Harvest Time/Thanks Giving

Hello! I hope, as I post this blog entry and new challenge at Twist of Faith that you are safe. Mother Nature has been causing quite a bugaboo along the east coast of the US. Sending up praises and thanksgiving that, while not good in many places, it did not "hit" in areas first anticipated or feared. Nothing like this is ever "good," and the destruction in areas of New Jersey and New York has been devestating, but the loss has been property and not lives, and for that we give thanks -- leading me into this week's theme at Twist of Faith --

Your card creation should depict a HARVEST time.... be it in autumnal colours and images, perhaps a country/farm creation reminding us that our bountiful tables and bellies are filled by others who work the land, or a creation of THANKS to someone, or a celebration of THANKSGIVING! Remember our 'twist of faith'  and  make sure your creation includes a scripture, quote or an uplifiting sentiment that suits this week's theme.

"They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness."

Psalm 145:7 NIV

 

"We thank God for you all the tine and we pray for you."
I Thessalonians 1:2 NLV

Our sponsor this week is  StampArt Design by Kathryne! Our random prize winner will receive their choice of 4 images from the SADK collection available at Whimsy Stamps! If you are not yet familiar with Kathryne and her images, you MUST visit her site. I was first introduced to her wonderful images via her sponsorship on our Card Crafter's Circle challenge blog. I quickly "fell in love" with her wonderful images, and you will, too!

 

Using the delightful scarecrow and pumpkin image, I have colored, as usual, with Copic markers after printing my image onto X-Press Blend card. Once colored, I cut the image card into a square/rectangle and matted it with green and then rust card. My base card is brown card, and my DPs are all from Simple Stories' 6x6" pad called Harvest Lane. Because my paper is a bit fussy, I've kept my embellishments minimal in order not to distract from my wonderful image and my sentiment. I've only added four small glitter dots (two on the upper right corner and two on the upper corners of my image). The glitter dots started out white, but I colored them rust orange using a Copic marker.

 

My sentiment is: Be JOYFUL always; PRAY continually; GIVE THANKS in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I Thess. 5: 16-18

 

This is a lovely verse, but a very difficult one to carry in our hearts. We are always quick to give thanks when things are going well. It is easy to give thanks for our blessings when they are obvious. It is far more difficult to give thanks in all circumstances when we have allowed our discouragement to turn our hearts away from the truth that God is taking care of us at all times. It is much harder to say thank you when we forget that what we have to be thankful for is a loving God who knows our pain and our suffering and who has promised to carry us through the storms.

 

I have heard people make the statement, "I have nothing to be thankful for --" The verse tells us to give thanks in all circumstances -- not easy when you are out of work or sick or, have lost your home, or whatever else is weighing heavily on your heart -- No, my friend, it is not easy, but then neither was our Savior's journey to Calvary carrying the heavy cross but He made that journey, and therein is always a reason to give thanks!

 

God bless you all. I am so very thankful for each of you who visit my blog. Please take a few minutes, if you can, and visit our Twist of Faith challenge blog to see more wonderful images by Kathryne and the lovely cards the other DT members made using them.

Challenges:
http://kaboodledoodles.blogspot.com/ - Fall Items
http://totallystampalicious.blogspot.com/ - Anything Goes
 

Dutch Paper Craft Release

Hello everyone. I have no still photos of cards to share with you this evening, but I do have a video, if you are interested. I'm not sure if I mentioned on this blog or not that at the end of September, I somehow contracted a deadly virus on my computer and lost my entire drive. We are not sure how and exactly when I got it, but one morning I started having problems and by the evening, the virus had systematically taken over and destroyed all of my files and my entire hard drive. This was highly frustrating since, at the time, I had not one but THREE virus and malware programs running. Well, I ended up having to buy a new computer. The reason I'm explaining all of this is by way of letting you know that I lost photos and documents that were on my hard drive. I usually store photos and important data on several external drives, but had not had a chance to move August and September files to the external drives.

That brings me to the video and lack of still photos of my cards to share with you. Today Darlene Placito of Dutch Paper Crafts (for whom I'm one of the DT Members) released a set of dies and stamps for which I'd done the samples. Usually after Darlene takes the dies live via her blog and a video showing, we DT members share the still pictures of our samples and give you details of what we've done to make them. Fortunately, I did find the written information of what I did. Unfortunately, I didn't find any photos of my cards.

