Heart to Heart Round and Round Birthday Card

The main thing I like about winter is being "stuck in the house" so I can get some things organized that get overlooked or pushed aside other times of the year. While sorting some papers and card pieces I must have put in a bag after a workshop I found some leftover pieces that perfectly fit the "Round and Round" challenge at Heart to Heart. The ones I picked out needed sentiments and finishing details.

The first one I chose had a background with orange concentric circles, gold-spotted washi tape. I added three circles for the sentiment that works well on a circle shape and voila:

Please come back tomorrow night or Thursday morning to follow our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop.

Ambrosia Butterfly Hope

When I moved to my new scrapbook room a year ago I didn't unpack everything. This weekend I unpacked and reorganized my box of hoarded Basic Grey paper packs. I'm afraid you'll see a lot of upcoming projects using those papers. Here's my first set of encouragement cards using the fussy-cut butterflies and solid backgrounds from "Ambrosia."

Somehow the messy background reminded me of those messy times of life when nothing seems to go right. I stood at my kitchen window yesterday watching a shriveled oak leaf that looked like a butterfly float in the breeze. It went up and down and around through the limbs quite a few times reminding me that winter will pass and the springtime butterflies will return to grace the landscape with their colorful, graceful flights. Both nature and weather teach us so many life lessons on trust in God's loving care and hope during trials that I thought butterflies were perfect for the PTI Inspired Hope stamps and die set. I'm hoping they will encourage the recipient wit their colorful message.
I used the sketch from The Paper Players for the first card which is 5" x 6.5" in order to fit all the butterflies across. The rest of the cards in my set are the smaller size.

The first card also uses an ancient silhouette stamp from CTMH that was called "Treasure Life" to represent the largest diamond shape on the left of the sketch.

I made several of the smaller cards, even utilizing some of the butterflies that were incomplete to go partly off the paper as part of the design. (Why throw them away?)

To go with the Basic Grey "messy look" I chose to stamp the BG butterfly with Versamark and color over it with chalk. Each one was totally different.  I also added some chalk around the edges of the page similar to the BG paper on front.

Thank you for visiting. I leave you with the verse of encouragement inside: "May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy & peace as you trust in Him."  Romans 15:13

I'm sharing the first card with the following challenges:
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper January Challenge - anything goes
Let's Craft and Create Challenge #121 - Things with Wings
The Paper Players Sketch 329
Word Art Wednesday #226-267 - anything family friendly

Adore You in Mint Green, Pink, and Aqua

Some days our world seems full of anger or hate. I'm a believer that we need to spread God's message of love and kindness much more instead. Here are two more cards I made using the January Stamp of the Month, Adore You. I stamped the images and text with Slate on one and black ink on the other. I think I don't care as much for the gray, although I thought it would be nice with the soft colors for this week's color challenge at Color Throwdown.

The three colored papers were scraps that were sitting on my desk. I'm not sure what the aqua blue paper was, but the pink heart paper is CTMH Blossom Fundamentals and the Mint Green is CTMH Sea Glass. Each card has the PTI diecut word "love" and one of the Scripture-related stamps that goes with love. The second card has shimmer mist on each flower but it doesn't show up thanks to so many cloudy days making photography by the window a little difficult.

To repeat the message of the first card, I hope you will do everything in love and, PLEASE, PASS IT ON!

I'm sharing this message with the following challenges:

A Gem of a Challenge #186 - Hearts and/or Flowers

Color Throwdown #427 - mint green, pink, aqua

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #400 - Love/Valentines/Anniversary

Crafty Girls Creations #32 - anything goes

Creative Fingers #123 - Anything Goes

Daring Cardmakers Challenge - I Want More. . MORE .LOVE TO SHARE

Jo's Scrap Shack Fun-day Friday Challenge #173 - anything goes

Making Memories Crafting Challenge #1 - anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - anything goes

Simply Papercraft Challenge #43 - anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #266 - 267 - anything family friendly

Sugar Rush Belated Birthday

I wish I could say that I always remember to get cards in the mail on time, but honesty wins -  I'm forgetful or distracted sometimes. So I loved the new stamp set with matching dies, Sugar Rush -  Cardmaking, with the fun sentiment: Donut know how I forgot your birthday! I used all of the Sugar Rush colors for Color My Heart Challenge  and the sketch below from The Sketch File to design this card.

 

I cut the donuts at 1.5" instead of the size of the die, but then I placed each one in the center of the die, added a little tape on the edge to keep it centered for cutting the middle hole, and put it through my die cut machine.  I added Pomegranate and white embossed sprinkles on two of the donuts and heat embossed the white icing on the Canary donut with the Tangerine topping.

Thanks for visiting!

Blessed Sympathy Card

I had been sick over the weekend and Monday my doctor was out sick, so I went to urgent care who sent me to the ER, which was so crowded I thought we'd be there all night. When I was checked in, they informed me that all of the hospitals in our metropolitan area were closed to ambulances. My hubby and I wondered what would happen to people who needed emergency care via ambulance. Then today I learned that the mother of one of my friends died unexpectedly during the night from a heart attack. She only lived a few blocks from the fire station and ambulance, maybe a mile from a small hospital. My friend and I had scrapbooked together on Saturday. As a single adult who had already lost her father, the loss of her mother is overwhelming. They did so much together.

My heart has hurt deeply for her since I heard the news, which prompts me to keep praying for her. I'm praying she will feel God's comforting arms and presence as He helps her through this storm. I wanted to make her a special card so today I chose this PTI stamp and die, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" for her card. I'm so glad she's an active member in a large church. At times like this, God's people are His comforting voice, His comforting arms.

The MME "Sundshine" papers and this sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches were perfect for this card. The black diecut was from Cricut Flower Market.

I'm also sharing this first card with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and Word Art Wednesday Challenge #266-267.

When our scrapbook club met this weekend, several of us made 12 sympathy and get well cards using leftover CTMH "Oh, Deer" papers:

I sprayed this card with Fern reinker in water, dried it, then stamped the parsley image using Juniper ink and the new "Good Thymes" stamp set.

(The butterflies on this card were cut using leftover Calypso paper.)

Gingham and Sweet William Birthday Card

When my hubby and I first married I was so excited to have a huge yard in the country, I planted about every flower imaginable. One of them was Sweet William, like my hubby's name. Most Sweet Williams come in shades of pink with white, although there are some that are lavender or purple.

I chose the ODBD Sweet William stamp set to make the flower for this card using the color challenge they have for this month. The sketch at Hand Stamped Sentiments was perfect for this card and I chose to use gingham patterned papers with 3 shades of violet and one of yellow, including a yellow gingham ribbon, mostly very old from CTMH. The purple glitter sparkles and glitter hearts are also from CTMH.  I used the ODBD All Occasion Sentiments for the greeting.

 

The colors of this card remind me of spring! I'm sharing this with the Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light Challenge #282 and Hand Stamped Sentiments Challenge #256.

Kraft, Gray, and Red Love

I'm sick today so I'm just making a quick card and post, which always helps me feel better! I thought last week's Color Throwdown with Kraft, Gray, and Red would be great for today's Mojo Monday!

 

I used the Hearts Thin Cuts, which makes a thin outline,  and XOXO, both from Close To My Heart. Thanks for visiting!

Amazing Grace How Sweet the Sound

We all need a little encouragement from time to time, some of us more than others. I usually like to be the one to encourage others, but yesterday I had a small shock that left me feeling quite down. I have a rare disease, systemic mastocytosis, that requires me to drink a liquid medicine 4 times a day or I can't eat. For the last year and a half I've been down to only two foods (that didn't make me sick or give me rash) and they've given me trouble the last month. Nausea is not my friend. But when I found they had raised my medication cost by 82% and I'll be paying over $800 a month for just this one generic med for most of the year I went into shock! I knew I needed to turn this burden over to God. I went back and forth between worry and prayer. Today I was comforted by 1 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." So here's the card I made maybe for myself, but eventually to give someone else. I was inspired by the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and the colors at Color Throwdown this week.

 

Challenge Up Your Life today encouraged us to make our own backgrounds so I embossed the back panel with Cuttlebug's older Allegro embossing folder. I stamped the Honey panel with Saffron ink using Our Daily Bread Design's "Amazing Grace Hymn" stamp and stamped and cut the "Amazing," "Grace," and "how sweet the sound" with PTI's "Inspired - Grace" stamp and die set. The inside used the same stamp set and blue washii tape like the front.

I also wanted a sympathy card for a dear friend who just lost her husband to cancer. We were reading teachers in the same program and district who also loved scrapbooking. Before her teaching days she worked for the National Park Service, so I chose the trees and a Cricut Flower Market cut of a Maidenhair fern like I'd seen in Zion National Park.

I decided to make more of these with a slightly varied design using the Sizzix embossed birch trees and the Sea Glass tree pattern from the CTMH "Oh, Deer" papers.

I'm also sharing this card with Word Art Wednesday #264-265.

Thank you for visiting. When you encounter your need for encouragement, I hope you'll also find strength in the knowledge that God's grace IS sufficient to see us through any trial.

Masculine Monster Birthday

Birthdays can scare some people when they hear the larger number for their new age. I'm hoping the humor of this card will lighten that negative feeling. Some time back I had seen the sentiment: "How old? That's scary!" I thought it would be perfect for some masculine cards using my leftover Jeepers Creepers paper and a monster from an old CTMH stamp set, Party Animals, which also includes a stamp of a speech balloon outline. I typed and printed the sentiment a size to fit inside that balloon.

