Peep, Peep, Peep!

Look what hatched out just in time for Easter. Here is another card I made with the images on the The Cutting Cafe Easter set 1. This was the last card I made from that set but there were still a couple other images to work with that I did not use.

Once again I did a wash of the background using my Zig water color markers and spritzes of water mixed on a double folded wax paper palette. I then colored the chick and flowers with the Zigs without adding water. When all was dry I assembled the layers and placed it on a pink card stock base.

I am still in last minute cleaning mode and cooking mode. The first of the family arrives tonight. So we will have Taco Salad for our meal. We all seem to like it so that is a nice easy meal to fix.

You have a great weekend and thanks for the visits.

God bless,
Verna

Another Easter Card

I am sharing with you another Easter card I made using the Easter Set 1 from The Cutting Cafe.

I really love this design. I did a wash using the Zig Water Color markers by putting a scribble of my colors onto a double layer of waxed paper and then spritzing with water. When that background was dry I then mounted it onto a black layer of card stock and finally to the square card base. The cross is an older die I used from Top Dog Dies which I thought was the perfect compliment to the  background.

So happy you could stop by. I have been busy cleaning and getting ready for Easter. So not much creativity going on these days. Have a good rest of the week.

God bless,
Verna

North Pole Santa

Time again for the March Rudolph Days Challenge and I have a card to enter into it using stamps from the Taylored Expressions Baby, It's Cold Outside stamp set. I did a simple little scene and made it into a fun Christmas card. I was not quite sure how to place the snowflakes and flourish but I hope it looks okay the way I did it.

I stamped Santa and the sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I then colored them with my Copics. The snowflakes and flourish were stamped with Gina K. Designs Blue Raspberry ink. The focal layer and the green layer were die cut with a Unbranded Scalloped Stitch die I got from Cheapo Dies. It is a very basic design but I find that the scallops combined with the stitching makes a nice look.

We had quite a bit of snow dumped on us Friday night and into Saturday but it warmed up and the snow has really diminished a lot already. So since it was snowing on Saturday I stamped this card really quick for this challenge. I guess it looked more like Christmas outside then Easter.

Well, you have a wonderful week and I just want you to know I love to see your wonderful comments each time I post. You are so kind to say such nice things.

God bless,
Verna

Special Announcement

ANNOUNCEMENT to my crafting friends! 

If you are wondering what happened to the CropStop Challenge Blog, they have experienced terrible issues with their current Wordpress blog and can't even get in to announce that they are having to resort back to the old blog beginning Monday 3/26. Here is a link to the blog  Crop Stop Challenge Blog.

Spread the word.

Hugs, Verna

Easter Chick Scene

I am sharing one of the other cards I made with the Easter Set 1 from The Cutting Cafe. This is a printable digital set of backgrounds and images. For this card I made my own scenic background and added the cute little chick from the Easter Set 1. This so reminds me of Spring too!

I used a homemade stencil to make the clouds. And then I just drew in the grass and soil with markers. The little chick and egg were colored with Zig markers. The egg was originally plain but I decided to decorate mine. The end result was a cute scene and isn't that a cute chick image? I sure liked it.

I am adding this to the following challenges:
Mod Squad Blog Challenge Spring
Double D's Challenge Just "Wing" It

Thanks for visiting and I love to read all the wonderful comments you leave.

God bless,
Verna

Stained Glass

I recently acquired a Sue Wilson Stained Glass Collection Butterfly die and so I decided yesterday afternoon to try and work up a design and I wanted to do an inlaid look with it. Well, I tell you that is time consuming especially when you have to first die cut it in so many different colors, but I just love the end result of it. I went with more Spring like colors too.

I made the mistake though of putting all the die cut pieces into one plastic bag and that really took time to find all the little pieces for it. I had originally planned to do the outside of the die cut too, but after all that work I thought it looked okay just this way.

I am entering this in the following challenges:
Scrapy Land Challenge #86-Anything Goes
Double D's Blog Challenge-Just "Wing" It
Mod Squad Challenge-Ready for Spring

Well, I think I will make one more card this week and then I will have to get into cleaning mode and baking for Easter. I am so slow as I have to rest every little bit and believe me it takes me a long time to just put away my craft supplies as they go to various parts of the house. Oh, if only I had my own craft room I would be so happy. LOL

 I will be posting a few cards I  have made up ahead of time. So I will still be around now and then. In the meantime, you have a great day and thanks for the visit.

God bless,
Verna

Welcome Spring!

