Paper Cupcakes May 28th criss cross challenge!

Back again for the second challenge from Paper Cupcakes for the month of May. I am enjoying my time as a guest designer for the month and one of the images I selected is this beautiful flower called 'simple pleasures' which you can find right here.

You can find the Magical Monday challenge on the blog There's Magic in the Air, and play along, a very clever challenge really and one of my favorite types.  Read across the grid horizontally or vertically and choose three things you are going to incorporate into your card. I chose the challenge line that required you to use two or more types of patterned paper, punches and ribbon.

I colored in the images with prismacolor pencils and sponged in a little color around the edges of the spellbinders die. The punch I used is a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and I adhered two of them to the flower using glue dots.

You'll find many more cute images at the Paper Cupcakes web store and site, or you can win by playing along in this challenge. You have two weeks! Enjoy crafting some time week and thanks for looking!

Stampin' Sisters in Christ...challenge 141 'do not fear'

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ, where all of our challenges are based upon scripture. Our hostess this week is Candace and our sponsor Sweet n' Sassy stamps. You can read Candace's devotional and find out more about Sweet n' Sassy stamps and the prize one lucky winner will receive this week, on our home page here. Candace has selected this verse from Psalm 118:6 "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?" 


Her challenge is for you to do something that you're 'afraid of' CAS style, stitching, vintage look, etc., do something you normally wouldn't do. 


I made peekaboo boxes from a tutorial on splitcoast stampers as I don't usually make 3-D objects. 


Funny, but when there is a theme that you seem to need to hear, it is everywhere. The theme of 'do not fear' or the reassurance that "god is able' has come up for me several times this week. I think fear is something that affects most of us at some time or another, to varying degrees. I know that in my life, if I let it get to me, fear is crippling. There are things I should try and don't, places I should go but don't want to or people I need to approach and instead, avoid. I need this reminder that the Lord, the creator of the universe has not changed. He was with King David, the one who wrote most of the psalms and He is the the same today as He was then, and just as much our protector and defender as he was thousands of years ago. 


We hope you find the time to play along with our challenge this week. We had so many playing last week, it was wonderful to see all of your creations in the gallery! Thanks for looking and have a blessed week. 


Stamps: Flourishes (flowers), PTI (sentiment)
Paper: SU patterned paper, various solid colors
Ink: memento black
Other: copic markers, prima roses, dies, spellbinders petite circles, 1 3/8" circle punch, acetate, pearls

Sympathy sketch

Needed a sympathy card again and I really should just make multiples so I have them on hand, but I never do. The sketch at Tuesday morning (sketch 147) got my thoughts going for me to create the card. I used Pretty Peonies in Ballet Blue SU ink around the rim of the circle and a sympathy sentiment from a set missing its label, so if someone recognizes the font, you can let me know whose stamp it is! Might be Layers of Color? Maybe ODBD?

Not convinced I like the positioning of the leaves, now that I look at the photo, I might change their direction a bit.

Anyway, thanks for looking. Have a great day.

Stampin' Sisters in Christ . . . layers

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ, where all of our challenges relate to scripture. This week's hostess is my dear friend Traci, who has selected this verse from Ephesians 4:29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."


Her challenge is to build up your card by adding layers; paper tole, paper piecing, stacking flowers, you name it! And I was able to use a lovely gift she gave me a while back for part of my 'lifting' in the patterned paper in the background. Thank you Traci!


And we have a new sponsor this week, Tami Mayberry, who is donating one of the amazing stamp sets she has designed to one lucky, randomly selected winner who plays along with our challenge this week. You can find more details and see the rest of the beautiful creations by our design team by clicking on the home page here.  


I used this little Frieda image from the Craft's Meow and lifted up sections of her dress, hat, face, hair and shoes with paper tole, although its hard to tell in the photo. You can sort of tell from the shadows on the paper if you care to strain your eyes that much! 


I like the verse Traci has selected for this week and it is a good one to meditate upon because the tongue is so hard to control, isn't it? Words come 'flying' out before we even know it . . . or do they? The thought has to come into our heads first. And notice the verse doesn't say you can prevent unwholesome thoughts from coming into your head, although if they do we're supposed to chase them away, I believe. But it says, do not let it 'come out of your mouths' acknowledging that there is a thought process that precedes the verbalization.


My daughter right now is going through a phase of saying insulting or disrespectful things and then following it up with the phrase "no offense." She knows she is giving offense and disrespecting her parents or that phrase wouldn't be tacked onto the end, and we are working to explain to her that if you have to add the phrase "no offense" then the words are probably better left unspoken or if you have something to say, say it in a kind manner. She is only ten still testing the boundaries of our parental authority. We understand she is in a learning process. 


