Altered Santa Hat for Craft That Divas Facebook group

Here's the picture's of the Altered Santa hat I made for my partner Jesenia on the Face book group called Craft that Diva's.  I love being a member of that group. Everyone is so friendly, helpful and so talented!  It's a wonderful community to be a part of.   I bought the hat a Hobby Lobby along with the spray of leaves.  Actually I got those from a few different picks but you know what I meant.  I basically was able to get all my supplies while there at Hob Lob.  The flower was on clearance and on the back it has a pin and a hair clip so you could either wear it in your hair or on your blouse.  I thought the color was perfect to match this Santa hat.  I used a gold glittered snowflake ornament and the little wool bird is also an ornament.  But who says you have to use everything you find for the purpose it was intended?  I love to find new and creative uses for the objects I find to craft with. 

Here's a pic of the Christmas card I included in Jesenia's package for her and her family.

And here's the video if you want to take a closer look at the Santa hat and the card.

Thank you for stopping by my blog and checking out my project.  I hope Jesenia likes her hat.  I'll be back soon with more cards and I'll have an upcoming post featuring all my Christmas cards for this year so keep on the lookout for that.  Till next time I hope you are all living a Blessed life.  Much hugs and love, Amy K.

Happy Birthday card by request for Cassidy Gardner's Memorial

I waited to post this card till December, the month that marks one year that a precious angel of only 18 years of age was so violently ripped from our lives by a careless, driver under the influence of multiple substances.  He's  not the important one and I refuse to make this post about him.  God sees him for all that he is all that he's done and we all have to stand before him one day and answer for our sins here on earth.  This post is not just to share a card with you but to also take a minute and remember this beautiful young lady.  Her mother asked me to make her a card for her 19th birthday even tho she's not here to celebrate with us.  She wanted to put the card up at the grave side as part of the memorial to her birth.

  

I warned you, She's beautiful.  Like all teens she liked to take selfie's for face book.  She was special for who she was and at the same time she is ordinary.  Just like all the other kids now days.  Isn't that what all teens wish for?  To be perfectly ordinary?  They don't yet understand how wonderful it is to be an individual.  They don't want anything about themselves to stand out as strange or different.  Cass was special in that way because she knew what she liked and set out to get it.  And yet ordinary because she didn't yet realize her own potential.  So sad that she never got to discover her own self.  You know like we all do sometime in our 20's.  She loved her siblings so much and she was a delight to spend time with. I had the benefit of having her come and stay with me on a few occasions.  She once spent the whole week with me while her mom was out of town.  I must admit, I didn't hate it:)  I thought it would be strange for Brian and I, who are with out any children of our own, to have a teenager in the house with us for a week.  She was wonderful.  She was well mannered and polite and tied up my tv with that teenage MTV nonsense but I loved having her here.  I would have just kept her if I could have.  Cassidy had an interest in Scrapbooking and she would spend time with me in the craft room when she came to visit.  She once called me and asked me to help her make some birthday cards for her friends in school.  Typical teenager that she was, she waited till the last minute and had to come over to my house late at night and I think we quickly made two or maybe it was three cards.  I find it stressful to create with some one putting me on a time crunch but It was ok and we had a ball that night.  I loved teaching her about products and what different tools and supplies were capable of doing and how to make your supplies work for you and I tried to teach her about many different styles of paper crafting and I urged her to find her own voice and style of creating and that she didn't have to follow my style just because I was teaching her.  She did good and she liked to look through all the different papers and supplies I had until she found one that spoke to her. I even found myself, when out craft shopping, picking up a paper pad or two with her in particular in mind just because I thought it might be more her style than mine.  We worked on a few mini albums too.  I loved it when she would come to me for help with school work or when she and her mom would ask me to take her senior photos.  I loved to take her picture.  God, that child made beautiful pictures.  I just wish I had some of them on this computer to show you but my old computer crashed or something but I can't get the pics off it but I made copies for Cass and her mom.  So they are not lost.  Proms and It all started with me taking her photos for the 8th grade dance.  Then there were beauty pageants and basically I got to be a part of all her milestones from 8th grade on.

So not to keep you waiting, here's the card and the holder I made so that Wendy, her mom, could stick it into a pot of flowers and it would be able to stand among the flowers.  I also sprayed it with a clear sealer to protect it from the weather and maybe last a little longer.

This second photo shows a close up of the clip I made to hold the card in a flower arrangement..  

 I even sprayed it with the clear sealer because the flowers are paper.  The leaf that looks white here is actually a clear sequin leaf but the sealer made it turn white. Oh well, what cha gonna do? lol

God Bless you Cassidy and Keep you and Hold you in his arms forever in His glorious Kingdom above.  We will meet again one day.  We will know each other by the smiles that we share.  Love you child/adult.  and I love your family and I pray God's love and grace comforts them in your absence.

Thank you for taking time to read this heartfelt post today, Thank you especially to those of you who stuck around till the end.  God bless you too!  Till next time, much love and hugs, amy k

Shabby Chic birthday card made for member of the church

Got another card made for a member of the church.  It's, you guessed it, a birthday card!  Are you guys getting sick of birthday cards?  I honestly don't know where I keep coming up with ideas for new cards.  I think sooner or later maybe they will all just start to look the same lol.  I hope not, that would be sad.  Speaking of making all the cards the same, I'm trying to get about 50 Christmas cards made and soon.  I bought one of the Close to my Heart card making kits for Christmas and it comes with patterned paper and cardstock and card bases and envelopes and stamps.  A few other embellies and basically everything you need except ink and I've got that covered. The problem is that it only makes 15 cards, that's alright because I have the stamp set and I have all the patterned paper that I need so I used that to make about 15 more but I get so bored making the same cards over and over. There are three designs in that cardmaking kit and I've changed the patterned paper and I've even changed the layout but I was just sick of those cards and that color palette so I just started making my cards one at a time making each one different.  So look forward to a long post coming up this month show casing all my Christmas cards that I've made this year.