Happy first day of Spring to all of you. I know I have been looking forward to this day. And, in honor of this occasion we have been getting rain and snow overnight and this morning. But now the sun is shining. But that is pretty typical of Spring weather.

I am not much for using digital images mainly because I am not very efficient trying to make them work for me. But when I recently won three files from The Cutting Cafe I picked out one that would work for my Easter cards by using the Easter 1 set. So the Easter cards I will be featuring in the next few days will show backgrounds and images from that set. I picked out only printable sets as I cannot do cut files but if you can, Regina Easter has lots of those in her shop too!

The background is one of those printable ones from the Easter 1 set and I used Zig markers mixed with water to color it. I just took a folded piece of wax paper, scribbled on the colors I wanted and then spritzed them with water to get a more washed out look. This way when I painted the design it had more pastel colors. I picked out scraps of card stock that went with my water colored background to add layers to the design.

I die cut the Die-namites die called Spring Bunny with white for the top layer and then added it to a piece of lavender card stock which I just fussy cut out. After assembling everything I finished the card by adding some green rhinestones.

Well, I thank you for the visit and I hope your day is going great. I want to get my Easter cards in the mail soon so thought I best photograph and blog about them before they are sent off. Let's hope I don't eat too many of the props too! LOL

God bless,
Verna

More Faux No Line Work

Today was a mixed up mess due to circumstances with a delayed noon meal so that by the time I got my dishes done it was almost mid afternoon. But I did manage to try another attempt at the faux no line technique that I told you about yesterday. I found this more complicated floral design looks nice  doing it the same way. Remember you used copy paper and stamp your design with Memento black ink on that and then turn it over and color it with alcohol ink markers. This time I used the Copics. And as in both cases of my using the Zig markers yesterday and the Copics today I sometimes had to do several applications to get the right look.

I did make a mistake though by having the blooms go two different directions. I think if I had them going the same way it would have looked better. I used the flower from the Gina K. Designs Through Thick & Thin set and the sentiment was from the Gina K. Designs Dogwood and Butterfly set.

Once I had my design colored I then cut it out with a Unbranded Scalloped Stitch Rectangle Die from Cheapo Dies. I also used dies from the same set to make a frame by placing two of the dies together and then cutting them out from the Cranberry Tart card stock. Everything was then added to a white card base and the last thing added was three clear rhinestone gems. Oh, I also used a bit of white paint pen to add more dimension to the center of the flowers and also a darker green pen to add more of the highlights to the leaves too. The flowers I pretty much left as they were.

I am entering this card into the Dies R Us Challenge #93-Frame It.

I tell you this is really fun to do and since my eyesight is not as good as it used to be I find this a much easier way to do a no line look on images. I hope more of you will try it as well. Thanks to Melanie Muenchinger for coming up with this idea. I posted her video on the previous blog post so if you want you can go there and check it out.

Thanks for the visit and have a great evening. I love to read your comments too.

God bless,
Verna

Faux No Line Coloring With Alcohol Markers

Hi Everyone. I hope your Sunday is going great. This afternoon I decided to make a confirmation card as we are needing one really soon for a friend of ours. And, since Melanie Muenchinger made a video on how to do faux no line coloring I had to try it out. HERE is the link to her video as she can do a much better job of explaining it then I can. And, the kicker is that you use simple printer paper and alcohol markers only.

I am afraid my work is not quite up to par compared to Melanie's but I think overtime I will do better. I did not use my Copics but instead used Zig Marker pens which are also an alcohol ink marker. But next time I will use the Copics and see if I get better results that way. Also I will not add a blue outline around the flowers. I was not going to post this as it was not quite what I wanted but maybe if someone else can learn from what I did wrong it might be worth sharing.

The flower image is from the Gina K. Designs Whimsical Spring set and the sentiment is from the Gina K. Designs Sentimental Calla Lily stamp set. I die cut the white focal panel with a Cottage Cutz Double Stitched Border die. It was layered onto a blue panel which I cut out by hand. I also used a white Uni Posca paint pen to add some white to the center of the flowers. And the finishing touch was to add some blue rhinestone gems. Inside I added a My Favorite Things Blueprint 29 die cut white panel where I can stamp and write a message.

Well, it is a warmer but quite cloudy today. And, they say it will be raining later on and then gradually turn over to snow. I hope that we don't lose power, but at least we are prepared if we do with a generator on hand. I wish you a great week and thanks for your visits.

God bless,
Verna

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you. I hope you are enjoying this holiday. I don't do much myself to celebrate it but I do enjoy making cards for others depicting it. I am sharing with you the final card I made using the Iralamija shop vintage photo that I won. I also used a wonderful Cheapo die called Clover Flourish.

