Spring Card or Butterfly Popup

These were sooooo much fun to make.

I don't know about mailing them, but they

matched the vision in my head for once.

The tutorial for this card is found on Split Coast Stampers.

Do a search for Spring Card and you should find it.

If you are not a subscriber to Split Coasts weekly email you are missing

out on a lot. There are some very very talents stampers and

card makers there and they share freely.

The butterfly die cut is by Quickutz.

I really do like it. I used polished stone (alcohol ink on

glossy paper) for the bottom and text weight or light weight

card stock for the black overlay.

The leaves, flourishes, corner adornment (top pic)

are Sizzix and the flowers are by Cuttlebug.

Elk and Lace'

This black and white photo is one that I took of some

elk that wander through out pastures (and fences).

I truly did not pose this bull and cow elk,

but certainly took advantage the perfect picture.

I played with my graphics program to get the oval photo,

carefully cut it out, layered it on black paper

and cut it out with a large deckle scissors.

The band on the left is called lace'.

A brass stencil is used to enable perfect cuts.

I spray glued black and red text weight paper together to

get this striking combination.

The A2 card base is a slight speckled gray.

The lace' is then layered on metallic silver, then dark gray

and finally black. The black is cut with a decorative scissors.

A perfect "man" card.

A little more about lace' -

It is one of those things that requires practice.

I will be the first to admit that I probably throw away

at least every third one that I attempt.

It requires a very sharp blade and

a steady hand.

The results are well worth the effort.

Have a wonderful day and God Bless.

For Everything There Is A Season

In my work as an enumerator for

Nebraska Agricultural Statistics Service

I travel all over the back roads of

the Nebraska panhandle.

The number of abandoned farmsteads

is amazing and sad. There are so many beautiful

old houses and barns that are crumbing bit by bit.

So I began to take my camera along

to record some of this little piece of pioneer history.

So there I have all those lovely photos

of these farmsteads and no place to

put them. I made my own album.

It is gradually filling up with photos of our past.

I look at those farmsteads and think of

how they used to be. Filled with laughter and

tears, births and deaths, praise and pain.

For everything there is a season.

Make your photos into cards

These are my adopted grandkids.

Their mother has done two tours of duty in Iraq.

When the kids came out for a visit with their dad,

I took lots of pictures. This card is one that was sent to Iraq.

Oval punch, deckle scissors, some coordinating scrapbook papers

and computer generated words that were torn out and edges sponged

is all that it took to make this very simple card.

I hope that just by looking at it you have a good idea of how it was made.

Barbwire wreath

A member of my church family lost her father last week.

She asked me to create a western wreath for the funeral.

I used his old worn boots, spurs and some of his

grandkids toys on an oval barbwire base.

My finishing touches were the antler, horseshoes,

rusty fencing staples and the dried arrangement

in the boot. It was beautiful and

perfect as a tribute to a cowboy who was

a faithful Christian, husband, father and grandfather.

Not A Baby Card

So, I made a baby card yesterday, well there was still lots of creating time left and all that lovely paper in front of me.

Again, oval die cut is from Spellbinders Nestablities oval and the scallops are Sizzix extended cut Journal, Round that have been cut in half and layered. The
left side band is hand cut from a 12 x 12 sheet that had stripes.

This card was really very simple. The narrow glittered stripes cover the whole card front. I lay my elements on and tweak before gluing. (Crafters Pick Ultimate Glue applied with a toothpick) I don't cut to fit before gluing. I glue one side even with the edge and then use the card itself as a guide to cut the other side.

Baby Card From Scrapbook Papers

A couple in our church was blessed with a baby girl last week.

I wanted to make them a really special card.

DCWV has a stack out called, Nana's Nursery Baby Girl.

They also have a baby boy stack. I love how all the colors

coordinate, the cardstock weight of the paper and all the shiny

glittery accents. Yes, I am into glitz! It's a stamper thing.

The magic of embossing powder was what got me started in

stamping 16 years ago. (wow, has it been that long???)

Everything on the card except the paper used for the alphabet is

from the DCWV Nana' Nursery, Baby Girl stack. I even cut out some of the cute little critters

and put them across the inside of the card on the bottom.

The oval die cut was done with Spellbinders Nestablities oval. The scallops were cut with Sizzix

extended cut Journal, round, which I cut in half and layered. Alphabet - Sizzix extended cut

Skittle Dee Do.

A2 embossing folder card

A2 Cuttlebug embossing folder card

These embossing folders are so clever. Also very very easy to use.
One of the big questions my card making friends ask all the time is,
"How do you make a card out of this?"
Here's how.

1. Pick an 8.5 x 11 cardstock. I used white.
2. Cut the cardstock into quarters. That makes them A2 size.
3. Ink your cardstock. DTP, Glimmer Mists, Distressed Inks, Metallic Inks
Play with it. Not too dark, you will see why later
4. Lightly mist the back of the paper with water. This will soften the paper
and give you a much crisper image when you emboss in the folder.
5. Put your inked and misted paper in the folder and run it through your die cut machine.
6. I used a brayer for this step, you can use a sponge if you are careful.
Ink the brayer in a contrasting ink. (I used a darker ink)
7. Lightly "dust" the top of the embossed A2 folder paper with the brayer.
Be careful now, you only want to ink the raised part of the paper.
8. Cut the unembossed edges off so that your paper is square.
9. Layer on dark paper. I used a paper that matched as closely as possible the
ink that used on the raised portion of the embossed paper. Leave only a narrow
border of dark paper.
10. I layered again on silver gift wrap and cut with a decorative scissors.
11. Glue to a blank card. I use Crafters Ultimate Pick glue. You can use double sided tape, whatever works
for you.
12. Time for the tag. (or a medallion, whatever, be daring with your embellishments) I used a Sizzlets layered
tag die, using white over the same dark paper that I layered with.
13. The small stamped phrase is by Hero Arts. (they excel at small phrases) Put some fiber, ribbon, thread or
string in the tag. Attach to your card front.

Not nearly as hard as you thought and beware, it's addictive.