cards made, including a bunch for Christmas that I'll post later (actually, they still need actual assembly, lol, gluing is the boring part of cardmaking I tend to avoid!).

I liked the idea of doing a monochromatic card with these stamps, and the ribbon I had was the inspiration. :-)

Peacock dreams

2011-07-27T09:41:00.004-04:00

Wow, my first card this YEAR!!!

I tried pigment powders first on this image, but was not satisfied. But the gold leaf worked beautifully! I didn't have a specific goal for a card, but when I finished this, I knew it was meant for a young friend of mine. Hope I was right!

Eureka Blog Hop

2011-06-14T11:24:00.003-04:00

Just in case anyone still pops in to see if I'm still alive, yes, I am, just have had no stamping time! I went back to college this fall, online full time, and have not made a single card since before Christmas! I also spend no time looking at blogs, but I've had an online connection with Eureka stamps for close to a decade, I think, and they've just launched their first blog hop! So, if you'd like to check it out, head over here!

This is a card I made years ago; background and scripture both from Eureka.

smARTword challenge

2010-12-01T09:17:00.005-05:00

This is the last of the smARTword challenges, so take advantage of this last opportunity for free stamps!

The word for this month is "merry"!

The adorable vintage image is available in two sizes at smARTworks. :-)

Sympathy

2010-11-09T10:40:00.003-05:00

I chose this card from my unposted file as I pray for a friend who lost her husband in an accident yesterday. I'm so glad that she has the comfort of the Lord, and a wonderful church family to help her and her children get through it, but although a distant friend, I ache for her in her loss. I love the scripture on this card, "blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." What a picture of the precious comfort of the Lord!

Tiger, tiger...

2010-11-08T15:15:00.003-05:00

As I started to post, I remembered vaguely some poem about a tiger. Of course, googling provided the source. The Poem is by William Blake:

TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

smARTword challenge

2010-11-05T22:15:00.003-04:00

The theme for this month's smARTword challenge is simple.I inked the stamp with butterscotch, then lightly tapped the sides of it in rust before stamping onto the panel. I then lightly chalked some green. I wish it had photographed better, I used bronze mica which looks really elegant, and the stamped image and panel behind the bronze are actually more rust colored, and not so orange.

Make a simple card, and get a chance to win free stamps!

And two more...

2010-10-21T21:48:00.002-04:00

Set me as a seal, upon your heart...

2010-10-19T15:37:00.004-04:00

Is this a romantic scripture, or is this more about our relationship with God? I guess that depends on your interpretation of the book of Solomon. I think it can be used either way, and so two of these I put under the "love" category of my cards in the places in which I sell, and two in the "scripture" section. :-) I'll post the other two tomorrow.

The black floral panel was stamped using opalite inks. They are a little more subtle than this picture shows them to be, but it is still really pretty; I love using these inks! But they will not show up very well if you are using anything other than a very black black. I have some blacks that are not quite as dark, and I've been disappointed with the look of the inks.

The harvest is plentiful...

2010-10-18T21:11:00.003-04:00

Finished my first quarter at college this weekend, hurrah! Now I can have a couple of days (I hope - lots happening here this week; my oldest daughter is moving away, so of course, everyone wants to see her before she leaves. I told someone today that I look forward to an empty nest, but the actual process of emptying is absolutely awful, lol!)

Anyway, I hope to post regulary this week, I have a "not yet posted" file of cards that I can draw from. Occasionally I use one for the blog, but forget to move it out, so hopefully this card really has not been posted before. It's a remake of a simpler card I made a few years ago. I trimmed it down and mounted it onto another card to give it another layer, and added extra brads.

smARTword challenge

2010-10-08T23:06:00.002-04:00

Wow, is it really a month since I last posted? Going to college full time definitely makes life, um, full!

This month's smARTword challenge is "brown." Make a card focusing on this color, link it to the smARTword blog, and have a chance for free stamps!

Lamentations 3:21-23

2010-09-08T17:48:00.002-04:00

I love to make cards with this scripture!

Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

The images are stamped with opalite inks. This ink looks wonderful, very shimmery and colorful, but does not photograph well.

smARTword challenge

2010-09-04T21:59:00.003-04:00

The theme for this month's smARTword challenge is "Juvenile." I rarely make cards for children, but I do enjoy stamps of children, and this is one of my favorites!

I colored the frogs with markers, and the boys with chalks.

Happy September!

2010-09-01T10:52:00.005-04:00

To know God is to trust Him. If one does not trust Him, it's because one does not truly know Him. :-)

This is a card design I have used often; it's one of my favorite designs.

I am trusting Him for grace to get through this semester; I'm returning to college after 15 years, I think. I never graduated, and so it's going to take me 2-3 years to finish. I'm taking 18 credits this semester, divided into two quarters of 9 credits each. It's a bit overwhelming, but I am thrilled to be doing it!

May Joys Abound!

2010-08-19T19:51:00.002-04:00

I needed to make a set of notecards (for me, that means cards without layers or embellishments), and this design worked perfectly for one! To make the background stripes, I used strips of rubber trimmed from a set of bookmark stamps. I love saving those scraps! These were unusually large, but small shapes are helpful too. You can make a homemade mosaic background stamp, form funkly letters, etc.

Joyful!

2010-08-12T20:06:00.005-04:00

Another great collage set from smARTworks. I love anything with the word "joy" in it, and this little girl is darling! I wanted her to look like a little Latina, and I think it turned out well enough that way. I did edit the picture a little; the hair looked very patchy, and with the low-level photo editing program I have, I couldn't "fix" the hair without altering the overall color. I mention this also because I've realized just in the last few months (I made this several months ago), that I had been underusing my stamp-a-ma-jig. In the card set I made with this - my card sets are always without layers or embellishments - I would have had much better results stamping the girl image twice. With a stamp-a-majig, you just place the tool up to the stamp before removing it from the cardstock, then hold on carefully to it while you re-ink the stamp, then apply it again. This is very helpful with solid images, such as the hair on the little girl, and with clear stamps, which don't consistently give a crisp image. :-)

Anniversary

2010-08-05T23:46:00.004-04:00

When I switch out a set of cards from a store, I go through what didn't sell to check for damage or cards that really never should have been for sale because of an un-noticed flaw or clash of color, etc. Sometimes it just isn't a card I feel good about, but left in because it was in a category I had too few cards for! In a recent set of cards, I realized I had not one, but two anniversary cards with "issues." Neither was slavagable, so I went to work on a couple of new ones. This one is very similar to a couple I made a month or two earlier for the other store. :-)

Wedding card

2010-08-02T20:11:00.004-04:00

I have lots of pictures that haven't even made it to my "not yet posted" file, which has pictures that are edited and ready to post. I totally forgot about this card, which is odd because it's recently made ... I had several of the dove image colored in, but hadn't used them all, so it was a quick card to make. Of course, I take forever to make up my mind about embellishments, image placement, etc, so it probably took longer than it should have!

Card redo

2010-07-28T16:06:00.002-04:00

This was a card from the days I used to put white paper inserts in the cards. This card really should have been layered from the beginning; the outside margin looked too wide. I also only had brads in the top part of the card (my supplies then were so limited, I couldn't stand to use four brads!

Happy discovery!

2010-07-27T21:38:00.002-04:00

In the frenzied pace of finishing up all card & journal making for the rest of the year by the time we leave for our first ever family reunion the first weekend in August, I was delighted to find an envelope with parts to make several of these cards. It was from a workshop done several years ago, and I had two dogs completely colored in, O happy day!

Oops

2010-07-21T22:48:00.004-04:00

This seemed the appropriate card to post today - the Balloon Rally did not benefit me after all. The craft store is on a side street, and all though in plain site of Main st., where the sidewalk sale takes place, no one turns their heads in that direction! It didn't help that Crafty Crafters was the only business set up outside...

I love this balloon stamp - I can't believe it's taken me so long to get around to using it!

Another Wellsville Balloon Rally Card

2010-07-13T12:29:00.006-04:00

Another card from my Balloon Rally stash. I remember not being able to find most of the photos we'd taken from previous balloon rallies, and this was the only decent picture to use. I played around with settings on my photo editing program so that I could at least have a little variety in appearance.

At this point in my cardmaking I owned no punches, made every outer panel the same quarter inch difference, and just had very little supplies of any kind. I still make relatively basic cards, but I have learned a few things, and certainly am blessed with a lot more supplies!

I've only got a few more days to finish projects ... not sure I'll manage to create any new cards or do much of anything to these...

Balloon Rally

2010-07-10T23:23:00.004-04:00

I have been posting so little because I've been working frantically to get ready for our town's annual balloon rally, held the third weekend of August each year. I have not sold cards locally since the year I made this card ... which never sold. Happily, I kept it, so with a little tweaking it will go into the craft store this week. :-)

Thursday already!

2010-07-08T21:35:00.003-04:00

Wow, how did a week go by so quickly???

That's what happens when one is hyper-focused on something! Our town has it's annual "week-before-the-balloon-rally parade Saturday, and then the Balloon Rally itself next Saturday, and I'm busily putting together as many journals as possible. I am almost exclusively just making very basic wallpaper journals ... wallpaper is lovely because you can clean it, the mitered corners stay nicer much longer than cardstock, and best of all, the wallpaper is free!

I went through my previously made journals for some inspiration for the few decorated journals I want to have. This one is one of my favorites. It's a little too time consuming to recreate, but perhaps I can simplify it a little....hmmm....

smARTword challenge!

2010-07-01T10:05:00.004-04:00

Every month over at smARTworks there is a challenge word. There are free stamps awarded for a randomly chosen winner, and no limits to number of entries! This month's theme is "bright." You can click on the title of this post to get there!

I had a lot of fun with the stamps I used. For the dotted block, I masked the block then stamped the other. I kept the scrap left over after trimming, as it was big enough to have items punched out of it. :-) I scored the wings of the butterfly, bent them up, then applied tombo multi to the body. I was concerned that the glue, when I placed the b'fly onto the panel, might spread out to the wings, but I wanted to burnish the body well so that it would be secure. So, I placed it on the panel, with the wings still up, and waited just long enough for the glue to be set up enough not to spread, and then weighted the card down for a firm hold.

Prayer

2010-06-29T21:33:00.000-04:00

What a great scripture! Come BOLDLY to the Lord! Yes!

I don't know why I didn't just sponge green on the edge of the folded hands image; the card front is a bit too thick as the patterned cardstock is thick.

Oops!

2010-06-25T21:53:00.003-04:00

There's nothing precisely wrong with this card, but I didn't actually translate this scripture before stamping it. In my English version, the end reads "and the time of the singing of birds has come." However, this Spanish translation has only "the time of singing has come." I know enough Spanish to figure this out, but if I were fluent, I think as I was mounting the stamp and looking right at it, I would have noticed the difference. Oh well!

More Graduation Mice

2010-06-23T21:36:00.000-04:00

I had some extra mouse images .... I tend to stamp more images than I need so that if I make a coloring error, etc, I have more already to use. I had discovered they looked really cute sitting on top of a mortarboard (here), but I didn't want to waste these first images. :-)

Super Simple Birthday Cards!

2010-06-21T17:41:00.003-04:00

It doesn't get much easier than this! I had these cuttled birthday backgrounds made when visiting a friend, before I owned my own cuttlebug. I simple brayered a darker shade over the panels, and the rest is obvious. :-)

Horse card

2010-06-19T17:56:00.001-04:00

Friends of ours have a recycling business, and at there annual sale, I picked up a roll of super thin wood laminate. It's easy to cut with scissors, and will run through a cuttlebug (though is rather fragile, so pieces of the laminate will sometimes break.

Give thanks!

2010-06-15T18:00:00.001-04:00

I've had this cute paper for a few years, but never used it until this card. This scripture is repeated all throughout the Old Testament. I always know a person is not familiar with the Old Testament when they say that it's all about the law, and not about grace. In fact, grace, love, and the goodness of God are all over it!

Fantasy

2010-06-14T20:01:00.002-04:00

This card did not turn out as I had hoped, but I had a lot of fun working on it!

