Thursday, March 5, 2015

Spring around the corner?





Hello bloggers,
Here in the Pacific Northwest we have had a nice mild winter, unlike a lot of the rest of the country. But am thinking we will pay for it in the summer with water restrictions. The grass has been growing, flowers are budding, trees are forming buds. Our lilac tree is getting new shoots. Am in anticipation of all the new growth to appear and show it's glory.

2 Chronicles 7:14

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 
This is such an encouraging verse in that it assures us that the Lord God is listening to our prayers and will forgive.  We need a repentant heart (one who is willing to turn from doing wrong) and open heart to follow what God has told us. Jesus came for that reason-to tell and show us of God's love and His intent to have a relationship with us. What a blessing that is!!!

 In January it was my turn to bring the demo for my stamping club. I chose to have for my theme  Valentines since I like to share love and especially on that day. So here are the three cards that we made at that meeting:
 This blue and brown plaid one has a masculine feel to it for those who needed such a card. The background is done with a wood grain embossing folder w/ light gray ink on it. The other papers are of unknown source. The scallop heart is a Stampin Up die cut and the little heart is a hand punch.

 This mousey one is made using circles cut (I used a die) and hearts cut with a punch. The little eyes were made with a hand punch. The label is a stamp and matching die from Papertrey Ink. The sparkly heart is from the dollar store.

 This butterfly card starts with an embossed background using a cuttlebug embossing folder I believe. The scalloped hearts are from Stampin Up as are the smaller hearts. They are from a stamp set called Hearts A Flutter with a matching die set. I stamped the greeting on card stock and then folded so it will meet in the middle. A little banner was made for the body of the butterfly. Red hearts are from dollar store.
This is a birthday card I mailed to a friend. It is a bit washed out as the card stock was more coral color. The embossing folder is called swirl frame I think. The flowers were stamped on light coral vellum using Stampin Up's Flower Shop and punched with the Pansy punch. They were stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed in white. In the middle are little pearls. The leaves are made with Martha Stewart punch.


 My son was married last year and they just moved into a house so of course had to send a new house card. As you can see, it is very simple. I used the scallop heart again to make a port for the picture to show through. Inside was an appropriate verse.
 A couple of friends came over for some craft time and we made more valentine cards. This one starts with collage style stamping on the cover. On a square piece of card stock we glued strips of decorated paper on the diagonal. A heart is punched out of the middle. Save the cut out piece. Behind the cut out is place a piece of card stock that has been embossed and sanded. Then the cut out heart is attached to the card and a little flower added.
This card starts with embossing using the damask embossing folder. A piece of white card stock is also embossed with the same folder and punched out using the Blossom punch from Stampin Up along with a punch from red paper. A rectangle piece of white is embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing f older and layered on red paper. The large heart is cut from decorated paper with a heart die. The tag is stamped and then cut free hand. They are all layered together.

This card uses the same heart embossing folder as in a card above and also uses the border folder for the blue strip. The hearts are from the Hearts A Flutter stamp and die set. A banner was made by stamping on card stock and cutting the end. It was then threaded through a heart embellishment.

A sewing project came up so will include it here. This is a little "ditty" bag for little things that run around the bottom of a purse. It is made from a pistachio bag. It is shown inside a purse organizer that I made for a lady in our church. So she is more organized now!


 This card was made for my daughter who happens to like Dr. Who. It has an explosion mechanism for the inside made with a picture of the inside of the TARDIS. Those of you who watch the show know what I mean. The embellishments were found on the internet.


 On one of the Ustream shows that I watch, a lady showed a technique which looked like fun to me. You take a label and collage stamp on it. I happened to have some 3" square sticky labels so stamped away. Then found some scrap card stock to mount them on. In under an hour and a half I had made eight cards. They will need some embellishment and verses added for the appropriate occasion.
This is one that I decorated for a birthday. I tried to make them very generic so they could go to just about anyone. If you haven't tried this technique, give it a try. Always nice to have a few extra cards to give out. If you don't have an occasion to give a card for, there might be other places that cards would be welcome: hospital, senior center, veteran's center, church, etc.
This card was for my other daughter. It starts with a light gray card stock. The stamping is done using Stampin Up's Butterfly Basics stamp set. The butterflies are die cut from the matching die set. I added some lace trim and matching ribbon and some sparklies.
 
Hope you have enjoyed what I have shared. Give a new technique a try. Most of the ideas are from Pinterest or taken from inspiration seen on that site. Everyone keep warm and look for the blooming flowers.

Blessings,
MEg :)