What is truly sad is adults who engage in similar practices. I have had 'friends' and relatives in the past who would wound with their words; teasing and needling to the point where my temper was about to go beyond a simmer and boil over and then back off instantly with the phrase "just kidding" or "just teasing" or "can't you take a joke?"


We all know when we're on the receiving end of such treatment, the trick is to take a lesson from those times and make sure we're not the ones dishing it out. And we need to make sure that we press our lips firmly together if someone is dishing it out to us, and not retaliate! Let's all try to watch the words before they fly out of our mouths this week and use words and phrases that will build up the person to whom we're speaking. 


Stamps: The Craft's Meow Frieda, assortment of Rubber Stamp Tapestry
Ink: black Stazon, PTI aqua mist and spring moss, Ranger distress ink spun sugar, SU soft sky
Paper: Papertrey Ink kraft, vanilla, white, blue, patterned paper
Other: nestabilities, fiskars corner punch/embosser, prismacolor pencils, flowers, MS border punch, pearl

Paper Cupcakes May freebie!!!

Gooood morning everyone! What is a nicer wakeup call than the birds singing outside your windowsill? That same windowsill decorated with a happy little bird card to encourage the birds' singing. That's where this card is going to live until I send it out for someone's birthday later this month, in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy it.

I am a guest designer for the month of May for Paper Cupcakes and this card features the May freebie stamp, "Sending Cheer Your Way." Check the link to see how you can obtain yours! It is only available for 48 hours, so hurry! But the challenge itself is good for two weeks, so we hope you can play along!

Nina, the owner/designer at Paper Cupcakes developed a cute sketch for the design team to use and I had fun choosing some bright patterned papers to decorate this sweet, happy image.

Not sure you can tell from the photo, I used paper tole, popping up the bird, the bird's wing, the heart on the letter and the flower petals to give the image more dimension. Its pretty easy with a digital stamp; once I had my image positioned and sized, I placed it in four spots on one 8.5x11 sheet and printed it out, cutting out the portions I wanted to highlight with the paper tole.

I used my prismacolor pencils to color it in and added a few 'shadows' with a copic marker C-1, and a retired set of stamps for the birthday sentiment.

Be sure to visit the regular design team members of Paper Cupcakes to see how they used this image and sketch!

Audrie E. 
Danie May
Gloria
Ildiko
Kathy
Shirley
Sonya
Wilma

Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 139 . . two by two

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ, where all of our challenges are based on scripture. This week our sponsor is Doodle Pantry images, you can find more creations from our design team on the home page right here. We have our expanded design team now so there might be up to 12 lovely project to view and all the ladies are far more talented than I am! 


This week I am the hostess and I chose this verse from Genesis 6:20 "Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive." The challenge this week is to use an animal or bird or living creature in your creation somewhere. And I apologize, I put Exodus in my devotional, I don't know why. Here are the thoughts that prompted that verse selection: 

About six weeks ago I found a toy ark for the new nursery we’re setting up at church; the room for babies up to age two. The ark includes Mr. and Mrs. Noah and several pairs of animals. We all know the story of course, two of every kind of animal went onto the ark to escape the flood. And that’s sort of what we come to expect from life, isn’t it—to be in a pair, a couple, a twosome?

I haven’t volunteered in a nursery for years because although I love the babies and it is a joy to hold them, I have a private struggle with sadness when there.  A lot of the other volunteers are young mothers who are in the room with their own baby. Their husbands come to the door to pick them up and they leave, together. This is a small, new church and a lot of the people are related, so cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, are all worshipping and doing life together.

As happy as I am for these families, I have painful recollections of standing on the edge of groups and couples like this in my own child-rearing years, because for much of that time I was a single mom. Week after week, year after year, the kids and I walked through church on the edges and we were alone. 

It happens a lot you know, whatever the circumstances might be; whether you’re single and never been married, divorced, widowed or separated from your family by distance or circumstances beyond your control. Whatever caused those circumstances it feels as though you’re surrounded everywhere by nothing but happy couples; everyone walking through life two by two.

Several chapters away from Genesis in the bible, the psalms appear as soothing balm to the troubled soul. In this instance, Psalm 139 came to my rescue. As intimate as a marriage relationship or the closest bond between friends or even parent and child, more intimate is the relationship between the Lord and me. 1“You have searched me and know me . . . you perceive my thoughts from afar.” 3b“You are familiar with all of my ways. 4Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.”

Who knows our inmost thoughts our deepest longings, darkest fears and cherished dreams better than the Lord, and who loves us despite and through it all?

