Wolf Birthday Card

Our son-in-law Larry will be celebrating a birthday this weekend. I had gotten this image in an exchange with another cardmaker on Paper Craft Planet; as soon as I saw it, I thought of my son-in-law and the card I would make for him. My thanks to Terrie Woodford in Alberta, Canada for sending me this image & several others. Terrie said that this image comes from a 2003 release by Sugar Loaf.

I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to do justice to coloring the image, but I think I did okay. I used Crayola and RoseArt colored pencils to color in most of the image. I did use a black BIC Mark-it on the eyes, nose, and mouth, however. Once I had the image colored, putting down layers of colors, I went back over the image with a paper stub and odorless mineral spirits to blend the colors.

The image is mounted on a rectangle of black Best Occasions glitter paper from WalMart. The two different black background papers are by DCWV. The green striped strip is from my scraps. I used a Martha Stewart punch along the edges of the green strip. The sentiment is stamped with an Inkadinkadoo wood-mount stamp and adhered with foam tape.

I apologize for the skewed image. I should have scanned the card a second time, but I was too lazy to do so. 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!

Using A Favorite Template Again

This is a birthday card which I made for the young man I have been supporting in the Philippines through the ministry of Compassion. John Mark is going to be 17 years old in late September. I thought it would be nice to use a realistic scene from our part of the world on his card. This photo came from the cover of an old Our Daily Bread devotional by the good folks at RBC Ministries; I've been reading their Our Daily Bread devotional since I was a teen. Too bad I didn't save all those cover photos!

Once I had the picture chosen, I looked for papers to go with it. The background paper I used was a single sheet of 12"x12" paper I had in my stash. I don't know who published it. Then I went to my stash of scraps to find pieces to cut the hinges (aka tags, arrows, or whatever you think they look like) from. This template, which I made, is turning out to be one of my favorites. I drew "brads" on the hinges with Sharpie marker and covered them with Clear Accent. I also ink-distressed the edges of the hinges to give them a little added definition.

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!

The Big Fish

This card is on its way to our son-in-law Levi, married to my daughter Holly. He likes to fish. I just bought this stamp, a wood-mounted rubber stamp, at a little store in our area that sells scrapbooking stuff. They had their stamps on sale, to make room for new stock, so I decided to take advantage of the sale. I am liking this stamp a lot! Since most of our son-in-laws are into hunting and fishing, this stamp is likely to get a lot of use.

So anyway, I stamped the fish twice on white cardstock, colored both images with colored pencils (Crayola and RoseArt--nothing fancy), then layered one over the other onto the "wood" mount, using foam tape to pop the top image. The "wood" mount is cut from textured brown cardstock, using my own shape template, and given a "beveled" edge with Sharpie markers. The green plaid paper behind is a wallpaper sample. I wanted this to look like a trophy fish mounted on a plaque and hung on the wall. I added gold triangle brads for an extra touch. Simple but effective, and definitely masculine!

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

For My Sweetheart's Birthday

My sweetheart Tim (yes, he's STILL my sweetheart after 14 1/2 yrs of marriage!) observed his 51st birthday on July 18. I wanted to make him a special card, but struggle to get my cards for him "just right." Maybe because he is so special to me, I find it harder to make cards for him that truly express how much I love him and am thankful to have him in my life.

At any rate, I tried a couple of things but they weren't working out. Then I came up with this sentiment and the card began to come together. It wasn't particularly hard. All of the scalloped circles were cut with a punch. I made a circle template for the plain circles behind the scalloped circles. I ink-distressed edges and layered everything. I was aiming for colors and a quilted look, both of which I think I achieved.

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 May Cards

I made this card for my mom for Mother's Day. Her favorite color is blue, too. The background paper is a print of a piece of fabric I scanned into my computer, then printed out. A paper print of fabric is easier to work with than the fabric itself and if you look closely, the individual threads are still visible so it looks like fabric, too. I used a corner punch on the corners, then added a small brad in one of the holes of the punched design. The floral image is stamped, heat embossed and colored with Bic markers, then cut out and adhered on top of part of a silver doily atop the background paper. The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed with Seafoam White embossing powder. I really liked how that turned out so I'm sure I'll do that again.

