Birdbath Hello

May 7, 2021 | Lisa K

Today is the day to post the Crafter’s of Faith card for this month’s theme. This month’s verse is Philippians 4:4-7 which begins with the words Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Then it goes on to say to create a card to show rejoicing in God. These days, I hear birds the minute I wake up and they continue throughout the day and into the night with the owls. I chose a card that rejoices in the nature God created.

I followed an idea of Lisa Mears a designer for The Stamps of Life. The sky is stenciled in yellows using Lawn Fawn inks with a blending brush and the stencil from Buddy Bonnie. I used my new Make Art Station which held the paper perfectly and made stenciling quite easy. All images were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with alcohol markers. I fussy cut everything. I created the scalloped border with dies from two different companies. The scalloped portion is a Gina Marie die and I wanted a frame, so used a rectangle die from Catherine Pooler Designs. The stamp sets used are birdbath2stamp and morebirdbath2stamp by The Stamps of Life. I could add gems, run a vine up the birdbath, but I think I will leave as it. This makes it easy to mail.

May Celebrations

May 6, 2021 | Gayle Chrvala

The month of May brings two major celebrations for our family. The first is my hubby’s birthday. Pops got to celebrate with our youngest granddaughter this year for his birthday and we had so much fun with this little three year old. On a previous post I thought I would give me the card in the warm brown tones but at the last minute decided on something a little more fun.

After we celebrate hubby’s birthday, it’s time for our 45th wedding anniversary on Saturday. We are supposed to be having a long awaited sleep over with our two older grandchildren (8 and 10). It’s been at least 15 months since we had them for a sleepover and we can’t wait. So staying on the light side of our anniversary, I decided on this card:

Both cards’ sentiments are computer generated and the empty toilet paper roll was found on line as a free clip art item. I stamped my hearts using a Sizzix framelits w/stamps set in GKD cherry red ink and mounted it on a Bonnie patterned paper. The birthday card’s candles are a Hero Arts red rubber mounted stamp. I visited Pinterest to find these ideas.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek.

Rachel’s Blossoms

May 3, 2021 | Gayle Chrvala

Using a new to me SU Blossoms In Bloom stamp set and dies as a thank you for my SU demonstrator, it fit in with the challenge at Make The Cards. The recipe for the 3 – 2 – 1 challenge is: 3 embellishments, 2 die cuts and 1 stamped image. My stamped image is the main floral image from the Blossoms In Bloom stamp set which has a watercolor vibe to it. My two dies are the coordinating dies for this stamp set which I cut in GKD Wild Lilac and Lovely Lavender cardstock. The three embellishments are tiny pearls.

There are a lot of options with this stamp and die set which could be complex or simple. Not part of the challenge but I decided to go simple with the next two cards which will be for my daughter and daughter in law for Mother’s Day.

The Happy die cut is a Momenta Little Yellow Bicycle word die set and the stamped sentiment is from GKD’s A Beautiful Life.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek.

Bring on May Flowers

April 30, 2021April 30, 2021 | Gayle Chrvala

Last day of April so let’s bring on the May flowers. Such a windy day today it feels like the unpredictable March winds but with little sprinkles of rain off and on all day. We could have used a nice soaking rain to wash away some of the pollen.

My card today will be entered into the Double D Challenges: April Showers challenge to include anything water related. My little bear is stuck out in the rain with a little buddy and thankfully an umbrella. My image is Penny Black’s “Sunshine in the Rain” which was colored in with some markers, my stencil is by Bonnie and I used some Nuvo Crackle Mousse in Celestial Blue mounted on a black layer and GKD’s Lemon Drop cardstock. The sentiment is SSS’s Follow the Rainbows stampset.

Double D Mood Board – April Showers anything water related

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. Have a great weekend.

An Inch

April 29, 2021April 29, 2021 | Gayle Chrvala

An attempt at a challenging challenge of a clean and simple card consisting of a one inch strip with the optional twist of small stamps. Oh boy, I may be totally challenged but determined to play along with the AAA Cards group. I did find an older Stampin Up stamp set “A Little Bit of Happiness” which should I admit that it may never have been inked until now!! The stamp I chose was my favorite of the set because it not only has butterflies but dragonflies too! After stamping with versamark ink, I heat set with SSS white embossing powder then colored with Arteza markers. Well not really coloring just swiping the marker and attempting to blend the color edges.

I decided to add a little bling and I think my teardrop gems are upside down so now they can be called raindrops. Can I blame the upside down gems on pollen which have eyes itchy and red?

Thanks for stopping in for a peek.

Kiss Your Mate Day

April 28, 2021April 28, 2021 | Lisa K

Today is the day to share cards created for the Challenge Your Stash Group at Split Coast Stampers. The challenge is to make a card showing a kissing couple, a couple in love, or love for a pet. I made two cards using the same technique.

For each of these cards I used the mirror image so they faced each other. I tend to use this technique every year for our anniversary. That is quickly approaching in about 3 weeks, so this challenge was perfect timing for me.

The elephants are from a new set from Lawn Fawn called elphie selfie flip flop with matching dies. I learned I was able to die cut the reverse, but flipping my cardstock over. I colored the elephants first with alcohol markers, so it bled through and I could easily see where to mount the die. I used dotted paper from My Favorite Things for the scene. This card will be posted to the monthly MISTI Monday challenge at SCS.

The seahorses are from a limited edition stamp set from The Stamps of Life. For these images, I die cut first then stamped the reverse image. I use a stamp called Mirror Image, where I stamp the image on the stamp then use that stamp to place it on my paper. Sometimes it is quite light, so I have to trace with a black marker. The background was made using alcohol inks on vellum cardstock. Basically you scribble with the marker then brush or dot rubbing alcohol all over the ink to create the blended background. I use 99% alcohol as the paper stays flatter. I saw this on a SU Demo video. It is fun to create and every background is different.

I am adding these cards to the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

Thanks for looking at my cards for this month’s challenge. I like both so am not sure which will go to my husband. We will be celebrating our 30th anniversary.

Buddies CASE

April 24, 2021 | Gayle Chrvala

It’s been awhile since I last posted but I have been working continuously on prepping cards for the “Making Cards for Troops” organization. May 8th my girlfriends for life and I will be getting together to assemble these cards. The group has requested all occasion cards but no holiday cards except Christmas so I’ve been working to cover a variety of cards. I believe I am up to 24 packs of 5 cards…..one original in each and 4 to make.

I was totally inspired by Bonnie’s card with the dragonfly about a month ago so this is my version of Bonnie’s gorgeous card. Of course my card is not as complex as Bonnie’s but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I decided on warm tones in kraft, ivory and brown. I need a nice gray not green gray but gray gray ink!

The stencil is TCW Sunflower Meadow designed by Carmen Medlin that I found at SSS. I inked that with GKD Kraft ink. My frame was made using two Waffle Flower A2 Lacy Layers Dies and a template that Lisa B had sent to me. Thank you Lisa. I use it often. Instead of the dragonfly, I decided on this soaring bird from GKD’s Springtime Silhouette StampTV kit and stamped in and the sentiment that I found on my desk in Vintage Photo Distress Ink. My cardstock was all Recollections from my Michael’s store. They have a nice variety of heavy weight cardstock in shades of four colors. Unfortunately, their layering weight is only 65 lb and not the matchy/matchy with the heavy weight cardstock.

I have to make one more of these for my sample as I decided to give this one to Will for his birthday on May 2nd. Thanks for inspiring me Bonnie and the rest of our Stamp Buddies. Next I’ll be case-ing Lisa B as I have the die cut from her Pantone color challenge card on it’s way to me, too.

Patriotic Cards

April 19, 2021 | Lisa K

Someone asked for help with cards for her parent’s nursing home. She was specific in wanting July 4th cards. My Buddy Judy sent me her left-overs from last year, so I put them to good use and created 6 or 8 cards with her supplies, then created a few more. Here is a selection from the cards were mailed.

I think the box held 15 or so cards. I counted but didn’t really pay much attention. I promised her 10 cards, but she got a few extra. Once I had an idea, I duplicated it several times. These will be given to the residents at the home and there are around 70 residents. Hopefully several people are providing enough cards.

Unicorn and Rainbow

April 9, 2021 | Lisa K

I finished a card yesterday with a Unicorn and a Rainbow under a cloudy rainbow sky.

http://daranddiane.blogspot.com/2021/04/anythng-with-rainbowunicornmermaid.html https://www.retrorubberchallengeblog.com/my-blog/2021/03/challenge-155-rainbow-connection.html

The rainbow stamp set, from The Stamps of Life, rainbow2stamp, was released in July 2017 and has been in my stash that long. The unicorn is from Paper Smooches Spectrum set, released in 2015, now retired. I used several ink colors to make the clouds. This is a bright card that will probably be sent to someone needing a bit of encouragement.