Friday, August 26, 2011

Fading Flowers

The grass withers. the flowers fades, but the Word of our God stands forever! Isaiah 40:8
Close Up
The challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ  (Challenge #103 2 Tim 1:7) was to "try something that you might have been AFRAID to try before now, examples... a new technique, a new color combo, a new style (CAS if you are a Layered stamper, or reversed)." My fear was chunky glitter. . .or glass shreds. . . Stampendous has some new products out that are so beautiful and fun, I just had to try. . . I also love paper flowers and have been working on various techniques, but found a set of Donna Salazar's Rose Creations Spellbinders dies recently and experimented.
Card Front
 Our Daily Bread Designs Stampin' In Time: On Assignment Challenge (SNTODBD42) is to use lace. The lacy feel of this Stampin' Up designer paper, along with a Cuttlebug damask folder accentuate the beautiful pink lace, don't you think?
From the Top
 CARD DETAILS
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Collection 3
Ink: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla Craft Ink, Ranger Distress Pink Taffy
Card stock: SU Very Vanilla, Early Espresso and a pink from the scrap bin
Designer Paper: SU Retired
Accessories: Spellbinders Rose Creations (Donna Salazar) dies; Stampendous champagne and silver crushed glass glitter, clear embossing powder; Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, SU Vanilla Smooch Spritz; lace, Spellbinders Labels 17, Zva Creative Gems and Flourishes, SU Glimmer Brad, pages from tattered Streams in the Desert (yes, the 1932 edition that my dog chewed on.)
Challenges:

Have a blessed day!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

My Portion

The Lord is my portion says my soul, therefore I hope in Him. Lamentations 3:24



 Crafted for the Christian Paper Crafts Color Monday Challenge CM116, Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light Challenge 73 Sketch, Tuesday Throwdown and Flourishes Timeless Tuesday.
 CARD DETAILS
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Collection #3
Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze, Bazzill Textured Goldenrod
Designer Paper: SU Paisley Petals
Ink: Versa Mark, Ranger Distress Antique Linen, SU Baja Breeze
Accessories: Embossing Powder, Ribbon, Spellbinders Nestabilities Scallop Rectangles, Piercing Tool, Zva Creative Pearls. Petaloo Sweet Petites flower, Tim Holz Sizzix Embossing Folder.
Challenges:

Monday, August 22, 2011

Lessons ~ CPC Blog Caravan

 Christian Paper Crafts is excited to host a monthly blog hop or what I prefer to call a blog carvan, since you just link up your project to the wagon train that's already forming! Hitch up and join in the fun. . .We're looking forward to seeing what you craft with our monthly Design Team Delights theme: Back to School. There are even some prizes!

Here's what I put together. I just loved this darling vintage image from Vintage Catnip and worked it up using some digital papers, along with some designer paper.



We hope you’ll have fun getting inky and meeting a lot of new friends along the way! Now for the great Christian Paper Crafts Member Prize: A 3-month extension to your current membership, Blog Hop Winner badge, and a prize sponsored by A•Muse Studio! This month we have 2 stamp sets for you of Harlequin Background and Personal Stationery! What a treat!
Nonmember Prizes: Blog Hop Winner badge and a 1-month Blessed Believer Membership to Christian Paper Crafts.
August 22 Blog Hop Theme: Create any paper project with our monthly theme. This may be a card, scrapbook page, altered item, etc.
Blog Hop Rules: Create a card, scrapbook, page, altered item, etc., using the same theme that the Design Team Delights Galley has made their projects for the month. Our monthly blog hops will always be on the 22nd of each month and ends on the 24th at 11:59 p.m. Winners of the blog hop will be announced on the 25th of each month. In order to be eligible for your prize (member or nonmember), you must have the Christian Paper Crafts Blog Hop Badge on your sidebar. You can find out more details by clicking the blog hop badge to the left.

Card Details
Stamps: None (Vintage Image from Vintage Catnip)
Ink: Ranger Distress Antique Linen, HP Printer Ink
Designer Paper: Stampin' Up Springtime Vintage
Cardstock: Black and Kraft
Accessories: Black Twill Tape, mini brads, jack charm from Horizon Group's Industrial Chic by Susan Lenart Kazmer
Challenges:
  • Christian Paper Crafts Blog Hop
  • Sweet and Sassy Stamps Digi Challenges Back to School SNSDC16

Friday, August 12, 2011

Perfect Peace

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3



Crafted for the Flourishes Scavenger Hunt Challenge FLLCAUG11A to use pink, green, white, ribbon, some bling, floral, decorator paper and square (which you only discovered after completing the blog hop! It is also for the Our Daily Bread Designs (ODBD) Stamping In Time Challenge 41 (SNTODBD41) to use embossing~ the sentiment panel is embossed both dry and with heat.

