Good Friends

I had several coordinating sheets of dp that I thought of when I saw today's Splitcoast Color Combo challenge colors- CC411. I hand dyed the paper to make the quilled roses. It is hard to see in the photograph but they are a golden yellow. The butterfly is from Mark's Finest Papers set called Daffodil Greetings. I used the sketch for The Sweet Stop SSS195. The sentiment is from My Daydream Designs Friendship Collection .
I am entering this in the Word Art Wednesday Challenge.

Balance

BALANCE

I am going on day 8 of not going on facebook. The pastor at my church encouraged everyone to fast for 10 days, something that we felt had some control over our lives.. It is a way to focus our minds on God. It is also a way check our priorities and to bring some balance into our lives.

It has been harder for me than I thought it would be. I didn't realize how many times in my day that I just had to check facebook to see what all my friends were doing. Things, even good things, when they have too much control in our lives can get us off balance. What happens when we get off balance, we fall.

That was clearly demonstrated yesterday with an ice-storm. Early in the morning, icy rain started falling and every surface it landed on turned into a skating rink. I was trying to be extra careful not to slip and keeping my balance required some extra work as I crossed the ice covered parking lot to church. I saw several people fall. One was a little boy who was crossing the ice too fast and fell on his arm. Thankfully he wasn't hurt. 

The challenge on Splitcoast today for the Technique Lover's Challenge-   TLC414 

Joan challenged us to play with big and small images to achieve a visual balance. My card has two examples of that. I used a big butterfly (Mark's Finest Papers - Daffodil Greeting) and a little butterfly (Mark's Finest Papers - Scenic Selections). I also did big and little with the music notes and treble clef (Mark's Finest Papers - Just a Note). I used Mojo Monday  MOJO278

for the sketch. I used versamark ink, white embossing powder and markers(Embossed-Resist) for the backgrounds. Butterflies were stamped with black stazon ink. I embellished with sewing machine, ribbons, pearls and rhinestones from Want2Scrap.

I am entering this in the Word Art Wednesday Challenge.

warm and fuzzy

The challenge at SCS for today was to make a warm and fuzzy card.We were to bring warm and fuzzy because it is so cold. I made these two cards. I had a picture in my mind when I started, and neither card actually turned out how I wanted them to, but I really like how my second card looks. Today was kind of a crazy crafting day. I started my second card first but even though my first cards was stamped second, I finished it first. How my first card is warm ...I used "warm" colors -browns with my cool blues and greens. I used a sentiment from Mark's Finest Papers set called Christmas Music. It says "YOU WARM MY HEART". The other Mark's Finest Papers set I used is called  JUST A NOTE. I stamped the treble clef and music notes on the circle and next to the sentiment. I also punched a little heart out of the stamped sheet music.

 My second card that I started first was stamped with versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder, I did embossing resist technique. Before I embellished it, I thought that the white sheet music was just too light to be warm. That is why I stamped the second card. However, after it sat on my desk for awhile, I began to imagine the possibilities. I was inspired by this card. It showed a triple tiered easel card. Since I had made a triple easel card earlier this month, I thought I would like to try this way of doing a triple easel. How this card is warm...? Well, I started thinking along this path... Warm-sunshine- light. So the scripture from my Daydream Designs worked perfectly. I think the sentiment from Mark's Finest Papers set called LIGHTHOUSES worked well with the scripture it says LIGHT THE WAY. I embellished with more quilled roses ( I am kinda addicted to them.), floral filler,  a butterfly from Mark's Finest Paper set called CRACKED HELLO, want2scrap bling for the butterfly trail.

 

I am entering my second card in the Word Art Wednesday Challenge.

I have some more cards to share that I made on Wednesday and Thursday.

The one I made on Wednesday is this swirly Valentine's Day card. It was using the Splitcoast Sketch Challenge this week. The images and dp are from My Daydream Designs-The hearts and envelope are from my Daydream Designs set called SENDING YOU LOVE. The dp is from my Daydream Designs set called TICKET TO BLISS PAPER PACK.. I added quilled flowers, pearls and a simple stamped image from Mark's Finest Papers set called LOVE LOVE LOVE

This calendar card is for my oldest daughter. I used scraps that were on my desk from making cards earlier in the week. I added a calendar from my Daydream Designs called1013 DESKTOP CALENDAR.I put it on an easel card. I added quilled roses, pearls, buttons, twine and brads.

