Lawn Fawn Peace Joy Love Christmas Cards

It's a cold (for So Cal) Saturday afternoon and I'm still in my jammies at 1:00pm. The hubs and I along with Digby and Tia had Uriah babysitting duty last night. Gotta tell you that adorable 2 year old gave us a run for our money. By the time we got him to sleep at 10:30 (his bedtime was 8:30, bad grandparents) all four of us were pretty wiped out. So that's why I'm doing a blog post now instead of cleaning my house as I intended today.

Now on to the last of my Christmas cards for 2013. I just love the Lawn Fawn set Peace Joy Love! It doesn't take too much creativity to make a gorgeous card with these stamps, they are that awesome.  A little embossing and a bit of paper to layer....

I added a bit of color to the white embossed stamping with Copic markers.

I love the look of gold and silver together!
This card is a CASE of the beautiful card done by Nicole at Unify Handmade.

I love this last card, it's so simple but looks so impressive with the gold and silver embossing.

I did all my photo editing using PicMonkey.

I'm not sure if I will have another blog post before Christmas so I will take this time to wish you all a wonderfully happy and blessed Christmas! A classic Christmas verse Isaiah 9:6 tells us "For a child is born to us, a Son is given to us." We think of the baby in the manger, but it was the Son who had always been with the Father who was destined for the cross. He will come again as the King of kings and the Lord of lords!

For a child is born to us, a Son is given to us.

The government will rest upon His shoulders.

And He will be called:

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

His government and its peace will never end.

He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of His ancestor David for all eternity.

The passionate commitment of the Lord will make this happen!

Isaiah 9: 6-7

This is what Christmas means to me; the love of God for us that He would give us His Son to die in our place. This is my hope, it fills me with joy and comforts my heart with His peace. This is my prayer for you!

Christmas blessings,

nancy

InLinkz.com

More Christmas Cards

I had one last card making day and got my cards done for this year. Then the hubster asked me to make some more cards for his business clients so I'll be stamping and watercoloring more Christmas tree cards today. I'll listen to festive holiday music and make a day of it, they have to get in the mail today!!

Here's the first 2 cards using Lawn Fawn's Peace Joy Love stamps and Hero Arts snowflakes.

I used WOW Metallic Platinum Glitter Embossing Powder on the snowflake. 

The background pattern is created with a Tim Holtz stencil and Heidi Swapp Tinsel Color Spray.

Different Hero Arts snowflake from the Designer Snowflakes set but the same embossing powder.
The sentiment on this card was embossed with gold and silver embossing powders.

I'll be back tomorrow with the last of my Christmas cards for 2013, see you then.

blessings,

nancy

InLinkz.com

A Nerdy Bird Birthday Card

I'm not sure how I feel about having a child who is 30 years old. I'm certainly happy that Andy has been a blessing to me for so many years. But I'm just wondering where all those years went. Time passes way too quickly and I can't possibly be old enough to have a child born 30 years ago. On the upside Al and I did get to babysit with Uriah while Andy and Kellie had some birthday fun at Disneyland Wednesday night. At 2 years old, Uriah is full of fun and such a happy guy, just like his daddy!

Andy's birthday card features the adorable nerdy bird from Lawn Fawn's brand new Valentine set, Science of Love. Andy was rocking the nerdy "hipster doofus" look long before it was trendy so it only seemed appropriate.

The little nerdy bird is flying by hanging on to a balloon from Admit One. I used the Admit One Lawn Cuts balloon die to cut out the red Copic-colored balloon. No more fussy cutting for nancy!!

The birthday sentiment is from So Much to Say.

For the background I used Dylusions stencil with Vintage Photo Distress to make the large dots, the smaller dots are a Tim Holtz stencil with Heidi Swapp Color Shine spray in Tinsel. I also sprayed the Tinsel Color Shine on the sentiment banner.

Sorry this is a day late, I had some trouble with Flickr yesterday and ran out of time.
blessings,
nancy

Finally, a new Christmas card post....

So it's been over a month since my last post because I just didn't have anything to post. I needed some time away from crafting to find a new perspective. I'm not sure I found it yet but I'm sneaking up on it.

I decided to do something totally different with my Christmas cards this year. I pulled out an old Stampendous stamp that I love but never really found the perfect way to use. It's from 2001, called His Name Tree. I stamped it in black Archival ink on watercolor paper. I used Distress inks in Crushed Olive and Gathered Twigs to watercolor the tree. A little bit of gold sparkle from a Sakura gel pen and a die cut star covered with Golden Rod Stickles was all the embellishment I added. I was so surprised that I liked how they turned out. A little rustic, definitely homemade and full of meaning.

