Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Happy New Year's Eve!

Wow! Another year has flown by and once again I have to learn to write a different year on my checks. It seems I just got used to writing 2019 and now I have to learn to write 2020.  But I am sure we will all adjust in time. At any rate I hope your 2020 is a wonderful new year for you. We will watch the old year out and the new year in by sitting in front of the TV.  We no longer do the party scene. We are lucky if we even stay awake until the new year arrives.

I got a reminder in the mail this last week of the upcoming drive for the Cards for Little Hearts so I thought I would share it with all of you as well. This way if you get a chance to work on some cards for the kids in between times during January you can find out all the details from the website. I hope you will consider making some cards. Even one or two would be of great value for this cause. When I make these cards I try to imagine in my mind that hopefully it will bring a smile to a little one who is having heart health issues.


So in the next days I plan on making some cards and in fact, have already gotten a few made for the drive. I have enjoyed doing that while we were in a blizzard. We got around 9 inches of snow again and it was very wet. So it was hard snow to push around and in fact, hubby took the tractor and loader to move it as the snow blower would not work with it. That was much better then shoveling it all by hand. I hope all of you who were in the line of the storms fared okay too. We were lucky and did not lose electricity but some of our friends did for a time loose their power. The only thing affected mainly for us was the internet as we were out quite a bit of the time. Also most churches canceled their services Sunday including ours.

Well, here's to a happy 2020. I wish you all the best and God's blessings.

Hugs,
Verna

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Merry Christmas

Just a quick card to share and to wish all of you a wonderful Christmas holiday. A simple design with pattern paper from Gina K. Designs and a die cut from Stamplorations Cutplorations which I think is a great sentiment to place on it. It was die cut from red mirror card stock. But the shimmer does not show as much as I would have liked it to do.


I wish all who are traveling for the holidays to have a safe journey. I hope you have a great time with family and friends and enjoy celebrating the birthday of our Lord Jesus!

God bless,
Verna

Friday, December 20, 2019

O Christmas Tree!

I made a card with Impression Obsession products and will be entering it in their latest challenge, The Impression Obsession Challenge-Quick and Easy Holiday Cards was perfect for me as that is mostly the kind of cards I make these days. I just love the tree I used for it and also by masking made a few presents to put beneath it.


The Impression Obsession products used are the following:
Pine Tree-K16247
Presents and Sentiment from the CL980 Holiday Icons stamp set

Other Supplies:
Various brands of ink
Bic Markers
Rhinestones from my stash -unknown

I had to finish up a few last minute details for cards and such as I found out that tomorrow night I am getting company. I had not figured on any this year but it is my two grandsons who want to visit for a couple days so I had to say yes to them. The house is a bit disheveled but they won't care. I hope all of you are doing well and if I don't get back on again before next Wednesday I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.

God bless,
Verna

Thursday, December 19, 2019

The Seventh Day of Christmas

I had to join the Double D Challenge-Twelve Days of Christmas: Part 2 and I chose to use the seventh day for my entry. I found a wonderful digital set of swan stamps which was originally made for sympathy cards but with the use of another digital set I managed to make my swan look more like a Christmas design. I know it calls for seven swans but I am only using one swan for my card.


I printed out the large swan and then using my blending brushes added some color around it. This was then die cut with a stitched rectangle die from Maker's Movement.  Next I took poinsettias from another digital stamp set and fussy cut them as adornments and also fussy cut some very small poinsettias to make a garland for the swan's neck. I computer generated the sentiment. I added this main panel to a layer of printed poinsettia paper and only used the very edge of the poinsettia pattern so that it resembles more of a colored stitched outline too.

Stamp Sets used:
Artsystamper Poinsettia Pair Stamps & Paper
Sweet N Sassy, LLC-Be Still stamp set

Well, my cookies and dinner rolls are baked and ready to go. Now I want to coat a few pretzels and that probably will conclude my holiday baking. I might still make a few no bake cookies as they are easy to do and always enjoyed. Most of the goodies except for the dinner rolls will be put in containers and given as Christmas gifts.

Everyone have a great rest of the week and a pleasant weekend. Christmas is soon here so I hope you are catching up on all you wanted to do. I guess I am about done so I am good in that department. Thanks for visiting.

God bless,
Verna

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Cute Penguin Card

I love this stamp of that cute penguin  and all those floating hearts. I got him at Jan's Digi Stamps. The set he comes with is 3225J Puttin' On The Ritz. I know he will make cute Valentines but I was hoping I could use this set also for the Cards for Little Hearts Drive which is in January. For this particular card I once again went with the pre-colored version but I can see me coloring with my markers the line versions for the kids too. I would go with different colors of hearts for sure. Try to get away from the Valentine look. What do you think? Would it work for the kids?


