Do Not Worry

Earlier this week I shared that one of my sorority sisters is in a nursing home being treated for cancer. We are sending her a card a day to encourage her. Here is another verse I chose along with more papers from the retired CTMH Free to Be Me paper pack. If you're not able to read the encouragement sentiment, it says, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34." I had opportunity to practice this verse last night when our area was plagued with severe weather. It took a lot of trust during the night to sleep and feel safe, acknowledging that God's loving care surrounded me.

This design comes from the PTI stamp set, A Cheerful Heart. It fit well on an oval die cut framed by the Spellbinders Lacey Ovales die cut. I made three versions of this card as I tried to use all the paper pieces. This first one is my favorite.

It has three shiny Florence sequins and twine from my stash. The yellow Prima butterfly sets it off. The next one has some retired CTMH flowers (stacked with a blue Petalloo flower) and butterfly. The black enamel dots are CTMH.

The inside verse for all three cards is a Hero Arts stamp set from Simon Says Stamp.

I'm sharing the first card with the following challenges:
Deep Ocean Challenge #158 - Lots of layers - I have 5 including the base on first card
Little Red Wagon Challenge #400 -  three of something (blue sequins)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - anything goes
Southern Girls Challenge #163 - ribbon or twine
Word Art Wednesday #288-289 - anything goes

Under His Wings

I've been away from my blog too long thanks to a week with a stomach virus and migraines, then too much kitchen work with my orchard producing cherries, apricots, and especially peaches. What a harvest of peaches we've gotten when I thought the late freeze would have destroyed them.  I'll be freezing lots of quarts of peaches for at least a week, as well as making  more peach pies to share.

I have a P.E.O. sorority sister who is in a nursing home being treated for cancer. Our group decided to sign up for making encouragement cards for her, one to be mailed each day for the next couple of months. Here's an encouraging verse I'm sending that came from PTI's Year of Psalms mini stamp for the month of March:  "He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge. Psalm 91:4." I visualize running to hide from trouble, to be protected and comforted, whenever I read this verse. In fact, after making these cards,I continually heard the old hymn, Under His Wings, playing in my mind. The words and piano version are in that link. I've also liked the message of a newer version sung here.

I remembered having this feathered CTMH paper from the retired Free to Be Me pack. I made several cards with this paper piece and took a photo of these two.

Thank you for visiting.  I hope you'll find peace, safety, and comfort in this verse, too. If so, pass it on.

I'm sharing these cards with the following challenges:

Make My Monday Challenge #49 - Summer Brights
Path of Positivitiy Challenge #50 - anything goes (I didn't use option of faith, hope, and/or love)
Stamps & Fun = Creativity #304 -  inspired by a song
The Crafty Addicts #37 - anything goes with option of summer colors
Word Art Wednesday #288-289 - anything goes

Retiring Stamp "Brushstrokes" Father's Day Card

I needed one more Father's Day card for tomorrow and I'm still of the mindset to play with my retiring stamp sets. This one using the stamp set "Brushstrokes" was really quite easy and fun! It has the look that it was painted with wide brushes and  watercolors. The word "happy" is from "Happy to Be Friends," also retiring. (Father's Day was a very old, long retired  stamp).

 

The side papers are from "No Worries" and the inks I used were Lagoon, Pacifica, Willow, Black, and Versamark for the white embossing.

Thanks for visiting!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Cardz 4 Guys #171 - Something blue for Father's Day
Connie Can Crop #59 - It's a Guy Thing
Crafty Girlz June Challenge - anything goes / masculine option
Love to Scrap Challenge #98 - Boyz Rule

Retiring Stamp Sets Blog Hop

Welcome to our blog hop featuring stamp sets that are about to retire at the end of July! If you just arrived from Michele Rowley's blog you're on the right path. To see the whole list of blogs, visit Melinda Everitt's blog here

I was making a masculine birthday card using the last ever Mojo Monday #500 sketch when I decided to make several birthday cards featuring retiring birthday stamp sets. I always need lots of birthday cards and love the variety of stamps available for birthdays. Here's the Mojo Monday birthday card using Hooked on You B1535.

The next one uses Birthday Princess, C1631. I loved combining two of the sentiments for the inside, as well.

I loved watercoloring the background to stamp the Balloon Wishes stamp D1667 for the next card. I also used the embossing tool to outline the clouds for a little texture.

My last one was outside my comfort zone, but I had determined to use the Ink Blot D1660 stamp set before it retired so I combined it with my favorite sentiment collection that is retiring, Finding the Words D1646.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you're getting ideas for cards to make.  Now you are ready to move on to Melissa Robinson's blog.

Additional Card Ingredients:
Hooked on You : No Worries Paper Pack, White Glitter Paper, Glacier Ink, Versamark Ink, White Embossing Powder, Aqua Shimmer Trim, Watercolor Pencils

Birthday Princess: Little Dreamer Paper Pack, Sea Glass Glitter Paper, Little Dreamer Glitter Gems, Whimsy Ribbon Pack, Memento Black Ink, Shin Han Touch Twin markers, Thistle Ink

Balloon Wishes: Little Dreamer Paper Pack,  Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, Watercolors, Brushes, Aqua Shimmer Trim

Ink Blot: Little Dreamer Paper Pack; Lemon, Lagoon, Pansy, Tangerine, Blossom and Black Inks; Black and Sea Glass Glitter Papers, Coral shimmer Trim,  Dreamin' Big Sequins, Whimsy Ribbon Pack

Father's Day Cards with Jack WYW

For two weeks hubby and I have been doing spring cleaning for remodeling which included lots of organizing and purging before remodeling. I told him I needed one afternoon off to make Father's Day cards, so to maximize my creative time, I chose two of my CTMH workshop kits to make a stack of cards fast.  I cut the Jack Workshop Your Way kit into three layouts and six cards. (You can see the pdf of the layouts here.) The cards has sentiments and images from the Jack-cardmaking stamp set and thincuts dies that match the stamps. Here are samples of the first six. I changed mine up a little by adding some embossing.

I loved the die cut and stamped bears for this set! Since I used the tutorial pdf for this first set, I'm linking it to the Cut It Up challenge to use a tutorial.

All of the cards are 5.5" x 4.25" except this one that is embossed with a 5" x 7" Wood Slats embossing folder and attached to a 6.5" x 5" card base.

I also made cards using the Workshop Your Way Father's Day Cardmaking Kit which used Jack papers plus some Lagoon cardstock and embellishments. 

I'm glad my brother and son-in-laws don't read my blog. Deer antlers are the perfect stamp I added for two of them since they enjoy deer hunting. Now they won't know what their cards look like!

I hope this gives you some ideas for Father's Day cards. Thanks for visiting!

Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - Hello Foxy

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! If you've just come from Kathy Burrow's blog you're on the right path. If you'd like to see the whole list you can find it at Melinda Everitt's blog. We have 23 consultants sharing their creations with so many different ideas for using the Hello Foxy stamp set. I hope you'll enjoy them all! Here's the lovely stamp set we're working with:

We have a family of red foxes that live in the woods half a mile from our house. I decided to make a hollow log home for the foxes I stamped.

I used a strip of Kraft cardstock from the Rustic Home Fundamentals pack  that was clear embossed with a wood pattern. I sponged Chocolate ink over the strip, shading it more on the bottom, die cut an oval backed with black cardstock, and traced the oval on the right edge for a curved lob end. I also used the oval scrap to make an extra limb. I experimented with placing a double layer of 3-D Foam tape in the center of the log and adhesive on the edges so that the log would appear rounded.

I put a small fox inside the "den" and the larger one outside looking in.  I stamped the largest one twice and fussy cut the head and tail again to pop up over the entire fox using Thin 3-D Foam Tape. Both foxes were colored using Sorbet Ink squeezed on the lid of the stamp pad and a Blending Pen.  The flowers were colored with alcohol inks and fussy cut.

I used one of our newest papers from the Prickly Pear paper pack and Prickly Pear Sequins for embellishment. Under the sentiment I put strips of Aqua and Coral Shimmer Trims

These Shimmer trims and the Blending Pen are on the list to be retired this summer, so if these would enhance your projects, be sure to get them while supplies last!

Thank you for visiting! Now you're ready to move on to Sheila Bennett's blog.