More is More

The very last piece to the Divine Design gift set I’ve shared throughout the week is the birthday card.  I really had fun with this one…so much fun I got carried away and made it bigger than the envelopes I have.  LOL!  It’s 5.5″ square.

I knew I wanted to use some of the Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie paper to coordinate with the set and this striped berry pattern is one of my very favorites of the collection.  The orange paper is the solid side of one of the patterns.  I stamped the birthday image from Sweet Celebration by SASI on Poison Ivory shimmer cardstock and paper pieced the cake and the cuppie’s cupcake liner.  The rest was colored with copics.  Then I cut and embossed the image with a Nestabilities Label 1 die and with the die still in place I sponged on Sage Shadow ink.  Then I got to work with some fun and sparkle adding some embossed Prima flowers with an orange rhinestone brad center, some frilly stretchy ribbon I picked up at Hobby Lobby in Texas and some Zva Creative pink crystals.  And for just an added punch I added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the cake as well as to the edges of the sage layer and the orange label layer. I did this with a Sakura Quickie Glue pen.  It’s a little hard to see in the photo, but oh-so-sparkly IRL.

Of course I had to finish off the inside of the card as well.

The little flower stamp is from SU Roses in Winter.  I just don’t know if I’ll ever give up that set!  I have to say that it’s so fun to pull color combos from different designer papers.  I end up using combos I wouldn’t come up with on my own.  In this card we have a pink Prism cardstock (similar to Pretty in Pink) along with Regal Rose, Sage Shadow and the orange dp (closest to Apricot Appeal).  I think it’s so feminine and fresh looking!

I have a confession to make.  And once I’ve made it, I hope you’ll still love me!  We got the photos from Megan and they’re awesome!  So last night we went on-line to order some wallet sized photos to include in our Christmas cards.  I need 100-120 cards in total.  I have sent out hand made cards every year for probably the last 10 years or so.  I have sometimes had to supplement with one box of store-bought cards (oh the horror), but even in the very stressful years of my aunt’s illness I managed to get mostly hand made cards mailed out.  This year I’m about 2/3 or maybe even 3/4 of the way to having my cards finished.  So when we were ordering photos I said “hey why don’t we order a set of 20 photo cards to supplement what I have made?”  Curt was fine with this idea – I’m the one who has a major problem with photo cards.  Don’t get me wrong – no offense to those people who send them every year – I realize they can be nice – but often they just seem to have nothing to do with Christmas and they aren’t even hand-signed usually….and well….it’s just my own personal problem and love of beautiful or adorable traditional Christmas cards….yes I realize I’m rambling….so I’ll just spit it out…we ended up ordering 80 of the photo cards.  Yep…80!  We’ve just never had such a nice photo of us (thanks Meg!) since our wedding (which btw – was the ONE year we did send out photo cards)…and I was feeling overwhelmed with it being so late and still having work to do on Christmas cards.  So a few people will get hand-stamped cards, but most will get a photo card this year.  I feel like I’ve broken a one of my own cardinal rules, but I hope you’ll still love me…in a stampin’ kinda way!  I promise to have all hand-stamped cards ready to go by the beginning of December in 2009!

I had so much fun with today’s card for Taylor’s sketch challenge (Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge – cupcakes not required – get all the deets to play along over at Taylor’s blog).  The large center panel is big enough for a little scene.

I’ve been dying to play more with the stamps I got from Our Craft Lounge and the set I’ve most wanted to get inky is Dr. Pea-nut.  As you may already know I really hate clear stamps, but I will occassionally buy them when I love the images enough.  So when Joy first told me about OCL my first question was “rubber or clear?” and her oh-so-clever answer was “both!”  So some sets are available in rubber – very nice deeply etched on crafty cling – and some are clear.  I hesitated to get Dr. Pea-nut when I realized it was a clear set, but I just couldn’t resist.  I am thrilled to report that they stamp like a dream.  I didn’t have trouble with even one image and all I did was clean them with Stampin’ Mist on my scrubber one time before inking them up!  I’m a happy stamper!

It was so fun to build this little scene.  Marianne did such an awesome job with all the little elements to make this work – the grass with the flowers, the little sprigs of grass, the bucket of peanuts and even a separate little pile of peanuts!  All those little things made it so easy to put this together.  The OCL stamps (both rubber and clear) come on a storage panel much like Taylor’s SASI line, but the OCL panel is smaller.  Since OCL doesn’t have a container/binder yet, I checked the TE mini binder box and the OCL panels do fit – the holes are spaced the same.