I die cut the panels out with Memory Box Cross Stitched Border Dies and added some washi tape from Stampin' Up! Then I mounted all of these layers onto a pink card base.

I am entering this in the following challenge:
Challenge #4-Anything Goes Jan's Digi Stamps

No bread baking today. My arm was sore and I did not think I would care to make it worse by kneading bread. Maybe tomorrow. I am sure it will soon be better. The gal who gave the shot told me to wiggle my fingers while she gave it to me. That way my muscles would not get sore. Well I must not have wiggled the right way. LOL That was the first time anyone had told me to wiggle my fingers.

Nice and sunny here and we love it. Warming up too. So that makes us happy! I hope wherever you are that you are having a wonderful day too. Thanks for stopping by.

God bless,
Verna


Monday, December 16, 2019

Digital Gift Wrap

I did not get much done as far as crafty work today as I got the call from the pharmacy that my shingles shot was available now so I went in and got that done and also did a few other errands. But when I got home I did wrap some gifts with some pattern paper that I made with digis from Artsystamper. I used the pine cone, evergreen and the poinsettia digis from Artsystamper to make a few sheets of paper to wrap my smaller gifts in. So that is what I am sharing with you today.


I think they look very festive with the images I used. These were already colored so that made it even easier to create with them. I found some pretty bows to top them off with and that makes my pretty gifts ready for giving.

I am entering this in the Artsystamper Digitals Challenge #6-Wrapping and/or Tags.

I hope you found this post interesting and maybe inspiring you to create some simple wrapping paper. I just printed them all out on some regular computer paper so they were thin enough to bend and shape rather then using any card stock.

Well, I hope your week is off to a great start. Last night we attended the children's program at church and they gave a wonderful performance and told the story of the real meaning of Christmas--the birth of our Lord Jesus!

Until next time God bless,
Verna

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Snowy Christmas Scene

Before I quit with making Christmas  cards I wanted to create a snowy scene to enter into the Impression Obsession Challenge: It's Snow Time! So using some IO stamps and a die I created this card.


I masked off the bottom of the panel so I could brush on my sky. And then when I removed the mask I lightly brushed on the bottom with the same color but in not as intense coloring to make my snow. I then stamped one of the trees, masked that off and then added two other trees along side of it. With my Copics I colored the trees. I added snow with a white paint pen to the trees and also added some flakes to the sky. Then I die cut the panel out with an IO die and also cut another one of the same size out with some red glitter paper to make the frame. I finished the card by placing it on a white card base.

Impression Obsession Products:
CL980 Holiday Icons Stamp Set
DIE805-YY Checkered Frames

Other Supplies:
Inks of Various Companies
Copic Markers
Stampin' Up! Glitter Paper
White Card Stock-Gina K. Designs
Crafter's Companion Glue Runner
Life Changing Blending Brushes

I hope you like my clean and simple scene. I know it works okay for me. Happy Saturday to all of you too!

Thanks for visiting and God bless,
Verna

Friday, December 13, 2019

Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbon!

Here is another really easy to make design using the Power Poppy Big Ol' Bow digi. I printed it out, colored it and then cut it out so that I only  had the ribbon and tag part. I then added it to a card base that I had covered with some Gina K. Designs pattern paper. And, that my friends is my beautiful card. A great way to use the stash of pattern papers and I personally think it looks fantastic!


I think those snowmen are so cute and together with the bow design it makes for a very festive and Christmasy looking design.

Well, I wish all a great weekend. I might do a few more cards but I am pretty much caught  up now. Time to begin some baking. Maybe a cookie batch and some covered pretzels. I am not baking a lot of that really carby stuff. I might bake some bread though if I feel energetic enough. I have the flour and  yeast so no reason not to on that score.

Thanks for the visit and until  next time take care and God bless,
Verna

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Big Ol' Bow

This is another digi that I acquired with the Black Friday sale at Power Poppy. And I chose to use the image on it that had no writing on the tag so that I could add a small stamped Merry Christmas to it. I am entering this in the Creative Confetti:Nature's Christmas Colors Challenge.


I had to extend some of the ribbon on each end to accommodate my A2 card size with a fine point black marker. Then I masked off the tag only and took my blending brushes and added Memento Nautical Blue ink to the paper area. After I had that colored then I colored the bow in with Copic markers using a green similar to the colors in the challenge photo. Next I removed the mask from the tag and added the gray. With an old stamp from Gingerbread House (an out of business company from Arlington, SD) I added the sentiment with Gina K. Designs Red Velvet ink. And that completed my card.

I like this simple digi design as I can see it being used for birthdays, anniversaries or any occasion where a gift would be given. And one could always stamp some other images to the paper area to coordinate it with that particular occasion. A birthday could have candles, an anniversary flowers etc. I chose to keep it in the original form however.

Well, all is much better here on the home front and hubby is feeling better now too. Have a good evening everyone and thanks for stopping by.

God bless,
Verna

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Blueberry Candy Cane

Most of the time I gravitate to traditional colors for my Christmas cards but when the Power Poppy challenge was announced I knew I wanted to use the Candy Cane Classic image that I acquired in the recent sale Power Poppy had for Black Friday. I love that image and it is so fun to color. I hope you like my take on the challenge which called for the colors of  Nautical Blue, Evergreen and Silvery Gray.


I colored the candy cane design with a mixture of Bic and Copic markers. I also took a white paint pen and added a highlight to each holly berry. Then I die cut the design out using Gina K. Designs small double stitched oval die as well as her large stitched oval die for the outline layer. I placed this design on some Gina K. Designs pattern paper and finished off the card by adding a few enamel dots from Stampin' Up!

So this card will be added to the Creative Confetti Challenge: Nature's Christmas Colors 
and Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge: Anything Goes + Optional: Candy Cane.

Thanks for visiting and I hope your day is a good one.

God bless,
Verna

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Digital Angel Christmas

Well, it has been quite a week already. Monday my husband had an angiogram and lo and behold they found three arteries in his heart nearly blocked so they put in stents. He is doing fine and coming home again today from the hospital so that is good. While he was in the hospital I did a few cards from snippets and some digitals I had printed out previously. I also wrote out Christmas cards.

This card used an angel image from Tiddly Inks Digital Stamps and also a digital sentiment from Word Art Wednesday. Together with some pattern paper and some gold paper I made a simple card design.


I also added some sparkle to her wings with some Wink of Stella. The photo below should show a bit of that sparkle. Sparkle is not always easy to capture in a photo but I think  you will get the idea from this one.


The angel was colored with my Bic markers and some Tombow markers. The pattern paper is from the Noel pad from American Crafts and the gold paper is from Crafter's Companion.

I am entering this in Word Art Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes #416 #417.

Thanks for the visit and wonderful comments.  I hope all is well with all of you my dear blogging friends.

Take care and God bless,
Verna

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Having Fun With Digitals

Those who regularly follow my blog know that I have recently ventured into digital stamping. And, I am slowly learning a bit more about the art of using them. So if they are not perfect just keep that in mind. I am a newbie to it.

The first one I am showing you is one using Artsystampers Digitals. I am entering this one in the Artsystamper Digitals Challenge #5-Winter Holidays.  I used the colored versions of the pine cone and pine needles images along with an image from the Poinsettia set. I then used a frame of red mirror card stock using a die from Paper Smooches called Fab Frames.


The second card I made used a set from Jan's Digitals called Toyland Bear. Again I used the colored versions. I took the evergreen branch and kept placing it into a formation that sort of resembled a tree like we had one year. It was a short wide tree with long needles. I also added a sentiment from that same stamp set. This one I will be entering in Jan's Digi Stamps Challenge #3-Anything Goes. I brushed on some blue color around the design. Then I die cut it out with a Makers Movement die called Stitched Rectangles Nested Essentials. I know I got my tree a bit larger then I had hoped but with using this die it sort of gave it a frame too. Afterwards I thought perhaps I should have added some darker blue color with my brushes to make the outside more outstanding but maybe I will try that another time. The last thing I added was an Epoxy clear star which I added to some yellow card stock to make a topper for the tree. This design was added to a darker green card stock and then inside the card I added another sheet of white paper for the inside sentiment.


Anyway that was my fun with digitals this week. Now I have to get down to business and get the cards out. I did manage to print off family photos and write a newsletter yesterday and the postage stamps are now on hand too so there is no excuse in putting it off any longer. Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great day!
God bless,
Verna

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Non-Traditional Christmas

I went with non-traditional colors for this Christmas card and I rather think I like how the whole design turned out. I was rather surprised about that!


I used the colors of light brown, dark brown, yellow, blue and black. I found some plaid paper and that was a given that I should use that. So I built my design around those shades of blue. I added a frame around it and then also added some ribbon and a bow made from glitter paper. The extra tails of ribbon were not die cut but instead cut by hand with a scissors. And excuse the little blips of color outside the lines. My shaky hands sometimes create an extra shadow or two. LOL

Supplies used:
Gina K. Design pattern paper, stamp set from Fruit of the Season TV Kit, Small Double Stitched             Oval Die and card stock.
Cottage Cutz Double Stitched Rectangle Die
Poppy Stamps Stitchwork Rectangle Frame Die
Cheery Lynn Designs Christmas Bell (bow) Die
Stampin' Up! Gold Glitter Paper
Crafter's Companion Glue Tape Runner
Rhinestones Unknown

I am entering this in the following challenges:
Mod Squad Challenge-Non-Traditional Colors
Double D Challenge-Twelve Days of Christmas Part 1 Days 1-6
Jan's Digi Challenge #3-Anything Goes

This was a fun card to do and took a bit of thinking as to how to make it look more outstanding. That was the reason I added the glitter ribbon and bow. I thought it dressed it up a lot.

Well, another day nearly over. I cannot seem to get much done but I did order my postage stamps so I think I will begin writing Christmas cards soon. Maybe they will mostly be sent out this week. I did do some Christmas shopping one day for the younger grandchildren. When they turn 18 we give them an adult gift of money. Everyone likes GREEN!

Take care and God bless,
Verna

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

For My Grandson

Just wanted to share a card I made for my grandson's 19th birthday. He was so happy to get it too and said he was going to post it on his billboard in his dorm room. That made me feel good as I could tell he loved it. But lo and behold when I searched for the photo I was sure I took it was no where to be found on my computer. So I emailed my grandson and asked him to email me a photo of it so that I could share it with all of you. He was a sweetie and obliged his old grandma.


I had purchased what I thought was a smaller Vikings stencil but when it arrived in the mail it was in fact a 12 x 12 one and pretty much suitable for a scrap page. But I used a portion of the stenciled Viking and used that on my card. I also happened to have some Vikings pattern paper so I used that with the card too. Inside the card I added a Happy Birthday greeting and a written message.

Thanks for visiting and for the wonderful comments you leave me. I so appreciate each and every one of them

God bless,
Verna

Winter White

I made a scene card with dies and glitter paper and I think it looks very elegant and beautiful. A perfect Winter design too.


Dies used:
Frantic Stamper Inc. Winter Village FRA-DIE-10345
Cheery Lynn Designs Joy to the World Wreath B481

Other Supplies:
Gina K. Designs Connect Glue
Gina K. Designs White Card Stock
Stampin' Up! Glitter Paper
Kat Scrappiness Frosty 11 Sequin Mix ( I just picked out the white snowflakes)

I am entering this in the following challenges:
Artsy Stamper Digitals Challenge #5-Winter Holidays
Jan's Digi Stamps Challenge #3-Anything Goes
Dies R Us Challenge #134-Winter White

It is a beautiful winter day here with sunshine and that makes the snow sparkle when the rays hit it. And, we are fairly warm with temps in the mid 30's too last I looked.

I hope all of you are having a great day. Thanks for visiting.

God bless,
Verna


Monday, December 2, 2019

White on White

I thought this card would have looked better then it does but none the less this is a white on white design I made. I added Sparkle embossing powder from my old stash of powders from Sparkle N Sprinkle which is no longer in business. But if you still want her powders and glitters they are being sold at Glitters Galore which is owned by her son. I had a hard time getting a good photo too.



I die cut the Holy Nativity die twice and attached them together. I also die cut the sentiment twice and attached them together also. Next I added Versafine clear ink to both and then sprinkled them with the embossing powder and heat set them. They were attached to a white card base and in the corner I added some pearls for an embellishment.

Here is a close up and hopefully you can see the glittery embossing powder on the design better.


Dies used are:
Tutti Designs Holy Nativity TUTTI-357
Cheery Lynn Designs Joy To The World Wreath B481

Other supplies:
Connect Glue-Gina K. Designs
Pearls- Eyelet Outlet
Card Stock-Gina K. Designs
Versafine Glue
Sparkle N Sprinkle-Sparkle Embossing Powder


I am entering this in the following challenges:
Dies R Us Challenge #134-Winter White
Rudolph Days Extra Challenge

I hope all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our US family did manage to all make it except for one son-in-law who recently started a new job and therefore he could not get extra time off to attend Friday. And, I am so grateful all our family got back to their various homes okay too. We had a wonderful time together visiting and playing games and of course, eating lots of yummy food!

Well, take care and until next time have a good life.
God bless,
Verna




Fluttering By

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