smARTworks "Tea party" challenge

This challenge comes courtesy of smARTworks.

Time to post the next T-party Challenge. This one comes to us from Trish, and as far as challenges go, it falls into the category called "inspirational." ANYTHING taken from the piece is fair game for one's creative muse -- color, layout, subject matter, style, theme, etc.

I love challenges, but occasionally I don't manage to satisfy the challenge and make a card that I would actually want to send someone or sell ... this is definitely one of those cards!

One problem I had was I used the corner punch on the two texts, planning to find more green (the warmer tone on the bottom, matching the floor in the picture) to back them with, instead of putting it across the bottom. Unfortunately, that one scrap was all I had! I have a lot of shades of green, but none that came close to that one.

But, I had fun with the challenge, so I'm glad I did it anyway! To me, the main purpose of a challenge is to get myself thinking in fresh directions. So in that sense, they're always a success. :-) I didn't glue anything, so I will put some parts in my scrap drawers, and use most of the stamped images in another card. :-)

Tuesday is election day...

My sister in law, knowing my concerns about the upcoming election, shared with me an idea that I think has real merit. I'm sure many of you would agree with me that she has really hit on something. For some reason, the text is blurred. It reads: "Sick of all the election controversy? Wish there was a candidate we could all support?"

Here's the card she sent me:

And her candidate:

Ordination Card

Again, for pastor appreciation. It was nice to make a completely different design!

Pastor Appreciation card

For the past couple of years, I've wanted to give a set of handmade cards to my pastor and his wife for Pastor's Appreciation. Although I have plenty of cards at any time, as I would rotate the stock in the store in which I sold cards, I wanted to have cards that I made specifically for them. I decided that this year, if I hadn't made any cards by the end of October, I would just select from my stash. Well, despite the store having closed in the middle of September, life has been unbelievably busy, so it still hasn't quite happened. However, I did finish this card yesterday, which I did specifically with our pastor in mind. He has quoted this saying several times, so I know he likes it.

Deer can be dear, but may cost us dearly...

My son hit his first deer the other day; it was opening day for bow season in NY, and the deer are really wacked out. Cost will be $2,000 for repair, ouch! But still, it's impressive that he went his first year and a half of driving without having any incidents at all!

I still love deer, even as much damage as they can cause on the roads! We have some decrepit apple trees that they love to visit, so we seem them quite often in our own yard. We never tire of it!

Edit: Thank you, Jacki, for requesting clarification, lol! Yes, Stephen is just fine, it was the jeep and not the son that will cost $2,000 to fix! He was driving a bunch of students back from a frisbee tournament, so we're grateful there were no injuries!

Recycling

Now that the store in which I sold cards is no longer, I'm getting around to taking apart and/or re-creating cards that just seemed too basic, or just needed a little adjusting. (Some I had withdrawn from my stock a couple of years ago and not done anything with!) I also used to line dark cards with paper, now I prefer to cut the dark cardstock to the size of white or cream card and affix it on top. It looks better on the inside, and means the writer can use the back of the card if he/she would like to. So, I have taken out those cards as well to re-make.

This is a re-make of one of my favorite cards; I just love the saying!

Ordination card re-make

I was asked to re-create an ordination card that I had made some months back, using silver instead of gold, and adding something that would reflect the recipient's added ministry with guitar. It also needed to be larger as a number of people were to sign it. I love music, and have a bunch of music stamps, but it never occured to me to get a guitar stamp! Living in the middle of nowhere, I couldn't rectify that in time to create the card, but I replaced the narrow strips of cardstock with silver cord to give an effect of guitar strings (Wow, that was a nuisance, lol - elastic cord is not easy to attach: it doesn't lie limp like string or ribbon!).