I realized yesterday that I had a lot of girly Valentines and so few "GUY" ones. So here is one that I think will go to my husband!

3 Valentines

If you are looking for the Daydream Designs Blog hop scroll down one post.

I was in a Valentine making mood this week. I have 3 cards to share. I was going for a shabby/chic - vintage look. The first card I used the Mojo Monday 227 sketch 

I used the colors for the Splitcoast Stampers Color Combo 410

I used the word LOVE from a Mark's Finest Paper set called Love, love, love

I embellished it with quilled roses, ribbon, twine, and a little key charm.

My second card uses the Post Card from My Daydream Designs set called SENDING YOU LOVE

The Love sentiment is from My Daydream Designs set called SNOWBABY LOVE SENTIMENT

I used the same colors for the Splitcoast Stamper Color Combo Challenge 410

I embellished with quilled roses, floral filler, ribbon, twine, pearls, and a key charm. I did something else on this card that I rarely think to do. That is, I finished the inside with matching paper and put a heart on the inside.

 

My last card used the same papers, because they were out on my desk. I used the Splitcoast Stampers Sketch Challenge 388. 
I used the Love from Mark's Finest Papers set called Love love love that I used on the first card.
I also added roses that were quilled out of a page in the encyclopedia. I added my key charm with twine that I tied a bow then curled the ends by getting them wet and wrapping them around my paper stylus. I also added floral filler. I made my card an easel card. I used the hymn THE LOVE OF GOD as my background. It is perfect for any Valentine.
I have always loved the last verse of that hymn...

Could we with ink the ocean fill

and were the skies with parchment made 

were every stalk on earth a quill

and every man a scribe by trade.

To write the love 

of God above

would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll

contain the whole,

though stretched from 

sky to sky.

Neither depth, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God. 
 Romans 8:38-39

I am going to share my last card with the lovely ladies at Word Art Wednesday Challenge.

Daydream Desings - Hearts Hop

Welcome to the blog hop for Daydream Designs. The blog hop will be from today (Monday 21st) through Thursday (24th). You will want to visit each blog, not just for the wonderful inspiration from the design team, but if you comment on each of the participating blogs, you might win a chance to get a $20 gift certificate to the Daydream Designs Store.

If you came here from Kris's blog
you are right on track.
If you didn't you might want to go back and start at the beginning with Diane's Blog.
If you get lost along the way, here is a list of the participating blogs.

Diane
Amy
Beth
Debbie

Helen
Jenn
Jerusha
Karen
Kris
MariLynn (Me)
Michelle
Miesje

Sandi
Stephanie
Traci
Vicki

 The theme for our hop, is HEARTS!!!!!
The Daydream Designs Store has a wide selection of images and sentiments to choose from when it comes to Hearts and Valentine's Day.

My first card was super easy and I had it made in less than 5 mins. The heart is from the colorized-set called SENDING YOU LOVE COLOR DIGI SET

The scripture sentiment is from  

SNOWBABY LOVE SENTIMENT SET

I printed them both next to eachother on a sheet of white cardstock. I glued some paper roses to the heart, I added some WANT 2 SCRAP bling in the corner and I added pink cotton candy stickles to the dots on the design. Such a fun, quick card.

My second card took a little longer to make it took me about 15 mins. The sentiment is from the

SNOWBABY  LOVE SENTIMENT SET

The adorable little puppies were from the colorized

SNOWBABY LOVE COLOR DIGI SET

I printed the image and sentiment. Cut them into rectangle panels. I matted the two panels and used heart hole punch. The pink paper that I used was a digital paper from 

TICKET TO BLISS DIGI PAPER PACK

If you have never used a digital paper pack before, you really should give it a try. There is a certain satisfaction that I have knowing that I made this card only using white cardstock. I sewed the panels to the base. I embellished with a white bow and some more bling from WANT 2 SCRAP..

 

My last card used more of the paper from the 

TICKET TO BLISS DIGI PAPER PACK 

The scripture is from the 

LOVE SCRIPTURE SET

I used my MS decorative border punch to frame the scripture. I added some punched hearts and some quilled roses that I made using an old encyclopedia..

 

Diane is so generous, she is offering the following  free digi's for you to use on your cards.

Free Digis Have Expired. Sorry

If you want the little envelope check out the store

My Daydream Designs

Head over to Michelle's blog because she is the next stop on the blog hop.

get packing -not without my coffee

When I started making this card today, I had no plans, and no idea what I was going to create... I love the way the creative process makes me feel when I have no plans or ideas and  I look at the finished card and I  like how it turned out. The Tutorial Time on Speedy TV 32 was packing tape transfer. I had done it before and I didn't really like how it turned out, but my friend Pam inspired me to try it again.I didn't have many magazines and the pictures in them were less than inspiring. What finally caught my eye was a home improvement photo of a stair case that they had painted the steps orange and turquoise and had stenciled a design on the stairs.(As a side note, I thought the stairs look hideous and so not my style, but I like how the colors looked together.) I felt like the cups from Mark's Finest Papers set called OH BEANS would go with my packing tape strip. I stamped the cups in alternating colors. The Friday Free For All challenge at SCS -152 was to use banners. So I used the sentiment from the Oh Beans set for my banner. I knew I wanted to use a page from my encyclopedia for the background. Currently the encyclopedia(bound dp) that I have on my desk is the H encyclopedia. I just opened it up to a page and tore it out. As I was putting my card together, I noticed that on the page I had taken out, was the article on Haiti. It mentioned coffee 3 times.(one of the times is under the packing tape strip.) I thought it would be neat, since my card was about coffee, to circle the words. I was so excited about finding the word "coffee"on the page.

Mark's Finest Papers Jan Blog Hop- love love love

   January Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Fantastic Dogs Featured January 15
No Sour Grapes Featured January 16
In My Den Featured January 17
Love, Love, Love Featured January 18

Please hop along with us! You have a chance 
 to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on January 19, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday January 18,2013.


Happy New Year!!! Welcome to the first blog hop of 2013! We are so excited to share the great stamp sets we are releasing this month and the months to come. 

 The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

" OH Baby"

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Not So Ugly"

 

Patty P.

Lois

Vicky

Jane C 

Debbie 

Pam 

Pat G 

Thrifty Stamper 

MariLynn 

Karen K 

Bonnie 

Kathy B 

Angela B 

Cathy C 

Toni 

Sue W 

Janine B 

Tammylee 

An'jenic 

Kate Z 
Shirley Q 

Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co 

 I wanted my card using this set to look like a Victorian Valentine.  I took some of the sentiments from the set and made a text block on my acrylic block. On my card I embellished it with pearl stick pins, a tea stained paper doily, I used a MS decorative edge punch to go around my text block. I added floral filler, a cream colored ribbon, handmade-quilled roses made from paper bags, twine and a little key charm. I tied a bow in the twine after running it through the key. I then sprayed the twine with water and wrapped it around the handle of a paint brush. When it was dry it was curled. The paper bag roses have gold paint splattered on them. It was hard to get that to show up in this photo. 

Here is a card with a totally different look. I was going for CAS which is so out of my comfort zone. This is the card I made for the Splitcoast Color Combo challenge.  I used a different sentiment from this set.

Mark's Finest Papers Jan Hop Day 3

   January Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Fantastic Dogs Featured January 15
No Sour Grapes Featured January 16
In My Den Featured January 17
Love, Love, Love Featured January 18

Please hop along with us! You have a chance 
 to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on January 19, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday January 18,2013.


Happy New Year!!! Welcome to the first blog hop of 2013! We are so excited to share the great stamp sets we are releasing this month and the months to come. 

 The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

" OH Baby"

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Not So Ugly"

 

Patty P.