This card is also for another challenge: one that a dear couple is facing as they both battle cancer. In the Lord's Providence, they were diagnosed within a couple of months of one another. They are Christians, have served the Lord actively for many years working with youth, and she is a Stampin' Up Demonstrator (and one of the best! I may be biased, but I think being in the top 100 the past few years counts as "one of the best," don't you?). They also have a dairy and grow almonds. Prayer for this dear couple is much appreciated. They are resting in the Lord and He is giving them the peace He promises.


CARD DETAILS
The main image with the cows is a free digital image from Just Something I Made.  It was resized, printed and then embellished/blinged using a glue pen, gold glitter and stickles, and a gem.
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs, Scripture Collection 7
Paper: Stampin' Up! Always Artichoke, Whisper White
Designer Paper: Creative Imaginations Iron Orchid Designs
Ink: Ranger Distress Antique Linen and Spun Sugar, VersaMark
Accessories: Stampendous Periodot Embossing Powder, ODBD fence die, doily and flowers from a vintage thrift store, Studio112 Chipboard embellishment, Recollections leaves, MS Seam binding ribbon, piercing.

Blessings!

Gracious Glimpse

We're going Back to School in just a few days over at Christian Paper Crafts with the opening of this month's Design Team Delights Gallery. . .are you ready? To help you get prepared, we're showing a few Gracious Glimpses of some of the projects in the Gallery and today's my turn.

The gallery opens on Monday, Aug. 15 and then we have a blog link up for you to join in the fun on Monday, Aug. 22. For the details, visit the CPC Blog. Have a blessed day!

I just loved these little blackboards and wanted to something with them, so here's what I did. . .

These can be used for gifts for teachers, for lockers, or for table decorations. They're very simple to craft, but you will need to emboss the sentiment or the ink will never set and will continue to smear (yes, I learned the hard way!) They could be embellished with buttons or other trinkets, but I liked them left plain!

PROJECT DETAILS
Stamps: Stampin Up! Elegant Inspirations, Our Daily Bread Designs Light of the World
Ink: White Craft Ink
Accessories: Mini blackboards from craft supply, White Embossing Powder, Embossing buddy (antistatic)
Technique: Stamping and Heat Embossing

Have a blessed day!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Sweet Fragrance

He has made everything beautiful in His time. Ecclesiastes 3:11a



 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. Malachi 3:3

The Lord ordains the circumstances of our lives to shape and fit us for our eternal home. . .for the Christian, the one whose sole (and soul) hope of heaven and the life to come is the Lord Jesus Christ and his works and righteousness, that home is heaven. As we are pressed and refined, we are told we will come forth as gold, with the dross burned off, the chaff blown away.

This card reflects the gold and that sweet fragrance that is present when we respond to trials in a way that honors the Lord. Of course, this is not something we can do in our own strength, but in the strength the Lord supplies through the work of the Holy Spirit as He applies God's Word to our lives and we walk in obedience.  And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:5-7.

CARD DETAILS
A new technique, a new stamp set, some new fluffly flocking. . .and a CAS (Clean and Simple Card) for a couple of challenges:
Stamps: Flourishes Herbs Set #106 
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake 
Ink:  Stampin' Up Old Olive and Crumb Cake, Encore Metallic Purple 
Accessories:  Stampendous Pearlustre Champagne Embossing Powder, glue pen, flocking, twine, button, Zutter Round it All. 
Techniques: Sprinkled Embossing 
Special Notes: This was my first attempt at sprinkle embossing, where you sprinkle embossing powder over the surface of your card and then heat from beneath to set. It adds a nice bit of texture and shimmer to the card which is not really visible in the photos.

Hold Your Horses. . .

Be still and know that I am God.Psalm 46:10
Easel Option ~ Inside Panel
Horses are not known for holding still in what they perceive to be threatening situations. The Lord has created them with a very strong flight response as their primary means of defense. Or, as my mares would say, "When in doubt, snort and run, and run and run and run! Snort, snort!" Their response is captured well in this set from Coronado Island Designs.
Card Front ~ Closed

Even when the threat isn't real or physical in nature, so often we are like the horses; we run about anxiously, fretting and worrying. Or we, unlike a horse (unless given no other option), try to fight our way through. Yet when we are anxious, or we fret and worry, we are sinning because we are not trusting the Lord. . .and the promises He has given to all those who are trusting in Jesus Christ, the Savior. He reminds us to be still, to know that He is God. He is in control of all circumstances, He can be trusted with the outcome. We must assess the situation and determine what is our responsibility and do that, and then, leave the rest in His most capable hands.

