Sarita Viva La Verve July 2014 Sketch 3

They say confession is good for the soul. I think I agree, but it does give me an extra measure of humility when I feel really stupid. I must admit that I had lost track of the Viva La Verve sketch challenge I used to enjoy when I switched computers and no longer had it saved in favorite places. Yesterday I began looking for it on Splitcoast Stampers, but couldn't find it. I wanted to use one of their sketches for the Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light Challenge. (See sketch 4 post.) So I went to Mojo Monday, followed the link to the Verve store and voila - there was a link to their challenges, including Viva La Verve. So simple. Why didn't I figure that out before?!!

Here is a card of encouragement that uses a scripture stamp from Verve and Sarita Paper pack and embellishments from Close To My Heart (Outdoor Denim brads, Lagoon baker's twine, and Sarita Assortment wooden embellishments.  This is one of my favorite verses. It plays inside my head when circumstances start to overwhelm. I acknowledge that I don't have the wisdom or strength but God does.  We can run to him in prayer.  He is always there, ready to help us in any type of trouble.

Here is the sketch from Viva La Verve:

 May God bless you with His loving care and encourage you to give Him every problem.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

613 Avenue Create #82 - Anything goes with optional use of sentiment

Crafting at the Weekend #4 - Anything goes

Crafty Catz #241 - anything goes

Fussy & Fancy #119 - Words

Viva La Verve July 2014 Week 3 Sketch

Word Art Wednesday #102 - anything goes with uplifting message

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You can get the Sarita paper pack through July 31st, 2014, on my shopping website. You can also see the entire list of retiring items and the sale priced items found in the list "While Supplies Last." My regular customers should also know that some of the prices will increase on August 1st when the new Annual Inspiration book arrives.

Cityscape Christmas Card

Here's another Christmas in July card that I made with a soon-to-be-retired CTMH stamp set. This time I used "Cityscape" and for the sentiment, "Glory to God," which is also retiring.


The polka dotted paper from "Sparkle and Shine" had already retired, but it has the gray that reminds me of city buildings and the white polka dots remind me of winter snow. I stamped the three tall buildings on my panel and the four smaller buildings on scrap with Whisper ink and cut them out. I stamped what reminds me of brick road in front of the tall buildings then pop-dotted the smaller buildings in front. I gave the church a cross hand-cut from Black and Grey glitter cardstock.  The snowflake was cut in two layers using the Cricut Artiste, sized at 1.25," then topped with Glitz Glitter Gel. The sentiment was adorned with Clear Glitter Gems.

 

I hope this has given you an idea of a way to use this stamp set if you have it - or to get one here before it retires July 31st. (See the complete list of retiring items.) 

Thank you for visiting. May God bless your crafting and gifting as you bless others.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

ABC Christmas - O for Obscured (front buildings hide bottom third of tall buildings)

Aud Sentiments Challenge #111 - Christmas in July

Blogger's Challenge - Christmas in July 

City Crafter Challenge #221 - Christmas in July

Crafting for all Seasons #82 - Christmas in July

Crafty Ribbons Challenge #99 - anything goes with ribbon

D.L.Art Thankful Thursday #137 - Christmas in July

Southern Girls Challenge - Christmas is a-coming

Word Art Wednesday #142 - anything goes with uplifting message

 

Merry and Bright Christmas in July

I'm so thankful for all the Christmas in July reminders I've seen around the web. It's time for me to get busy on Christmas cards even though the summer heat makes Christmas seem so far away.
Here's another card using a Close To My Heart retiring stamp set and papers. I felt inspired to use several shades of blue with a bit of CTMH Cashmere.

I embossed the light blue retiring "Balloon Ride" background paper with dots. The Outdoor Denim banner is from the "Sarita" paper pack, topped with non-retired blue epoxy bubbles. (The Cashmere honeycomb pattern is not retiring. It's available in the Paper Fundamentals Basic pack.) I stamped the Colonial White  banner with second generation Cashmere and Sky inks using the berry branch from the Merry and Bright stamp set.  

