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.

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.