Shabby Chic, Butterfly birthday card for the fabulous Betty Ward

This little number was a birthday card for the oh, so sweet, Betty Ward.  She is my Hubs Aunt and has embraced me as part of the family like all of his family so lovingly have.  I'm lucky to have such a wonderful and caring extended family.   They are always the first to lend a hand to someone in need with Betty helping to lead them on.

I used several stamps on this card.  I started with a corrugated card base, then layered the blue burlap and then the designer paper.  In the background you can see the blue flourish stamp that has been heat embossed, by Hero Arts, The yellow butterfly stamp was a gift from my long time friend, Robin Moore,  I don't know who makes it tho,.  I went over the butterfly once it was stamped w my yellow gold wink of stella pen and it gave it that bright color and shimmer,  I added bling flourishes from Priima and I layered many flowers but the largest one I made using yellow lace, layered with a small dollie and more gathered lace in a soft pink and finished off with a antique blue button with bling center,  The sentiment stamp is from Paper Tray Ink and I also embossed it in that same blue. To finish I added some pearl sprays and a couple of leaves.

This is  a shot of the inside of the card.  I layered both top and bottom with designer papers from the Prima "Something Blue" collection and layered it with the label die from Tim Holtz for Sizzix..  If you are wondering why the lay out is so it's the way the Preacher asked me to do them.  He wanted the sentiment to be on one side and them room for them (He and his wife) to write a message of their own,  I hope you enjoyed today's card.  I'll be back soon with more,

Till next time, be good to one another, just practice being nice and see what you get in return.  I'll be seeing you, till then, much luv and hugs, Amy k

Masculine Birthday card for Adult or older child

This is a Masculine Birthday card I made for one of the gentlemen in the church while I was still making their cards.  It's a pretty simple card and I find that is what most men like.  Clean and simple.  I think that's the reason us card makers struggle so with masculine cards, its because the majority of us are female and love to load our cards down w flowers and bling and lace and fussy cutting ,,,, the list goes on and on.  When you find yourself in the situation of having to make a masculine card just try to pump your brakes and take it down a notch or two.   You don't have to put all that stuff on a card for them to love it.  Or for them to even be impressed by it.  If you know the person well enough to know what kinds of things they are interested in even better, use that knowledge to give you a subject for the card.  Or a theme as it were.  Just a jumping off point..  I made this card for a very young hearted man who has worked hard all his life to make a living for himself and his family.  He raised two wonderful children and has been blessed with Grand children who in just a few short years may decide to bless him once again lol.  Point is that he's always been a pulp wooder and for those of you up north who don't know what that is its sometimes called logging.  It's cutting down trees and logging them out of the woods on transfer trucks.  I know you have all seen one or two of those trucks on the road with a load of wood on back.  Well this fellow owned one of those businesses.  So in this case I couldn't really take my own advice about using something they have interest in as a theme for your card so I fell back on some subjects I've come to think of as "Old faithfuls" .  They are subjects that are, for the lack of a better word, generic,  Here I used a basic patterned paper with muted designs and I did use a fancy rectangle die cut for the brown pattered paper and then I took two printables here that I got off of Pinterest and printed them  up on white card stock, roughened up the edges a bit.  The tag has a map printed onto it and the blue one of a plane is done like a blueprint drawing.  I don't know that Pinky Ward, who I made this card for, likes planes in particular  but hey, what boy doesn't right? and All people can identify with a map.  I just try and keep it simple when it comes to the Masculine cards.  I do have a man or two that I make cards for and they really seem to like the collage type stuff and I always try and remember and do that for them.  In other words, It helps to know your audience. lol 

I hope you have enjoyed today's card and like I've stated, I'm trying so hard to catch all these up from this year so you may be seeing alot of me for a while,  Till next time I wish you all much love and Hugs, Amy K,

Happy Birthday card for Mom

Wow, I can't believe it's been 6 months sense I last made a blog post.  I apologize for that to anyone  who is kind enough to keep up with the post I make and read them and comment.   You guys are awesome,  

When I left off making blog post in May, I was still trying to catch up all the cards I had made for 2014.  I know now that I will not be able to catch up and post all the cards I made from that time to now.  I had to step away for health reasons and I'm almost 100% but not quite there yet.  So, I'm still really slow about getting things done. I've decided to start off posting the cards I've made this year and hope that I can get most of them posted.  The church was kind enough to allow me to step down from my card making duties while I was getting better and now we still haven't decided if I will resume that part of life or if I do maybe we will have one style and deign card that is universal and can be used for any occasion.  We will see what the future holds,.  As of now I am not making cards for them and thus have more time on my hands to possibly get some post up so having said that, let me tell you about the card for today.

I made this card for Mom back in Jan.  I used several die cuts.  Both of the tags are from Sizzix and the scalloped dollie is a Spellbinders die. The sentiment stamp Is from Close to my Heart and the flowers are a combination of  Pettalo, Prima and The Paper Studio.  I removed the center that came with the teal flower and replaced it with one of my own bling pieces and I added twine from American Crafts to the tags .  To finish it off I placed a stick pin I had made in behind the teal flower and added vintage eyelet lace with a teal lace over that,  I ruffled the eyelet lace as I placed it on the flower to give some dimension to the card as well as popping the circle tag up on foam dots.  

I hope you like this card for today and I hope to be back making post on a regular basis now that I'm feeling better.  I also want to thank the church and friends and family (both mine and Brian's) for holding me up in prayer during the most difficult of times for me.  You all know who you are and you are such a blessing to me.. So, till next time, Much love and Hugs, Amy k

Masculine card made for UMC member, Joe Lanham

Joe is a longstanding member of Fisher's Methodist church and not only Joe but his whole family are very active members of the church.  They are pillars of the church community.   I'm only a first year member of the church myself so I don't exactly know the details of the role(s) Joe plays in the church I just know what I see and from where we (Brian & I ) sit, it appears that he's one of the ones that keeps the activities flowing thru the church.  But, like I said, that's not limited to just Joe, his whole family are very active members.  I've known Joe and his wife Annette for about 17 years.  That's when Brian and I first started dating and the twins were about a year old.  They were still babies to me.  Now those babies are grown and graduated high school this past Saturday.   I know Joe and Annette couldn't be prouder.  They have raised two good young men and are now raising their God Daughter, Chloe, and time flies so she'll be grown in a minute.

Making this card was a breeze, and a joy to make.  I have nothing but respect for Joe as he has never treated me with anything less.  He's one of the good ones, as they say.

The card base is made from a navy sheet of Bazzill basics card stock.  It's heavyweight makes it ideal for card bases.. I used a printed sheet of 6x6" Bazzill layering paper for the first layer then used my Hexagon Spellbinders dies to cut out the patterned papers and inked around all the edges with Stormy Sky distress ink (It's a dark navy blue color).  I got those patterned papers from a 7 gypsies 6x6" pad. I like to use the smaller papers for my cards because the print is smaller and looks more pleasing to the eye on something as small as a card or tag.  In the middle right of the card I've added a couple strips of washi tape.  FYI if you didn't know, washi tape is a technically a Japanese masking tape.  It's low tack and comes in a multitude of patterns and colors.  Love the stuff. For the sentiment die cut I used the cricut and cut the shadow cut too out of the navy to give it a layer.  I stamped the sentiment from a Close to my Heart stamp set. On the inside it has a matching sentiment that says, "wondering what happened" lol I just love that sentiment and I have to be careful who I use it on but usually the men are tough enough to take it all in fun and no one gets their feelings hurt.  I knew Joe would get a laugh out of it.  Hoped he would anyway lol. I just added two brads on each side of the sentiment because that die cut out with holes there.  I didn't want to leave them bare.

That's all for today, I hope you enjoyed the post today.  I'll be back soon with another card for you. I sure wish I could figure out how to schedule post on blogger then i would have  a card for you every day but when I tried it and thought I had it figured out and my post never showed up so I gave up on it. Maybe I'll give it another try lol Might be worth it even if I have to do a little research. Till next time, be good to one another and have a blessed Memorial Day.   Don't forget those who've fallen fighting for our freedoms,  much love and hugs, Amy K.

Feminine Birthday Card for a Lovely Member of the UMC

Pat Tudor is such a lovely, sweet lady and we are proud to have her as a member of the church.  I wanted to make a really feminine, floral, girlie card for her.  One that only women love.  I used a pink floral patterned paper from a stack from the Paper Studio on a complimenting green card stock.  I placed a white paper dollie in the background then built the rest of the card around it. The Ivory ruffled and beaded trim is from Recollections by Micheal's.  The paper flowers are also made by the Paper Studio.  I just changed the center of the little flower on the bottom to a button in gold and white that I had removed the shank from.  That big, lovely green leaf is from a Recollections pack.  You will have to forgive me, I make so many cards using so many supplies and I don't get them posted right away because I am trying to get them posted in the order they were made, so from time to time I forget what products I used on that particular card by the time I get around to posting it online.  So, true to form, I have forgotten where I got the birthday sentiment stamp and I apologize for that. I do know that I used a punch by McGill to punch out both the sentiment and the green patterned paper in the top label shape.  The one punch punches out the label shape and the oval shape all at the same time.  That's all I've done to this card.  Sometimes the ones you love the most are the simplest of all. I do love this card and I love it for Pat. I just hope she enjoyed getting it. 

Till next time, I hope you have a good day.  Be good to your fellow man and do something nice for someone today.  You'll feel better for it.  I'll talk to you again soon.. Till then much love and hugs, Amy K.

Masculine Birthday card for UMC member using Tim Holtz

I made this card for an awesome member of  UMC named Darin Smith.  He's great with the youth of the church and one of the people you see every Sunday with his family. After as many cards that I've made, I still struggle with the masculine cards.  It's so easy for me to make a "Pretty" card for a female but to make a masculine card it takes some skill, practice and some fancy tools. lol.

I used a lot of Tim Holtz products on this card so we'll just say, for the sake of time, that every thing is Tim Holtz product unless otherwise noted. Ok. now that we've got that out of the way, let me tell you how I made this card.....  

I forget what Tim calls the technique that I used but basically what I did was use my non stick craft mat and put some distress ink down in colors of red, blue and grey.  I then sprayed the ink with water, (We all know that distress inks react with water), If you didn't know that, what it does to the ink is make it act more like a water color. The ink just moves around the paper so easily. It's great for making backgrounds.  So once I sprayed the ink with water I gave it a minute to puddle up then placed a sheet of watercolor paper cut to the size of my card, face down into the ink and water and just picked up the color. Notice how it all blends together nicely.  You can then heat dry it and continue picking up more color in layers as many times as you like or until you run out of ink. I then used a labels die to cut out the piece for the sentiment and stamped the blueprint present in red and the "make a wish" in blue to match the background I had created.  I added some ribbon from my stash tied in a bow and a flower from the Paper Studio and some black enamel dots that I made.  I also did some stenciling with modeling paste on the background.  You can see it good to the top and right of the present stamp on the red.  The modeling paste is white so I went over it with some silver Inka Gold Metallic Rub.  It's a waxy water based product that I just love to use.  It covers quite nicely. The only other thing I did to the card was I changed the flower center and added one of my vintage buttons for the center.

That's all for this card.  I hope you enjoyed it. I will try not to be so long between post from now on.  I've just been having some personal issues to deal with but they are being taken care of so maybe I will be back on track soon,  Till then much Hugs and Love, amy K

Birthday card made for Teen girl UMC

I've made another birthday card for UMC, my church family.  I've explained before that my Pastor asked me to make all the cards for the church to give.  That includes but is not limited to, all birthdays, get wells, thank you for visiting, and we've been missing you at church cards.   That is precisely the reason that you see so many birthday cards here on my blog.  I love making the cards for the church even tho I must admit at times I struggle to keep up they are pretty forgiving if I'm a little late with a card or two from time to time :).  I love my church family and I love that the Pastor gives me a birthday list and Its up to me what kind of card I want to make for each person so to say, each card is individually made just for that person,  I guess you could put it simply and say, they are personalized.  

The thing about my small country church is most of the members is that they are either kin to my husband and I or he grew up with or at least knowing them.   They mostly all live in the same area of the county and they all love one another.  I tell you all this just to simply say that this card is made for a special young lady who was born to my Husband's cousin, Jason and his wife at the time Joan, just about the time that Brian and I started dating and this young lady is now almost grown.  Her name is Jordan Ray and she's beautiful and just the sweetest thing you could ever know.  Let's see, Brian and I met in 1998 so I guess she was born in 1999 or 2000 so that now makes her 15 or 16,  It's been a real honor to watch Jordan and a couple more of these children grow from babies to the young adults they have now become.  I love each of these kids.  One important thing they all share is their love for our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.  I see every one of these kids at church every Sunday and they even do better than Brian and I because they are each in Sunday school too each week. 

On to the card,  I made the shaped card from one of my cricut cartridges.  I forget which one but It's one that I've used for a while now. To cut the patterned paper to size to fit the front of the card and not cover the back, I had to place the cut on my gypsy device in such a way that the back side was hanging off the cut area and then once it was cut with the circut I cleaned up the cut with an xacto knife.  It's really simple to do you just have to keep in mind which side is going to be the front and which is the back on the gypsy. Please forgive me as I've forgotten what paper line I used it's been so long and I've made so many cards sense this one.  I know I used that same die cut from yesterday the one from Anna Griffin and another die cut from Memory Box called dizzy doily.  I used a flower from ek success and some washi tape with colorful crosses on it.   The label die with the sentiment on it is from Spellbinders. 

Here's a shot of the inside.  For the layer of circles I used a Sizzix die and on the left side I cut that die cut from the designer paper and the layered some strips of designer paper that I used my boarder punches on then a piece of lace.  On the right side I die cut a piece of cream card stock and just distressed the edges with my brown chalk ink.  I like the soft look of the chalk ink. I also used that chalk ink in a  darker shade of brown to stamp the sentiment  on the left.

That's all for today.  Sorry if you don't really like long post.  I just had the children in my heart this morning and wanted to share with you all.  I hope you like my card.  I may be back later today or maybe in the morning as I want to share my Brother's birthday card I just made.  His birthday was yesterday.  Till then,  I hope you all have a very blessed day.  Much love and hugs, Amy K.

