CASEing Lego Card

I recently was exploring the tutorials at Operation Write Home and ran across this cool kid card design to make a Lego card. I thought this afternoon I would try my hand at one too. The information for this technique can be found at Julie's blog http://www.handmadebyjulie.com/ off to the right side. Edit: Her name is Julie Fountain.

I am not sure my card is nearly as nice as Julie's but I did find it fun to create and will use mine for a kid's Valentine design. It was a lot more work than I anticipated though, but since I have grandsons who are crazy for Legos I thought it was perfect for them. It could be also made into a birthday or get well card too for a kid.

I used the sentiment and hearts from the Gina K. Designs Spoon Me set illustrated by Rebecca Oehlers. I fussy cut all those hearts out and popped them. I also used a Spellbinder oval die for the sentiment.

I am going to enter this card in the Mix It Up Monday Challenge at StampTV. And, since I cased that card by Julie I am also going to enter it in the Mod Squad Challenge.

I hope everyone has a good week and can get some creative fun accomplished. It sounds like the weather will remain cold for most of the week, so I am glad I can stay inside and make cards.

Pastor's Card

Last Sunday morning we received the news that our beloved pastor had died in his sleep and had gone to his Heavenly home. Since he was a man of only 57 years and seemed to be energetic and in fairly good health, this came as a real shock to all of us. It just goes to show though, that none of know when our task on earth will be completed. We will miss him greatly!

I put a lot of thought into the making of this card before I finally made it. I also put in a lot of love and appreciation to the Lord for blessing us with this minister and his family for all the years they were with our small country congregation. I usually don't spend as much time on a card but I wanted this one to be special. I am glad I did take more time too, as I think it came out wonderfully.

I used the country church stamp from Stampscapes and colored it with colored pencils and did some sponging of blue dye ink in the sky. The flowers and the sentiment are from Gina K. Designs and they were also colored with the colored pencils.

I rejoice that this wonderful man is now with his Lord and I feel so blessed that we got to share in his life as a minister. He came to us as a vicar and decided to stay on as our pastor. We were his first and last parish. We were truly blessed.

CAS Thank You

Happy Saturday to all of you. And, it was a happy mail day for me as well as my new Journey of the Heart Stamp TV kit arrived today. I decided I had to play a little bit so worked up a CAS design for a thank you card to include in the Operation Write Home package I am working on.

I used ivory and blue denim card stock for my card. I also used Gina K. Designs Blue Denim ink. The flower and leaves are from the Love and Prayers set in the kit. The Thank You Border is a single stamp from Gina K. Designs which I really love too. It has a more elegant look with that border I thought. And, can't get much simpler than the use of a few solid type image stamps and one ink pad. I had to fussy cut the flower and then I popped it over the leaves.

Well, I am off to work on a few more designs for Operation Write Home. I wish all of you a great weekend.

Pulled Out Some Old Toys

Well, going through all my dies, I happened upon some of the Cuttlebug Emboss and Cut folders that I had purchased when they came out and found them so difficult to use. Well, I decided today to try and use them but first I had to view a video to show how to use them in my Big Kick! I was completely in the dark as to how they should be used. So after reviewing that I decided to try making a card with one.

First thing I did was take my wax candle and rub along the metal so that it would make the paper release well. Also one can use wax paper but I find this much handier. Keep an old candle around just for that purpose. And, it worked like a charm! I even took a step further and used the folder like a stencil and added my color.

My color of choice was Eggplant from Gina K. Designs. It is a deep, deep color and went so well with the lighter lilac card stock I used. I cut it into the size frame I wanted and then put it onto the white card base. Inside the frame I stamped the lovely floral guitar image from the Gina K. Designs Love is Friendship duo set. I also used the sentiment from the Thank You Duo set from Gina K. Designs. I love the combination and think the flourish type frame worked well with the image.

I read where Operation Write Home is in need of some thank you cards so I hope to try and make a few more using my Cuttlebug Emboss and Cut folders.

I also think this is a fairly clean and simple card with lots of open space in it, so I entered it in the Monday challenge at StampTV.

Mod Squad Challenge to use wood this week!

I was in a masculine card making mood so it was only a "given" that I use some wood on my card for this week's challenge at the Mod Squad Challenge Blog since the challenge stated to use some form of wood. It could be wood paper, wood embellishing or other ways to show wood. I chose to add some card stock that I made into a wood design.

I chose a cowboy theme for my focal image which I obtained from Stamp It Crazy.net. Oh, and years ago I made several cards for this company as they were just starting to get up and running then. I believe she still has a gallery there with some of my work displayed so if you take a "hankerin" you might want to wander over and check it out. LOL

My wood grain was done with stamps from Gina K. Designs using the Beautiful Banners set. I took kraft card stock and swiped it down with some Gina K. Designs Ivory pigment ink using the pad only. Then I overstamped it with the woodgrain pattern with Gina K. Designs Warm Cocoa dye ink. Also the sentiment was from Gina K. Designs and is from the Vertical Greetings & Things set. I stamped this in the Warm Cocoa ink as well onto Ivory card stock and then all the various elements of the card were layered onto Gina K. Designs Dark Chocolate card stock. The base card is made with Gina K. Designs Powder Blue card stock.

Today I am glad my stamping "mojo" was back in full force. I guess a little bit of a slump is not too hard to deal with now and then. And, I had fun making this card too. It was a great way to spend a cold, windy and blizzardy day, staying indoors and stamping! I also got in some cool hops and perhaps all the inspiration with those exercises soaked in to help the cause too.

Hope your day went well too. And thanks for looking at my endeavor today!

Code CDB09 Notecard

Today I decided to work with a stamp set I got from I Brake for Stamps in which there is a beautiful rose background image. I wanted a fairly simple card but wanted it to still look quite colorful! I used Copics to color the rose background and then simply added the sentiment from the set onto layers. By adding a bow which was made with the Craft-Dee BowZ maker and some bling I called my card complete.

I must confess too, that for some reason unknown I was not in the mood to stamp. So perhaps my forcing myself to do so might show up in the end results. I am sure now and then everyone has that feeling occasionally. But I wanted to have some notecards on hand and thought this was a good way to go.

I am going to enter this card into the Craft-Dee BowZ monthly challenge if I can figure out how to upload it there. I am having issues now and then, but I guess if one does not try, one cannot learn and finally succeed. LOL The theme for January is Anything Goes.

Oh, and I used decorative scissors from Fiskars to cut out the border. Forgot to mention that.

Mix It Up Monday Challenge

Every Monday at StampTV there is a challenge for the week. This week we were challenged to keep it clean and simple. Well, normally, that is not a problem for me but it seems I ended up doing a lot more to my card design than I had planned originally. But even so it does have a lot of open space, so I think it will still qualify.

I used all images from Gina K. Designs as well as pattern paper from Gina K. Designs Smitten paper pack. I also used Spellbinder dies to accentuate the sentiment. Oh, and I had pink rhinestones so to make the corner rhinestone treatment more coordinating with the pattern paper I took the largest rhinestone and colored it with my red Copic marker.

The focal image also was colored with Copic markers. I don't have very many of those but I do the best I can with what I do have. I know.....should purchase some more, but I keep putting it off. They do work great though and with lots of blending I try to get good results with less markers.

Don't you love that little elephant image? You can find him on Rebecca Oehlers It's The Little Things set by Gina K. Designs. And the balloons are on the new duo set True Friends by Gina K. Designs. I found the sentiment from a retired set from Gina's called Heartily Yours Additions designed by Nina Brackett. By putting the various elements all together I think I have a wonderful Valentine design.

Beautiful Winter Day

Well, perhaps not right at the moment as the wind is blowing full tilt and snow is drifting all around the neighborhood! But I am sure once the master artist, our Lord God gets done, he will bring us a beautiful winter day tomorrow. And, if so, I pictured it to look  much like this scene I did today. I am also entering this into the Mod Squad Challenge for this week which asks us to feature snow in our entries.

For my focal image I chose a lovely winter scene stamp which I received from my Secret Santa this year. It is one of Cherry Pie Arts stamps and is a complete scene. For some reason the blues were calling me, so I stamped it in blue and only added a hint of other colors to the scene. To make the snow more pronounced I used some Sparkle N Sprinkle sprinkle soft which gives a glittery affect to the snow in the scene.

I used Gina K. Designs Pure Luxury card stock in the colors of Bubble Gum Pink and Powder Blue. I also used Gina K. Designs Bubble Gum Pink, Powder Blue and Sweet Corn inks. And, did sponging with all three of those ink colors on the scene. My ribbons are also from Gina K. Designs.

The sentiment was one I had for a long, long time and finally thought this was the perfect place for it on this card. I added more of the Powder Blue ink along the edges of it, to make it more pronounced. This sticker with the sentiment is from Jillibean Soup.

I finished my pastel colored winter scene design by adding some blue rhinestones to the corners.

The Snowflake

Well, since we are still in the heart of winter I guess it only appropriate that we will still see lots of snowflakes fall. A while back with a qualifying order from Stampers Companion I received this beautiful snowflake collage that I had been dying to use and when the latest Mod Squad Blog challenge came up, I figured it was the perfect time to make use of it. The title of the collage image is of course The Snowflake.

