Serenity

Hello Friends! I seem to be back into a groove of creating and posting on Sundays! Feels good to create.

One of my special customers from work was sick a couple of months back and I made a card for everyone to sign and sent it out to him. When he got well, he came by and asked if I had made the card and I said yes. Well, he loved it so much, he asked me if I could make him a dozen of assorted cards and he would pay me. Now, I really am not into selling my cards. I just feel that you can never get the money for all the time that you put into them. Personally, I'd rather give them away. And I also did not want to commit to such a large order. I know twelve doesn't sound like much but, I don't really make clean and simple cards and I try to put as much detail into them as possible. However, he is also a long-time friend of our family and he has been so wonderful to call or send cards to my Mom during her times of illness that I just couldn't say no to him. So, last Sunday I created the first of a dozen cards for this special order. Today I am sharing the second one.

My card this week was inspired by May 2015 Viva la Verve Sketch Week 5.

Created with Verve Serenity Stamp Set (Archived)

Cardstock colors used in my card are Pool Party and River Rock from Stampin' Up!®. I used a patterned paper from a KAISERCRAFT paper pad called On This Day. It has some really beautiful soft tones in it. I stamped the leaves from the Serenity stamp set onto the patterned paper using the River Rock ink. The base of the card is pre-made by Recollections. I sponged the edges of the papers with Pool Party after distressing the edges lightly.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a blessed week!

Have a Happy Day

Wow! It has been forever since I have been able to play with my pretty papers, stamps, and bling. I've had a lot going on in my personal life with personal illness and family illness. Things are finally starting to settle down again. Praise the Lord!

I'm here today with a card I created inspired by Viva la Verve May 2015 Week 4 Sketch.

using Be Blessed and Flag It die set from Verve Stamps

I was super excited when I saw this Viva la Verve Sketch! I just love me some tilted panels! I know it freaks some people out when they see a tilt but, I embrace it. LOL. However, I cannot tell a lie, it took me forever to put together this clean and simple card. It's hard to resist the urge to keep adding to the design. My little banner flags were die cut with some burlap which is new to me and I think I'm gonna love trying that in some other ways.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you and your loved ones have a very blessed Memorial Day!

Mojo 390: Merry Christmas

I'm back with one more post for this Sunday! I wanted to play along with this week's Mojo Monday Sketch.

I took a few creative liberties with my sketch and made it into a square.

using Verve's Pinecone Christmas stamp set

I sponged a little ink around the edges of my die cut label instead of mounting it on a larger label. It adds just the right amount of dimension and keeps the card on the semi-clean and simple side. I couldn't resist the urge to use my liquid pearls to create holly berries and for adding decoration to the edge of the label and the banner trim die.

That's gonna be all from me for this weekend. I hope you all have a very blessed Monday and a great week!

Healing, in the Name of Our Lord

Today I am sharing a card with you that was inspired by two challenges.

First, Our Daily Bread Designs Shining Light Challenge 231: Easter/Spring Religious Inspiration

Second: Viva la Verve March Week Two Sketch

For The Shining Light Challenge, I chose to go with a religious theme and add a few flowers for spring.

Using Hope stamp set from Our Daily Bread Designs

I needed this card to be somewhat masculine as I was creating it for my brother who was diagnosed with lung cancer this week. So, I chose to stick with neutrals. I used a lot of white because that is the awareness ribbon color for lung cancer. It originally was a clear ribbon to symbolize air being clear but many people did not notice the ribbons so they changed it to white. I like the white because to me it symbolizes the purity of air the Lord will fill my brother's lungs with when He HEALS him!

The cross-cut out background was created using my Cricut Expression and a new cartridge called Edge to Edge. I was really excited to find this because I am loving all those intricate die-cut backgrounds that I am seeing everyone use but, I'm not really wanting to make an investment in those just yet. The long banner was also cut with Cricut using the Phrases cartridge. I then ran it through a Spellbinders embossing folder that has gorgeous crosses and swirls in it.

I'd also like to share this with the fine ladies over at Word Art Wednesday.

Thanks for blessing me with your presence at my little corner of the web.

Mojo Monday 388

I'm finally getting back to playing along with Mojo Monday Sketches! I did really well with keeping up the month of January and then got behind in February. Since my goal is to complete them all, I have printed out the ones I missed and have set them aside to use in future card designs. This is the current week's Mojo Monday Sketch and my somewhat 'loose' interpretation of it.

I used Verve's Believe stamp set, Sprightly Sprigs die, and Award Banner Trim die.

I created this card for a friend of mine who is battling cancer. I created the card in this blue shade as that is the color of the awareness ribbon for the type of cancer she has.

I'd also like to share it at the Word Art Wednesday Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have had a blessed weekend. 

Chevron Birthday

Hello everyone! It's a dreary, rainy day in my neck of the woods today so, I have spent the better part of the day in my craft room. I created another birthday card inspired by several challenges.

I used the March Week 1 Viva la Verve sketch as an outline for the overall design of my card.

Since I created a birthday card it also fits in with the March Verve Diva Inspirations Challenge...

I used Chevron Love, All Aflutter Die, Flag It Die, and Birthday Phrases from Verve Stamps.

I made this card with a special person in mind. A young lady who loves polka dots, chevrons, and pearls. I think I got her covered!

Here are some other challenges I am playing along with:

Sister Act- Anything Goes

Polkadoodles- Birthdays

Blogger's Challenge- Birthdays

Crazy 4 Challenges- Bring on the Bling

Thanks for stopping by...

Mojo Monday 383: O Holy Night

Hello blogging friends! I have a Christmas card to share with you tonight. My card design was inspired by the Mojo Monday 383 Sketch.

I pulled out some of my fun paper toys for this card! I'm really enjoying the stencil craze and last Friday I found these great new molding pastes at Michael's by Art-C and I am really enjoying working with these. First, of all they dry really quick and when you want to make a card in a couple of hours and add texture with your stencil and paste, this is the way to go! I have the embossing pastes by Dreamweaver and the original dries pretty quick but, in my experience the translucent, pearlescent, and metallic pastes take a couple of hours to dry. I don't always have that much time to allow when creating a card. So, I'm really glad to have this new option in 12 gorgeous colors! Tonight I used the white and silver pastes along with a Heiddi Swapp star stencil.

I used Peace on Earth from Verve Stamps along with their Flag It die set and Classy Label die. The paper is from the Candy Cane Collection by Bo Bunny. I used distress inks and paints on the edges of the card and each panel. I couldn't make up my mind so, I kept going back and forth with ink and then paint and then ink again (scowl). What can I say? It was not a good day for creative decisions.

Thanks for dropping by. God Bless.

Our Daily Bread Designs Shining Light Challenge 224: Love

Happy Sunday to you all! Hope you have had a wonderful weekend full of God's Blessings.
I'm popping in really quick to meet the deadline for the ODBD Shining Light Challenge this week which is anything goes.

I would have been here much sooner except I was going to do this really cool 'thingy' with my seed beads until...wait for it...

I dropped them on the floor! Yep! All of them! Every single color I own that was separated into this case with dividers. Not anymore. What a nightmare. All I could do was laugh because, there is no point in crying over spilled milk as my Mama would say.

Anyway here is my card...

I used 1 Corinthians from Our Daily Bread Designs. I had fun playing with a hearts, stars, and circles stencil from Heidi Swapp and some new molding paste I found at Michaels. I only used the heart part of the stencil. The molding paste is called Art C produced by a company called Momenta. You can't tell in the photo but the paste is a hot pink color. Of course I bought every color!

Thanks for dropping by!
God Bless,

Mojo 381 & Groovy Love

Hello again! This is my second post for this Sunday. I've been a very good little paper-crafter this weekend and created a total of 3 cards! That's a big deal for me. Can you tell it's football season and I am not a fan? So, while Mike is glued to the TV this is what I do.