My little scene was colored with Copic markers and the sky was sponged using the SU Cloud Template.  Normally I would choose a designer paper and then color my image to coordinate, but in this case I colored the image first and then was thrilled to find that SU Summer Picnic dp would work so well.  The image is layered onto Real Red with a scalloped punched bottom edge and some faux stitching around 3 sides.  That is layered onto Bashful Blue.  The ribbon is from my stash and I added 3 white American Crafts brads in the upper left corner and some golden brown liquid pearls along the scallops.  The Blue panel is then popped up on foam tape.  I really really wanted to use this sentiment so I added a little extra element of circles to the sketch layout.  The card base is Real Red layered with Old Olive run through the CuttleBug and layered  with the Summer Picnic DP.

Now let’s see what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up today:

…plus today’s Featured Stamper Cindy Haffner!

Also be sure to check out Our Friday Friend over at the SASI blog…and I forgot to mention that I had a card posted over there on Wednesday as well!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend.  I’m planning to knock out some more Christmas shopping today (I’ve accomplished a good amount this week) and hopefully complete some hand stamped gifts as well.  We still don’t have a Christmas tree…we’ll see what the weekend brings.  Thanks for stopping by.

Here’s  the final piece of the Bible Verse Gift Set I made for my friend Ruth’s birthday.  This wooden plaque was given to me by friend TexasJodyLynn when she was visiting California with family a year or so ago.  She picked it up at Hobby Lobby (which we don’t have here in CA.)  I thought it was such a sweet gift and I knew it would be so fun to decorate.  I decided to pay it forward by by making it for a gift rather than keeping it for myself.  If you want a slightly larger view you can click on this thumbnail.    I used Plaid Royal Coat adhesive to attach the Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie dp to the wood letters.  Then I inked all the edges with Versamagic Jumbo Java ink. Then I just added some ribbon, a chipboard heart (cut with my Cuttlebug), some fun rhinestones (Zva Creative in pink and KaiserCraft flower), plus some Zva Creative felt flowers. (Zva Creative from TE and KaiserCraft from eP)

Here’s the entire set of 12 verse journaling cards, clippie holder, tin and plaque. Click the thumbnail to see it larger.   If you’d like to see and read about the individual projects you can click on *Divine Design* just under the title of this post and it should take you to a listing of all the individual entries.  Thanks for sharing in this with me throughout the year.

Ruth’s birthday was yesterday and even though the set was finished a few days ago, I have yet to get it in the mail.  I’m off to work today, but I will definitley get it out tomorrow.  I still need to show you the birthday card I made for her.  I’ll try to get that up over the weekend.

This has been a wonderful challenge to participate in this year.  Be sure to subscribe to this thread on SCS so you’ll get updates on the 2009 version of the challenge and please come play along!

My 12th and final verse for the Divine Design Bible Verse Challenge is

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

2 Peter 1:3

And I finally got the mini lunch tin (by Provo Craft purchased at eP) decorated and ready to hold all the verse journaling cards.

Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie paper was adhered to the tin with Plaid brand Royal Coat (like Mod Podge, but I like this better.)  Then some twill and ribbon and some of the felt flowers from Zva Creative (available at Taylored Expressions) – super simple.

Ther verse was printed on vellum and layered over the dp.  I had punched a Saffron oval with a Marvy punch and adhered it to the dp so the verse would be positioned right on top of it to make it more readable.  The flowers are just cardstock punched with an SU flower punch.

I have one more element of this project that I plan to share tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

I haven’t checked in here on my weight loss progress in quite awhile.  Truth is I hadn’t weighed in for 5 weeks…until yesterday.  During that five weeks we went on vacation to Texas for a week, we had Thanksgiving, and we ate out numerous times while staying with NS as much as possible in between.  As I drove to WW to face the music I was trying to be mentally prepared for a gain.  I was hoping and praying that I would just break even.  So I took a deep breath and stepped on the scale and discovered that I had lost 4.4 pounds!!!!  WHAT!!!!???  I was beyond excited…overjoyed….shocked!  That’s a total loss for me of 23.2 pounds.  I’m edging up toward my halfway point.  So now I’m re-energized and motivated to stick as strictly as possible to the Nutrisystems regime throughout the holiday season with the exception of any social events.  WooHoo!!!

In stamping news – lots to share:

TE/SASI is currently hosting the SASI Holiday Blitz.  You can be entered to win a prize package valued at almost $28.00 just by uploading your SASI cards and projects this week!!!  Click here for all the details over at the SASI blog.

Stampin’ Up! has just announced some incredible specials –

***FREE SHIPPING on orders over $70 now through December 23.

***Retired stamp sets list is now available and those sets are 10% off through December 23rd.  Click here to see them (with images of the sets) on the SU site.

***Sampler Stamp Promo is still on – 20% off select sets when you spend $20 on regularly priced merchandise.  Click here to see them.

***Visit my SU site (click here and then be sure to bookmark it) to shop with me 24/7 or e-mail me if you’d like me to place the order for you.

 ***Don’t forget that I offer Stampin’ Up! Gift Certificates in any denomination! 

Happy stamping and happy shopping!

I’ve worked on my Divine Design Bible verse project all year with the intention of giving it to a friend for her birthday this December.  The verse I posted yesterday was only #10 for me since I missed one month and one month I veered off and made another verse project for a special gift.  So I have two more journaling cards to share – one of them today and the last one tomorrow.

Today’s verse is Romans 8:18 which Lori shared with me when I put the call out to some sisters in Christ for verses to put into the little tin I was making for Laurie (click here to see that project).

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

This short little verse is so incredibly deep.  It just really hit me as soon as Lori gave it to me. Paul most certainly suffered – physical ailment, imprisonment and more and yet he was able to focus on the big picture throughout all of it.  It’s so easy to get caught up in even the smallest forms of sufferings in this life and it seems I rarely focus on that wonderful big picture of glory and eternity in my daily life.  What an incredible verse this is – certainly one to be memorized!

The card has a So Saffrom base with a layer of Rose Red, layer of Old Olive and then a piece of dp from the Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie collection.  The verse was printed on vellum and then I added an SU rub on and attached the vellum with the Rose Red brads.  As always I added a punched tab and coordinating ribbon.

 As part of this gift set I wanted to decorate a binder clip to display the chosen verse of the month.  I simply covered the base of the clip with some dp using Tombow Multi which works great on the metal surface.  The *joy* is SU and is punched out with the SU large oval.  The felt flowers are by Zva Creative and available at TE.  You’ll see more of them on the projects pieces I’ll share tomorrow and Thursday.  I love them and I’m going to need to get more! (oh I just checked TE and looks like Taylor only has one type of these flowers in stock at the moment, but I’m pretty sure she’ll be getting more in soon.  I think there should be at least 4 or more different choices.)  I used a So Saffron brad in the middle of the flowers to attach them to two punched circles.  The circles were then attached to the clip with a pop-up glue dot.  Some Sage Shadow grosgrain ribbon finishes it off.  I generally prefer to use a wide ribbon at the top of these clips but I just didn’t have one in a coordinating color.  These clips do need a tight bow tied at the top to keep the clip closed tight enough to hold a card, or photo or recipe or whatever.

I first saw the binder clip idea on SCS and I just love it.  It makes a great little gift or party favor.  It’s also nice as a place card holder for a special meal.

I’ll be back in a bit with another post full of fun news and announcements.  🙂

I can hardly believe we’ve completed a whole year of Divine Design Challenges.  A huge thank you to Lori Craig for following the Lord’s leading to get us started on this year of challenges to focus on God’s word.  Since this is the last challenge for the year, I’ll be sharing more about my completed project over the next few days – so be sure to check back. I have a couple more verses to catch up and the tin for them all to be kept in, plus a couple of other pieces you might enjoy seeing.

Here is my journaling card for December featuring Galatians 6:9-10 which was part of our Pastor’s message in service yesterday.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

This verse seemed particularly appropriate during this busy season when we are supposed to be focusing on the birth of Jesus and on giving, but when it’s so easy to be overwhelmed and weary of doing good amongst all the busy-ness.  This was part of Pastor Jeff’s message yesterday in Galatians about how we reap what we sow which can be either negative or positive.  Read Galatians 6:7-10 for a fuller picture. (You can click here to go to Bible Gateway if you don’t have a Bible handy.)

And now card deets – it’s really simple – text computer printed on vellum as usual.  Card base and tab are Prism cardstock and dp is Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie (you’ll be seeing more of that dp as I share the rest of the project this week). I took a piece of SU Sage Shadow cardstock and ran it through the CuttleBug and folded it over as a spine on the card.  The end of the vellum was punches with the scallop border punch and sponged with Sage Shadow ink.  The pink rhinestones are Zva Creative from TE – they are such nice quality – super sparkly and self-adhesive.

The Divine Design Bible Verse Challenge will be continuing on SCS in 2009, so whether or not you joined us this year I hope you’ll jump into the Challenge in January.  I’m not certain who will be *leading* it, but more details to come on that soon.  This year the idea was to choose an on-going project to add to each month.  I chose a mini lunch tin.  Other projects included 6×6 scrapbooks, hanging stands, coiled books, file boxes, etc.  These sets make a great gift at the end of the year, so I’d suggest you make doubles of everything as you go so you’ll end up with one for yourself and one to give as a gift.  You can see all the entries in the SCS gallery by clicking here.

Now let’s go see what the rest of the original Scripture Chicks have created for our last verse of the year:

Lori

Nancy

Angel

Taylor.

I have been so blessed to be part of the team this year to bring this challenge to you.  Being able to use stamping as a tool to study and proclaim God’s word has been awesome!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great week!