Another Orange Birthday Card

My inspiration for this card began with that stamped floral scallop strip. I like the way that looks so much! I am going to have to try some of my other small stamps, though, to see what other effects I can come up with. Besides the stamped strip, I also wanted to do some freeform machine stitching on this card and use more of the raffia ribbon.

The gingham check background paper is from DCWV. The darker orange floral cardstock mat came from my scraps. I cut out the little stamped flowers, extras at the end of my stamped strip, and glued them in place. The vintage flower seed print is a digital image from Dover, which I colored with my BIC Mark-It's and gel pens. I also used a little distress ink on the image (may not do that again as I didn't really like it). The image was mounted on foam tape. And there you have it.

Til my next post, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!

You're Special Card For A Grandson

Monday August 9th is our grandson Easton's You're Special day. This is my own family tradition, began about 6 years ago when Tim & I decided to no longer celebrate Christmas. You're Special days happen six months from a person's birthday, sort of like a half-birthday, but in our case, a day to say You Are Special to us. A few years back our oldest grandson Kyler decided would be nicer to spend the day with Grandma than to get another gift and since then that has been the plan on the grandchildren's You're Special days. I still make cards for our children and their spouses to honor their You're Special days. I regret to admit that I'd let my busy schedule, particularly when I was in school over the past year, interfere with making cards for my grandchildren on their You're Special days. I'm trying to rectify that situation, beginning with this card for Easton.

I began with the background I had initially intended to use with the lighthouse image in my previous post, but once I added the zigzag faux stitching, it just wasn't working, so I set it aside and started over with the background you see on that card. However, THIS background said to me that it would work just right with the leopard print I digitized from a calendar image. I mounted the image on a dark brown piece of cardstock. I also added straight faux stitching to the center strip of background paper (recognize the two prints from the lighthouse card? yep, it's the same paper), then adhered the leopard print to the center. I like it a lot! I hope Easton does, too. I think he will; he loves animals. And I know we are going to have fun together tomorrow!

Til my next post, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!

Lighthouse Challenge Birthday

As a general rule, I don't make cards without having a person in mind to receive that card. This card was no exception. I needed to make a birthday card for our sister-in-law Ingrid who lives in Georgia, while at the same time over at Paper Craft Planet in the group Anything But Cute to which I belong, there's a challenge going on to make a card using lighthouse images. I don't own any stamps with lighthouses, so I had to turn to other options.

For this card, I used a digitized adaptation of a wallpaper border from my stash of wallpaper samples (the border is too big to use on a card as is). I mounted the lighthouse image on a dark green piece of cardstock from my scrap bag, then onto a piece of medium blue cardstock, also from the scrap bag. I used a Bic marker to add faux stitching on the blue piece and cut a scalloped edge with shape scissors. The background paper is a digital print from a tile by Kitty Wompus. The three other pieces of circle print papers are from a ScrapbookScrapbook digital print. I ink-distressed the edges of those three papers with Baby Blue VersaColor ink. To complete the card, I added layered buttons, cream & shades of blue, tied with brown embroidery floss, and mounted the matted image with foam tape. I was really pleased with the way this card turned out and hope our sister-in-law likes it.

Til my next post, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!

A Little Hoppy

A while back I came across a cardmaking blog with a request for frog cards to be sent to her sister who was battling terminal cancer. Unfortunately, I didn't make a note of which blog it was; I only copied down the sister's mailing address. I obtained this great freebie digitial stamp from Whimsy Stamps and couldn't resist using it on an encouragement card for this gal. I only hope I didn't take too long in getting the card into the mail, but the LORD knows and I trust that He will use it to bless in His perfect plan.

The frog was colored with Bic markers and cut out. I punched a circle from green paper using one of my Fiskars circle punches (I've got them, I might as well use them-right?) to put behind the frog. I cut rectangles out of three complementary pieces of scrap paper, added a strip from another piece of scrap paper (under the frog's footsies), then finished up with a strip of peel & stick paper ribbon purchased from PaperWishes and bling flowers from WalMart. I used foam tape under the frog's hand & the umbrella to add a bit of dimension to her form. Oh yes, I can't forget that I gave her sparkly eyebrows with a touch of Stickles. She's quite the diva, you see! LOL! I love this frog!

Til my next post, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!

Two For The Guys

This card was created for our son-in-law Bradley, hubby of my stepdaughter Paige. I'd seen a card using a similar layout but done on the vertical. I wanted the card to fit into a business-sized envelope, which gave me a nice sized "palette" to work with. I cut my own template for the arrows, then scrounged through my scrap papers to find black & white designs that would work well with the red background paper. I added two black buttons and two white brads. The sentiment is computer-printed and the edges ink-distressed. I saw this sentiment somewhere and thought it would work perfectly for You're Special cards, which this one is, or for 'just because' cards when there is no specific occasion to send a card.

Hint: I've just started keeping a journal, one of those $1 kinds you find at Dollar Tree or JoAnn's, to write down the neat sentiments or sayings I come across, along with scriptures that work well on cards, so I don't have all these bits & pieces of scraps laying around with things written on them and can readily locate them when I'm making up a computer page of sayings to print out.

This birthday card was for our son-in-law Jordon, married to my daughter Megan. He loves to hunt and fish so the design seemed particularly appropriate. The Wilderness Campground image with the bear on it is from a digi set I bought from DAISIE Company. I mounted that square onto a torn, crumpled piece of kraft paper (used a paper grocery bag). The wilderness map & green pine tree papers came in a masculine set I bought at a Pamida a couple years back. The pinecone cutouts are from another piece of paper in that same set. The sentiment tag is a free digi I found online, touched up with Sharpie marker, and ink-distressed.

There you have it! Til my next post, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!

One Last June Cards Post

This pocket card is one of my very favorites. I love the colors and the design. The background paper comes from a DCWV stack pack, their Flower Shower Spring Stack to be exact. The floral paper is giftwrap paper. I added a border punched strip of white cardstock to the top of the pocket, trimmed with ribbon and a ribbon bow.

This pic shows the little card that goes inside the pocket of the main card. The stamped image is part of a set from Stampin' Up, I believe (I got it second-hand as a gift). I colored it with my Bic markers, then inked the edges.

This is the inside of the main card, as you lift the front flap. You get two sentiments for the price of one with this card.

This card is another of my favorites. I've had a lot of those lately, haven't I? This card started with the image of the bird's nest, which I copied from a book of bird nest illustrations available on the Smithsonian Libraries Digital Libraries website. I apologize for not making note of the artist's name. I LOVE the vintage seed & nursery catalog covers you can find there as well. I haven't had time to explore all the digital stuff archived there, but it looks like a treasure trove. The background paper seemed to fit the image so well, that all I needed to add was the bundle of twigs, from one of our trees, wrapped with a hemp string tied in a bow.

I write to a serviceman in our Armed Forces, the Army to be precise, serving overseas. I got his name and address from this organization: Adopt A US Soldier.org. This year I thought it would be appropriate to make a special card to send to him for our nation's Independence Day. I've never made a card for that holiday before so this was a bit of a challenge. I found this cute digi stamp image offered on the Stars & Stripes Operation Write Home blog, shared by The Stamping Boutique. The image is colored with Bic markers and given some heat embossed accents. I had to ask my sweetheart what colors to use for the little man's uniform as I didn't know what branch of the military this uniform most closely resembled; my sweetheart, who was himself in the Marines and who comes from a military family (Army & Marines), said that it looked the most like the Marines dress blues, so that is how I tried to color it. I used another wooden stamp that I have to do the fireworks on the sentiment tag; I colored the stamp with Crayola markers to get this effect. The round red seal is another stamped image, this time with one of those $1 wooden stamps from JoAnn's or Michaels. The gold button came from my button stash in the sewing room--it looks a lot like the seal of our country, which was too perfect not to use, even though I still think I should have hot-glued the thing down flat instead of just sewing it on where the ribbon is attached. The red shaped mat under the image is cut by hand, using my own template. A couple of star-shaped brads added a nice touch. The diagonal striped paper in the background is from a DCWV stack pack.