Lois

Vicky

Jane C 

Debbie 

Pam 

Pat G 

Thrifty Stamper 

MariLynn 

Karen K 

Bonnie 

Kathy B 

Angela B 

Cathy C 

Toni 

Sue W 

Janine B 

Tammylee 

An'jenic 

Kate Z 
Shirley Q 

Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co 


I like the clock in this set. It made me think of my grandfather. He jokes about people not wanting to visit him because he has ticks. He has several clocks in each room that he has set several mins. apart so that he can enjoy them. As kids we loved hearing the coo-coo clock. The sentiment from this set saying "It's about TIME" and  "Congratulations" was perfect for this project that I am sending to my cousin and her husband. They have been waiting to adopt for over 3 years. They found out this last week that the waiting so long was in part to a person not doing their job and just sticking their paperwork in her drawer. The agency didn't find out until the lady was fired. So my cousin and her husband went to a new agency. They filled out more paperwork and expected to wait a long time again. They got a call Wednesday that said that there was a baby who had been born the previous Sunday and if they wanted him they could take him home on Thursday. It had to be because it was in God's TIME. On their facebook page announcing the birth, one of their friends congratulated them on their "POPCORN" baby. Remember making popcorn the old fashioned way not in the microwave... you would wait and wait and then SUDDENLY - POP.  When I read that about the popcorn baby, I knew right away what I was going to do. I was going to wrap a package of popcorn. I stamped the "CONGRATULATIONS" all over the dp. I sewed my main panel to the dp and wrapped it around the popcorn.

 Sentiment randomly stamped on the dp.

Vicky, this song is for you!

Mark's Finest Papers Blog Hop 2013 day 2

   January Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Fantastic Dogs Featured January 15
No Sour Grapes Featured January 16
In My Den Featured January 17
Love, Love, Love Featured January 18

Please hop along with us! You have a chance 
 to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on January 19, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday January 18,2013.


Happy New Year!!! Welcome to the first blog hop of 2013! We are so excited to share the great stamp sets we are releasing this month and the months to come. 

 The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

" OH Baby"

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Not So Ugly"

 

Patty P.

Lois

Vicky

Jane C 

Debbie 

Pam 

Pat G 

Thrifty Stamper 

MariLynn 

Karen K 

Bonnie 

Kathy B 

Angela B 

Cathy C 

Toni 

Sue W 

Janine B 

Tammylee 

An'jenic 

Kate Z 
Shirley Q 

Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co 

 I had a lot of fun watercoloring these grapes. 

I added quilled vines to add dimension. I was going for a vintage look.

 Close up of the metal embellishment.

Mark's Finest Papers January 2013 blog hop

   January Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Fantastic Dogs Featured January 15
No Sour Grapes Featured January 16
In My Den Featured January 17
Love, Love, Love Featured January 18

Please hop along with us! You have a chance 
 to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on January 19, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday January 18,2013.


Happy New Year!!! Welcome to the first blog hop of 2013! We are so excited to share the great stamp sets we are releasing this month and the months to come. 

 The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

" OH Baby"

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Not So Ugly"

 

Patty P.

Lois

Vicky

Jane C 

Debbie 

Pam 

Pat G 

Thrifty Stamper 

MariLynn 

Karen K 

Bonnie 

Kathy B 

Angela B 

Cathy C 

Toni 

Sue W 

Janine B 

Tammylee 

An'jenic 

Kate Z 
Shirley Q 

Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co

 Ever since I saw a triple easel card, I have been wanting to make one. I made my card so it would fit in a legal sized envelope. Finished card is 3"x9". I started with a piece of cardstock 6"x9". I scored and folded it so that it would fold lengthwise. I made cut lines from the top of the card to the centerfold at the 3" mark and the 6" mark. This made 3 flaps on the card. The two side flaps I folded diagonally, making right triangles with the 90degree angles next to the center flap. The center flap I folded in half. Then I cut 3 squares 3"X3" to adhere to the easels. I put the dogs on either side and put the sentiment square on the center panel. Easel cards usually need something to hold them in place. I decided to use the bones from the set to make my stops. I stamped each bone 4 times. I cut out and glued the 4 bones together. That gave each bone dimension, enough to hold the panels back, but not so much that the card can't be folded flat and mailed easily.

 

How the card looks folded down flat for mailing.

The card standing up.

Close up views of dog panels. Can you see the dimension or thickness of the bones?

There is a Time

 Today's Technique Lovers Challenge TCL412 was one to let the designer paper on the inside of the card show. I looked at the Mojo Monday 276 and knew right away that it would be perfect for the technique challenge. I ended up modifying the sketch a little, but the mojo 276 sketch really was my inspiration for this card. I used the butterfly from Sweet and Sassy New Creature Digital Stamp. I printed the scripture using my computer. I use my new border punch, floral filler, ric-rac, Want 2 Scrap bling, and quilled roses made from a page from an encyclopedia. I really like how this card came together. I am entering it in Word Art Wednesday challenge 62

Inside of card.