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

Masculine birthday card for the church

I made this card for John at church and I used one of my favorite corrugated card bases for this card.  I am not sure where this patterned paper comes from.  Sorry I don't have that information for you.  I do know that the rectangle die cuts are from Spellbinders.  I used some black seam binding to make the bow and the boarder was punched using a Fiskars boarder punch.  The keyhole and key are brads and the cross is actually a charm and has a hole in the top and also had a hole in the middle there and so I just added a blue rhinestone brad to that circle cut out and used it to attach it to the patterned paper.

That is all the cards for today.  Hope you caught both blog post.  I'll be back soon with more cards.  I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July and maybe got to spend it with someone you love. I hope you have a great weekend and I'll talk to you again soon.  Till then, much Love and hugs, amy k

Female Birthday cards for the Church

These are some of the birthday cards I made for the month of June.  These are some female birthday cards.  This card was made for Emily and I used some paper from Hobby Lobby and some flowers from Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts. A doily from Memory box dies with a little circle punch out and a stamp from Hot off the press.  I got those little crosses at Hobby Lobby too with the decorative craft buttons. (Not the buttons from the sewing dept.) I thought they added a nice touch sense the cards are to be coming from the church.

This next card was made for Emily's daughter, Olivia who just so happens to share her mother's birthday.  Isn't that great!  So to make this card I used some Teresa Collins paper and I used my cricut cartridges for this card and to make those labels shaped like that I used my Gypsy handheld design tool for the cricut to manipulate the image and stretch it to that long thin shape.  I also did the same thing to the shadow for that image and cut it out in blue.  I'm not sure where that sentiment stamp is from, sorry. Maybe I need to start keeping a supply list for these cards. lol.  I used a Sizzix die for the flourish and the flower is from The Paper Studio by Hobby Lobby.  I added some stickles glitter glue over the top of the flower to give it that shine then added a strip of the blue mesh bling trim across the bottom.  I also wrote in the date of her birthday on that little calendar cut out.  To finish it off I added a stick pin I made.

Okay, that's all for the girls cards and I'll be back with another post this morning to show you a Masculine birthday card so stay tuned!  I'll be right back.