Thursday, March 29, 2018

Because He First Loved Us!


Blessings to you and yours for Holy Week and Easter!  Today's card celebrates that He loves us enough to descend from Heaven not just to earth but to the very depths of hell to save us.  Thankfully we do not have to live in the darkness and gloom of Good Friday. Resurrection Sunday is coming!  


I love Christian symbolism, especially this time of year, and so I've included some symbolism in today's project.  There's the contrast of darkness and Light in the designer papers.  The three panels, three strands of twine and three enamel dots each reflect the triune nature of God.  The brightly colored flowers and greenery are symbolic of new life.  I feel so very blessed that the Light always overcomes the darkness, and that saving us for eternal life was His plan all along. 


Here's the inside.  Clean white atop a navy blue mat with a die-cut cross cut from the same pad of designer paper.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Farm Fresh!


I just got home yesterday from a trip to Dade City.  The scenery moves from the flat stretches of northeast Florida into the rolling hills of horse country near Ocala and on about an hour north of Tampa.  The sky was bright and blue and the weather was gorgeous both coming and going although there was a pretty nasty spell in between (we almost ended up having to shelter in the closet during a tornado warning!).  

Dade City is a lovely historic town with the most beautiful trees, and right smack in the middle of town there's a fenced pasture with cows!  That just tickles me.  


Today's card showcases the coordinating prints from Authentique's Frontier.  It's an odd size (it'll need a custom envelope) but the measurements and the tri-fold design worked great with 6 x 6 inch designer paper.  

The card base is a rectangle measuring 9 3/4 inches wide x 6 1/2 inches tall.  With the paper in landscape orientation, it is scored at 3 1/4 and 6 1/2 inches to make the zig-zag tri-fold.  


I confess that I didn't actually measure to make the diagonal cut from the left edge of the card front to the top of the 6 1/2 inch score line.  I just eye-balled it!  I also sliced off about 1/4 inch of the remaining flap so that the page tab would line up flush with the adjacent fold when the card is fully closed.  (If you're a stickler for measuring, this edge measures approximately 1 5/8 inches tall on the finished card).  

The designer papers for each panel are approximately 3 inches wide.  Rather than fussing with math and measurements, after cutting them the correct width I just aligned the bottom and sides with the panel edges to make an even border, and then used a straight edge to mark the diagonal to cut at the top.  It is especially easy to do that way if you have a clear quilting ruler that's marked in 1/4 inch increments.

Here are the Stamp Simply products I used for today's project:  

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Choose Joy!


Hi everyone!  I'm here today with a kinda corny, very "MeMaw-ish" card that was really fun to make.  It was inspired both by a card on Pinterest and by all of the cockades ads I have been seeing as I've researched and worked on my 1860s historic garb.  Apparently wearing cockades was a big deal back then!  


The double-sided old-fashioned floral/striped Kaisercraft paper made this design easy...all it took was a little slit and a couple of scores to fashion the collar.  The edging is some crocheted lace that I cut in half and stitched into place. 


I love these sentiments!  Don't we all need a reminder occasionally?!  And isn't remembering to be grateful each morning the most excellent way to choose joy on a daily basis?!  xo

Here are all of the supplies I used, all from Stamp Simply

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Easter Blessings!


I absolutely LOVE this time of year!  Seeing the drab landscape of Winter burst forth with New Life never ceases to amaze me!  The lilies and dogwoods always seem to know when Easter is right around the corner.  The colors, shapes and symbolism so speak to my heart!


Today's Stamp Simply card has a gold-embossed Easter greeting stamped upon a distress oxide watercolor panel that peeks out from underneath the rolled, distressed edges of some pretty Spring plaid paper.  The overall design is simple but the splashes of gold and the sparkle of a few rhinestones keep things from being boring.  Y'all *have* to know that that shimmery fleur de lis cross makes my Louisiana heart smile.  


Here's what the inside looks like.  Makes me think of all those lily dedications for Easter Sunday service.  :)

Here are the supplies I used:

Thursday, March 1, 2018

To Everything There is a Season...


Hi everyone!  Happy Thursday and Hello, March!  I can hardly believe how fast the year is flying!  We have had some really warm weather here in Florida during the last several weeks, enough that my azaleas are blooming!  Please don't think I am complaining!  I love Spring and don't do so well with grey and dreary.  Hopefully this bright, cheerful card will boost your mood if grey and dreary is what's currently outside your window.  


I had a lot of fun playing with watercolor paper, ink, Copic markers and Spellbinders dies to make this little floral spray that complements Wild Rose's gorgeous designer paper.  (That paper is so pretty that I had a hard time covering any of it up and kinda crunched my elements down into the corner.)  It just so happened--gotta love Serendipity!--that I had a scrap of Kaisercraft's Limelight on my desk, and it was the perfect green for some foliage to harmonize with the background.  



I have always loved this passage from Ecclesiastes and every time I see it the song by The Byrds starts playing in my head.  It is a spirit lifter for me, and lately I've needed my spirits lifted.  The last month or so has been rough.  I spent two weeks helping to care for my lifelong best friend as she lived her last days and lost her battle with breast cancer.  I'm so grateful that we had that time together. I didn't think we could become any closer, but we did.  Such grace, and so much love!  I'm really missing her now, and so I'm grateful for some happy colors and encouraging verses that remind me to always look up and have Hope (which was her name)!  

Here are the supplies I used for today's project, all from Stamp Simply: