Inspirational Card

Hello Everyone,
I received this greeting card about a month ago from my friend. Usually I throw away store bought cards, but I kept this one because my friend gave it to me. She is like a sister to me and I appreciated the thoughtfulness that my friend cared enough about me to send me a card. I liked the design of the card and adapted it for a 4 ¼ x 5 ½ handmade card.

Inspirational Card received from my friend.

My version of the inspirational card

The stamps used for my card are Hero Arts. Merry Christmas Tree CL459, Swirl Christmas CL469, Joyous Wishes AR160, and Music Background CG222. I cut a white piece of cardstock at 1 7/8” x 5 ½”. Then I stamped the Music Background stamp with vintage photo distress ink. The tree and sentiment was stamped with clear ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I distressed the panel with stormy sky and weathered wood distress ink. The panel was mounted on a white panel and then on a dark blue panel. The sentiment and stars were stamped on bashful blue cardstock by Stampin Up.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Christmas flourishes

Hello Everyone,

Last Friday My friend and I went to Joann’s Fabrics in Florence, AL. This store opened a few months ago and there isn’t one in our area where we live, so we drove a little over an hour to see what was available at Joann's. When we arrived at the store, my friend went to the fabric department and I headed for the stamps in the scrapbooking area. I immediately spotted the Hero Arts Stamps and was a little disappointed because the Hero Arts stamps that Joann’s carries are stamps that I already have or stamps that are no longer being made. I found a few older stamp sets that I didn’t have and decided that I liked them, and purchased them. Here are the stamps that I purchased:

Hero Arts Needles & Cones LL605

CR2008

This set is used on my card.

Hero Arts More Real Leaves LL685

CR2008

To make my card, I randomly stamped a piece of white cardstock (3 ¾ x 5) with Hero Arts Three Pinecones stamp E1976 in Olive ink The next thing that I did was stamp the Thank You Flourishes CL286 in clear ink and embossed the image. Then I distressed this with worn Lipstick, Antique linen, and Tumbled Glass. I went around the edges with Vintage Photo then I stamped over the entire image with Old Letter Writing S4878. To finish off my card, I added ribbon, the sentiment (came from stamp set Holiday Cheer Messages LL217), and pearls.


Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Christmas Cards

Hello Everyone,

Here are two cards that I made for Jennifer McGuire’s Thinking Inking Holiday challenge (Week 3) over at two peas.

Christmas Tree Card (click here for directions)
The center panel was stamped with the Music Background stamp CG222 in van dyke brown ink. Then I stamped the Christmas tree, Swirl Christmas CL469, over the music background and distressed it in Forrest Moss distress ink and then inked around the edges with vintage photo distress ink. To finish off the card, I wrapped red sheer ribbon around the panel and added red pearls.
Santa Card (click here for directions)
The Santa was stamped with black ink and colored with markers. I used Holographic embossing powder for the top of his boots, bottom of his coat, beard, trim and the pom pom on his hat. This embossing powder does not show up too well on camera. The stamps that I used are Hero Arts: Santa with Gift H5267, Holiday Cheer Messages LL217 and Raindrop background S5101.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Doves of Peace

Hello Everyone,

This card is my version of the card that Jennifer McGuire made for project 2 week 3 of the Holiday Thinking Inking series that is taking place over at Two Peas in a Bucket. I used the Tim Holtz “Baroque” die for my center panel. The directions that I followed can be found here.

The stamps that were used are Hero Arts; Swirl Christmas CL469, Merry Christmas Tree CL459, and the background is from the Hero Arts digital kit “Holiday Prints”.

I will be entering this in the Hero Arts Flickr group challenge and try to get it entered over at two peas.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Merriest Wishes

Hello Everyone,

I finally got around to playing with my stamps on Wednesday and I had so much fun making this card. This card is my take on Jennifer McGuire’s Holiday Thinking Inking card from Week 3 project 1 (Season Flowers Card). I basically used the same design as she did but changed it around a little. The roses were fun to make once I figured out how to make them. The roses do not lay flat on the card so this card will be hand delivered.

The stamps that I used are all Hero Arts; Dots and Flowers S5213, Merriest Wishes CL113, Christmas Script H2309, and the leaves from the Big and Tall Flowers set CL374.

