Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Scripture Series III and Narnia


Today I’ve got a few things to show you, some Scripture cards and some photography too!



First up, Psalm 46:10 from Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Collection 3, this one happens to be one of my husband’s favourite verses because it puts a lot of life into perspective and reminds us to rest in the truth that I don’t have to have everything figured out.  

I found this great page of patterned paper with the orange poppies and pops of black that set the tone for the design.  All it needed was a bit of layering and a great big silk bow and a couple of enamel dots to complete it.  It’s a great simple layout too.  


This next design is using ODBD’s set Scripture Collection 4.  I re-did an old layout with similar colours that I had used before in 2017, it really showcases repeated colour, texture and pattern in the design, and this one uses no patterned paper.  The leaves in the background are from Verve’s set New Mercies, and then I found an embossing folder to deboss the back layer.  It looks quite similar to the stamp set.    A bit of white sharpie accents the layers so they pop a bit more, and the little corner pieces are from TCP’s CutUps Scalloped Duo Die.  

Now for some pictures....


Last week we had some funny days of weather, lots of melting for a few days, then several days in a row of heavy fog, which left us with a very Narnia-like world for the next few days after that, until the sun finally came out and melted it all away.  I snapped a few pictures because it was just so spectacular.  Everything was completely covered in a heavy, crystal-like frost.  It was like our world was sprinkled with icing sugar, or a bit like those homemade snowflakes and icicles the kids make as a science experiment out of borax.   

By the time I got around to taking pictures it was already melting away, but I thought I’d show you a few of them because it’s so pretty.  If you’re in a southern climate you wouldn’t get to enjoy this.  







It was beautiful!  Just like jewelry for our trees.

Thanks for stopping by friends!


Save

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Happy Bear-thday



Popping in with a cute little bear themed birthday design I created for my little nephew’s birthday last week.  My little bundle-of-life guy needs a happy, busy birthday card for sure.  

Recently I was going through my stamps looking for something and came upon a set from MFT I ordered and then forgot I had (oops!).  It’s called Beary Special Birthday, and it’s so cute I feel embarrased I didn’t remember I had it!   

Stamped onto XPress it Blending, die cut out with MFT’s Wonky Stitched Circles, and then paired with some really busy star patterned- boy themed paper.  




I added a few extra stars from TCP’s 3 x 3 Stars CutUps and some enamel dots to complete it.  



Copics I used all in a row!





Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Scripture Series II



Today I’m back with another pair of cards in my Scripture Series.  This particular Bible verse is our daughter’s favourite verse, and we all find it to be such an encouragement of God’s might and his tender love.  

One of the things I’ve been doing in creating these cards is going through my stash of older designer papers and pulling out combinations I like to create the cards.  Without colouring as the focal point, I find that colour combinations and pattern play a more important role in creating interest on the card.  Plus, it helps me work through my mountain of older papers as well.  I thought this pretty white, red and green combo was fresh and perfect for this design.  



I started with Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Series 1 set, stamping in Wild Wasabi green ink and added some sewing to frame the image, a pretty heart (TCP’s Nested Hearts CutUps), finishing it off with a bit of Baker’s Twine.  




Next up is a verse from Verve Stamps that is also such an encouragement.  Because it talks about the Lord lifting our heads I wanted to use some bright sunny colours.  This set is now in the Verve Scripture Medley 2 set, but it used to be just a Plain Jane stamp set.  

I used a fun layout, and then embellished with some butterflies from TCP’s Butterflies CutUps, popped them up and added some enamel dots to accent.  



I hope these are an encouragement to you today as well!  



Save

Ruffled Cattleya Orchids




I’ve brought some vibrant colour today with a brand new image from Marcy at Power Poppy called Ruffled Wild Orchids!  It is a gorgeous new digital image in the Instant Garden, and so very beautiful to colour.  

As with most floral images, the first time I colour it, I tend to look up what might be some possibilities first, so I have a good reference point for my colouring.  I found a gorgeous Cattleya hybrid orchid that was my jumping off point below.  



I just loved how the flower combined deep pinks and bright yellows together in this orchid, and the deep greens of the leaves make for one sunny design!



I also played with a different fold for this one.  A bit of a Z fold.  All you need to do is take and 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch card base, score and 3 1/2 from both ends and then fold in a Z design (one mountain fold, and the next a valley fold).  This forms about a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch completed card.   

