Beauty for Ashes - MOJO Monday 231

About 15 years ago I adopted Isaiah 61:3 as a life verse. After going through a lot of difficulties, I felt my life was greatly blessed. I even made a layout of photos taken in my garden which I titled Beauty for Ashes. I made this card with that verse from Verve, hoping to pass that great truth on to someone else. I used the beautiful color combination suggested by the Color Throwdown Challenge #182 using the papers from MyMind's Eye Stella & Rose-Mabel collection.

The MOJO Monday Sketch #231 worked well with this verse and these colors.

With this special scripture, I'm linking this card to Scripture Thursday #19 at Little Birdie Blessings. I'm currently encouraging another young woman who's facing many trials. I love the part of the verse that says "a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." It goes along with a hymn I think of a lot "Count Your Blessings." You hear a lot of people say that you should count your blessings, but this hymn says to do this while you're going through the trial and you'll be singing and getting help and comfort.

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

• Count your blessings, name them one by one;
  Count your blessings, see what God hath done;
  Count your blessings, name them one by one,
  And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold.
Count your many blessings, money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven, nor your Lord on high.

So amid the conflict, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/707#ixzz1oYPDRBhv

5" x 6.5" Card Recipe:
Paper - My Mind's Eye -Stella & Rose "Mabel;" Close To My Heart Colonial White CS; Bazzill CS (brown)
Stamps - Verve "Isaiah 61:3 Plain Jane," "Hope Blooms"(flowers)
Ink - Ranger Vintage Photo; Close To My Heart Cranberry (sponged around text semi-circle, flower edges)
Other - Close To My Heart Cranberry brads, Buttons Red Collection, Waxy Flax- Chocolate, Juniper ribbon

Age Is Just a Number - Frosted Designs Challenge

I love this birthday sentiment from Close To My Heart: Age is just a number . . . Yours will remain unlisted! It's perfect for my girlfriends, over 60 but still think we're 18.  Here's my card for the Fabulous Friday Challenge at Frosted Designs. I used Graphic45 "Fashionista" paper.

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #42 - Hey, Baby!

It seems our children and their friends are now beyond the "having babies" stage. Except for one of my daughter's friends who just got married later in life. She quit her job and is staying home, hoping to get pregnant soon. I made this card for her. She spent a lot of time adoring the first set of twins my daughter had and I know she'll make a great mom! I made this one Clean and Simple, perfect for a baby card - at the suggestion of CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #42.

I used the challenge from Shopping Our Stash Weekly in more ways than one. Except for the card, all of my papers were scraps, the giraffe paper- quite old. Their challenge was to emboss, which I did to the entire front of the card with the larger Cuttlebug embossing folder for dots. The two blue pieces were Spellbinder's Nestabilities Label Nine. I cut the giraffe out using my Cricut and a scrap of orange polka dotted paper, source unknown. I punched a 5/8" circle from the same paper, but stamped a "B" using the CTMH Hodgepodge Alphabet on the reverse side that had a flower in that circle and matted it with a 3/4" circle, then tied around the neck with some CTMH baker's twine. The "lace" is cut out of a piece of DCWV The Sweet Stack using a Martha Stewart Punch.

The Deconstructed Sketch #41 - On the Farm

A Day for Daisies has some adorable stamps for their latest release, On the Farm, and challenge #38 Dress It Up with Gingham. I'm using a stamp that reminds me of my blonde younger sister when we got a baby chick for Easter. I combined this challenge with the Colour Create Challenge to use yellow, gray, black and white and the sketch from the deconstructed sketch #41.

I used a square card that was embossed with flowers, masked the edges and sponged it with Sunny Yellow ink hoping to highlight the flowers. The image was colored with Copics and watercolor pencils. The flower has a white butterfly with a black design and the charm hanging from the bow says "Love."

5.5" Square Card Recipe:

Paper - Basic Grey (grey); CTMH black, white cardstock, yellow gingham (old retired)

Image - A Day for Daisies -"Pet Chick"

Ink - CTMH Sunny Yellow

Other - Copics (Y 11, E 00); CTMH watercolor pencils (black, Sunny yellow, honey), black gingham ribbon, Just Blooms Flutter Paper Shapes (butterfly); Sizzix double diamond embossing folder; Recollections gray flower; Martha Stewart border punch; charm unknown from stash

Freshly Made Sketch #24 with Butterflies

Last week I cut a piece of Basic Grey Curio paper into sections. One of them was this collection of butterflies. Freshly Made Sketch #24 was perfect for displaying this collection. Living in the country with a wide variety of flowers made me passionate about butterflies. I would take caterpillars to school with their food source and let the kids study their life cycle, then release them outdoors. Here's the sketch I used today.

This is also my card for Flutter By Wednesday's Challenge #192 and Ribbon Carousel's Challenge #42, both are "Anything Goes."

 I chose Close To My Heart Stella paper for the background and middle band. It's reversible, so I used the same sheet for both patterns. I thought the background paper gave the card a CAS (Clean and Simple) appearance and looked like the pattern of scales on a butterfly's wings.

I stamped the words in a border on each side using a CTMH set called Classmate Alphabet that has tiny words for each letter. Now, if the weather will continue to warm up here, we'll have more flowers than my snowdrops and with the flowers come the butterflies!

Country Comfort Card

Here's one more card today with a country comfort theme suggested by Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #158. The palette I used came from the soft colors from The Play Date Cafe's Challenge #121.

I found those colors among some of my Basic Grey papers in the Curio Collection. Those suggested the softer side of country living, so I chose a hen from a Layers of Color Art stamp and used the sketch provided by Tuesday Morning Sketches #135.

I used the soft rose paper for the background because flowers in the country can be marvelous. When I first moved here, I went crazy planting trees, shrubs, and lots of perennials. One time I put out 500 bulbs. Another time I raised over 1,000 perennials and annuals from seed in the house under lights. I started in January and lived for the weekends when I could be outside. The juniper lace paper reminds me of quilt blocks, which always make me think of my grandparent's farm and my grandma sewing so many quilts for all of the family. I used the twine from Papertrey Ink to add to the rustic quality of country life. Sometine I'll share the story of my one and only chicken. I could make dozens of different cards illustrating so many different aspects of the country comfort we enjoy here in rural Missouri, but overall, the peace and serenity of living in a rural area can't be beat after living a couple of blocks from a busy freeway in an overpopulated suburb.

Fresh Picked

I've been so glad to see challenges using the color green. I used to read Beatrix Potter's books to my children at home and at school. Mother Rabbit always said, "Green is good for the eyes." I feel the same way after the drab colors of winter outside. In addition, The Kraft Outlet's challenge this week was called "Farm Fresh," the perfect choice for some of my orchard related stamps. I've chosen the palette of Pals Paper Arts to make a card, using Kraft as my 3rd color.

I used the sketch from There She Goes Clear Stamps, challenge #145.

The bottom piece of designer paper is from Basic Grey's "Origin." For the vertical piece I used a piece of Basic Grey's "Oh Baby - Boy" and repeatedly stamped "Fresh Picked" to make it more interesting. for the main image, I stamped it with New England Ivy three times on Kraft, Pear, and New England Ivy cardstock, then paper pieced the leaves and pear on the main Kraft image. I tried stamping it on White CS first, but it didn't look nearly as interesting as it did on Kraft CS. The image and words came from an old, retired CTMH stamp set called "Fresh Picked."

For the scallops on the side I used a different pear from a set called You're Sweet (CTMH) and stamped it three times on Kraft with New England Ivy ink. Then I cut it out    and attached to the vertical panel. I let some of the seeds show so that the pear theme was repeated. The last element that says Farm or Country to me is the gingham ribbon. after attaching the bow, I attached a Making Memories Animal Crackers felt button (left from 3 or 4 years ago), tied with the gingham ribbon.

(Now, if only I wasn't allergic to pears! I live on a farm and have a small orchard, but I think pears are the only fruit I don't raise.)