A Happy Hello

I combined a few different sets for this card, for the Addicted to CAS challenge: circles. The stamps are from the PTI sets Hello Sunshine and Polka Dot Parade #2. The inks are from Stampin Up.

Sunny Days

The current challenge word over at Addicted to CAS is spring. I think my card qualifies - after all, it does rain a lot in the spring, and the colors are bright and sunny. The images come from Verve, and I added some buttercream liquid pearls for extra dimension. I am also entering this one in Simon Says' Anything Goes challenge.

Perk Up!

I didn't plan on playing along with this week's Retrosketch Challenge, but when I saw the clean and simple card that a member of the design team made, I decided to give it a go. I have two different versions. The first one is actually my second attempt- I thought my first one veered too far from the original sketch. I like them both, but I kinda like the second card (my first attempt) the best. The coffe cup stamp is from Papertrey ink and the arrow is a digi from The Cutting Cafe. Which one is your favorite?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing Grace

Great colors over at the Paper Players challenge blog! I usually don't have exact matches when I play along with color challenges, but this time I did! This card will be one of many which my church card club will be making tomorrow. The stamps are from a set called "Whatever" from Clear Dollar Stamps and include a great selection of grunge sentiments. The sentiment may look like it wasn't stamped properly, but that's the way the stamp is designed - hence, grunge. I originally bought this set with the idea of making "cool" cards for teens, but it works for this one, too.

Brilliant

My sister had the opportunity to come and visit me for a few days this week, and she brought her new stamp sets with her, so of course we had to spend some time putting them to good use. This card is for the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge #3. The stamps are from Papertrey Ink.

FTL129: Blessings

This week's sketch from the Clean and Simple blog worked perfectly with my new stamp set from Clear Dollar stamps. It's not a Christmas card even though it is December, but I have a confession to make: I'm kinda tired of making Christmas cards. I have already made all the Christmas cards I'm going to make for the year of 2012, and I hope to post some pictures of them soon. Our church card club made 890 Christmas cards this year. 740 of those will be distributed to patients at a geriatric center, and 150 are going to visitors who attend our Christmas at Bethlehem event.

So even though this card may seem a bit out of season, it makes me very happy. And I added a bit of glitter in the centers of the flowers so I could enter it in 2 challenges: FTL129 and CASology#22.

Clean and Simple FTL#129



Faith

I made this card for a challenge blog (red carpet studio) but I missed the deadline, which is really too bad because I like the way this one turned out, and it was so easy. All the stamps and dies are from Clear Dollar stamp. I used black and white (the challenge colors) along with a bit of red to symbolize the blood of Christ. As a Christian, I have a tendency to equate my relationship with God with my feelings - if the feelings aren't there, then perhaps God isn't there either. But that is not true. Faith is not feeling, faith is trust, faith is knowing that the promises laid out for us in the Bible are still true today. May your faith be strengthened during this season of Advent.

 

 

 

Cardabilities #64

I've actually been making a lot of cards this week for various challenges, but I've missed two deadlines already, so I'm posting this one now so I don't miss this one as well. This is my first time trying out the Cardabilities challenges. I didn't go too far off base  - I saw a sun and clouds in the sketch and so that's what I decided to use. The sun and clouds are from PTI and the sentiment is from Verve.

 

 

Smiles

My card for this week's color throwdown challenge. The stamp is from PTI and the paper is from the Carnival stack from DCWV.

Thanks for looking!
-Brenda

Sunny Days

My card for the CAS-ual Friday CFC64 challenge: on cloud 9. Stamps and die are from Papertrey Ink. The sentiment is from Clear Dollar Stamps.

Thanks for looking!
-Brenda

Dynamic Duos #9

I was inspired by Sue's card on the Dynamic Duos blog, and so I choose crumb cake and black as my two colors. The stamps are from Clear Dollar stamps. For some reason, the words look blurry in the picture, but they turned out just fine IRL. I am NOT a photographer and it's highly unlikely I will ever read the manual that came with my camera. The verse says "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" - Psalm 46:1.

Thanks for looking!
-Brenda

Do Not Conform

A friend posted this picture on facebook, and I was instantly inspired to re-create it into a card. I created the image and the sentiment on my computer, and added the quilled fish for a bit of embellishment.

Thanks for looking!
-Brenda

Let Your Faith Soar

I love the color combo this week at Dynamic Duos, and I've had a pinwheel card in my head for a while now. I guess it was time. I had to make this card twice - the first time I forgot to add embossing. Then the second time I made it, the ink smudged on the very last step, so I decided to add some black stickle dots to hide it. The sentiment comes from Clear Dollar Stamps. The yellow is actually brighter IRL.

Thanks for looking!

-Brenda

Faith and Prayer

My sister let me borrow her set of key stamps and sayings over a month ago. They've been sitting idle,waiting for inspiration. Well, it finally hit me while I was folding laundry. The result: a very clean and simple card, perfect for the ladies at my church. I followed the color scheme from the Color Throwdown challenge blog.

Thanks for looking!
-Brenda

Keep Walkin'

Playing around with my new copic set. Yes, I finally bought a set. Yes, it was expensive. No, I do not regret it. Actually, I'm scolding myself for holding out for so long. But I have a bit of a learning curve ahead, so as a result the image is not quite perfect as I'm sure you'll be able to see. But, the colors are perfect for this week's Color Throwdown challenge #185, and the sketch comes from Freshly Made Sketches #28. The paper is from the Cherry Limeade pack by DCWV. The stamp set is from Cleardollar Stamps.

Thanks for looking!
-Brenda

Color Throwdown 184

I struggled greatly with this card, trying my best to incorporate all four colors for the color challenge blog. The verse comes from Dee's Bugaboo Boutique and is just perfect for our church card club to send out to our members next month. This card did cause me a bit of distress - I spent all morning fussing over it. I made about 5 different versions of a reverse mask, finally realizing that it looked the best with just one color: blue. After I masked the oval, I spritzed with glimmer mist, which made the black ink bleed.

The card was still too plain, so I added some border embossing. The first one I ran through my cuttlebug the whole way, which resulted in an unfortunate line on the white cardstock. The second border I only ran through partially, stopping before coming off the embossing folder, and it turned out much better. Finally, I added some stickle highlights in yellow, blue, and purple, to get the colors in that I needed for the challenge. The only color missing is green. I hope it qualifies. Either way, this is a keeper for our card club next month. It was also my first time trying the reverse masking technique.

Thanks for looking!

-Brenda

Chasing Clouds

I spent a fantastic weekend at a crop event near my house - Friday afternoon to Sunday night. The best part was spending all that time with my mother and my sister, and using all of my sister's cool stuff, including her copic markers.

Here's a card I made over the weekend, using stamps from CTMH and some colorful fibers I've had in my stash for many years. I die-cut the cloud and colored it with, yup, copics. Now, of course, I have to buy some!

Thanks for looking!
-Brenda

Out on a Limb

Great layout over at Freshly Made Sketches, and this is what I came up with...

Thanks for looking!
-Brenda

FTL 172

My scrap paper bin is overflowing, and I am on a mission to reduce it's size. The layout for the Clean and Simple challenge was a big help this week. Here I've done 2 versions of the same card. I used a stamp from the dollar bin at Michaels and paper pieced the bird's body. The sentiment is also from the dollar bin.

On this first card I added some yellow stickle bling to the beak, wing, and tail.

And here's the second card, which is a bit more monochromatic...

Thanks for looking!

-Brenda

MOJO 214

Here's my take on this week's sketch for Mojo Monday 214. Thanks so much to Dee for all the great scripture she makes available on her blog.

Thanks for looking!
-Brenda