This card was made for a Wonderful lady in our church family by the Name of Dottie Fray.  She's a real sweet heart.  I was happy to make this card for her.  I used one of the 4.5x6.5 I guess you would call them mat stacks, from Hobby Lobby.   It's by the Paper Studio. Wait and I'll tell you the name of it......OK, it's the Kirby Teesdale stack and then for the dressform stamp, it comes from the Whimsy Stamps "A Touch of Elegance" stamp set.  I stamped it in dark brown chalk ink from clearsnap and the corner die cut and the square lace diecut are from the cricut but I'm unsure of what cartridge they come from.  The sentiment is also from the same stamp set and I punched it out with an ek success punch.  I went around all the edges of all the pieces with a pink distress ink. Then added the little flower that I made with punches and book pages.

I hope you like Dottie's card, I hope she liked it too. lol.  I've got to run, lots to do today and the day is getting away from me already.  I've spent way too much time online today. hehehehe.  I'll try to be back soon with another card. till then, Much love and hugs, Amy K.

Birthday card for niece, 4th Birthday

Today's card was made for my adorable niece, Penelope.  For this card I used the Berry Sweet collection from K & Co.   I bought several pieces from this collection a couple of years ago when it first came out.  The minute I saw it I knew it would be perfect for her pages and cards.  I used Core'denations cardstock for the card base.  It's an A2 size card so it's 4.25 x 5.5" card.  I cut the paper a 1/4 inch smaller all around to allow the card base to peak through, then I layered a diecut journal sheet (not from the Berry Sweet collection) and a pink piece of card stock cut into a banner shape and stamped with a Close to My heart stamp.  I added the 'Princess' chip board piece.  The rainbow is part of the piece. and some flower die cuts from card stock.   It was so easy to put together with all the pieces being from the same collection and automatically matching.  I am so glad I collected all these pieces of the line.  

I hope she liked it.  She's 4 now and getting to that age where she starts saying what she likes and don't like.  I guess the cards may be harder to make the older she gets. lol.  She's our Princess so I thought it was fitting.

Here's a shot of the inside of the card.  I layered white card stock on top of a piece of that same pink card from the banner on the front.  The sentiment and all the images are from the rub on sheet.  I thought they just looked so cute!  Those rub ons went on smooth as butter.  I've had problems with rub on's from K & Co. in the past but these were great even though they are a couple years old.

I hope you all liked the card for today.  I personally think it's so cute even if I have to say so myself. lol.  I don't usually brag on myself but I just love this collection!  I hope to be back in a couple days with another card.  Till then I hope you all have a very blessed day!  Till next time, much love and hugs, Amy K.

UMC female birthday card- young lady

This card was made using the creative cards cartridge for the cricut and the echo park, This and That Graceful 12x12 paper collection.  It's to simple to make a card using the creative cards cartridge's for the cricut.  All the measuring is done for you, all you have to do is pick your patterned paper or colored card stock to cut and load the machine.  I love this idea for cartridges.  I have several of them but just haven't gotten around to using them much.   I still would rather design my own cards but these are great in a pinch and when you are on a time crunch.  I made this card for a young lady in our church by the name of Madison Mckinney.  Such a bright and sweet girl.  I just love the colors in this card for a young lady of her age.  I think they are bright and fun.  The sentiment is a stamp from Close to  my Heart.  I forget the name of the stamp set but I think it's retired by now anyway but If you would like the name and want to try and find the stamp set just leave me a comment and let me know and I'll get you that information.  The last thing I added to the card was some homemade enamel dots,.  There's great tutorials on you tube on how to make them from pony beads.  Fun stuff!

I hope you enjoyed today's post.  I'm keeping it short today.:)  sorry it's taken me so long to get around to posting this card.  I haven't been feeling the best here lately but I won't complain.  Nobody likes a cry baby lol,  I'll be back soon with more cards for you.  Till then have a blessed day.  Much love and hugs, Amy K.

Church card -Female Birthday

Here's another birthday card made for the church.  It's always helpful if I know the person I'm making the card for on a personal level.  That being said, this one was an easy one.  It's for my BFF, Wendy.  I think I know her pretty well. lol.  I've mentioned before that when it comes to the church cards I plan to make them a little more simpler than my personal cards that I make and send from Brian and myself,  So If you saw the other post of the card I made for Wendy from us then you know this one is much more on the simple side.  I'll link to that post here.  I used another of my card making cartridges for the cricut to make this card.  It's great because the layout is there for you and all you have to do is pick out the patterned papers and embellishments that you want to use and you can make it as fancy or as plain as you want to.  You can go really heavy on the embellies or not.  I've explained that to keep cost down on the church cards I don't go heavy on the embellishments.  So in making this card I just picked some pretty patterned paper from My Minds Eye that I thought Wendy would like and pretty much just stuck to the layout the cartridge gave me.  

Here is an up close pic of the butterflies.  I just inked the edges with a brown color of distress ink and added flat backed pearls down the centers.  I just adhered them down the body and left the wings to be free to stand up a bit from the card.  I heat embossed the sentiment with black and added a couple more flat backed pearls.

That's all I've got for today.  Hope you enjoyed the card.  I'll be back soon with another card for the church.  Lol, are you getting sick of all the birthday cards yet? lol.  Till then, I hope you are blessed in all you do.  Much Love and Hugs, Amy K.

Female Birthday card for the church

I made this card for a lady who is not only a member of our church but she's also Brian's cousin and someone we love dearly.  This is a 51/2" sq card and I've used patterned papers from My minds Eye, I used a border punch from Martha Stewart and a few dies from Sizzix and Tim Holtz like the flourish and the top note label die, I've used the dizzy doily die from Memory Box dies for the sentiment and that sentiment stamp is from Close to my Heart. The winged angel is a mod podge melt  made from a mold that I made.  I colored it with Viva Deco rubs.   I made the flower using the Ariana Blooms dies from Heartfelt Creations and the patterned paper from the collection.  I colored the seam binding bow using my glimmer sprays. And lastly, I distressed all the edges using my Tim Holtz distress inks. 

That's all for this post.  I hope you all are having a blessed Sunday morning.  I've got to keep this short as I've still got to go get dressed for church.  I am trying to make a solid effort to get these cards posted and catch up my blog.  I hope you are enjoying it:)  I hope to be back within a few days with another card.  Till then,  Much Love and Hugs, Amy K.

