Happy Valentine's Day!

I feel so blessed to have had truly loving friends all my life. I made several cards to celebrate this day. Here's the first:

The sentiment is my favorite part of this card. It comes from a long-retired CTMH stamp set:

"Side by side, or far apart, true friends live within our heart."

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Crafting By Designs - Be My Valentine

Crafty Gals Corner #159 - Add a Heart

Crafty Sentiments Designs - Add flowers

Deep Ocean Challenge #174 - Love Is All Around

Color Dare Friendship Cards

I have three friends who have a strong dislike for some specific color. I always liked all colors, but when CTMH introduced new colors last fall, I wasn't sure that I liked Emerald very much. This week's Color My Heart Color Dare changed my mind. I took the challenge purposely to see what I could do too help myself like this combination. Playing with color combinations is a great learning experience.

I wanted to use a couple of wreaths cut using the Cricut Flower Market cartridge. I embossed the white panel with words and had the wreath encircle the word HAPPY, LIFE was included, too. I stacked two black twig wreaths for more thickness. I cut flowers and berries for both wreaths using the same cartridge but different pages. I was going to share my cut file, but lost internet connection when I went to save and lost the file.

My second card ended up being my favorite:

Both cards have a strip of white shimmer trim and the second one has a die cut word cut from Black Glitter paper and stacked on two more black cardstock words for extra thickness. Now I can't wait to send them to a couple of friends I haven't seen in a while.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you'll be bold enough to try something new you've never tried so both you and the recipient will be blessed!

I'm sharing this last card with the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks #343 - punches or dies (used Cricut wreath and thin cut "hello")

Aud Sentiments Challenge #176 - any sentiment except birthday

Color My Heart Color Dare #236 - Pacifica, White, Black, Emerald

International Art and Soul #4 -  Embossing

The Greatest Treasures Friendship Card

I love sentiments and quotes that focus on profound words of wisdom, kindness, beauty, or love which reflect truths also found in the Bible. The one I'm using today is appropriate for Valentines Day or for a friendship card. It says, "The greatest treasures are those invisible to the eye but found by the heart." To me, that can also mean "man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart."

When I was 9 or 10 I chose to follow that idea and made friends with a sweet girl who had been brain-injured at an early age when a bullet came through their house. She didn't walk or talk like most everyone else but I could tell she needed a friend. She was kind and gentle.  I played with her at the neighborhood playground and said hello to her in the hallway at school even though she was in a special class. I've tried to make that a life principal, which has led to rewarding friendships. I've seen  my children follow that example through life as well.

I used a sketch from Freshly Made Sketches (even though mine isn't CAS so I didn't enter it there) and the color challenge from Watercooler Wednesday along with the CTMH Sweetheart papers and embellishments I'm trying to use up.

I used the two shades of pink, purple, and the neutral is black. I made two versions.

The background paper has floral hearts that have a few tiny purple flowers. I added some purple sparkles to increase the appeal.

The one with only two purple flowers has some extra purple hearts around the sentiment.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you as you see the soul of others with the eyes of your heart!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Come and Get It - Love is in the air
Crafty Calendar February Challenge - Love is in the air
Dragonfly Journeys Challenge #85 - Love is in the air
International Art & Soul Challenge #1 - Love is in the air
Pile It On #126 - Hearts on Fire - I chose hearts
The Ribbon Girls February Challenge -  card with ribbon
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #105 - colors above
Word Art Wednesday #268 - 269 - anything family friendly

Blessed to Have You in My Life

I love this sentiment because it clearly states the gratitude we have for those friends and family who encourage, bless, and lift us up.  Some of them bless us with their smile just by being near. You see them coming and your day is brighter. Others know how to read your unspoken thoughts or emotions and lift you up in prayer. Whatever way they bless us, this sentiment of gratitude is timeless, not just around Thanksgiving even though I used paper and colors for an autumn card.

