Happy 4th of July!! Home of the Free Because of the Brave :-)

Hi Stampers!

Happy 4^th of July to all of my fellow Americans!!  I hope all of you have a great time celebrating our freedom today and remember that freedom comes at a cost. 

I am so thankful for the men and women in our armed services that help keep our country free- we are the “Home of the Free Because of the Brave”!  

I am so thankful for those brave men and women that have gone before and those that are currently serving- as a nation and individually, we can never thank you enough for keeping our country free!!  May the Lord richly bless you and your families...

I wanted to create a card for the Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light ODBDSLC244 Anything Goes Challenge to celebrate our freedom and decided to use the ColourQ CQC297Challenge along with the Splitcoaststampers’ SC547 Sketch Challenge (see details here and gallery here).

Again, I hope you have the time to stop by the above sites to check out the wonderful inspiration from the Design Teams as well as the other fabulous gallery entries!

This card was very easy to create using similar techniques as in these previous blog posts ****  

As noted in a previous post, I am trying to limit my actual blog posting time since creating the blog posts can take more time than creating the cards- lol!!  If you have any questions, please note in the comments - I read all of your comments and appreciate each and every one of you takes the time to comment...you are all such an encouragement to me!! ***

With a few markers scribbled onto acrylic blocks, I spritzed the blocks with water to watercolor the focal image, added  a bit of texture with embossing and layering- quick and easy!

Stamp Sets:  Not Forgotten, Land of the Free (both Our Daily Bread Designs)

Ink: Stāz-On® Jet Black, Stampin’ Write Markers- Crumb Cake, Pool Party, retired Midnight Muse and Poppy Parade

Paper:  Whisper White, Pool Party, retired Midnight Muse and Poppy Parade cardstock and DSP

Accessories: Big Shot™, Lucky Stars Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder, Stars Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug™), Sanding Block, AquaPainter™, Water Spritzer Bottle, Natural Linen Thread, retired Antique Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware Clip, retired ⅜” Midnight Muse Stitched Satin Ribbon

Again, if you have any questions, please let me know :-)

Thanks again for stopping by my friends- may the Lord bless you greatly on this 4^th of July!! 

Home of the Free Because of the Brave- An Easy Waterfall Mini Album

Hi Stampers!   

This week’s Stampin’ Royalty Challenge SR281 is “Anything ButA Card” and I decided to create a mini photo album using the CMCC75 Colour Me "Colour Me Striking" Challenge.

In the past few weeks Graphic 45 has been highlighting their retiring 2014 Design Team members with "Fond Farewell" posts and I fell in love with all of the designer projects but especially Ginger Ropp's Easy Instagram Mini Waterfall Album (I have created at least ten of these this week- they are so addictive!!) :-)  

Here is a link to the Graphic45 post for Ginger Ropp's favorite projects  and I have linked the YouTube video for this project below :-)

If you have not visited either challenge site yet, I encourage you to do so- marvelous inspiration from all!

Using the instructions from the video, score a 12x12 piece of Night of Navy cardstock (I used a retired textured piece from my stash)- score at 3”, 6” and 9”, turn and score at 4” and 8”.

Using the Stampin’ Up! Paper Trimmer, trim on the 3” and 6” score  lines to the 4” score line.

Turn the paper and trim along the uncut side of the paper along the 4” score line to the 9” score (again, using Ginger Ropp’s video instruction).

Fold the 3” and 6” trimmed score panels as directed on the video and complete the photo folio per the video instructions – I found that it was a bit easier to also add an additional score line of approx. 1/8” or so, to the left of the first 3” score line to allow for the bulk.

Decorate the panels as you desire…  fyi- I did a few strips of designer paper on some of the panels and adhered on the two sides only to allow a photo or other panel to be inserted under the strip...  this is what I love about this mini book- it can be decorated in any way you choose :-)

To decorate the panels:

Cover: Add the piece of lace onto the front cover and mount the red grosgrain ribbon (I used ribbon from my stash and wrapped the ribbon around the album adhering with Scor Tape®). 

Adhere the 2 ¾” x 3 ¾” piece of striped paper from the Authentique® Pride Collection over the ribbon and lace.

Add the scrap piece of textured Night of Navy cardstock  (approx. ¼” x 3 ¾”) over the edge of the lace.

Add the two scrap pieces of red starred patterned paper to the sides.

Stamp the flag image from the Our Daily Bread Designs (ODBD) Old Flag Background using Stāz-On® Jet Black Ink and color with an AquaPainter™ using Night of Navy and retired Poppy Parade Classic Ink (I used Poppy Parade versus Real Red to match the paper).

Trim a portion of the background (save the rest for another project) and stamp the Gorgeous Grunge large splatter stamp using Ranger® Tim Holtz® Tea Dye Distress Ink.

Sponge Ranger® Tim Holtz® Old Paper Distress Ink over the entire image to antique the paper.

Mount onto a piece of Night of Navy cardstock, trim again and mount onto a piece of Poppy Parade cardstock. 

Stamp the sentiment from Land of the Free (ODBD) using Stāz-On® Jet Black Ink and color with Stampin’ Write  Markers- Night of Navy and retired Poppy Parade (I used Poppy Parade versus Real Red to match the paper).

Trim the sentiment, distress with the same inks as the Old Flag background panel, mount onto a piece of Night of Navy cardstock, trim again and mount onto a piece of Poppy Parade cardstock. 

Add the scrap pieces of the star pattern paper and insert the pewter brads.

Mount the sentiment to the focal image panel and adhere the entire panel to the front cover.

Behind the front cover:  Mount the 2 ¾” x 3 ¾” red music panel from the Authentique® Pride Collection to the back of the front cover.

Stamp the image from Not Forgotten (ODBD) using using Stāz-On® Jet Black Ink onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock and color with the AquaPainter™ with Night of Navy and Poppy Parade Classic Ink adding shadows using the Sahara Sand Stampin’ Write Marker.

Trim and mount onto Night of Navy cardstock, trim and mount onto Poppy Parade cardstock and distress the panel by sponging Ranger® Tim Holtz® Old Paper Distress Ink over the edges and image.

Mount the focal image to the panel.

Balance of pages:  Mount the 2 ¾” x 3 ¾” pieces of the Authentique® Pride Collection to the “pages” or panels.

Using scrap strips of the papers, adhere to the edges only to create the straps to hold photos or business size cards (I plan to use some of these albums for Bible Verse memorization by printing the verses on business size cardstock).

I did add one sentiment on the opposite “page” from the Not Forgotten image using the verse from the same stamp set (colored with Stampin’ Write markers and “antiqued” with Ranger® Tim Holtz® Old Paper Distress Ink, cut out with the Big Shot™ and the Chalk Talk Collection Framelits™ and mounted onto an additional Chalk Talk frame from Night of Navy and Poppy Parade cardstock).

The entire album takes a few hours to create, but again, fair warning, they are very addictive!

Stamp Sets: Old Flag Background, Land of the Free, Not Forgotten (all Our Daily Bread Designs), Gorgeous Grunge (Stampin’ Up!)

Ink:  Stāz-On® Jet Black Ink, Night of Navy and retired Poppy Parade Classic Ink, Stampin’ Write Markers- Night of Navy, Sahara Sand and retired Poppy Parade; Ranger© Tim Holtz® Tea Dye and Old Paper Distress Ink

Paper/Cardstock:  Whisper White, Night of Navy Textured (12x12), Night of Navy Smooth, retired Poppy Parade, Authentique® Pride Collection

Accessories:  Big Shot™, Chalk Talk Framelits™, Sponge Dauber, Pewter Brads, lace and grosgrain ribbon from my stash

Thanks again for stopping by- I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!

Thank You for Your Service and Sacrifice

Hi Stampers! 

Memorial Day is upon us once more and I am so thankful for the men and women who have served our country and given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom- may we never forget their service and sacrifice!

I wanted to create one more patriotic card with Memorial Day in mind and chose to find inspiration from the As You See It AYSI088 Sketch Challenge as well as the Splitcoaststampers’ Free For All FA274 “Oh My Stars” (see details here and gallery here). 

If you have not had a chance to do so, I hope you will find the time to visit the challenge sites- they all have wonderful Design Team samples as well as inspiration from their galleries!

To create this card:

Use Stampin’ Write Markers to carefully color the eagle image from the Our Daily Bread Designs (ODBD) Land of the Free stamp set... Basic Black for the white part of the feathers, Night of Navy for the star area and retired Riding Hood Red for the stripes on the feathers.  

Add additional color to the stripes with a Cajun Craze marker, Daffodil Delight for the beak and Sahara Sand over the entire image.  Add Ranger® Tim Holtz® Antique Linen Distress Stain over the entire image to “antique” a bit more.

Fussy-cut the eagle image and mount onto Vary Vanilla cardstock, fussy-cut again allowing a bit of the Very Vanilla cardstock to show and set aside (I decided to add this step since the eagle seemed to blend a bit too well with the background paper I chose- you could of course, omit this step :-)). 

Mount the Authentique® Price Collection paper onto Very Vanilla cardstock, trim and mount onto Riding Hood Red cardstock, trim and mount onto the Night of Navy card base.

Create the vertical strip for the sketch leaving a portion of Very Vanilla in the center for the sentiment.

Create the banners using the new Banner Triple  Punch for the banners (they are not as thick as the ones that the punch would normally make, just insert the banners and flip the punch over so you can see the end of the paper to punch the banner points) and mount onto the vertical strip. 

Add the Antique Brass brads and mount the layered vertical strip to the card front.

Ink the sentiment from the retired Stampin’ Up! Service and Sacrifice set using the Riding Hood Red marker, stamp onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock (I used a piece in my scraps that had been previously punched with the Note Tag Punch), trim the edges and mount onto a piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock (again, I used the Note Tag Punch to create the curve on the left hand side).

Mount the sentiment onto the card front and add the eagle with Stampin’ Dimensionals®.

Ink the star from the ODBD Land of the Free set with the Night of Navy and Riding Hood Red Stampin’ Up! markers and stamp onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock that had been distressed with Ranger® Tim Holtz® Antique Linen Distress Stain.

Fussy-cut the star, add the Antique Brass brad to the center and mount the star to the star to the card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals®.

To finish off the card, repeat the same steps as above with the flag (from the Stampin’ Up! Service and Sacrifice set).

Stamps:  Service and Sacrifice (retired SU!), Land of the Free (ODBD)

Ink: Stampin’ Write Markers- Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, retired Riding Hood Red; Ranger® Tim Holtz® Antique Linen Distress Stain

Paper: Very Vanilla, Night of Navy, retired Riding Hood Red; Authentique® Pride Collection

Accessories: Banner Triple Punch, Note Punch; Antique Brass brads

Thanks again for stopping by- my husband is on vacation today and we will be reflecting on the lives that were sacrificed for our freedom today as we take a day to remember.  

I hope all of you will have the time to take a moment today to think about those that have gone before you to keep our country free!!    I am so thankful that the Lord has allowed the United States of America to remain free and that He sent His Son to give the Ultimate Sacrifice for all of us- may we never forget!!