UMC Female Birthday card

Sorry, guys, that it's been so long sense my last post.  I just don't know how I will be feeling day to day with this Fibromyalgia.  I wish it didn't impact my life as much as it does but hey, what you gonna do?  You just have to live each day and be grateful the situation isn't worse. Right? lol.  I try to have a healthy outlook, If I didn't it would consume me.

This card was totally made from one of the new Cricut card making cartridges.  I think of these as my "Cheater cards" lol.  I think of them as such because all I have to do is pick out a sentiment and paper to use and the cuts are all right there and the card is totally designed for you.  It's great when you've got to make a card in a rush.  And I'm not ashamed so say that in making all these cards for the church sometimes I have to rush and I just don't have the time to totally design every aspect of the card.   I've bought all 3 or 4  of these card making cartridges and I'm very happy with them.  This card was made using the Creative cards cartridge.  I just used a few sheets of colored card stock and I cut out the bottom three layers (including the card base) with the cricut and then I added the doily die cut to the center using a Spellbinders die.  I used a floral image from an Inkadinkado stamp set and used my Prisma color pencils to color it in.  The sentiment stamp is from Unity Stamp co. I inked the edges of all the cuts then added a few bling to finish the card off.  Easy peasy! Gotta love it.  By the way this card was made for a beautiful Lady in our church by the name of Donna Smith.  I hope she really enjoyed her card. I definitely had a good time making it.  I'm really glad Art, our preacher, asked me to make  the cards for the church.  It keeps me busy and doesn't allow me to become too lazy. lol.  I just can't keep up with all the blogging and posting of the cards once I get them made.   The process defiantly doesn't stop once I complete the card and turn it in.  There have been many a Sunday that I'm out in the front yard with my camera and set up taking pictures of the cards for the week before heading to church where I hand them in to Art and Sylvia.  I always fear that one card may escape with out having it's picture made and then It would be  lost to me forever.  I have hundreds of photos on my computer of past cards made.  I've been taking photo's of my creations for years before I even started blogging.  I love to look back thru them and remember each card I made.  I've had to start making notes of who they were for because I just cant remember that part to save my life. lol.

That's all for today, I hope to be back soon with more cards to share with you,  Till then, may you all be a blessing to one another.  Much love and hugs, Amy K.

Birthday card for our Nana's 89th birthday

Nana is actually my hubby, Brian's grandmother but she has claimed me as one of her own for years now and I have always felt like she and I had that kind of bond between us.  Brian doesn't have to be with me for me to stop by and check on her and spend some time with her just talking and catching up.  She's a wonderful lady and such a joy to be around.  You know how it is when a person has lived as long as she has and been alone for the better part of the last decade.  By that I mean her children are grown and husband is passed and she lives alone and has for years.  Most of her grandchildren are parents themselves now.  I can't remember how many grand children she has but I know that she has 25 great grandchildren.  Isn't that amazing!  She's so awesome and we all love her dearly.  I am always happy to make cards for her.  This year I got to make two cards for her, one from Brian and I and the other from the church.  I will show that one in another post.

For this card I used a card base from Micheals and went around the edges with white gesso and then added a sheet of patterned paper from a Paper Studio paper pad from Hobby Lobby and I just distressed the edges (I use my dremol tool to do that) and the added some Vintage Photo distress ink.  I just layered a doily then some vintage lace and some seam binding that I colored using some of my glimmer sprays and a few flat backed pearls on a strand.  I used my bow it all to tie the double bow then added a brad with a pearl in the center to the bow after I removed the prongs from it.  I added the chipboard flower after I went over the top of it with some white pigment ink to bring out some definition to the raised areas.  I stamped the sentiment from Close to My Heart with Black India ink from Hero Arts on cream card stock and then cut it down into a flag shape.

That's all  for this card, I hope you enjoyed it.  I thought it turned out really nice for Nana and I'm really enjoying this color combination lately.  I will show you another card in the coming post that uses the same color combo.  I just love the gold with the white and cream.  I think it looks so classy.  I will try and come back tomorrow with another card for you so until then I hope you have a wonderful day.   I will be back soon, till then, Much love and hugs, Amy K.

August, Altered Birdhouse challenge for the Craft Hole group on FB

BFF Birthday Card

Good morning all.  Well, morning is about over so I guess I need to hurry up and get on the ball before this day gets away from me.  I just wanted to pop in and share a birthday card that I made for my BFF, Wendy.  Yes, I'm still very behind on posting my cards because you all know her birthday was last month. lol.  I'm working on it, I promise, so if you've received a card from me or from the church but haven't yet seen it posted just wait a little bit longer, It's coming. lol.  I may catch up before the end of the year lol.  

So, Wendy's card.  Anybody who knows my girl, Wendy, knows she loves her some loud and gawdy stuff lol.  God love her.  She just can't help herself lol.   So I included some things I know she loves like flowers and feathers and bling.  I do hope I got it right, She did say she loved it when I gave it to her but you know she may be just trying to be nice :)  This is such a big card that I didn't even bother trying to make an envelope for it.  I think the patterned paper measures 6x6 so with that boarder around it who knows how big it is lol.  I knew I was hand delivering it so I really didn't worry about the size.  Anyway, here's the card I made for Wendy and I do hope she really liked it. :)  

That's all for now, I say for now because the way things are looking I may have to start posting twice a day to get caught up lol.  I'll see you back here real soon.  I've got to film a You Tube video for my birdhouse project I did for the Facebook group "The Craft Hole."  So keep a look out for that.  For all my Facebook peps I will be posting the link to the video there too so you wont miss it.  Thank you all for checking out my cards and videos, you mean the world to me.  Don't forget I love to hear from you guys so I know somebody is out there reading this and I'm not just talking to myself. (like usual). lol.  I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day.  Don't forget to be good to one another. Till next time, have a great day.  Much love and hugs, Amy K.