Details are very simple with patterned paper doing most of the work as well as a little bit of a scalloped edge and some satin ribbon in a bright green.  



Here’s a closeup of the colouring where you can see the places I added a BV00 copic to the edges to dull down the depth of the pink and to create some shadowed areas, as well as using a couple of types of green to simulate light and shadow. 






Pop on over to the rest of the Instant Garden and Bloom Brigade playing along with some more wildly wonderful Orchids today too!


Broni Holcombe
Barb Walker 
Nancy Sheads 
Jessie Banks 
Christine Okken  (you are here)
Stacy Morgan 
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog



Monday, January 23, 2017

Chill





We’re back this week with a new challenge from The Cat’s Pajamas called “Get In Shape”.  It’s the New Year and maybe you’ve challenged yourself to get in shape in the months ahead.  How about we do that with our cards too?  So, it’s as easy as using 2 or more geometric shapes on our card designs.  



There are a lot of ways you could go with this challenge, but as soon as I saw the theme,  my mind went to TCP’s set In Shape.  This cute bunny is lounging the afternoon away in a place that looks very inviting.  One of the sentiments in the set says “I’m in Shape, Round is a Shape”.  So cute!  I couldn’t quite make that sentiment work on this design, but I included a number of shaped elements on the design.  First I make the card base a round shape, then I added some fun stripedy paper that makes little squares and embellished the design with TCP’s CutUps die, County Fair.  



I stamped a sentiment from TCP’s set Small Sayings, because that looks like exactly what he’s doing, I added a bit of Copic green over top to thicken the lines and tie it into the design a bit more. A warm spot with a cool drink sounds downright lovely in the middle of winter.  




Here are the Copics I used.  

Here are the challenge details.....

  1. Every other Tuesday a new challenge will be posted on The Cat’s Pajamas blog and our Facebook page.
  2. If you want to play along you just upload your design to The Cat’s Pajamas blog page using the InLinkz button by the Monday, 11:55 EDT before the next challenge.
  3. You are not required to use a Cat’s Pajamas stamp or die but if you have them we would love to see them.
  4. On the following TCP Tuesday, the winner will be chosen from the previous challenge and will receive a Cat Cash Voucher for $10 or $15 if a TCP product is used.
Pop on over for more inspirations to the rest of The Cat Pack playing along today...


Brenda Nakandakari
Christine Okken (you are here)
Jessica Rone
Julie Elak
and Alma at the TCP Blog!



Friday, January 20, 2017

Sweet Peas




How about some pretty sweet peas today?  These are brand new from Power Poppy, called Sweet Pea Show.  They’re just so pretty and frilly and, well, sweet!  I printed this digi quite large so that it filled the card space.  I pulled out a whole host of purple Copics to colour it up.  For a girl who doesn’t usually reach for purples, it’s funny that two days in a row I’ve used purple!   It’s framed up with adn MFT Scalloped Rectangles die, and then I used a sentiment from Power Poppy’s set, Party Time, embossed in white.  This was placed over top of a strip of Scor Tape which I added glitter to to sparkle it up.  



A few purple faceted gems finish it off!  

Here’s the Copics I used below,  a whole bunch of them!  




Don’t forget that you can still join in our Winter Blooms Challenge at Power Poppy this month. There are so many fabulous sets you can choose from (for ideas see here).  Add your creation and you could win a Power Poppy set of your choice!  

Now pop on over to the rest of the Bloom Brigade playing along today with some more beautiful inspiration!  


Allison Cope
Christine Okken (
you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker



Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Scripture Series I


Hello Friends,

My sister-in-law had a birthday recently and one of the things I like to do for her every now and then is to send some cards with Scripture on them.  She loves to give them to people in her life.  As I was making a dozen or so cards for her,  I thought I’d then show them to you over a few week's time.  Maybe it will turn into a bit longer series, as I’ll create more that I can then use too.

I find this to be a really good creative challenge, since most of my cardmaking has colouring as the center piece of what I do.  In all of these designs the sentiment, or Bible verse will be the centerpiece of the card, so its much more about layout, patterned paper and overall design that the colouring.  Most of the designs will have a clean and simple style as well.  So, I hope you’ll enjoy this over the next weeks, along with my regular style of colouring images for my cards.




