It Is Well

Hello and welcome.  Today I'm sharing a sympathy card made for my step-mom after the passing of my step-dad.  Because of my own health problems it's taken me longer than I would have liked to make this.  Dusted off some older stamp sets that I had yet to use from Our Daily Bread Designs which is now Divinity Designs.  I have a very hard time making sympathy cards as it is although I'm not sure why.

I started out by stamping the hymn It Is Well in memento black onto vellum card stock then stamped The Mighty Sea in weathered wood distress ink before coloring with chalk and layering. I used two silver brads along with vellum glue dots to hold the vellum hymn over the colored sea shore before adding everything onto a blue card stamped with the same sea shore in faded jeans distress ink.  Silver cord ribbon with a silver heart charm finish the front off.

For the inside, I stamped sayings from both The Mighty Sea and With Deepest Sympathy.

Challenges entered:

Pammies Inky Pinkies #1909 - Anything Goes
Outlawz Festive Friday 2/22 to 3/19 - Anything Goes
Addicted To Stamps & More #331 - Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #376 to #377 - Anything Goes
Splitcoast USEIT2019 - Use Your Forgotten Stash
Double D Challenges - Let's Make Music

Thank you for stopping by today.  Have a great day!!


Stamps: Divinity Designs (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Tim Holtz Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans
Card Stock: Stampin Up
Accessories: Chalk, Applicator, Silver Cord, Heart Charm, Silver Brads

Kneeling Santa

Hello and welcome.  Sharing today a last minute Christmas card I've made for a few challenges using the retired Reason For The Season, although you can still get just the Santa image here from Our Daily Bread Designs.  I've had this set for years and have never used it until now.  Can you say BIG mistake??

After stamping my image in memento black and coloring using copic markers, I stippled some Tim Holtz scattered straw and old paper distress inks to "age" it a bit before layering and adding brushed gold mini brads.  I decided to do the same for the card front saying.  I then repeatedly stamped another saying from the set in memento rhubarb stalk ink to create my background before stippling Stampin Up real red ink around the edges.  The only additional embellishments used is a small red bow, gold cord, and some Making Memories paper poinsettias from my stash.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Pammies Inky Pinkies #1850 - Anything Goes
Not Just Cards December 2018 - Anything Goes
Winter Wonderland End Of Year - Anything Goes
Outlawz Sunday Songs and Rhymes SAR12162018 - Away In A Manger
Outlawz Festive Friday FF122118 - Christmas

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day!!!!

Stamps: ODBD Reason For The Season
Ink: Tim Holtz Scattered Straw, Forest Moss, Old Paper, Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Stampin Up Real Red
Card Stock: Stampin Up
Accessories: Copic Markers, Stipple Brushes, Gold Cord, Brads, Glue Dots, Making Memories Paper Poinsettias, Glue Dots

Mother Teresa

Happy Tuesday everyone.  Today's card features a phrase that a lot of us speak frequently and probably don't realize who we are quoting. 

" I know God will not give anything I can't handle.  I just wish that He didn't trust me so much". Mother Teresa

The phrase is part of the Mother Teresa stamp set offered by Our Daily Bread Designs stamps.  For me, this phrase carries extra meaning since I've been going through so much lately besides my migraines which I won't get into here. 

For my card, I was inspired by a previous Our Daily Bread challenge on SCS making sentiments the focal point of the card.   I also decided to use a color combo I don't normally use as well.  Pulling out, and dusting off,  Stampin Up! Boho Blossoms backgrounder then stamping in turquoise and again in orange, I finally added my die cut yellow piece with the Mother Teresa saying on it.   For the final touch, sponged primas, brads, and dew drops were added.


Stamps: Stampin Up! Boho Blossoms, Our Daily Bread Mother Teresa
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Yoyo Yellow, Tempting Turquoise, Only Orange
Ink: Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Memento Tuxedo Black, Yoyo Yellow
Accessories: Primas, Bold Brights Brads, Glue Dots, Dew Drops, Top Note Die Cut

John 3:16

Hello again. I made this card for the Our Daily Bread Easter challenge over on Splitcoast. I love this passage in the bible because it speaks so much about God's love to me and to anyone who believes in Him and His Son.

For my card I wanted to keep it clean and simple and have the image and passage speak for themselves. The nail cross is stamped in Stampin Up! creamy caramel ink and the John 3:16 passage is stamped in memento java ink with the background in creamy caramel and chocolate chip inks.

I'm a who so ever (John 3:16 NIV). Are you? If not, make today the day you believe.


Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs He Is Risen
Ink: Memento Java, Stampin Up! Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: MFT Perfect Panels, Stampin Up! Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Scallop Nesties, Primas, Glue Dots, Gold Pearl Sticker, Gold Ribbon, Dimensionals, Stipple Brush

Amazing Grace

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, twas blind but now I see."