It's my goal to play along with every Mojo Monday sketch this year. So far, so good! Here is this week's sketch.

I needed to make a 'get well' card for my Aunt. So I pulled out Verve's Wonderfully Made and Friendly Phrases (now retired) stamp sets. I'm a wee bit upset because when I pulled the cute little flower that comes with Wonderfully Made off the plastic sheet, I ripped it. (frown) I was able to piece it together in order to stamp the image and have attempted to glue it back together but, I'm not sure it will work. Note to self: be more careful when removing clear stamps from the backing!

This card was super fun to make and I'm quickly learning that I'm falling more and more in love with Verve's Trim Dies. This week I used the Pennant Trim Die. Wishing I had purchased this much sooner.

Card Recipe:

• Cardstock: Poppy Parade, Lucky Limeade
• Designer Paper: Graphic 45-Raining Cats & Dogs
• Dies: A Cut Above-Pennant Trim Die, Spellbinders-Tear Drop Circles & A-2 Fancy Ribbon Threader
• Ink: Black Soot Distress Ink
• Stamps: Friendly Phrases, Wonderfully Made-Verve Stamps
• Embellishments:Viva Decor Pearl Pen-Yellow

I have one more card to share tonight. This one was made for fun because I just had to play with one of my stencils--Texture Brilliant from Memory Box.

Isn't this just groovy! Because I ended up with a tie-die effect I just had to use one of the sentiments from Verve's Feeling Groovy stamp set (also retired). Playing with stencils and inks/sprays is uber cool! But, there is one product you must have to prevent your stencil from slipping and I learned this the hard way. Invest in some Krylon Easy-Tack Repositionable Adhesive. You spray the back of your stencil (outdoors) and you have this nice tackiness on the back that holds it in place. This is especially important with the more intricate stencils as they tend to move around with just the masking or painter's tape on the edges. The Easy-Tack keeps all those intricate parts lying flat as you sponge ink across them or embossing paste, whatever the case may be. It's $7.99 for a 10.25 oz. can at Hobby Lobby.

Card Recipe:

• Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Gray
• Stencil: Texture Brilliant-Memory Box
• Dies: Cheery Lynn Designs-Lattice Heart n Vines
• Ink: Fired Brick, Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar Distress Inks
• Stamps: Feeling Groovy-Verve Stamps Retired
• Embellishments: SU Photo Corner Punch, Viva Decor Pearl Pen-Black

Well, that's the end of my weekend crafting! I'm so glad you stopped by. God Bless and have a Awesome week!

Mojo 380: Majic

Hello my Friends! Hope you all are having a blessed weekend. I was able to get a little crafty time in last night and I was able to create my first Valentine for this year.

I used Mojo Monday Sketch 380 as inspiration for my card...

The only difference is I decided to do a square version of the sketch. Oh and speaking of Mojo Monday.... last week was a contest week and I was one of the lucky winners! Still reeling from excitement about that (smile).

For this card, I pulled some Verve stamps out of the archive. I used the Wild Thing stamp set which has been retired. Although it is retired, I am not ready to give it up yet and thoroughly enjoyed breathing new life into it. I feel the same way about the Bravo Burgundy CS I used from Stampin' UP!®. I just love that brownish-burgundy color and prefer it to the more 'purply' shades of burgundy. Something new-to-me that I used on this card is the Award Banner Trim Die from A Cut Above Dies by Verve. I just love the fun border it cuts out and know that I'll be turning to that time and time again!

Card Recipe:

• Cardstock: Bravo Burdundy, Bashful Blue, River Rock 
• Designer Paper: Key to My Heart-KAISERCRAFT
• Embossing Folder: Smitten-Anna Griffin for Cuttlebug
• Dies: Award Banner Trim Die-A Cut Above for Verve Stamps; Spellbinders Die D-Lites Fancy Label Tags One
• Ink: Bravo Burgundy-SU
• Stamps: Wild Thing-Verve Stamps
• Embellishments: Pearls-Recollections

Thanks for stopping by. God Bless...

Mojo Monday 375

Hello Everyone. Hope you all have had a blessed Sunday. I want to share a card with you tonight that was inspired by a Mojo Monday Sketch.

The linky widget for this sketch is now closed. I don't always get inspired to create within the timeline but, I do enjoy these sketches. This one was a bit on the clean and simple side and I think that is one reason that I struggled with it. I kept wanting to add to the card and I finally had to walk away from it and here I am a week later excepting that the card is fine the way it is.

I created my card using a Verve Stamp set called O Christmas Tree. My patterned paper is from the Tradition Collection by Authentique. My card base was created from the retired Glorious Green cardstock from Stampin' Up!® It paired nicely with Cherry Cobbler cardstock also from Stampin' Up! I stamped my Christmas tree on a diecut from Spellbinders Labels Twenty-Five. The edges of my card base and vertical panel were inked with Black Soot Distress Ink. For finishing touches I added a bit of bling to the right side corners.

Thanks for stopping by...

Christmas with ODBD Stamps & The Deconstructed Sketch

Hi Everyone! I'm here today with a card that was inspired by the Shining Light Challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs to create a Christmas card using their stamps.

I also was inspired by The Deconstructed Sketch No. 179. This was my first time playing along with The Deconstructed Sketch but, I don't think it will be my last. Here is the sketch...

Now for my card...

For my card I chose to work with the Poinsettia Wreath stamp set from Our Daily Bread Designs. My patterned paper is from Graphic 45: The Twelve Days of Christmas. I used some pre-made borders from K&Co. that I had in my stash from a couple of years ago for the paper strips. I cut out my square using Lacy Squares from Spellbinders and added some Liquid Pearls as well as Cherry Cobbler ink around the border. I colored the image with Copics, which I am still desperately trying to get the hang of for several years now. LOL The truth is I just don't use line art images that often so, I don't get enough practice. To be honest, line art images intimidate me.

Well, I hope you like my card and if you haven't tried either one of these challenges you should!

Be Blessed,

Viva la Verve November Week 4

Hello Blogging Friends! It's been quite awhile. I've missed you all so much and I've really missed creating, sharing with you, and hopping around to see what you have been up to. So much has been going on in my life; it's just been over the top crazy. So much so, that I ended up spending my Thanksgiving in the hospital. Praise the Lord, I am home now! Let me tell you, being hospitalized can really put things into perspective for you.

Anyways, I'm so grateful to be back home among my family, friends, and loved ones that I have vowed to start making time for things that I really treasure and enjoy and one of those things is creating cards. But, not just creating them...sending them out to people who need encouragement and "Letting my light so shine" for Christ.

So tonight, I'm getting it in just under the wire, but I really wanted to create something with one of the Viva la Verve sketches for November. I chose to go with this one...

I broke out one of my un-opened Verve Stamp Sets and finally inked it up. The set is called Let it Be and it is one of my favorites.

I hope you like my take on the sketch! Thanks for stopping by...

Classy Cards N Such: Thankful for You

Hello blogging friends! I'm here today with a card created for the Classy Cards N Such Challenge. Our challenge this week is "Sunflower Inspired".

As soon as I saw this challenge I knew that I would be pulling out my French Country designer paper by Graphic 45. I literally am in love with every single sheet in this paper pad! 

I started with a 4.25 x 5.5 cardstock base. I distressed the edges of the sunflower paper from the French Country paper pad to add to my card base. Next using Lattice Rectangles by Spellbinders and white cardstock, I die-cut a lovely rectangle to stamp my sunflower on. I colored it and then added a green bling rectangle from the Blue/Green Lattice Rectangles Nestabling around the sunflower and just inside the lattice edges. I added some Mustard Seed Distress Ink around the lattice edges.

For my next layer, I used the opposite side of the sunflower paper and a slightly darker cardstock to create a long rectangle. I glued the pieces together and then ran them through my Cuttlebug with the Anna Griffin Matelasse embossing folder. I love the weaved appearance you get from this folder. It makes my sunflower appear as if it is poking out over a fence.

For finishing touches, I used the Teramo Labels from Memory Box to die-cut a label to stamp my sentiment on. These lovely little label die-cuts are perfect for stamping small sentiments on and there are two other sets that Beverly carries in the store. I own them all and will be showcasing more of them at a later date. 

The stamp set I have used today is from Gina K Designs. It is a Stamp Set Duo called Thankful for you.

I hope you have enjoyed my card today and feel inspired to join the challenge. Thanks for stopping by!

Classy Cards N Such: It Is Well

Hello blogging friends! I'm here today with a card created for the Classy Cards N Such Challenge. Our challenge this week is to use some form of gingham on your card. As soon as I saw this challenge I knew that I wanted to pull out my Secret Garden paper pad by Graphic 45. It's one of my absolute faves and it has several different shades of gingham to choose from!

I started my card with a 5.5" x 5.5" square lavender cardstock base. I added a sheet of lavender gingham designer paper from Secret Garden paper pad. I wanted the paper to stand out just a bit from the base so I inked the edges with distress ink.

Before adhering the gingham paper to the base I added three strips of Black Polka Dot Trendy Tape diagonally across the paper.

For my next layer I cut a rectangle of lavender cardstock and ran it through my Cuttlebug with the Dots Embossing Folder. I added distress ink to the edges.

For my focal point of the card I used Spellbinders Decorative Labels Twenty-Seven and white cardstock to create an elegant label to stamp my sentiment on.

I added black pearls to the centers of my stamped flowers and for finishing touches I added a black swirl in the lower corner.

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to join the challenge at Classy Cards N Such Blog. You can save 10% off your entire purchase at Classy Cards N Such Store by using my discount code: JENNIPHER-10. If you would like to get prepared for future Classy Cards N Such challenges please check out the challenge calendar.

So Loved

Hi everyone! I'm here with a card made with some awesome products from the Classy Cards N Such Store along with my Verve Stamps and A Cut Above Die. My card layout was based on this sketch challenge we are having this week at Classy Cards...

I was also inspired by Verve's Inspiration Challenge: Floral Fantasy.

I was inspired by the sage green chair and the pink roses in the picture. The picture had a vintage feel to it so, I wanted to do a shabby style creation. The main part of the challenge was to include at least one flower on your card. I have lots of pink roses in my patterned paper but I also added a Prima Gillian flower.

I began my card with a pre-made kraft card base. I added a layer of Stardream Rose Quartz to the base. Using the pink rose patterned paper from True Romance by KAISERCRAFT I distressed the edges and added it to the Rose Quartz layer.

Continuing to work with those papers and some Moss cardstock from my stash I created more layers. To the vertical 2 inch layer I added a strip of White Cluny lace. Using the Heart Circles from Spellbinders I created a double layer for my focal point. I stamped the butterflies and focal sentiment from So Fluttery by Verve Stamps. Using the Flutterby die also from Verve Stamps I cut out the butterflies and added Pink Pearls by Want 2 Scrap for their little bodies. To the heart circle layer I added a Prima Gillian Flower.

For finishing touches, I knew I wanted to add an extra little sentiment to the card. I used two of the tag dies from Sentiment Tag 3 by Cheery Lynn Designs to create a double layer and stamped my finishing sentiment from All About You also from Verve Stamps.

This is a great card for a special lady in your life to let them know just how much they are loved!

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to join the challenge at Classy Cards N Such Blog. You can save 10% off your entire purchase at Classy Cards N Such by using my discount code: JENNIPHER-10. If you would like to get prepared for future Classy Cards N Such challenges please check out the challenge calendar.