Alter Something

This week at Joan's Gardens we have a new challenge with the following guidelines:

• Use a square
• Alter something...even if it is a card
• Use flower paper...you can make it
• You must use something sold at Joan's Gardens on your card

So the hardest part for me is to use something that is altered.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about this. Days, even.  I tried some things that did not work, but finally came up with something I liked.

At a gift exchange a couple of weeks ago I got some little frames, but they were Halloween themed.  I don't do Halloween, and almost threw them away, but thought later that I could spray paint them, so now they are painted gold.  One of these is the element on the card that is altered, and also the square element.  It may be hard to find, but is underneath the rose, leaf flourishes and bow.

The base is pink cardstock attached with adhesive onto some ivory cardstock for the base.  The next layer is the pink rose and white flowered paper background, which was one of the requirements for the card.  The paper was not quite white, and not quite ivory, but since there was so much gold on the card, I opted for an ivory background for the main card base,  I used some gold ribbon to make a border along the bottom and also a bow tucked under the rose (Spellbinders Spiral Blossom One); the leaf flourishes are all from Spellbinders except the one on the right, which is the Fanciful Flourish die from Cheery Lynn.  The rose is from pink cardstock, cut from the Spiral Blossom die. Then before rolling it, I dabbed some gold ink onto the edges of it; the leaves are spray painted gold.  I also tucked in a spray of tiny gold dried flowers on the right.  All of the dies used in making this card can be purchased at Joan's Gardens.

Here is the finished product:

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

Blessings,

Ginny

A Study in Black and White

This week at Joan's Gardens we are challenged to do a card with the following guidelines:

• Make black and white card
• Use an Embossing Folder
• Add some flowers, pearls and lace 
• You must use something sold at Joan's Gardens on your card 

I had fun with this challenge and also am submitting it to Flutterby Wednesdays.  :o).  

The main card is white cardstock.  The next layer is a piece of black paper covered with vintage-looking lace.  I cut a piece of vellum embellished with a Paper Studio EF on the next layer.  Using the Fancy Flourish die from Joan's Gardens, I cut a black piece and a white piece and layered them, the white on top of the black.  I really love this die because you can take the cut out and shape it so that it is raised above the base to give a true vine look that just meanders all over the place.  This is one of my favorite dies!  Next, I used white paper that was printed in black ink with random words and sayings, and cut out some roses from Spellbinders:  Bitty Blossoms and Spiral Blossom One, both available at Joan's Gardens.  The edges are dabbed with some black ink to give them some contrast, then they were rolled and glued onto the card.  A double-loop bow is attached with a glue dot, and puffed out a bit.  Almost unnoticeable is a tiny black butterfly on the right resting on the white vine flourish, which is raised about 1/4 inch above the rest of the card by bending the vine upwards.  Then to top it all off, the pearls were put on to add to that vintage feel of the lace.

Here is the card:

Below is a closeup of some of the detail:

I gave this to a dear friend whose sister passed away.  She is one of those people who is so kind and gentle and giving.  I hope this card blesses her.

Thank you for stopping by my blog.  As always, God's highest and best for you today and every day!

Blessings, 

Ginny

Blue and White with Sparkles

The Sunday challenge this week at 365 Cards was to take their simple layout and make a cute card from it.  Since I love blue and sparkles, I went through some of my papers and decided on a subtle blue/white/silvery background paper and blue and white striped companion paper.

I heat embossed the blue and white striped paper with a shimmery translucent sparkly powder.  The "hello" sentiment is heat embossed with a darker blue ink.  I ran the sentiment through my Spellbinder with a  Spellbinder die and cut half of the flourish off so that the right side was a plain circle.  The left side is dabbed with some blue in k, then white ink over that, then the same shimmery embossing powder as was on the blue and white striped paper.  Then it was heat embossed.  I let some of the powder get on the background paper, as well, so it has some extra shimmer to it.  The striped paper and the sentiment are attached with dimensional stickies, the "hello" higher than the ones above and below it.  Last, but not least, a white bow was added to the bottom to make it look a bit more fancy.  In the picture it looks kind of blue, but it is actually white.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog.  As always, God's highest and best for you today and every day!

Blessings,

Ginny

Happy Spring!

This week at Joan's Gardens we were challenged to make a garden scene.  I love the little Victorian fence die I got from her and thought this might be a perfect time to use it.

I started out by using a piece of light blue paper and dabbed white ink on it to resemble clouds.  A tree is cut from the Cricut cartridge Wall Decor and the branches are dabbed with gold ink for some sparkle.  Another Cricut cartridge was used to cut the grass both behind the fence and in front of it and also the flowers and flower stems.  Different colored blossoms were added with jewels in the center.  The front grass is colored with different colored green gel pens.  Finally, bunnies were added, also cut from a Cricut cartridge.  A little "happy spring" sentiment is mounted with a foam sticky for some added dimension.  The whole scene is mounted also with dimensional stickies onto white cardstock.

I hope this card will bring a smile to the recipient.  Don't you love spring?

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

Blessings,

Ginny

A Golden Thank You

I wanted to post a simple but elegant thank you card that I hope will make the recipient smile.