So, if you are interested and have an extra five minutes to spare, you can see the video of my cards on Darlene's  blog at http://dutchpapercrafts.blogspot.com. (My release is the second video.)

And, if you do watch, here are the written details of my cards: (Thanks to a sweet friend whom I shared a few of my cards before mailing to Dutch Paper Crafts, I am able to share a couple of the cards shown on the video. Bless her heart, she kept my pictures and has sent them back to me.)

Tilda with Lamb Card:

          Pink card stock

          DP by My Mind’s Eye, “Fine and Dandy Girl” Pad

          Beads by Recollection

          Aqua flower by Prima

          Pink flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts

          Ink for stamp by Close to My Heart

          Image by Magnolia Stamps

          Tag – Marianne CR1212

          Sentiment – Marianne SF1113

 

Flying By Butterfly Card

          Brown card base

          Yellow DP by My Mind’s Eye, Howdy Doody Pad

          Spellbinder Labels 8

          Lace from Jolee called French General

          Flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts

          Leaves from McGill leaf punch

          Corners (inside) from Life Style Crafts DC0317, Flourish borders

          Butterfly image by Magnolia Stamps

          Ribbon from stash

 

Tilda with Teddy Bear

          Green card for base

          DP from My Mind’s Eye, Howdy Doody pad

          Flowers by Wild Orchid Crafts

          Ticket tag – Marianne CR1212

          Sentiment – Marianne SF1113

          Image by Magnolia Stamps

 

White on White Card (no still photo available - see video)

          All 4 pieces of LR0234

          Cut and embossed dies from white card

          Layered dies raising every other one using foam dimension pop-up dots

          Pearls by Recollections

          Sentiment stamp (inside) by Great Impressions (quote by Mother Teresa)

         

Hooked on You

          White card base

          Blue card from stash for mats

          DP by My Mind’s Eye, Away We Go and Quite Contrary, Jack & Jill pads

          Image by Magnolia Stamps

          Sentiment – Marianne SF1113

          Oval Die for sentiment – CR1212

          Pink glitter chipboard letter U by Me & My Big Ideas
 

Happy Birthday Card (no still photo available - see video)

          White card base

          Black card for mats

          DP from Fancy Pants, Beach Babe pad

          Sentiment – Marianne SF1113

          Image by Di’s Digi Stamps

          Flowers by Prima

          Center of flowers dots by Heidi Grace

Wishing You a Nice Day (no still photo available - see video)

          White card

          Green card mat

          DP from My Mind’s Eye – Lost & Found, Market Street pad

          Large die from Marianne LR0234

          Sentiment from Marianne SF1113

          Ticket tag from Marianne CR1212

          Ribbon by Offray

 

Thanks and hugs,

Jenée

A Day at the Races

It's Spring Racing Carnival time in Australia, so they are media saturated with images of beautiful people in glamorous clothes, striking Race Horses with their jockeys and silks, rose gardens and champagne. Since our wonder Card Crafter's Circle blog owner is Australian (as is one of our great DT members), our challenge for you this week, is to create a card, fitting our theme...

A DAY AT THE RACES
(GLITZ and GLAMOUR)

Will you show us horses in the winner's circle? The champagne and canapes? Or the Ladies and the Fashions on the Field? Whatever it is, make sure it's Glitzed and Glamoured!





Here in the USA, the racing season has come to an end. We have run the Kentucky Derby, Preaknes, and all the other circuts. When I think of the races, I do think of the haute coutour hats and clothes. I, unfortunately, didn't have an image of a lady wearing a high style hat (which would have been my choice), so I went looking for freebies on the internet. Sadly, because I am running behind, I failed to note where I got this imge and the artist's name. If anyone recognizes it, will you please let me know so that I can give appropriate credit? I printed off the image and colored it with Copic markers. I used a Sakura Jelly Roll clear star glitter pen for her jewelry to imitate diamonds.

The DP is from the MME pad called Cowboy. The roses are from WOC and Recollections. I painted red Stickles on all three of the roses for extra glitz and sparkle. The jewel swirls are by Recollections.

If you have a minute or two, please drop over to the Card Crafter's Circle blog and have a look at what my fellow teammates created for this fun theme. Thanks! Have a blessed week.

