FTTC154

Silke had a great sketch challenge for us over on the Flourish Timeless Tuesday challenge today.
I used a wonderful silhouette set from Flourishes as my image and sentiment.  The image was stamped in rich cocoa and the sentiment in tuxedo black on an ivory circle cut with my nestabilities. I used soft suede cardstock as the cardbase, and the cross panels were done using Basic Grey dp.  The bow was made with red seam binding and the flower was punched from the Basic Grey dp with a red rhinestone for the center. I added some other rhinestones.

January challenge for my Faith based blog group

Kelly hosted the first monthly challenge for our new formed Faith Based Blogging Group and she asked us to reflect upon the book of Genesis for our inspiration. We were also to use at least one of these colors: blue, yellow, green, and/or brown. I used yellow, blue, and green. I embossed my white cardstock and then did a direct from pad adding the yellow to the embossed portion. Then I colored in the unembossed area with one of my blue copic markers. I diecut the green with a spellbinder leaf diecut and then  I stenciled my green ink onto the leaves. I added the handwritten words of Genesis 1:3-4.  I thought about how important God's light is to our world. It is only through God's illumination that we grow and become what we are created to be. That is what the leaves represent in my design. In these first few verses of Genesis, we see His intentions are that distinct seperation of light and darkness. He wants us to stay in the light reflecting His light in this world never to be overtaken by the dark. And the Light is good!

MOJO 226

Here is my card for today's MOJO 226. I used some great Basic Grey design papers and Verve stamps. The cardbase is mambo melon. I stamped the flower three times in 3 different colors and then cut the layers. Dimensionals are between the layers. The leaves are a Martha Stewart leaf punch.

Today's challenge for Stampin' Sisterhood was this inspiration challenge. I was inspired by the colors. This image is from Rubbernecker stamps.

ODBDSLC94

Finally getting around to doing my challenge card for the Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light Challenge  called Love Recipe. Here is my red and ivory card. I used Lady Bug Memento ink for the images (from ODBD) and tuxedo black for the scripture. I love Karen Barbers' cards that  she does over on Splitcoaststampers with those signature striped bows she puts on her cards. I have some of that ribbon in my stash , so thought one of those signature Karen Barber bows would just give this card the extra ump it needed. I am all about singing the Lord's praises and his great love is certainly worthy of that praise!

This will be a wonderful Valentine for one of the angels in my life.

Stampin' Sisters in Christ 124

I always love doing the Sunday challenge over at Stampin' Sisters in Christ. This week

Lovely Linda wants us to share our true style. Well, I love using punches and diecuts, I love taffeta ribbon, I love Basic Grey papers, I love the lyrics of this song, and I love sharing Christ's love in my crafting. This image is from Our Dail Bread Designs. I stamped the image in Tuxedo black and colored it with my copic markers, which is my favorite coloring tool.  

CAS-ual Friday challenge 37

I used a soft sky card base, Basic Grey dp, chocolate chip, and kraft. The stamps are from Stampin' Up.

CTD 176

I used the colors I had that were closest to pool party, rose red, and cake crumb. I did have rose red ink so I used it on the musical design paper. The sentiment I used is from Verve.

Rainy Day stamping

Today was a rainy, stormy day and a day off for me, so I had fun cooking soup and stamping all day. Well, I also spent time browsing friends' blogs and checking things out over on Pinterest.  I  had rose red ink, but not any red rose paper, so I had to make my rose red paper for my punched flowers. I used one of my new sets from Our Daily Bread Designs. This was a really pretty color combo.

Gingersnap Creations #136

The challenge was to use glorious greens on the card. I used all my favorite shades of green on this one. This is my first time to try one of their challenges. Keeping my new year's resolution today to try new challenges I find. You can find the challenge HERE.

Skipping Stones Sketch challenge 112

This is for the Skipping Stones Sketch Challenge #112. I used their stamps for this and decided those little dragonfly brads were just the thing for the embellishment.

I loved this sketch this week for the sketch challenge over on Splitcoaststampers. I pulled out an old favorite of mine from my collection of Flourishes stamps. This is my absolutely favorite blue. Do you find yourself loving certain shades of all the colors? I love olive or kiwi kinds of greens, pale yellows, peachy oranges, and  rosey kinds of red! Fading fast and headed for beat. I have the day off tomorrow so hope to complete some of my favorite Wednesday challenges. See you back here tomorrow!!

MOJO225

This was a fun Mojo Monday challenge today. I used Verve stamps and Basic Grey design papers.

I stamped on the middle design paper panel. The stamping is done with Memento Tuxedo black ink and I colored with my copic markers.

ODBDSLC93

I used Basic Grey design papers, soft suede cardstock, light pink and white.  This was a sketch challenge and I used another one of my recently purchased sets from Our Daily Bread Designs. I am so loving that diecut that matches the cross. I decided to bling it up with these square gemstones. The bow is done in peach seam binding.

TLC361

I really liked the way this turned out. It really only took me about 15 minutes to make. I couldn't like without my embossing folders and Martha Stewart punches. I also used a Spellbinder label and that wonderful leafed vine that I got from MFT.  I used River Rock ink for the reveresed embossing. That is one of my favorite techniques. The sentiment is from Layers of Colors.

JUGS120 red pink white

This is for the Just Us girls challenge to use pink, white, and red. I used a Sizzix folder to emboss the white card base, I embossed the pink with the dotted folder from Cuttlebug, and punched the top of the pink with a Martha Stewart punch. The rose is from Inkadinkado. I stamped it with tuxedo black and colored it with copics.  The seam binding bow finished it off.

SSIC123

 I love participating in the Sunday Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge every week. I've missed a few, but I try not to. Today's challenge was to use a heart.  I used some diecut hearts and put some pretty heart buttons on top of them. I added the ribbon to look like the little stamped hearts on the collage stamped background. Some of these stamps haven't seen ink in a while, like that retired SU backgound stamp.

SS7

Today's Sisterhood Sundays Challenge is this inspirational picture.
I used a Kitchen Sink heart for mine. I also embossed a white cardbase with my cuttlebug folder.

HSCRC12 -hymn #2 Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

I finally carved out some time to get my page done for the HSCRC12 challenge that features Hymns of Faith. The hymn featured for this challenge was "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." I used a variety of stamps from many sources, but I really liked how this turned out.  I am going to cherish this project.

I think my favorite part of the lyrics of this hymn is "....and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace." So, is there really anything that will compare to His glory and His grace? Why do we find it so difficult to give up our worldly things when they wane in comparison to the things Christ will bring us to? We choose to stay lukewarm in our faith and stay in the comforts of what we know of this world, and too often turn from taking those leaps of faith to just trust in Christ, and so making that choice we turn away from some of our richest blessings available to us.

Mini challege for my blog group

The colors I was assigned was purple, gray, and pink. This is what I did with them.
I embossed the purple with my sizzix folder which I inked in grape ink. I punched the gray paper, which is a piece of Basic Grey dp with my Martha Stewart punch. I found a scrap of pink dp lying around that I punched with another Martha Stewart punch (guess you can see I am a big MS punch fan). With a pink scrap I diecut with a diecut I got from MFT. I colored a white pearl with a purple copic to be the center of my flowers. I also stamped the sentiment with grape ink. This was a fairly easy card and I have to admit, it is a color combination I'm not sure I've ever used. I could not even find a piece of gray paper in my cardstock files, so the Basic Grey dp was all I could find for the gray.
This was a fun way to do a color challenge. Each one in the blog group assigned a color combo to another member. Can't wait to see all the results!!

CAS-ual Friday #36

I love black and white, which is the challenge this week on CAS-ual Friday. I used a Martha Stewart punch and my Tim Holtz flower die cut. Everyone remembers that old joke "What's black and white and read all over? " That's why I did the flowers in newspaper print. The sentiment is from a MFP set.
Black pearls were added to the center of the big flower and the smaller paperpunched ones on the border.

Creative Belli Challenge 136

The Creative Belli Challenge this week was to make a frame around your image. I used a spellbinder diecut to frame my sunflower (done in blue) from Flourishes. The design paper is from Basic Grey.
The image is colored with copic markers. I haven't mastered those flower dies from MFT yet, but I keep trying. Maybe I should find a video on how to adhere those spiral flowers. I'm not doing so grandly.

JUGS119

I was busy and away from my stamproom and computer over the weekend, so I am trying to get caught up on some of the challenges I missed like Saturday's Just for us Girls.We were to use the collage stamping technique. I love this technique and have my own way of doing it, I'm sure. I sponged around some diecut pieces first on my background, then I added the French Script stamp (retired SU) and then stamped some other retired stamps from Stampin' Up that I found in my Valentine/heart tub. I diecut some other flourishy pieces and some flowers to add to the card. The last embellishment I added were the tiny gold domes and the larger gold domes for the flower centers.

SS6 and CC358

Loved this sketch for the Sisterhood Sunday Challenge. I also used the Tuesday Color Challenge colors for this card. The stamps are from Stampin' Up, and the sentiment from MFP (a Heinreich company). I embossed the pink background panel with a Sizzix folder, and paper punched the front

strip with an EK punch. Added a few rhinestones, and the card was complete. Here's the link to the sketch: Sisterhood Sunday Challenge #6.

