Another PTI anniversary challenge

For this challenge, squeaking it in under the wire, we had to use dies only, no stamps. For this challenge, if anyone is looking to enter, it has to be done before 6:00 a.m. EST tomorrow!

Without further ado, here is my card...which I wish I had more time to fuss with, but there just isn't...

Cardstock: PTI bitty big, retired paper, soft stone, fine linen in white; dies: PTI "hello," gathered garden and Mix & Mat plaid, MFT stitched rectangle, distress inks for sponging and sequins.

Choose Joy ... New Challenge at Mustard Seed Faith

Good morning! It is time for a new challenge at Mustard Seed Faith and this week's hostess is Nancy, who has selected the theme of Choose Joy for her devotional. The point of her thoughts is that we have a choice, we can take action to choose joy.

That is true, isn't it? We may not be able to control our circumstances, but we can control our response to them. And the response is always or can be guided by the fact that our joy is found in our position as a child of God. There is joy in our salvation, joy in the fact that Jesus Christ paid it all on the cross for our sins. I don't always outwardly express joy, but it is always buried deep in my heart and I can lean on that when circumstances wouldn't warrant happiness. But joy is separate from happiness, because while happiness is circumstantial and fleeting, joy transcends circumstance.

It can for me however, be a challenge to remember that I can choose joy and that I have that assurance of salvation which brings joy. I am thankful for Nancy's devotional as a reminder that I need to make joy my choice.

For our challenge this week we can create anything that brings us joy. I just find great joy in creating or papercrafting so making anything usually provokes happiness or joy. I thought I would go with bright colors, playful images and sequins in a shaker card, to send to someone to bring a bit of joy into their life.

Thanks for looking and please visit our blog so you can play along in our current challenge.

Sstamps: Poppy stamps narwhal set; Ink: PTI snow white, soft stone; Paper: Orange Zest, blue scrap, teal, watercolor; Dies: My Favorite Things square stitched frame, PTI double ended banner; Other: sequins, glitter, prismacolor pencils, acetate, white embossing powder

Mustard Seed Faith Challenge #7... Chesed Love

Good morning!

It is time already for another challenge at Mustard Seed Faith! We have a new devotional posted about Chesed love, or the faithful, steadfast love of God as demonstrated in the book of Hosea. This will be my last devotional for a little while, some of the other design team members are going to step in as hostess and we even have a guest planned for September!

Our challenge this time is to create a card celebrating relationships, so friendship, anniversary or wedding, all will do. We have a great lineup of cards from the design team which you can find here.

I had so much fun watercoloring that I decided to do a little more with the Gathered Garden set from Papertrey Ink. I am a marker junkie but the first set of markers that really has clicked with me is my set of Ranger distress markers. It is different for everyone, I know, and I would like to experiment a bit more with Zigs, but for right now, I'm getting a lot of mileage out of the distress markers.

For the layout I found inspiration in the Mojo Monday challenge #498. Instead of patterned paper I turned to a pretty embossing strip by Cuttlebug that seemed a nice accompaniment to the watercolored flowers, and delicate enough so it wouldn't detract from the main image. I also used ribbon instead of washi tape for the decorate element on the side of the image in the lower right...I do not actually own any washi tape at all and I think the ribbon might work. I had so much fun mixing and matching the markers on the stamps and it was so simple...color, spritz and stamp.

I am enjoying a neat sentiment stamp set that was a birthday gift from a dear friend and it fits with our theme of friendship and relationships for this week!

Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Gathered Garden, Scripted (sentiment); Paper: PTI soft stone, blueberry, Strathmore watercolor; Ink: Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow; Dies: My Favorite Things stitched circles; Other: Ranger distress ink watercolor markers, Cuttlebug embossing folder, ribbon

Watercolor Garden Monday PTI challenge

Hello! This past Make it Monday (#283) challenge at PTI is watercolor wash, which I love using to create a background. I thought this time instead of making a full panel I would emboss resist and then wash over it. I am happy with how it turned out, although I'm sort of iffy about my layout. I think this could work with any sentiment, thank you or birthday or sympathy. I am still having fun experimenting with Gathered Garden and can see many more projects in the future, it is so versatile.

I made my wash with Ranger Distress inks Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans, Shabby Shutters and Antique Linen.

I found a May's Elemental Inspiration challenge on a site called Daring Cardmakers with the 'bingo card arrangement' where you choose three elements from the nine images to make your card. Joanne is the design team member who selected the challenge and mentioned she is found with knitting needles in her hands when she isn't stamping...me too!!! I just taught myself the cast on for toe-up socks, but I think the gusset and heel might be a challenge...anyway, I digress. For my card I chose the blue-green color as one element, the silver chain with leaves as another element and the circles. Kept it CAS with just a white background, and I feel it might quality for the CASology blog "Flow" challenge, with the blue colors and the flow of the floral images hugging the circle.

Thanks for looking and have a great night!

Stamps: Gathered Garden (Papertrey Ink), Ways to Say Thank you (mini set); Ink: Ranger distress antique linen, shabby shutters, weathered wood, faded jeans, silver; Paper: Papertrey Ink white linen, white; Dies: My Favorite Things rectangle and circle stitched dies; Other: Silver embossing powder, white embossing powder gray chiffon ribbon

PTI Tenth Anniversary ... flowers

Hello again! As Papertrey Ink celebrates its tenth anniversary, customers are invited to join in a few stamping challenges. One of them is to use a favorite floral set. I have to admit, this isn't necessarily a favorite, but I'm longing for Spring and for tulips to pop out of the ground...probably because in the past day we've gotten 8-9 inches of snow so far...and still falling! This is an old set, but full of tulips! I was inspired by one of Betsy's cards today to pull out my blue inks. Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Wishing You," Illustrated Faith "Bloom." Paper: PTI soft stone, white linen, white cardstock, Aqua. Ink: Amethyst Allure, Spring Rain, Simply Chartreuse, Limeade Ice, Summer Sunrise, Bright Buttercup, black. My Favorite Things Square stitched frame dies, silver gel pen, clear gel pen, sequins, Ranger distress markers (to highlight the tulips)

CAS Flurry of Hearts

Welcome! I was in the mood to color this evening and have never had a chance to break out this stamp set from MFT, Warmest Wishes. Love what I've seen others do with the image, especially some of the creative shaker cards! But I wanted to practice coloring the girl first, so I opted for CAS. This fits the CAS on Sunday challenge #100 to use hearts and the Color Inspiration Monday link up 10, just stipulates you must color your own image.

I used Prismacolor pencils to color in the image spread about with a bit of gamsol. A touch of glitter, a bit of embossing at the top and that's it! Thanks for looking and have fun stamping!

Stamps: My Favorite Things -- Warmest Wishes. Ink: black adirondack. Other: embossing folder, prismacolor pencils, glitter, blanks from heart border punch, red, pink and Neenah white paper. Pencils: Greyed Lavendar, Process Red, Salmon Pink, Rose, Goldenrod, Deco Pink, Chocolate, Warm Grey 30% and 10%, Silver, Spanish Orange, LIght Violet, Sienna Brown, Violet, Brite Violet, Parma Violet, Indigo Blue, Mulberry, Hot Pink

Stampin' Sisters in Christ . . . banners

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. This week's hostess is the uber-talented Kris, who has selected this verse from Psalm 46:10 "Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." She challenges you to use flags or banners in your creation.

I am excited to read her thoughts on the verse this week and you will be challenged and inspired by the rest of the design team's creations, which you can find on our home page here.

Our sponsor this week is a grab bag of stamps donated by an anonymous stamper who wants to share her bounty with other stampers. They are individual stamps, a nice little package will make its way through the mail to one randomly selected stamper from our challenge this week.

I chose to use a banner die from My Favorite Things or MFT stamps, along with the telephone die and a stamp from Papertrey Ink. I also used a Waltzingmouse stamp to embellish the spellbinders die underneath the telephone.