I will be entering this in the Hero Arts Flickr group challenge and try to get it entered over at two peas.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Four Christmas Trees

Hello Everyone,

I haven’t had much time during the last 3 days to make any cards. So, today I had a chance to do some stamping and I decided to make a card based on Jennifer McGuire’s Holiday Thinking Inking class. To find out how this technique is done, please check here. Before I began working on this card, I made six practice pieces to get a feel of how much water to use on the stamp. Out of the six practice pieces, I chose the one that I felt was the best one. This is the card that I came up with and I had lots of fun doing this technique. I have entered this in the October2010B Hero Arts Challenge.

The stamps that I used are Hero Arts; Three Trees LP123, Holiday Cheer Messages LL217, and Old Letter Writing S4878.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Snowman and Ornament Cards

Hello Everyone,

If anyone is interested in some yummy blog candy, go on over to Kathy's Blog, The Daily marker. She is giving away Penny Black stamps. See the picture of the blog candy on my side bar and click on it to get to her blog and follow the directions to enter.

Here are the last of my cards that I have posted in the Hero Arts Flickr group pool for the first part of this months challenge at the Hero Arts flickr group challenge (October2010A).

The cards were inspired by Jennifer McGuire’s Holiday Thinking Inking Class that is being held over at two peas. The snowman card uses the Block Inking Technique and the ornament card uses the color bleeding technique. These two techniques can be found here.

After I made the snowman background, I stamped a few snowflakes in random places (on the background) and then stamped in the sentiment in black ink. The snowman is a quickutz die and I colored the scarf with barn door distress ink and the hat was colored with black distress ink and I place black pearls for the buttons and the eyes


For the ornament card, I stamped it on watercolor paper with chipped sapphire distress ink and sprayed a small amount of water mixed with perfect pearls so that the ink would bleed. (I used a heat gun to dry the paper.)
Stamps used are Hero Arts:

Snowman Card
Jolly Christmas CL232
Warm Wishes CL243

Ornament Card
Magic of Christmas CL462
Starry Sky S5448

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Wreath of Leaves

Hello Everyone,

I received this stamp in the mail a few days ago and finally got around to making this card. (It arrived just at the right time.) This card is an inspiration from Jennifer McGuire’s card that was featured on the Hero Arts Blog on October 13th. Lately, I have been using my Prisma color pencils and I have found that using them is one of my favorite ways to color in different images.

I wanted to make a one layer card with only a few embellishments. I stamped the image in a light color ink and colored the leaves with two different shades of green. When I was satisfied with how my image looked, I blended the color with a blending stump and then painted each leaf with glossy accents. Then I masked off the edges and distress the front of the card with Tattered Rose and Spun Sugar distress ink. It took me a long time to decide on the bow and I finally choose a burgundy colored ribbon (the ribbon looks brown in the picture, but it is actually burgendy in real life) and accented the wreath with a few pink gems.

The supplies that I used are:

White Cardstock
Neenah Classic Solar White
5 ½ x 8 ½
Card measures 4 ¼ x 5 ½

Hero Arts Stamps: Wreath of Leaves CG215
Sentiment is from Merry Christmas Trees CL459

Prisma Color Pencils
Olive Green
Grass Green

Distress Inks by Ranger
Tattered Rose
Spun Sugar

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Share the Spirit of the Season

Hello Everyone,

This is a short post today. I managed to make a card yesterday in record time. Usually it takes me most of the day to get one card made and to get it to come out the way that I want it to. This card took me about 2 hours and I am happy with how it turned out. The sentiment stamp is one that I have had for a long time; I think that I bought it in 2005. I also thought that this sentiment went well with the poinsettias.

The stamps used are Hero Arts: Share the Spirit E3694 and Poinsettia Bloom B5085. I stamped the sentiment with Fired Brick distress ink and matted it with white cardstock and distressed the edge of the paper. The flower is colored with colored pencil and the edges of the paper is distressed with spun sugar distress ink and matted on red paper. The light green background paper is embossed with the new 5 x 7 cuttlebug “Polka Dots” embossing folder.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Two Cards

Hello Everyone,

I have a few cards to post here and upload to the Hero Arts Flickr group. It seems that I have run out of ideas for Christmas cards and I am trying to get my mojo back so that I can get started on them. I guess that I need a jump start at the moment. I have come up with a few ideas, but just can’t seem to get my ideas into a card the way that I want the card to look when I am finished. Anyway, here are the two cards that I was able to finally finish over this past weekend.

Reindeer Card

This card is my version of Jennifer McGuire's card from her Holiday Thinking Inking "Such A Deer Card" that is being featured for 7 more weeks over at Two Pea's. To see the basic directions to make this card, please go here. The stamps that I used are Hero Arts: The sentiment from the Jolly Christmas set CL232, Starry Sky S5448, and Friend Definition CG125. The digital reindeer comes from Hero Arts. This reindeer image was a free download for this card. I thought that it would be cute to add a small jingle bell around the deer's neck.

