Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 28 . . . Prayer and Praise

This week's challenge hostess is the lovely and talented Pamela whose scrapbook pages always leave me with my jaw on the floor. They're always so detailed and fresh. Her chosen verse this week is from Colossians 3:17 "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Her challenge is this . . . You have free reign of what you want to do this week. But here's the deal: I want you to actively do this as an act of worship to our God. Before starting, pray. Thank God for your gift. While working, feel free to pray more or perhaps sing out to Him. Put your focus on Him and remember that it is He who gave you your gift (however good or bad you think you are at this)and remember that it makes Him happy to see you at work. Do this challenge as if you were doing it for Christ himself!

I want to thank Pamela for helping put our focus back on the creator, the one who gave us this gift of stamping, the gift of creativity. Its a great idea to think daily upon and thank and praise the Father for every good gift we have in this life. I would assume that anyone reading this is a stamper or crafty in some way, can you imagine your life without it? What a marvelous gift!

I was listening to Sounds of Majesty on Moody Radio while I was making my card and praying for a variety of friends who have challenges in their lives right now. I hope to always glorify the Lord through my creations. Hope you find a chance to get in prayer and create along with the design team this week.

Our sponsor this week is Christian Paper Crafts, which is donating a stamp set, and you can read more details on the home page at Stampin' Sisters in Christ here. Thanks for looking.

On the Waterfront . . . Virtual Stamp Night on SCS

Did you know it is Virtual Stamp Night weekend on Splitcoast Stampers? Check out the main thread here. There are challenges issued every hour. There were a few last night and there is a stellar lineup of challenges today, all focused on themes taken from the Winter Olympics. Maybe we couldn't go to Vancouver, but we can ink up our stamps and honor the Olympics and have some fun at the same time, while we make projects or cards!

The idea behind VSN is to complete a stamping challenge in 45 minutes, that is part of the fun. But as the challenge hostess for the 1:00 P.M. EST timeslot I got a bit carried away with my sample and please note, as one poster asked, I DID NOT make this in 45 minutes, not at all! But as the challenge hostess I get that privilege. I intend to use this card for my oldest daughter's birthday in April. She loved mermaids when she was small. I even made her and her younger sister mermaid tails out of fabric that they could wear in the bathtub so they could pretend to be mermaids. When I saw this new set being released by Crafty Secrets this January, I had to have it. And then I had to try to dress up my card as much as possible.

First I followed a technique I found in BadSherry's gallery on SCS to use Tim Holtz Ranger Distress inks to make a watercolor sort of background. Taking the ink pads, I swiped them across a sheet of wax paper, spritzed them with microsprayer to get the ink to bead up, then taking a piece of plain white cardstock, you lay it down on the wax paper on top of the colors. Lift it up, dry it off with a heat gun and then turning the paper, reink it on the wax paper again. If you use complementary colors they run and pool together nicely. I've used this technique before and thought it would make a wonderful background for the detailed mermaid stamp. I think I used peeled paint, two blues and a purple ink. Then taking an aquapainter, I used the green ink pad (peeled paint) to enhance the mermaid's tail a bit. I also overlaid a bit of watercolor wonder crayon in blush on the mermaid's arms and face.

The chiffon flowers I pulled from a tutorial several months ago on Priscilla Styles blog for Midnight Madness. I used three different ink color to brush on the chiffon so that the flowers would have a bit of a mottled look. When else do you get to play with fabric and fire on the same day? I edged the flowers with waterfall stickles. They take for-evah to dry.


Used a Martha Stewart branch punch to help enhance the flowers and buttons, coating them with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Used a Sakura gelly roll silver pen for some detail enhancement on the main panel . . . and the rest is pretty self explanatory. Thanks for looking. Hope you get a chance to play along with VSN this weekend.

February PTI blog hop!!

Time again for another PTI blog hop, wow, how the months fly by. This month for the February blog hop challenge, the instructions were as follows:

"Since we just finished up our 3rd Anniversary Festivities, we thought we would do something extra
special for this month's Blog Hop! Design Team Appreciation Day! Your challenge is to go through the
Design Team gallery or any of the Design Team Members' blogs and find a project that is especially
inspirational to you! Then recreate the project with your own spin, making it unique! Be sure to share a
link and photo of the original project that inspired you! And you can also use this opportunity to thank
the team for all their contributions this past year! "

I really do wish to thank the design team for all the wonderful inspiration they provide, the jaw dropping creations, the color. There's a reason why we call beautiful things in this hobby 'eye candy.' The design team always provides wonderful eye candy and I think I especially appreciate it in the winter when most everything around me is white!