This is the first stanza of my favorite hymn and after this last week it was the perfect choice for me to use for the first SCS Our Daily Bread Challenge. You see, back in November, my son went to Haiti on a work and witness trip to build a church and goat farm for the village of Baonyias, and hold a medical clinic for 2 days there for the villagers and surrounding villages if possible.

When the earthquake hit, several of his Haitian friends were unaccounted for for 24hrs - 48 hours. Slowly, the reports trickled in thankfully from Facebook; the seminary night watchman is safe, however his father-in-law was killed, the cook at the seminary broke both of her legs from falling debris, the maid for visiting dignitaries or mission teams was trapped in her collapsed house was rescued with both legs broken as well. My son's closest Haitian friend though remained missing the longest and was finally found, unhurt, although no one knows what has happened to his house. Frantz's biggest concern is for others, the ones who are hurting, those who have lost homes, family, lives, his can be replaced. It is these people who gave my son a great gift during his mission trip in November, a gift of love and an even greater gift.....showing him the faith of the mustard seed and that there is truly a God and that He does exist. My son had been somewhat doubting at that time, and they showed him otherwise through their daily lives and their love.

Now with everything crumbling around them, once again the Haitian people, my sons "family" is once again showing him God's love on TV. Yes, there is despair, hopelessness being shown, there is also love being shown on the TV as well. Fellow Haitians helping each other, loving each other, looking out for each other as well. If aid doesn't get distributed soon to all the people, it is the lawless ones that will get the most press, that will show the wrong side of Haiti.

"Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come, "Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will bring me home." Haiti is a beautiful country with beautiful, religious people with unfortunate poverty. However given the chance it could rebuild itself into a wonderful place.

My son has been through a lot growing up, as has my daughter having a diabetic father, but I truly believe like Haiti, they will prevail in the end and be stronger than before.

Stamps: Amazing Grace Hymn, Grow By Grace
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Adirondack Espresso Ink
Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Vanilla
Accessories: Top Note Die, Ribbon, Sponge, Stipple Brush, Martha Stewart Dove Punch, Martha Stewart Leaf Punch, Prima Vintage Flowers, Glue Dots, Dew Drop

Butterflies and Flowers

Third Post today! Wow!

I made this card for one of the Just Us Girls challenges during the Monday Night Football game a couple of weeks ago, but got sidelined by another migraine, so it never got uploaded. A really simple card. It took no time at all to make.

I stamped my Martha Stewart butterfly set that needed to see some ink on some Autumn Leaves poppy paper twice, cut them out, and layered one on on a bunch of Autumn Leaves red silk poppies. I then added some flocked silk Prima leaves underneath to balance out some of the red.

For the inside of the card, I stamped a sentiment from one of Our Daily Bread's Grace sets and added the other butterfly with smaller red Prima flowers with a Stampendous class-a-peel sticker in the center.

Very simple and took a total of about 20 minutes to make, in between watching the football game. :)

Stamps: Martha Stewart Butterfly, Our Daily Bread Grace

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Black, Autumn Leaves Poppy Prints, White

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Real Red

Accessories: Stipple Brush, Prima Flowers & Flocked Silk Leaves, Autumn Leaves Silk Flowers, Glue Dots, Stampendous Class-A-Peel Stickers, Ribbon

As The Deer

As the deer panteth for the water, So my soul longeth after Thee..., and so continues the song.

When I first saw this image a couple of months ago from Our Daily Bread Designs, I knew I just had to have it in my collection sometime. Once I showed it to my husband, he said I needed it now!! However, it's taken me a couple of months to get the set inked up. I knew when I inked it up for the first time, I wanted to do so with the music in the background but have not been able to find the song anywhere. I even went through my mother-in-law's old hymnals from her piano bench. Fortunately, my pastor had the music and was kind enough to scan it and email it to me.

This particular music has been special to me for a long time for several reasons. One, when my mother was alive she would sing this song while playing the organ and she had a beautiful voice. Two, my late brother in law used to sing this song as well as a special while in church from time to time. Gary also had a magnificent voice. Three, it's soothing to me and reminds me of the 23rd Psalm when life is rough and seems like it's just more than I can handle sometimes; like now after the bombshell that was dropped on me last night by my son which I won't go into for his privacy.

I stamped, and made the card, yesterday while having a raging migraine and on vicodin for the migraine since I was out of my other migraine meds. With this in mind, I'm extremely pleased with the way it's turned out especially since it's one of the few times I've gone "shabby chic" on the entire card.