I used a Sizzix embossing folder, Arithmetic, to emboss the background. The monster was colored with Copic markers. The stars were from last year's Peacock Fundamentals Assortment.

Thanks for visiting!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Cards 4 Guys #152 - Happy Birthday
Dragonfly Journeys #83 - Birthday bash
Fab 'n' Funky #333 - birthday with a number (mine has lots of numbers)
Paper Craft Crew #226 - Birthday

White Butterfly Get Well Card

The Heart 2 Heart challenge today is called Season of White.  I think that's appropriate because outside I've seen white snow everywhere for days. Usually that would make me create a card with everything white. But this time I think it influenced the pale colors of this card, white "snow" dotted background, and white butterfly. I also find that my eyes long for color, flowers and butterflies when all I see outside is WHITE!  I'm trying to make an entire set of get well cards because sub-freezing temperatures and the arrival of flu in our area reminds me that someone will need encouraging!

For the background I chose the Rustic Home Fundamentals kraft with white dots. All of the images were cut using CTMH Cricut cartridges. One thing I love to do with foliage, flowers, and butterflies is to only add some liquid glue in the centers and bend up many of the edges for more dimension. The leaves (Flower Market) and bamboo colored flower centers (Artistry) used Oh Deer papers and the pink flowers used the pink watercolored designer paper from Calypso.

The inside has one of my favorite verses of encouragement for strength:

My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." 1 Corinthians 12:9

I used photoshop to combine a digital sentiment from Sweet n Sassy Stamps, "Amazing Grace," and a butterfly from Bugaboo's "For You From Me Flower Block" that I got long ago. My technique was to use the Magnetic Lasso Tool to roughly outline the butterfly to copy it. I did have to resize the entire image by half  first (which increases the dpi)  and lower the resolution to 300 dpi by clicking on Resample Image in the Image Size screen in order to get the right fit for the 300 dpi sentiment. If the resolutions don't match, the butterfly would have been way too big.

Thank you for visiting! May God keep you warm and safe from flu and winter's ailments!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create #193 anything goes/optional twist-totally technical
Catch the Bug Challenge  - anything goes
Craft for the Craic - Pick Me Up - I made this card to encourage someone who's sick
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - January anything with patterned paper
Creative Craft Cottage Digi Challenge #64 -  include a butterfly (Yay! butterflies in January!!)
Heart 2 Heart - Season of White
PDE Linky Party #154 - anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #264-265 - anything goes that's family friendly

Seasonal Expressions 1 Blog Hop

Welcome to our blog hop featuring new products in the Seasonal Expressions 1 Idea Book. You may have just come from Tamytha Jenkins' blog.   To see the entire list of participants you can visit Melissa Everitt's blog. 

New products are so exciting to try out! I like to see how many different ways I can use something.

I chose to highlight some of the Thin Cuts die and stamp sets. I was attracted to the Hello Lovely - Cardmaking Thin Cuts and coordinating stamp set because of the flowers. They were harder to color the way I wanted so my first attempt is not my favorite. I stamped the image with Flaxen ink and colored the open images with a combination of ShinHan Touch Twin alcohol markers (diluted with the colorless blender), watercolor pencils, and the waterbrush. I had to trace over the lines of the two pink roses with the cranberry watercolor pencil to still see the shape. The image is mounted on one of the pocket cards from the Hello Lovely paper pack that has been trimmed 1/2" off of the top and bottom. (The base panel is from the Whimsy Fundamental pack.)

I decided to try embossing the flowers. This was my favorite. Here's white on Kraft cardstock:

The papers are from the Adventure Fundamentals pack (cranberry with hearts) and Rustic Home chevron wood pattern. The word "love" is from the new Hello Lovely Scrapbooking stamp set.

I used two different Thin Cuts sets to make an anniversary card using gold embossing powder on Sorbet cardstock. The card was made with one of the Hello Lovely papers and the new Basic Heart Thin Cut was used on the base panel. The sentiment stamped with Desert Sand ink is from the Cricut Flower Market stamp set "Just to Say." The Uptown Ribbon pack had the perfect ribbon for this card.

I used this week's sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches #384 for this card.

Now you're ready to see what Krista Hershberger has ready to delight you!

Some Kinda Wonderful Birthday Card

Despite all the snow and low temperatures today it was so exciting for the mail lady to deliver my box with more new CTMH products. With so many birthdays among friends and family this month, I was inspired to  make another birthday card today. When I saw the challenge at Colour Throwdown - black, green, and hot pink and the sketch at Die Cuttin' Divas, it all came together with my new paper from CTMH , "Some Kinda Wonderful." 

My hope is that a dear CTMH friend will enjoy the card and know how much I care. We share our faith and our love of teaching and creating! We've also taken a lot of fun adventurous CTMH trips over the years. The bright colors are perfect for her bright personality.

I used a new CTMH Heart Basics Thin Cut to die cut the heart that I stamped and embossed with tiny hearts. The Happy Birthday sentiment is also a new die set.

The floral images are from the new stamp set, "Hello Lovely - Scrapbooking." If you'd like to see more of the new dies, papers, and stamps come back on Saturday morning for our New Product Blog Hop where about 27 creative ladies will be featuring new products from the new Seasonal Expressions 1 Idea Book in their creative artwork.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless your new beginnings in this new year!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Color Throwdown #424 - black, green, hot pink

Craftaholics R Us #17 - new beginnings - cards for girls

Craft Rocket #30 - something new

Cute Card Thursday #459 - what's new

Die Cuttin' Divas sketch

Little Red Wagon #375 - something new

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - something new

Word Art Wednesday #264 - 265 - anything family friendly

Mojo Monday Sweet Birthday Wishes

Today our oldest grand-daughter turned 12. It seems like only yesterday that we drove 50+ miles in an ice storm to see her the day she was born. (We were more adventurous 12 years ago!) We're always amazed at how sweet and thoughtful she is since she also tends to be silly and excited when we see her. As a retired teacher, I'm very thankful that she's intelligent, kind, and musically talented. Her sweetness inspired this card and CTMH Sugar Rush papers and complements were perfect for her birthday. I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch for the design.

I loved the new complements that came with this paper. I always have some left over but hadn't made my layouts yet with this paper so I went through the photos of the Sugar Rush Workshops Your Way and marked each one used on the suggestion sheet that comes with the complements. I put those away for later and decided to use the others on cards. I love the chipboard images that are highlighted with gold foil. They're great for cards as well as layouts. The sentiment was changed to pink and printed on the computer.

Thank you for visiting! God bless your sweet crafting!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

All Sorts #396 - Something New (chipboard complements)

Crafting Musketeers - Party Time

Crafty Friends Challenge #48 - anything goes

Hiding in My Craftroom #282 - anything goes/freestyle

Incy Wincy Designs - Celebrate

Mojo Monday #478 -  sketch

My Time to Craft #337 - something new (chipboard complements)

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Start Afresh - just opened Sugar Rush chipboard complements

 

Birthday Stars

Happy New Year! Did you make resolutions or maybe tentative plans to organize your craft space or use more of your supplies? If so, I hope we can both accomplish those goals to make our crafting easier. My craft room looked like a tornado hit while I was getting ready for Christmas.

My event calendar is so full of birthdays and anniversaries for the month of January! I've been making birthday cards for the past few days using a lot of retired papers. Here's one I just designed and made two duplicates to help use up the extra stars I had cut before Christmas. I hoped that the simplicity, colors, and cork might make these suitable as masculine birthday cards.

I had just enough leftover cork embellishments for three. Most of the materials are retired from Close To My Heart except for the Flaxen cardstock and Cocoa Ink and the Sea Glass Ink I used to stamp the tiny stars. The white glitter paper is also still current.
Now I'm off to print or stamp sentiments to go inside. Here are some Free Sentiments online that I found today at http://www.1happybirthday.com/birthday_messages.php. I especially liked their Religious and Friendship Birthday ideas for the people that I know.

Thank you for visiting. May God bless your crafting in this coming year and  the recipients of your handmade love!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
A Bit More Time to Craft #35 - anything goes
Digi Designs Challenge - Celebrations
Get Creative Challenge #54 - anything goes
Love to Scrap Challenge #93 - anything goes with stamping
Paper Creator's Crafts #55 - anything goes
Pile It On #123 - Celebrations
Sparkles Monthly Challenge #87 - Happy Birthday

Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - Adore You

Welcome to our blog hop featuring the Close To My Heart Stamp of the Month, Adore You! You may have just come from Donna Digby's blog. If you get lost along the way you can find the entire list at Melissa Everitt's blog.

This is the perfect time for a stamp set I can use to get my Valentines ready for February.

I used our new paper pack, Sugar Rush, to make this card. It was simple to use 3 of the zip strips from the edge of the papers and to cut the new "XOXO" on a diagonal using one of the pomegranate papers with plus signs. On a diagonal they look like X's! The white background was embossed with the Happy Thoughts embossing folder.

Both hearts were stamped with Pomegranate ink on white and the large one was stamped again on the subtle pink pattern of a Sugar Rush paper. The sentiment is gold embossed on the pink heart. The heart's flowers on white were lightly painted with a water brush that picked up ink I squeezed into the lids of Pomegranate and Tangerine ink pads. The foliage was colored with a ShinHan Touch Twin Leaf Green alcohol ink marker. Finally, the heart was edged with three glittery pink Sugar Rush dots that are new today.

Thank you for visiting!  Now you're ready to see the lovely art  Krista Hershberger has for you!