Seaside Card For Three Challenges

Today's card was created by inspiration from three different challenge blogs: 

Cardz 4 Guyz #368 - S is For ...

    (my card features the Seaside)

Darnell's Weekly I.D.E.A.S. Calendar (E for Embossing)

    (my card has a heat embossed lobster)

Retro Rubber's Challenge 250 "Under The Sea" #rrcb250

    (and the lobster lives under the sea!)

Here's my complete supply list:

• Stampin' Up! By The Tide Stamp Set (2016)
• Graphic 45 Patterned Paper "Sail Away"
• SU! Night of Navy Card Stock and Ink
• Speckletone True White Card Stock
• Sentiment from Papertrey Ink
• Versamark Ink
• Brutus Monroe Embossing Powder in Vanilla Ice Cream

This card is a perfect addition to the assortment of cards that I'm making for my mom's birthday next week. She requested get well cards, and I think having at least one masculine card will be great for her to have on hand.

Thanks to Darnell, everyone over at Retro Rubber, and the Cardz 4 Guys team for helping me make something new! Be sure to check out their blogs and play along!

And thanks so much for stopping by today!

Jeremiah 29:11 Greeting Card Printables

Who doesn't love the Bible verse in Jeremiah 29:11? It seems like everyone who is familiar with the verse clings to it, myself included. What I love is that it reminds us that God does have a plan for our lives. And it's a good plan. Sometimes it can really seem like that's not the case, but this verse reminds us otherwise.

When I sent these out to be printed at FedEx, I made two of them because that's how much room I had on the sheet of paper. I'm glad I did. I know that it will be really easy to mail these out and will probably want to make more.

To finish the cards off, I used some paper doilies from Stampin' Up!, then mounted the image on their Pear Pizzazz card stock and then on their Bubble Bath card stock. I added flat glitter dots that I believe I got from the Dollar Tree. 

These measure about 6.5 x 4.75, but you can make the design any size you want and of course make the cards any size you want also.

Here's the free digi. As always:

1. Snag it to your desktop or photos.
2. Put it in a Word or Pages Document.
3. Resize it to the size card you want to make.
4. Print it out, either at home or at a copy center. 

I hope you enjoy the freebie! Remember that all images are for personal use only, please! Thanks for stopping by my blog today and have a wonderful day!

Christmas (or Not) BINGO Challenge #12

It's been a while since I've been over at Christmas (or Not) BINGO Challenges and it's good to be back. As always with this challenge, you have to pick just one column going straight up and down and create a card (or other crafty items) with just that column. There's no across or diagonal allowed. 

The column I chose is "I" and the elements from that column are:

• Christmas
• Black/Gray
• No Stamping

I love making digital images and creating cards with them, so this was the perfect opportunity to do that with the "no stamping" spot. I did include a die cut element from white card stock and framed the image with Stampin' Up!'s Garden Green and mounted them all on SU! Real Red card stock.

Black and gray are unique elements on a Christmas card, but I love challenges like that. Plus black is one of my go-to colors to really make cards pop, so this was really fun. It's a super-easy image that I feel really captures the Christmas spirit in a fun way.

Feel free to use the image below in your own work if you want.  As always:

1. Snag it to your desktop or photos.
2. Put it in a Word or Pages Document.
3. Resize it to the size card you want to make.
4. Print it out, either at home or at a copy center. 

I hope you enjoy the freebie! You can make a card out of it like I did, or use in as a digital image to send to someone on Facebook or in an email. Remember that all images are for personal use only, please! Thanks for stopping by my blog today and have a wonderful day!

Irish Blessing Cross Stitch

Yesterday I managed to start and finish a beautiful, well known Irish Blessing. I've seen this on more complex charts, but I felt like stitching it in an easy format, so I created the chart myself at a site called stitchpoint.com. It's a wonderful place that makes it super easy to write any font and turn it into a cross stitch piece.

Here's my chart, but the cool thing is that you can make a chart out of any saying that you want. It took me just a little getting used to it, and some of the fonts are an upcharge, but the one I chose, which is called Monaco, was free, and it was just what I was looking for!

