Sweet "Thinking of You" Box

Hello dear friends!  I'm back.  I haven't been here all week.  Shame on me!  My muse was taking a break I think.  But we got together again this weekend.  I have this project and other one started!

This time I have a project for the challenge over at Sassy Cheryl's where we have to use our favorite color combo.  My son, Josiah came in my studio when I was just sitting down to work on this project.  He asked if I was starting a new card.  I told him this challenge and he said: Oh, so, green and purple?  lol  I told him he was right  :)  Those are my favorite colors!  I used Avery's Big Flower.  I've used her several times now.  She is just so sweet.

I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils.  And of course I sewed the layers together.

This is the front, but the whole thing isn't a card.  I used the sketch from CLP and...

 turned the small image rectangle into the card and mounted it to the outside of my box.

See?  I decorated the inside of the box.  I love the DP.  I have one sheet left.  I'm trying to make it go as far as possible  :)  I made the flower for the outside.  It's been a long time since I made roses from ribbon.  It was fun, but strange to be gluing them to my card.  They were always sewn to fabric before.  They turned out pretty good I think for being so out of practice!

Here's a shot from the side.

And the back (or bottom).

I am entering my card in the following challenges:
Sassy Cheryl's - Favorite Color Combo
CLP - Sketch
Creative Inspirations - Anything
City Crafter Challenge Blog - A Rose is a Rose
Ribbon Carousel - Make Your Own Flowers
Top Tip Tuesday - Dig Out the Old (My ribbons and rose making skill go waaaaay back!)
That's about it.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

SSiC Challenge #141

Hello again and blessings to you!  I am so glad you are here!  Grab a cup of tea and enjoy your stay!  Today I have a card for the next challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ.  Our hostess this week is the beautiful Candace and she chose Psalm 118:6 for our verse this week:

"The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?"

Isn't that an amazing promise?  God is on our side.  The God of the universe.  The one who holds all things in place is on our side.  Can you comprehend that?  It is hard to get my brain around that.  He loves me and is concerned about me.  I've known that, but last January it became even more real to me.  My 2 sons and I were in a serious accident.  They came away with some injuries, but none life threatening.  I had a serious head injury which could have taken my life, but God did not allow that.  He honored the prayers of all the saints around the world that were standing in the gap for me.  Satan may have had other plans for me that night, but God is on my side.  I plan to stick close to His side as well and give Him all the praise, honor and glory He deserves.

If you need encouragement today, seek out the promises in God's word.  They are relevant today, just as they were when they were first written.  God loves you and He wants to pour out His love on you.

Candace decided she wanted us to do something on our card this week that we are "afraid" of.  Something we haven't tried or maybe we avoid.  This week we are sponsored by Sweet and Sassy Stamps.  One winner drawn at random will win 3 digis on their choice.  Come play along with us!

This week I used an image from our sponsor called Opal Owl.  Love her eyelashes!

I decided to try some paper piecing this week.  I've seen other women do this and I've never tried it myself.  I printed her body and belly on separate cardstock and cut them out.  I'm not sure you can tell other than the fact there's no shading like when I color my images.  I printed her eyes on white and added those on top.  I did color her beak.  See the shading there?  lol

I made my image into a small card and made a pocket to tuck it into.

Owls are so popular right now (in fact I have 4 owl place mats to make for my friends quilt shop this week!).  Here's little Opal peeking out of the pocket.  The flower really does match better in real life.  Doesn't look so great here.



Here's the pocket.  I put a couple layers on the inside of the pocket as well.

This is the inside of my little card.  The cutie sentiment was another file over at Sweet and Sassy.  It has a bunch of sentiments including this one.  It's called Owl Sentiments 2.  I'm glad I bought that one too.  I should be able to make some great cards with these two files  :)  The little owl on the writing panel is from an old set I bought at Joanns several years ago.  Seemed to fit  :)

I think that's about it today.  Make sure you hop around to everyone on the Design Team.  I know everyone has something wonderful to share with you today!

Thanks for taking a peek.

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

Another Shaped Card!

Hello dear friends!  I'm back again!  And I am in love with this card!  (Actually I say that with most of them when I make them.  Some stay in my heart, some get replaced.)

Today's card is for the challenge over at Mo's Digital Challenge Blog.  The challenge this week is to make a circle card.  Now, recently I spoke about my perfectionism and how it makes it difficult for me to get from point A to point B.  Today the journey was delayed by a massive headache I woke up with at 6am.  It took about 6 hours to work through this card and now at 10pm I have plenty of energy and I'm ready to start another card!  (That accident threw off my time clock!)  The image is called 'baby fairy bug' and is from a collection over at Mo's called 3 baby fairies.  They are so cute!

Look at that belly!!  And that little nose!  Oh My!  I colored this sweetie with my Prismacolor pencils.  I think I'm in love!  Do you see the wings?  I did a little something extra which (for me) put this card over the top and, hence, the love for this card!  I emailed Mo and asked permission to erase all the fairy but her wings and then redraw (or actually just draw) the rest of the wing that was behind the diaper cover.  She replied so quickly and graciously gave me permission to do that.  So I did...

Can you see the wings in these pictures?  I printed them on acetate, used a small liner paintbrush and some ink from a bright pink ink pad and painted the wings once the printer ink dried.  Then I carefully cut them out leaving a long tab where the wings are attached to her shoulder.  I used a sharp knife and cut a slit where the wings join the image on the paper and slipped the tab in there and taped it to the back of the paper.  Oh, I also creased the acetate where the tab started so the wings would stand up away from the paper.

My sentiment is from an old SU set and it says "Just fluttering by with a birthday 'hi'".  How appropriate is that?  My seam binding and flowers came from Wild Orchid.  The doily, twine and pearls are from my stash.  I think you can see the glitter (sparkle) on my flowers in some of the close-ups.

Here's a shot of the card partly open.  My daughter, Katie, said the other day: Mom, you should make a circle card that opens in the middle with the top part going over the whole thing!  Idk if she heard me say that Mo's challenge was a circle card or not.  But, I told her it was a great idea, that I would use it and I would tell all of you that the idea came from her.  So there ya go!

Here's my writing panel.  The flower stamp is another old one from SU.  I lined it up with my Stamp-a-ma-jig.  (Do they still sell those?  Does anyone else still use one?)  See the brad at the top of the writing panel?  There's a piece of acetate over the white cardstock:

I used the same technique with ink and a paintbrush to color the flowers on the acetate not on the cardstock.  When you slide the acetate out of the way you can see the color move.  But there's one more little surprise:

There's a ladybug under the writing panel.  Just a little surprise for someone that wants to investigate the card  ;)

And here's the back.

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Mo's Digital Challenge Blog - Circle Card

Cooking It Up With Katie - Stamp Up a Twined Brad

The Paper Shelter - Birthday with Sentiment

Papertake Weekly Challenge - In the Garden

Cute Card Thursday - A Touch of Sparkle

Digital Tuesday Challenge - Clearly Beautiful

Fairytale Challenge Blog - Things with Wings

That's about it (it's enough isn't it?).  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle



SSiC

Good morning dear friends!  I hope you are having a great day and are blessed beyond measure!  Our God is so good and He loves you so much!  Thank you for stopping by!

Today I have a card for the new challenge over at Stampin' Sisters in Christ.  Our hostess this week is the beautiful, Traci.  She has chosen the verse:

"Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers."  Ephesians 4:29

 I use this verse alot with my kids, but I try to remember it myself.  I need to be careful that the things I am saying are not meant to make anyone feel poorly about themselves, nor should they tear anyone down.  That is not how my Jesus would have spoken when He was on this earth and I shouldn't either.  This world is full of so much that is bad I certainly don't need to add to it.  I use this line of thinking to increase my prayers.  If I feel I see something in someone that's not right, I try to pray for that person or situation rather than say something negative.  I'd rather let God work on a problem than add to it by what I am saying.  I hope the things you read here on my blog are a blessing to you.  I am so thankful for each of you.

For our challenge this week Traci wants us to either add layers, use paper piecing or paper tole.  I chose to add layers (which if you are familiar with my cards you know they ALWAYS have layers.  lol  This wasn't really a challenge  ;)  lol)

Our sponsor this week is Tami Mayberry.  She has such cute stamps!  One winner will receive a stamp set generously donated by Tami.  So, head over to the SSiC blog and enter!  We can't wait to see the lovely things you will create.

For my card I used a cute stamp I bought a couple years ago.  I can't find it on the website I originally ordered it from, the artist seems to have closed her website as of January 1 of this year and the manufacturer doesn't seem to carry her stuff either.  So... I am really sorry if you love it as much as I do and you can't get it.  I guess I should have checked on that first!  I'll do that next time, promise!

So, anyway, here's the image:

I colored this cutie pair with my Prismacolor pencils and added some flowers from Wild Orchid (of course!).  The pink cardstock is embossed with my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder.

The DP came from Heidi Grace.  She has some really adorable paper!  The lace is from my stash and I think its vintage.  Like, maybe it came from my grandma's stash?  Not sure.  I threaded a very thin silk ribbon through the top of the lace.  This ribbon is actually for silk ribbon embroidery.  It was very thin, has amazing drape and was the right color.  AND it uses something from my stash!  The sentiment comes from Papertrey Ink.  They have great supplies!  You should check them out!

Here's the inside of the card.  I've inked the edges of my layers and sewn all of them.  I stamped the corner of the writing panel with some flowers from a set I bought a while ago by Fiskars.  The flowers match the ones in the DP very well!

I added the verse to the bottom of the back.

I guess that's about it.  Make sure your go over to the SSiC blog and enter. Also make sure you check out the rest of the DT cards.  You are in for a treat!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs

Michelle

My "Not Square Card"

Hello dear friends and welcome!  We had a beautiful, sunny day here today and I spent some time in my flower gardens, which, of course, wore me out.  So, I didn't make dinner (Praise God for leftovers!) and I laid on the couch for a couple hours.  But, now the second wind has hit and I am ready to post!

I have a card for the challenge over at Sassy Cheryl's where the challenge is to not make a square card.  Not a problem, right?  Right!  Sort of.  There's more than 1 way to get from point A to point B.  The direct route and any number of scenic routes.  Mine was definitely scenic.  At least in my head.  I started with one idea.  Which got me thinking about the pros and cons.  Which led to another idea.  And another.  Until I came up with my card.  But then, being the perfectionist that I am, my brain had to keep working out the details til I was happy with it.  (And my brain doesn't like heavy duty thinking lately!)  First, let me show you the image I chose.  She is Sweet Little Avery.  I have used her before and she is so adorable!

Don't you just love her?  I used my Prismacolor pencils to color her sweet little self.  What a cutie!  I inked the edges of the image with a SU ink pad and added some pearls.  But, remember the scenic route?  This isn't just "Not a Square Card".  You ready for this?

TA-DA!  It's a purse!  (Please don't ask how I got from point A to point B.  I'm sure I've forgotten all the twists and turns!)  I used my new embossing folder from Cuttlebug called Tiny Mosaic.  I see great possibilities with this one!  The button is from my stash as are all the beads I threaded on some necklace size memory wire.  It will keep its curved shape permanently (just like me I'm afraid!).  The yellow around the edges is actually bias tape from my stash.  I was looking for some Velcro to close the purse (don't ask what happened with the magnets I bought) when I found the bias tape!  Score!!  I adhered it with my Scortape although the seamstress/quilter in me desperately wanted to sew it on.  But given the embossed paper I knew the presser foot would smoosh it (yes, I have smooshed some before!), so I settled for tape.  Ready for the inside?

Isn't that DP delicious?  Its from a K&Co stack by Susan Winget called Spring Blossom.  Can you see how glittery this sheet is?  Love it!  The sentiment comes from a set I purchased from Papertrey Ink.  Their sets come with an empty CD case, a clear label to put on the front and room inside to mount the stamps.  They stay neat and clean and I think they're great!

Here's another look at Avery and all that glitter!

Here's the back.  That purple box is not part of the purse  ;)  The button on the front made it tip over and this was the only way it would stay up for it's picture!

I am entering my "card" in the following challenges:

Sassy Cheryl's - Not a Square Card

Shopping Our Stash - Bingo (diagonal from top left corner: yellow, pearls, free, ribbon, pink)

Divas by Design - Tickled Pink

Truly Scrumptious - Anything Goes

I think that's about it.  Did you make it through all my ramblings?  You deserve a prize for that!  Thanks for taking a peek today!

Blessings & Hugs

Michelle

Tickle My Funny Bone

Hello again and Happy Tuesday!  I hope you are having a blessed day today, where ever you are.

Today I have a card for the challenge over at Mo' Digital Challenge Blog where the theme is Tickle My Funny Bone.  I chose this little guy, Biker Babe, who makes me laugh every time I look at him.

Isn't he adorable?  I colored him with my Prismacolor pencils.  I love his shades and tattoo!  All he needs now is a bike!

I LOVE this paper!  I found it at Hobby Lobby and since I love all things patriotic it had to come home with me!  The only embellishment I added was ricrac.

Here's the inside.  The DP looks so amazing!  I may have to go back for more!!

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Mo's Digital Challenge Blog - Tickle My Funny Bone

Divas by Design - One for the boys

Totally Papercrafts - No Pesky Girls Allowed

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Sketch

Catered Crop - Use Ric Rac

Top Tip Tuesday - CAS (if you have looked at any of my other cards you will know this IS CAS for me  lol)

That's about it.  I gotta scoot!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs

Michelle

A Bright Mother's Day Card!

Hello again!  Happy Day!  My children and I are getting near the end of our school year and I have a little more free time.  WAHOO!

Today I have a card for the challenge over at Tiddly Inks where the theme is Mother's Day.  (yeah, I know, that was yesterday, but there's always next year, right?)  For my card I chose Wryn - Spring Bling.  She is so sweet.  I think she picked those flowers for her mommy.  What do you think?

I used my Prismacolor pencils to color her.  She has such a sweet face.  My green pencil was very bright!  It matches my DP very well  :)

I bought the DP at Michael's last week.  So bright and cheerful!  I had to use it right away!  The ribbon is from my stash and the flowers are from Wild Orchid.

See?  Now you can tell it's for Mother's Day!  lol  :)  The sentiment at the top was supposed to go on the outside, but, somehow I forgot and stuck it to the inside.  And if you have ever used Scor-tape you will know that stuff is not to be moved once you stick it down!  So..... it's on the inside!  I used an old stamp from SU to decorate the writing panel.

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Tiddly Inks - Mom's Day

Ribbon Carousel - also Mom's Day  :)

Creative Inspirations - Sketch

Papertake - Cute cute cute (Isn't she cute?  I think so!)

The Paper Shelter - Anything Goes

I guess that's about it today.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

SSiC Challenge #139

Hello again dear friends.  I hope you have been blessed since we last met together.  I am realizing more and more how blessed I am and how great our God is.  I hope you know that too.  We have a new challenge over at Stampin' Sisters in Christ.  Our lovely Peggysue is our hostess this week.  Her verse is:

 "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."   Genesis 6:20

This is, of course, from the story of Noah.  What a great testimony to the faithfulness of our God when we choose to follow Him.  If your heart is seeking that kind of faithfulness please contact any of us on the Design Team and we would love to tell you about our great and awesome God.

Peggysue's challenge this week is to put an animal or bird on your card.  Laurie over at Doodle Pantry is our sponsor this week.  If you haven't been over there you must check out her adorable images.  I'm sure you'll find something you love!  I chose Fireworks Birdie for my card this week.  This cutie comes with 2 sentiments and was so much fun to color.

I colored the image with my Prismacolor pencils and added plenty of Stickles to the fireworks!  I brushed the edges of the image with a matching ink pad and used a small star from an SU set to fill in the blank areas on the edges.  (If you look at my cards you'll notice I'm not a huge fan of blank spaces.  Why is that?)

This is actually the front of my card.  The picture you just saw is the inside.  I'll show you more of that in a minute.  I didn't use any DP on the outside of my card.  I tried to dry emboss the red paper, but I have decided I NEED the Grand Caliber for that.  hmmmm Mother's Day is tomorrow....  ;)  Anyway, the ribbon is from The Paper Studio.  I found it at Hobby Lobby this morning.  It matches the DP I used inside.  All my flowers are from Wild Orchid.  I think they have the most beautiful flowers.  Great prices, great selection, great shipping prices from the UK.  I don't look anywhere else for my flowers.  They do a great job!

I added glitter to the larger flowers.  I think you can actually see it in this photo!

I told you I would explain the inside.  Here it is; part of it anyway.  I used a Nesty (from Spellbinders) to cut the circles in the front.  I added silver star brads to the corners.  Where do you write your message?  Right here:

The image is mounted on its own card on the inside.  The sentiment came in the file from Doodle Pantry and the small sparkler is from an old set from Close to My Heart.

I think that's about it.  Make sure you stop by the other DT member's blogs to see their beautiful cards.  I know you'll be blessed.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

I Love Raggedy Ann!

Hello and welcome!  I'm so glad you are here today.  I hope the sun is smiling down on you where ever you are.  Or maybe its a sky full of stars like it is here right now.  ;)

Today I have a card for the challenge over at Sassy Cheryl's where the challenge is A Stitch in Time.  I have to admit this was a very easy one for me.  If you've ever been here and looked at my cards you will know I ALWAYS stitch all my layers.  (between you and me, my cards look naked without the stitching.  I just can't skip it)  A few weeks ago I bought the image Sassy Sally and Her Raggedy Ann.  This is the first time I have used her.  I loved Raggedy Ann as a little girl.  I still own a set of sheets, a blanket, all my dolls, a metal waste can and a candle holder  :) 

Here's this cutie  :)  I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils.  Look at Ann's face.  Almost smug, huh?

The DP are from a stack from MME called Penny Lane.  These papers are so fun.  Lots of glitter although you can't see it in this picture.  The red was a perfect Raggedy Ann color.  Kinda vintage.

Here's my embellishment.   The buttons are all from my stash.  Instead of gluing them on I threaded some taupe pearle cotton through the holes of each button.  I poked a hole in my card below the bow and pulled all the ends to the back and adhered them with Scor tape.  They all just dangle.  I really like how it looks.  My ribbon is seam binding from Wild Orchid.

Here's the inside.  I inked the edges of the writing panel with a stamp pad....funny how colors look different when you are really tired  :(  oh well.  Sally and Ann like pink too, I hope.

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Sassy Cheryl's - A Stitch in Time

Shopping Our Stash - Use 3 or More DP

Digi Tuesday - Ribbons & Buttons

Sketch & Stash - Sketch (& buttons from my stash)

I think that's about it.  I hope you enjoy your travels in blog land.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

SSiC Challenge #137

Hello ladies!  Thanks for stopping by today.  I am so excited!  If you are here from Stampin' Sisters in Christ you know that I have been asked to be on the Design Team over there!  I want to thank Kris for this great opportunity!  I love making my cards and I love the Lord and I am so blessed to be able to combine the two.  My prayer is that my involvement with this blog will be a blessing for everyone who stops by my little corner of blog land.

I have a card for the challenge this week.  Our beautiful Meisje chose the challenge this week.  She wants us to to put something natural on our cards.  Something not man-made.  She chose this verse for this week:

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. "

As soon as I saw the challenge I knew I wanted to use an image from Tiddly Inks called Wryn - Pick Up Sticks.  It comes with several extra images and she is so cute!

I have colored sweet Wryn with my Prismacolor pencils.  She was so much fun.

The sketch is my own.  The DP are from Heidi Grace and the cardstock is Bazzil.  My natural elements are the twigs from my back yard and the raffia.  She has a real "out-doorsy" feel.  Kinda rustic, so I wanted to keep the embellishments simple.  The swirl and brads are from my daughter's stash that has been living in my studio for over a year so they are free for the taking as far as I'm concerned!!

Here's the inside.  It was fun coloring the elements in here too.  I've said it before, but I really enjoy coloring my images.  And even though I have done nearly every craft under the sun coloring ws never a big deal for me as a child.  Who knew?

The sentiment came with dear little Wryn.  It's perfect, huh?  I used the same basic sketch, just reversed.

This image also came with Wryn.  Really ladies, go on over to Christy's site and grab this one!  It's a great deal!

And, here is the back.  I like to give all 4 sides of my cards full treatment.  I think it's disappointing to decorate the front so much and the inside or back is a letdown.  It's such a great treat that all 4 sides are done.  Yes, it takes longer, but I do this because I love it, not to get them done as fast as possible.  Anyway, at the bottom I put the verse to go along with this challenge (actually, after completing the card I realized it was the verse from last week, but it actually fits with this challenge too, so WAHOO for me!!  Thank you, Lord for covering me on that one!  lol and FYI the challenge is correct, I just looked at the wrong verse.)

So, I guess that's about it.  Thanks so much for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs

Michelle