Baby banner for little girl, Baby shower

This a banner that my cousin, Nicole asked me to make for her step daughter inlaw's upcoming baby shower.  I'm sorry that I didn't get any pictures made, silly me!  But I wanted to share it with you now that the baby shower has come and gone.  I did use the cricut to cut out both bunting shapes and Bazzill card stock in purples and for the die cut owls and then My Minds Eye designer paper for the background.  I used chipboard letter that I painted very light lavender with Martha Stewart satin paint. and for the rest of the information, just check out the video, I think I explain everything there.  Thanks for watching, Have a Blessed Day!

Shabby Chic Female Birthday Card by request

This is another of the cards that Sylvia, the Pastor's wife has asked me to make for her.  This card is for her Daughter.  I wanted it to be really shabby chic and feminine for her.  Sylvia told me that she really loves butterflies and all things pretty so I tried to hook her up with this card. :)

I started with a 6x6 card base then using designer paper by Pink Paisley (I think this is Butterfly Garden) I just layered that on top of the card base,  I made it in a peachy color out of Bazzill card stock so It already matched the designer paper.  Then I layered a few different die cuts.  The redish/Pink colored die cut is from Anna Griffin for Provo Craft.  I got it in a bundle of die cuts and embossing folders from HSN a while back.  Love all the pieces tho.  It was a good purchase.  The next die cut is also a piece of the designer paper and I cut it with a Spellbinders die and then took my Prima chalk edger in Pastel Pink and stenciled thru the die.  You know Spellbinders makes dies that you can cut, emboss and stencil.  I added it on top of the first layers with pop dots.  The sentiment is also a die cut but it comes from the cricut.  It's one of the Close to my Heart cartridges that have matching stamps so I die cut the shape then used Hero Arts shadow inks in a green color to stamp the sentiment with the coordinating stamp.  I also added that piece on dimensional foam.  I added matching flowers from The Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby and then to finish off the front I layered a couple of laces and then that brown trim to the top of the lace, Oh I can't forget the butterfly, I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and punched it from some of the designer paper and added it as a finishing touch.

This is a shot of the inside of the card.  I just took a piece of that designer paper and I've inked all the edges using my Prima chalk edger then layered the designer paper first then the cream layer next.  I stamped the birthday sentiment in that same Hero Arts Green ink that I had used on the front of the card.  I think you guys have all seen me use this stamp before, It's not new and I've surely gotten my money's worth out of that little stamp. lol.  I use it alot, so to say.   I made sure to leave plenty of room at the bottom for Sylvia and Art to have space to sign.

That finishes this post for this card,  I hope you enjoyed it.  I heard back from Sylvia later that her Daughter just loved the card and just that alone makes it all worth wild for me.  I love what I do even if I stress out about the blog post and you tube videos lol.  I'll try to be back tomorrow with another card, this next one will be a shaped card.  I will try to get in as many post this week as I can b/c I may not be able to post much the rest of the month.  I've got a lot going on, I'm taking prom pictures this Saturday and then my birthday will be Monday and my Anniversary will be the next day and then I will have Chloe coming over on Thursday and Friday (she'll be spending the night)  and I have two Dr's apt next week and a butt load of crafty projects due.  So just hang in there, I'll post as often as I can.  Today is my dear Brother's bday and I want to wish him a happy birthday and I want to post his card one day this week..  I may make two post in one day to make room for it.  we'll see.  I also will be wanting to post my anniversary card.   So lots more to come!  Stay tuned!

Till next time, I hope you all have a very blessed day.  Much hugs and love, Amy K.

Fishing themed Birthday card for teen boy

I was asked to make this card by my Pastor's wife, Sylvia.  She wanted it made for her grandson who was turning 15 and loves everything to do with fishing.   I just love Sylvia to death, she's such a kind soul and a supreme example of just the kind of Christian woman I would like to be so of course when she asked me to make a few cards I was happy to do so.  Making the card was easy, I just found the card I wanted to make on the "Just Because" cards cricut cartridge.  I picked some Tim Holtz patterned paper and also used some red Bazzill card stock for the layers and lettering and card base.  I stamped the 15 onto a die cut circle and added it to the card front with pop dots. To finish the card off I added some faux stitching with my white gel pen.

Here's a shot of the inside of the card.  I stamped the sentiment with an Hot off the Press stamp set called "Birthday Greetings".  I stamped it with Versa Fine in Onyx Black and stamped the candle to finish it off.  Sense this card is coming from Art and Sylvia and not the church I didn't mat both sides of the inside of the card and leave one side just for a signature.  I just stamped the sentiment and left room at the bottom to sign the card. 

