My Trophy

I was a member of a small church when I was growing up which consisted mainly of family; my Uncle (my father's brother) was the Pastor and the choir consisted of my sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews and me. After growing up, moving away, getting married, and having children, DH and I settled into another small church in our area. Over the years the congregation grew so large, our Pastor had to split the services into two, then three different services. DH and I really enjoy small churches so he joined another small church in our area; I also joined this church two years ago.

Today was such a special day for me. Our old church has outgrown the building they were in and will begin having service in a newly erected building next Sunday. What was so great about today was that I was invited back for this morning's service and given recognition for service I performed with the choir during my membership there. The picture above is of what was presented to me during the 7:30 a.m. worship service and I will treasure it always. It's not a great picture... I've not mastered taking snapshots of glass. What a great way to start my day. Now I must get started on a 'Thank You' card.

Ripping and Running

That's how I feel today. I have been wanting to make cards more frequently but I keep getting bogged down with stuff. Hopefully next week will give me more leisure time to do this. Last week was VBS and DH and I taught the combined Junior and Intermediate class. The children were like popcorn... popping with energy, and by the end of the week, he and I were totally burned out. It has been years since we have had the responsibility of dealing with children. I guess we need to get in practice because we are expecting our first grandchild in December.

DH is a member of Toastmasters Int., and we have a function that we have to attend tonight. It's about time to leave so I guess I still don't have the time to make a card. SCS Sketch challenge will be posted tonight and hopefully I will be able to join the challenge and combine it with another.

Until then, I hope everyone else keeps 'Stamping and Creating'.

Flower Garden

I love the Tri-Shutter cards but decorating them is not easy. One of my former co-workers and I exchange birthday cards every year and I made this for her. We are both retired and I haven't seen her in years and this is the only form of communication we have with each other.

This card is for several Challenges: SUO (all Stampin' Up! products SUO), CC331 Color Challenge (Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Cherry Cobbler), WT331 Crazy Collage (8 separate stamps), Tri-Shutter Card (Resource/Wednesday Tutorials).

HOPE

I love when things line up. My Pastor's message this morning was on 'Hope'... Our hope in God. God has given us a living hope (1 John 1:3)... this hope gives us patience (Romans 8:24-26)... God's love is the grounds (foundation) of that hope. SCS New Technique Challenge is 'Reverse Masking'. I pulled out my "Strength & Hope" stamp set this morning before going to church and started working on this card. On the way home from church it dawned on me that my Pastor's message and the card I was working on lined up.

After seeing the technique challenge I knew I had to complete this card tonight.

I used one of my spellbinder rectangle dies to create the mask for the base card and used one of the smaller rectangles to create the popped-up image. I couldn't make up my mind whether to distress the perimeter of the card or not so I made two... one with and one without. Then I decided to make a third one and added a butterfly.

All three stamp images are from the "Strength & Hope" stamp set from Stampin' Up!. Ink: Crumb Cake & Soft Suede. Card Stock: Very Vanilla. Ribbon: Soft Suede (Retired, SU!).

Lemonade Anyone?

Summer without Lemonade is like summer without sun. The SCS Free for All Challenge today is to create a card thinking about Summer and fun. When I think of Summer, I am reminded of the days growing up in rural Georgia and that delicious tub of fresh lemonade my Grandmother always made on the 2nd Saturday in July. When I saw this challenge, I also remembered a cup card created by Dawn and totally cased it. Her YouTube video instructions can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBdMWW9Bl8E

Box Card

These are great for gift cards. I will use this to place a Home Depot card in for DH. Directions can be found in the Resources section on the SCS website. I used 'Sweet Pea' DSP (Stampin' Up... Retired), Early Espresso Card Stock, and Spellbinder dies for the tools. I could not find my twine so I used Ecru DMC Floss.

Graduation Celebration

This is for my niece who just graduated from high school. DH and I were not able to make it to her graduation but we will see her this weekend and give her this small token to let her know just how proud we are of her.

My New Stamp Set and a Tutorial

Here's the card I made using the DTP technique. This is a new stamp set from Stampin' Up!'s 2011-2012 IB&C and will be available for purchase on July 1st.


When I attach the clear images to my new stamps, they sometimes fall off in the middle of stamping onto my card stock and I get unwanted smudges. My solution was to unmount my new stamps as I get them and stamp the image directly on top where the clear image is usually added. Here are pictures of my procedure. Try it and let me know what you think... it actually works great!

Here is the brand new stamp set before doing anything to it. I have my Archival Ink Stamp Pad ready as well as a clear block. I also used my non-stick pad that goes with my Scor-Pal.

Stamps popped out.

I used my Scotch ATG gun to add adhesive to my clear block.

I gently peeled the red rubber from the foam.

Place the stamp on the clear block. The adhesive from my ATG gun will hold it on.

Turn the foam part of your stamp over and stick the sticky side to your non-stick surface or mat. Remove the protective sheet from the other side. This is where you will stamp your image.

Ink up your image and stamp on top of the foam part of the stamp (cling side) while the sticky side is still down on your non-stick mat.

Turn the foam part of the stamp over so that the sticky side is facing up. Carefully match up the back side of the red stamp with the sticky side of the foam part of the stamp.

Pop your stamps back in place with the stamped side facing up so that the ink can dry completely. use the clear sticker images that you would ordinarily stick to your stamps to make a journal to keep track of your stamp sets.

My stamps no longer fall off my clear blocks.