Mark's Finest Papers February Blog Hop Last Day

 

February Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Lots of Luck Featured February 19
Hum Along Featured February 20
Rain Clouds Featured February 21
All Postal Featured February 22

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 February 23,2013 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 February 22,2013.

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

"Love Script"

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Big Cupcake"

 

Patty P.

Lois

Vicky

Jane C 

Debbie 

Pam 

Pat G 

Thrifty Stamper 

MariLynn    THIS IS ME

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 



My cards for the hop this week for the most part have been fairly CAS. I decided not to go that way with this set. I saw it and immediately thought VINTAGE COLLAGE. I stamped the "stamp" and cancellation onto a piece of brown cardstock. I paired it with a blue and brown dp. I purposely had the post card and the blue dp hang off over the edges of the card. The base is a cream colored cardstock. I then have a dark brown cardstock layer with a layer of vintage rose dp. The doily along with my hand quilled roses made from the pages of an encyclopedia, the pearls and amber jewels on a wire, and repurposed broken hair clip all give it that antique feel.

 Here is a close up of the roses, pearls and amber jewels on the curled wire.

 Here is a close up of the stamps and cancellation mark and the broken and repurposed hair clip. It has been sitting in my drawer of 'Junk' that I might use again someday. Well, today was the day.
 

 Having an empty nest is harder than I ever imagined it would be. I still have my boys at home, but I miss both of my daughters who have grown and are out on their own. This card could be for either one because I do miss them. This is a photo of me with my daughters taken about a month ago on a rare happening that we were all together. 

 This beautiful song makes me think of them. I know it more about a man-woman love interest, but I imagine my girls when I hear it. Send me a song!!!!

Mark's Finest Papers February Blog Hop- Day 3

 

February Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Lots of Luck Featured February 19
Hum Along Featured February 20
Rain Clouds Featured February 21
All Postal Featured February 22

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 February 23,2013 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 February 22,2013.

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

"Love Script"

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Big Cupcake"

 

Patty P.

Lois

Vicky

Jane C 

Debbie 

Pam 

Pat G 

Thrifty Stamper 

MariLynn    THIS IS ME

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 

 For my card, I used rainbow digital paper. I used word art in microsoft word to curve my sentiment. I had to print it a couple of times to get it just right. I printed it first on plain typing paper and placed the clear stamp over it so see how I needed to adjust it. Then I simply printed it on the rainbow paper. I stamped and masked the clouds. I colored around the edges of the clouds with two different shades of gray. I paper pieced the umbrella using the hearts from this really cool digi set called Sassy Frassy Digi Papers  The papers can be resized to what ever size you need. For this card I made the little hearts really tiny so that they didn't overwhelm the umbrella. I was going to add glue and glitter to the raindrops, but decided that I liked how it turned out, so no glitter.  

As we are waiting for a huge snowstorm to hit, my 16 year old son, looked at my card and said, "MOM, it isn't rain that should go away it is snow." (Can you tell, he doesn't want to have to shovel it?). So he said this is what it should say... "Precipitation, Precipitation, Depart Hence." He is a funny one.Very smart... takes after me...

 This is what I listened to as I crafted today. If I think about Spring... it will come... right?

Mark's Finest Papers February Blog Hop - Day 2

 

February Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Lots of Luck Featured February 19
Hum Along Featured February 20
Rain Clouds Featured February 21
All Postal Featured February 22

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 February 23,2013 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 February 22,2013.

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

"Love Script"

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Big Cupcake"

 

Patty P.

Lois

Vicky

Jane C 

Debbie 

Pam 

Pat G 

Thrifty Stamper 

MariLynn    THIS IS ME

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 

The background for my stamp is the Mark's Finest Papers set called JUST A NOTE.
I used this week's MOJO281 sketch.
This card is also what I made for this week's Splitcoast Stampers - CAS challenge CAS208 to be inspired by this quote:
"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." 
My hummingbird sure is humming along with the music background. 
The TLC Challenge - TLC417  was to use Washi Tape. I used faux washi tape at the bottom of my card with the little roses.  

And lastly this card is for the lovefest2013e challenge to use die cuts.


This set is one of my favorites. These are cards I made last week using this set.

My daughter got to go to a JJ Heller concert last night. I was blessed to hear her in concert last year. 
This song is a beautiful song about love and the reason that I'm sharing it is because parts of the song are just hummed. It is what I thought about when I saw the name of this set Hum Along.

