It's A Jungle Out There !

I think I may have blogged this card before,
but I still just love it.
The scrapbook papers are from
DCWV Safari 8 x 8 stack.
The tiger is stamped in black, torn out,
and the edges heavily sponged with two shades
of brown ink and then burned with black ink.
The only color on the tiger itself is the yellow
of the eye.

A fern image stamped in medium brown ink
completes the jungle look.

The phrase, "It's a jungle out there."
has been computer generated.
I have no idea of the manufacturer of the
stamps, they are unmounted and I bought them
before I started marking the maker on
my unmounted stamps.

Thank You and Sympathy Cards

This design will work with just about any
small greeting or phrase.
It is also a great way to use your scraps.

Begin with a fairly light scrap book paper
that your stamping will show up on.
You will need a piece at least big enough to cover the
bottom one third of the card base and
a very narrow piece to place on the
embossed card stock.
Attach the scrap book paper
to the bottom portion of a card base.

Use a coordinating card stock for the embossed
and punched portion.
Place only the upper portion of the card stock
in the embossing folder, leaving a small
part unembossed and plain.
Punch the plain part with whatever
punch you have on hand that will
be pleasing with your scrap book paper.

Attach the embossed plain card stock
to the upper portion of your card.
The scrap book paper should show
through the punching.
Use the narrow strip of matching scrap
book paper between the punch area and
the embossing folder textured portion.

Paper Quilted Borders

Quilting is an old old art form, practiced by generations
of artistic women. It is not only an art form,
it has a practical side in that the quilts provide
warmth when used as originally intended,
on a bed as a bed spread.
It only stands to reason that paper crafters
would find a way to mimic the cloth version.

To ensure uniformity in the squares a punch was used.
The edges of the squares have been sponged
with dark brown ink. This adds depth and
makes each square stand out a bit more.
The squares were then glued to a
coordinating piece of card stock.
I would recommend a strip of low tack
masking tape or straight piece of paper
to be a gluing guide for the squares.
No matter how hard I tried, without this guide
my strip of squares had a slight curve.
(This made me crazy, OCD kicking in)

The first two cards have a card base that is covered
with texturized dark brown card stock.
The white border on the first card is a punch,
while the border on the second card is
a Spellbinders Borderabilities die cut.
The last card has been stamped and embossed
with fine line gold embossing powder, the stamp
is from Wordsworth.

A Taste of the Old West

It seems that I am entering a western phase in my stamping.
You will still be seeing other cards styles, but my western
stamps and calling, so that is what I am working on right now.

The boots are a five part stamp from
Kitchen Sink Stamps. I really really like
their stamps.

The image has been torn out and the edges sponged
with dark brown and then a narrow sponging of
black to achieve a burned look.
It is then mounted on the corrugated part
of a card board box. I use a floss/pick
to slide between the top layer of the cardboard
and the corrugations.
This layer was torn and sponged as well.

The side borders of both cards a relatively easy
and need no explanation.
Edges of the card base have been sponged with dark
brown ink followed by narrow sponging in black ink.

Thanks

A huge thanks from Morning Star Stamps,
stamped in dark green with a lighter green
leaf border stamp from Art Impressions behind it.
It is all cut out with a Spellbinders Label.

The card base is covered with scrap book paper
that has been sponged with dark green ink.

The finishing touch is a dragonfly brad.

Butterfly

Start with a lavender or mauve card stock. Next
add texture to that card stock. Folders, plates,
whatever you have that will work.
Attach the texturized card stock
to a card base.

I used the Spellbinders Lotus Pendant for the lacy
white die cut. Quickuts made the two part
butterfly die. A polished stone background was
used for the colored part of the butterfly with
black text weight paper used for the veining detail.
A small phrase stamp from Hero Arts was
die cut with an oval, mounted on a card stock
that coordinated with the mauve or lavender
and trimmed with a deckle scissors.

Leaves Everywhere

A beautiful scrapbook paper attached to the
entire front of the card base will
be the beginning of this design.
The "friends" stamp is from Art Impressions
and is stamped in black.
An Art Impressions leaf border has been
stamped in a pale green.
Then die cut it all with a Spellbinders label
and sponge dark green around the edges.
The dark green die cut flourish leaves are
an extended cut border from Sizzix.
The finishing touch - a dragonfly brad.

Texture and Die Cuts

The craft paper colored card stock that has been
attached to the front of the card was textured by:
1. mist paper to dampen slightly
2. placed on small hail screen at an angle
3. place rubber on PAPER and crank through die cut machine.
I don't know how many time I have tried to emboss and had the paper and
rubber embossing mat positioned wrong.
Embossing sandwich - texture plate, paper then rubber mat.

The Lotus Pendant from Spellbinders is one of my favorites.
Here it has been used twice with the light die cut behind the dark.

The phrase is one of those fantastic ones from
Our Daily Bread Designs. After die cutting the
phrase out in an elongated oval, stamp a light brown or
tan flourish. This flourish is from Basic Grey.
The edges of the oval were very lightly
sponged with a medium brown ink.

Three half pearls are placed in the lower right hand
edge of the oval.

Above is an orangish-rust label that has been
embossed in a new folder from Sizzix. Only part
of the label is on the card base. Note that the edges
of the piece have been sponged in dark brown.

Both sides of the card base have been stamped
with dark brown ink using a Basic Grey flourish.

Our Daily Bread Designs scripture stamp has
been layered onto dark brown card stock.

A Thankk You Card

Sometimes less is truly more.
In this case it is definitely true.

The thank you has been stamped and embossed on
a floral scrap book paper, with a coordinating
paper covering the front of the card base.
A rusty/brown card stock has
been "Punched Around the Page".