Each card is a little different as the watercoloring was added with a paintbrush and however it went down that's how it stayed.

Just a simple inside message from Hero Arts Greatest Gift clear set.

I'm working on a couple more Christmas card designs so hopefully I will post them soon. I plan to be back tomorrow with a birthday card I made for my son, Andy's birthday. It doesn't seem possible that he's 30 years old today, especially since I'm just "39" myself!

blessings,

nancy

Moxie Fab Thanks! Blog Hop

It would be hard to find anyone involved in papercrafting who hasn't been inspired by Cath and Moxie Fab World! She kept us informed about every trend and found some of the most beautiful and awesome photos to spur our creativity.  I'm not sure I knew what a blog was when I first stumbled across Moxie Fab World but I "bookmarked" it just to be sure I could find all that inspiration again!

I feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful crafting friends and I want to thank Cath for her part in inspiring this friendly, encouraging and creative community!

I decided to get a little artsy in making my card for this post, while still keeping a clean and simple look.

Lawn Fawn Flutter By; Hero Arts Old Letter Writing

Assorted Distress Inks and Markers

Wink of Stella

Dylusions Ink Spray- White Linen

All the sparkly fun from the Wink of Stella!

Four years ago I went to my first CHA trade show and I was so excited to meet Cath and even more impressed to find that she was every bit as genuine in person as she was online.

I'd like to wish Cath success and happiness in all her future endeavors. I know you will continue to be an inspiration no matter what you do! Thank you!

You may have arrived here via Valerie's blog, if not you can start at the very beginning HERE.

Your next stop  is Heather's  blog "Stamping and Stitching" 

blessings,
nancy

Little Rustic Wreath

I haven't entered any challenges in so long and now this little one-layer CAS card is going to be entered in 2 challenges. I had a bit of free time on Sunday to hunt for inspiration and found Festive Friday and Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge. This little card using Lawn Fawn Peace Joy Love and WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals fills the requirements for both themes. At Festive Friday the challenge is to use a wreath on your project and for Curtain Call they provided an inspiration photo:

I was in a clean and simple mood so here's what I came up with:

I used lots of Hero Arts Mid-Tone Shadow inks; I just love how they look so vibrant on kraft cardstock!

I love that little Peace Joy Love bird!

have a great day!

blessings,
nancy

Journal: 30 Days of Thanksgiving

When I sit down to read and pray I like to keep a notebook handy to jot thoughts, prayers and verses. I usually incorporate the 30 days of thanksgiving in my quiet time notebook. This year I was inspired by a little spiral bound album that was just waiting for me to become motivated to decorate. And of course Lawn Fawn stamps, paper and dies helped me to find some creative mojo.

Since the pages in the booklet are cardboard, canvas and acrylic with a couple of envelopes I decided to include strips of paper to journal my thoughts on to tuck into the envelopes. Here's how the album cover design looks:

I painted the corrugated cardboard cover with some pretty gold paint then prettied that up a bit!

Supplies: Basically Bare: Funky Findings album; Lawn Fawn: Into the Woods papers, mixed sequins, stamps; Stitched Leaves and Stitched Journaling Card dies, Gold Sparkle Lawn Trimmings. Lots of inks, paints, stickers and assorted stuff from my stash.

I plan to use all the empty space to write random thoughts (I usually have lots of those).

I meant to post this last Friday with my Day 1 entry but I had some major computer issues so I'm behind as usual. I think I will just do a post on the 30th with my complete list for the month.

Even though I could add daily entries on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or any number of other available social media like I see everyone doing, I just can't bring myself to post regularly. Occasionally I will comment or "like" something I see but I just don't get how to have a conversation. I'm not sure how to share my thoughts or jump in to an exchange. I'm always so worried I'll "say" something that will be taken the wrong way (I have a weird, sarcastic sense of humor); I would hate to offend anyone. I have erased more comments than I have posted. I guess I'm more the drop by and have a cup of coffee and chat face to face type of person. I know the ironic part of this is that I post to social media for other entities and seem to have no problem. Anyone willing to school me in the ins and outs of communicating with friends on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram? Help. Please. Anyone?

thanks for your visit and for enduring my pitiful lament! i'm seriously thankful for you!

blessings,
nancy