Korean Thank You

2010-06-12T12:21:00.007-04:00

I have been unable to find a Korean to translate phrases or scriptures from English to Korean for me, but I finally have decided that I've found enough evidence that this is the correct way to say thank you. :-)

I found it interesting that the alternating of blues and yellows really made a difference in the overall look of this design!

Journals!

2010-06-09T22:00:00.005-04:00

I'm not sure why I bother posting such simple journals, but perhaps it will inspire someone to create their own! Even if without a bind-it-all, wallpaper is great stuff to cover any notebook with. It's easy to work with, and protects the covers from "stuff" that can get on them when placed carelessly on a table or wherever. :-)

I am getting ready to order paper from a local printshop. I'm not sure it's worth the expense, but I have them use 24 wt. paper which is thicker than copy paper, and means the writing doesn't show through on the other side, which I really like.

Ordination cards

2010-06-07T10:50:00.002-04:00

Someone expressed interest in purchasing an ordination card today, and I realized I hadn't posted these last two cards. They are identical in design to a couple of others I have made, just a change in cardstock used.

Graduation card

2010-06-04T22:16:00.004-04:00

I'm don't know what company to credit for the bicycle; it was in a handful of stamped images from a friend. I thought it fit well with a graduation theme!

Edit: Thank you, Mary Frances, for your encouragement and for the company credit on the bicycle! Art Impressions created the image!

Poor Charlie Brown!

2010-06-03T21:57:00.003-04:00

I needed a humor break tonight, so here are a couple of Charlie Brown cards. It's a design I've made before; since I have two stores in which I sell cards, I decided to make some for the second place.

Zephaniah 3:17

2010-05-31T19:08:00.005-04:00

I posted this scripture on someone's blog today. It's one of those verses that I had never noticed before, but came across it from two different sources within a week. I knew that it meant God wanted me to pay attention, though it captured me the first time I saw it!

Here is the translation:

"The LORD your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

Why is it so hard to recognize how deeply He loves us? He saves us, he delights in us, He calms our fears - real and imagined, and sing songs to us. Those are not things a careless friend, or unfeeling diety, does for us.

We tend to think like this:
He is mighty to squish us like an insect.
He gets totally disgusted and frustrated with us.
He will wound you with rejection,
He will lambaste you with criticism.

No way.
Never.
Impossible.

Romans 8 says that nothing can separate us from His love. Psalm 139 tells us that we are irrisistible to Him.

He loves us even beyond the cross. Amazing.

NOTE 6/1: I was delighted this morning when I discovered that Our Daily Bread designs just came out with this scripture! It's in English, of course, and I know that many are going to be blessed to receive this scripture on a card! Definitely a stamp I hope to purchase soon!

Birthday in Blue

2010-05-29T10:23:00.003-04:00

This technique is called "Serigraph." It's been awhile since I have done it ... I made a couple of extra panels that I took forever to make into cards! But I believe I embossed the image in white, sponged several shades of blue ink over it all, then stamped the image with blue, then embossed the text with black.

A special older lady is having a surprise birthday planned by her family, so this will go to her!

Have a lovely day!

Snoopy!

2010-05-27T13:01:00.002-04:00

I thought this would be a good image to include in the last batch of cards for the semester at Houghton. Graduation is definitely a bittersweet time...

I have not posted so infrequently as I have for the past month in a long time. I may continue to be a bit sporadic ... I'm in the process of applying for college. I was hoping to do it online, but I may have a problem with my ancient credits being acceptable at my school of choice. Still waiting to find that out. In the meantime, I'm reading through a couple of my children's college textbooks to get a jumpstart on classes; being a bit rusty in the area of paper writing and intense studying, I need an edge for the first semester! I'm also still working with getting my youngest enrolled in college.

In a hurry graduation card

2010-05-21T20:07:00.003-04:00

If you are a cardmaker, and don't take pictures of your cards, I highly recommend you start doing so. I love the ideas I get from stamping blogs and magazines, but sometimes, as when I created this card, when I am in a tearing hurry, it's great to have a card that I can duplicate precisely ... I know I have the stamps and almost certainly still have some of the matching cardstock! (And even in a hurry, I can't bring myself to dulplicate someone else's card anyway!) This was a card design I had made when I first started doing cards, and remade, with the only change being the cuttlebug die cut I used for the cap. Guy cards always seem to be harder to design, so I'm so glad I had photographed this!

