Unscripted Sketch #172 for Joy

Tomorrow I'm having lunch with a "girl" that I've been friends with since 7th grade. She just moved into a new apartment after losing her husband this past year. Here is a fun card that I made for her housewarming. She's always been one of the most cheerful people I've ever known. I know her heart gets heavy with the loss of her husband and father this year, but she has that deep abiding love and joy that comes from knowing Christ.

I used the sketch and color suggestions from Unscripted Sketches Challenge 172. I flipped the sketch upside down so that I could try out a card pattern from Cricut Art Philosophy that had a row of four daisies on the bottom. However, I decided to cut the front off of that card and mount it with pop dots over a white card base so that the flowers would show through as white. I tried something new with the baker's twine. I wrapped it around the spaces between the flowers and taped it on back. Next time I think I'll wrap it maybe three times for an even different look.

The joyful verse from Word Art Wednesday this week was perfect for this card. I also stamped a Close To My Heart sentiment inside that is more of a prayer and blessing:

May joy fill your heart and home.

Challenges for this card:
No Matter Which Challenge #1 (since they started their new blog): I used both digital and acrylic stamping - Anything Goes
Ribbon Carousel Challenge 67 - Bump it up = embossing
Unscripted Sketches#172 - sketch and color challenge
Word Art Wednesday #42 - Joy (with a great link to explain this kind of joy)

5" x 6.25" Encouragement Card Recipe:
Paper - Close To My Heart Pear, White Daisy, Chocolate cardstock, Bazzill green cardstock
Stamps - CTMH one of the 2011 stamps of the month
Ink - CTMH Chocolate
Accents - CTMH retired buttons, Mocha pearls, butterfly; My Mind's Eye baker's twine
Tools - CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy, Sizzix Floral Flourishes embossing folder

 

Clean and Simple Joy to the World

Here's one of my very simple Christmas cards using Unscripted Sketch #153 for this week, Crafty Hazelnut's White challenge #67 (I used snowflakes), and Less is More Week #62 Colour Challenge - three shades of green.

I used two different snow embossing folders, Close To My Heart papers and one green patterned paper from Basic Grey. The Sentiment was stamped with CTMH New England Ivy using Just for the Holidays.

Vintage Easter Wishes

This week the Basic Grey Challenge #65 was to make Easter cards using Basic Grey papers. I had this really cute vintage Easter card image that I thought would be perfect with the sketch from Unscripted Sketches Challenge #152.

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees counter-clockwise since my picture was vertically oriented. I used Basic Grey's "Sweet Threads for all of the papers. I wanted to use the large dots because they were reminiscent of colored eggs. I added a doily for the circle and a pink bow at the bottom of the pink strip. Now I only need a few more Easter cards by tomorrow night!

Word Art Wednesday for Encouragement

In the past hour our weather man announced tornado warnings, high wind warnings, and hail. The weather maps showed that we were in line for the worst winds along with our children who live in different suburbs. I immediately prayed for their safety. There I am upstairs in my craft room looking for stamps, listening to the wind blow viciously against the one west window in the room, getting nervous, wondering if I should go downstairs. Then I looked at this sentiment I had printed and was "awakened" to the greater reality. I took a deep breath and let the calming green colors soak in along with my realization that I wasn't alone in that upstairs room with the wind blowing. The Lord promised to be there with me and He was in control. Thank you, ladies, for this Word Art Wednesday Challenge #16 that met  the need of the moment. Amazing how things like that work out. This card is the final result. I'm also posting this on Little Birdie Blessings where I get additional encouragement from the Word.

I used the sketch from Unscripted Sketches Challenge #147 this week and flipped it horizontally. Maybe it was the turmoil outside or the calm inside, but simplicity seemed best with this card. I printed the sentiment on a piece of paper from "Boxer." The floral silhouettes were each stamped twice, using first and second generation stamping.

6.5" x 5" Card Recipe:
Paper - Close To My Heart "Mayberry" dp (stamped with flowers); Basic Grey "Boxer,"  black cardstock
Stamps - CTMH "Treasure Life"
Ink - CTMH New England Ivy
Other - CTMH Pewter Badge Buttons

Z for Zany Colored Christmas Gifts

Thanks to Basic Grey's Lemonade paper sitting in front of me, I could readily see the possibilities of "Z for Zany Christmas Colors" for another Christmas card. This was the end of the alphabet challenges from ABC Christmas Card Challenge. I hope to make one for each letter this coming year. I used the theme of "presents" suggested by Jingle Belles. I wanted to glam up the gifts a little, so I drew around the ribbons, dots, and stripes with a Sakura glitter gel pen. It seemed that the verse from The Grinch was appropriate for a gift theme. It reads: What if Christmas doesn't come from a store. --What if Christmas means a little bit more (inside the card). I stamped an arrow, cut it out slightly larger and flipped it over to stamp the sentiment. I also outlined it with the glitter gel pen and added sparkles. The silver ribbon and the silver edged organdy were both from my stash, origin unknown. I used ribbon that sparkled to go along with the blue sparkles and glitter gel pen accents, so I'm entering this card in Really Reasonable Ribbon's challenge this week. It's also in the Basic Grey Challenge #59.

I used this Sketch #139 from Unscripted Sketches. This sketch has so many possibilities for future cards!

Materials:

Paper - Basic Grey "Lemonade"

Stamps - CTMH "Peace on Earth"(sentiment), "Confetti and Favors" (stack of gifts)

Ink - CTMH Tulip, Vineyard Berry, Twilight

Unscripted Sketch #138 Birthday Card

I need birthday cards for two grand-daughters next  week. For this first one I used the colors red, yellow,  blue, and green in the Basic Grey "Cupcake" paper pack to give the mood of "Celebration." I thought the sketch #138 from Unscripted Sketches was perfect for this card.

Instead of flowers, snowflakes, or such, I used a loopy red ribbon on a gift, party hat, and bow, three different but related elements. The gift and rabbit were stamped on Basic Grey white cs from that same packet. I colored parts of the bow and the rabbit using a Blender Pen and Cranberry Inkpad from CTMH. I also stamped the title three times and used paper piecing to make it more interesting.

The birthday bunny was stamped with Chocolate ink, cut out, adhered to Chocolate cardstock and cut out again to give it more definition on the busy papers. The sentiment that goes on the inside says, "Hoppy Birthday!"

Materials:

Paper: Gasic Grey "Cupcake", CTMH Cranberry, Dutch Blue, Outdoor Denim, Chocolate CS

The stamps come from three different retired stamp sets from CTMH.

Ink: CTMH Cranberry, Outdoor Denim, Olive, Chocolate

Accessories, CTMH retired yellow gingham ribbon, Blender Pen; pop dots; (red ribbon unknown)