Female Shabby Chic Easel Card

When I started making this card I had someone particular in mind and the more time went by and longer I worked on it I kept thinking, "You know, I don't ever get to keep any of my creations any more now that I'm not scrap booking so much."  So long story short, by the time the card was done,  I had completely convinced myself that there was nothing wrong with me wanting to keep a creation here and there and I was not behind in my obligations to the church so I wanted it and decided I would keep it!  So this became my birthday card to myself that I just so happened to make about 3 months later.  I think this is a tradition that I will be keeping tho.  I think every year I would like to make a birthday card to myself to keep and remember where I was in my hobby at that time in my life.

I do love the card, It's not because I made it, it's the stamps and the inks and the patterned paper that I used.  I would never brag on my own work like that and say "It's beautiful" "Look how beautiful I made this".  No, I think that's other's place to judge whether something I made is beautiful or  not but I am allowed to fall in love and think that the products used are beautiful. lol.  I used the Divine paper stack in 6x6 from Prima for the patterned paper and the banner is also from a sheet of that paper. I just covered the tops with glossy accents to make them shine. I used a lot of Close to my Heart stamps for this card and the coordinating die cuts from the cricut cartridges that Close to my Heart has come out with.  I used mostly inks from Hero Arts, Shadow inks, and Colorbox fluid chalk inks.  I have the most colors in these ink pads and I just love the colors that they have.  I am sure I would probably love Close to my Heart or Stampin up ink pads too if I ever tried them.  Who needs that extra stress tho. lol  I have a hard enough time finding room to store the ink pads that I currently own and I always feel the need to own every color in each line that I fall in love with.  I have a whole other blog post about what ink I love and why.  It's on a card post but just a few post back so it shouldn't be hard to find if you are interested in my opinion's on that subject.  Just look for the longest post in the past month. lol

I think I may have mentioned that this was a 6x6" easel card and when I made this one I had only made like one before it.  So hey, it's not perfect. lol.  I added a lot of hand made flowers to this card.  Most of the roses were made by me.  I have  yellow striped Prima flower there that I changed the center in and the beautiful pink tie-dye looking flower at the bottom is from The paper Studio at Hobby Lobby..  It has a new center as well, actually the flower was so sloppily made that I had to take the whole thing apart and re glue it so I just added the center then too.

Here's a shot of the card opened up:

You can see where I distressed all the edges with my Prima distress tool (I actually use my dremol tool most of the time for this) and then went back over the edges with distress ink from Ranger.  I used an ek success boarder punch and just punched along both edges of a strip of paper then layered it with a Martha Stewart strip punch and inked the edges of all that and then finished off the layer with a scalloped circle punch that had been stamped with more Close to my Heart stamps in pink Hero Arts ink and the sentiment was from Hot off the Press and stamped with the Hero arts blackboard ink. love that black. It and the black India black ink. For the stopper I used a fragment from Tim Holtz and used patterned paper from the line to back it.  It doesn't show here in the picture but I later went back and added another one to the other side to make the card stay open better and sit a little straighter. 

Here's one more picture then I promise to let you go:

This is a better shot of what the inside or bottom of the card looks like.  I did the whole card on a brown card base.  Like I said, I love the way this card turned out.  All the colors and products just seemed to work so well together for my taste anyway.  I guess that's why I wanted to keep it.  I finally turned out a card I was really proud of and I wanted to keep it to hold on to that memory and sometimes pictures alone just wont do it..  I make a lot of cards and all I have to show for it is pictures.  I wanted something real this one time.  Please don't judge me.  Till next time, Much love and hugs, Amy k.

Boy and a girl "Teen Themed" Thank you for visiting the church cards.

Today I've got something special in store for you! Are you ready, awe you've  already read the title of the blog post.  But, yeah, I've got some teen themed cards.  That's something that I rarely get to do unless they are graduation cards.  From time to time I will get a birthday card for a teen that I do.  I think now that I'm making the cards for the church I'll get to make more of these types of cards.  Or at least cards for this age group, I should say.  I loved it, making these cards.  They are so fun and freeing.  You get to just get out your supplies and play and I think we all need some "crafty play" time from time to time.  You know that time when you just do what you feel to the project and there are no rules and you aren't making it necessarily for one person or another.  It's just for you in alot of cases.  I think it keeps us moving forward creatively and that's important.  I was just saying yesterday while getting my nails done, I finally took time to do That for myself and it felt so good! but I was saying that I never even have time to do scrapbook layouts anymore and that is my first love.  With all the cards that I'm making for the church I am always on a time crunch it seams.  I wish I had more time to craft for me.  I don't get to join swaps right now but I feel that making the cards for the church is important.  I'm getting some wonderful feed back and people are thanking me for their cards and I think that's wonderful. If making the amount of cards that I do for the church becomes too much for me to create individual works then I can always switch to what I call cookie cutter cards where you have one sketch that you follow and just change up the papers and the sentiments and some of the embellishments. But for the most part the cards are just the same.  Some months are busier than others and last month was really busy but I managed and I was happy with the cards I made.  You will be seeing those cards coming up on the next few weeks and who knows maybe one month I will only have a few cards to make and will be able to get back to working on my layouts.  I know I don't do any blogging about my scrap booking but if its something you would like to see then shoot me an email or leave a comment below and I'll post some layouts for you to see.  Okay that's enough talk, lets see these cards!