As I looked through my stamps I realized that I have a lot of great Bible verses to use, so it’s really delightful to choose meaningful ones for these cards.  This first design uses an Our Daily Bread Designs set, Scripture Series 1.  I embossed the Bible verse from Psalm 73 onto watercolour paper and added in a wash of purples with my water brush.  Next, I framed it up with an MFT scalloped rectangle die, flipping the outside of the frame from the inner rectangle 180 degrees.  This adds some variety from the inside watercolouring to the outside frame.  

I added some pretty posies from a Verve set, Poppy Birthday, using several different purple inks between the layers.  On the background I used an embossing folder for the designer paper and sanded the paper a bit so that the white would show through.  Some scallops along the top and a bit of lace finishes the bottom edge off.  For a girl who doesn’t usually reach for purple first, I really like how it turned out.  And, a powerful promise of encouragement too.  




Next up is a design with a little more masculine style.  I used Our Daily Bread Designs set, Light of the World for this one.  On the cream patterned paper, I stamped the lighthouse image in Memento Summer Sky in the background and the Bible verse in the forground in Memento Olive Grove.  I created a little “port-hole” out of stitched circle dies, and then added more patterned paper and tied it all together with a double sailor’s knot and some buttons.  

So, there you have week one!  I’ll be back tomorrow with some Power Poppy colouring for you!  Thanks for dropping by!  




Sunday, January 15, 2017

Country Cupcakes




I don’t know about you, but I never seem to have enough birthday cards.  When I’m doing a sale of cards a couple of times a year, that’s the first style of card to go, so I’m trying to do a bit more work in advance in making extra in this department.  Today I pulled out a My Favorite Things set, Sweet Birthday Wishes.  I think this set might be retired as I can’t find it in the store at MFT anymore.  

She’s coloured up with Copics and countrified a bit with red, pink, gingham and a great big chocolate cupcake!  



The pretty little banners are from The Cat’s Pajamas Country Fair Die.  The scalloped borders are MFT .  A wee bit of sewing and some enamel dots finish it all off.  

And there’s another birthday card in the stash!  



Friday, January 13, 2017

Warm Hugs



We’re back this week with a new round of inspiration from Power Poppy, and this week I’ve got some more ideas for our Winter Blooms Challenge from Stacy.  One of my all-time favourite images from Marcy (and that’s saying something) is this little vase of hellebore, or lenten roses.  I don’t know what it is but, I just love these simple blooms that come to remind us that winter doesn’t have the final say :).   Marcy has them in digitial format in this set, Hellebores.   

For fun this time I flipped the image 180 degrees so that the vase is aligned on the right side of the page.  That is another really nice advantage to using digi images.  

I looked up some fun new colours for hellebores and found this one below that I wanted to replicate.  



Of course, in creation they are much more beautiful and natural, but I enjoyed playing with those yellowy greens and that deep pink, plus that really rich green in the leaves.  It was a fun combination to colour.  



The design is quite simple and clean with strips of paper and washi tape, and then a little bit of rhinestone scalloping as a pretty little bit of bling.  The sentiment is stamped in Memento Gray Flannel from the set Nice Things To Say.  I’m sending it to my sister-in-law who lost her beloved grandma recently.  I know she’ll appreciate it.  



Here’s the Copic collection for the colouring.  

And now the rest of the Bloom Brigade playing along today....

Allison Cope
Christine Okken (
you are here)
Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber
Stacy Morgan



Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Yeti Best



I just love these sweet little Yetis from My Favorite Things!  I wanted to play with them again (and again!), but have it not be specifically Christmas themed.  So, here’s a sweet winter design with Beast Friends again.  I started by stamping the little yeti in some really light Memento Ink, I think it was Desert Sand, and coloured him up with Copics in a no-line style, and then trimmed him out.  I gave him some white snaggle-teeth with a white sharpie marker.  

On the background layer I stamped all sorts of the different evergreen trees in Pool Party ink and then created a bit of a windowed design with my yeti in the middle.  I added some woodgrain texture onto the Kraft layer, framed it up and added some baker’s twine, and enamel dots.  



A little popping up of the sentiment focussing on the YETI.  How can you resist these little guys!   They sure make me smile :)  



Monday, January 9, 2017

Golden Thanks



We’re back with another challenge at The Cat’s Pajamas today and it’s a perfect theme for the season.   It’s all about Thank You designs, so you can send those little notes that say thank you for those Christmas gifts you just received.