The base is plain white cardstock, and on top of that is another white paper, embossed and dry embossed with gold ink.  There was some gold ribbon saved from a gift a dear person gave me, so I used some of that along the bottom border.  Then a fancy "thank you" stamped in gold ink on plain white paper expressed the sentiment.  A very large white butterfly (Spellbinders Wonderful Wings) embellishes the card and finishes it off using dimensional stickies for a slight raised effect.  This card is so simple, but if you are sending a card in the mail, simple ones are so much easier to do because the fancy ones with a lot of thickness and super raised elements are beautiful to look at, but such a pain to mail!

Here is the card:

I am submitting this card to Flutterby Wednesdays for the butterfly and to 365 Cards; for the embossed background.

I do love butterflies; they are such inspirational creatures.  They signify new life, freedom, beauty and a breaking out of old systems that kept us from our God-given potential.

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

Blessings,

Ginny

Let the Words of My Mouth...

This week at Word Art Wednesday, they gave us a free beautifully designed scripture from Psalm 19.  It has been a favorite one nearly all my life, and I was glad they featured it this week.

I started with a floral background and put the scripture in an oval frame (Spellbinders) backed by a darker pink oval.  The flowers and leaves are also Spellbinders dies.  One flower is cut from pink tissue paper and the other two are cut from white vellum.  The whole card is sprayed with a gold mist spray.  This may be hard to tell in the picture, but it lends the card to an older, Victorian feel with a gentle glimmer all over it.

Here is the card:

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

Blessings,

Ginny

Two-Thirds White GBCB-010

We had an interesting challenge from 365 Cards where we were invited to create a card that was at least two thirds white.  That means there is a lot of blank space to make appealing to the eye.

I started out by using plain white cardstock and putting another piece of cardstock which had been run through a polka dot EF to create a dimensional background.  I used a Spellbinders die to frame a Bible verse, Proverbs 3:5, also on white. The edges are dabbed with a bit of yellow ink to brighten things up a bit, then attached to the embossed background with dimensional stickies.  There is a border cut out of vellum at the bottom, also a Spellbinders die.  Then I put brightly inked, tiny yellow butterflies all around to give it a pop.  Although I enjoy making cards with more color, this was a learning experience that made me do something outside of my box.  Interesting experiment.

Here is the card:

Just to shake things up a bit, another version of the card has a yellow bow, which brightens up the card considerably.  Yellow is such a happy color.  Always makes me want to smile.

Here is the other version of the card, (which still looks to qualify for two thirds white, in my humble opinion), which I plan to submit to Word Art Wednesday:

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

Blessings,

Ginny

Transparent Wings

Day 65 of 365 Cards was so exciting for me.  The word for the theme of the card is "wings."

Since I am so into butterflies, I was happy to see this challenge.  I am posting a card I made using a gorgeous picture I found online of a butterfly with transparent wings.  I thought it was so unusual and awesome that I had to use the image somehow to make a card.

What I did that was a bit unusual (and you can't really tell by looking at the photo), was to put a clear gel onto the transparent part of the butterfly wings, so that they truly do have an effect of looking even more transparent than the photo looks like.  I put a scripture from Job 37:14, "... still and consider the wondrous works of God."  A simple red bow finishes the project.

Here is the card:

Thank you for stopping by my blog.

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

Blessings,

Ginny

Another Year of Fabulous

This week at 365 Cards we were given a layout challenge that I have been thinking about for a few days.  I have a precious red-headed friend who has a birthday coming up, and decided to use a color pallate that I thought she would enjoy.  Normally I am a blue-turquoise-red-pink-purple kind of person, so this was stepping outside of what I usually gravitate towards.

The flower is cut in layers of different sizes and shapes from a Cricut cartridge, Flower Shoppe.  The sentiment, "Here's to another year of fabulous," is one I saw on a napkin at a birthday party recently; when I saw it, I thought it would make a sweet sentiment for a card, so I printed it out on my computer; the plaid paper and the layered sentiment are mounted with dimensional stickies.  The papers are from Hobby Lobby.  Border punch below the flower is from Joann's. The leafy vine is a Cheery Lynn die.

Here it is:

By the way, I took her out for a birthday lunch, and she loved her card!

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

Blessings,

Ginny

Pastel Blue Lattice

Good afternoon, all!

This week at Joan's Gardens there was a challenge that I almost didn't enter because I didn't have a lattice die.  I went to Michael's, Joann's and Hobby Lobby and could not find one.  I figured if it were ordered online it might not make it to my house in time for this week's challenge, so I improvised and made a lattice out of ribbon and a border punch.  Hope that counts!

The challenge rules this week were:

Card must have a lattice
It must have an oval or round shape
It must have dry ink embossing
It must have one or more hand painted or hand colored flowers

Here is the card:

The border punch is Martha Stewart; the rose dies and sentiment die are Spellbinders and the stamp is from Joann's.  I colored the roses with two different colors of blue ink using a Q-tip, putting the darker colors in the center of the flowers, and fading the color as it got to the outer edge of the flower.  The EF is from Paper Studio and it is dry embossed with light blue ink, the same color as the border.

Hope you are having a wonderful day.  Thanks so much for stopping by my blog.

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

Blessings,

Ginny