Now, keep in mind that the purpose of these cards, both of them, is to give to visitors of the church to thank them for attending service and let them know we enjoyed them just being there.  So with that in mind, here is the female version of the card.    I used some distress ink to add color to a white sheet of card stock.  lately I'm using the Neenah 110lb  exact index smooth card stock.  I'm really loving this paper.  It's a good quality, heavy card and super smooth.  It's great for stamping and doing techniques with distress ink.  I haven't really used it with water so I can't comment on that aspect but for the money I think it's a great card stock especially for stampers.  I am using my Georgia Pacific white to make the card bases out of still but for the stamping Im always using the Neenah.  I used some image stamps from Autumn Leaves.  I am not sure what black ink I used but It would have either been versa fine or Hero Arts India dye ink.  That's another product that I'm really loving.  I've got a huge investment in Hero Arts ink pads as it is.  I have all the dye ink colors except for the soft colors.  I will be working on that next.  Ink pads are something that I have no shortage of.  I also have  a huge assortment of Color box fluid chalk ink pads.  Not the little q's either I've bought all the big ones.  I don't think I have all the colors but I've got a really good start on it anyway.  I use the Hero Arts for all my stamping unless I'm using the clear Acrylic stamps which we all know are a lesser quality stamp and alot of ink will just bead up on it and then when you stamp it out you get a blotchy image that's not clean and smooth.  I bought alot of the cheaper acrylic stamps when I was starting out in paper crafting mainly because they were cheap and I didn't know there was a difference in the quality of the stamp.  I thought that all clear stamps were created equal.  lol, How little did I know. lol.  These Autumn Leaves stamps are acrylic but versa fine and the Hero Arts black ink, well the India dye ink and one more they have called blackboard, they will stamp out pretty clean on these stamps.  I will add one more thing sense I'm talking about stamping, I've had those specific stamps a long time and I've conditioned them so that they take ink much better.  To do this all you have to do is take a white art eraser and rub the stamp image a few times, make sure you get all the areas and then clean all the eraser droppings off the stamp and give it a try.  I got that tip from my good friend, Robin who has been stamping over 20 years.  She also said that if that didn't work you can use a fine grit emery board and scratch the surface of the stamp up a bit and that will help it hold ink.  I found that the Colorbox Chalk ink stamps beautifully with these cheap stamps and that is why I spent the money on buying so many of them.  Also they come in beautiful colors and the browns are wonderful for doing some edging on you paper.  I bought the refills for the browns because I use

them so much.  

Here's a shot of the inside of the card.

You can see I've lined the inside with yellow card stock and then done some more of the image stamps from Autumn Leaves.  The sentiment stamp is one I bought from an online seller, its an old Stampin up stamp but I love the whole set I got from that seller.  I was looking for some faith based stamps and she had just what I was looking for.  That's another of the stamps I got from her on the front of the card.

Okay I'm going to try a wrap this up, it's turning to a really long post.

Here's the Male version of the card:

Once again, I turned to my trusty distress inks to color the background paper.  This time I used watercolor paper and water with the distress inks to help them blend and get that water colored effect.  I used a stamp set from Close to My Heart and heat embossed the controller straight on the watercolor piece with white embossing powder but the piece that says "next level" is heat embossed on a coordinating die cut from the Artiste cartrige for the cricut.  The sentiment is from a Hobby Lobby stamp set and I also used a strip of filmstrip washi tape.  I used my white paint pen to draw in the cord to the controller.  i thought it looked weird just floating there in the middle of the card and the cord helps ground the image to the edge of the panel. Lastly I added  home made enamel dots and my white gel pen to add dash lines around the edges of the card and I used my corner chomper to round the bottom edges.

Here's a shot of the inside:

To line the inside I used the red and green distress ink from the front of the card to color these panels then added white to finish it off.  That sentiment stamp is also from that seller and it's stampin up too I believe.  I just ran the piece thru the printer to add "Thank you visiting  us a Fisher's Chapel".  I did that to the inside of both cards then I leave the other side blank to give the preacher room to write.

Okay, that's finally all for today, sorry It got to be so long.  if you stuck it out to the end then God love you, Is all I've got to say. lol.  I will try and keep the post a little shorter from now own.  I have no idea who will be getting these cards, that falls on the preacher to decide but who ever it is, I hope they enjoy them.  They were fun to make but It also was good exercise for my creativity. I hope I get to make more cards for this age group.  I know I have a few birthday's coming up.  Till next time, have a wonderful and blessed day. I'll see you in the next post.  Much love and hugs, amy k

Birthday card for my Sis in law

Melissa or Mel to us who know and love her, is a wonderful Sister in law to me.  She's such a sweet, caring and most of all, she's good to my Brother and their children.  She's very active in the kids activities such as coaching her daughters pee wee soft ball team (or t-ball or what ever they call it for 4 year olds lol).  She's got a great sense of humor and that's probably her most redeeming quality to me anyway.  She's great to just sit and chat with and I've never, ever sense meeting her for the first time, ever had that weird awkward silence when talking to her.  I just love her.  I love both my sil's and I couldn't have picked better ones myself.

I'm not sure that Mel likes the shabby chic type cards that I make but she's never complained about any that I've sent to her.:)  I believe this was a 6x6 inch card base and I used Prima paper for the background,  The banners are Close to My Heart stamps and they cut out with a coordinating cricut cartridge. I also used some cheese cloth on this card and some of my very treasured vintage lace.  The flourishes are from My Favorite Things, I just cut them down to make them smaller.  The flower is a stamp and die set from Heartfelt Creations.  I just love this die set to make flowers.  I used a small bling button in the center and I used my distress ink to water color the flower. I just added a few flat back pearls to the trim to finish the card off.  I sure hope that Mel liked this card, I had a good time making it.

That's all I've got for this post, thank you for stopping by the blog today.  I will be back soon with more cards.  I've got some teen age "Thank You for Visiting the church" cards coming up.  They are fun cards so be sure to keep on the look out for them, you don't want to miss these teen themed cards.  It's not a category that I get to explore often and I had fun making them.  So till then I hope you all are having a great day and till next time, much love and hugs, Amy K.

Birthday card for young boy, from the church

This card was made for one of our youngest members at Fisher's Chapel.   Mister Nate Scott.  I'm not exactly sure of his age but I don't believe he's started any kind of schooling just yet.  He's a very active and lively young man.  What we, here in the south, would call a "live wire".  lol.  That describes him to a T.  He has several bigger brothers and sisters to play with and they all look out for him..  I wanted to make a cute little boy card for him and nothing to complicated for such a young man.  So I used my Cricut to die cut the background layer out of the striped paper and then the lion figure and the flag on a pole.  Of course the lion's wearing a happy birthday hat and waving the happy birthday flag.  On top of the flag I placed a large gold pear shaped jewel.  I scattered some of my homemade enamel dots in vibrant colors all over the card front and added red stickles around the flag piece and glossy accents down the flag pole to make it seem like it was shiny metal.

That's all for this card, any questions just leave them in the comments and I will answer asap.  Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope you all have a blessed and wonderful Sunday.  Get lots of good rest in to start the week again on Monday. I'll try and be back Monday with another card and until then, Much love and hugs, amy k.

