Birthday

So today is my birthday and I realized that I am closer to 60 than to 50. This is the first time age has ever gotten to me!
I did get to teach the youth Sunday School class this morning. They are a great bunch of kids.

Here is the card I made for my friend Robin yesterday.

John 1:1 In the begenning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

Copic Certification

Last weekend I took the Copic Standard Certification and the Copic Intermediate Certification at Dallas, Texas. The instructor was Cindy Lawrence. She was an excellent teacher and a very sweet person. She was funny and very easy to understand.

Here are my certificates

 

 

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  Proverbs 3:5

Perhaps I could manage more than once a month?

Well here I am more than a month later. But I am going to have lots of things to show.
The first thing I am going to show is a Christmas in July card. This was for the July card exchange at Craft Crossing here in Gonzales Texas.

 Out of this idea I made 30 Christmas cards that I will be mailing to family at the end of November and they look like this:

This card is a folded card and will open and allow the reciving party to display the card sitting on a shelf. I always display the cards I receive at Christmas and so many of them just sort of sink in the middle and make a C shape on the shelf. So I end up having a shelf of cup shaped cards that you can's see anthing but the edges on.

And then in August we had a "male" themed birthday card. Less frilly yes? Hum... more masculine!!!! And I thought what can be more masculine than diamond plate steel?  My grandson John actually thought up the diamond plate steel look. John is 10 and he learned to like card making this past June after taking a class at Craft Crossing.  I took the diamond plate steel look and made the birthday card shown next.

The bottem lable says " the Squirrels at it before I could give it to you"

and the inside has a place for a gift card. After all the squirrels at the gift!
The Squirrel was colored with Copic Markers. Isn't he the cutest thing? I think I should have drawn the branch out to the edge of the picture.


In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.             John 1:1

Not Posting:
I am not as lazy as it appears because I have not posted in a month or so. I finally found my camera and I can post some cards that I have made.
Today I am simply going to post the two Father's day cards that I have made. The are using the same stamp but using two different card ideas. You can let me know which one you liked better and in a few days I will say which one I liked the best. I guess it is all about learning what works and what doesn't work. Thanks for looking.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

This is what I made at the class at Craft Crossing last Sunday. Cute! Cute! Cute1

Today I made two cards.
The first one is, as you see, a get well card. It is chalked and I think it is soo cute.

Punch: MS French Scroll
Stamp: Crafty Secretes, Clear Art Stamps
Chalk: Pebbles Inc. Chalk Kit
Bling: Herow Hues, Pearls and Gems


Ok Now for the second card.

I gave this card a type writter because I wanted it to have an "old school" look.  The lace helped with that concept.

Punch: MS French Scroll
Stamp: Crafty Secrets, Clear Art Stamps Office 101
Crochet Thread: Aunt Lidia and the pattern is mine. I croched both the flower and lace
Bling: Hero Huges, Pearls and Gems

A Baby Card for my Daughter in Law to give.

Here is the same design as the last one but this one is for a boy. My Daughter in Law needed a boy's card. It almost looks like clouds to me.

My daughter in law reminded me that the ribbon across the card looked great so I added to this one.

Baby Card Exchange

Two cards in one day!!
This is the card that I am making for the monthly card exchange at "Craft Crossing" in Gonzales.
The is the first one of nine that I will make. I hope the "first one is the hardest".
I could not find any pink plaid paper so I made my own. Last month Pinci had a class at "Craft Crossing" and I learned how to make my own plaid. I will try with the next card to make more of the plaid to show on the card.  After I made my plaid back ground I could not find any colors that I liked that worked with it so I stamped some smaller pink backgrounds. If the picture was better you could tell I had embossed a bird stamp on the small background.

Stamp: Quietfire Design - A Baby is Such
Ink: VersaColor pink and petal pink
Bling: Queen& Co. Pearls-Snowflake
Punch: MS French Scroll
Trim: I crochet the trim using a pattern I wrote and I tied the bow by hand.

  Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;"

Get Well Card

I'm not so sure that this is very masculine but my husband always says that everything needs to show my personality, not necessarily the personality of the person I am making it for.

I used MS French Scroll for the punch work.
The bling is from BoBunny and the paper is Authentique
I used VersaColor Charcol and embossed the saying from Our Daily Bread.
I learned to tie the bow from a video on Amzing Paper Grace.
I croched the lace with #10 Aunt Lydia thread. I wrote the chrochet pattern.
I think that just about gets it.

Today I am working getting the punching done for a card exhange I am going at "Craft Crossing", a lovely craft store here in Gonzales Texas.

Numbers 6

²⁴ “The Lord bless you and keep you;
²⁵ The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
²⁶ The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”’

Chalks

This next card is a first attempt at chalks. I stamped the picture and then I used a brush to apply the chalks. I set it aside for the night and then I framed it before I applied it to the card base. I stamped and embossed the message at the bottem. I really like embossing it is so easy and fun to watch it come to life. I embleshed it with green crystals and "Flower Soft" on the red flowers. Then I punched the "top" of the chalked picture and I punched the bottem of the card base. I used Helmers glue to layer it all together. I read a tip last week that says that glue lets you "move" the pieces as you assemble them. I have found that tape, even though I love it, makes it too hard to fix when I make a mistake.

                                                                                                                         Hebrews 12:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.

Spring brings the birth of a newly learned art.

I am learning a fresh new way of looking at things. I have discovered what a joy card making is. In the past two months I have no only learned about cards but I have actually learned to tie bows for my cards.  I have spent quite a bit of time in the past month looking at cards very carefully to see what I like and what doesn't catch my eye.
What I have learned is that I like bows and I like the look of lace.  Since I can crochet then I think I will crochet my own lace for my cards.  Another thing that I like is dimension in the face of the card. Layering and bringing elements off the face of the card with spongie stickers are other concepts that I like.

 I will try to get better with the photography. This card was inspired by another card that I saw. My photography is not good enough but the main back ground is scored to raise lines verticaly. The  picket fence pieces were my first attempt at embossing and it never occured to me that it would actually emboss black. But I do like the final look. What surprized me the most is that I learned to tie the bow without any "bow maker" so I think my free hand bow was pretty good for a first attempt. The water spout of beads were just cut from a card and applied. I also embossed the words. I like the corner punch but I wonder if I should'nt have done soemthing more to the bottem. But it is finished as it is.  It is an anniversary card to be given to a couple for their 40th anniversary. I did not have a stamp that said "Happy Anniversary" so I stamped the next best thing.

                                                                                                              John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever beliveth in Him shall not perish but hav everlasting life.