Feel Better Soon

Here's a bright, cheery get well card inspired by the following three challenges. Perfect Sentiments Challenge today wants us to make a get well card using words other than "get well." DYSU Challenge is "Circles," so I used the paper from Lime Rickey and made some circle embossed paper, too. The wonderful sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, #34, incorporates a circle so it was the perfect choice.

I inked a brayer with Cranberry Ink and rolled it over the side of the Cuttlebug folder that has writing. (I call it the top.) Then I embossed the Sunflower paper as usual, being careful not to shift the paper against the ink. The rest of the papers and the row of stickers come from the Basic Grey Lime Rickey collection. The flower is from CTMH. The stamp is from Verve. Thanks for looking!

Jeremiah 29:11 Card with Spring Coloured Stripes

Not too long after I met my friend, Kathy, she introduced me to this verse. She quoted it to me while we were discussing a prayer request for one of my kids. I'm sure I'd heard it before but I'd never memorized it. It soon became one of my favorites. It was the first stamp I ordered from Verve when I was looking for scripture stamps of encouragement. Here is the Viva La Verve April sketch for Week 4 using that stamp with bright, spring colors. I thought stripes in spring colors would be great for the chevron design.

This week at Stampin' Sisters in Christ, Challenge #136 has a devotional about God's Word being a light unto our path. The challenge is to use light pastel colors. I thought the design of the Verve challeng was perfect because the chevron/arrow shape looks like it's pointing the way to go and the verse I chose talks about God having the best plans for us. The challenge also said we could use black and white which I did for contrast and to make the verse "pop," which is also the challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges - use black to make it pop! 

Challenges:
Viva La Verve April 2012 - Week 4
Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Challenge #136 Use soft pastels
Crazy 4 Challenges - add black to make it pop
DYSU #68 - Stripes
Basic Grey Challenges - #66 Spring Colours

5" x 6.25" Card Recipe:
Paper - Basic Grey Lauderdale (green) and Lollipop Shoppe (stripes), white and black cardstock
Stamp - Verve Jeremiah 29:11
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Other - Spellbinder's Nestabilities Lacey Circle; Cricut Art Philosophy (2.75" and 3" circles); K & Co felt flower; Michaels Ribbon

Going Green - Glittery Birthday Card

Description of the Creative Process

It's interesting how creativity takes place when I'm cleaning up scraps of paper from my table. I came across a green, glittery paper and remembered there were two challenges that could work for. Do You Stack Up posted challenge #67 to use glitter or stickles. Clearly i Stamp Challenge #49 is Go Green, either with the color green or in honor of Earth Day. I used the sketch from The Ribbon Carousel Challenge Blog #48.

With this card I decided to play around and try something new. The color of the paper suggested that white would be the best coordinating color. To add an organic feel to the card, I embossed the white middle panel with a Sizzix embossing folder and matted it on white that was edged with green stickles, not usual for me.

My husband thought the embossed panel looked out of place. Instead of removing it, I sprayed the it with glimmer mist that I'd had for six months and never used. Now it had a shine that went with the glittered effect of the other papers.

I used a digital flower image from Clear Dollar Stamp set called "New Butterfly." I colored the inside with a copics marker G20 which gave it a touch of color, then I sprayed it with glimmer mist, too. I tied the wide white grosgrain ribbon with a knot for a change.  This photo lets you see the glimmer mist before I added the sentiment.

Before printing my sentiment from the same set of digital elements, I wanted to make sure it also had a shine to it, so i printed it on glossy photo paper. I loved the fonts they used to make this sentiment and think it goes well with the papers. Here's the final result, although the lighting doesn't catch the glitter in this photo.

Shabby Bears for Boys

With five grandsons, I think about making more masculine cards, but usually make them for my female friends instead. Here's one I made using the sketch challenge this week from Sugar Creek Hollow. In addition to the sketch, they want you to use a "cute" stamp and make it vintage/shabby chic. I don't have many "cute" stamps, but I knew I had three bears (from a very old CTMH stamp) that might work. Here's the sketch:

I used a paper pack called "Lucky" from Close to my Heart to have both the vintage and masculine look. I used lots of scissor distressing and some sponging in two colors to distress the oval and the cut-out bear image. I used watercolor pencils (but no waterbrush) on the cross-hatched portions of the bear image for more shading. Vintage cards often have pearls so on this masculine version I used CTMH mocha adhesive gems in the darkest brown color.

I'm also posting this card on Creative Card Crew's Challenge #4 for a masculine card and on Here Come the Boys Challenge #21 - a masculine card with "Vintage Feel." I'm also combining these challenges with the DYSU Challenge #60 - Distressing - since I used two kinds of edge distressing.

6" x 6" card recipe:
Paper - Close To My Heart "Lucky"
Stamps - CTMH retired
Ink - Ranger "Vintage Photo" (image); CTMH - Outdoor Denim (sentiment, sponging), Cocoa (sponging)
Other - Spellbinders die (oval); Martha Stewart border punch; CTMH mocha adhesive gems, jute; pop-dots