I used sketch 145 from the Got Sketch blog found here. I turned it around a bit and have my sentiment running up the side of the card. I used the Hello stamp from the Papertrey Ink set using the telephone, printing one letter at a time on the colored banners. Its a bit difficult to see on the black, but I used a cuttlebug edge embosser and put a little row of flowers next to the Hello banners. The ricrac has black glitter to give the card a little bit of sparkle.

Thanks for looking and have a blessed week!

Stamps: Waltzingmouse (on spellbinders die), Papertrey Ink (sentiment)
Paper: white, black, variety of colors for banner
Ink: black
Other: spellbinders die, telephone  and ricrac die (PTI), cuttlebug embossing folders, silver cording, MFT banner die, button, glitter

Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 90 . . . tongues of silver

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. This week's hostess is the amazingly talented Grace, who has selected this verse from Proverbs 10:20-21 "The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver, the heart of the wicked is worth little. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of understanding." Her challenge is to create a card or project that encourages and to use a touch of silver.

Our sponsor this week is My Favorite Things and one player this week will have a chance to be selected by that random number generator thingamabob and win a $25 gift certificate to MFT.

The tongue is such a powerful tool or weapon depending on how we use it. Funny Grace should choose this verse when in a sermon I was listening to this week, the pastor mentioned a favorite saying his mom used to use, "I am the master of my unspoken words and the slave to those that should have remained unspoken."

Reminds me of Proverbs 25:11, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."

It isn't any surprise the bible compares fitly spoken words to precious metals. Think back to someone in your life who spoke a positive word that either lifted you up, encouraged you or affects you in a positive way to this day. How valuable are those words? More precious than any amount of money you could gather, I would imagine.

I remember the pastor's wife at one of my former churches, she was tiny with bright eyes, always reminded me of a happy bird, like a sparrow. She never, and I mean never, greeted anyone without having an encouraging or uplifting word to say to that person. She passed away many years ago but I can still see her face, lifted up, looking at the person to whom she was speaking as if they were the only one standing in the sanctuary.

I think the key to this proverb is pretty simple. Watch the words that we allow to fall from our lips and when they do depart our mouths, make sure that our speech is uplifting for the recipient.

I know Grace will have something fabulous to say about this verse. You can read her words here on the home page and we hope that you can participate in our challenge this week.

I used the MFT sketch challenge for this week in my card with the late summer tones or colors. It felt like the image was painting the scene around her. And I enjoyed using lots of patterned papers with both of them. Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 51 . . . a timely word

Happy Sunday stampers! Its time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. This week's hostess is the talented Lisa Hjulberg who selected this verse: Philippians 3:13-14 "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Her challenge is to make a card of apology or one reaching out to someone and encouraging them to put the past behind them and move forward.

Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp which carries a huge selection of items in their store, including the MFT line, or My Favorite Things. I saw this stamp at CHA last week and with Lisa's challenge in mind, thought it would be a good one to add to my collection.

Please check the home page of our blog to see the rest of the design team's creations and to read Lisa's thoughts on her chosen verse.

A word, fitly spoken is like apples of gold in frames of silver . . . from Proverbs. That's what this challenge made me think about . . . that word sorry is such a powerful one. How often do we need to use it but we're embarrassed or proud or feel the timeframe for saying it has passed? Yet that pair of words, I'm sorry, fitly spoken can provide an immense amount of healing or restoration.

More than likely there is no statute of limitations on that word 'sorry.' But the rest of the verse Lisa selected is so important to remember, particularly for me, personally. That once the apology is spoken, when repentance is in full swing, that we need to let the past go and move forward with our tasks, to keep marching on our walk. I find it harder to forgive myself than others. That only makes me a doormat for satan. How he enjoys making us relive over and over in our minds those times we've failed!

Just as we need to exhibit forgiveness and kindness towards those who have wronged us, so we need to extend the same to ourselves when we've fallen and repented.

Hope you find the time to play along with us this week, we look forward to seeing your creations.

Stamps: My Favorite Things
Ink: black memento
Paper: Basic Grey Kioshi, lavendar, ocean tides, moss green, white
Other: prismas and gamsol, ribbon