Flutter By Challenge 211

This week, at Flutter By Wednesday, we are asking you to use a sketch in addition to your butterfly or fairy image. One of our wonderful DT members, Kathy Curry, has challenged us to use the fantastic sketch below:

 

 

The image that I used is a stamp that I received as a "bonus" when I purchased a card making magazine that is published in the UK. The set is called Fairies of the Season and is by Sarah Williams. There are four delightful images in the set depicting each of the four seasons. I stamped off my winter fairy and scanned it because the actual stamps are only about 1 to 1.5" each, and I wanted my image to be larger. After enlarging the image in Word, I printed it off on Cryogen card and colored it with Copic markers. I added Stickles to the "fur" areas.

 

After my Stickles were good and dry, I cut the image in a circle shape using my Coluzzel (HA! I finally remembered what those things are called! They are an older tool, a forerunner to the Spellbinder, Life Style Crafts, etc. metal dies we use now.) I cut a second circle with a slightly larger Coluzzel out of gold paper and matted the image with it. I then used a white card base and layered it first with the gold paper and then with cranberry card. I then cut strips of DP and layered them on top of the cranberry.

 

My cranberry colored ribbon has a metalic center which adds to the festive flaire. The white poinsettia flower (from Michaels) came with a coarse white glitter on the petals, but I added red Stickles to the smaller, red poinsettias (WOC).

 

I do hope you will join us this week in the challenge at Flutter By Wednesday. Just remember this week you MUST use the sketch as well as use either a butterfly or fairy. Even if you might not have time this week to enter the challenge, I do hope you will have a few minutes to have a look at the beautiful cards the DT have made for your inspiration and enjoyment.

Challenges:
 



http://emeraldfaeries.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes
http://ladyanhttp://www.craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.com/ - Anything Goes
http://www.craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.com/ - Fairies and Fantasy
http://eurekastamps.blogspot.com/ - Things with Wings
http://cateredcrop.com/ - Use Circles
http://challenges4everybody.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes
http://christmascardchallenges.blogspot.com/ - Christmas with Bow





Two By Two

And the animals came two by two. . .

 

 

I am definitely an animal lover. In fact, sad to say, there are times that I think I prefer animals to people because I think there are times that people do act worse than animals. Guess many of us feel that way at times. Over the years, I've owned a myriad of little four legged fur-babies, and each one has held a special place in our family and in our hearts. Evidently God liked animals, too, since He created them before He created people. This week, at Twist of Faith, our challenge for you is to create a card depicting/primarily using

 

ANIMALS

 

This week our challenge prize for our random winner is provided by the fabulous Bugaboo Stamps! A wonderful prize of SEVEN DIGITAL IMAGES... winner's choice!

We love Bugaboo Stamps, and we know so many crafters do too! We appreciate their awesome sponsorship... the images are so much fun!

 

 

The image that Bugaboo graciously provided me is so sweet and cute. I printed it off on Cryogen card. (Cryogen is my card of choice lately simply because I've run out of all my other Copic compatible card stock, and I've not yet had a chance to sit down and order others.) I've colored it with the Copic markers and then cut it into a rectangle using a Spellbinder die. I inked around the cut out image with brown ink by ColorBox.

 

My card is white base with brown layer and rust layer. Then using two bits of scrap, I've cut a brown panel and an orange dotty layer which I attached. I then added a piece of  sticky webbing in raffia color and placed the colored image on top of that. I took a piece of jute string and created a three loop bow. On top of the bow, I added an orange button (and yes, it is orange and not red as it appears in the photo above). Lastly, I added four small buttons; one in each corner.

 

I was going to go with a more "animal" oriented Bible verse, but after I colored my two adorable giraffes, I decided to pick up on the tiny heart above their heads and go with the love theme My verse says, "Love one another as I have loved you."

 

Our team at Twist of Faith have created some delights this week  using creatures great and small with our our sponsor's images. Do take a minute or two and go have a look! Each week my teamies amaze me with their creativity and their beautiful cards.

Challenges:

http://panpasteluk.blogspot.com/ - Animals
http://thecraftypad.blogspot.com/ - Use an Animal
http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.com/ - Anything Goes


Boo

 

 

In October, many people enjoy the fun of Halloween, and so our theme for you this week is at Card Crafter's Circle is, what else but

HALLOWEEN!

Show us your Halloween goodies! Delight us with orange and black, purple and green, and anything spooky in between! We are excited to welcome back a fab sponsor, the awesome KPM DOODLES! Our randomly drawn challenge winner will receive their choice of TWO SETS of images from the KPM DOODLES collection... what an awesome prize!

 

I, personally, am not a big fan of Halloween. It has nothing to do with the spookiness or the costumes and decorations. In fact, I cannot truly pin-point what it is about Halloween that makes me not care for this little celebration.  I like the colors of fall, and I enjoy pumpkins. I appreciate the artistry some people show with their pumpkin carvings. I get a big kick out of seeing the little ones all dressed up in adorable costumes. Beyond that, though, it is a celebration that I could do without. OK, you can accuse me of being an old sour puss, but even when I was younger, I didn't care for Halloween, so HA!

I much prefer the day after Halloween which, in the Catholic Faith, is known as All Saints Day. It is the day we honor all who have died and gone on to Heaven before us. It just seems more fitting to honor the saints than to celebrate the damned. OK, I understand the superstition behind Halloween. We dress up like gouls in an attempt to keep them away from us and to ward off evil spirits. Again, I guess my religious upbringing is stronger than I sometimes think because I fully believe that I have God on my side and don't need anything except my faith in Him to ward off evil spirits.

 

All that being said, it seems that I have made more than my usual Halloween cards this year (smile), and today I present yet another using the KPM Doodles black cat. Look at his cute little face. Don't those eyes look as if he is startled by those ghosts coming up in the background?

 

My two pieces of DP are from my scrap bag. I've used both on another Halloween card, but I liked them as they are very representative of Halloween colors. I matted them both with a piece of purple card. My base is a 5.5 x 5.5" white card. My background "doily" is cut from purple card using a Spellbinder die. My ghosts are actually stickers, and I've added tiny, tiny gold and "cut glass" dots to the eyes. The sentiment ("Boo") is also a sticker from the same sheet as the ghosts. Lastly, I added four amber colored rhinestone jewels.

 

 

Butterfly OR Any Winged Creature

This week at Flutter By Wednesday, we are giving a bit of leeway to allow a little more creativity. This week, your creation may be a butterfly, fairy OR any winged creature (that means birds, bees, or even termites -- ok, so I exaggerate a bit with the last one, but it does mean you can use an angel or winged dragon or anything with wings). Our sponsor this week is SCACD stamps, and this week the prize is a $25 gift certificate to SCACD. How fun is that?

My image, a SCACD exclusive rubber stamp, is a beautiful southern belle (just like me - HA! Well, the southern part is true!). I've stamped her onto Cryogen card and colored her in with my trusty Copic markers. She has the prettiest face (as do other SCACD stamps; you've really got to see them).

I started with my usual white card base and layered aqua card on top of that. I then used two papers from "The Whimsy Stack" by DCWV. The bottom piece is striped, and the top piece is a pattern which included glossy glitter birds. I used peach ribbon which I wrapped three times around my card, and created a triple loop bow to which I added a small peach rose (Wild Orchid Crafts). I punched two butterflies from the aqua card using a Martha Stewart punch, and I brushed on Waterfall Stickles to the wings. I added two aqua colored rhinestones (Recollections from Michael's Crafts) to the butterfly bodies. Lastly, I added a small red rhinestone (Recollections) to the center of the rose on Belle's hat.

I used the sketch from this week's Tuesday Morning Sketches (turned sideways) for my format.



Sadly, this is one of those cards that is really much prettier in real life than in the photo. I was quite pleased with the overall effect, and I photographed it a number of times trying to capture just how pretty it really is, but to no avail. I keep practicing, but I have not yet found a reliable method for photographing my samples so that they actually show up as well on the screen as they do in my hand.

Do take a few minutes, if you can, and go over to our Flutter By Wednesday blog to have a look at all the beautiful cards that the DT have made for your inspiration this week. You will not only see a lot of lovely cards, but you will also see a lovely variety of the fantastic SCACD stamps. You will want them all; they are that pretty.

Challenges:
http://tuesdaymorningsketches.blogspot.com/ - Weekly sketch
http://bearlymine-challenges.blogspot.com/ - Anything Goes
http://www.craftysentiments.blogspot.com/ - Ribbons and Bows
http://everybody-art-challenge.blogspot.com/ - Glimmer and Bling
http://www.craftdoormagazine.com/ - Anything Goes