Mark's Finest Papers February Blog Hop- Day 1

 

February Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Lots of Luck Featured February 19
Hum Along Featured February 20
Rain Clouds Featured February 21
All Postal Featured February 22

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 February 23,2013 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 February 22,2013.

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

"Love Script"

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Big Cupcake"

 

Patty P.

Lois

Vicky

Jane C 

Debbie 

Pam 

Pat G 

Thrifty Stamper 

MariLynn    THIS IS ME

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 am a person who doesn't really believe in luck. What I believe in are God's blessings and provisions. What an awesome God I serve who takes care of my needs so I don't have to rely on luck. 

For this set I choose to make 2 tri-fold cards to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Whether this is truth or part myth, I love the story of St. Patrick using the shamrock to teach about the trinity. He took what was available to him and taught about God.

I took a 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock and took a ruler and drew a slanted line with a pencil.( I started my line 3 inches up and the line ended up at 6 inches. I then scored it at 3 1/2" and 7". I then stamped sets of 2 clover next to eachother, then flipped it and stamped 2 more, then flipped it back and stamped the last 2. (Putting 2 clover in each"section" of the line.)  I cut out around the tops of the clovers so that it had a "decorative" edge. I erased the pencil line and I watercolored the clover then I ink spray smashed greens to the card. On my second card I thought maybe it would look good with a little gold embossing powder. I masked the clovers, and  I stamped the cracked background from Mark's Finest Papers set called Cracked Hello. I used versamark ink and gold ep. (It used a lot of gold ep.) After I was done with all the embossing, I thought I might have gone a little overboard. 

 

 

Which one do you like better?

One of the neat things about living in rural USA are the little town festivals. Less than 25 miles from where I live is the little town of St. Patrick MO. (Don't blink as you are driving through town or you might miss it.) Every year for St. Patrick's day, they have a wonderful festival, with awesome food and mass in a really unique chapel. People come from many miles around to participate in the activities. 

My kids and I have enjoyed going there for many years. Our favorite activity is to take cards and letters to be mailed at the little St. Patrick's MO post office. Every year they have a new cancellation stamp. My kid's loved sending themselves mail, and we have kept the letters and envelopes as memory makers. My oldest daughter, last year when she heard that a lot of little rural post offices were going to close, was worried about this one. She mailed letters to her future children so that they could have an envelope with a St. Patrick's cancellation, just in case this one ever closed.
  

Here is a link to a local news station's report about last year's festivities. 
St. Patrick, MO

If you want to have an envelope with the cancellation stamp, you don't have to go in person,  you can follow these directions:
 
 To send mail by St. Patrick’s commemorative cancellation, send stamped, self-addressed envelopes requesting the special cancellation to Postmaster, St. Patrick, Mo., 63466.

I love Irish folk music, and this song always gives me chills when I hear it.

2 Lovefest cards

Before we even get to the blog hop for Mark's Finest Papers, you are going to know which of the new releases is my favorite just by looking at my sneak peek cards. I made the top card (a triple easel card) for the LOVEFEST challenges at SCS. The first challenge was to make a card with L.O.V.E. on it. my
L=Lace
O=Orange hibiscus
V=Vintage
E=Easel (triple)

This card is also for the Ways to use it challenge WT414 to use Triangles on our card. I used a triangular layout for my hummingbird and two of the hibiscus. The easel also kinda makes triangles when you look at them from the side. 

 My second card is for the second LOVEFEST challenge to make a card using the sketch that Korin with Sweet & Sassy stamps provided. I struggled with this a little at first. I started with the scripture taking up all the oval, but then I couldn't figure out how to place the little banners so that they didn't cover up the scripture. I ended up printing the scripture on a small piece of white cardstock.
This card is also an easel card, but just a simple easel. I decorated the inside with black white and green.
This second card is also for the Free for all challenge F4A156 to go to your happy color. My happy color is green. It makes me think of grass, trees and growing things.

Make sure you come back to my blog on Tuesday when the Mark's Finest Papers February blog hop kicks off. You could have the chance to win this fabulous set: HUM ALONG.

I am also entering the second card in Word Art Wednesday challenge.

little bird / big bird

 Why do hummingbirds hum? They can't remember the words to the song....