Pet Sympathy

2010-05-20T18:19:00.002-04:00

Pet Sympathy card are surprisingly few and far between. This was a very simple card to put together.

Smartworks challenge 2

2010-05-17T21:02:00.004-04:00

My last post on the smARTworks flower challenge showed the cards that were used on that site featuring one particular flower. These are some more cards that I made at the same time, all embossed with metallic powders. Not what one would normally expect to see with a flower image, but I like to stray from the expected once in awhile!

smARTword challenge: Flowers

2010-05-12T22:48:00.004-04:00

I'm participating with smARTworks monthly challenge, and this months floral challenge went a completely unexpected direction. I wanted to make a really gorgeous card for it as I own a number of wonderful, realistic flower stamps from smARTworks. But somehow, the simple outline stamps from the Fun Stuff set grabbed my imagination. It was NOT one of the reasons I purchased that set, but wow, as Anne of Green Gables would have said, it "offered so much scope for the imagination"! I was having so much fun I had to force myself to move on. After all, with two stores to stock cards for, I can't really just concentrate on a single image! These are the cards that Susan chose from my crazy collection of cards. Tomorrow I'll come back and give stamp names and a few details on how I made them. :-) Meanwhile, if you haven't already made a card for this month's challenge, you still have plenty of time. Remember, you get a chance to win free stamps with your entries, even if you are not using smARTworks' stamps!

All use the outline flower from Mixed Bag: Fun Stuff
The remaining stamp info is under each card.

Well, I actually could not find where in the new catalog the text is from, sorry! :-/ It definitely is a smARTworks stamp, though! I glued the paper onto cardstock before trimming so the flower would have dimension.

Sending Cheer faces:
Backgrounds: BG 2 (square dot background stamp)
Friendship: Call it friendship (the boys - faces)
Frames: Message Mouse (Sending cheer)

I stamped the flowers onto cardstock, and trimmed, then sent through the cuttlebug for a texture that coordinated with the background stamp. I had considered stamping and embossing the background stamp with clear ink & powder, but decided it would be too much bother! The faces, (used here and with the "What you see" card), were tricky. The image is a group of four adorable boys wearing hats, and not wanting the hats to show on the faces called for inking the stamp with marker to avoid those lines. It doesn't show in the picture, but I added a little color to the cheeks. The background was stamped in black, then colors sponged over it. A piece of vellum was placed over it. The stems were cut freehand so that I could have flowers at varying heights (I also rotated at least one flower portion to add variety).

What we see:
Trio stamping: Trio& Collage (What you see text & background petals)
Vintage: Eye Spy (eyes from spectacles)
Friendship: Call it friendship (the boys - face)
Backgrounds/Borders: Backgrounds 2 (smudge from top right)
Butterflies: ladybugs (faux ribbon)

I may have gone off the deep end on this one, but it sure was a fun idea to work with! The petals were made by creating several images from the collage picture of the child reading a newspaper. I used a stamp-a-ma-jig to get the precise placement I wanted (the words being at readable angles). For the leaves, I stamped the spectacles, then using the stamp-a-ma-jig, overstamped with the leaf part of the flower image. I stamped the background, then stamped the flower on, and attached the stamped petals and leaves. The text was sponged around the edges.

TOY dot uses:
Flora/Fauna/Garden: Bloom On (square w/dots)
Frames: Message Mouse (with thoughts of you)

The flower petals & leaves were overstamped onto stamped dot squares, and the stems cut from them aas well.

Mother's Day already? Oops!

2010-05-08T14:07:00.004-04:00

I had both my mom's and my mother-in-law's cards ready to be written in Monday ... and that's the last I thought of them until just now. I'd like to say they've never gone out late before, but I am notorious for late cards. Sigh. I really DO have the best of intentions, lol!

These are NOT the cards they are receiving, but two others that I put in the campus store in which I sell cards. I've done this identical layout for years now, it's just such a fun set of text stamps!