My last card for June is a birthday card for my sweetheart's brother Terry. I used clipart from DAISIE Company, which I recently purchased. The papers are from the same graphics pack. I added a mat of brown textured cardstock behind the central image, distressing the edges. I also added a strip of cork on which I mounted the sentiment, edges inked, and 2 bronze dragonflies. The card edges and the smaller printed paper are inked for effect as well.

Well, that does it for my June cardmaking. July is just getting started and I have a card on the work table now. I signed up for 3 swaps in the Crazy Card Maker group for the first half of the month and have a LONG list of other cards for family that I need to make. It feels good to be creative and make cards, though. Those months when I was busy with schoolwork it was very hard to find time to make cards. Cardmaking, along with other creative pursuits, is stress-relieving for me so I'm going to have to find ways to keep it in my schedule, no matter how much other stuff I have to do. Hopefully, it works the same for you.

Til my next post, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!

My June Cards Pt. 3

Yet one more with the wallpaper samples...this one used the rest of that pretty border on the big card, along with the background paper. I added a piece of textured light blue cardstock and half the other half of the paper doily I had left from one of the previous cards. Simple, but attractive, I think, and a nice Thinking of You card.

This was my attempt to recreate another card I saw on someone's blog. The flower is stamped with a big foam stamp that I inked with Crayola markers. I stamped it twice, then layered the two images, adding dry embossing to the petals on the top layer and curling the petals slightly. The center of the flower is Fun Flock, the first time I've used that. The stamped sentiment is one of those $1 stamps you can pick up at JoAnn's or Michaels and is heat-embossed. I added lines with my sparkly black gel pen after the stamped image. The two print papers are from DCWV stack packs. This card traveled to Jo in England for another Crazy Card Maker Anything Goes swap.

This cute little dog is a foam stamp, colored in with Bic markers, and given a puff paint scarf. He holds a birthday balloon on a card made for our grandson Connor, who is now 4 years old. The image on the balloon is from the Two You set from Stampendous; I just cut the balloon around the image. A bit of hemp string connects the dog and the balloon. The papers are from a DCWV stack pack. This card is one of my favorites.

My dear old friend Connie--old as in we've known each other for a long time, not old as in years, although she has a few on me but I'm not saying how many--loves pigs. She's been collecting pig stuff for as long as I can remember, even had quite a few of the real deal for many years. My oldest daughter Venetta is also a cardmaker and had this balloon pig stamp so I begged some images from her for this card for Connie. I love that little piggie! I colored each differently, using Bic markers and Crayola colored pencils. In case you don't know, real pigs come in many color variations and designs. I've always been a sucker for the little spotted ones. Using hemp, I tied the balloons to a digital printed tag that I colored with Bic markers and the Crayola pencils. The Happy Birthday background paper was purchased out of the open stock 12"x12" scrapbooking papers at JoAnn's. I used black cardstock on a white base card. Connie loved the card, which makes me a happy camper, although just looking at my pic of this card makes me a happy camper. I think that means I like this card, don't you?

One more in this post...this pretty black, white, and red card is a high school graduation congratulations card made for my niece Malinda. The image is a digi-freebie from the Digital Two For Tuesday blog. I colored her with Crayola colored pencils and some Bic marker touches. I used watercolor pencils for the background in the image. The image is matted on black and white cardstocks. The papers are from a DCWV stack pack. I printed the sentiment on the computer and inked the edges. I REALLY need to get more red pigment ink pads so I can do a better job of matching colors (note to self). Three red brads completed the card.

Well, that's it for this post. I only have one more post to go to finish showing you all my June cards. Til then, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!