Friday, July 29, 2016

"Eye of the Storm"


"In the eye of the storm, You remain in control
In the middle of the war, You guard my soul
You alone are the anchor, When my sails are torn
Your love surrounds me, in the eye of the storm."
~Ryan Stevenson "Eye of the Storm"

The other day I drove home from western New York to Virginia.  I passed through several brief but powerful storms on the way, and it seemed like this song was playing either on the radio or in my head each time.  I love it when God is funny like that!  

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Ribbon Card #3

Little man went to bed rather early the other night, and as I had no fixed engagements (name the movie!!!) I opened up my PTI Sketch Recipe notebook.  Baking used to be a favorite need-to-relax activity, but hubby and I realized that wasn't going to be a healthy idea.  Enter card making!  Anyway, I love that I can still look up 'recipes' and make something relaxing and yummy (to look at).  For that night's creation I used the following layout from PTI's 8th Anniversary set.
  

I really like the bright, cheery, and even playful nature of this May Arts ribbon so I chose card stock, images, and a sentiment to match.  I started by die cutting and stamping the smaller flower from PTI's Delightful Dahlia Additions set in Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, and Candied Apple Distress Inks.  Soooo thankful for the help of my MISTI (Most Incredible Stamp Tool Invented)!!!  I wrapped the ribbon around a lime green layer of card stock and added the three dahlias on top.  I layered that over white card stock and then a pink card base, and finished it with a (Picked Raspberry and white heat embossed) sentiment from PTI's Choose Joy.




Tuesday, July 12, 2016

PTI's Create Along With Us: July 2016



Reaching For The Stars CardThere are soooo many stamps and dies in this months' release that I am excited about!  One is the Galaxy Background, and I love love love this card by Lizzie Jones!  I used to live out in the country in northern New York, and on clear nights we could see the Milky Way.  This reminds me of those nights!  I have been using Star Scribbles to make a few cards lately, so it was a natural jump to make my own version. 

I blended Distress Ink in Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean, and Black Soot (why oh why don't I have Chipped Sapphire?!) onto my Ranger Watercolor card stock until I had the shading the way I wanted, spritzed it with my Perfect Pearls mister, and then stamped individual stars from Star Scribbles several times at the top.  I embossed them with silver glitter so they could sparkle in the night sky!  To remind me of nights standing in our field gazing up at the sky, I added blades of grass from Daydreamer, stamped in Black Soot, to the bottom.  I finished it off with a white embossed sentiment from Daydreamer and layered it over white and navy card stock.  Sweet summer dreams!




Monday, July 4, 2016

PTI's Make It Monday #255

String art?!  I haven't done that since I was a kid...wait, did I even do it then?!  But Amy's video convinced me I could and so here we go! 


For my card, I die cut two sets of black eyed susans from Flower Favorites, one in green card stock and one in white.  I snipped off the white flowers and stamped the images using Mustard Seed and Walnut Stain Distress inks.  Then I separated and wrapped two blossoms with a yellow and white twine and glued them atop the green die cut image.  To pull it all together, I glued the image to white card stock embossed with the Darice Vine folder and layered it over yellow and then green card stock.  Finally, I stamped a sentiment from Phrases and Praises in Walnut Stain.  Now, to find someone who needs a cheery card!


*UPDATE*
Since I had my twine out anyway, I got to thinking about the following design sketch that I found yesterday and earmarked as one to try.  So I did!
 

 
The butterflies were die cut from PTI's Flower Favorites in multiple shades of green and blue.  Then I used a technique I learned from Jennifer McGuire on Inspiration Showcase: I wrapped a small piece of twine around the butterfly to form the body and antennae.  I glued these down in a pattern roughly resembling the sketch recipe above, but didn't think the sentiment banner would look right with *my* pattern!  So I improvised and stamped a sentiment from Flower Favorites.