That's all for today.  Hope you enjoyed today's card.  I will try to be back in the morning with another card.  The next one is another card for Sylvia.  It's for her Daughter this time.   I have really enjoyed making cards for her, she truly seems to enjoy my cards and always showers me with praise, and who wouldn't love that?!   I'm glad that I can create something that brings another great pleasure and something that they are proud to give to someone they love.  That's the greatest gift of all.

Till next time, I hope you have a very Blessed day.  Much love and hugs, Amy K.

Masculine Birthday card

Here's another birthday card made for a UMC member.  This card was made for member Bill Smith.  I tried to keep this card on the simpler side like I do with all my masculine cards. I used some K & Co. 12x12 patterned paper and Bazzill Basics card stock.  The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz stamp set.  I used die cuts from Spellbinders.  The gold cross comes from Hobby Lobby.

Above is a picture of the inside of the card. For these cards for UMC I try to include an uplifting sentiment on the inside and not necessarily a birthday sentiment.  I always place the sentiment on the left hand side panel and make a place for the Pastor to sign on the right and for these top folding cards I place the sentiment on the top side and leave the bottom panel for the Pastor to sign.  I placed some designer paper along the bottom edge of both halves and for the top panel I added a few rows of blue mesh bling and on the bottom I layered the designer paper after punching it with a boarder punch. I layered all the panels on top of the bazzill card stock in light brown and I had inked the edges of the cream card stock with light brown chalk ink.

That's all for today's card.  I hope you like it.  I am still trying to catch up these blog post so keep bearing with me.  If you haven't seen your card yet I promise it's coming.  It's hard to sit down and make a blog post and find time to craft each day too. lol.  I do my best most days. lol.  Till next time I hope you have a blessed day.  Much love and hugs, Amy K.

UMC Birthday card for Tween girl

I made this cute little card for a wonderfully sweet little girl in our church by the name Chloe Shaw.  She's a beautiful, bright little girl with a Huge love for the Lord.  She just got named for perfect attendance in Sunday School.   What a blessing this young lady is.  I had her in my Vacation Bible School class last year and she was so willing to learn and helped the younger ones in the class to understand as well.   All I can say is that we can all take a lesson from this little Christian Solder. Amen. 

I made this card from one of the 5,5x5.5" corrugated card bases from Micheals and the paper line I used is the Heidi Swap "Sugar Chic" 12 x 12" pad.  The banner was a cut out from the collection and the black and white panel was too.  It already had the wording at the bottom left corner.  I just added the gift stamp and flower stamp, the crown was already part of the paper.  For the little girl on this card I used my cricut and the Rock Princess cartridge.  She's giving the "I love you" signs, I believe the peace sign die cut came from the same cartridge.  To finish the card off I added too of my hand made enamel dots to the banner and then stamped Happy Birthday in the lower right corner.  The card came together pretty quickly and  I think its a good example of how we can still use those old cricut cartridges that we all used to love so much lol.  I know I've loved all my cricut machines literally to death lol.  I hope Chloe enjoyed her card.  I know I enjoyed making it for her.  

I'm still trying to get back in the grove of making post more frequently so hand in there and bear with me.  If you haven't seen your card come up yet, I promise you will just give me time.  On that note I wanted to say I've got several projects coming up this month of April for you to keep a look out for.  I am currently working on a baby banner on that was commissioned for a shower.  I will hope full have that done today and so maybe you can see that tomorrow.  It will be a break from all the birthday cards.  I also am going to be participating in a You Tube hope so I will post that video here for you to see.  Also there's an altered journal coming up too so keep watching this month.  I promise there's more to come!

Till then I hope you all have a very blessed day and I will talk to you again soon.  Till then Much love and hugs. Amy K.

A get well card for a special lady

This will tell you just how far behind I am in my blogging,  I made this card for Nanny when she first went into the hospital back last September.   Yeah, I know, I may never catch up on my blog post at this rate but I can't just skip over all these cards that I made for special reasons just for the sake of saying "I'm all caught up".   Nanny is actually  Brian's grandmother but she's been my Nanny too for about 17 years now.  I love that woman dearly.  She's always been good to me and If she ever did have a bad thing to say about me she kept me from finding out and I appreciate that.  She was a good friend to me at a time when I felt like no one liked me or ever would despite anything that I might do to try and change that.  She's one of the special Angels God blesses us with to live amongst us and try and teach us how to be better people mostly thru demonstration.

I just wanted to make her a little Get Well card to let her know that we were thinking about her and that we had her in our prayers.   The card itself didn't take much to make.  I took a 12x12" sheet of card stock from the Haberdashery stack from the Paper Studio and cut the card base out on my cricut.  I then took a white doily and sprayed it with Heidi Swaps color shine in blush.   I die cut the sentiment label from a Tim Holtz die and for the sentiment I used a stamp set from Papertray Ink called Big & Bold Wishes.  I used Hero Arts shadow inks to stamp out the sentiments.  I then edged around the outside of the label with some brown chalk ink.  Finally I added some pale pink enamel dots all about the card.

See, I told you, simple.  I hope you enjoyed today's card and I will try to be back tomorrow with another for you.  Till then, Much hugs and Love, Amy K.

Shabby Chic birthday card made for UMC member

Happy last day of March!  Easter is right around the corner.  I'm sorry to say that it doesn't look like you will be seeing any Easter cards from me this year.  I have been so busy making cards and not blogging them that I''ve really gotten behind on my post.  I'm still working on posting cards that were made and mailed before Christmas last year!  I am trying oh so hard to sit  down and do more blogging so that I can get caught up.  I don't want any one's card to be left out so I just keep pushing on.   Anyway. that's why you wont see any Easter cards this year.  That is unless I get on the ball and get them made this week. lol.

This card was made for a Lovely little lady at church.   She's just as sweet as the day is long.   I really love making cards for everyone but there's a few people who hold a special place in my crafty heart. Violet Parsons is just one such person.   She's a doll and one of our elder members and as anyone whose a member of a church family knows, we would be lost with out our elders.  They remind us where we've been and guide us as to where we're going.  They are truly a blessing to us all.

I believe this is one of my 5.5x5.5"cards and I've used the lovely Prima Romance Novel pattern paper for this one.  I love working with that paper and save it for special occasions.  I layered it on a black sheet of card stock and then all the rest of the paper comes from the collection.  I used my Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles to cut out the sentiment oval and the pink rectangle that is layered behind it.  I lay this over a piece of vintage lace that I have gathered across the bottom.  To make the flower I first colored a piece of white, vintage eyelet trim with my Lindy's stamp gang sprays then used a running stitch pulled tight to make the circle.  Tied that off and joined the ends then layered a rosette trim over the top with a piece of bling in the center.   The sentiment is on that black card stock and I heat embossed it with a very pale pink embossing powder and then went around the edges with some white pigment ink.  I was kinda going for the very popular chalk board look. lol.

I do hope Violet enjoyed her card. and that you liked it too.   I will do my very best to get more cards posted here as quickly as possible,.  Till then, much love and hugs, Amy K.

Birthday card made for Father In Law

This Birthday card was made for my wonderful Father In Law, Dale Kittle.  I'm sorry to say but like most of these cards I've been posting lately, they were made about 6 months ago and I've forgotten what paper line I used to create them.  I am sorry for not having that information for you but I've started to do better and I am now making myself little notes on each card as I complete it.  I want to say it's a My Minds Eye collection but don't hold me to that. lol.  I do know that the stamps I used are all from Tim Holtz.  For the three images on the focal piece they come from the Mini Blueprints clear stamp set and the sentiment comes from the Just Sayings clear stamp set and they are both from Stampers Anonymous for Tim Holtz.  For the focal piece I stamped in Versa Fine Onyx black ink and for the sentiment I used Hero Arts silver shadow ink.  The resin corner pieces comes from an old package by ek success,  I just love those corners and only break them out for something special.  So, Dale, that means you can't throw away that card! lol.  

That's all for today. I promise to return soon with more cards,.  Till then Much love and hugs,  amy k.

Birthday card for 14 year old young lady

This is another card made for a member of our church.  She's a young 14 year old by the name of Elizabeth.  She's a beautiful, bright young lady and a delight to have as a member of our church.   I made this card using the 4.5x6.5" mat stack from The Paper Studio at Hobby Lobby by the name Olivia's Sweet Shop.   I used three of the different patterned papers and used my scalloped circle and top label punches for the two layers.  For the flourishes I die cut white card stock with the fanciful flourish die from My Favorite Things and the sentiment is die cut with a Spellbinders die from the Radiant Rectangles set.  To color the flourishes I just used my foam blender tool from Ranger and Squeezed Lemonade distress ink and colored the white card stock.  I stamped the sentiment with Ultra Pink shadow ink from Hero Arts.  I added a resin flower and then finished the card off with some vintage buttons from my collection.  I distressed all the edges with Tea Dye distress ink.  This card came together very easily and quickly.  I had fun playing with this patterned paper.  I plan to use it again soon, hopefully the next time I have to make a card for a young member of the church.

That's all  I've got for today, I hope you all enjoyed this card.   I can't promise but I hope to get another card up this week.  I have lots to share with you. Till next time, be good to one another.  I'll see you again soon.  Much love and hugs, Amy K.

Masculine birthday card made for a member of UMC

This card was made for a young man in our church named Mikey.  He's not a member that I know all that well personally, I'm sorry to say.  I do know he's a very nice and well mannered young man.  He's got a young wife and they have a small baby together.  They make a beautiful family.  We are happy to have them at Fishers Chapel.  I know his mother much more than him.  She's Dena Teems,  She got  her son and daughter to come to church with her.  I'm so happy for them all and for us to know them!  

To make this card I first made a card base out of some heavy weight cards stock that I get from Hobby Lobby.  I prefer the 110lb if available.  It just makes for a stronger card base and you can add more embellishments to the front of the card and not have it collapse on you.  The patterned paper that I used comes from a 6x6 stack from 7 Gypsies called Venice.  I forgot to mention I'm using a standard A2 sized card base of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.  The navy blue card comes from Bazzill Basics, I'm quite sure the light blue does too.  The cream card is just plain old card stock from Micheal's or Hobby Lobby.  I don't think the weight of that piece of card stock is terribly important for this application.  The only paper that I couldn't find the source for was the newsprint back ground piece of patterned paper.  I was sure it came from the DIY stack but It didn't so please for give me for not writing this all down when I made the card,  The background label shape and its shadow cut are both cricut cuts.   The smaller label and shadow and the cream label on top all come from a Sizzix  Framlets set by Lori Whitlock called Ornate Labels.   The sentiment stamp comes from a Close to My Heart set you've seen me use dozens of times, it's called Say it in Style.  To finish the card I just hand cut the two banners from the designer paper and inked the edges with distress ink.  I also used the same distress ink to ink over the sentiment to add some color and shading.

Well, that's all for today's card.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I've got plenty more to show you so stay tuned, as they say. lol.   I've got a swap to finish up and get off in the mail today.  I'm late with it this time and altho my partner is very very understanding and patient I just feel awful about it and want to get it off to her as quickly as possible.  I hope to be back soon with another card. Till then may all your days be Blessed.  Much Love and Hugs, Amy K.

Feminine Shabby Chic Birthday card made for my church

This card was made for a member of our church who also just happens to be one of my husband's cousins, Jamie Scott.  For the patterned paper I used one of the 6x6 pads I found on sale at Tuesday Morning back around Christmas time,  I stocked up on those pads, let me just say!   The majority of them were made from K I Memories.  I am unsure of the name of the pad but I can make an effort to find that information for you if you are interested.  I cut two banners and layered them up.  The bottom and largest one is covered with washi tape and the second and smaller one that says, "Best Wishes" is a cut from the cricut and there again I can get you the tittle of the cartridge upon request.  I layered up some pink and gold trim that I believe is from Prima.  I'm not sure about that as it's pretty old and I just randomly found it in my stash. lol.  I used my shimmer sprays to color up a couple Prima flowers and then used the same sprays to color up some white seam binding and then used my bow easy to tie it into a double bow.  I glued the flowers and seam binding all together and then added a pearl bling to the center.  I also added a button in silver to the small banner cricut cut and a small bead spray clipped from a large piece I got from Micheal's back in the fall.  Yes, like most crafters, I shop the sales and stock up when certain items that I know for sure I will use go on sale.  I bought that bead spray when all the Ashland stuff at Micheal's went on sale last fall.  I got a lot of it on a roll but I'm certain to use it. :)  

That's all for today's card, I hope you liked it.  I know I keep promising to make more blog post more 

often and I'm trying but life just keeps getting in the way.  I have plenty of things that need to be posted so I will try my best to get started on that right away.  I think I'm about 6 months behind on my post and I have some cards that I've made recently that I'm excited for you to see so I have to hurry up and get all these older post out of the way so I can get to them.  lol.  I hope you all have a wonderful and Blessed day.  I will talk to you again real soon. Promise! Till then be good to one another and Much love and hugs, Amy K.

Masculine Birthday card made for the church

Even tho this card was made by request from the church it was still going to one of my husbands, Brian, favorite cousins. They grew up together just doing things that boys do hunting and fishing and blowing stuff up from time to time. lol.  Christopher, don't think anybody forgot you were in that mix too. lol.  Good ole boys having a good old time. So I did want to make this card kinda special.  Well, I try to make them all special but Jason is also one of my favorite cousins and he's got a personality that goes on for days.  It just won't quite.  And laugh, omg Jason will have you in stitches five minutes after you've just met him.  He's good people in my book. 

Now, to get down to the bones of the mater.  I made this 5.5x5.5" card with the 6x6 patterned paper pad from Prima called Printery,  Love this collection for masculine cards,  It has a lot of cream and black and also a hint of a light blue its really nice paper and you always know I like the person If I pull out my Prima stash to work on their project. lol.  I just cut down the first layer in black and glued it straight down then I chose another patterned paper in contrasting colors and used my elegant edges cartridge for the cricut to cut out that shape.  I used a couple of tags and journaling cards from 7 gypsies. I used several of my small stamps like the train and the banner and the make a wish and the #1 on the right hand journaling card  I stamped the 45 (because Jason is older than me, not by much but he is still older and I like to remind him lol) and then used my one inch circle punch to punch them out of another sheet of journaling card,  Also I forgot to say that when I stamped them I also heat embossed them in a champagne color embossing powder.  I thought it looked nice.

