Divine Design Bible Verse Challenge

I've been meaning to join the Monthly Divine Design Bible Verse Challenge over on Split Coast ever since I read the thread there. The challenge is to make a card with a Bible Quote on it each month. I finally sat down this weekend and created cards for January through April and will continue making one a month for the year.

This is my January Card

This verse from Romans reminds us that God's grace makes our lives better if we just let him into our hearts.
I used designer paper from a Provo Craft Scrap Pad called River Rock that has great nature/natural color designs in it that I thought would complement God's words. I used it on all 4 of these cards.

All my cards are the small 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 size so that the Bible quote is the main focus of the card and any flowers, ribbons, or other attachments just serve to highlight the verse.

Thank you Lori for this wonderful challenge that will remind us all year long of the power and grace God brings to our lives.

Stamps: Frame and Bible verse: Inspired Verse: Stampendous, Dots; Stamps by Judith
Paper: So Saffron, More Mustard, White: Papertrey Ink, DP Provo Craft Scrap Pad: River Rock
Ink: Pitch Black Adirondack, So Saffron, Choc Chip
Accessories: sponge, cuttlebug & Folder, corner rounder, Prismacolor markers: Terra cota, bronze, burnt ochre, yellow ochre, Ribbon: Verve Visual May Arts, dimensionials, prima flowers, brads

This is my February Card

I love this verse from Romans - I use it alot for cards I send to people who need support from prayer as well as from their friends. It reminds me of God's most important commandment: Do unto others as we would have them do unto us. I need to be mindful that God works through me. We are his presence on earth.

I used my hot gun to curl the ends of the ribbon.

Stamps: AAW Printworks
Paper: White and Spring Moss: Papertrey Ink, Bordering Blue: SU, DP: Provo Craft Scrap Pad River Rock
Ink: Pitch Black adirondack
Accessories: corner rounder, Martha Stewart Ribbon, hot gun, dimensionals

This is my March Card

This verse from Proverbs reminds me that I need to trust that God is always there to direct me - that I don't always know what is best! I thought this designer paper looked like the path referenced in the verse.

Stamps: Stampendous
Paper: Papertrey White, Bazzill Blue, DP: Provo Craft Scrap Pad River Rock, Always Artichoke: SU
Ink: Pitch black Adirondack
Accessories: Corner Rounder, Dimensionals, green & Blue glass brads.

And here is my April Card - finally caught up!

I love this verse from Phillipians. It reminds me that with God in my heart I can get through anything that life throws at me.

I used my nestabilities to cut the frames and put three ribbons to symbolize the Trinity behind the verse.

Stamps: Elegant Inspirations, SU
Paper: Papertrey white, Blue Bazzill, DP: Provo Craft Scrap Pad River Rock
Ink: Pitch black Adirondack
Accessories: Martha Stewart Ribbon, Primas, brads, dimensionals, corner rounder

I'll be posting a Bible Verse card on the 8th of each month from now on. So please check back to see my new additions. I hope these Bible verse cards have been an inspiration for you!

The Grand Essentials of Happiness

First - please be sure to scroll down to my Friday post where you will find my Blog Candy offering. Make a comment on that post before 10 pm Wednesday and you will have a chance to win it!
Big title for a card huh?!!! Those are the first few words of the verse on this card - the rest of it is - "Something to do, something to love and something to hope for. - A.K. Chalmers. Thought provoking sentiment isn't it.

I made this card as a CASE of a card by today's featured stamper on Split Coast - Kharmagirl (Jodi). See the card that inspired me here.

When you CASE a card you have to change at least 2 things.

I changed the stamps, the colors, and I didn't add ribbon but kept the design the same.

I loved this designer paper when I saw it in the store - I thought it just looked so different. It actually looks three dimensional and really gives depth to the card. I think you can even see this in the photo. This stamp set hasn't seen ink yet even though I've had it for quite a while so it was a good time to get it out and use it! I like the look of the square jewel brads in the top corner - it was a little tricky getting them punched to sit evenly! The leaves on the green panel are stamped just with my Versamark pad so it's like a watermark - not a color.

Thanks for coming by today! I'm loading 4 different things tonight - I've had a busy weekend catching up on some projects I wanted to get done!

Stamps: Side Kick Sayings: SU, Beautiful Blooms: Papertrey
Paper: Very vanilla, true Thyme: SU, Spring Moss: PTI, DP Frances Meyer Palm Fronds
Ink: Tea Dye Ranger Distress, Versamark pad
Accessories: jewel brads, dimensionals, sponge, hole punch, prismacolor markers,: Tea Green & Olive Green. Piercer, pad and graph
Techniques: paper piercing

Striped Cows

First - please be sure to scroll down to my Friday post to see my Blog Candy offering - be sure to comment on that post by Wednesday 10 PM to have a chance to win!

We had a fun Inspiration Challenge on Saturday over at Split Coast. Anne (Itsapassion) was guest hosting for Stef and she chose the Cow Parade to give us as our inspiration. I chose the cow below - the Striped cow!
I cut 1/4 inch strips of different colored card stock for my background stripes and used lots of punches and nestabilities. They are all popped up on dimensionals. I outline dotted pretty much everything (thanks to Markie's mom on SCS I'm now addicted to spots - she uses them on all of her cards!)

I didn't stripe my cows as I was going crazy enough doing all the tiny dots - so I just made each cow a colored stripe! I used my Prismacolor markers to color them and for the outlining dots.

Stamps: Spotted Longhorns: Maui Cow
Paper: PapertreyInk White, So saffron, basic black, Cameo Corl, Taken with Teal, Bashful Blue, Purely Pomegranate
Ink: Pitch Black: Adirondack
Accessories: dimensionals, Fiskars Glue pen, nestability petite ovals, prismacolor markers, computer generated sentiment, word punch, circle punch, tag punch

An Engaging Card and Fella Bella Blog Candy!

My niece, Katie, just got engaged and I wanted to share the cute story of how Greg proposed. They were going to Fenway Park to the opening day Red Sox game here in Boston. They are both avid Red Sox Fans. They had gone in on the subway and were walking through Boston Garden on their way up to Fenway Park. Greg said ' Let's sit here for a minute' and Katie thought that was kind of funny to stop but said 'Ok'. He started talking about how fun it was going to be to see the Red Sox get their World Series Rings and she agreed. Then he said 'How would you like to get a ring too?' and proceded to propose to her and give her a beautiful engagement ring! Then off they went to the game - and the Red Sox won! What more could you want for a fun night out??!!

So I wanted to make a special card for them - I guess I should have put baseballs all over it! LOL! but instead I made this card that covers a whopping 4 challenges! I'm a little behind on my card making this week. I took last night off because I had some finishing of other cards to do so I tried to catch up a little today!

I made my own designer paper using Flourishes scroll background stamp which covers the Limited Supplies Challenge - I used eyelets which was yesterdays Ways to Use It Challenge - I used Glitter Ice Stickles that covers Sharon's No Time Friday Challenge and I used Beates Weekend sketch! Phew!

Stamps: scroll background stamp: Flourishes, couple: A muse, Engaged: See D's wedding set
Paper: Papertrey white, soft sky, basic black SU
Ink: pitch black adirondack
Accessories: dimensionals, eyelets, cropadile, Ribbon: Papertreyink AquaMist, Silver ice stickles, corner rounder
Techniques: eyelets

And here's the Blog Candy!

Now for the fun stuff !!! - I hit 5000 views this week and I'm so excited - I wanted to thank you all with a nice Blog Candy offering! This is a brand new unmounted Golf a Fella by Bella Stamps. I can mount him on easy mount for the winner if they want it. I'm also including some 6" squares of masculine color DP's that you could use to make cards with the dashing fella!

Just leave a comment and tell me something about your dad or husband or significant other that you would make a Father's day card for maybe using this stamp. I'll pick the winner by random number generator at 10 pm EST Wednesday night, April 16th so be sure to post a comment before then!

Thanks for dropping by tonight! and good luck!

Time for Tea - a Double Dare Challenge

I'm back! Last night Kent and I went to the movies so I didn't stamp yesterday (and I actually survived!) We went to see "There Will Be Blood" starring Daniel Day-Lewis - boy was he good in this movie! Have you seen it? It's about a silver miner in the late 1800's who discovered oil on his site and started buying up land and drilling - and in the process kind of went crazy over the years.

But today I'm back to stamping! This card is for the sketch challenge on SCS which was to make a card with an off set oval on it - as well as a Double Dare challenge that I do with some SCS friends. I was the one setting the challenge this week and it was to make a card with a clock or timepiece on it.

For some reason it was like pulling teeth to get this card out of me tonight! I just couldn't get what was in my head onto the card stock. I finally got all the pieces together and assembled in a manner I thought looked pleasing and balanced!

All the papers and the ribbon on this card are from PapertreyInk. I just love their new pinks! The ovals are cut with my nestabilities on my cuttlebug. I dry embossed the scalloped oval using the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. I made the dotted outlines with my Stampin Up Markers.

The clock stamp is by Inkadinkadoo, the cute teabag is by Stamps by Judith, the fun tea cup is from Camp Stamp and the sentiment was made with Karen Foster Snap stamps.

My counter hit 5000 today! I am so excited ! - and appreciative of all of you stopping by to take a peek here. To celebrate - I'll be posting some blog candy over the weekend so be sure to check back!

Stamps: Clock: Inkadinkadoo, Tea Bag: Stamps by Judith, Teacup: Stamp Camp, Sentiment: Karen Foster Snap Stamps
Paper: White, Sweet Blush, Spring Moss, DP: pink patterns Collection - all Papertrey Ink
Ink: Pitch Black Adirondack, Sweet BLush, PTI
Accessories: dimensionals, SU markers, PTI Ribbon, oval punches, nestabilitie ovals, cuttlebug swiss dots folder , sponge

Ribbons of Kindness & a Cornish Heritage Farms Challenge

Today's Try a New Technique Challenge over at Split Coast Stampers was to use 2 or more layers of ribbon. Simple enough and see how nice it looks - something you wouldn't normally think of doing on a card! You learn something every day, huh!?! Another reason I love the daily challenges!

I used a green net ribbon that came off something I had gotten - (I save everything! just ask my DH!), a wide burgandy sheer ribbon and a narrow green dotted sheer ribbon on my card.

I used all Ranger Distress Inks on the image - First I stamped the flowers with Peeled Paint and then clear embossed them. Then I sponged with Vintage Photo, Milled Lavender, Worn Lipstick and then a little Vintage photo at the top again. I used the Distress inks for a challenge over at Cornish Heritage Farms that you should check out. The embossed square was cut with my Nestabilities.

The designer paper is by K & Co and it's a piece that was in my 'prize' package from Caardvarks when I won the Friendship card challenge a while ago (see earlier post!). The stamp set is Essence of Love from Stampin Up. I just love this bunch of wild flowers. It also comes with a butterfly stamp and another sentiment stamp.

The image and sentiment panels are up on dimensionals. I added a few dew drops in the corners to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by tonight - I really appreciate it and would love to hear what you think of today's card by leaving a comment for me!

Stamps: Essence of Love - SU
Paper: PapertreyInk white, Very Vanilla, Always Avocado, Bravo Burgandy, DP: K& Co
Ink: Ranger Distress Inks: Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Milled Lavender, Worn Lipstick
Accessories: Square nestability, clear EP, hot gun, sponges, dimensionals, white gel pen, dew drops, glue dots
Techniques: sponging, embossing

I've Been Tagged Again - 7 More Things About Me!

Silke over at her blog My Life has just tagged me. Thanks Silke for thinking of me and please check out her fun blog!

This is the second time I've been tagged - you can check out the first one listed on the right column under "Look Here to Find" . So now I will list 7 more Random Facts about myself to help you get to know me better. And then I tag 7 other bloggers - so please check them out at the bottom of this post!

1. I love to sit on the dock at our camp in NH and just read a book for hours at a time.

2. I'm an avid gardener but often times don't plan out my plantings - and so usually end up moving them here or there until I find the best growing spot for that particular plant!

3. I love the smell of my lilac bushes when they bloom in the spring. i have a whole row of them which acts like a natural fence and also fills the yard with their lovely aroma. I bring them in the house and to work so I can enjoy them during their brief blooming time.

4. Being a Virgo, I'm really organized but often leave 'piles' around the house knowing that I have a plan or a place for that to go - at a later time! But I expect others to put their 'piles' away immediately! I have to work on this.....

5. I love Barry Manilow (stop laughing) and I actually saw him in concert many years ago when he was backup for Bette Midler and he announced at that concert the he was just releasing his first album (yes - I'm that old!)

6. I painted the whole bottom half of my 2 story house by myself years ago when I was a single mother/homeowner - had to finally hire someone for the top half - just couldn't do the tall ladder while juggling a paint can!

7. I try to walk an hour every day.


Now hop on over to these great blogs of people I know on SCS and leave some comments on their great cards!

1. Judy (StampingQueenJAR) at Joy In A Jar

2. CarrollAnn (MrsBoz) at CarrollAnn's Corner

3. Deena (Moonrise) at A Creative Need

4. Neva (N5Stamper) at Scrappinbelle

5. Jean (AZstampcrazy) at It's in the Cards

6. Emma (EmmaF) at Lady & the Stamp

7. Shannon (E3Stamper) at Hoppy Creations