Penguin Card

I saw a picture that had penguins standing on a brick wall (I can’t remember where I saw the picture.) and that picture resulted in this card. The wall that I duplicated was a piece of 1”x 4 ¼” white card stock that I scored down the middle of the paper and scored every 1” vertically. Then I distressed the paper with tea dye distressing ink and attached it to the background with pop dots. I thought that scoring the paper would make it look like a brick wall. I stamped the background with the Starry Sky stamp S5448 in silver embossing powder and distressed the paper with broken china distress ink. The penguins come from the Jolly Christmas set CL232 and I stamped them with black pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I wanted to stamp a sentiment, but didn’t think there was enough room for one.

Note: The Jolly Christmas Stamp set CL232 was a set that I purchased in 2009 and might be discontinued?????

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless

Christmas Cards

Hello Everyone

I haven’t posted anything in a few days. It seems like time has just gotten away from me and other things have kept me from doing what I love, making cards; especially Christmas cards. These two cards are entered into the Hero Arts monthly challenge. My first card is stamped with the Poinsettia and Birds (S5068) Hero Arts stamp (I think that S5068 is a discontinued stamp.). I stamped the image onto white cardstock with a very light color ink. Once the ink was dried, I colored the images with colored pencils and then I outlined it with a .005 black felt tip marker. I added glossy accents to the leaves, flowers, and the birds.

For my next card, I chose the wreath with bells stamp (CG131) and the Holiday Cheer Messages (LL217) (I think that LL217 is also discontinued.) . I stamped the image with versa mark clear ink and embossed with green embossing powder. Then I took barn door, faded jeans, tumbled glass, broken china, pine needles, and peeled paint distress inks to color in the bells, ribbon, and leaves. To get the silvery blue color for the bells, I blended faded jeans with some broken china. For the leaves I blended pine needles and peeled paint. Barn door ink was used on the ribbon. I used the technique for Jennifer McGuire’s ornament card from the Holiday Thinking Inking class (week 1 project 3) that she did for her project. It was fun making this card and I am pleased with how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by and the comments are always appreciated. Have a great day and take care and God bless.

Flourish Pine Christmas

Hello Everyone,

Hero Arts is hosting a challenge for World Card Making Day and I didn’t think that I would get the chance to join in this challenge. This was a busy weekend for me and there were circumstances that prevented me from my favorite thing; making cards. But, I was determined to sit down this evening and make at least one card and that I did. The design of this card was inspired by Jennifer McGuire. Actually, the design is from her card tha is found here. I decided to turn my card into a Christmas card and I am also entering it into the October2010A challenge. The stamps that I used are Flourish Pine S5247, Flourish Border H5289 and the sentiment is from Holiday Cheer Messages LL217. (Note: I think that LL217 is discontinued.)

Thanks for dropping by and I always appreciate the comments. Hope that everyone had a great World Card Making Day. God bless.

Three More Things

Hello Everyone!!

These three projects are my last items that I have submitted to the Flickr Group for the Hero Arts September challenge. The directions for the bag with the turkey came from here. It is called “Totally Totebag” and it was easy and fun to make. This little gift bag is just the right size for a gift card. The stamps that I used for this are Hero Arts Large Plaid Pattern S5447 and So Thankful CL466.

The next item is a flower bag. I thought that this would be a cute way to put some type of scrapbooking or card embellishment in to give away to someone. So, I decided to use paper flowers. The stamps that I used for this is So Thankful CL466. I got a gift in something similar to this and I just used my bag as a pattern. I cut a piece of Kraft paper 4” x 10.5” and scored it at 1”, 5”, and 6.5”. I cut a piece of pattern paper 2” x 4” for the top and cut an oval on the front of the bag. This can be decorated anyway you like.

The last item that I made was a quick card. I took a piece of double sided pattern cardstock and cut it 6.5” x 6.5” and punched out a 1 ¼” circle and then stamped a scallop edge around the circle. Then I randomly stamped on the front of the card and drew stitching lines around the sides of the cards. I punched a fancy scallop edge border and attached it to the bottom. (I Can not remember the name of the punch). The stamps that I used are Hero Arts: Circular designs CL124, Hello Circles CL291, and the sentiment came from Just A Note 4x6 CL404.

Thanks for dropping by and I do appreciate the comments. Take care and God Bless.