The snowflake border strip on top of the banners was cut using the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge. If you haven't heard yet, Close To My Heart will be revealing a new Cricut cartridge next month, Artfully Sent, especially for card makers. I can't wait!
 
I used Glitz Glitter Gel on the snowflake strip and the wreath. The wreath was stamped with Cashmere ink, cut out, and the flowers were colored with ShinHan Touch Twin markers. The tiny bullet point made it easy to color such tiny petals and flower center. The bow was stamped with retiring Sky ink and the bird was stamped with retiring Twilight ink. The Wilton doily added a great background for the bird.

I fussy cut the August Stamp of the Month Circus letters to make the sentiment. This set is retiring at the end of the month and can be purchased at full price or for $5.00 with a $50 order.

 

Thank you for visiting and happy crafting!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Come and Get It - Christmas in July
Crafting for All Seasons #82 - Christmas in July
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge #186 - layer it up
Hiding in My Craftroom #158 - Christmas in July
Jellypark Friends - Christmas in July
Little Red Wagon #247 - Christmas in July
Simon Says Stamp - Embossing
The Corrosive Challenge #204 - Christmas in July
The Sisterhood of Crafters - die cuts and punches (Cricut snowflake border)
Winter Wonderland - Blue Christmas

Going. . .going. . .gone! And Two Balloon Ride Encouragement Cards

Close To My Heart listed all of the products that will no longer be available after the end of this month. A new catalog will be available for customers on August 1. If you're like me, there might be something on the retiring list that you really meant to get, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. I also realized I still had some of the products from the retiring list that I'd like to use up. So I decided that for the rest of this month I will post cards and projects using products that will soon be unavailable.



Here are two cards using the soft colors of the Balloon Ride paper pack and two of the retiring stamp sets with retiring embellishments.  Both cards have three identical patterned papers which I reversed. The fourth patterned layer on top of each card is a 3" x 4"card from the Skylark Picture My Life set of cards. To fulfill the challenge at Really Reasonable Ribbon (Things with Wings) I chose the first one with  a bird and the second with a dragonfly. Because they have a variety of colors and themes they can match cards or scrapbook layouts that use other paper packs. I distressed them with cocoa ink.

 

The retiring stamp set used on this first card is  "Count Your Blessings."

 

The sentiment was stamped on retiring Color-Ready Noted Canvas Shapes.  The price has been lowered to $1.60 on my shopping page called "While Supplies Last." You should check out other items on this list. They've been significantly reduced!

This second card used the retiring stamp set "Words of Comfort." Some people will be sad to see this one go. I'm glad I already have one.

Embellishments on each card are 1) wooden accents, 

 

2)Baker's Twine Paradise Assortment, and 3) Chocolate striped grosgrain ribbon which are both no longer available. If you're interested in any of these retiring items, please follow the links for a closer look and to purchase. For more ideas using Balloon Ride, look at the bottom of this post.

Thank you for visiting. May you be blessed as you make and send your own cards of encouragement.

I'm sharing this project with the following challenges:
Crafting from the Heart #28 - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper July Challenge - anything with patterned paper
Creative Corner - Love of Ribbon
Deep Ocean #82 - Lots of Layers
Pause, Dream, Enjoy #15 - 3 or more patterned papers
Really Reasonable Ribbon #99 - Things with Wings plus ribbon
Sisters of Craft July Challenge - Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door - Anything Goes
Use Your Stuff #145 - Layers
Word Art Wednesday - anything goes with uplifting message


So you can see more ideas for using Balloon Ride, I'm including three other cards that I posted earlier this year:

 

A Kitty Bouquet of Thanks

We came home from vacation to find four new kittens on our porch, two white and two gray. Living on a farm, we've been overrun with feral cats who won't even let us get near them. I didn't even realize that one of them was expecting. We've neutered the ones we could catch. We're determined to give the new kittens a lot of holding and petting so they won't be so wild and afraid of us.