The stamps are from the Close To My Heart Stamp of the Month for September which is only available for another week. I have a box with a lot of fall papers that have retired, so the gingham is ancient. I used the new Cricut Flower Market to cut the diecuts that match the stamps as well as the wreath and banner. I used the colors from the challenge at Your Next Stamp and the sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketch:

 

Thank you for visiting! May God richly bless your relationships with friends and family!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks #317 - Colors of Fall
Addicted to Stamps #132 - trees/branches and or leaves
Aud Sentiments #164 - Fall Colors + a sentiment
Crafty Cardmakers #173 - Autumn
Creative Corner Challenge - Autumn
Tuesday Morning Sketches #370 - sketch
Word Art Wednesday #248-249 - anything goes that's family friendly
YNS Challenge #48 - used the color challenge - at least 3 plus neutral Chocolate

For a Fabulous "Purse'n"

I have a dear friend who always has amazing purses. She even gave me a fuchsia pink purse one time that has lasted forever. I immediately thought of her when I saw this new stamp set, Purse Parfait, from Doodle Pantry. I knew it was perfect for her. Here's the card I made and the stamp set.  I used a monochromatic color scheme with tints and shades of red and pink which always seem to be her favorite colors. I changed the colors of the purse and papers using Photoshop features - Hue and Saturation and Color Balance. I added red and pink sparkles and glitter buttons for accents. My new chevron embossing folder from CTMH makes a deep impression.

I used this lovely sketch from Sketch Saturday this week:



I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Alphabet Challenge -- B for Buttons and Bows
Brown Sugar Challenge #84 - Make it sparkle
Creative Corner - Button up
Kitty Bee Designs Aloha Friday Challenge #18 - Monochrome
Little Claire's #42 - Monotone/monochrome
My Creative Moments Word Play Saturday - Anything goes
My Sheri Crafts #128 - Bling It On
Sketch Saturday #300 - Sketch above
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge #19 - Buttons and Bows

Love You to Pieces Card . . . and more

My dear hubby and I have been fighting viruses since last week. He's had a respiratory virus, I've had a stomach virus. We've made quite a pair! To add to the fun, I also had a rather unfriendly computer virus that seemed to eat up my time to resolve. I think all is fixed now.

I'm still making cards, so I'm posting three together today that were made with a new paper pack from Close To My Heart, "Balloon Ride." All three cards that I'm sharing today have a theme of love, which is so important. As I was growing up, my parents and teachers emphasized the scripture: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." If we loved everyone that way, that much, this world would be a much kinder place! I hope you enjoy the message of each card!

I used a square of each of the six paper patterns in the pack. I stamped the heart square on three of the simpler patterns. The stitches, heart squares and sentiment are from the set called "Stitch Wonder."  I stamped the cross stitch hearts separately and cut them out to layer on top. The sentiment was stamped and cut out and embossed with a Spellbinders die.

 

The challenge at Just Inspirational Challenges encouraged us to use ribbon and hearts. I used a retired crinkly-edged ribbon from CTMH.

 

I'm sharing this first card with the following challenges:
Card Mania #41 - Use a Sentiment
Crafty Sentiments Designs - Love
Just Inspirational Challenge - ribbon and hearts
Kaboodle Doodles #212 - use ribbon
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown #184 - Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #121 - anything goes with uplifting message

Here are two more cards made with the "Balloon Ride" paper pack. The first one has a balloon cut out of the patterned paper. I love the way you can curve acrylic stamps to fit a curved space like I did on the balloon.

Thank you for visiting! May God fill your heart with love and your day with opportunities to share His love!

Your Friendship is a Gift from God

The closer it gets to Mother's Day, the more I think about the many women I know who deserve a Mother's Day card for a variety of reasons. I know two mothers who may be sad on Mother's Day because their older children have reached that stage of independence where they've moved out of the house in rebellion and treat their mothers like dirt - so sad, but true. I know they won't be receiving cards from those children for Mother's Day. This card is for one of them. Most cards sing the praises of motherhood and most mothers love that. But when the pain is recent and deep, I fear that some of those platitudes only rub salt in the wound. So I'm sending a special friendship card for that day, because they can know that our friendship is true. I want the recipient of this card to know how glad I am to have her as a Christian friend and that God heals wounds.