We were supposed to choose a designer's creation to emulate and I would have liked to have done one from each, maybe I can make that a side trip for myself over the course of the next few months. They're all so talented and I almost felt guilty just choosing one. I selected one of Betsy Veldman's projects found in this post of hers here. I liked the strips of images on kraft, the paper piercing and the scallops. This is Betsy's card below:



For my creation I used vintage cream on kraft instead of white and different stamp sets except for the Giga Guidelines. I turned my card on its side as well because it just seemed to fit the teapot shape better. I was not fortunate enough to snag one of the scallop dies on release night so I used a 1/2-inch hole punch to cut out circles and create my own scallops. I also liked the look of Quilter's Sampler with the teapot and couldn't quite figure out how to incorporate it without covering up too much of the kraft background. You do that paper piercing and you want folks to see it! So I made little buttons out of the quilt squares by first layering them on regular cardstock for firmness, punching two holes in them and then putting on a nice thick layer of crystal effects glue. To me they kind of look like little potholders or something or a trivet to place the teapot on.



The ultimate designer at Papertrey is of course, Nichole Heady and although she didn't seem to include herself as a member of the design team, I thought I would take one of her recent creations and make a sample of that as well. Papertrey wouldn't exist if she hadn't started it and she deserves kudos aplenty! Here is her card from the introduction of Asian Fusion. I liked the colors, the simplicity and the buttons.



I decided to see if Green Thumb could achieve this look. I don't know if I reached zen, but here is my take on using Green Thumb to make a version of Nichole's card using Asian Fusion.



Teapot Card
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Damask Designs, Giga Guidelines, Background Basics: Spots and Dots, Hearts, Tea for Two, Quilter's Sampler
Ink: SU Pink Pirouette, black stazon, PTI vintage cream
Cardstock: PTI vintage cream, kraft, SU Pink Pirouette, Basic Grey DP
Other: glitter, twine, crystal effect, labels nine nestability, paper piercing tool

Aqua Card
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Green Thumb, Background Basics: Spots and Dots
Ink: Versamark, Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Avocado, Chocolate
Cardstock: PTI white, Aqua Mist
Other: random ribbon, PTI aqua mist ribbon, Avocado buttons

Papertrey Peeps . . . Aimes' porridge packaging challenge

I thought midafternoon sun might provide enough light for a good photo, apparently its a bit too much. One of these days I'll learn to be a decent photographer. ANYway, Aimes issued us the latest challenge on Papertrey Peeps and she chose a selection of containers from her absolutely favorite porridge company as inspiration. We got to select a box for our card and I was attracted to the purple container because although I love purple I don't use it very often. The container also had a medium sort of dusty blue, a bit of gray and white lettering, so I was working off of that. I went to the Card Positioning Systems web site and used a previous sketch layout.
If I were more clever with the computer I'd post the inspiration box, but instead, click here and you'll see it on the blog. You should go there anyway and see Aimes' card, its pretty fabulous.

Thanks for looking! Hope you have a great day!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink
Ink: black
Paper: Plum Pudding, Lavendar Moon, some blue from SU, perhaps ballet? . . . it was a scrap, gray, white, PTI guidelines DP
Other: Martha Stewart lace border punch, cuttlebug folders, yadda, yadda, yadda . . .

Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 27 -- Time . . . Sunrise

Happy Sunday stampers! Our hostess today from Stampin' Sisters in Christ is the lovely Laurie, who selected this verse from Esther 4:14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this?"

Her challenge is to make a project using a time piece or in some way denoting time. Our sponsor this week is Designed to Delight, a cute digital stamp company and one random winner will receive a $10 gift certificate for playing along in the SSIC challenge this week, follow the link to the home page for more details and to read Laurie's wonderful thoughts on the scripture she chose. I have two cards to share with you today simply because I tried using two different stamp sets while I was playing with my ink.

I've always loved the song by Wayne Watson, "For Such a Time as This," based upon this verse from Esther I believe. Here is part of it:

For such a time as this
I was placed upon the earth
To hear the voice of God
And do His will
Whatever it is

That's what Esther did, she did God's will despite personal danger. She was a brave, courageous, smart and godly woman. And notice she didn't just rush in headlong without a plan either, she asked her people to fast and pray for her prior to approaching the king with her dinner invitation. If you want to read all about it, the entire story of Esther's courage and how she saved her people is written in the book of Esther in your bible.

We are all as individuals placed upon this earth for a reason too. Just like Esther we are to do the will of God and bring him glory. You too were placed here for maybe one particular hugely important moment in time or for a lifetime of service in small but meaningful deeds. But there is a reason, probably more than one. :)

For my cards, I am depicting a scene of time -- sunrise--the beginning of the day, when everything is fresh and new and opportunities abound. I used wax paper and Tim Holtz ranger distress inks with a spritzer to create my background for the trees, stamped in black craft and embossed with clear EP. Thanks for looking.

First card:
Stamps: Stampin' Up Lovely as a Tree
Paper: PTI Berry Sorbet, Spring Rain, SU Apricot, Nenah solar white, The Paper Studio DP
Ink: Black craft, Tim Holtz ranger distress inks in mustard seed, dried marigold, worn lipstick, broken china, faded jeans, peeled paint
Other: clear EP, PTI spring rain button, summer sunrise dotted ribbon, nestabilities die (bird), labels 4, oval, Cuttlebug 'with love' embossing border

Second card:
Stamps: PTI Through the Trees
Paper: PTI Spring Rain, vanilla, lemon tart, Neenah solar white, SU Kiwi Kiss, Melissa Frances "Lilly" DP
Ink: black craft, Tim Holtz ranger distress inks in mustard seed, dried marigold, worn lipstick, peeled paint, broken china
Other: clear EP, SU apricot large GG ribbon, PTI sweet blush satin ribbon, cuttlebug Frills embossing border, nestabilities petite scalloped circles, PTI buttons in berry sorbet, summer sunrise, lemon tart

Compose a Card . . . Engagement

Engagements are cropping up amongst my oldest daughter's friends like dandelions in the Springtime. (I said the "S" word, yes! Even though it is weeks away!) This week's challenge on Becky Oehler's blog, Compose a Card #4, is a more elegant color combination and layout than last week and seemed to suit this particular friend of my daughter's. She is training to be an opera singer and just got engaged this past weekend. Would you believe I looked through my stash and I do not have a nice, elegant 'Congratulations?' I have to remedy that. I smudged the sentiment a little bit, I'm so mad at myself, but I don't think she'll notice it.

Wedding just seems to go with chiffon and pearls. . . I worried the flower is a bit large, but its tough to make a small chiffon flower. I edged it in gold stickles for a bit of contrast, plus the only color stickles I have in green is a bright Christmas color, not a good match for an avocado/kiwi bit.

The card still looked a bit too somber with the black edging so I softened it at the last minute by using one of Nichole Heady's tricks of using sticky tape and glitter. Thanks for looking.

Stamps: PTI Life, SU set Reverse Prints, sentiment from Best Yet
Paper: Black, white, PTI avocado
Ink: Black craft, Kiwi kiss (for dying the chiffon)
Other: double sided sticky tape, white glitter, white ribbon, PTI vintage buttons cream, pearls, chiffon, gold stickles

Compose a Card . . . Daydreams of You

This card sort of kind of fits Becky Oehler's latest challenge, compose a card. You can find details on her blog here. I was actually thinking of it for a few days and I just couldn't wrap my mind around making a card that measured 5x7. Also, I'm trying to collect a stack of cards to send to Operation Write Home and their preferred size is A2, so this card measures A2, but does adhere to the general proportions and colors in Becky's challenge.

Can you tell I'm Johnny-one-note lately? I just love the Through the Trees set and for some reason, I keep using this tree image when what sold me on the set was the birch trees. :) I just really like it and I really like it in white. I pictured this card as a daydream, dreaming of the love you have for someone you miss. So I deliberately chose the 'thinking of you' sentiment rather than 'I love you' because the card really expresses missing someone in a romantic sense. Thanks for looking.

Stamps: PTI Through the Trees, hearts background set and random flourish
Paper: Tangerine, Spring Rain, Raspberry Fizz
Ink: white craft, versamark
Other: white detail embossing powder, Martha Stewart heart punch blanks, fiskars edge punch, rhinestones

Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 26

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. Our hostess this week is the talented Ceal, who selected this verse from 1 John 4:10 "This is real love--not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."

Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp, which is donating an exclusive stamp set that you can view on the home page of the SSIC blog here. The challenge from Ceal is to create a Valentine's Day card or project for someone you love letting them know how much God loves them.

This is my Valentine for my DH. Ceal's verse and challenge were the springboard for my verse selection, from 2 Corinthians 9:15, "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift." My husband and I are both so very thankful for our salvation. When you consider eternity, God's holiness and the fact that He would reach down to us to send His son as an atonement for our sins so we can spend eternity with Him, it truly is indescribable.

Also, I consider my husband one of God's precious gifts to me. He knew who I needed in my life for many reasons. The first gift might be indescribable, but I try to put into words or actions my thankfulness for and to my husband daily. Thanks for looking.

Stamps: Rubber Stamp Tapestry, computer generated sentiment
Ink: PTI Hibiscus, avocado, pure poppy, SU pink, white craft
CS: SU pretty in pink, kraft, vanilla
Other: PTI blush and vintage cream ribbon, fiskars corner punch/embosser, this smudgy sort of gold paint from Gina K that you apply with your finger, gold pen, nestabilities, pearls colored with a copic, cuttlebug folder, chalk

Birthday blog hop for Kristine!!!

Today is Kristine's birthday! One of the lovely founders of the Stampin' Sisters in Christ blog and we're hosting a birthday blog hop for her. You should have arrived from Pamela's blog and after my post, hop along to see what Randi has brought for her birthday gift today for Kristine.

We each selected from a list of her favorite things and one thing she likes is cinnamon spice. I found this delightful collage of cinnamon spice goodies online and so pick your favorite and enjoy! I see mulled spiced cider, pumpkin pie and every sort of warm, brown, spicy goodness. Happy birthday and may your day be filled with joy!

Papertrey DT color challenge

After a long day of writing I went downstairs to try to make at least one card for the current Papertrey challenge, which offered up favorite color palettes of the designers. I have been on the computer for two solid days, just about, but without much time to blog hop, so I'll be visiting other folks' blogs soon! Anyway, I chose Michelle's color palette as very soothing and as I worked I found my fingers making a sympathy card. I unfortunately have need of one and I'm trying not to make them so doleful and dark as I usually do. I added the little black bird near the sentiment and roughened up the edges of the paper around the tree and mat because grief is a rough period to get through. Thanks for looking.

Stamps: PTI Through the Trees
Paper: Kraft, vintage cream, PTI designer paper with spring moss and aqua
Ink: versamark, Spring Green, vintage cream
Other: aqua ribbon, clear EP

PTI Paint a Sketch Challenge

Papertrey Ink is celebrating their third anniversary with a number of fun challenges, cool product teasers and great giveaways. Today's challenge is to 'paint a sketch.' Nichole provided the sketch, with the measurements (to make it easier for literal stampers like myself) and then your color palette to 'paint' your sketch was determined by the first letter of your user name. So as Peggysue I fit into the color palette you see listed above.I was so sure I had some smokey shadow somewhere in the house, I spent at least 45 minutes looking for some and then gave up and simply used some gray. I know as soon as I put some in my cart and hit 'buy' I'll find the missing cardstock and ink . . .I blame it all on the kitchen remodeling.

AND right before I took my photograph I got blood on the cream colored ribbon . . . I had cut my finger preparing dinner and that sucker was still leaking. Ugh! So rather than contribute more of my DNA to the card recipient than a person might wish, I put on new ribbon. Aren't you glad? :) Thanks for looking and good luck to everyone playing! There is quite a list already! I have seen some beautiful cards and I hope to make it all the way through the list to look at all of them.

Stamps: PTI Guidelines Two, Giga Guidelines, Damask Designs (sentiment)
Ink: Versamark, Scarlet Jewel, Black, Vintage Cream
Cardstock: Kraft, Gray, Scarlet Jewel, Sweet Blush
Other: cuttlebug folder, Vintage Cream satin ribbon, Sweet Blush ribbon, decorative pin, rose, rhinestones, Fiskars corner punch

Stampin' Sisters in Christ . . . two shall become as one

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. This week's hostess is the ever thankful and upbeat Randi, who selected this verse from Mark 10: 7-8 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (NASB)

The challenge is to follow this simple formula . . . whatever you use, you should use two of that item, so two different pieces of patterned paper, two brads, two pieces of ribbon . . . going by twos. As you can see on my card I have one stamp but it has two stems for two buttons. Two pieces of different designer paper, two colored scallops beneath the central image, two decorative pins on the upper right and two words in the sentiment. (I only have one strip of ribbon but I was fuzzy from cold medicine and didn't notice until after I had glued it all together)

Our sponsor this week is the Digi-Ink Company and the winner receives three images of their choice. Please check out the home page to view Randi's thoughts on the verse she selected and also to enter your card or project using Mr. Linky. Hope you can play along this week.

My thoughts . . . two shall become one . . . this isn't always easy. Valentine's Day is coming up and it is all about hearts and flowers and romance, all the things celebrated in popular songs. That swoop! feeling you get in your insides when you first fall in love. If you're not feeling swoopy or romantic in your marriage right now, you might think something is wrong.

But what really makes a marriage is the little every day moments in those 364 days inbetween major romantic holidays. Hundreds or perhaps even thousands of daily choices we make after those swoop! feelings have faded. What are our actions or reactions? What is our tone of voice when we're tired or cranky? Do we choose to forgive, accept, move on? Do we choose to love? Because as you grow older you realize more and more that love is not an emotional gut response but a daily choice. Sometimes it does feel like hearts and flowers and sometimes it feels like you're slogging through the mud, but hang in there or enjoy the moment as the romantic moments come. Thanks for looking.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Every Day Button Bits, Through the Trees (sentiment)
Paper: white, PTI patterned paper (hearts), random gingham pink, PTI New Leaf and Hibiscus Burst
Ink: black, PTI New Leaf
Other: pins, petite scalloped nestabilities, paper ribbon, PTI hibiscus burst buttons

P.S. I have a new post on the Women to Women Sharing Jesus blog site as well that Diane was gracious enough to put up, have a look if you get the time.

Compose a Card and Papertrey Peeps Challenge

Have you heard? Our new little PTI blog group has started issuing challenges. The first was from Lori and she challenged us to use a button or buttons! Becky Oehlers, a Papertrey Design Team recent alum, has started a new challenge on her blog linked to music, composing a card. I missed her first one but this one I made time to try. The rules are that you have to follow the cutting and color guidelines, the rest is up to you. This challenge was white on white, with five scored lines 1/4" apart and flowers. I like the five lines, they remind me of a music staff (wonder why!) so I punched out my flowers and have them cascading down the side along the lines.

I do have to mention this is the first time I've ever used a scoring tablet. I asked for one for Christmas and gave my family directions to the one I wanted and they bought it for me! It had remained in its package until now, I was too scared to score, but not any more! Thank you dear family for a lovely gift.

The last flower on the bottom right is pink to offset the pink (Hibiscus Burst) bird in the left hand corner of the tree, and if you notice the pink button in the top flower also is pink, to create a color triangle with the brightest color used to focus your eyes more in the center of the card, or at least that's my theory and I'm stickin' to it. Thanks Lori and Becky for great challenges. You can find Becky's blog here and our Papertrey Peeps blog here to look at other creations following these challenge. Thanks for looking!
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Through the Trees
Ink: Black, PTI Hibiscus Burst, white craft
Paper: white, PTI lemon, aqua, hibiscus and summer sunrise
Other: random Fiskars punch, PTI buttons in aqua mist, hibiscus burst, summer sunrise and lemon tart, white detail EP, scoring tablet

PTI anniversary birthday card two

Yup . . . another card that could use some work. :) This is the second entry for the PTI anniversary birthday card contest. The free image in this card is the sentiment at the bottom. I wanted to see what it would look like printed on cream cardstock and I like that, just not what I did to it.
I need practice using Ocean Tides cardstock colors too . . . I've seen such pretty cards using it and when I do, it falls flat. Practice, practice, practice.

PTI anniversary birthday card one

Papertrey Ink is celebrating their third anniversary and in honor of that, they are holding a number of contests and hosting giveaways. The contest for today was to create birthday cards using free digi images from their design team. I should know better than to start creating at ten thirty at night and trying to rush it as well. I am not happy with either one because neither lived up to the idea I had in my head, but here goes my shot at entering to win, because entries must be posted by 7 a.m. EST and frankly, I'm not coherent early in the morning so tonight is it! :)
The card is not cute but that cupcake image is, don't you think?