Feel free to use my chart if you'd like to stitch this:

One other bit of helpful information... When I stitch something using a dark thread on light fabric, I often can see the floss through the fabric. One thing I did to combat this is to spray paint my mounting board a dark color. It worked like a charm. The picture below shows the threads underneath...

Below is the board after I spray painted it. It didn't matter that the green paint was a different shade than the floss. It was close enough to hide the threads underneath...

And here's the same piece on the green background. You may notice that it's laying on my computer monitor, which is laying face-up on my desk. Basically I'm using it as a lightbox because I'm too cheap to buy one right now! But notice how you can no longer see the threads underneath.

A Green & White Challenge Card

I picked up this tiny vase at an antique store. Ironically it's made in
Portugal, not Ireland.

Well this is a first for me! I have four different challenges that I'm entering this card in. I guess St. Patrick's Day has set off a spark of green and white challenges, and I love them all. I've already made my St. Patrick's Day cards, but my Mom requested some Get Well cards for her birthday coming up later on this month. Green is just such a happy color and even well after St. Pat's day it can be a great reminder of spring, summer, and of course my very favorite one, Kermit the Frog!

Here are the wonderful links that's I'm entering this card in:

• Colorful Options 
• Color Hues Challenge
• Simply Clean & Simple Stamping
• Try A Sketch on Tuesday

Here's my supply list:

• Stampin' Up! Granny Apple Green Card Stock
• White Card Stock
• SU! Very Vintage Stamp Set
• SU! Garden Green Ink
• Copic Marker YG11
• Soft Enamel Dots from Dollar Tree
• Sentiment from Papertrey Ink

Be sure to stop over at any of these fun challenges and play along! Thanks for stopping by today!

Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge #367

We all need Guy Cards, and that's one of the reasons I love to play over at Cardz 4 Guyz. This round their challenge is to use men's clothing on your card. That can be a tough one, but after looking through my stamps I realized that I had several that would qualify. I chose this set that I have only used a couple of times and that was for girl cards. It has a sentiment with it that I just love. It says "Put On Your Big Girl Boots." I left that off, but just added a simple Happy Birthday that came with the set.

Here's my complete supply list:

• Close To My Heart "Life In Boots" Stamp Set
• Copics E19, E19, E26, E34 and E35
• Stampin' Up! Soft Suede Ink
• Misc. Patterned Papers

It was fun to make this one for sure. It's all ready to go in a kraft envelope that some guy out there will love. 

If you're up for the challenge, be sure to stop over at Cardz 4 Guyz and play along!

Inspired by Darnell's Letter "I"

Well this is a fun surprise! I went over to NBUS to get some inspiration that would help me dig out some of those "Never Before Used Schtuff" items. While looking at the cards that were entered there, I spotted one, which was Darnell's, which I thought was so pretty. 

I followed it to her blog and was so taken because she talks about getting in a slump with stamping. I could relate, especially today. So many times I feel like that's where I'm at. Some days I think, I'm done with stamping. I'm donating everything to the Salvation Army. Then the next day I'm making cards and loving it. I think I'm crazy. That was until I read the post on her personal blog HERE.

One thing Darnell does is to create an acronym of the word IDEAS and create a corresponding card using the technique of the week. This week it was 'ink.' 

So that's how this card started out. I was inspired to use an old technique using Saran Wrap and ink and water to create a background. It was designed to look like the sky. Then I stamped some fun strawberries on the front and added the sentiment "Just For You" in the corner.

Here's my complete supply list:

• White Card Stock
• Stampin' Up! Boho Blue Card Stock and Ink
• Water
• Saran Wrap
• SU! Sweet Strawberry Stamp Set
• Sun (purchased from eBay)
• SU! Poppy Parade Ink
• SU! Real Red Ink
• SU! Garden Green Ink
• Copic Markers

I'm so excited to know that Darnell has created a place on her blog where we can enter the cards we make using her IDEAS guide. It's such a fun was to get creative. And I'm especially glad that I'm not the only one who gets in a funk and feels like I can't possible make another card!

So if you need some inspiration, be sure to hop over each Monday and play along!

Here are a few more pictures of this technique: