Yippee! I've been published!

I found out last week and was so anxious to let people know but waited until I got my issue in the mail so that I would not spill the beans too soon. I am featured in the Scrap & Stamp Arts April 2015 edition on Page 52 entitled In The Kitchen. Below is the card I sent in that was used for the publication.

The huge cherry pie image is from I Brake for Stamps and I used the Spellbinder A2 Fancy Weave die. My image was colored in with Copic markers and I mounted the whole thing onto a red plaid pattern paper from Gina K. Designs. My base card is ivory card stock.

Below is the photo proving it. I got an extra copy so I could do an outside view of the magazine and also the inside page showing my card.

I just had to share my good news. Thanks for looking and I am all of a sudden hungry for a piece of cherry pie. LOL

Oh, and a box of chocolates came from my grandsons in Japan for hubby and me to share. So another wonderful surprise and we already ate one and they are delicious. So it has been a great mail day! Thanks for sharing my happiness!

God bless,
Verna

CAS Shabby Chic

Normally, I am not into shabby chic and thus I am not even sure if this really qualifies as I am so inexperienced with it, but I tried my best to create a combination of shabby and chic with this card. And, due to a sore shoulder blade and arm I made it fairly clean and simple since it was very hard for me to crank my Big Kick this week. Maybe it is the weather affecting it as we are in a cloudy dreary type of weather pattern now. We even got freezing rain over the weekend.

Since there are many weddings and anniversaries coming up I decided to use the most recent incentive stamp from Gina K. Designs which is called Love Is along with a past Gina K. Designs incentive stamp called Congratulations. I simply stamped both of those in black ink on the center panel of white card stock which was die cut using the Cheery Lynn Designs DL 183 Oval Doily Stacker One. I used the middle sized one and sponged it with Gina K. Designs Bubble Gum Pink and Kraft inks but also added some Wink of Stella in clear which gave it a golden shimmery look.

Also incentives from Gina K. Designs are embellishments from Sweet Forever called mini heart spangles. I chose to go with the gold ones which also worked with my choice of a gold bow.

To complete the chic look I added a shabby flower which was gifted to me in a prize package. I thought it made the simple design look more complete with it's addition.

This card will be entered in the Mix It Up Monday Challenge at Stamp TV this week and it calls for using hearts but not on a valentine. I am also entering it in the Cheery Lynn blog challenge in which we are to use pink.

Cheery Lynn Card

Once again I pulled out some of my dies and did some cutting of great designs to create a card for someone who is feeling ill. Those are more of a type of card I use a lot too, so figured I might add a few of those to my card supply too. I started out with a different idea in mind, but along the way I changed the design and as a result I ended up quite pleased with it.

All the die cuts are from Cheery Lynn Designs. They have some magnificent die designs and I have been a fan of theirs for a long, long time now. My sentiment is from the Gina K. Designs Vertical Greetings 2 stamp set illustrated by Theresa Momber. I tried to find a sentiment that would work well and finally decided a vertical style was the best considering there was limited room for most of the sentiments.

The background is also a Cheery Lynn die called Large Window. I cut that out in brown card stock. That was layered onto the white card base. Next I cut the Swedish Spring Oval Frame from Mango card stock. That was layered onto the Large Window die panel.

My daisies from Cheery Lynn were cut from Sweet Corn card stock from Gina K. Designs and then I took sponge daubers and add extra color from dye inks until I found a combination that I liked. I then shaped them before I layered them together to make the blossoms. I added green card stock leaf flourishes to complete the flowers. These were placed along the left edge of the Swedish Spring Oval Frame.

I added some brown pearls to the blossoms and along the right side of the oval frame added white pearls. The brown double loop chiffon ribbon bow was added to finish the design.

Here is a list of the dies I used:
Large Window FRM113 (an A2 Frame Die)
Swedish Spring Oval Frame FRM135
Daisy Strip B259
Flourish Leaf Strip B178

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge 170-Add a Flourish
Scrappy Land Challenges (Anything Goes)

Easy Peasy Birthday Card

This card was so fun to make and so easy too! One needs an acrylic block, dye ink pads, card stock and water to make a wonderful background on which to add silhouette stamps. That is exactly what I did for this simple card today!

My main panel starts out with white card stock. Then I took a rectangular acrylic block and swiped inks across the top of it. I used the Gina K. Designs dye ink colors of Fresh Asparagus, Grass Green and Powder Blue for my background, Once I had the color on I took my Mini Mister filled with water and spritzed lightly on the block and then placed it ink side down onto the white card stock. I did this a couple times until I was satisfied with the colors of my background.

Put this aside to dry for awhile and do something else, or if you are in a hurry like I always am, take the heat gun and give it some shots of that until it is dry. Now you can work with your little canvas and add the silhouette images to it.

I chose black dye ink from Gina K. Designs to add my images. They are all from the Happy Birthday to You set from the latest Stamp TV kit called Birthday Essentials. In that kit there are images that work wonderfully and also lots of inside verses to accompany the outside sentiments. I just love that kit. Oh, and dies. I have not worked with them yet, but be sure that fun is still to come for me.

I layered my design once I had it stamped onto Gina K. Designs Black card stock and Jelly Bean Green before adding it to the white card base. My card was finished by adding the flowers across the bottom of the card along with an inside verse.

I hope that you like this idea and if you have not tried it, give it a go. By changing the colors around you can make fantastic backgrounds on which to add stamped images. I know I had fun with it and I hope you do as well.

I am going to enter this into the Mod Squad Challenge for this week in which we are to use water. I believe this qualifies since I wet my canvas with water.

Until next time, take care.

God bless,
Verna

Summer Birthday

Still into a scene making mood and today I used a new set of images from Gina K. Designs which is called Northwoods 2. These are great scene making designs and I love that nice big sentiment on the set. I also grabbed those birds from the Gina K. Designs By the Sea set. Both these sets are illustrated by Theresa Momber.

I stamped the scene in Gina K. Designs black dye ink. I then used a combination of Copic markers and sponging to color the scene. My base card was a light blue and I thought it matched up quite nicely with the ink colors. To enhance the scene even more I layered it onto black card stock to frame it before adding it to the card.

This card will be entered into the Mod Squad Challenge for this week in which we are to use water in any way we can think of. It could be stamping some water like I chose, or using water colors or water colored markers. Any form of water used is acceptable. Hey! Even spritzing with water I am sure works. So it is really a fun and many faceted challenge this week. Hope  you can join in!

Thanks for stopping by. I am going to spend my afternoon writing out Valentines so that they are ready to mail this week. You have a wonderful day too!

God bless,
Verna

Winter Birthday

I am in need of a few birthday cards so I decided to make one that would be more masculine looking and for a winter birthday celebration.

For this simple scene I used the Gina K. Designs stamp set The Northwoods which is illustrated by Theresa Momber. I stamped it in Gina K. Designs black ink and with an aid of a permanent black marker extended the snow line behind the big tree and also below the deer images to make them appear to have found a few sprigs of grass peeking from the snow.

I then used Copic E33 Sand to color the tree trunks and Copic B00 Frost Blue to color the snow line. My sky was sponged in with Gina K. Designs Ocean Mist dye ink.

My simple scene was then finished by placing it over a die cut frame of Ocean Mist card stock using the Spellbinder Card Creator A2 Fancy Weave set. This frame helped to showcase the scene better before I layered it onto a white card base.

Thanks for looking and as always I love your comments.

God bless,
Verna

Whimsy Hearts

Well, the Super Bowl is on and since I am not that big on football I decided to make a couple cards at least. I wanted to make some masculine designs for the gentlemen shut-ins to whom I will be sending valentines. So I remembered I had this neat Heart Border Die by Whimsy Stamps and thought it would work great with an inlaid design. So that is what I did.

My base card is kraft card stock. I then cut out a border with the red and the white card stock and combined the colors together to create some clean and simple cards with an inlay of the hearts in the opposite colors. 

The sentiment is from Gina K. Designs Stately Flowers 6 set by Melanie Muenchinger. I think I have used this on almost all of my cards this year as I just love the pretty font design. I used embossing powders to make the sentiments pop more too!

My card was then finished by adding some red and white twine and tying a bow on the top of the card. I think twine is a good way to add fiber to a masculine card. 

Well, since we were not attending a party tonight or having one it was a "given" I would have to do some Super Bowl Card Making with my own type of party. And, I enjoyed every bit of it too.

I hope you are having a good Sunday evening no matter what you are doing as well! Time now for some Super Bowl munchies.

God bless,

Verna