I did a very clean and simple design by stamping the whole stamp image in blue ink onto a lighter blue card stock. I then added lots of rhinestone bling to frame it and to enhance the snowflakes. Guess what I need to get for my supply stash now? LOL I finished it by adding it to a navy blue/white duplex card base. And I really like it even though it is a simple design.  It should be very easy to mail too as it is not too bulky.

Anyway, this is my entry into the Mod Squad Blog challenge for this week. I am so enjoying doing the challenges and hopefully, some of you can join in on the fun as well!

Oh, the collage image is from Stamp-It Australia.

An Anniversary Card

Today I used the lilly and sentiment images from the Sparkle N Sprinkle set 402 My Rose Garden and colored them with Copic markers. I then fussy cut them out. I placed them over the top of the Spellbinder Shapeabilities Fair Isle Pendant which in turn was layered onto a Darice embossing folder called Wired Fence. The ribbon is from Gina K. Designs. I finished the card by layering again onto dark pink card stock before I added it to the white base card. A little pearl trim on the bottom corners completed my card design.

I entering this into the Mod Squad Challenge as well.

Mod Squad Challenge

Today I worked on my entry for the Mod Squad Challenge. I used Gina K. Designs Birds & Blossoms stamp set by Theresa Momber for the flowers which I stamped in Gina K. Designs black dye ink. I colored them with Copic Markers and then fussy cut them out. My sentiment was also stamped in black ink and was from Gina K. Designs Arranged With Love set by Melanie Muenchinger.

The card base is Gina K. Designs Ivory card stock and layered with Gina K. Designs Innocent Pink card stock. I used Spellbinder Grand Nestabilites Dies to cut the base card and the pink layer. And for the center layer I used ivory card stock and die cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities Floral Ovals.

Each layer I sponged on ink using Momento Angel Pink, New Sprout and Bamboo Leaves to create a distressed look. I finished my card by adding some pearl sticker bling by Opaline and also some pink pearls in the center of the flowers. The green striped ribbon bow was made with the Craft-Dee BowZ bow maker.

This card will be also sent to a wonderful friend of mine who will be in the hospital for a long time and I thought perhaps it might help to make her stay go faster if she got lots of nice mail.

More Monochromatic

Good afternoon everyone.
It appears to be a bit warmer. Last I heard we were about 3 degrees above zero, but still plenty cold for me.

A friend of ours passed away this week so I was in need of a masculine type sympathy card. I decided that using brown tones would work and I wanted to achieve a peaceful looking scene card. My background was done by sponging ink onto white card stock to which I used a negative from an oval die cut as a stencil. I then simply added my solid images in darker brown ink. All images and inks are from Gina K. Designs. I always  like doing this on a card and have used this technique of a die cut negative background many times this past year.

Depending on the occasion one can make your stencil die cut background more subdued or more colorful and festive. So it really is quite versatile.

I hope you like my brown sympathy card. Sometimes I have problems with a monochromatic type of card but this time I think I really lucked out.

Blue Ribbon Frame

Brrrrr! It sure is a cold but very beautiful day as long as you stay inside. The sun is shining but our high today only reached about 12 degrees below zero. So I thought it a good day to make a card.

I had read an article in the March 2014 issue of Scrap & Stamp Arts Magazine about using ribbons to make frames. You can find it on page 26. And, it looked very pretty and surprisingly easy to do too, so I made my first ribbon framed card today.

I used images from Gina K. Designs and followed the Mix It Up Monday challenge at StampTV. I always enjoyed doing the challenges in the past if at all possible and today's challenge was to make a monochromatic card. I chose the color blue and tried to make a more masculine looking card using images from the Gina K. Designs Vertical Greetings & Things set which is illustrated by Theresa Momber. I thought I would share the results with you as well.

Organized Embossing Folders

Hi all,
I had my embossing folders all in a long thin box but it was falling apart, so I saw this idea for storing the embossing folders on Crafter's Companion and I ordered them on Black Friday but am just now getting around to putting my folders into them. I got two different sizes. One holds the A2 size and the other one holds bigger ones. I happened to get in on a special which included both in one package. But I think since I added some of the cardboard to the inserts for some of mine, I will go with the larger size if I ever order another organizer. And, I discovered I have a lot more folders than I had thought. LOL I guess for a crafter that is no surprise as we always find we have lots and lots of stuff, but then again it is all necessary stuff too. I thought I would share a photo of what I did today.

Hope your day is going great too, and if it is cold that you are staying warm.

Here is what I mean about my title My Creative Clutter. I need all sorts of things in order to make my cards.

Newbie blogger

I am not sure as to what I am doing, so please bear with me. I have to learn a lot I am sure to make a nice looking blog.