Here's another Thank You card, along the lines of the three that I made back in January. For my Curriculum & Instruction class I was assigned to work with Mrs. Wendi King in her 1st grade classroom. The children were so sweet and it was REALLY hard to say goodbye. Wendi is such a good teacher and I learned a thing or two watching her & helping in her class. The background paper for this card comes from a DCWV stack pack (probably my favorite papers and easily obtainable at JoAnn's). The apple comes from a DCWV cardstock pack and has glitter accents. The blossoms and hat pieces were cut from another piece of DCWV paper. I made the yellow shaped "diecut" myself. I don't own a diecutting machine; I make a paper template, trace it, and cut my own "diecuts" by hand. The blue scalloped circle is punched, then hand lettered. All the stitching is hand faux stitched. The blue hand cutout is a bulletin board shape purchased at Dollar Tree. The finishing touches were the star brads and the wooden bead circles.

My one and only son, Isaac, my youngest child, had his 24th birthday in May. This is the birthday card I made for him. It is a Z-fold. The lined background paper is the front of the card, then it folds back inside, and the back of the card had the polka-dotted paper on it. The sentiment is printed on a piece of paper shaped just like the matt under the image on the front, then adhered to the back of the card so it is right under the front image matt. The image on the front comes from a piece of giftwrap that is in my old suitcase stash. The giftwrap had all of these old tavern signs printed on it; they work really well on masculine cards. Brads added an extra touch.

My oldest daughter's husband, Brent, celebrated his birthday in May also. I wanted to try using little flags in a swag. I'd seen a card made with these on someone's blog and loved the effect. That person stamped the flags, then cut them out. I made a little template first, cut out the flags, then stamped each with the letters in Brent's name, using a little alphabet set I have. The flags were punched with my small hand punch, then strung on a piece of colored hemp, purchased at WalMart and intended for beading. I bought a bunch in different colors when it was on clearance. I'm glad I did because WalMart doesn't carry it in the stores by us any more and I like the stuff for cards. The sentiment is yet another example of the Two You acrylic set from Stampendous, heat embossed, colored with Bic markers, mounted on a circle of white cardstock, and jazzed up with a bit of ribbon. The background paper is a piece from a DCWV stack pack, matted on matching plain cardstocks. I liked how this card turned out! The little flags are definitely going to show up on another card in the future!

That is all of my May cards. It's going to take a couple of posts to get all of my June cards posted; I've been working on cards when it rains, which has been often this month, or when I haven't felt like working outside even if the sun was shining. So til my next post, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!

April's Cards

This card was made for our granddaughter McKayden's 5th birthday in April. I used a couple pieces of cardstock--one a print with glitter accents (the diamonds--from DCWV), the other a piece of textured cardstock. I cut the piece with the little princesses from a piece of scrapbooking paper. The edges were inked and the stamped sentiment was heat embossed.

My youngest daughter was married in February and this card went to her husband. I had missed his You're Special day--too much schoolwork & other things and I just plain forgot!--so when she & I were talking about it, she told me how his mom had said to tell me that a small bag of $20's would make it right. I couldn't resist making this card with that "small bag of $20's" inside of it. The next pic is of the inside of this card...

The small bag is an actual small plastic bag that I got when I still had a job. I have about a 1000 of them, I think, as the company I worked for was throwing them away, brand new, never been used, because they weren't the right size. I HATE waste like that so I ended up with a bunch of them. The $20's are photocopies on green copy paper of a child's play $20 bill. My daughter said my son-in-law got a good laugh out of it. That was the whole point, after all.

This is the wedding card I made for that same daughter and her new husband. As you can tell, since I said they were married in February, I was rather late with this one, too. Orange is my daughter's color and I had purchased the 2 big buttons (came in a set of 3 buttons) specifically for her wedding card, then picked papers and other embellishments to complement the two big buttons that I used.

Again with the orange: this card was for my youngest daughter's You're Special day. I stamped the image, heat embossed it, and colored it in with Bic markers. I added faux stitching, done by hand, and flower brads on the stamped image. The papers are from a DCWV stack pack.

By the time I made this card, I was starting to get caught up on the family birthdays and You're Special days. This pretty in purple birthday card was for my daughter-in-law Amber. I used a paint chip card for the background, cutting the edge with scalloped scissors and adding a white border-punched edging. The two potted hyacinth images are cut from a facial tissue box. They were too pretty to throw away! The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed.

My daughter Megan loves yellow roses so for her You're Special day I cut a picture of yellow roses out of an old rose catalog--save those flower catalogs!--and made the card around that image. The stylized flowers are cut from a sheet of printed, glittery DCWV cardstock. The yellow dotted background is cardstock also and again, I inked the edges. That's an effect I am liking a lot! The sentiment is stamped and (I think) heat embossed. It's hard to remember after the fact and I don't make notes on my pics.

One of the neighbors had a daughter graduating from high school this year. This card is for her. The two small stamps are from those dollar stamps you can get at JoAnn's or Michaels. The sentiment is another dollar stamp. All are heat-embossed. I really liked the way this card turned out! But then, blue is my favorite color. The papers are from a DCWV stack pack.

My daughter Holly's birthday was in April and this card was for her. She also loves the color blue. As you can see, I used more of the same paper prints I used on the graduation card above. I seldom cut into a new piece of paper until after I've looked through all of my scraps to see if I can make use of them first.

Our youngest grandchild, little Alan, turned a year old in March. I don't get to see him--a situation with my son which I won't go into--but I still made him a card, albeit a month late. Some day I hope that my son will let me deliver the cards I make for him, his wife, and their son. Again, the cardstocks are a piece from a DCWV stack pack. I added hand faux stitching. The sentiment is stamped, heat embossed, and colored with those Bic markers. The sentiment is from the Two You set by Stampendous. It's one of my favorite sets; you'll see it show up lots on my cards. The little number 1 square at the top right is from a 12x12" sheet of scrapbook paper.

When my youngest daughter married in February, we not only gained a son-in-law, we gained two more grandsons. We have 13 grandchildren now--5 girls and 8 boys. This card was for our grandson Ryan who celebrated his 12th birthday. I used the same DCWV cardstock on this card as I used on the previous card. This stamped sentiment is another image from that Stampendous Two You set, heat embossed and colored with the Bic markers. The letters spelling out Ryan's name are cut from another sheet of 12x12" scrapbooking paper.

Our "new" grandson, Larry Jr, received this card for his You're Special day. His favorite color is purple. I couldn't resist using the little hermit crab, another dollar stamp purchased at JoAnn's. The crab and the sentiment are heat embossed and the crab is colored with Bic markers. The background paper is a digital print that I made from a teabag tile. Unfortunately, I didn't keep track of which website I found the teabag tile on.

That's all the cards from April. I only have May and June to go and then I will be all caught up! Hurrah! I should be back tomorrow with more. Til then, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!

Cards from Jan-Feb-March 2010

This card was made for my sweet granddaughter Samantha who turned 8 years old in January. The background paper is a scan of a piece of fabric, then printed out onto paper. When I print out digital papers I use 24# paper, as it is heavier and gives a better result than regular 20# copy paper. It does cost a little more, but the extra price is worth it. The card also features a circle cut from embossed & glittery cardstock, punched butterflies with gel pen accents & their wings bent upwards, and a flower brad.

This card was made for my son-in-law Levi's birthday in January. As you can see, my printer was acting up when I printed out the balloon image and the "crimped" paper, but I thought the lines in the balloon image actually added to the effect so I used it anyway. I also liked the color variation in the "crimped" paper. The circle paper (sorry, I don't have the maker of the paper handy) mimics the hot-air balloons. The background paper is a digital print, I think from ScrapbookScrapbook.com, which I border punched. The sentiment is hand-written.

I made this card for my sister Annette's birthday in February. The image is a Thomas Kinkade print recycled from a page-a-day calendar. Those little page-a-day calendars are a wonderful source of images to use on cards--and a very frugal re-use! The other papers are digital prints from ScrapbookScrapbook.com (the "crimped" designs & the circles). The floral print is a purchased scrapbook paper whose maker I don't have handy. I added a bit of ribbon to accent the card and printed the sentiment by hand.

This card was made for my sweetheart's Aunt Grace. I used scraps of two different purchased patterned papers and inked the edges. I stamped the sentiment, twice actually unintentionally, then heat-embossed it. I punched the corners of the plaid paper, added a bit of trim, and flower & butterfly brads.

It's getting late and I need to head to bed so I'll have to post the rest of the cards I've made since April a bit later. Til then, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!

Looking Back At Some Older Cards

This card uses wallpaper samples for the papers, a design cut from giftwrap paper (Holly Hobbie), and has a crocheted trim hot-glued around the design oval. I made this back in July 2007.


This card features a wallpaper background with a corner cut from a coordinating wallpaper. The design is cut from giftwrap paper. The sentiment tag is computer-printed. This card, also, was made in July 2007.

Two Birthdays & A Thinking of You

This card pleases me very much! I'm just really liking this color combination lately for some reason. Anyway, this card started with a light green cardstock, actually a parchment-look, if I remember correctly. I used two prints from my DCWV paper stack for the background, tearing the one on top and inking the torn edge. The graphic comes from a clip-art set I bought from pccrafter.com; I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment in the center. The graphic is mounted on pink cardstock, then on blue, and lastly green, tilting the bottom two layers. I added 3 buttons and 1 flower brads along the torn edge. And I inked the edges of the card, a technique I am liking a lot lately also. I find the small inkpads work really well for this, using a corner of the pad and drawing it across the edge I'm inking.

This card was another quick and easy card to make, winging its way to an online friend overseas. I started with a white cardstock base, covered the front with a piece of scrapbooking paper (another corner of the same paper I used on Venetta's You're Special card a couple posts back) from DCWV. Then I added 4 dimensional flower stickers and a blue sentiment tag. The sentiment is stamped. It just doesn't get any easier than that! And I finally used some of those lovely stickers I have in my sticker file box.

This birthday card was for my sweetheart Tim. Why is it that cards you make for the person you love the most never seem to turn out quite the way you wanted? He liked it, though, so I guess that's what matters most. Again, I used the blues and greens that have been a favorite lately, mounting them on a green cardstock base, over a layer of darker green cardstock. I tore the edge of the top paper and inked it. Then I stamped the Happy Birthday design on in brown and a second time with green. The two stampings didn't line up as closely as I had wanted, though, so it looks kind of blurry. I went over the Happy Birthday letters with a gel pen. I added some brads to the design and a small gold heart brad to the lower right-hand corner of the card, inking the edges of the card. And there you have it...

Two For The Guys

This card was for my son-in-law Jordon. I think it rates as one of the quickest cards I've ever made. It started with a piece of tannish cardstock. Then I added a layer of scrapbooking paper by DCWV which already had those cool white designs printed over the stripes. I added a computer-printed sentiment with torn & inked edges. I inked the edges of the card and it was done. It looks pretty good, too, if I do say so myself!

This card went to our son-in-law Bradley. It didn't take too long to make, either. I started with the olive green cardstock, then added a piece of printed scrapbooking paper by DCWV. On top of that I added a piece of wallpaper sample. Then I took a stamp I had from the American Wildlife Fund from years gone by (I don't throw things like that away!), matted it on another piece of the olve green cardstock, adhered it on top of the wallpaper sample, then stuck on 4 gold foil stickers and added a stamped sentiment. Voila! and there you have it...

Three Birthday Cards

This card was made for Tim's Aunt Rose who lives in Pennsylvania. She's a very special lady; unfortunately, we live almost a thousand miles away so don't get to see her very often. In fact, the last time we saw her was about 3 years ago when Tim's dad passed away and we went out for his funeral. Miles do not stop affection, though.

To make this card, I used a background paper from one of those Stacks by DCWV I got recently. Then I added a silk flower sporting 3 layers and a brad center, as well as 4 chipboard embellishments and touches of ribbon. It didn't turn out quite like I had pictured it in my mind, but I hope Aunt Rose liked it all the same.


This pretty pink card went to an online friend, Tajuana. I did like the way this one turned out! I started with a pink cardstock base, then added a layer of Happy Birthday (Birthday Pink) paper by DCWV. I border-punched a strip of pink cardstock, on top of which is an oval cut from PL-267 by Me & My Big Ideas, then a shaped piece of light pink cardstock, a smaller pink oval, and in the center a stamped butterfly image which I colored with gel pens and colored pencils. I added faux stitching with a gel pen, inked edges, and brads. The stamped butterfly image is mounted with foam tape to "pop" it up above the oval under it.


That brings me to this birthday card made for Tim's brother Terry. I started here with a brown cardstock base, added pieces cut from a Paper Pizazz Vintage papers pack, as is the "ribbon" strip that runs down the center of the card. I also used brown and light blue cardstocks to cut the solid-colored pieces, rounding the corners of the two layers in the center. I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment and heat-embossed it in copper. Then I added brads and inked the edges of the card and the one piece of brown shaped cardstock. (What DO you call that shape? I know there's a name for them!)

And just to let you know, I make my own stencils for these shapes. It's easy enough. I use a light piece of card, usually the reply cards that are stuck in all the magazines these days, fold it into quarters (that's why you want to use a LIGHT piece of card), then cut one-fourth of the shape you want, unfold it and see if it suits you; if not, refold and trim as desired or start over. Hey, the cards are free and just going in the trash anyway, right? Any symmetrical shape is easy to do this way, either cutting on the fold, as with a heart shape, or in quarters as with this shape. You can even do your own nesting shapes by cutting the smaller design first, then tracing one-fourth of it onto your next piece of folded card and cutting outside that line as close to the same distance away all the way around as you'd like to add. I did that to make the two nested shapes on this card. I save all the stencils I make and reuse them. And if you want them to be a little more permanent than the light card you used to make them out of, trace them onto a plastic lid, such as a whipped topping lid, and cut out with an old pair of scissors. I have oodles of stencils I made this way when my children were still small and we homeschooled. Greedy me, I still have them, too! I'm supposed to be copying them to make sets for the grandchildren--one of those rainy day projects I haven't gotten to yet, but I have plenty of plastic lids saved for when I do get around to it (ice cream pail lids, whipped topping, sour cream, yogurt, etc, but not the brittle plastic lids, only the softer, bendable plastic lids). Besides ovals and circles, hearts and shapes like I used on this card, you can trace cookie cutters, coloring book images, craft patterns, and other images to make stencils from. They won't be as intricate as your purchased brass stencils, but you can still do a lot of interesting things with them. And children love them!

Playing Catch Up

Whoa! Where does the time go? I've been making cards, but with all the gardening that we've been attempting to accomplish, it seems that I haven't had time to post here. Today being the Sabbath, we've been resting and enjoying a quiet day at home--no Sabbath fellowship to attend today--and now I find myself with a bit of time to spend posting my latest cards. So to go back to the card I was making for my sweetheart, mentioned in my last post...

This is it! Done on brown cardstock, layered with wallpaper samples, black & brown cardstocks, and the oval cut from a pretty divider page out of one of my wallpaper sample books. I heat embossed the word Love in the senter, added gold heart brads, and there you have it. Oh yes, I lightly inked the edges of the brown shaped cardstock with copper pigment ink.

Tim really liked it and that's all that matters!

Birthday Card for Son-in-Law Brent

This card went to my son-in-law Brent, married to my oldest daughter, Venetta. He's a committed Christian, a very hard-working man, a good provider and a good husband.

To make his card, I started with a white cardstock base, then covered the front with Dark Creamy Cocoa ColorMates cardstock from World Win. The circle pattern background paper is from ScrapbookScrapbook.com. The rectangular feature on the left is a stamped scripture, done on white cardstock, then sponged with distress ink, and layered with Dark Creamy Cocoa and Deep Creamy Cocoa ColorMates cardstock. To the right, I stamped two flourishes using a stamp from the Autumn Leaves Flourishes v2 clear acrylic stamp set. I used a sparkly gel pen to go over the stamped flourishes. To complete the card, I added three dark brown eyelets in the top right corner.

Birthday Card For My Son

I made this card for my son Isaac, who turned 23 last week. Isaac lives about an hour's drive away from us, with his wife Amber, and their baby son, Alan, who's now 2 months old. We haven't seen them since the baby was born. Isaac decided last month to sever his ties to me because of my faith in Yeshua the Messiah and the fact that I cannot help but mention God, Yeshua, the Bible or something connected to those topics, whether in words or actions. Even though Isaac wants no contact with me in any way, shape or form, he is still my son--in fact, my only son, as well as my youngest child and I will not be forgetting about him any time soon. So I decided that I would set aside a pretty tin and keep all the cards I would otherwise give to him & his family in that tin, for the day when Isaac either changes his mind and returns to fellowship with me or I die and he inherits the tin. I've made sure that at least a couple of his sisters are aware of the tin and know what it contains, so that Isaac will be sure to get it if I am not here to give it to him personally. And just a word of encouragement to anyone who may be facing difficult and heart-breaking circumstances in their life--life is hard, but God is good. I know that the LORD hears my prayers for my son & his family, that He is working in their hears & lives, and that I can trust Him with their welfare.

On to how I made this card...I started with a cardstock base of Light Creamy Cocoa ColorMates by World Win. To the base, I adhered a piece of blue checked wallpaper sample over the entire front. I used my corner-rounder punch to round the corners of the card. Then following a card sketch from the book CardMaker's SketchBook, I cut a larger rectangle from the same Light Creamy Cocoa, topped with a pattern of circles which is a computer-printed scrapbook paper design from ScrapbookScrapbook.com. The long rectangle uses Deep Creamy Cocoa and Dark Creamy Cocoa cardstocks. I rounded all corners. To this rectangle, I added three brown buttons, sewn on with brown embroidery floss. I got the floss at a local liquidator store for about 10 cents a skein; it works great on cards! The buttons came out of my sewing supplies. A hint: save all the buttons off your old clothes that are heading for the rag bin or garbage can. And save them in an empty candle jar (put it in the freezer for a few hours and getting out any leftover wax will be pretty easy). The other rectangle uses a computer-printed tile paper, topped with a giftwrap paper motif.

And there you have it...