The Joy of the Lord

Hi Friends!

I hope all of you are having a great weekend!  Today I am sharing a quick card using Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps  Titmouse and Hummingbird with Scripture digital stamps.    

 

I incorporated the Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 #126 Sketch Challenge along with the Simon Says Wednesday “Anything Goes” Challenge.

 

If you have not had a chance to visit the above challenge sites or the SNSS Blog/FB Page yet, I encourage you to do so- wonderful inspiration from all!

To create this card:

1). Trim a piece of green designer series paper to 5 ¼” x 5 ¼”, mount onto dark gray cardstock, trim and mount onto a 5 ½” square card base. Trim the vertical panel from a light pink designer paper, mount onto dark gray cardstock and mount onto the card front.

2). Using a word processing program or photo editing software, import the Titmouse and Hummingbird with Scripture images, re-arrange to leave enough room to die cut and trim and print out onto white cardstock.

3). Use a rectangle stitched die to cut out the titmouse and hand trim the sentiment.

Use a water brush along with water color pencils to watercolor the titmouse image and once dry, add shimmer to the titmouse using a clear glitter pen and highlights to the berries with the Sharpie® Extra Fine White Paint Pen.

4). Mount both onto dark gray cardstock, trimming close to the edges and mount both onto the card front using dimensional foam. 

6). Add a few pearls to the corners to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets:   Titmouse and Hummingbird with Scripture (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)

Ink/Mediums: Printer Ink- Black, Watercolor Pencils, Sharpie® Extra Fine White Paint Pen, Clear Glitter Pen

Paper/Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Gray, retired Stampin’ Up! designer papers

Acessories/Tools: Big Shot™, MFT Stitched Square STAX Dies, AquaPainter™, Pearls

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by- hugs and I hope you have a blessed week, sweet friends!

In All Things Give Thanks

Hi Friends! 

I hope all of you are having a great Independence Day week so far! Today I am sharing another quick Mixed Media card using digital stamps from Power Poppy, Apples in Season and Bittersweet Wreath.  As I mentioned before, I love the versatility of using a digital image with traditional card making techniques and it is so easy to do so!

I used the colors from the Power Poppy Hues To Use “Black,White and Read All Over” Challenge and am also linking to the Simon Says Wednesday “Anything Goes” Challenge and the Just Add Ink #366 “Just Add A”Challenge (A=Apples).

If you have not had a chance to visit the challenge blogs yet, I encourage you to do so- fabulous inspiration from all!

To create this card:

1). Using a photo editing software, import the main apple digital image from Apples in Season and the sentiment from Bittersweet Wreath (both Power Poppy).  FYI- I use the retired My Digital Studio™ program from Stampin’ Up! to import the images, re-size and format on an 8 ½” x 11” page to allow room to die-cut/trim.   Print out onto a piece of 8 ½” x 11” Whisper White cardstock, die cut the Apples in Season image with a large stitched rectangle die and hand-trim the sentiment.

2). Watercolor the apple image using an AquaPainter™ with watercolor pencils, graphite pencil and distress inks. Use Hickory Smoke Distress Ink with a honeycomb stencil to add stenciling to the background.  Apply shimmer with a clear glitter pen over the blossoms and white highlights with an extra fine white paint pen.  Mount the panel onto a piece of Basic Black cardstock, trim close to the edge and set aside.

3). Mount the sentiment onto Basic Black cardstock, trim close to the edge.

4). Trim a piece of Basic Black cardstock and mount onto the Whisper White card base.

5). Trim a pieces of Real Red cardstock, add the apple image with dimensional foam, wrap a piece of 1” Gingham Ribbon onto the lower part of the focal image and add the sentiment with dimensional foam to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets: Apples in Season, Bittersweet Wreath (both digital- Power Poppy)

Ink/Mediums: Printer Ink- Black; Derwent™ Watercolor Pencils, Stampin’ Up! Watercolor Pencils, Hickory Smoke Distress Ink, Spectrum Noir™ Clear Glitter Pen, Extra Fine White Sharpie® Paint Pen

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Real Red

Accessories/Tools: Big Shot™, MFT Die-namics™ Blueprints 20 Stitched Frame Die, AquaPainter™, Mini Punchenella Stencil (Balzar Designs), 1” Black and White Gingham Ribbon, Sponge Daubers

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by and visit- hugs and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Prayerful Tulips

Hi Friends! 

Today I am sharing another Mixed Media card using digi stamps from Power Poppy.  I love the versatility of using a digital image with traditional card making techniques and it is so easy to do so!

I used the colors from the Power Poppy Hues "Buzzing with Color” Challenge and also linking to the Simon Monday “Stencil It” Challenge and The Challenge #88 “Keywords”(Flowers, Watercolor). 

If you have not had a chance to visit the challenge blogs yet, I encourage you to do so- wonderful inspiration from all!

To create this card:

1). Using a photo editing software, import the main floral digital image from Tulips and the sentiment from Roses and Chamomile from Power Poppy (I used the retired My Digital Studio™ from Stampin’ Up!).  Print both out onto a piece of 8 ½” x 11” Whisper White cardstock, die cut the Tulips image with a stitched rectangle die.

2). Watercolor the tulips using an AquaPainter™ with watercolor pencils, graphite pencil and distress inks. Use Hickory Smoke Distress Ink with a chevron stencil to add stenciling to the background.  Apply shimmer with a clear glitter pen over the stenciling as well as the petals and white highlights with an extra fine white paint pen.

3). Mount the panel onto a piece of Basic Black cardstock, trim close to the edge and set aside.

4). Trim the sentiment, add the flag points using a hexagon punch, mount onto Basic Black cardstock and create the points again with the punch. 

5). Emboss a piece of gray cardstock with a lattice embossing folder (retired SU!), trim and mount onto white cardstock, trim and mount onto black cardstock and adhere to the white card base. 

6). Mount the entire tulip focal image panel with dimensional foam, add the looped silver cord and mount the sentiment (with dimensional foam as well).  Finish off the card with a few rhinestones in the corner.

Stamp Sets: Tulips, Roses and Chamomile (both digital- Power Poppy)

Ink/Mediums: Printer Ink- Black; Derwent™ Watercolor Pencils, Stampin’ Up! Watercolor Pencils, Distress Inks, Spectrum Noir™ Clear Glitter Pen, Extra Fine White Sharpie® Paint Pen

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Basic Gray

Accessories/Tools: Big Shot™, MFT Die-namics™ Blueprints 20 Stitched Frame Die, retired Square Lattice Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder, AquaPainter™, Rhinestones, retired Silver Cording (SU!)

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by and visit- hugs and I hope you have a fabulous week!

F4A370 Floral Birthday

Hi Friends!

I hope all of you are having a wonderful week so far! This card was designed for the Splitcoaststampers’ Free For AllF4A370 “A CASE of My Favorites” Challenge- choose a favorite of yours from your Splitcoaststampers’ Fav Gallery and CASE the card. 

"CASEing" means Copy and Sahre Everything so you can copy directly or change the layout, colors, etc. inspired by one of the favorites in your Splitcoaststampers gallery.   

Usually if you copy the card directly from a card artist, it should be for your personal use only and not for publication or sale.  This is a general rule of thumb and most card artists are honored if you choose to CASE one of their creations for your personal use :-)

For my card, I decided to CASE this gorgeous card (pictured above) that was designed by one of my sweet friends, Cheryl Scrivens (see her Splitcoaststampers gallery here and her blog here.  I loved the way she used a horizontal strip for the Scripture sentiment, her excellent coloring and the beautiful coloring of the floral images.

I will also be linking this card to the Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge and the FUSION 03/16 "Paris Rain" Challenge (I was inspired by the bright red and orange against the gray of the rain for my colors ) :-) 

I used the retired Stampin’ Up! My Digital Studio program to import the Power Poppy digital images, Climbing Clematis (for the flowers) and Tulips Hobnail Pitcher (for the sentiment) but you could use any scrapbooking software or Microsoft Word to import the digital images.  Or, if you desire, mask and stamp the images to create this layout.   

One reason I love digital images is that you can re-size the images and I did enlarge the Climbing Clematis for this card. 

To create this card:

1). Insert the digital images from Power Poppy into a scrapbook editing software program (I used My Digital Studio) or you can use Word.  Once you are happy with the layout, print out onto a piece of white cardstock using an inkjet printer and black ink.

Front view

2). Color the image with alcohol markers along with colored pencils, water-soluble graphite pencils and water-based markers.  Add shimmer to the petals and butterflies with a clear glitter pen and white details with an extra fine white paint pen.  Originally I had more white in the background showing and decided to color up to the stitching on the die, I think I will go back and fill in the margin as well since it seems to look a bit jagged to me:-)

3). Die cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die, mount onto gray cardstock, trimming close to the edge and mount onto the white card base.

4). Use a waterproof black marker along with a ruler to create the horizontal lines above and below the sentiment panel to finish off the card.

This card was so fun to create and thanks Cheryl, for the inspiration!  Since it is basically one layer, it will not require additional postage- yea!!

Thanks again for taking the time to visit! I hope you will have a chance to check out the Splitcoaststampers’ Free for All Gallery and possibly create your own card based off a favorite of yours.

Hugs and I hope you have a blessed weekend, sweet friends!

Cocoa's Heart- I {Heart] You :-)

Hi Stampers!

Today I am posting on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog and wanted to share a fun Valentine’s Day card that I created with a few more of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps (SNSS) Digital Stamps- Cocoa’s Heart and Valentine’s Day Greetings.

Did you know that Sweet ‘n SassyStamps has over 200 exclusive digital stamp images (also known as “digi’ or “digis”) in the online store?  Are you intimidated by digi stamps- you do not need to be...they are so easy to use and you can print them out and color them just like a normal stamp image.

One thing I personally love about digi stamps is that you can re-size them to fit your design plus they do not take up the space in your craft room :-)

I decided to use the Splitcoaststampers’ SC568 Sketch Challenge  along with the Just Add Ink JAI294 "Add Something New" Blog Hop (both of these digital images are new to me :-)) for inspiration.

I hope you will find the time to check out both of these challenge sites as well as the SNSS Blog Post :-).

To create this card:

Insert the digital images for Cocoa’s Heart along with the sentiment from the Valentine’s Day Greeting set ( I cropped and re-sized the sentiment).   

Print the images out onto a piece of 8 1/2" x 11" Whisper White cardstock and color the Cocoa’s Heart image using Spectrum Noir™ Alcohol Markers along with a Faber-Castell® Pitt Penn marker to add the checked border. 

Fussy-cut out the heart, mount onto white cardstock and fussy-cut around the heart to create a white border.

Add additional shimmer to the heart using an AquaPainter™ with Frost White Shimmer Paint over the entire heart (but not Cocoa) and add Crystal Effects® to his nose (both are a bit difficult to see in the photos).

Emboss a piece of Smoky Slate cardstock with the Happy Hearts Textured Impressions™  Embossing Folder and layer onto Basic Black cardstock.

Add the embossed panel to the Whisper White card base, layer the black and white polka dot background and add the Cocoa's Heart and Valentine's Day Greeting sentiment using Stampin' Dimensionals®.

Use the Owl Builder Punch to punch out two little hearts from Melon Mambo cardstock, layer onto on

Another view trying to show the shimmer :-)

e another and add to the banner along with the Rhinestone to finish off the card.

This was a fun card for me to create- I hope you will try some of the digital images for yourself- if you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comment area :-)

Stamp Sets:  Cocoa's Heart, Valentine's Day Greetings (both digital images from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps)

Ink: Printer Ink, Spectrum Noir™ Alcohol Markers- Blender, BP6, DR5, PP5, BGR3; Frost White Shimmer Paint, Faber-Castell® Pitt Penn marker

Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Melon Mambo; retired Neutrals Background Paper

Accessories: Big Shot™ , Happy Hearts Textured Impressions™  Embossing Folder ,  Punches- Owl Builder, Hexagon; Rhinestone, AquaPainter™ 

Hugs and have a blessed week, my friends!! 

Snowman with Skates- Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps New Digi Release

Hi Again Friends!

Woohoo!  Today, Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps is releasing several new digital (“digi”) stamps and this is the second card that I created with a few of the new release digis as well as a traditional clear stamp set  (please see this post for my first card using Snowman's Gift).

This Clean and Simple (CAS) card showcases the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps (SNSS) Snowman with Skates Digital Stamp along with the sentiment from the Snowman Soup Sentiments Digital Set and actual ink stamping with the Winter Blessings Clear Stamp Set.   I think this snowman is so cute with his skates and cocoa mug, don’t you?

I also incorporated the CAS356 “Some People Are Worth Melting For”Challenge along with the SC574 Sketch Challenge – both at Splitcoaststampers’ (SCS) for the layout.

If you have not visited the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps (SNSS) site or the SCS galleries yet, I hope you will find time to do so- fabulous samples from all!

To create this card:

Open a Word Document and insert the Snowman with Skates Digital Stamp image along with the sentiment image from Snowman Soup Digital Sentiments and re-size as needed (click herefor a fabulous video tutorial from Korin Sutherland, owner of SNSS on how to re-size and crop digital images in Word).

Print the images out onto Whisper White cardstock and color with a water brush and markers.

Mask the snowman and sponge Pool Party Classic Ink around the “sky” and stamp the Winter Blessings snowflakes with Pool Party Classic Ink as well.

Use a Black Marker to draw the horizon line, punch out the image with a 2 ½” Circle Punch and mount onto a circle punched from Island Indigo cardstock.

Use the Big Shot™ with the Darice® Snowflake Swirl Embossing Folder to emboss a piece of Whisper White cardstock, trim and mount onto a piece of Island Indigo cardstock.

Add the two strips of ¼” Stitched Island Indigo Satin Ribbon and mount onto the Pool Party card base.

Stamp a few snowflakes from Winter Blessings with Pool Party Classic Ink over the sentiment, trim and create the banner points by hand or with a punch.  Create banner points into a scrap piece of Island Indigo cardstock and mount behind the sentiment.

Mount the Snowman with Skates  digi image along with the Snowman Soup Digital Sentiment onto the card front to the card front using dimensional foam.

Paint the wooden snowflake with Titanium White Acrylic Paint and mount onto the snowflake image, add the Pearl to the center of the snowflake to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets:  Snowman with Skates Digital Stamp, Snowman Soup Sentiments Digital Stamp, Winter Blessings (all SNSS)

Ink: Printer Ink- Black, Pool Party, Stampin’ Write Markers- Island Indigo, Pink Pirouette, Pumpkin Pie, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate; Titanium White Acrylic Paint

Paper: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Pool Party

Accessories:  Big Shot™, Darice® Snowflake Swirl Embossing Folder, Punches- 2 ½” Circle, Banner; Wooden Snowflake, Water Brush, Pearl, retired  ¼” Stitched Island Indigo Satin Ribbon 

I know I had fun creating with the new Sweet 'n Sassy Digital Stamps and I hope you will give it a tryl!

Thanks again for stopping by- have a blessed weekend, my friends!

Snowman's Gift- A New Digital Stamp from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

Hi Friends!

I hope all of you are having a wonderful week so far!  Today, Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps is releasing several new digital (“digi”) stamps and I had a chance to create two cards with some of the new digi stamps (fyi- I will be posting each card in a separate blog post so I can link to the various challenges, etc. .:-))

This card showcases the  Snowman’s Gift Digital Stamp for the main image, the sentiment is from the new Snowman Soup Sentiments Digital Set and I used the Winter Blessings Clear Stamp Set for the snowflakes in the background.   

Isn’t this image adorable?  A cute little bunny giving this sweet snowman a carrot for his nose..what a gift for sure!

I also decided to incorporate the SC571 Sketch from Splitcoaststampers’ (SCS) for the layout.   If you have not visited the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps (SNSS) site or the SC571 gallery yet, I hope you will find time to do so- fabulous samples from the SNSS Design Team as well as the SCS gallery!!

To create this card:

Open a Word Document and insert the Snowman’s Gift Digital Stamp image along with the sentiment image from Snowman Soup Digital Sentiments.

Re-size as needed (click here for a fabulous video tutorial from Korin Sutherland, owner of Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps on how to re-size and crop digital images in Word).

Print the images out onto Whisper White cardstock and color with a water brush and markers.

Mask the images and sponge Pool Party Classic Ink around the “sky” and stamp the Winter Blessing snowflakes.

Use a Black Marker to draw the horizon line, trim the panel and stitch to a piece of Early Espresso cardstock using a zigzag stitch with the sewing machine.

Stitch a piece of Pool Party to a piece of Early Espresso cardstock with a smaller zigzag stitch and stamp a few more snowflakes from Winter Blessing.

Use the Big Shot™ with the retired Square Lattice Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder to emboss a piece of retired Designer Series Paper (DSP) and use the zigzag stitch to attach it to a piece of Early Espresso cardstock.

Mount the embossed sewn panel onto the Whisper White card base, add the Pool Party background panel to the card front and mount the Snowman’s Gift focal image panel to the front using dimensional foam.

Stamp a few snowflakes from Winter Blessing with Pool Party Classic Ink over the sentiment, trim and create the banner points by hand or with a punch.  Mount onto Early Espresso cardstock, create the banner points and add the snowflake charm with silver cord.

Mount the sentiment to the card front with dimensional foam to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets:  Snowman’s Gift Digital Stamp, Snowman Soup  Sentiments Digital Stamp, Winter Blessings (all SNSS)

Ink: Printer Ink- Black, Pool Party, Stampin’ Write Markers- Cucumber Crush, retired Going Gray, Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette, Pumpkin Pie, Sahara Sand, Soft Sky

Paper: Whisper White, Early Espresso, Pool Party, retired DSP

Accessories:  Big Shot™, retired Square Lattice Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder, Sewing Machine, White Thread, Hexagon Punch, Snowflake Charm, Silver Cord, Water Brush

There are several things that I love about working with digital stamps- of which, you can re-size the images and color just like a regular stamp plus they do not take up any space in your craft room! A "win-win" for me :-)

I hope you will take the time to check out the rest of the new Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps Digital Release and have fun designing with your new digital stamps!

Thanks again for stopping by, I will be back shortly with my second card :-)