Happy Easter Daffodils

My favorite daffodils have resurrected in my yard. They are a pale yellow with a darker yellow center. My spring bulbs are like scripture written in nature that reminds me of Christ's death and resurrection and life after death for believers.  They popped through the soil almost two weeks ago and now they're sharing beautiful blooms. The lovely colors brightening my yard sing out praise to their Creator, especially after a brown and gray winter. 

Here's another simple Easter card with daffodils made with bright, cheery Penelope papers (and two retired CTMH stamps). I colored the image with Copics (Y11, G20, B000) and ShinHan markers (Y222 and G234).

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Crafty Boots Challenge - Easter
Deep Ocean #124 - Easter
Marker Pop Challenge #90 - Easter
The Crazy Challenge #218 - flowers

Daffodil Tag Easter Card

My daffodils began blooming last week along with my apricot trees and a star magnolia. They inspired me to start making Easter cards with daffodils! And while the flowers are "resurrecting" I thought the ODBD stamp of John 11:25 would be an appropriate Easter verse emphasizing Christ's resurrection from the dead and the same hope of His believers.

I used the CTMH Penelope workshop kit to make this card along with the CTMH Chevron embossing folder. The tag and verse stamps are from ODBD, but the butterfly is a retired one from the Trellis stamp set. I colored the images with Copic and ShinHan alcohol ink markers and embellished simply with CTMH silver Playful Puffies and thick twines.


I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Aud Sentiments Challenge #150 - Easter or Spring
Come and Get It #109 - Easter/Spring
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #354 - Easter/Spring
Word Art Wednesday #221 - anything uplifting

Mojo Monday 438 Brighter Days Card

Yesterday I did a workshop with a friend who had surgery a few weeks ago. Although she's off work and doing physical surgery, she's so tired you can see the exhaustion in her face. She didn't realize surgery would take such a toll on her energy level. The doctor said it would take a year to get her strength back. I made this card today so I could write an encouraging message to her.  I used the Mojo Monday sketch from this week:

I raided a couple of bags of scraps I had at my desk, (thanks to HIMCR) so I'm not sure where all the papers came from although the background seems to be Basic Grey.  The flowers and circle were in my scrap bag left over from a November project. The sentiment is from a Verve set called Brighter Days. The butterfly is from Close To My Heart, colored with Shin Han Twin Touch markers. The colors were too bright at first until I distressed them with gray and brown. The Colonial white circle was distressed with a stippling brush and Flaxen and Glacier inks, but they don't show up in the photo.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Crafting with Friends #16 - anything goes

Crafty Friends Challenge #27 - anything goes

Crazy 4 Challenges #327 - circle or pie

Creative Knockouts #132 - die cuts/punches

Hiding in My Craft Room #242 - use scraps

Let's Color Saturday Linky Party #5 - anything with colored image

Mojo Monday #438 - sketch

Word Art Wednesday #221 - anything uplifting





Watercolor Blog Hop

Enhancing projects with watercolors has been so popular! Welcome to our blog hop highlighting ways to use your watercolor paints and/or watercolor pencils!  If you came from Michelle's blog you're on the right track.

My first project is a simple birthday card with watercolor background over the white embossed sentiment. I see this technique used a lot.  I used the largest CTMH flat watercolor brush  and two paint colors closest to Crystal Blue and Thistle used in the Penelope paper pack. I wanted to make an arched shape. It's not a slow laborious process. I think it looks better if you simply go back and forth quickly leaving informal edges on the sides.

I wiped a little excess paint off the embossed sentiment. It's best to emboss first. If you do it afterward, the embossing powder can stick to any still-damp areas that were painted.

After I painted it I loaded a smaller rounded brush tip with water and flicked it on top of my painted arcs by tapping the brush, point down, over the intended area.



On my second card I gold embossed a leafy background stamp, then brushed the entire surface of the panel with water. With the wide flat brush I brushed on two colors of watercolor paint that were a pear green and turquoise. They blended with the water and each other. I let them almost dry before wiping excess paint off the gold embossed leaves.

I stamped the butterflies with black Stazon ink before the next watercolor technique.  I cut them out leaving a thin white border that I wanted to stay white. So I used the smallest round detail brush to paint the butterflies with three colors, light orange, darker orange, and bright pink. I dipped the brush in a little water to blend the colors.

If you'd like to use any of these stamps you should check out this month's Stampaganza special: Buy two stamp sets and get the third set free! See details here.

Thanks for visiting! Now you're ready to see the artsy example Tracey has for you.

