Friend

Day 58 of 365 Cards challenged us to make a card with the word "friend" in it.  I made this for a friend who is battling breast cancer, and she is such a precious woman.  She is always about helping others.  It was a joy to make this for her.

The dies are from Spellbinders; the paper is from Hobby Lobby and the stamp is from Joann's.

Here is the card:

I also want to submit this card to Word Art Wednesday.


P.S.  She really loved it!

As always, God's highest and best for you today and every day.

Love,

Ginny

Happy, Happy!

On Day 52 of 365 Cards, we were challenged to make a card with the word "Happy" in it.  That's pretty easy, considering all the happy things we wish people.  One of the "happy" cards I want to post is the one below.  Simple, easy and cheerful:

As always, God's highest and best for you today and every day.

Love,

Ginny

Hats Off!

Hats Off is the Day 56 Challenge at 365 Cards, and I am putting this one in.  It is whimsical and fun, and was also fun to make.  The hat is from a barrette I found in the hair section of a store; the back clasp was removed and the hat was glued onto the card along with a sentiment. It is pretty simple, but because the hat was such a novelty, the card was a big hit.

Here's the card:

As always, God's highest and bet to you today and every day.

Love,

Ginny

Ribbons with Tails

Every Sunday 365 Cards puts out a new challenge,  and for me it was just that.  It is Wednesday now, and I am just now getting this put together because I had trouble coming up with an idea of how to use those little pointy tails (two of them right together) on a card.  It seemed simple enough, but it was just hard for me this time.  Anyway, here is what I came up with :

As always, God's highest and best for you today and every day.

Love, Ginny

Vellum and a Posey

The more I work with vellum, the better I like it.  At Joan's Gardens this week she has challenged us to create a card using polka dots, vellum and an oval.

I started with a green polka dot background and used a sentiment from this week's Word Art Wednesday free scripture; the die for the oval is from Spellbinders.  Also from Spellbinders is the flower, which is three layers of petals, each layer a little smaller than the one just beneath it, and the leaves.  Each layer of the flower is dabbed with pink ink, the most intense color being in the middle of each flower layer.  A little yellow flower brad is in the center.  The oval frame is also dabbed with a bit of pink ink around the edges, and green blingies were added.  The oval is also elevated with dimensional stickies and so is the flower.  The leaves I left the original color, but because they are against the green background, they appear to be green, as well.

Here is the card:

So glad Joan and Selma challenged us to work with vellum this week.  It has been a delightful learning experience.

God's highest and best to you today and always.

Love,

Ginny

Vellum and Flowers

I am still enjoying the challenge this week from Joan's Gardens where we are working with polka dots, vellum and an oval.  I found some pretty paper with a water color-like print on it and cut it out in an oval shape using a Spellbinders die; it is sprayed with gold to add some shimmer, but it doesn't look like it shows up much in the photo.  A light blue narrow ribbon is threaded through part of the filigree work of the oval, and a blue bow is put on top of that.  It is glued down onto a blue and white polka dotted background (oh, how I wish I had thought to attach it with dimensional stickies, but it's too late now!).  So that more of the pretty paper with the flowers would show, I did not do a sentiment on this card.  The vellum is in the butterfly which is cut from Spellbinders Wonderful Wings; it is sprayed with more gold glitter spray and pearls are attached for an embellishment, and attached with a dimensional sticky.  It is all done in soft blues and pastel colors so as not to overpower the light blue background.

Here is the card:

Thank you for stopping by my blog.  God's highest and best to you today and always.

Love,

Ginny

Black and White with Vellum

I was having so much fun with the challenge this week from Joan's Gardens that I wanted to try something else with the challenge.  The task was to create a card using vellum, polka dots and an oval.

I love the clean, crisp look of black and white.  The test for me is that the black not be so overpowering as to make the card look gloomy and depressing.  If you add a splash of bright yellow, that always makes the combination cheerful, but I wanted to stick with black and white only.

Here is the card:

I started out with black cardstock, then added a layer of white; then stacked a patterned square on top of another piece of black, then the vellum, which is embossed.  The oval is from Spellbinders, and the little sentiment is from Joann's.  The polka dot feature is in the ribbon.  The butterfly is another Spellbinders die (Wonderful Wings), and little pearls accent it.  The sentiment, the patterned paper and the butterfly are all elevated with foam stickies.

I was tempted to spray the whole thing with silver spray to make it sparkle, but opted to leave it just black and white only.  I am such a blinger, I have to restrain myself sometimes.  :o)

God's highest and best to you today and always.

Love,

Ginny

A Challenge with Vellum

Joan's Gardens had an interesting challenge this week.  I have never worked with vellum before, so it was fun to see some of the possibilities a crafter can do with it.  The card had to have vellum, it had to have an oval, and it had to have polka dots.  It is a very compatible combination, and the cardmakers who posted their entries came up with some really lovely cards.  Here is my entry:

I started out with a pink polka dot background, then took a piece of vellum and ran it through a swirly EF; I only used half of the piece of vellum, cutting it diagonally from lower left corner to upper right corner.  I got a new die from Joan's Gardens today called Bitty Blossoms (Spellbinders).  So I dabbed a little pink ink onto some vellum and cut two flowers from it, then cut three flowers from the plain white vellum.  The white vellum flowers actually came out looking a little gray, but that's okay.  For the leaves, I dabbed a little green ink onto some vellum and cut those out with a die that came with the same die set.  The oval is from another Spellbinders die set and in the middle of that is a little stamp that says "happy spring."  Then over that I put another oval piece of vellum.  To finish the card, I put on an off-white wire-edged bow.  So glad Joan's Gardens challenges us in so many different ways to try different things.  I am now a definite fan of vellum and plan to use it often.

God's highest and best to you today and always.

Love,

Ginny      

Turquoise, Brown and Silver

Today I ran across a site with an interesting challenge.  It is The Shabby Tearoom, and I must say, I had to think awhile to meet this challenge.

The challenge was to make a card that was turquoise, silver (so far, so good) and BROWN!  Well, I am not really a brown person.  And I rather think brown lends itself more to gold than to silver, anyway.  So I really had to put on my thinking cap for this one.

Here is what I finally made, after a lot of thinking and re-thinking:

The background is solid turquoise.  I took a smaller piece of the same color and ran a brayer with brown ink over a pretty floral EF and ran it through that.  The smaller piece of brown paper is a brown lunch sack that I got at the grocery store and it is run through a different EF so that the texture shows.  The picture does not really make the brown look as brown as it really is, but trust me, it is brown and not orange!

I put a sentiment from Numbers 6:24-25 on it in brown ink from a stamp I got at Joann's and backed it up with a cream color, the same as the cardstock to which all this is glued.  Finally, there is a silver bow and a silver butterfly (run through my Spellbinder using several layers of aluminum foil).

It is fun for me to get out of my comfort zone and try things that would never occur to me if there had not been a challenge.  Thanks, Shabby Tearoom!  I also want to submit this card to Word Art Wednesday.  They have such a lot of creative artistry over there.  I love working with scripture.  :o)

God's highest and best for you today and always!

Love,

Ginny

Iris Folding Heart Card

At 365 Cards, the Day 50 Challenge is to create a card with some kind of folding.  I made this card using Iris Folding in the shape of a heart.  The paper is from Hobby Lobby and uses a bandana pattern, a denim pattern and a wood pattern.  After doing the iris folding work, I glued the paper onto a red card base and added a raffia bow in the center.  In the iris part, there is a very small print out of the Lord's Prayer.  This was a lot of fun to make.

God's highest and best to you today and always.

Love,

Ginny

Get Well Soon GBCB-011

We had an interesting layout challenge today from 365 Cards.  A line here, a line there, a sentiment and an embellishment.  The form of it was laid out for us and our challenge was to get creative and make it our own.

Here's what I came up with:

I picked a happy background paper from Hobby Lobby and used two different pink ribbons crossing each other. The little half circle at the top was another element that had to be in the design.  The bow did not have to be there, but it seemed to work with the over all design, so on it went.  :o)

The flower was made from several different sized flowers that had already been cut out and had been saved for another time when I might want to use them.  They are layered and topped off with a yellow-gold gem in the center.  The little half circle also has a pink gem glued on it.  The sentiment stamp, "Please get well soon" is from Joann's.

To finish it off, I glued the whole thing onto a bright marigold yellow back piece to make all the colors pop.

God's highest and best for you today and always.

Love,

Ginny

Lines and Lace and Scripture

The Day 47 Challenge at 365 Cards is one of Lace and Lines.  I added a scripture from the Psalm 27:4 because I love what it says.  It is printed in blue ink from my computer.

I started out with blue striped cardstock and put an antique white piece of lace down at the bottom for a border.  The butterflies and the backing for the sentiment are from a blue print paper from Hobby Lobby.  The butterflies are from the Spellbinders Wonderful Wings die set.

I highlighted the butterflies with a translucent glitter glue to make them sparkle in the light.  I am also going to enter this card at Word Art Wednesday.

God's highest and best to you today and always.

Love,

Ginny

Cupcake Cutie

My little granddaughter had her first birthday, and I wanted to make her something that she might be able to keep.  I came up with this little red and yellow card that is simple and yet eye-catching at the same time.

I started out with a basic bright yellow cardstock and cut out yellow and white gingham paper strips for the two papers across the bottom and right side.  The cupcake was printed from my computer and then cut out.  I left white around the cupcake, because if the cupcake had been cut out so that no white was showing, there would not have been enough contrast with the yellow background.  I cut a split on the top of the cupcake and put a candle inside the split and tied it with a red raffia ribbon bow.  Last, but not least, I put a little sentiment on it that was printed out also from my computer.  Bright.  Happy.  Cheerful.  I am entering this card for the Day 41 Challenge at 365 Cards.

God's highest and best for you today and always.

Flowery Fence

This week Joan's Gardens is challenging us to make a card that depicts an outdoor scene; it should be a birthday card.

I spent quite a lot of time on this card, making changes along the way.  You know how when you get creative, you just keep going until there is just nothing else you can see to do without going over the top...  This card was like that.

The background is a solid light blue, and on that I heat embossed some white clouds with gold flecks in them.  Glued to that is a green strip at the bottom to resemble green grass.  On top of that is a really cute little fence cut from a Victorian fence die I got at Joan's Gardens.  It is cut from a brown paper lunch bag that can be gotten from any grocery store.

The next thing is the flowers, which were cut from a Cricut cartridge, Straight from the Nest.  The pink blossoms are embellished with pink jewels and iridescent glitter glue.  (I am hopelessly addicted to bling!)  Behind them is the same pattern cut from brownish green patterned paper.  There are two layers of grass at the bottom which were cut from Cricut cartridge Plantain Schoolbook.

To finish it off the Happy Birthday stamp (from Joann's) uses pink ink and is stamped on the same pink paper used for the flower blossoms.  It is dimensionally placed on another piece of coordinating paper with foam stickies, then again using foam stickies, the whole sentiment is stuck onto the blue sky.  I think I will send this to my daughter in Hawaii who has a birthday next month.

God's highest and best for you today and always!

Blue, White and Green

If you ever get hooked on a hobby, you know that there is so much pleasure in it.  Doing something creative is such a high.  If you do card making you know what I mean.

This week at Joan's Gardens there is a challenge to make a blue, green and white card.  It needs to have an oval and it needs to have a stamped sentiment.  And, just to make things interesting, it needs to have at least one flower that has a pattern.

So here is my answer to her challenge this week:

I started out by embossing a piece of white styrofoam saved from a take out container (washed and dried, of course) with a butterfly embossing folder from The Paper Studio.  The stamp is one I got at Joann's and the oval is a Spellbinder oval frame.  The flowers are made from strips of paper scalloped on one side, rolled into the shape of a rose.  Green rhinestones embellish the center of each flower.  The leaves are dies cut from another Spellbinder leaf pattern.  Small butterflies were cut from the Kate's ABCs Cricut Cartridge.  Finally, the bow is made of white ribbon with iridescent swirls in it.  All this is glued onto the same blue cardstock that the oval frame is made from to bring together the look.

God's highest and best for you today and always!

Nothing Is Harder

This week I want to post a sympathy card to C.R.A.F.T. Challenge.  It's for a dear relative whose husband passed away suddenly.  My heart goes out to her.

Two layers of textured background paper were used.  The sentiment was printed from my computer, and the layered frames were cut from Cricut Fancy Frames.  The ribbons were two different colors, the darker one on the bottom, and the lighter on the top to form a simple knot bow.  My cousin loved the card.  I was glad I could send her something special during this hard time in her life.

With God All Things Are Possible

This card was fun to create.   The color theme is blue and green.

I started out by using a piece of styrofoam from a take out container from a local restaurant, washed spanky clean, of course.  :o)  Then I embossed it using a Paper Studio embossing folder.  I tried to find out which one it was, but I had cut off the part with the ID number.  It has many swirls on it, though, as you can see if you look closely.  The swirly vine die I got from Joan's Gardens, and the little flower is from a Spellbinder flower die; the butterfly is also from a Spellbinder die, Wonderful Wings.  Finishing it off with a jewel in the center of the flower and the wonderful verse from Matthew 19:26 completed the card.

That all things are possible with God is a good thing to remember.  :o)

I posted this card at:

     365 Cards
     Word Art Wednesday

God's highest and best for you today and always!

Woodgrain Background

Hi, all.  Having so much fun with card making.  It's addictive, isn't it?

The challenge for February 4th at 365 Cards is to make a card with a popular pattern.  Woodgrain seems to be something that is pretty and timeless, and to put a different spin on it, I added some gold to it.

The woodgrain background pattern is an embossing folder from the Paper Studio, which I got at Hobby Lobby.  To make it pop a bit, I dabbed some VersaMark embossing ink on it and sprinkled it with some gold embossing powder, then used the heat gun on it.  The flower is made from a Cricut cut out from the Flower Shoppe cartridge.  Same for the leaf.  The sentiment was printed from my trusty computer and matted in colors that were already in the flower. Also, the center of the flower has some gold glitter glue in it to match the gold on the background.

Fun to make.  Hope the recipient loves it, as well.  :o)

I Count You Twice

I saw a challenge at 365 Cards and thought it would be fun to give it a go, so I am entering this card for the Sunday challenge, even though it is Tuesday already.  Does that count?

Here is the card:

I used a cutout from a Cricut cartridge (might have been Paper Lace 2, but I cut several out a few months ago and kept them for when I might use them later).  The sentiment is printed from my computer and the little white paper doily you can get at most craft stores.  I love the white transparent sparkly ribbon and use it on a lot of projects because bling is so eye-catching.  The blue cut out has glitter glue on it, as well, to enhance the sparkle of the card.  Background is from packaged cardstock from Hobby Lobby.