Yesterday I had another surprise. There was a third white one we hadn't seen all week.


While we were gone, our neighbor down the road came up to feed and water them each day. Here's the card I made this week to thank them for their kindness.  I used Doodle Pantry's Kitty Bouquet Color from October 2013.The sentiment came from Doodle Pantry's Carousel Cheetah.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Deconstructed Sketch #160 - sketch



D.L.Art Thankful Thursday #136 - Thank you card
Fairy tale challenge #96 - use a digital stamp
Scrapbooker PhD #13 - digital with option of animal
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers SOSS Challenge #12 - B for brads or buttons
Word Art Wednesday #141 - anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Red, White, and Blue Anniversary

When we came home from vacation this week we had two surprises. One was that our country road was lined on both sides with a really thick swath of blue chicory flowers. I've never seen so many, so thick. I used to pick them and put them in 4th of July flower arrangements for our cookouts and company. Since they bloom best in the morning, I went outside the next day intending to take photos, but sad to say, a county road crew had come by and mowed all of them on both sides of the road. (My next post will be about our second surprise.)


This card was stamped with some light blue chicory flowers from an Our Daily Bread Designs stamp set, "Don't Worry." You can now get just the chicory flowers as a single stamp set. I was inspired by the ODBD Shining the Light challenge to use red, white, and blue. I decided a soft blue would be nice. I used background paper from Basic Grey's "What's Up."



 I stamped the chicory with CTMH Heavenly Blue ink and colored them lightly with Copics B000 and B00. Since the photo came out even lighter, I should have used darker colors so you could see the details I can see. I used the scripture from ODBD's  "Scripture Collection 5" and the anniversary sentiment from their "All Occasion Sentiments."  The cranberry buttons are inside a CTMH Marquee Enamel Heart.  This is one of the retiring items that is only available until the end of July. The entire list can be found here.


I like to use the scripture on this card for anniversary and wedding cards, but I know that when it was written, the intention was for all of us to abound in love. My prayer for our world is that each of us will let God's love increase in our lives to bless those around us. May God fill your heart with His boundless love and bless you as you share it with your world.


I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
ColourQ #250 - use any of the colors ( I used the red, aqua, black, white)

Crafting for All Seasons #81 - Tic Tac Toe (I used blue, buttons, ribbon)

Feeling Sketchy Card sketch #96:



Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light Challenge #209 - patriotic or red, white, and blue
Word Art Wednesday #141 - anything goes with uplifting message

A Doodle Pantry Vintage Fan . . . to blow out all the candles!



I've been with these grandchildren for the last seven weeks, so I haven't gotten to post much. Now that I'm finally home, I'm hoping to do much more. In some ways they keep me young, and in other ways they make me feel older each summer when I babysit.

My hubby and I just got back from our camping and hiking trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a wonderful time taking kids and grandkids with us. This year the elevation sickness kept my activities limited. Hubby and I both felt our age had accelerated on this trip. He only took one of his usual 4 a.m. hikes for the perfect sunrise photo. I could barely "hike" from our motor home to my family's cabin without stopping for air. I'm not used to being so breathless on vacation. So the humorous sentiment I found with the Vintage Fan seemed appropriate.

I used the fan and sentiments from Doodle Pantry's Vintage Fan.  I wanted to use some paper representing lots of candles, so I printed the candle paper from the Doodle Pantry set called, Birthday Birdie Color. I did some color adjustment on the smaller panel of candles and changed one to black and white.  I used today's Mojo Monday #354 sketch.

I kept the inside simple with this sentiment:

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations #100 - anything goes for their 100th "birthday"
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Use a digital background
Crafting from the Heart #27 - anything goes
House of Cards - July challenge to Add a Bow (used black jute)
Incy Wincy Designs - strings and things (black jute)
Love to Scrap #33 - anything goes
Mojo Monday 354 - sketch
Stamp and Create July challenge - Birthdays
Through the Purple Haze - Birthdays (because they are ONE today!)