Lily Friendship Card for Mojo Monday 243

When I was teaching, most of my friends were fellow employees in my school or somewhere in our large district. I was afraid that when I retired I would no longer have as many friends because I live on a farm 30 miles away. How surprised I am that my retirement for the last six years has actually brought me more friends despite "isolation." Maybe there was more time to cultivate friendships or maybe it's because some of my friends also retired and shared the same interests that I have.

But one thing is certain. As we get older, we stay younger if we maintain social interactions.  I'm still friends with the "girls" from my high school even though we live an hour or more apart.  I grew up with the Scripture admonition that "a man who hath friends must show himself friendly." The challenge to make friendship cards at Paper Playtime also inspired me to keep in touch with a friend I don't see often. The card I made today is "mail friendly" with only slight dimension so that it can travel safely in the mail.

This is the last Mojo Monday challenge of the month, so it's either a circle or square. Here's sketch #243.

I was attracted to the color palette at CR84FN Color Challenge for this card.

 I used an image I won in a challenge called Lily Circle from Floppy Latte's Digital Designs from Stitchy Bear Stamps. I met my husband when I worked one summer at Lily Industries where he was a chemist, so I have this thing about lilies.

My square card is lightly embossed with large dots. I used a lavender strip from a scrap I've had for a long time from Basic Grey "Oh, Baby." I followed the dots on the green banner strip to cut the triangle shape. I hadn't thought of doing that before, but it works. The lily was colored with Copic markers. The sentiment is matted with gray and the baker's twine around the green banner is also gray, although the poor lighting in my house at night always seems to distort some colors. 

Here are the challenges that inspired me:

CR84FN Color Challenge #55 - lavender, celery, & gray

I Brake 4 Challenges - I Brake 4 Florals

Mojo Monday #243 Sketch

Paper Playtime Challenge #75 - Say It With Sentiments - Friendship Card

Wishcraft: Waste Not Wednesday Week #20 - use up neglected or unused stash (BG Oh, Baby paper!)

5.5" Square Friendship Card Recipe:

Paper - Basic Grey "Oh, Baby" (girl); Close To My Heart "Dotty For You," Gray Wool, White Daisy Cardstock

Stamps - Verve "Hope Blooms"

Digital image - Floppy Latte's Digital Designs "Lily Circle" at Stitchy Bear Stamps

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Other - Copic markers, Wilton doily, CTMH Baker's Twine Neutral Collection

May God bless you richly with friends and show you new ways to be a friend!

Sweet Friendship for The Shabby Tea Room

This week The Shabby Tea Room Challenge #104, Sweet Confections, provided this inspiration photo and challenged us to use pink, aqua, green, and a tag.

I chose to use Easter treats as my confections. I created my own containers to hold them.

Here's how I made my containers. The dish on the left was made by embossing a lace doily from the set called Special Blend. I cut the top third off, cut a slight oval in that piece and reattached it on the front with space between them for the Easter eggs.  The Easter Eggs stamp set has 19 different egg patterns that I love. I stamped the darker shade of aqua so the egg would show up in the basket. I also colored portions of the eggs in the basket with Sakura glitter gel pen.

The Easter basket was cut using a Spellbinder's die for a teacup. It doesn't have the teacup handle. Instead, the handle was made using a 2" strip of paper. I cut half of the circle using a 2" circle punch. Then above that I used a 2.5" circle punch to cut the rest of the arc. I stamped the basket portion with a basket texture stamp that's been retired for a couple of years. It's much smaller than the cup diecut so I had to stamp it about six times, matching the pattern. That's when I really love clear acrylic stamps and clear blocks! I thought the containers should be on a tablecloth, so that was made with satin ribbon and lace. The sentiment on the tag comes from the same set as the doily. I wanted something sweet to go with the confections theme. The sweet tag says, "A sweet friendship refreshes the soul. Proverbs 27:9"  May God bless you with many sweet friendships!

Because this card has Easter eggs, I'm linking it to Crazy4Challenges #127 and I Brake for Challenges #19.

5" x 6.5" Card Recipe:

Paper - DCWV The Sweet Stack (pink glittered swirl paper), Close To My Heart White Daisy CS, "Sweetheart" pink patterned paper

Stamps - Close To My Heart "Eastertime"(basket), Easter Eggs; Our Daily Bread Designs "Special Blend" (doily, sentiment)

Inks - Close To My Heart Cotton Candy, Twilight, Crystal Blue, Sweet Leaf, Black, Versamark

Other - CTMH pink lace, bitty pearls, white organdy ribbon; Spellbinders cup die; Offray ribbons and white lace; Sakura glitter gel pen



Clean and Simple Hearts

I'm still trying to learn Clean and Simple cardmaking. My last one needed more white space, so I'm taking the challenges at I Brake for Challenges to make a "clean and simple"card and at CAS-ual Fridays to do the same plus chipboard. I used a stylus to emboss two lines between which I stamped and heat embossed the heart border. By impressing the two lines first, I can keep my hearts going across the page without slanting since I had to stamp the border twice and couldn't see the Versamark that well. I tied a simple strip of red gingham above the embossed line and attached a chipboard heart that was pre-embossed. I simply rubbed it on my CTMH Holiday Red inkpad and wiped excess ink off of the design with a kleenex. Talk about simple! Quick, too!

5" x 6.5" Card"

Stamps - CTMH retired "

Ink - Versamark, CTMH Holiday Red

Accessories -  CTMH Irresistibles "Villa" Chipboard, retired ribbon