C4C119 -blue

Crazy 4 Challenges is a great Saturday challenge, and I got a late start on mine. The challenge was to do a monochromatic card using blue. Here's mine. I used design papers by Basic Grey, and stamps by Verve.

OBDBSLC91

What a fun challenge this was!!  We were to use tools and things that start with the letters in WINTER!
My W is white, I-ink, N-Nestabilities, T-teal or turquoise, E - embossing and eyelets, R-ribbon. I am thrilled to be adding to my ODBD stamps with this stamp set and the cross set that I just purchased. Now I have 4 of their sets and I can use their stamps when I do their challenges. I love their sets because it always includes scripture or spiritual sentiment.

Catching up on Verves' Friday challenges

The seDoing some catch up today. I did last week's sketch today and today's sketch so I can try to keep up with the Viva La Verve challenges for January. I used Verve stamps for both and Basic Grey dp for both as well.
The sentiment on the baby card is from Stampin' Up.

CAS-ual Friday #35

Here is a quick and easy Valentine using scallops that took me
 less than 10 minutes to do. I have a busy morning planned
 but wanted to do this challenge over at CAS-ual Friday Challenge.
 I needed another Valentine for my stash too.

QFTD95 - Judy

I always look forward to the Queen for the Day challenge every Friday over on SCS, and was so excited to see jaydeekay being honored this week. Judy's gallery is totally beautiful and was so inspired by everything I found there. I used a sunflower set from Flourishes on my case of her card. I loved that she stamped the images in black on a white backgound  behind the colored image that she was featuring on her card. Not as much of my black stamped images are visible as hers. I should have made my card bigger. Congratulations, Judy, and enjoy your day. I'm a BIG fan of yours!!

FLLCJANRW1

These are all red, orange, pink, and peach scraps I found around my paper cutter when I was gathering up papers. So glad this challenge over at Flourishes made use of these colors.

I have to say that scaley pattern on the back of this dragon inspired me as well, so here are the results :

                                                        
                                                               

Using those old forgot stamps

I have gone to putting all my old Stampin' Up sets into tubs fitting categories so that they are easier to find when I would like to use them. I started a heart and Valentine tub that anything in that fits that category. Last week I pulled that tub out and rediscovered some of these old favorite stamps I needed to be using for Valentines Day. I love seeing how these work with new ways to embellish and new papers. There is nothing worse than neglected rubber!!!LOL Show some of your old stamps a little love every once and a while. The sketch I used is today's sketch on SCS's sketch challenge.

MOJO 223

Wow, what a day for a Monday! We are getting flooding rains in my area of the world this morning. We've suffered from droughts all summer, and we've all almost forgot what this kind of rain is like.Because of the hard dried clay soil, it is not soaking in like you think that it would.  It looks like a great day to stay home and stamp to me. So, my first challenge of the day is MOJO Monday, of course. I used some new Basic Grey papers I got recently and some of my Verve stamps. I decided to use some embossing, punching, and diecutting on this too.

Stampin' Sisterhood

It's Sunday and my idea of relaxing on Sunday includes some time in my stamp room. I am also working hard on Valentines this week, so I made this sketch challenge over on Stampin' Sisterhood's Sunday challenge a good one to try. Here's what I came up with and I wanted to use my new stamp I received a couple of weeks ago from Rubbernecker because I won the challenge drawing a couple of weeks ago. I had been eyeing this medallion stamp for a long time over there and so I knew just which one to pick when given a choice. It's always fun to win something!!! I added a heart stamp from Stampin' Up and a scripture stamp from Stampabilities. I cuttlebugged the card base with a cuttlebug folder. Added some grandy ribbon and some pearls. Quick and easy Valentine!

ODBDSLC91

The challenge over at Our Daily Bread Designs is in with the new and out with the old. So, the new thing on my card is the window diecut piece and the old is the ODBD stamp (it is the first one I ever purchased from ODBD). I also used a wood grain embossing folder to make my wall. Then, I did my tribute to Kittie, whose paper floral arrangements are renown, by adding the floral arrangement above the window sill.

JUGS118

This is a set from Paper Trey Ink that I just got recently and it has this cute little diecut that matches it. My son, Josh, is turning 37 next week, so I decided to make this a trifold card so I could make a pocket inside for his birthday check I will include. He's a drummer in a band (not so much Rock and Roll as Texas Roadhouse and uncut Bluegrass); but hey, we all rock to our own style of music and I thought this would be a fun card. I picked my favorite color combo. The Just Us Girls Challenge was this wonderful sketch: