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