This is a shot of the inside of the card and as you can see I used more of my stamps to embellish the inside.  The hand with finger pointed is from that small set with the train on it from the front of the card.  I used this pretty general birthday blessing that I use for most of the churches cards and then in a red color I tried out some of my new religious stamps.  I distressed all the edges in the red/rust color and then layered the cream card on a layer of black card stock.  And as usual I left the right hand or in this case the bottom half for the preacher to have room to write a sentiment and verse if he would like.  Honestly I don't know what he does with them after I turn then over.

I hope this card found you having a blessed day or better said, would be night. Either or, I hope it was wonderful and you find your self wrapped in Gods love and Glory. This and every night,   I will be back soon with more cards to show you.  I am trying to make an effort to catch up on all these cards.  I decided not to do a blog post of all the Christmas cards this year because I just took to you tube and made a video of them and called it a day.  There were so many to be posting pictures of.  I got news for alot of folks who have been getting hand made cards from me and Brian for years and I've never gotten any kind of card from you, well, lets just say the card list will be much shorter this year cause I really don't have the time to stress over hand making 50 cards each year and not to mention the money it cost.  I'm just going to have to make some cut backs and keep it to the closest of family and friends this year and if you feel like sending us one then I'll pop one in the mail to you too.  I got nothing but love for all of y'all.  Have a blessed and warm night and till next time much hugs and love, Amy K.

Watercolor birthday card for female

This was another card made for the preacher's wife by request for her Granddaughter.  She told me that she liked anything pretty so this is what I came up with for her.  I love to do watercolor techniques so I jumped at the chance to do the background on this card.  The paper line lent itself well to the watercolors. So the whole background is watercolor done with distress inks and water.  I used a couple of cut outs from the paper line and the sentiments were both done with Close to my Heart stamps and the happy birthday die cut was one that went along with a cricut cartridge.  I also used a Memory box die in the top left corner called dizzy doily.  I hand died the seam binding with the distresss inks too and I edged all the pieces with pumice stone distress ink to add a little pop and give some distinction to the pieces.

It's a pop up card and these are a few shots of it opened up to show the insides. I used a piece of bazzill card stock for the base layer and then added a sheet of the designer paper on top of that,  The sentiment stamp is from Hot off the press and I punched it out with an ek sucess punch. The top is held up with a piece of flower pearl trim.  I also used a bit of it on the front of the card.

Well, that's all that I've got for you today.  Hope you enjoyed the card.  I sure had a good time making it and was very proud of it once it was done.  This is one of those cards that once finished you don't want to let them go.  Every now and  again you will find that you create something that you want to keep for yourself especially when you make cards specifically for others like I do and so I have to let go of each of them and all I have left is the pictures.  Kinda sad sometimes but I love sharing what I do with others.  Have a blessed day and I will try to get back sooner to get you another card much sooner than I've been doing.  I've got plenty of them on  stand by.  Till then, much love and hugs, Amy K.

Feminine Birthday card

I made this card by request by my Pastors wife, Sylvia.  She wanted a birthday card for her niece who loves dogs.  I had this pink fabric with the doggies on it and thought it would be perfect.  Getting the fabric onto the card front was not as tricky as you would think.  I first ironed and starched the fabric then once cooled I took it to my xyron sticker maker and ran it thru putting adhesive all along the back of the fabric.  I cut a piece of white card stock to the size of the card front and then lay the fabric sticky side up then lay the card stock into the center of the fabric then carefully wrapped the fabric around to the back of the card stock pulling out all the wrinkles and smoothing it out as I went,  I mitered the corners of the fabric so there was no bulk on the back and everything lay down nice and smooth.  I then ran the card stock covered in fabric back thru the xyron and added more adhesive to the entire back of it. Then I added it to my card base.  I used some of the black mesh bling to trim out the top and the bottom of the card.  The little dog house was a 3d sticker I had in my stash forever so I added it to the fabric panel with some strong glue to insure it adhered to the fabric well.  The sentiment was a velum piece that I also ran thru the xyron because when you are adhering velum to something its difficult to hide the adhesive so its better to add it to the entire backside surface area,  So once it was sticky all along the back I added it to another piece of white card and then cut out around it and added it to the fabric panel with pop dots. for the final touch I added some bone shaped bling that I'd had in my stash with a strong glue like 3 in 1.

This is a shot of the inside of the card.  I layered white card on top of black and layered it inside the card base.  I just added a simple stamped sentiment to the panel and it was done.  Sylvia was thrilled with the dog theme and she reported back that her niece loved the card and I can tell you that nothing makes me happier to hear.  I love it when I am able to give someone exactly what they are looking for in a card.  

That's my card for today.  I promise to have my Christmas cards up for you to see soon even though it's late.  I will just post them all in one blog post. Till then, have a wonderful day and I'll talk to you soon. Much love and hugs, Amy K.