Saturday, June 26, 2010

Grace Card Variation

Hello and Happy Saturday!
Just a quick post today, about "C.A.S.E."ing.

A couple of weeks ago, I showed you a card in my post entitled "Grace C.A.S.E.". This was a card made for a challenge over on ChristianPaperCrafts.
Well, I had such fun doing it, and it was such an inspiring challenge, that I actually had two card ideas going on in my head at once!
So, after I did my "Grace" card, I made this other one I was thinking about, too:



This just goes to show you how easy it is to make different cards with the same basic layout and design. Just a few changes are really all it takes. I started out using different papers and colors.


Then, I used a floral image rather than a sentiment. I put Flower Soft on the flowers. Don't you just love this stuff?


And I changed my flower bouquet embellies to this awesome Prima butterfly.


I embossed the sentiment down in the corner, but still used the Nesties layers for under the image.

Really, it's pretty much the same card. But, in many ways it's oh so different.
Isn't C.A.S.E.ing wonderful?

Supplies used for this card:
Stamps: SU! Wonderful Watercolors
Paper: Very Vanilla textured c/s, Perfect Plum and Very Vanilla c/s; PTI white c/s; SU! DSP.
Ink: Perfect Plum craft ink; Old Olive and Pale Plum markers.
Accessories: SU! Crystal Clear EP; Lavender Flower Soft; Mauve organdy ribbon; Lace ribbon; Prima butterfly; Rhinestones; CB dotted embossing folder; Nesties label dies.
Techniques: Die cutting; Stamping with markers; embossing; distressing.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Our Lord's Encouragement

I made this card for a challenge I did over on ChristianPaperCrafts (BVT 57). Angie Crockett does the Bible Verse Thursday challenge, and a couple of weeks ago her challenge was to use any verse for encouragement.



I love this verse, and I thought it was perfect for the challenge.


I actually had this copper colored metal praying hands embellishment for a long time. Someone sent it to me literally years ago, and it was just waiting for the right time to be used. I think this was it!



I tried embossing in blue, but in the end silver embossing gave it exactly the look I was after. The rhinestone swirl is something I recently bought and I love it here!


And although these Prima flowers came in a Christmas collection, I think these work very well. I love the glitter on them. I added a topaz colored rhinestone.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my card. I'd love to hear what you think of it!

Items used on this card:
Stamps: OBDB Scripture Collection II
Paper: Designer papers by Sandylion; SU! Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark; SU! Bordering Blue
Accessories? Embellishments: SU! Silver embossing powder; Rhinestone flourish by ZVA Creative; Prima floral embellishments;lace ribbon; copper praying hands embellishment
Tools and Techniques: SU! Heat Tool; embossing, tearing and sponging

Monday, June 21, 2010

WELCOME, SUMMER!

I have never liked Winter. To be honest, for many years I hated it. And having grown up in New England, I got more than my fair share of Winter weather.

Now that I am living near the Coast of California, I am seriously "as happy as a clam"! I often forget that I don't really have to wait until Summer to enjoy the beach. It is just a short drive away and the weather here is almost always beach appropriate any time of year :-)
But, when the first day of Summer arrives, I still have that celebratory feeling!

So, instead of showing another card today, I thought I would share with you some pictures my daughter (who just happens to be a photographer!) took of me and my husband for our 25th wedding anniversary. I have been meaning to post them for months now, so since I have the beach on my mind, I guess there's no time like the present.


At first it seemed kind of funny "posing" for our daughter (harder for my husband, I think).


And this rock was not the most comfortable, lol!


But we actually had a lot of fun, and it was great to know we'd finally get some shots of "us"! For so many years, it was us taking pics of the kids; now the tables were turned ;-) I can not thank her enough for the wonderful gift she gave us. She actually made a beautiful book out of these and many other photos she took that day. All four of our children wrote beautiful messages in it for us, and they gave it to us for Christmas. It is absolutely fabulous, and I just cherish it! Thank you, Katie for the wonderful photographs and to all you kids for such an amazing and thoughtful gift!

And this is among my favorites. I can't think of too many things I like more than walking along a beautiful beach in the late afternoon of a gorgeous day, holding my husband's hand.
I love this picture in black and white. I think I just may have to do a scrap book page of this one, for sure!


Thanks for stopping by and letting me share a little bit of "me" with you.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

BEST WISHES FOR CARA


A very good friend of my daughter's is getting married! Over the weekend her mom gave her a surprise bridal shower and both my daughters and I were invited. Unfortunately, due to being sick, I was not able to attend.
I did of course make her a card to go with the gift I sent, at least ;-) I sure hope she liked it!

I could have made one that was more traditional, or that had a bridal image, but I just thought that something a little different would be fun. (I actually did make another card for her that was quite bridal "showery", and let my daughter's give her that one.)

Since I wasn't feeling well, I chose an image that didn't take too long to watercolor. I love water coloring, but it seems to take me forever, lol! Once I had it figured out in my mind what I wanted to do, this was an easy and fairly quick card to make.

There's something about silver embossing on wedding and bridal cards, don't you think? Just by embossing the words in silver I think it gave it just enough "bridal" feel.

Wishing Cara and Josh a long and very happy marriage!

Items used to make this card:
Stamps: SU! Flowers of Gratitude stamp set; sentiment from SU! Fourteen Phrases
Paper: Water color paper; Basic Grey "Perhaps" designer paper; SU! River Rock c/s; PTI White
Ink: Versamark; SU! Pretty In Pink for sponging
Accessories/ Tools: Silver Stickles; green rhinestones from Michael's $1 bin; SU! silver embossing powder; Spellbinders Fleur de lis die; EK Success small scalloped oval punch; distressing tool; sponge; SU! Watercolor Wonder crayons and some SU! markers to fill in a little.


Sunday, June 13, 2010

GRACE C.A.S.E.

As I have mentioned before, C.A.S.E. (in the "wonderful world of stamping") means "Copy And Share with Everyone".
Well, over at ChristianPaperCrafts I recently participated in their "C.A.S.E. Artist Saturday" challenge and this is what I came up with.

The artist was Sabrina, aka Okimom2girlz on CPC, and she had an amazing gallery from which to choose something to C.A.S.E.

This is the card I picked. I absolutely fell in love with it as soon as I saw it, and knew it was the one for me! I have to admit, I was worried about weather I could do her beautiful card justice, but I sure had a lot of fun trying!



I figured this was the perfect card to use one of the awesome Prima birds I had in my stash, just crying out to be used ;-)


And (as my friends all know) I tend to be one heck of a flower hoarder (right, Debbi?), so it was nice to use a bunch of them here!


So, what do you think? I am really new to card challenges and wonder if I did okay. I had a great time, and do plan to continue with the CPC challenges. They have lots of great themes to chose from, so maybe you too will want to check them out!

Thanks so much for looking. I would love it if you'd kindly leave a comment!

Items used for this card:
Stamps: ODBD Grow In Grace
Paper: K & Company BG; SU! Kraft, Very Vanilla and Ballet Blue c/s; PTI White c/s
Ink: Versamark; Ranger distress ink; SU! Ballet Blue
Accessories/ Embellishments: Prima, Bassill andother (unknown) flowers; Pearls; Rhinestones; Cross; Prima bird; Gold e.p.; Crocheted lace; Silver Stickles; Dimensionals.
Tools: Nestabilities dies; CB Dotted embossing folder; Martha Stewart butterfly punch; SU! Distressing tool.
Techniques: Embossing; Distressing; Sponging

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Driven To Pray

I love this quote from Abraham Lincoln. I used it for a challenge (ST 58) I did over at ChristianPaperCrafts.



This was the very first "challenge" card I ever did, and boy did I have fun with it! I have since done several more challenges at CPC which I will soon be sharing with you.

This was one of those cards that did not end up much the way I thought it would when I started out. But in the end I was actually quite pleased. Nothing was "working out" as I planned, but I decided to just keep going with it anyway, and ended up glad I did not throw in the towel after all.

Items I used: Paper: SU! Riding Hood Red textured; Soft Suede; Naturals Ivory; K & Co BG papers; handmade paper. Soft Suede ink and Ranger distress ink for sponging. Satin ribbon; gold Robins Nest dew drops; paper flower; Spellbinders Borderabilities die.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you like what you see!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

CASEd Framing Fun

Well, if you are anything like me, you can spend hours on your computer just drooling over the amazing stamped artwork people put up on their blogs. I love when I come upon a new blog (new to me, I mean) and find gorgeous cards and scrapbook pages filled with inspiration!

On one of my recent blog adventures, I clicked on this and WOW! was I amazed at all the beautiful cards I saw. Yvonne does such incredible work... I am just in awe of her creations!

I spent quite a bit of time gazing at page after page, and came upon this beauty. Isn't that card and frame fabulous? Well, despite feeling a bit intimidated, I decided to give it a try and see if I could make one myself, since sitting on a shelf in my studio was the very same Nestabilities die she used to make it- brand new and never used, just waiting to be opened.


I did not do nearly as nice a job as Yvonne (some day I will have to try paper piercing- isn't hers wonderful?!). But even so, I was pretty happy with the way this card turned out. The frame took me longer to put together than I had expected, though. It was tricky placing and attaching the pieces just right. But all in all, I can't say it was really difficult. But it was time consuming. Even so, I was quite pleased with the result. There is a special person I was needing to make a birthday card for, and as I was making this I hoped it would be a good one for her. Now that it's done, I think it's just the one for her!

The embossing on the frame is rather faint and subtle, but soooo pretty!


I just love these big Prima flowers and I think they are perfect for this card.

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear what you think if my CASEd frame card!