Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Mark's Finest Papers Blog Hop day 2



Welcome to the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company

August Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are


 Featured  Aug. 12
Crows and Scarecrow

Featured Aug. 13
Hydrangea

 Featured Aug. 14
Keys

Featured Aug. 15
Dear Santa and Brrrr


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 six winners will be announced on 
Aug.16, 2014 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 10 PM EST on Friday August 15, 2014


Here's the Design Team:


Come on back tomorrow for more creativity.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Mark's Finest Papers blog hop



Welcome to the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company

August Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are


 Featured  Aug. 12
Crows and Scarecrow

Featured Aug. 13
Hydrangea

 Featured Aug. 14
Keys

Featured Aug. 15
Dear Santa and Brrrr


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 six winners will be announced on 
Aug.16, 2014 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 10 PM EST on Friday August 15, 2014


Here's the Design Team:


Come on back tomorrow for more creativity.

Friday, August 8, 2014

coffee with a friend

I made 2 cards this week with the same coffee set by Mark's Finest Papers called OH BEANS.
The first one I used earthy colors for the coffee cups. The background has a collage of scraps on an encyclopedia page with lots of paint and glue and a paper doily. It has a vintage feel to me.
I decorated the inside of this card. I used the sketch from Mojo Monday (MOJO-357)
I used burlap, because it made me think of a bag that holds the coffee beans. I the back panel is the coffee beans stamp from the set. I masked and stamped the beans and then I colored them. It is fun to color these beans, because all you need is a few white highlights and it looks very artistic.
 
 For my second card, I did another encyclopedia page with scraps, glue and paint. The colors of the cups were the colors for this week's SCS color challenge. CC490



I decorated the inside of this card too. I used the scraps that I used on the front but I didn't cover them with paint and glue.


I am going to enter these cards in this week's Word Art Wednesday challenge.WAW144

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Flowers of the field

Psalm 103:15-16a(NIV)
The life of mortals is like grass,
    they flourish like a flower of the field; 
 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
  

How long is your life going to be? None of us know the answer to this question. Some will live a long time and some for just a short time. The reality is that even if you live to be 100 your life would still be like the grass and the flowers. Short lived. 

I love looking out my window and seeing the flowers that God has planted. Most people call them weeds, but when you look at them closely you can't help but wonder at their exquisite creation. They don't last for very long and within a few months the cold of fall will have killed all the flowers. That is why I like to take the time while they are here to do smashed flower technique. 

As I was making these two cards I was thinking of Psalm 103:15. My niece and her husband had a son born last month who lived only 28 days. For those of us who are grieving his loss, his life was TOO SHORT. It has made me think of my life. In view of eternity no matter how long I live on this earth, it will have been a short time.

I imagine that God won't be as concerned with how long we lived, but with what we did with the time that He gave us. 

The other thing I was thinking as I made these cards is the wonderful friendships I have made in the stamping world online. I got to meet two of my special friends this summer when my kids and I were on vacation. I wish I could spend time with all of my friends. I told my kids if I ever win the lottery I want to travel to see all the friends who live in my computer. Until I can do that I guess sending cards to my friends will have to do.

Here is a photo of the wildflowers that I picked and used in my creations. The blue flowers are chicory and some of the yellow ones are chick peas. I am not sure what the rest are.

I love to use digital images with my creations. I love the digital images that you can get at 

You can get the digital images all colored in and all you have to do is print them. Like with this Sending you love set. 

But having only a printer that only prints with black ink, I have had to find ways to be creative with the images. You can use the outlined sets just like you would a regular stamp set that you can color. I used the post card from Sending you love(outlines) set.

I then took the postcard and did the ink spray smash technique. I added burlap, paper doily,gold marker dots, paper piercing, drywall tape, brads, twine, wire beads, and rhinestones to finish this easel card.
A side view of the easel card.

The nice thing about printing the digital images is you can print more than one at a time. I printed both post cards at the same time. Same technique, pounded flowers, but with a different layout. I used the sketch from SCS  SC499 
I really tried to stay with the sketch as much as possible, but like most of my cards, while I started with the sketch as my inspiration... the card took on a mind of it's own.  


I really liked how this dp looked with my smashed flowers.  The sentiment for both cards were also digital images from Bouquet of Daisies set.


With the left overs I made a bookmark to go with my second card.


My prayer for you is that today you realize how precious your time is, and to let God show you what He wants you to do with that time.