Or as Matthew Henry says in an excerpt from his commentary on this passage:

. . . They are under the protection of a God in covenant, who not only is able to help them, but is engaged in honour and faithfulness to help them. He is the God of Jacob, not only Jacob the person, but Jacob the people; nay, and of all praying people, the spiritual seed of wrestling Jacob; and he is our refuge, by whom we are sheltered and in whom we are satisfied, who by his providence secures our welfare when without are fightings, and who by his grace quiets our minds, and establishes them, when within are fears. The Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, has been, is, and will be with us—has been, is and will be our refuge."
Opened

This week's Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #100 is to craft a project using "any type of creature from tiny (like an ant or a bug) to a very large creature (whale, or elephant) on your card or project."
“Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,  wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds.” Psalm 148:7-10
Charisma Cards is also having a challenge: four-legged friends.


Back
CARD DETAILS
Stamps: Coronado Island Designs, Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Collection #3

Paper: Stampin' Up! Brocade Blue
Ink: Versa Fine Onyx, Ranger Distress Faded Denim
Accessories: SU brad, twine, black embossing powder, sponge, Liquid Pearls, black pen, Spellbinders Nestabilities Reverse Scallop Squares.
Technique:
Heat embossing, stamping, faux stitching, distressing SU Oval Punch
Side View ~Easel
Special Notes: The idea for this card came from a western style shirt that used a repeating cowboy image in black on a blue background. The pocket style card lent itself well to replicating the shirt design.
Directions for basic pocket card: Start with cardstock trimmed to 4.25 x 11 inches. Score at 2.5 inches and 6.75 inches. To create the top flap, find and mark with pencil the top center of the shortest panel. Mark each side 1 inch down from the top (or 1.5 inches from the first fold). Cut diagonally between the marks, and there you have the pocket! Decorate as desired! It can also double as an easel card by flipping it around so the inside back panel sits atop the front flap.
Challenges:
Have a blessed day, and may you be still and content in the knowledge that He is God!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Forever Mine

My health may fail, my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever. Psalms 73:26
 
Sometimes in the spring when there is an abundance of flowers in my garden--especially my favorite Cecile Brunner roses--I’ll make up some “tussy mussies” for my sweet friends using a doily, a button and a bit of scrap ribbon. I thought it would be fun to include one of these sweet packages on a card, even though my lovely pink darlings have already bloomed. . .


So just what is a “tussy-mussy?" Well. . .according to the Word Detective, it is:

For a little bunch of flowers, "tussy-mussy" carries more than its share of mystery. The term apparently first appeared in the 15th century, but its derivation is unknown. There was an earlier form in Middle English, "tusmose" or "tussemose," as well as some use of simply "tussy" around the same period, and some indication of an earlier word like "tus" or "tusse" meaning "a cluster of flowers," but the clues are thin and most dictionaries simply classify "tussy-mussy" (or the earlier form "tuzzy-muzzy") as another case of "origin unknown." The "mussy" part, by the way, is simply a case of "reduplication," the humorous alliteration found in terms such as "cutesy-wootsey."

Although I’ve always thought of them as dating back to the Victorian era,  the Word Detective says no, “The term faded from use in the early 18th century, and was only revived in the 20th (the Oxford English Dictionary contains no citations between 1706 and 1958). The Victorians may have indeed been brandishing "tussy-mussies" on festive occasions, but it seems that they must have been calling them something else.”

We do know that the fragrance of the flowers helped to keep things a bit sweeter smelling in the days when baths were few and far between!
Up Close


CARD DETAILS
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Customer Favorites Series 1
Ink: Craft Stampin’ Up! Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Ranger Distress Antique Linen, Tea Dye
Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze
Designer Paper: Prima Madeline
Accessories: Wilton cake decorating doilies, Recollections Roses, SU Antique Brad, crumb cake seam binding, ribbon and vintage rick rack, Zva Creative Pearls, Cuttlebug embossing squares, piercing tool, Tattered Angels Shimmer Mist, SU Vanilla Smooch Spritz, instant coffee/alcohol/water, Spellbinders Nestabilities Scallop Rectangles.
Special Notes: The doily was spritzed with a mixture of instant coffee, alcohol and water.