Back Into Routine, I Hope

April 17.  That was my last post.  That is FIVE months!  How can that be possible?  As I said in my April 13 post, it was time for changes; changes to and in my house.  We gutted out and painted 6 rooms in our house, moved my craft room into a (previously) toy room, moved the toy room into a bedroom, made two bedrooms into an apartment of sorts for my mom.  That was hard work.  Harder still was the transition of having my mom live with us.  But I will spare you those details.

I miss my old craft room.  I have missed making cards and posting on the blog.  I have missed reading your blogs and commenting.  But hopefully, I will now be able to be creative again and get back into the world of crafts.

In these five months of my absence, I have made only nine cards (for family birthdays and anniversaries).  In past years, I averaged 40 a month.  So getting back into the swing of things has actually been like being a beginner again.  Mojo is still keeping a distance.  I can't find it just like I can't find other craft items hiding in new places in this "foreign" room.
This first card I made for my DIL's birthday then went on to make more cards - single layer ones.  I am hoping to make sets of cards to give away as gifts.  Plastic gift boxes are on order.  I will post a pic sometime before Christmas on the finished products.  But for now:

The flowers are Doodle Pantry digital images.  I wanted to do my own coloring but after several attempts, I printed up pre-colored flowers.  The sentiment is stamped. 
This idea was a CASE of Ellen's card. Can you believe her gorgeous coloring?

Here is another card, single layer, with sequins and embossed lines:

and another one without sequins but with the embossed lines and a different sentiment:

(Oh, my goodness.  It has been so long since my last blog post, I couldn't even rely on my "auto pilot" mode!! Wow.  It doesn't take long to forget how to do things!)

Thanks for looking.  It is good to be back.

Challenges:
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Scorepal - more than one score; cards and more cards
Simon Says Work It Wednesday - use stamp
Stamploration CAS - use pink

Simon Wednesday - CAS
Sugar Pea Design - photo inspiration

Doodle Pantry Ants in My Pantry - anything

Repeat or Rut?

The last card I made with the pull out book mark was fun to make and I loved it so much, I decided to make another one.  I needed a birthday card for a friend so I chose these colors that are her favorites and they are the colors for one of the challenges.  Don't you love it when you can use a sketch and colors and themes of challenges all in one card?

I did not take multiple photos of the different pieces this time.  The beautiful floral image and butterfly, which I colored with Copics,  are by From the Heart. There is a sentiment about time on the lower half of the bookmarker.
The Happy Birthday die cut is by Spellbinders.
Again, as for the last book mark, I used a die to cut the top of the blue backing.
Sketch - Stamplorations:

Challenges:
Tuesday Throwdown - use die cut
Sweet Stamps - anything
Double D Challenge - yellow
Verve - colors
Stamplorations - sketch
From the Heart - monthly challenge
Simon Monday - may flowers
Die Cut Divas - April (flowers and birthdays) 

A Card - Finally!!!

It has been way too long since my last post.  Sometimes life gets busy and complicated and that is what has been happening lately.  But it has only just begun -  yard work, planting, and oh, yes, painting four rooms in our home are going to be taking precedence over card making.  And then let's throw in some remodeling and moving my mom into our home.  The worst of that is that I will be giving up my lovely craft room.  Hard adjustments ahead but it is what it is.  We have seasons of life, some harder than others but God's grace is sufficient for each stage.
But for now, I have a card.  Yeah!  Thanks to my friend, Karen, at Word Art Wednesday.  She asked me if I could make a card with this weeks verse and I was very happy to take her up on it.  I really needed some time in my craft room!

I love the book of Philippians and this prayer (and one in Colossians) is one I prayed for my children when they were in college.

Using the sketch at Stamplorations, I made a bookmark to slip inside the front piece.
The lovely "Prayer" dimension sticker has been in my stash for years.  I have been saving it for just the right card and I think this was the one.

I made the back of the bookmark by using a die , positioning it so I only cut the top in the Cuttlebug by aligning the plates to not cover the entire die and then cut the rest of the marker with my paper cutter.  Maybe this makes sense if I show you the die I used:

Here are a few more views of the card and bookmark:

Thanks for looking and commenting.  Now head over to WAW , download the verse, and play the challenge.  I'm going back to masking off windows for painting!

Challenges:
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Stamplorations - sketch
Tuesday Throwdown - use a die
Cre8tive Hands - anything
Sweet Stamps - anything 

New Challenge at Paper Sweeties

It is my pleasure to be a guest designer this month at Paper Sweeties.  Here is the photo for this month's photo inspiration challenge.

And here is my take:

 

I have had these fabric vines forever.  After stamping a GKD stamp with brown ink onto the middle of the Vanilla cardstock  (yes, I know it looks white in the photo), I tediously glued the vines, one leaf at a time, in a circle around the stamped image.  The beautiful ribbon is hand dyed seam binding (oatmeal), one of the many you can find at the Paper Sweeties store.  

A big Thank You to Debbie for having me as the guest designer.  It will be fun to see what each of you do with this month's photo. 

Challenges: 

Simon Wednesday - anything 

Penny's Paper Crafting - anything 

Cre8tive Hands - anything 

Word Art Wednesday - anything 

 

 

Do You Dig It?

Here is another card with the sketch from From the Heart.  So glad we did not have a dog that digs things up.  Our dog, whom we said goodbye to a few months ago, used to bury her doggie bones in the flower beds but never ruined a single plant. She was our pal for 15 years and was such a good dog.  I am afraid to get another one; not sure another dog could measure up.  But I sure miss her and especially now while working outside on the property.  But enough sad stuff.  On to the card.

Every once in awhile I make a one layer card (two if you count the base), so using Copics, I followed the sketch.  Image is From the Heart monthly digi.

 This card will go to Send A Smile 4 Kids.

Challenges:
From the Heart Sketch
From the Heart Digi of the month
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Simon Wednesday - anything
Cre8tive Hands - anything

Birthday Cutie

Focusing on birthday cards right now.  Most of them will go to SAS4Kids.   Here is one with one of those cute little girls by Pure Innocence (MFT).

After embossing the white panel with a Darice EF, I added several colors using Copics.  The sketch at Stamplorations was my layout inspiration.

the blackboard idea from the Paper Sweeties photo:

and the colors and HB2U from a Spotlight Project by Shirley at Stamplorations

Challenges:
Stamplorations -theme and sketch

Stamplorations Spotlight

Crop Stop - anything
Paper Sweeties - photo inspiration
Simon Wednesday - anything 
Word Art Wednesday - anything 

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It is supposed to be beautiful, sunshine weather this week.  Thank goodness. We have had enough rain for awhile.

This sketch is the weekly sketch at From the Heart.  I love the teams' cards and one in particular with this image by FTH.  I printed it onto digital paper by Doodle Pantry then colored her with the colors in the MFT challenge, adding yellow because she just had to have a yellow slicker!
Here is the sketch:

and here are the colors:

Challenges:
Simon Wednesday - rain or shine
From the Heart sketch
MFT colors
Crop Stop