Prayer and Sympathy

2010-05-03T22:52:00.004-04:00

I really enjoy this set of stamps. I know there is a corner punch for the Martha Stewart lattice design, but I don't own it. But I really wanted that look, so I used my Cuttlebug Build-a-Flower set to make the circles that, along with the small daisies, cover the corner areas.

Hymn Card

2010-04-30T20:21:00.002-04:00

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...

2010-04-28T17:58:00.003-04:00

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

2010-04-26T20:09:00.003-04:00

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

2010-04-23T11:17:00.005-04:00

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

2010-04-21T12:57:00.002-04:00

This was such a cute, simple design to make!

Spanish Birthday card

2010-04-17T20:11:00.003-04:00

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

2010-04-16T13:19:00.003-04:00

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!

2010-04-14T18:01:00.002-04:00

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

2010-04-13T14:07:00.004-04:00

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

2010-04-12T21:35:00.004-04:00

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

Congratulations ... to me!

2010-04-10T21:49:00.002-04:00

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

2010-04-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

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

2010-04-07T11:31:00.004-04:00

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

2010-04-05T20:22:00.005-04:00

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

2010-04-02T09:27:00.003-04:00

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.

Upon the first day

2010-03-31T11:50:00.003-04:00

I love these images from Eureka! All the images are gold embossed, and the background is inked with a Big and Juicy pad from Ranger.

The cross

2010-03-29T19:47:00.006-04:00

I haven't made any Easter Cards this year; I don't send any personally, and I had some left from the years I sold cards at a store in PA, so I didn't need any for the stores in which I am selling cards now. But, I didn't want to let the week go by without acknowledging this most precious of day of remembrance. This is a card I made a couple of years ago.

love cats

2010-03-27T18:12:00.003-04:00

I made a cat journal a few months ago, and the first cat circle I made was too orange for what I was doing, so I set it aside to make a card later. :-)

Anniversary card

2010-03-26T08:30:00.006-04:00

I made this anniversary card, but had real trouble with the diamond glaze I used to attach the dew drops. The wallpaper was too slick for it, and my buttons slid around as I tried to attach them. In the evening light, when I viewed the card after it dried, it didn't seem to be an issue. But in the daylight, the glue smears were clearly visible, and meant the card was useless. I set it aside for a couple of days, and then decided to see if I could salvage it. I pulled off the dew drops, and looked through my ribbon scraps bag. I pulled out the ribbon that you see on the card, and the two knots were already there. Just for the fun of it, I layed the ribbon across the card, and to my surprise, I thought the knots actually added something. So, here it is!

Wallpaper wedding card

2010-03-23T14:57:00.004-04:00

I try to get to the local Sherwin Williams every couple of months to see if I can get any of the expired wallpaper sample books (I'm often too late, sigh). Last summer I got the most gorgeous sample book I have yet to see ... it made me want to wallpaper my house! It's been excellent for elegant journals, and for formal cards like this.

Spanish Wedding cards

2010-03-22T10:31:00.004-04:00

The text in English is "May the Lord bless you on your wedding day." The top card background is white embossing on vellum. The text on both is gold embossed.

Trivia for the day: in Cuba, weddings are done in an office, by a communist official. Christians often will have two celebrations, the state one, and a church one.

Always

2010-03-19T19:35:00.004-04:00

This is a remake from a card I made last year. The faux pearls really look nice; the photo makes them look like cheap plastic (well, I suppose they are cheap plastic, lol, but they don't actually look so obviously fake!)

Baby cards

2010-03-18T09:25:00.005-04:00

Stamps that need coloring often sit in my binders unused for years, as is the case with this stamp. I finally decided it was time to use it!

smARTword challenge: monochromatic

2010-03-16T09:57:00.006-04:00

This smARTword challenge card almost did not happen ... it took me four days to make the background! Obviously I wasn't working on it for hours every day, I just took awhile to find the shades I wanted (didn't actually succeed; most of my die ink pads, at least pinks, are ancient Stampin Up, and I've learned that eventually a stamp pad reaches a point of not even being re-inkable. :-/ And then I just kept having interruptions. Some were fun, like unexpected company, or the smARTworks 50% off sale (I have an amazing ability to spend hours making decisions on what stamps to purchase, lol! I think I have the old catalog nearly memorized!). Others were just "life;" at any rate, once I've been interrupted a certain number of times on a project, I lose interest in it, and then progress really slows. I finally just put it aside and worked on other projects that needed to get done for business.