6.5" x 5" Birthday Card Recipe:

Papers - CTMH Watercolor Paper, Penelope paper pack, CTMH Cardstocks: Crystal Blue, Thistle, Pixie

Stamps - Cricut Artiste stamp set

Ink - Versamark

Embellishments and Accessories - Ranger White Super fine and Silver Super Fine Embossing Powders, White Enamel Stars, Cricut Artiste Cartridge,  CTMH Watercolor Paints and Paint Brush Set, Craft Heater

4.25" x 5.5" Anniversary Card Recipe;

Papers - CTMH Watercolor Paper, Black Cardstock

Stamps - Botanical Backgrounds, Finding the Words, Your Own Kind of Wonderful (butterflies)

Inks - Versamark, Black Stazon

Embellishments and Accessories - Gold Bling Gems, Gold Shimmer Trim, Ranger Gold Princess Embossing Powder, CTMH Watercolor Paints, Paint Brush Set, Craft Heater

Basketball Super Stars Cards

Yesterday I watched five hours of the basketball tournaments that my two young grandsons played in. The youngest, age 9,  played in two games and his team lost in the last couple of minutes. He wasn't really upset because he's really easy going and received a medal.


 The oldest, age 11,  plays on a team of the best possible fifth and sixth graders who play really hard, win nearly every game, and look more like college players in their passion and techniques. They played two hours in a row and lost the final game of the tournament in the last quarter when I saw their energy begin to droop. He and his team mates all became tearful when they lost because emotions and energy ran high through the games. For this reason I decided to make him a card of encouragement. Of course, I couldn't leave out his brother, so here are two cards.

Several challenges guided my card construction. It started with Bitten By the Bug 2 with the theme, "LEAP." My interpretation was a basketball player leaping to dunk a basket. I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday #402, the theme of die cutting from Challenge Up Your Life, and creating my own background suggested by Cardz 4 Guys.

The Cricut cuts came from Basketball, CTMH Artiste (stars), and CTMH Art Philosophy (tags).

I made the background on this first card by rolling ink on the CTMH Stars embossing folder on the flat side with the stars recessed. The tag was embossed with The Paper Studio Stars folder and sanded so the stars would be white.

The second card has a lot of sports words stamped randomly all over with a retired CTMH stamp set, "My Game." The tag was embossed with Cuttlebug Stars and sanded.

Thanks for visiting! Now it's time for me to write the grandma words that help build character, win or lose!


I'm sharing this project with the following challenges:
Bitten By the Bug 2 - Leaping
Cardz 4 Guys #109 - create your own background
Challenge Up Your Life #36 - Die Cutting
Crafty Gals Corner #61 - about boys
Sketch Saturday #402

Our Daily Bread Designs Dogwood Card

Some weeks I get more prayer requests than others. This week I need to send three sympathy cards and three cards for friends from church having surgery. I've started making multiples of cards to have even more on hand for such weeks.
This card has a sentiment inside that I hope will be an encouragement to the receiver. It has a reminder: "The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you." I used three stamps from the Grow in Grace stamp set from Our Daily Bread Designs. The focal point sentiment on front has a meaning of grace I'm thankful for. It's arranged artfully with the first letters spelling GRACE: God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

I used the Paper Craft Crew Card Sketch 184 to design the card. All of the papers are retired and long retired from CTMH. (I'm forever trying to use up more of the paper filling my craft room!) I colored the dogwood image with Copic markers.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you as you make cards to bless others.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge - A for anything pink

Crafty Creations #310 - Sentiment as a focal point

Creative Knockouts #131 - flower power

Morgan's Art World #5 - use a sentiment

ODBD Shining the Light Challenge #271 - anything goes with ODBD stamps

PDE Linky Party #113 - anything goes

Southern Girls Challenge - Get wordy

Word Art Wednesday #221 - anything uplifting

Mojo Monday 437 - Three Anniversary Cards

I started scrapbooking slowly, occasionally 20 years ago. I didn't realize how many "ancient" papers I still had until I began moving them to my new craftroom. Now I'm determined to use up as much as I can. This is one of my "Use It Up" projects.

I used this week's Mojo Monday challenge #437 and the Purple Haze color challenge at Moving Along with the Times:



I chose to make mine with a rectangular shape to make it easier to mail in the U.S.

I made two more versions of the card using small leftover pieces of the lavender patterned paper and the same sketch:

I'm sharing the first card with the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper  - anything goes with patterned paper

Fab 'n' Funky Challenge #294 - Love





Mojo Monday #437 - sketch

Moving Along with the Times #15 - Purple Haze

Nordsalten Hobbyklubb #134 - dies and/or punches

Simon Says Stamp - Touchy Feely (add texture)