  

A long time ago I pinned a really pretty design that I tried to bring my take to with The Cat’s Pajamas style and products.  As soon as I saw TCP’s set Winter Style I knew that it could be used for more than just Christmas designs, and would great for this sparkly clean design.  

I took the swirly leaf stamp and stamped it twice with VersaMark ink onto teal cardstock and then embossed in gold.  

Behind the teal cardstock I used some gold sparkly washi tape and lined the cardstock with it to really give it some extra bling.  Then to finish off the design I added some teal sequins.  




Here’s another view where the gold really shows better.  The sentiment is from TCP’s Simply Stacked Sentiments.  

It’s a really simple design that could be mass produced if you needed to in lots of different colours too!  

So jump on in for the challenge....here’s the details...

  1. Every other Tuesday a new challenge will be posted on The Cat’s Pajamas blog and our Facebook page.
  2. If you want to play along you just upload your design to The Cat’s Pajamas blog page using the InLinkz button by the Monday, 11:55 EDT before the next challenge.
  3. You are not required to use a Cat’s Pajamas stamp or die but if you have them we would love to see them.
  4. On the following TCP Tuesday, the winner will be chosen from the previous challenge and will receive a Cat Cash Voucher for $10 or $15 if a TCP product is used.

Now how about some more inspiration from the Cat Pack for you today?!

Brenda Nakandakari
Christine Okken (you are here)
Julie Elak
Wendy McGaffey
and Alma at the TCP Blog!

Friday, January 6, 2017

Winter Blossoms



We’re back with Power Poppy’s new January Challenge, and Stacy is our hostess this month!  She’s given us a fabulous “Winter Blooms” Challenge.  Here are the details:  "When winter comes, many of us long to say goodbye to the chill and say hello to those cheerful and fresh spring flowers! Did you know there are lots of blooms that sprout at the end of winter (you can cheat and include early spring as well)? How about camellias, crocus, paperwhites, holly, snowdrops, or poinsettias? Let's see how you can bring these pretty little petals and glorious greens to life and enjoy this last bit of winter as well!” 

Well, in my winter up in Canada we are a long way from blooms, but a girl can still dream, so it’s fun to celebrate and colour some pretty things that will bloom soon.  I picked a lovely Power Poppy set to play with.  


It’s been a tough few weeks as people we love, have lost loved ones, so this card is to one of “my girls” that recently lost her mom.  I call them my girls still because they were students we had in our youth ministry when we were youth pastors.  They are all so special to me still, as I watch them now as young women getting married, starting families and going through all the good and difficult that life brings.  I hope this is an encouragement to her and her little family in a very sad time.  

I started with Power Poppy’s lovely set Bloomin’ Wonderful.  This particular image with the crocuses , snowdrops and pussywillow are also found in one of Power Poppy’s digital images too, Winter Pick Me Up, if you prefer that method of delivery.  I stamped in a softer grey ink from Memento, then coloured it up with Copics.  

I wanted to keep the overall design simple with some burlap paper, a bit of patterned paper, the yellow seam binding bow and some enamel dots.  



A bit of a closer look at the colouring for you.  And below the Copics I used.  




So we hope you’ll join us with this Winter Bloom Challenge.  Play along and you could win a Power Poppy set of your choice!   Marcy even set aside a special gallery of which Power Poppy sets would work for the challenge HERE.  

Now here’s some more of the Power Poppy Bloom Brigade to inspire you with their Winter Blooms:

Christine Okken (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims

Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker



Sunday, January 1, 2017

Baby New Year



With a new year dawning on us, I thought it might be fitting to show off a baby card to start 2017.  Last month, some girls and I hosted a baby shower for some of our friends who just had their first baby, a little boy.  They are adventurers, love travel and new things so we went with a jungle theme for the little guy.  It was pretty cute.  

I played with MFT’s adorable little elephant from the aptly named Adorable Elephants set.  Coloured up with Copics and carefully trimmed out so I could pop him up.  

Next up, I used my Silhouette die cutting machine and cut out these little palm jungle leaves from the white layer and used the negative space, and then also cut out some green ones to place behind the little guy.  



A bit of twine and an enamel dot finish it off.