I was attracted to the sketch this week at Sketchy Colors. I thought it would work well with my image from Clear Dollar Stamps that I colored with Copics.  The flower image comes from the set "Spring Trimmings" and the sentiment comes from "Christian Friendship." To accompany the flower basket, I used papers from Basic Grey's Oh, Baby Girl and Graphic 45's Secret Garden.

 

 

I used the following Copic markers to color the image:

E21, E34, E43

BV02, BV04, B95, BG78

YG23, YG63, Y21

N0 

 

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

All Sorts #205 - sparkle (CTMH blue/green sparkle collection)

Clear It Out - anything goes / stash item: use two or more pattened papers

Cutie Pie Challenge #43 - lots of layers

Love to Create #64 - for a mom or special lady

Marker Pop #22 - May Flowers (colored with Copic markers)

Order of the Opus Gluei #156 - Bouquet for you

Sketchy Colors #162 - sketch

Whoopsi Daisy - for a special lady

2 Sisters #142 - Bingo (bottom row across: die cut, sentiment, flowers )

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

PSC #77 - Make it Feminine

This week at The Perfect Sentiments Challenge we are celebrating mothers and all the girls and ladies in our lives. We'd like you to

CREATE A CARD AND MAKE IT FEMININE. USE LACE, PEARLS, BLING, LACY DIE CUTS, DOILIES, ANYTHING THAT A GIRL LOVES. DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR SENTIMENT ON THE FRONT

Our sponsor is Robyn's Fetish who will provide one lucky winner with 5 free digis!

 

My card uses the Robyn's Fetish digi stamp called English Tea Cup. This was the perfect image for me. My family knows that I absolutely love to drink my tea every day the English way - with milk. My mom fixed it for me that way on snowy days when I was young and it "stuck" with me the rest of my life. My grandson got me an extra large pink teacup for Christmas and he's seen me use it many times!

 

 



 

To make my card feminine I used colors shown in the above inspiration from The Shabby Tea Room. I used soft papers with pink, green, and aqua blue from MME "Totally Girl."  I colored the teacup with copics using those soft colors plus light gray for shadows. I added pink lace and pink sparkles along with a shiny organdy ribbon bow and white and pink rosette ribbon flowers with pink sparkles in the center.  The teacup theme goes perfectly with the sentiment stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs, Proverbs 27:9, "A sweet friendship refreshes the soul."

 

I can't wait to see how you make your card feminine!

 

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

CCEE Stampers #1317 - In the Kitchen

Crafty Ribbons #44 - anything with ribbon

Creative Card Crew #35 - Bling

Dilly Beans - Think Pink

Robyn's Fetish #157 - Stripes or dots

The Hybrid Chick Card Caravan - use flowers

The Shabby Tea Room #164 - Beautiful Spring - using photo colors, flowers, lace, and ribbon

Totally Papercrafts #164 - flowers and lace

Word Art Wednesday #77 - anything with encouraging, uplifting verse

 

 

 

 

 



PSC #66 - Furry Friendship Card

This week The Perfect Sentiments team has the following challenge for you:

CREATE A CARD THAT USES AN ANIMAL IMAGE AND FRIENDSHIP SENTIMENT.

Our challenge is being sponsored by 2 Cute Ink where this week's winner will be able to select 3 free digis.

A few months ago we were "adopted" by a really cute, young gray cat. Since we live in the country, cats are likely to show up because someone has "dumped" them. A nearby cousin also has a gray cat. Both of them purr so loudly and so much more than ordinary cats. So I chose a sentiment about friends singing the song in your heart and this image of a girl with three calico kitten friends. I imagine they are purring, singing the song in her heart.

I used this lovely sketch from Sketchy Colors #150 for the front of the card:

I found this free, vintage image at Clearly Vintage. It came from a thread advertisement. It was actually a rectangle that I cropped into an oval using the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Before printing it, I sized it to fit my oval Nestability die. A few words showed up on the edges, so I used the clone tool to "erase" those small portions.

The sentiment is a digi from Clear Dollar Stamps called Make a Joyful Noise. I divided it into two parts in Photoshop by selecting the top two lines, Edit/Copy, and select New, then Paste. There were a few pieces of the letters from the bottom part of the sentiment that were included when I pasted it into the new document, so I used the clone stamp to erase them. I repeated the same procedure to print just the bottom part of the sentiment that I put inside.

