SSiC Challenge #141

Hello ladies and welcome to another beautiful day the Lord has given us.  I pray you are blessed today.

Today I have a card for the new challenge over at Stampin' Sisters in Christ.  Diane is our lovely hostess this week and she has us looking heavenward...literally.  She chose a verse from Isaiah as our inspiration this week.

“Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”  Isaiah 40:26

How amazing is that?  The God of the universe that holds all things in place is watching over us.  What a comfort that is.  We are secure in Him.  How good to know that we can rely on Him.  That He cares for us.  That He has numbered the very hairs on our heads.  Do you know that?  Do you know our Savior?  Do you have that blessed assurance?  Do you have the peace that comes from knowing Him?  I pray that you do.  He's real and He's knocking on the door of your heart.  Open your heart to Him and know the peace that comes from a personal relationship with the One who holds all the stars in place.

Our sponsor this week is Market Street.  They are offering a $20 gift certificate to their wonderful online store to our winner this week.  Just remember, in Christ we are all winners!

So, for our challenge this week Diane wants to see us add an element of heaven to our creations - angels, music, clouds, sun, stars, blue, glitter, bling, etc.

I have chosen a sweet image from one of my favorite artists.  Angel with Puppy is by the very talented Mo Manning.  I love her images and at last count I had well over 40 of them.  You'd think that would be enough but she  is always coming out with new ones that are even cuter than the last ones!!

I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils.  I inked the edges of the image with Creamy Caramel from Stampin' Up. I added some gold micro beads from MS to 2 corners.  Be warned...those things have a mind of their own!  lol  But, oh, they are gorgeous!

I also added those beads to the torn edge of my paper.  And look at that!  No PD on this week's card!  Wonders never cease!  I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder in Paisley to emboss my card stock.  I also inked that with my stamp pad as well.  The gorgeous rose is from Wild Orchid.

Here's the inside.  I repeated the basic design all the way around this week.  I like the vintage sort of look of the torn and inked paper.  

And its on the back!  lol

I think that's about it.  Be sure to stop by the other DT blogs and see their lovely creations!  I know you'll love them!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs

Michelle

Lots of Flowers

Hello and welcome!  Grab a cup of tea and a comfy seat.  Enjoy your stay!

Today I have a card for the challenge over at Tiddly Inks where the challenge this time is to use flowers.  So I did!!  I also used the very beautiful Fairy Fae.  She has such an elegant look to her.

I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils.  I added some swirls around the edges and sewed my layers together.

I love this DP.  Its from a stack by K&Co. Botanicals by Susan Winget.  I love this paper and I didn't really want to cover it up, so I came up with a great idea!

See the embellishments?  I cut a piece of acetate to fit the front of my card.  I added my pearl flourish, rhinestones and my flowers to that.  Now, you can lift the acetate and see all the gorgeousness underneath, the card is embellished, but nothing is completely covered!  WAHOO!!  I glued my flowers to an oval of paper which I stuck down with some scortape.  

The back of the acetate isn't beautiful, but it isn't horrible either!

Here's the inside.

I used my Paisley Cuttlebug folder to emboss the lavender piece on the left.

The right side shows the DP again.

And here's the back with another look at that gorgeous paper.

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Tiddly Inks - Flower Power

Shopping Our Stash - May Flowers (The DP and swirl are over a year old!)

Divas by Design - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations - Lots of Sparkle (besides the pearls and rhinestones, there's glitter on the flowers.)

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

Blessings & Hugs

Michelle

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