 I am always amazed by God's creation. I am amazed that the little hummingbird can so quickly flap it's wings and hover. What a great design. Then there is the bald eagle that can hold out it's wings and soar on wind currents. What a great design.
 Both so perfect in their design.  This hummingbird card is a sneak peek at a Mark's Finest Papers set that will be released next week called Hum Along. It is for 3 challenges. The first challenge is the color challenge for SCS for yesterday. CC413 When I saw the colors, my first thought was yuck. My second thought wasn't much better than my first one. Then I saw my friend Pam's card and she used this set. She challenged me to use the set and make a card too. So last evening I sat down and made the hummingbird and hibiscus part of my card. I stamped the hummingbird with brown stazon ink. I watercolored it with greens, blues, purples, pinks, oranges, and browns. I tried my best to imitate the amazing coloring of the real thing. That is where the second challenge comes in- The Tutorial Time Challenge on SpeedyTV TTSTV35 to combine embossing powder and dazzling diamonds or glitter. I used UTEE and glamour dust on my humming bird. It really made it iridescent.(hard to photograph and show you, but I tried with the second photo.) The third challenge is the SCS sketch challenge SC423. It took a long time to finish my hummingbird and hibiscus, and I had no idea what layout I wanted so I decided to wait until today to see the sketch. I decided to go with embossed white on white to bring focus to the hummingbird and flower. Yesterday I saw a card on facebook that someone had liked that showed white on white embossing with little pearls. It was my inspiration for the pearls on my card.I tried to find it again and couldn't. So I'm sorry I can't give credit to that card maker. The third photo is of a bald eagle that I took yesterday with my cell phone. Not the greatest camera, but what an amazing creature. I just love to watch bald eagles. One of the biggest blessing of winter, living where I live. The bald eagles come to the Mississippi river to fish. This bald eagle had a fish in his talons that was about 6 or 7 inches long. My son and I saw him catch it and fly up to the tree to eat it.

2 embossed and sanded dp cards

Joan gave us a really neat technique to try this week called dry embossing and sanding  TLC416. I used paper from K&Company. I used my script embossing folder. I had never thought to sand my paper with a brown paper bag until Joan told us about it. I love the soft sanded look that it achieved on my card. I used The Sweet Stop Sketch:SSS197 I used a scripture stamp from Inspired Stamps:James 1:2. I added some quilled roses, floral filler and a twine bow. While I was making this card and reading the scripture I saw a similarity. I cut the paper, I embossed the paper, I sanded the paper, I glued the paper, I sewed the paper... from the paper's point of view those were traumatic events. But the result was much prettier than the plain piece of paper had been. Maybe my life, with the trials that seem so traumatic, is being transformed into something beautiful. I kinda took that away from this scripture.I am entering this into the Word Art Wednesday Challenge.WAW66

 

I had so much fun with this technique. I just had to do another one. This paper was sitting out on my desk because I was going to do the blue/brown challenge last Friday, F4A155 but didn't get around to doing it until today. I used K&Company DP and the script embossing folder. I had tried sanding with a brown paper bag on my first card and I really liked the subtle sanded look, but because the colors were more bold on this card I went ahead and got the sandpaper out. I added quilled roses made out of brown paper bags. I felt that this little heart button with twine went with the country feel of the plaid. The only stamping is from a Mark's Finest Papers set called LOVE LOVE LOVE. I used the Monday Mojo sketch MOJO280.

It is well with my soul

 Yesterday I had picked out three different pieces of black and white dp to do the patterned challenge. TLC415 but ended up with a terrible migraine, so there were all set out and ready to go for today.  All I needed to have today's color challenge - CC412 was the light brown of crumb cake. I used the MOJO279 Sketch I saw a photo on facebook this morning that had butterflies made with sheet music. So even though it deviates from the sketch a little I had to add the butterfly.The sheet music that I used for the butterfly was from the hymn It is Well With My Soul. I also needed just a little bit of color, so I added some quilled roses. I hope I accomplished dessert of being clean and classy. The sentiment is a Sweet 'n Sassy Scripture Digi. I added Want2Scrap bling for the butterfly trail and floral filler with the roses. I am going to enter this in Word Art Wednesday.

I think this scripture and the hymn It Is Well With My Soul,  are PERFECT together. What do you think?