Card made for Jesenia Pagan over on the Craft Hole on Fb.

I know I'm about a month behind on these blog post but I still wanted to share the card I made for my swap partner, Jesenia Pagan on The Craft Hole Facebook group for the Dollar/pound swap we did last month.  We were not required to make cards for this swap, it was for an altered item that you purchased at the dollar store (If you live in the US and the pound store if you live over seas).  I just don't feel right sending something in the mail without a card to go with it.  Call me crazy, it's just how I roll lol. This is the first ever easel card that I've made.  I really like the paper line and the stamp.  I loved those stamps when I saw them and I bought three different sets but I can't use them on my typical everyday card so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to use them finally.  Here's a pretty good shot of the front of the card.

This second picture shows the inside of the card too and you can read the sentiment.  I handmade most of the flowers for this card out of the designer paper.  The patterned paper was from My Minds Eye and I used a Sizzix doily die for the black part and heat embossed the sentiment in white.  I used a couple of Martha Stewart boarder punches, one on the front and one for the boarder on the inside. This is a 6x6 inch card made from heavy black cardstock.  I edged all the papers with black soot distress ink from Tim Holtz.  The label shape on the inside is a punch from the paper studio by Hobby Lobby. I believe to sign this card, with the inside being all black, I just used my white gelly roll pen. 

That's all for this post, thank you for stopping by the blog.  I hope you are all having a great Friday and the weekend is off to a wonderful start.  I hope you all have a blessed day and I'll maybe be back tomorrow with another card.  I've got to start catching these post up lol. Talk to you soon, till then, Much love and hugs, Amy K.

card share video, Male and female birthday cards

Feminine Birthday card from the church

I made this card for a female member of the church.  It was so simple to make and fast too.  It never ceases to amaze me at what a little stamping and ink will do for your projects.  I'm so glad that I took the time to learn how to do it correctly and I'm grateful to my stamping buddy, Robin who was always there to offer advice and answer any questions that  I had about stamps or inks or how to get the best results.  I also owe a big thank you to all the wonderful ladies of You Tube who make the videos that taught me so much about techniques and different inks.  I tell you, I don't think there's anything that you can't learn from a you tube video.   What ever you are looking for there's a video on it. 

The background stamp of the bird and clocks etc. is a Hero Arts cling stamp and I stamped all the images using Hero Arts inks. The rest of the stamps are by Prima.  I backed the designer paper on a piece of Bazzill Basics paper and also lined the insides with that card stock.  I just added some ribbon and bling trim and a flowers with leaves and then liquid pearls in a few places on the corners.  That finishes off the card for today.  Thank you for stopping by to take a look at my card.  Remember all comments are welcome, I just ask that you try to be nice.  Thank you for your consideration.:)   I've got to run get ready for church this morning so I will have to let you go.  Not to worry, I will be back Monday with more cards to share.  I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Sunday.  Till next time, much love and hugs, Amy K.

Masculine Birthday card for the church

This card was made for a male member of our church named Ronnie.  Ronnie is also distant kin to me so I've known him all my life.  I guess he's like my 2nd cousin or something lol.  I remember going to school with his daughter and she and I were always friends and liked that we got to go to the same family gatherings together. 

For his card I used a TPC studio stamp from Hobby Lobby for the background and the sentiment and the flourishes are stamps from Autumn Leaves.  I've had those flourish stamps a long time now and I think I've really gotten my money's worth out of them cause I've used them a ton of times on cards and especially scrapbook layouts.  I used some Lindy's Stamp Gang spray mist for the middle layer and Glimmer Mist for the yellow layer.  I just used some washi tape on the white layer to give it a little pop and then some sequins with bling in the centers and a bow and that's all for this little card.  Not too complicated at all.  I enjoy the simple cards when I get to make them and I try to keep the cards that I make for the church members pretty simple.  It gets really expensive to put a lot of product on so many cards that I've been making for them.  It's not that I'm trying to be cheap but come on now, Why use up all my crafting budget on products that I am giving to people who may just end up throwing them away?  I know you crafters know what I'm talking about..  Besides, my hubby would kill me if I bought product for all the cards that I've been making.  I love Prima but it gets expensive and  I want to save my flowers to use on my scrapbook layouts that I know I will be keeping for ever.  One thing to note, if any of you are thinking about making cards or anything crafty for your church or other charity organization, one thing that I've found out about my state of Ga anyway is that I can claim whatever products that I buy for my crafting on my taxes under charitable contributions.  All I have to do is turn my receipts into our funds officer at the church and she will keep up with it for me all year.  Then all I have to do is claim it on my taxes.  It's a great excuse to buy new stuff.  I just tell the hubby "I can claim it on  my taxes" lol.  No, he doesn't let me get away with that. lol.

That's all for today.  I hope you enjoyed today's card and I thank you for stopping by.  I hope you all are having a great Monday.  I'll be back maybe in the morning with another card for you.  Till then, much love and hugs, Amy K.

Missing You from Church Female version

Sorry I didn't get back to make this post yesterday as promised.  I've been so sick here lately.  Well, for the last week anyway.  Me and the hubby both have been sick.  I also had to get down to Mom's yesterday to help on her house remodel.  I say I help but honestly I mainly watch. lol.  So here's the card all tho a little late.  This is another square 5.5" card and I used My Mind's Eye designer paper pad called "Sky's the Limit", and If you haven't checked out this paper yet you so should.  I mean it's beautiful.  I think It may be my new favorite paper pad.  Of course, for card making I buy the 6x6" pads for the smaller prints. I also used a Martha Stewart doily die cut and it's done in like a metallic white paper, pretty cool.  I also die cut the sentiment label from a Spellbinders die and cut it from the designer paper then inked it with Worn Lipstick distress ink from Tim Holtz.  I used a couple of washi tapes: the blue and pink with the cross's cause it's from the church, and the yellow flourish that I cut into fish tail banner shapes.  I stamped out the "Know that you are Loved" stamp and added it to the pink card stock, the same as what I mounted the card base onto, then added the banner of washi tape to the bottom.  To make the tape more workable I first adheared it to a strip of white card then cut out around it.  That also made the flowers on the tape show up white because it's naturaly translucent.  I did the same thing with adding it to white card and cutting it out to the piece in the lower right hand corner and added it with my tiny attacher from Tim Holtz. The flowers are a mix from Prima and the Paper Studio and the leaf is Recollections. And that's it for this card.  Sorry, once again, that it's a whole day late.  I wish I could have gotten it up yesterday.  I hope you guys are all having an awesome weekend, I know we are having some really mild weather here and I'm really enjoying it. I hope you are having nice weather where ever you may be.  I hope you all have a blessed Sunday and Until next time, Much Love and Hugs, Amy K.