I think that sweet lady is so pretty in that photo and I accidentally printed it onto regular printer paper instead of card stock but I used it that way regardless. I also used some Versamark ink and clear embossing powder which was heat set on both the lady printout and the sentiment which I computer generated. 

I die cut two Clover Flourishes and used that to frame the photo which I placed on a panel of dark green card stock. But before I added everything to the yellow card base I took the leftover negative and used it as a stencil to add a few more subtle clovers with green ink.  Once I had everything added to the card I finished it by adding some yellow pearls on each clover on the flourish. 

Well, I wish you a wonderful weekend. It is a beautiful day here but it was a bit nippy this morning early. But the sun is shining and we missed out on the nasty weather that other parts of our state got. Thanks for your wonderful visits too.

God bless,
Verna

Vintage St. Patrick's Day

Once again on this card I am using one of the St. Patrick's vintage designs from Iralamijashop that I won a few months ago. It is a cute little Cupie Doll design and I backed it up on some plaid pattern paper from My Favorite Things. I also found some scraps of the perfect color of green card stock which made another layer.

I added that huge shamrock design from Cheapo Dies called Fancy Clover Set. It is a two piece set and the outer layer was done with some leftover dark colored green card stock. And, the sentiment from an old stamp set from Gingerbread (no longer in business)  was stamped in dark green ink and then punched out with an oval scalloped punch. All the layers were added to a peach card base to create this CAS St. Patrick's Day design.

I had this card made several days ago but instead of posting it I was working on Easter cards. But since St. Pat's is just around the corner I figured I should show you this one too.

Another week almost gone again. It seems the weeks get shorter all the time. And, I get less and less done too! LOL Thanks for all the visits you have been giving me and also for the wonderful comments.

God bless,
Verna

Color Your Vellum

I decided I wanted to enter a card into the Mod Squad Challenge-Color Your Vellum which is ongoing now. And I thought to myself, "how hard can that be"? Well, believe me it isn't as easy as you might think. First of all, my embossing powder strayed all over even after using an anti-static pad. Then when I got one of the designs to work well, I messed up with coloring it. But persistence paid off and I got a vellum design colored and on the card I am showing today. I decided I would make it an Easter card since I will be needing a few of them.

My flowers are from the Gina K. Designs Spring Basket set and the sentiment is from the Gina K. Designs Springtime Baskets set. I inked up the flowers with a Versamark pad and then embossed them with Gina K. Designs White Detail embossing powder. The flowers were hand cut out of the vellum after I had them colored in with Copics. The sentiment was stamped with Gina K. Designs Moonlight Fog ink. The card stocks are Gina K. Designs Dusty Rose, Lemon Yellow, Moonlight Fog and White. My pink panel was die cut with a Cottage Cutz Double Stitched Rectangle die. The other layers were hand cut.  I added a ribbon and some pearls to finish off the design before placing it on the white card base.

We have been having quite a bit of melting this weekend. So it certainly feels more like spring. But I wonder if all the moisture and humidity in the air wasn't part of the reason for my embossing powder taking flight and not sticking on the images when I stamped them. But at least I finally got one done that I thought didn't look too bad.

I hope your weekend went well and that you remembered to turn your clock ahead. I sure do not like the time change in fall or spring. It messes me all  up. I feel so tired today. And, I went to bed early so that the lost hour should not bother me. Yeah, right!

Thanks so very much for visiting and I hope your week will be a wonderful one.

God bless,
Verna

Guest Designing For March Twofer

I am very honored to be guest designing for the No. 3 March Twofer Card challenge. I was so lucky to be chosen the winner on the very first Twofer challenge and therefore, was asked to do a guest spot.

The challenge this month is to use a blossom or flower image on two cards in different and unique ways. My blossoms were taken from a Concord and 9th stamp set called Flourish. I also used a sentiment from Gina K. Designs for the Easter design.

The first one is simply the floral design and this Flourish stamp set was the first set from Concord & 9th  I purchased and I still love it. It is a very fun and more artsy looking floral design. The sentiment for this card was taken from another Concord & 9th set called Many Mandalas Stamp set. My inks of choice were Hero Arts Ombre ink pads and I used a Memory Box Cross Stitched Border die to cut out the white stamped panel and the black panel. The sentiment was stamped with Versafine black ink before I placed the layered panels on a white card base. The last items added were the black gem rhinestones.