I started by printing the music out on vanilla cardstock, scaled back by 65% so it would fit on the 6x6 card. Then I tore the edges off around the music before stippling Tim Holtz old paper distress ink all over the music to give it a "vintage" look. Once I was done with that I then stippled a second ink, Tim Holtz walnut stain distress ink around the torn edges before layering on Stampin Up! chocolate chip cardstock and tearing those edges, stippling again, and curling the stippled edges up to give more of an older, more vintage, look.

After that, I stamped the stream and deer on vanilla cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored everything with Prismacolor pencils and used a Prismacolor blender marker to smooth the colors out instead of gamsol or mineral spirits due to my asthma and the smell the other two leave. Once my coloring was done, I then stippled Stampin Up! soft sky dye ink to fill in the sky and edges, green galore around the grassy edges, and bashful blue around the water's edge. This way the stippling gave the image more definition before layering on the card as shown below.

Now it was time to assemble the card and put all of my layers together. First, I stamped my background in Stampin Up! green galore by using the saying included in the set from Psalm 23:2 "He Leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul!" Then I added my song layers, some Basic Grey Mellow fibers I found I still had in my stash (can't believe that!), then my main image layers popped up on All Night Media pop dots with vintage brads already on it. I had decided at the last minute to "rough up" the sides of the image, so I pulled out my Stampin Up! distressing tool, but could only get to part of the chocolate chip cardstock because of the pop dots. No problem! Isn't that what fingernails are for? So I ran my thumbnail along the sides that hadn't been roughed up yet to match the song layers. Perfect!!

However, something was still missing. Aha! Primas!! Can't have a stream or a card in the woods without primas or flowers of some kind, can we? So I pulled out every red looking flower bottle, tin, etc I could find in my stash and started matching up primas to the red in the Basic Grey fibers already tied onto the card. Once I found some that matched, the only problem I then had was what to put into the middle. Once again, problem solved. Since my deer had vintage brads in the corners, why couldn't my primas have vintage brads? Well, since I had already put the card together, that now meant putting holes in a finished card, but oh well, life happens sometimes. As for the prima on the deer layer, since there was already a brad next to it, I pulled out some gem stickers from Michael's and found a gem that matched the fibers and brads to put into the middle.

Now since, the front of my card looked so good, I decided to make the inside be finished off as well this time; which is normally not something I usually do. So I once again stamped the verse from Psalm 23:2 in Stampin Up! garden green dye ink, then sponged an embossed leaf die cut I had received from my secret sister in Round 1 with Stampin Up! garden green dye ink as well to give it a finished look as well before adding the prima with a gem sticker. (see below)

So what do you think? Like I've said earlier in the post, I'm really happy with the way my card has turned out especially since I was on migraine meds. Since I've got another rebound migraine today, it still looks good to me. I have found though, I'm falling in love with Our Daily Bread Designs stamp sets very easily. They could become addictive.

Another thing I've found out this weekend, is that we should make God addictive in our lives as well. Is He in yours?

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Quiet Waters
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Vanilla
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Garden Green, Bashful Blue, Soft Sky, Green Galore, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Walnut Stain & Old Paper
Accessories: Stipple Brushes, Sponge, All Night Media Pop Dots, Zots Glue Dots, Basic Grey Mellow Fibers, Prismacolor Pencils & Blender Marker, Vintage Brads, Computer, Die Cuts, Gem Stickers, Prima Flowers

Mother Teresa's Water Lily - MTTI 05

Hello again. Second post today. I'm loving the colors for this week's My Time To Create Inspiration challenge. Now I saw the colors as: turquoise, bright pink, bright green, and blush. Not too sure if they were the intended colors, but oh well.


For this challenge, I just had to use a stamp set I've had from Our Daily Bread called Mother Teresa. The sayings from Mother Teresa in the set paired with the water lily image are just perfect for any color combo, and especially this one.

I started by stamping on my card with Stampin Up! Green Galore ink to create a subtle background and then again on the Stampin Up! Tempting Turquoise layer. The main image was stamped in Memento Tuxedo black ink twice and colored with prismacolor markers with one image cut out to be popped up on dimensionals later. Once I was done coloring, I softly stippled Stampin Up! Bashful Blue ink and sponged Stampin Up! Blush Blossom ink around the water lily before layering on Pixie Pink.

I stamped my saying in the same Memento Tuxedo black ink and stippled & sponged again, before layering once more on a Pixie Pink scrap. Now that the basics of the card was done, I then added my cut out lily on dimensionals and some pink metallic faux brad stickers I had found at Joann's about a year ago (and still had) before sponging Stamping Up! Green Galore ink around the card to finish it off.

Stamps: Mother Teresa from Our Daily Bread Designs

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Bashful Blue, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, Blush Blossom

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, Pixie Pink scraps, White

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Dimensionals, Pink Faux Brad Stickers, Stipple Brush, Sponge