Masculine "Missing you from Church" card

Our Preacher, Art, and his lovely wife, Sylvia, had the awesome idea for me to make up some "Missing you at church" cards to send out to people whose attendance at church may have just kinda fallen off lately.  It's nothing pushy or anything to make the person receiving the card feel bad for not coming to church.  It's just meant to be a nice gesture to make them feel like they are truly missed and convey how much we would love to have them back at church.  It's really meant to make them feel how truly special we feel they are and to let them know that they are missed and yeah, we notice when they are not around.  I thought it was a lovely idea and I was totally on board to make those kinds of cards.  I've never seen a card that says anything like that so I was just winging it and I didn't have any stamps that say anything like that, of course, so I just improvised and used my computer and printer to make the sentiment.  I think that's a great look and I really like using that technique.  Not as much as I enjoy stamping lol, but I think its fun and it looks professional.

Art told me that he wanted one card to be for a male and one for a female so this post is for the male card and I'll follow up with a post featuring the female version.  For this card I used patterned paper by Authentic and a die cut from Anna Griffin and the note paper die is from Papertray ink. I had to cut that die cut down a bit to make it fit nicely on the card but I don't think it looks bad that short.  I added some washi tape in a silver pattern on the note page die and that tab die is also from Papertray Ink. On the corner die cut from Anna G. I used some silver rub and buff to highlight the embossed areas.  I pulled out an old boarder punch from Fiskars with the diamond shape edge and used it along the bottom piece of paper and distressed all the edges with Black Soot distress ink from Tim Holtz to tie in all the black and then added the panel to a piece of black card stock then mounted it to the front of a 5.5 x 5.5" corrugated card base (you know, the ones that I love) from Micheals. I just added a bow layered with some mesh bling that I got from Hobby Lobby to finish off the card.   

That's all for this post, I hope you enjoyed it.  I try not to make them too long. Tee Hee.  I talk alot. lol. I'll be right back with the follow up post to show you the female version of this card.  Hope everyone is off to a great start on their weekend.  Brian and I are possibly going to visit some of our friends today so that will be lots of fun.  She wants to show me all her crafty collections.  I can't wait.  She possibly has some goodies for me too.  The kind that I like, the antique paper and lace and trim and buttons, oh my.  I can't wait.  I'll come back and show you what I got If she wants to sell any of it. Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day and I'll talk to you soon.  Till then, much love and hugs, Amy K.

Feminine Birthday card for Mother in law

This is the birthday card that I made for my mother in law, Judy.  I made it using the Kirby Teesdale Studio paper in the 4.5"x6.5" pad.  I usually buy the 6x6 paper pads for my card because the papers have the print on a smaller scale and the images fit the smaller size of cards much nicer but this paper is made by Hobby Lobby and I've never seen it in the 6x6 pads so this mat stack works great.  Most of the images are printed in the landscape style and fit just right on a card front with out having to do alot of trimming.  I matted the patterned paper on some bazzill purple card stock and also used it for the sentiment.  I cut out the rectangle shape with my Spellbinders die and I believe the sentiment is from Hot off the Press. For the vintage bottle I used a stamp set from Hampton Art and stamped it using hero arts shadow inks. I embossed the gold foil strip across the bottom using an Anna Griffin embossing folder then finished it off with some vintage green Chinese braid.

Here's a shot of the inside of the card.  I used that same bazzill card stock to mat the white layer and used my printer to print out the sentiment.  That's so easy to do and it looks very nice too.  To finish I stamped the butterfly image from one of the Micheals dollar spot stamps and used hero arts ink.

That's all for me today. I hope you liked the card. I'll be back soon with more cards as I have been very busy this month.  The church has a lot of birthdays in August and I try to stay as far ahead as I can so that no one receives their card late.  So I still have lots to share with you.  Till then I hope you have a wonderful day.  I've got a full day planned of mowing the grass (if it doesn't rain) and then shopping this evening. So I will be pooped by tonight. I hope you are having a very blessed day.  Talk to you again soon, lots of love and hugs, amy K

Young man birthday card for the church

I made this card for a young man named Eythan.  His grandma is a member of our church and he comes with her a great deal of the time and when he does he always joins in with our band playing the guitar.  He's such a talented young man and we are always happy to have him there.  I used distress ink to color the backgrounds and the blue is embossed with a corrugated looking embossing folder.  To get the variation in the blue ink I waited until after embossing it to add the ink that way the darker ink stuck more to the raised surfaces.  I die cut the guitar and the frame with the cricut.  The flowers were all made by me and just a little side note: when I hand make flowers like this I start with a flower that is a cricut cut and that way I can get different sized flowers and I don't have to spend money on all those punches.  I just use any five petal die cut to make them.  If you would like to see how I make them just leave me a comment and I'll see about putting together a video tutorial for you. The smaller leaves are a cricut cut and the larger ones are from my Martha Stewart punch.  I just tied the knot at the top with that wonderful tie die ribbon to finish it off. 