Soft and Feminine

As soft, delicate and feminine card that was created
with two different Cuttlebug folders.
The folders are both run through and emboss the paper
at the same time. Then the dividing lines are
embossed in using a bone folder and a Sizzix
narrow lines embossing plate.

The flowers have been softly colored with chalks.
The butterfly wings are folded and then joined with
gold hand punched circles glued together.

This has to be one of my personal favorite card designs.
I will make a dozen or more at a time
and use them for gifts for those special
people in my life.

A Quick Thank You Card

This card was an experiment that went right.
The Cuttlebug folder used for the embossing came
with a plate of die cut phrases, none of which suited my
needs at the time, BUT the space used
for those phrases is adequately sized for
small stamped phrases.

The colored card stock was embossed,
stamped and cut to be slightly smaller
than the card base. Very simple, elegant and
easy, easy, easy.

There are times when I am just not up to
an involved fancy design. My soul longs
more and more for simplicity.

From My Morning Devotions

Am I a cathedral or a chapel? Cathedrals are large and impressive church buildings often built simply to impress people rather than chapels that are truth-filled structures where God is glorified. A physical edifice should never be the main focus of the church body. No matter the size or cost of any church, the primary concern should always be the genuineness of the worship inside.

Wherever true believers gather to worship, it should be there that the Word of God is boldly proclaimed, the name of God magnified, and the will of God earnestly sought.

What matters most to God is the seeking of his glory, not the promotion of denomination or building of showy structures. Thus every church is to be a chapel, small and intimate, built for the worship and glory of God. A chapel is a place where we can get down to serious relationship building with God. It's all about what is going on inside, not the impressiveness of the outer shell.

Western

Where to start?
The horses from Inkadinkado are stamped on
faux suede. Faux suede is made by spreading a thin
layer of Liquid Applique on card stock and heating
with your heat gun. It really does feel like suede.

The suede was stamped first with a medium brown
ink and a crackle stamp and the a very dark brown in
and the horses. The edges were torn and "burned"
with a sponging of black ink.

The leather brown diamond is a heavy leather look
gift wrap that is mounted on dark brown card stock
and cut with a decorative scissors.

The horse shoes are punched from black card stock.
The edges of the entire card are sponged in dark brown and
then black.

Mom and Dad and my Mother

I am hoping that now that summer and its' busyness are over, that things will return to a more normal schedule.

As some of you know, my father-in-law passed away Sept 18 to be followed shortly by my mother-in-law on Oct 7. This has been a very stressful time for our whole family. It is sad that they are gone, yet we know that their lives had become so painful and difficult. It is a conflict that all children face with elderly and ill parents. You want to keep them around as long as possible, yet you also want their suffering to be over with. Both lead to guilt feeling. You are caught either way in feeling like an uncaring offspring.

My own mother has been in a care facility for almost three years. She has Parkinson's Disease. I truly hope that her misery can be over soon. She is so debilitated by this horrid disease that she can not even roll over in bed by herself. She is in a diaper, can not feed herself and suffers from dementia part of the time. A good day is when she knows who I am and can tell me she loves me when I tell her I lover her. We have been able to increase her quality of life somewhat by removing all the antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs which had turned her into a zombie.

Where am I going with all this??? Here it is, if you have an elderly parent do not let the medical community destroy the quality of what little time they have left. If someone is in the nursing home of course they are highly likely to be depressed and often anxious. That does not mean they have to be drugged into a semi-comatose state. It took my mother about a year to get all of the drugs out of her system and thinking again. While she will never "get better" she at least knows when her children, family and friends have been visit and can acknowledge us.

Sponging on Steroids

This background has been done entirely by
sponging with Rangers Distressed Inks.
The PSX tree is stamped in medium brown and
the Inkadinkado rearing horse in black.
The edges have been sponged deeply with
dark brown ink and then black.
Since the Distressed Inks remain moist
for a short period of time, holographic sparkle
embossing powder was spread over
the entire card and where it stuck, it stuck.

I really do like the randomness of the embossing powder.
It was a little surprising where is adhered and where it didn't.

MacDuff on a Card

We have a Scottish terrier at our house.
He is such a sweetie. Needless to say I
have a nice collection of Scotties stamps and
doggies phrases.
The die of the Scottish terrier was a
gift from my friend Rose in Wales.
It is just so cute!
The paws print border is from an
EK Success border punch.
Phrase stamp from I think Endless Creations.

Kindness

Tan card stock, cut to 4.25 x 5.5 and textured
with a wood look Sizzix texture plate.
Load your sponge with dark brown ink and
lightly rub over the texture to make
the wood look stand out more.
I also "burned" the edges by sponging some black ink
on the very edge.

Begin with a phrase by Hero Arts that is cut out with a
Spellbinders Label die. Sponge the
die cut with same brown as the phrase
and then "burn" the edge with a black sponging.
Layer that on top of
a Spellbinders Pendant die cut from dark
brown card stock.

A "Big" Happy

This was an idea that I saw over a year ago at
a stamp convention at the Morning Star Stamps
booth. Both words are stamps from their line.

The large happy is stamped in the center of a
4.25 x 5.5 piece of card stock. Now you center
a Spellbinders label die over the "happy" and cut.
Select an appropriate embossing folder to add the desired
texture. In this case I have used the Cuttlebug
Happy Birthday folder.

The smaller birthday stamp has been cut with
an oval die cut. I sponged around the edges to
make is stand out a little more from the embossed
"happy" piece. I tried two different version and have
to say that I much prefer the top card.

The black and white polka dot background is
scrapbook paper attached to a white card base.

My husband got a "happy" card for our 40th anniversary.
Morning Star Stamps has a whole line
of tiny word stamps to put with your happy stamp.
I also have a thanks stamp that is the same
size and font and the happy shown here.