15“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place…”

God made me. How much more intimately can someone know me than the one who created me?

16“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

My sudden status as a single mom was no surprise to God. And He was there every step of the way. He supported me when I was down, actually provided and safeguarded my little family in ways that I can only consider miraculous. I was never really alone, I was walking in a twosome with the God of the universe who is not a remote, foreign being but one who knew me and loved me in the best way possible. And one who still loves me and is gently calling me to lay that sadness down once and for all.

I honestly wasn’t expecting a toy, plastic ark to bring to the surface so many of my old hurts and feelings from that painful time. But God knows us and He loves us and doesn’t want us to stay stuck in our past pain. One great way to solve old hurts or new is to seek out answers in the scripture.

You have to search; I don’t know which verse will strike the right chord in your heart.  But when those wounds pop open at the sight of an ark, a tree, or cloud, the sound of an old song or a distant scent that opens the floodgates of a painful memory, start searching through the scriptures to find an answer. You won’t be doing it alone, the God who made you, who loves you is walking with you. 


Thanks for looking and we hope you can play along this week. 

CPS264 Birthdays with Paper Cupcakes

Happy Thankful Thursday! I am thankful I have friends and this month I have a LOT of friends with birthdays! (Most of them are going to get a late card, sorry!)

And I am excited to announce that for the month of May I am a guest designer at Paper Cupcakes! It is very hard to choose which cupcake image (or any of the cute images) to choose from, but I selected this waffle cupcake, as kind of a combination of waffle cone (my kids' favorite, all four of them!) and cupcake. I also wanted to make one chocolate, and one vanilla and practice my coloring skills using prismacolor pencils and copics.

The top one uses prismacolors and the bottom copics. I haven't master the brown family in copics yet and wasn't brave enough to try a chocolate cupcake with my markers!

The CPS sketch this week provided a great springboard for inspiration. Thanks for looking!

Image: Cupcake from Paper Cupcakes, Happy Birthday sentiments from MFP retired set
Paper: Doodlebug Designs, SU, PTI for card base
Ink: Black Memento for sentiments
Other: pearls, ribbon, spellbinders die

Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 138 . . . natural

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ, where all of our challenges are based on scripture. This week's hostess is sweet Miesje, who has selected this verse from 1 John 2:4-6 - 'Whoever says, “I know him”, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him.'

Her challenge is to create a card or project that uses something real or natural on it - twine - burlap - shell - sand - etc. And our sponsor this week is Our Daily Bread Designs! You can fine Miesje's devotional and see the creations from the members of our design team . . . welcoming SIX new design team sisters this week . . . on the home page right here. And we just want to say also that all of our design team sisters from the past are still our sisters in Christ and we don't forget them, we miss them and love having served alongside them. All together forever in heaven one day, hurray!!

On to my card. I chose to use just a touch twine along with a 'natural' image, of the tree. I have been in need of many thank you cards lately and honestly haven't made as many as I need to be sending out. I had the flu for about five days and you know how being sick can just put you so far behind! I used a new technique I discovered on JJ Bolton's blog right here. Isn't it a great idea? I recreated it for this challenge but embossed the cardstock first using the woodgrain impression plate. Tied a bit of twine on the end letter to fit the challenge requirements; sometimes you 'see' something in your head and it turns out exactly like you wanted it to, this was one of those rare instances!

If you're the type of person who doesn't like to click another link, I'll explain how this technique is accomplished, although please remember JJ created this technique, not me.

1. Stamp your image on two separate pieces of cardstock. Try to place your image in almost the same spot on both pieces of paper. One of these images is going to be used on your finished card, while the other image is going to be your working image that you use to cut out your letters.

2. Decide where you want your word to be and draw a thin pencil line using a ruler so you can lay out the letters nice and straight.

3. Place your letter dies along the pencil line and space them as evenly as possible.

4. I put a strip of tape on the back side of the letter dies, taping them down to the cardstock on either side so the letters wouldn't shift out of place when I ran them through my die cutting machine.

5. Cut out the letters, then place them onto your stamped, UNCUT image.

6. Use tiny bits of dimensional foam to pop up your letters. I used tweezers to help place them onto the cardstock, because the idea here is to have their inked up bits match the image below and you don't want to glue them in the wrong spot. That's it! I'm looking forward to reading Miesje's thoughts. Thanks for looking and have a blessed week!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Through the Trees"
Paper: vanilla cardstock
Inks: Fresh Green kaleidacolor pad (leaves), dark chocolate for the trunk
Other: woodgrain impression plate (PTI), twine, block letter alphabet die set (PTI)