That's all for today, I'll be back soon with another card.  Hope you enjoyed this card.  Have a great Friday, it's time for the weekend! Have a great day and Ill see you again soon, Hugs, amyk

Anniversary card for my Brother

Today I have an Anniversary card that I made for my Brother and his wife, Mel.  This tells you how far behind I am on my blog post, their anniversary was back in mid June.  I hope to catch up before the end of the year lol.  To make this card I used some resist paper from Heidi Swap and some of her glimmer shine sprays.  The doily is from Spellbinders and the banner and sentiment are from Simmon Says Stamp.  The flower is from The Paper Studio by Hobby Lobby and the leaves are Recollections by Micheals and to finish it off I just tied around some red burlap ribbon.  It's a  pretty simple card but I think it's classy.  Hope you like it too!  Thank you for stopping by.  Hope you have a wonderful evening and I'll see you back tomorrow for another card or maybe two!  Hugs, Amy K.

card share video for birthday cards

I've got a video for you today that shows you some of my more recent cards that I've made for the church and some for personal use.  They are all femine birthday cards and some of them are made using the Cricut creative cards cartridge.  I'm loving this cartridge for fast and easy simple cards that I can make in a hurry for the church to give out.  I love it so much I went and bought two more of the cricut card making cartridges. I hope I'm using them for a long time to come.  I hope you enjoy the video and as always, feel free to leave me a comment letting me know what you think of my creations and also you can let me know if there are any videos that you would like to see and I will see what I can do about getting a video made for you.  I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week.  We're half way to the weekend now!  Only two more days to go!  I'll be back soon with some more cards.  Thanks for stopping by.

Christian birthday cards: Female designs

This first card just so happens to be for my mother in-law, Judy, or as I call her, Mama Judy.  Either way seems to be fine with her.  She's easy to get along with :)  So, No, you're not imagining things, this is the second card you've seen for her this month.  I made her a card from my Husband and I and then because she goes to my church I made another card to her from the church.  Brian and I go to church with several people that I will be making two cards for.  It's cool with me, I think of it as fun time because now I have an excuse to crafty play.  I love it so far, making cards for the church, that is.  I really thought that it would maybe be more than I could do and I didn't want crafting to start to feel like a chore.  I always want it to be fun and stay something that I love.  I have been doing this for nine years now and when I started out I honestly didn't know how long I would want to do it.  I do wish I had more time to scrapbook but there will be months like July where I don't have so many cards that I need to make for the church and I can use that time to scrapbook.  That's how I started paper crafting, in scrapbooking.  I saw a show on the DIY channel and I fell in love with it instantly.  I remember, back then we  used VHS tape and so I  recorded that show and when Brian, my husband, came home from work that day I showed him what I had recorded and I said, "I want to do that!"  I don't think he knew what to make of it.  He's always been supportive and he actually helped me get my first supplies.  My birthday was coming up and he had found a scrapbook store in the area where he worked and he went in and bought a gift certificate for me and then took me back up there and let me spend it.  I had a blast and the sales woman was so helpful in getting me the tools that I would need to get started.  I think when I started out all I had was a metal edged ruler,(that I borrowed from Brian) and a pencil. lol. I thought then, "I better stick with this hobby or Brian is going to kill me" after I had taken over a corner in our kitchen.   I started out keeping my supplies in a shoe box then moved to the kitchen table and eventually I moved into the spare room.  Thank goodness we   have a spare room. lol. I pretty much started out like everybody else.  But I always want to love it with the same energy and excitement that I felt during that first year of learning and buying supplies.  I still get excited over a new paper pad but I buy far less supplies and I am much more specific about what I buy.  I've learned what products and companies I like and I've learned who makes the best quality product.  One thing I've always liked it that so many scrapbooking companies are producing their product here in the USA.  I believe in supporting the local economy.  I like to buy from the smaller companies when I can.  I do alot of  shopping on Etsy and Zibbet.  If you are just starting out my advice to you when buying supplies is to try not to get too excited and think you have to buy it all.  There's no way.  Slow down, take a deep breath then take another, and slowly buy stuff that you love.  If you don't love it you are not likely to use it.  One piece of advice that I've gotten and still try to follow today is when you are thinking over buying something stop a minute and think to yourself, "what two projects will I use this on?"  If you can't name at least two then put it back.  It's not going to be worth your money.  I think there's one exception to that rule and that's if you can instead of naming two just be able to name one BIG project that you know you need this item for.  Okay, that's my spill, back to the cards.:)

I made this card for a woman, who I'm sorry to say, I don't really have the pleasure of knowing,  I find it difficult to make a card for someone I don't know.  I don't know why I'm like that but that's just me I guess.  I like to know the person I'm making it for, It helps me better capture their personality so to say.   It's true, even tho my church is a small town or better a small rural area, church, I still don't know everyone there.  I'm getting there tho and I do know that they all are very friendly.  It's a great church to belong to.  I love it there and look forward to going every Sunday.   I know that Katie is a younger woman and that's about all I know.  I know she's not a child, or at least I don't think so. Anyway, in such a case as this I just make something that I would love. lol.  I, of course, had to make it pink, then put on lace and flowers and a beautiful image and sentiment.  It's not a complicated card but I really like it and  I sure hope Katie does too.

This final card is made for Andy, and I also don't really know Andy but I do at least know of her and I do know her mom and if she's anything like her then she's going to be energetic and fun loving.  Andy is a young woman, a little younger than me (I still consider myself to be a young woman tee hee).  So for a fun gal I used a fun paper line.  I used some Hedi Swap "Sugar Chic" for this 5.5" sq. card.  I also used Hedi's color shine sprays to color the doily that wonderful blue you see here and I used the Cricut to cut out that square"ish" label shape and stamped the sentiment there.  I know it's a birthday card but I don't think every birthday card has to say "Happy Birthday" on the front.  They are little works of art to me and like all art, can tell a story and have a theme.  So used this Rejoice stamp here and finished it off with, of course, you guessed it, lace! And a flower and wonderful, beautiful Bling! See, I do still love my supplies.  

I am really enjoying making these cards for the church and my hope is that in hand making each of them the recipient will feel that the church thinks they ARE special, and as such a special person, deserving of someone taking the time to think of them on their birthday and take the time to sit down and make them a card with their own two hands.  It is my hope that these cards are special to the people who receive them. That is why I like to know a little about the person for whom the card is to be made.  I hope that I am able to keep making these cards for the church and that it allows me the time to still do the things that I want to do some along the way.  I pray I never see the day that I no longer find it exciting, fun, and fulfilling as I do today.  I maybe bringing you blog post and videos for a good long time yet to come, If the good Lord's willing:)  I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend, and I'll be back soon with another blog post as I have many to catch up on yet. Till then, much love and hugs, amy k