Now using the same stamp set I made an Easter scene. The Flourish set flowers were used to make the grass and the decorations on the eggs. By the way I did not have any plain egg dies but I figured a small oval would serve just as well. So I die cut some using a Cheery Lynn Die and then decorated them with the flower images.

The rabbit die is one from Cheery Lynn Designs called Funny Bunny and I simply cut it in white and backed it onto some pink card stock. I then cut around the image to make it look more visible against the blue sponged background I did for the sky. I thought the sentiment would look cute if it was on a cloud so I did it that way and popped it up. The sentiment is from the Gina K. Designs Springtime Baskets set.

I always enjoy making cards and both of these designs were fun to make. A little thinking outside the box is sometimes required but I think that is a part of the fun of the challenge. I hope some of you will consider joining in on the challenge as well.

Thanks for the visit and comments. See you next time!

God bless,
Verna

Heartfelt Thoughts In Gray

The Double D's Challenge this time is to use mostly gray in your card design. Well this was a challenge for me mainly because I had gray papers but they were different shades and when combined together some of them instead looked green and some blue instead of gray. I finally settled on this combination of papers and inks to make my card and I think it is a fairly good match.

The stamps used for this card are from the Stampin' Up! Heartfelt Blooms set. And the ink I chose to use is Versafine Smokey Gray. The white focal panel was die cut with a Cottage Cutz Double Stitched Rectangle die. And, the ribbed gray paper and the ribbon were some I had in my stash for ages and of course, I don't know where they came from.

Just a very simple and quick card to make but I really love the way it looks. It has a sort of quiet elegance about it I think.

Anyway, that was my project for today. We shall see what tomorrow brings. I might just spend the day addressing my St. Patrick's Day cards instead of making cards. Anyway, thanks for the visit and for the wonderful comments you leave.

God bless,
Verna

Black, White and Red

My latest Gina K. Designs stamp set and stencil arrived recently but this was the first chance I had to play with them. So I decided to join the Stamp TV Mix It Up Monday Challenge in which we are to use black and white along with another color and also add a ribbon.

My card was made with the Gina K. Designs Wreath Builder set along with the Gina K. Designs stencil template. I made my wreath builder design onto a 4 x 4 square of white card stock. It was originally a wreath design but I wanted to add more to the panel so I added extra images to fill out the whole area to  make a pattern paper look.  Once I had my design done to my liking I then cut it in two down the center. One half was applied to a black card stock base on the top and one half was applied to the bottom.

Then in the middle I added a white panel which was layered to a black piece of card stock and on this panel I stamped the sentiment and also another red blossom from the Wreath Builder set. But before I added that panel to the main card I added a gingham black and white ribbon. I chose to use Gina K. Designs Red Velvet and Black Onyx inks and also White, Black Onyx and Red Velvet card stocks from Gina K. Designs.

I added a floral design in each corner along the bottom of the white panel that I added to the inside of the card. This way it ties the outside design to the inside. I also added a sentiment from the stamp set inside.

Well, this was fun to do. And, the sun was shining again and it warmed a wee bit so that there is just a little melting. Much nicer day then when it was snowing so hard. I hope your day is going well for you too! Thanks for the visit and until next time take care.

God bless,
Verna

St. Pat's Shaker Card

Just for the fun of it I thought I would see if I could use some of my Cheapo dies and make a shaker card. Well everything was going great until I realized I did not have the right elements to put into a shaker. But then I thought of the box of goodies I inherited from my Mom after she passed on and I found some confetti in it that I think worked just fine. Of course, I had to hand pick the gold and green ones only for my shaker since it was for St. Patrick's Day. And since I am not a shaker card maker I think this is not too bad considering. I think I might have made two more in my lifetime.

I used some Gina K. Designs pattern paper from the Garden Tour paper pack. I also used some Crafter's Companion green card stock and the peach colored card stock for the card base is from Gina K. Designs. Also the light green card stock is from Gina K. Designs.

I used the Cheapo clover die set which consists of two pieces and used the negative for the shaker area. I then used the two dies from the set together to make a frame for it. And, the flourish was cut out and placed along the right side and I added some orange gems to it.

The last thing added to my card was the sentiment from Gingerbread of Arlington, SD which was stamped in Gina K. Designs Christmas Pine ink and then cut out with a Marvy Uchida scalloped oval punch. The Gingerbread company is no longer in business but in the early days of my stamping and card making career I bought quite a few stamps from them.

