Love You Always Card with Color Dare #252

This week's Color Dare is to use Emerald, Sea Glass, Raspberry, White Daisy, Black and the option of Silver. 

I used this week's sketch from Atlantic Hearts Challenge:

I used patterned papers from the Adventure Paper Fundamentals pack that is about to retire at the end of this month, Black papers from the Uptown Fundamentals and from Some Kinda' Wonderful, as well as White Daisy, Emerald, and Sea Glass cardstocks. I will miss Sea Glass when it retires this month! I added silver glitter paper, silver sequins, Emerald ribbon, White Shimmer Trim, and Black enamel dots on the Cricut cut wreath. The black and white baker's twine is long retired along with the sentiment from the Sending Smiles Cricut  Bundle. The Hearts embossing folder and Hearts Thin Cuts dies that I used are also retired.

Thank you for visiting! May you spread lots of love with your crafting!

Lawson Picnic Mini Album

Each year our community has a three day celebration in July after Independence Day. It's called the Lawson Picnic, but lasts three days with lots of activities. When my grandsons were young, they enjoyed riding the carnival rides that attract the evening crowds. My scrapbook friends and I ate lunch at the Strawberry Festival at our church where they always serve homemade ice cream and strawberries. The crowd was really big as usual.

I decided to make a mini-album for photos and memories. I cut the pages using Cricut Artiste and used a variety of stamps from my boxes of summer stamps and 4th of July Stamps. Some of the pages have pockets and others have flaps that lift in order to add extra photos or mementos. The papers are from Authentique's Honor collection and a few from CTMH and very old papers from the scrapbook store years ago.

The pages were cut using Kraft cardstock with matching papers in the same shapes adhered on top. This makes it more durable. The cover was cut using really heavy cardstock.

 Extra tags go into the pockets.

 

Thank you for visiting! May we as citizens ever honor the Lord and look to Him to Bless America.

City Crafter  - use Kraft
Let's Craft and Create #127  - Beach theme or use Red, White, and Blue
Paper Sweeties Challenge #57 - picture inspiration



Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stars
Sunday Stamps Challenge #157 - color challenge

So Hard to Say Goodbye Blog Hop

We each have favorite CTMH products that are about to retire.  We're highlighting these on our blog hop today. You may have just come from Jean McNulty's blog. If you'd like to see the entire list of participants, you can find them on Melinda Everitt's blog.

I'll find it hard to say goodbye to the Rustic Home Fundamentals paper pack and all of the ribbons. I enjoy using the woodgrain papers in that pack for Christmas cards and masculine cards. I'll also miss the coloring with the Blending Pens when mine dry up!

The woodgrain papers can also be girly. Pink flowers and some Sea Glass glitter paper look great on the opposite side of the woodgrain paper which has a gray tone. The flowers are from one of the stamp sets re-introduced for this month only, April Word Puzzle.

Now you're ready to go on to Tammy Lubick's blog.

Additional Products used:

Thinking of You card: Homegrown stamps stamped with Cocoa and Desert Sand inks, sponged background with Sweet Leaf and New England Ivy for grass, Glacier for sky. I picked up Desert Sand ink with the Blending Pen to color the barn and horse, New England Ivy for the tree tops. 

Keep Dreaming leaves stamped with Cocoa ink.  

Happy to Be Friends stamp:

Rustic Home Ribbon:

Black and White Dots

:

Hello card:  Wreath  stamp and die (unavailable) colored with Pastel Green and Leaf Green ShinHan markers

April Word Puzzle  Pixie Ink for solid flowers and outline stamped in black, Warm Grey 4 marker for centers with bitty sparkles added.

Hello/Thanks die no longer available.

Stampaganza Blast from the Past

Stampaganza is our chance to buy two stamp sets and get one free. We can also get the opportunity to purchase stamp sets that were previously retired from Close To My Heart.  Today we are showcasing stamp sets from the past that have been re-released just for this month..  You may have come from Brenda Lapp's blog.  If you get lost along the way, you can find the whole list at Melinda Everitt's blog here.

 I decided to play with the Washi Wonder stamps again to make another card. You can see all of the re-released stamp sets here.

I was inspired by a sketch at Atlantic Sketch Challenge and the current Color Dare at Color My Heart.

 

I hadn't used this stamp much when I first got it a couple of years ago. (That happens to me a lot.)Now I can't stop playing with it!  You are ready to go to Darlys Recker's blog.

4.25" x 5.5" Card Recipe:
Paper - White Daisy cardstock
Stamps - Washi Wonder, Happy To Be Friends
Inks - Sorbet, Lemon, Juniper, Black
Embellishments - Whimsy Ribbons, Gold glitter paper, Black (and white) Enamel Dots
Tools - Cricut, Flower Market cartridge

Praying for So Many

In the past few days my oldest daughter had surgery, a good friend's son lost his eye in an accident and is having a second surgery, and tomorrow my son's wife is having surgery.  Amazingly, I had serious eye pain for two days and I used it as a prompt to help me remember to pray for the eye surgery and my daughter each time it bothered me, which meant a lot of praying! Saturday my eye was fine and I heard that the patients were much better, too. It's amazing how prayer works! Here's another one of my encouragement cards that's going to be hand-delivered tomorrow.

I used the top row across at CAS-ual Fridays tic-tac-toe challenge:

I used one of the stamp sets that has been re-introduced this month at CTMH, called Washi Wonder. There's a great sale for stampers, buy two get one free. If you enjoy stamping or want ideas for using some of the older stamp sets being re-introduced, please check out the blog hop Tuesday morning. I'll have the link here when all the links go live.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

4 crafty Chicks #358 - stamping, no digis
Cards 4 Galz #51 - butterflies, mine are from Recollections
CAS-ual Fridays - tic tac toe challenge - one layer, butterflies, I stamped washi-type stripes
Crafting with Friends #37 - anything goes
Simply Papercraft #48 - anything goes

Patriotic Bookmarks

I remember when I was nine years old, sitting in my 4th grade classroom wondering how I happened to be so lucky to be born in a country where I had plenty of food, freedom, and a good family. (We were often reminded to eat all of our food because there were hungry, starving, children around the world.) We read about other countries in Weekly Reader that didn't have as many freedoms as we did. As I matured, so did my understanding of the cost of freedom. I lived in an Air Force town where I saw the toll taken by long family separations and war. 

I began to research family history and found so many of my ancestors who had fought in the wars defending our country from the Revolutionary War to World War II.  Some died in terrible battles, one lost limbs and became an artist.  My g-grandfather hid out in a cabin after his injuries to be alone after years of fighting beside his sons in the Civil War, Everyone thought he'd died. One uncle survived D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge and returned to farming and his sweet wife, meeting his war buddies every summer into old age with no obvious injuries. More recently, nephews returned with PTSD unwilling to have it treated due to the stigma associated with it.

The price of freedom is high, and often unappreciated. So it's my firm belief that we should be supportive of those who have worked or fought to maintain the freedoms that many of us take for granted.  So I've made bookmarks today to celebrate those whose sacrifices we should celebrate and remember.

I used a scrap what might have been Scenic Route "Liberty" paper for the fronts. I stamped "freedom" from a long retired CTMH stamp set Let Freedom Ring. "You Are Not Forgotten" is from an ODBD stamp set, Not Forgotten. I added small patriotic pictures from Authentique's "Honor" paper pad and finished it off with some retired CTMH ribbon from my stash.

 The backs are simply covered with pieces of BoBunny Anthem paper:

Thank you for visiting! May you always be able to celebrate freedom and  those who have helped you obtain and maintain it. They need your encouragement and support!

I'm sharing this project with the following chllenges:
Always Fun #13 - Patriotic
Creatalicious Challenge #118 - anything goes with optional red, white, blue
Dragonfly Journeys #95 - Red, White, and Blue-tiful
Glitter 'n' Sparkle #246 - Freedom and what it means to you
Paper Sweeties #57 - photo inspiration:

Shopping Our Stash #310 - colors of your flag
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - red, white, and/or blue

July Stamp of the Month Storybook Alphabet Card

I wasn't sure how I'd use the July Stamp of the Month until I saw the Washi Wonder stamp set that made a comeback for this month. I'm still making cards for the sorority sister being treated for cancer. I thought stamping "HUGS" on the card might give her a lift for the day she gets this one. I used the Color Throwdown  #449 palette of orange, green and brown because the alphabet is embellished with leafy foliage designs.

This month Close To My Heart is having a Stampaganza, buy two stamp sets, get one free! They are also re-introducing several stamp sets from the past, like Washi Wonder, You can see these here. I'll also be using several of these on my cards this month. 

If you'd like more ideas on using the Storybook Alphabet, here's a link to the  Stamp of the Month Blog Hop that my fellow consultants are having tonight, starting with Cat Nowalk's fun creation.

I stamped my washi tape images using Cashmere, Willow, and Tangerine inks. I stamped each washi tape image twice, above and below a center line to make them seem longer.  I stamped the word on Kraft cardstock to match the Kraft card base using New England Ivy ink, then colored it with colored pencils. The white minimized the outline of the letters so I retraced with a fine point journaling pen, adding a little shading on one side of the letters. It's mounted on a strip of  white glitter paper. The background paper panel is from Prickly Pear paper pack.

Thanks for visiting!