Today I pulled out the 8.5 x 11 sheet I'd made (I like to do backgrounds this way, especially if using time consuming images; it's so much more worth the time and effort to have four cards to make from it!) and got to work. I had had some doubts about the shades of pink I used, but last week when out of town visiting a friend, I passed a house that had these exact same (or so it appeared) shades of pink! It was really startling to see it!

The daisy image under the text has four "holes" in the center for a button look. I smudged some ink of the same color onto the center to "erase" them before adding the text.

Amazing sale!

2010-03-13T17:33:00.002-05:00

Susan Trask of smARTworks is redoing how she sells her stamps. Instead of individual stamps and small sets, she will be selling all in quarter, half, and whole sheets. For the rest of this month, a huge number of those individual stamps and small set are 50% off! Some are sold out already, so I encourage you to go check it out quickly! I've gotten several sets I've been really wanting...

LOL!

2010-03-12T12:19:00.008-05:00

I love, love, love this smARTworks set! I was asked a month ago to make a small journal for a baby gift. This is the mother's fourth child, and the children are all very close in age. The oldest of my four children had just turned four years old a month before my last child was born, and I remember the utter exhaustion of it all. I figured this momma needed a reminder to laugh! Being pressed for time, and remembering this card (above) that I had made a couple of months ago - and as usual, I had created a couple of extras of the main images - I created the journal cover from the same design.

Roses, roses, roses!

2010-03-10T07:32:00.004-05:00

I love roses! These are three cards I have sent into smARTworks; every month you can send in a single card and receive two "smARTbucks," redeemable with your next order. Or, you can save them up to select one of smARTworks full sheets available ONLY with smARTbucks! There are also other ways to earn them. I love opportunities like this; blog contests are fun, but can be disheartening if you never or rarely win them.

Anyway...
all three cards use the same stamp not only as the main image, but as a background stamp. The black background card is colored with opalite inks. As you can see, it and the similar card in pink were gold embossed, and then ink applied right over the embossed image.

Names of Jesus

2010-03-05T23:10:00.006-05:00

I made this set of notecards (my notecard sets are all non-layered cards without embellishments) last fall.

As I do more frequently than I care to admit, I stamped a couple of the card fronts crookedly. But, that just meant I had panels for another cards, such as this.

...the joy and rejoicing of my heart

2010-03-03T14:27:00.005-05:00

I love this scripture! There is so much to it! For many, the Word of God is not joy and rejoicing, but boredom, or confusion, or just old history and religion. But for those who are called by His name, those who know Him as Lord, it is truly a joy to have His Word, to read of His promises, His grace, His love... Whether we are on the mountain top, or in the valley, His Word is life, and it is Joy.

I haven't worked with cork in ages, so I can't tell you what ink I used, but I can tell you that most inks will need to be heat embossed on cork, even Stazon did not dry otherwise. The camera (ok, the photographer!) did not capture the real look of this card, it looks (hmmm... what's a word that means elegant in a masculine way????) .... well, better in real life!

Another quilt card

2010-03-02T16:35:00.005-05:00

My mother is an amazing quilter, though at this point in time she is unable to do the actual quilting, just the piecing (and designing). None of her three daughters quilt, though my oldest daughter enjoys making basic quilts. Anyway, making quilt cards is my way of connecting in a very limited, basic way to that!

French Thank you

2010-03-01T15:43:00.003-05:00

I discovered something by accident in photographing cards. The colors of the papers used in this card usually show up steel gray in a photo. However, I had the "wrong" setting on the camera, and the resulting picture looked completely blue, even the background, which is more of a white with minute blue speckles, was a very strong light blue. I used Picassa photo editor, and it restored the photo to almost exactly to its natural colors!

This is what I call a "quilt card," made with strips of various papers then sent through my cuttlebug for texturing.