Cheapo Dies used:
Clover Flourish
Fancy Clover Set

Well, we have had electricity all day and hubby has been cleaning out our yard and the neighbor's yard. So he has been extra busy all day. It is such a wet snow so it is very hard to blow it. He had a lot of plugging up with the blower and sheared a few pins too. Good thing he always has extras on hand to fix it again in a hurry. We got about a foot of snow.

Thanks so much for your visits and wonderful comments. Here's wishing you a great evening now.

God bless,
Verna

Uchi's Design Animation Butterfly

A few months ago I bought a Uchi's Designs grid die and for the life of me I could not get it to work. Well I am happy to report that Uchi's  Designs replaced my grid die and also sent me more stamps for all the problems I had. And, even more lovely is that this new die works wonderfully. I am so happy about it so while we are having a blizzard today I used my new grid along with the Uchi's Designs Butterfly animation stamp set to make this card

.
Dies used are:
Cheery Lynn Designs-Just For You
Memory Box-Wonky Stitched Rectangles on the pattern paper.
Uchi's Designs-Grid Die
Spellbinder Dies-Labels Sixteen

The pattern paper is some I got from Gina K. Designs Garden Tour paper pack. I thought it was a pretty floral design and I liked that it had lots of black besides all the other fun colors. The butterflies on the card stock under the grid are from Uchi's Design too and were stamped in Versafine Black ink.

I am hoping by comparing the two photos of the card with the butterfly panel at different positions that you will see the animation look. Sorry I don't do videos.  After applying all the layers I finished the card off by adding some flowers along the top and bottom of the grid along with some rhinestone centers.

Well, weather wise it has been quite a past few hours. Last night around midnight we had a strong thunder storm and this morning when I woke up it was snowing like crazy. And, so very windy too! Hubby says we have about a foot of snow so far. And, still coming down. And, it is a wet snow and every now and then the electricity goes off and on. I hope it keeps coming back on all the time as I hate to think of having to get the generator out and get it going. ****No more then wrote this and off it went again. So glad I got the post restored so I did not lose all of it.

Well, everyone take care and have a safe and good night. Thanks for the visit.

God bless,
Verna

St. Pat's Card

Some time back I was the lucky winner of some digital photos from Iralmijashop and one of the sets I picked out was one that featured St. Patrick's Day designs. So along with an old rainbow pattern paper that Dee Gruenig sold several years ago and some dies I made a St. Patrick's Day card.

The rainbow pattern paper was die cut with a Memory Box Cross Stitched Border die and the Fancy Clover die set consists of two dies. An outer one and then the fancy inside design. So each die could be used separately as well. They are from Cheapo Dies.

This will be one of the cards I will send to the shut-ins. I hope they will like it. It doesn't show up too well but that rainbow paper has some glitter infused in it so it looks much better in person. For some reason I could not capture it in the photos I took.

I am entering this in the following challenges:
Scrapy Land #84-Anything Goes
Dies R Us Challenge #92-Use Pastel Colors

Well, the weekend is upon us. So no doubt I will be taking a break. This Sunday is Jack's baptism. So we are looking forward to that and hope the big storm holds off  until all get back to their homes safely. You have a great weekend too and thanks so much for the lovely comments you leave me.

God bless,
Verna

Heart Frame Card

Well March 1st came in like a lamb today. It was a beautiful day with lots of snow melting. And today my order from Cheapo Dies arrived too and I just had to play a bit so I chose to use this one for a CAS card design. I went with spring colors.  I had seen where so many saved the negative part of the card and then refilled it in with the die cut so I decided to try my luck at it. I must say even I am impressed with the end result. And, that die cut perfectly the first pass through. I am so happy with it.

Behind the die frame I added some plaid pattern paper from My Favorite Things and I tried to use colors on the frame and flowers to compliment that paper. I sponged the colors in so it does not have a perfect coloring as some of the colors overlapped to create a different color. But even so I love it. I added gems to each of the flowers too.

And, the card stock is from Gina K. Designs and the sentiment is from the Gina K. Designs Spring Basket stamp set. I wasn't sure what I wanted to use this card for so I chose a sentiment that would work for many occasions. The main panel was die cut with the Memory Box Cross Stitched Border die before I added it to the card base.

I am entering this in the following:
Scrapy Land Challenge #84-Anything Goes
Dies R Us Challenge #92-Use Pastel Colors

Well, we will enjoy the beautiful weather while it lasts. According to the forecast we will start on Sunday late in the day with freezing rain followed by snow. It may last into Tuesday too. So I guess we are technically still in the Winter season but it sure was nice these few days experiencing a taste of Spring. I hope you are enjoying great weather too. Thanks for the visits as well.

God bless,
Verna