Praise The Lord!

This is a simple card that looks complex.
There are a lot of steps to making it, but
none of them are complicated.

The black and white that is the center of the
square and the layer under the phrase
have been created with spray webbing.

All of the layers have been 3-D'ed
with paper egg cartons.
All of the foam 3-D materials would have
been too much for the look that I wanted.
I wanted very distinct layers, but
not a lot of height off the card base.
So cutting up the flat parts of a
paper egg carton are the best solution.
It also costs me nothing. LOL!

All of the dies used were Spellbinders.
A Cuttlebug embossing folder
was used for the first white layer
on the card base.

Behold

The scripture phrase has been crafted in PSP X by me.
It was cut with a Spellbinders Label, then
layered onto two ovals, also from
Spellbinders dies. Then layer those over another
Spellbinders Label die cut. This bottom layer
has the edges lightly sponged with
Ranger's Archival Coffee ink.

Now for those leaves.
Using VersaMark, I stamped the leaf
on brown vellum. The leaf stamp manufacturer is
unknown, the vellum is by Karen Foster.
A chocolate brown embossing powder was
applied and after carefully heating, the
leaves were cut out.

The flowers are a Punch Bunch punch.
I sprayed them with my own recipe of
silver PearlEx, gum arabic and water.
After they had dried they were hand shaped
with a smooth rounded small eraser size tool.
On a mouse pad, fun foam or the palm of your
hand you can gently rub in the center of
each petal until they curl.
After each petal has been shaped,
turn the flower over and press in the center.

Two flowers were glued together,
making sure the petals alternated.
Now a half pearl was placed in the
center of each flower.
Additional pearls were used to
the left of the phrase.

Flowers and Butterflies

Many thanks to my dear stamping
pen pal Celia for sending me a card
that was almost exactly like this one.
I was immediately inspired to scamper off
to my studio and make a card "just" like hers.
Hers was blue, her flowers were a little
different and so was the butterflies. I didn't have any
paper that would look good in the blues category,
so opted for pink.

Clear Stickles were spread on the flower petals
and the center of the butterflies. The butterflies
were punched from a pearlescent type paper,
actually an old envelope.

The embossing folder used to create the texture
on the white and the pink is a 5 x 7 from Cuttlebug.
Sure wish they would make a bunch more of those.
They are so very nice for card fronts.
This one was cut down to achieve
the desired layering.

The Lacy Square, pink Square and
pink Fancy tag are from Spellbinders.
(those people are going to bankrupt me
with all their tempting goodies, they just
never quit!)

The flower is from Punch Bunch.
Two flowers have been hand embossed to
make the petals curve, lightly covered with
Stickles and after the Stickles had dried
they were glued together.
A half pearl was attached to the center
of the flower.

Hand Embossing - lay the punched out
flower on a mouse pad or in the palm
of your hand. I use a rounded tool that is
about the size of a small pencil eraser.
Rub gently on each petal to make them curve,
then rotate the rounded tool in the center
of the flower. It should almost roll up around
the tool. Now turn it over and press in the center.

The butterflies - Stickles down the center to make the
body of the butterfly glittery.
I cut some very very small pieces of double-sided
three-D material and attached to each wing
to make them stay raised off the card.

The leafy looking flourish in the center of the pink
texture is from Bosskuts.
I use a toothpick to carefully apply
dots of glue to the places on the back side
of the flourish. Usually I use small dots of glue on
each little leaf and along the stem
to make sure that it is well adhered.

Watercolor Flower

The scrapbook papers use on this card are
from g.c.d, the Ella Blue collection. It is an
8 x 8 stack. The soft blues and the browns are
just lovely.
The card base is cover with a paper that had a frame
type border all around the edge.
I used part of the border at
the top of the band that
is in the center of the card.
An EK Success punch was used for
the double scallop border on the
bottom. A dark brown paper
from the stack was selected for
it's contrast.

A Spellbinders Label with
white card stock is stamped with
the water color technique, using
a stamp from Hero Arts.
In this case a dark blue Distress Ink from
Ranger was used for the flower and green inks
for the stem and leaves.
Before stamping a fine mist of water was
applied to achieve the water color look.
You can use ink pads, markers, or water
color crayons for the "pressed flower" look.
A second misting and stamping will
result in a shadowy appearance.

With two shades of Distressed brown inks and
a Cut N Dry sponge gently swirled around
the edges, the stamped label die cut has
and antiqued look.

The final touch is the "Thinking of You"
phrase stamped in Ranger's Archival coffee ink.
The stamp is from Hero Arts.

Birthday Card

Scallops and a vertical Happy Birthday make
a lovely card design.
The stamp is from Penny Black,
scrapbook paper from DCWV
and the embossing folder from Sizzix.

I used a 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of
white card stock for the embossing.
After embossing it was glued to the
card base.