I hope you'll join our challenge with your own card showing Furry Friendship!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Anything Goes Challenge #86 - Vintage/Shabby Chic
Forever Friends February Challenge - Animals and/or butterflies and/or birds
Happy Campers #10 - Shabby Chic
Sketchy Colors #150 - sketch
Stamps & Fun = Creativity #138 - Vintage
The Ribbon Reel #46 - Spring Roses - yellow, pink, ribbon, flowers, and lace/twine

6" x 6" Friendship Card Recipe:
Image - Clearly Vintage "thread 3"
Sentiment digi - Clear Dollar Stamps "Make a Joyful Noise"
Paper - Close To My Heart "Chantilly" paper pack; Kraft cardstock
Ink - CTMH Chocolate
Accents - CTMH blush ribbon, Mocha pearls; Recollections, CTMH, and Prima flowers, Kaiser Craft lace
Tools - printer; Photoshop CS; Martha Stewart border punch; Spellbinder's Nestabilities Lacey Oval die;
 

Word Art Wednesday #66 Friendship Card

With Valentine's Day this week, the verse shared with us at Word Art Wednesday is a unique picture of friendship. Here it is, in case mine is too small for you to see.

 

 Friendship is being related to the ideas of perfume, rejoicing in the heart and sweetness. I recall that when I was in my 30's I relished the "hearty counsel" that my Christian friends would give me when I was struggling with different issues. Those friends were like magnets that pulled me into their fellowship. So I'm not surprised that this Proverb includes the idea of getting counsel from a friend with the sweet happiness that friendship can pour into the heart, making you rejoice.

I used this lovely sketch from Sunday Sketch and Stamp Challenge #143:

 

I used a digital stamp from Beccy's Place for my roses. They were colored with Copics. I edged the yellow petals with pink, like some of my favorite roses at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I used the lighter shade of yellow on the outer petals, the way rose petals usually fade. 

 

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

2 Sisters Challenge #130 - Hearts

A Gem of a Challenge #66 - Hearts/Valentines

Catered Crop - Polka Dots (orange paper, plus embossing on aqua)

Come and Get It - Show us your Heart

Crazy 4 Challenges #172 - a card with hearts but no pink or red (mine is yellow, orange, aqua, green)

Sunday Sketch and Stamp #143 - sketch

Word Art Wednesday #66 - Anything Goes (friendship verse)

 

 

 

6.5" x 5" Friendship Card Recipe:

Paper - Glitz "Laced with Grace," black, white cardstock

Digital Stamp - Beccy's Place "Roses Free Digital #9"

Digital Sentiment - Word Art Wednesday Feb. 6, 2013

Alcohol Ink Markers - CTMH Sweet Leaf; Copics G20, YG03, Y11, Y13, R20

Accents - CTMH Licorice adhesive pearls; white organdy, Wilton doily

Tools - Spellbinder's Fancy Tags 2  ; Cuttlebug 5 x 7 medium dots embossing folder

 



 

CDS January New Digi Release Zinnia

This is my fourth post showing some of the new digi images released today by Clear Dollar Stamps. To see the entire set, please visit the Clearly iStamp blog.

I love flowers and have raised so many varieties. My first flower to raise was zinnias when I was about 8 or 9 years old. My mom always bought me a variety pack of seeds with all different colors. I was always amazed at the variety.  I decided to color the zinnia for my card with several different colors, putting the lightest color on the outer petals and the darker colors nearer the yellow center. I enjoyed pairing peach and pink colors on this card with pale green. Because the flower design has heavy black lines, I gave the sentiment block a black mat and black opaques on the butterflies. One of the things I liked most about this set of images was the sentiment and the way it could wrap around the image. I think this will be a great valentine for one of my friends.

 I'm thinking about making another one and putting liquid glass/glossy accents on the black outlines.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing the new release samples. Thank you for visiting!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Moving Along with the Times - Floral Delights
My Heart Pieces - Gettin' Girly
Red Carpet Studio #19 - The Butterfly Effect

5" x 6.6" Friendship Card Recipe:
Digital Images - Zinnas
Markers and Ink - CTMH alcohol ink: Sorbet, Blush Dark, Honey Light, Sweet Leaf, Olive; CopicYR61 Yellowish Skin Pink; CTMH Cotton Candy ink (sponged butterfly)
Paper - My Mind's Eye "Totally Girl;" CTMH White Daisy, Black cardstock
Accents - CTMH Sorbet Ribbon, Baby Pink Organdy, Flutter Paper shapes, Licorice Opaques; button from stash; Wilton doily
Tools - printer

PSC61 - Winter Wonderland

Despite temperatures in the 40's and 50's this week, our farm still has much of the grass covered with snow. I'm always happy to stay inside and look outside at the lovely white landscape. Although I hate being out in the cold, I dearly love making projects that feature the white stuff.

The challenge this week at The Perfect Sentiment is to CREATE A CARD WITH A SENTIMENT FOR WINTER/USE A WINTER IMAGE OR ANY EMBELLISHMENTS, EMBOSSING FOLDERS, ETC. TO GIVE YOUR CARD A WINTER FEEL. GO AHEAD AND THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX IF YOU HAVE TO...CUPS OF COCOA, ETC.

Our lovely sponsor this week is MelJen's Designs. They will have 4 free digis for one lucky winner. If you've never seen their cute variety of digis, you should check them out here.

 

 



 

I found this very old piece of snowflake lace paper in my stash the other day and decided to use it as a background for my Cuttlebug embossed snow and image. I love to mix these colors with Kraft cardstock and silver. Unfortunately, I was wearing a red shirt and I'm afraid the glitter on the snowflake picked up the red hues. It was cut with Cricut Art Philosophy. It was covered with Glitz Glitter Gel, both Stardust and Silver. The cute, characters are matched with a cute sentiment, both from a Close To My Heart set called Bundled Buddies. They were colored with CTMH alcohol ink markers - Sky, Indian Corn Blue, and Pacifica. The brown tones were Copic markers.

 

I hope you'll join our challenge this week. We'd love to see your interpretation of Winter Wonderland.

 

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments - anything with a Winter Sentiment

Broken Box Stock #17 - Winter theme

Card Crafter's Circle #56 - Snow

Crafts and Me #115 - Winter Wonderland

Simply Create Too #28 - Let it Snow

 

 

 

PSC43 - Girlfriends

This is my first week as a The Perfect Sentiments design team member. I'm already noticing what great friends they are together. God has blessed me with many wonderful friends throughout life, so the theme this week is one dear to my heart - Girlfriends: Create a card with a sentiment for friendship. The twist is to use girly embellishments like pearls, lace, bling, flowers, etc. Our sponsor this week is Meljen's Designs. They will be giving a prize of 4 free digis to our lucky winner!

Here's my card celebrating the wonderful friends that I have.

Please visit the other team members at The Perfect Sentiment and join our challenge this week as we celebrate friendship!

Sentiment Technique:

I couldn't find just the right sentiment to go with my image so I combined two different sentiment stamps from Close To My Heart by masking out the unwanted words using scotch tape when I inked the stamp, pulling it off, then stamping. The unwanted words are clean and uninked!

For more dimension, I cut the petals of the sunflower apart and bent them different ways. I also stamped, colored, cut, and pop dotted a second brown center  for the flower.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

One Stop Craft Challenge #193 - Just Good Friends 

Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge #62 - What Was I Thinking (when I bought hundreds of sheets of discounted gingham dp in every color back in 2006???)

Simon Says Stamp and Show - What Do You Say? (creative sentiments)

Try It On Tuesday - Anything Goes for July

6.5" x 5" Friendship Card Recipe:

Papers - Prima "Botanical;" CTMH Black, White Daisy Cardstock and very old Shell Pink Gingham

Images - Clearly Vintage Ladies and Sunflowers, CTMH Friendship Bouquet sunflower

Sentiment Stamps - Close To My Heart "Endless Friendship," "Friendship Bouquet"(quote

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Markers - Copic

Accents - CTMH Licorice Opaques, retired pink organdy and crocheted lace