OLW116 Reminder, a Few More Die Cut Cards, and Peace

OLW116 
Remember that this week, the One-Layer Wednesday Challenge is on Karen's blog and it's Scene It...create a scene on your card! How fun is that?!?! Karen's sample is beautiful, so be sure to click over and get inspired!

Today's Cards 
I'll need to work on a scene myself because today's cards are far from scenes. WAY far from scenes. I wanted to combine a couple of the die cuts Sharon sent with bling and colored card stock. The result is a couple of baby cards!

How easy are these?!?! And a great use of those larger rhinestones that seem to collect as I use so many more of the smaller ones.

Peace
Things are ramping up for Christmas for me. Tonight, I'm meeting with my Stephen Ministry group to make ornaments to hand out to the congregation. We did this last year as a way to raise awareness for people who are struggling to feel joy at a time of year when joy is everywhere. People who have lost loved ones, jobs, marriages, friends, health, independence, or faith can often feel an added burden of pain when everyone around them is gleefully going about the holidays with jingle bells and laughter.

Last year, we ran out of ornaments. The message of the ornaments...that it's okay to not be singing Joy to the World if you're feeling like a wretch and need Amazing Grace...struck a chord with a lot of people. Last year's ornaments contained a mustard seed and message about how God takes the tiniest bit of faith and grows it into something wonderful. This year's ornament focuses on peace...the peace that comes from God and passes all understanding.  Heavenly peace.

Peace be with each and every one of you as you move through this holiday season. May it deepen your joy or comfort your sadness. Breathe deep the heavenly peace.  

Supplies
stamps: none
ink: none
paper: SU pretty in pink, bashful blue
accessories: die cuts, glue pen, rhinestones

Cards I Received in November

It is such a blessing to open the mailbox and find a hand-addressed card amidst the bills, catalogs, junk mail, and magazines. The envelope is extra special when it contains a card made by hand! Here are the hand-made cards I received this month. Some are birthday and some are Thanksgiving cards. I love them all!

Sue C.

Bonnie

Sharon

Sue B.

 

 

Mary M.

Sue C.

uncbballfan

Patti M.

What a beautiful collection of cards that now reside on the bulletin boards in my craft nook to give me inspiration and to lift me up each and every day!!!!!

I am so grateful for these ladies--and the many others through the years--who took time to send me cards they had made. I am also grateful for the readers who leave a comment, who send an email, who pray for me, who get concerned when I don't post each day, and who just read my blatherings. You have blessed me in so many ways.

Thank you.

Getting Clever with Die Cuts

Here's another card using a die cut sent by the oh-so-kind Sharon. Peace on earth. Get it?

Happy Wednesday!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Masculine Motifs
ink: Versacolor bisque
paper: PTI white, aqua mist (?)
accessories: dimensionals, die cut from Sharon!, glue pen 

Thank you, Sharon!

Kind reader Sharon sent me a selection of die cuts, and here's my favorite card I've made so far.

Darnit all to heck, now I need a Big Shot and a whole mess o' dies. Thanks, Sharon.

NOT!

*wink*


Supplies
stamps: none
ink: none
paper: PTI white
accessories: die cuts, red rhinestones, white satin ribbon, glue dot, glue pen

Love Birds

No time for chit-chat tonight. Had to watch The Next Iron Chef.

It's weird how much I enjoy that show.

Anyway, it's late, I'm tired, and who knows what the heck I'll type, so let's move directly to the card. We have a pair of love birds in a branch from Papertrey's very old set called Out on a Limb. LOVE that set.

Have a happy Monday!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Love Birds, Out on a Limb
ink: SU real red, Memento toffee and pistachio
paper: SU real red, PTI white
accessories: dimensionals

How Ardently I Admire and Love You

Things are settling down a bit after Thanksgiving and my birthday. Many, many thanks for all the good wishes in comments, emails, and cards! It was indeed a good birthday and holiday, and I hope all of you enjoyed Thanksgiving too, even if it was just an unofficial lower-case thanksgiving.

Shouldn't we make every day a thanksgiving? I sure think so.

And to cap it all off, I found out today that I had four cards published in the Winter issue of Take Ten magazine!

Eeeeep!!!!

Page 63.

I submitted the cards for this issue's design challenge, which seemed a little too layered for my taste and therefore a real challenge for this CAS stamper to pull off. I used the layout with just two layers of card stock, some ink, and a few rhinestones. Since I made four cards with one old, old Hero Arts set, they published them in the Variations on a Theme section of the magazine.

I'm so honored!

Eeeeep, I say again!


And now onto today's card, which made me punch happy.

Operation Write Home needs Valentine's Day and general love cards, so I tried to use Papertrey's Heart Prints set with a sentiment from Simply Jane, also by Papertrey. The quotation is from Darcy's declaration of love to Elizabeth Bennett.

*sigh*

Did you know that when I took the "What Jane Austen Character Are You?" quiz on Facebook, I was Eliza Bennett?

Anyway, I tried all those patterned hearts in Heart Prints, and it looked a jumbled mess. So I flexed to solid hearts in a bunch of different shades of pink and red. That seemed to work so much better for me.

Eliza's such a solid character, not silly like Lydia.

I'm so relieved I wasn't Lydia.


Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: various
paper: PTI white
accessories: heart punches, heart-shaped rhinestone, dimensionals

Something Unexpected: Wooden Snowflakes

I realized yesterday that drawing attention to something unexpected on a clean-and-simple card makes sense, so here's another card with something unexpected.

The real wood paper (purchased a while back at Michael's) makes perfectly unexpected snowflakes, don't you think? I love how the grain shows and adds some texture to the flakes (click on the picture to see it bigger!). The paper is fragile (especially when punched so thin for the smaller flakes), so I glued the flakes directly to the card base for added support.

Also, the SU cherry cobbler ink has tones of brown in it that fit so well with the wood tones, yet the red gives the whole card a festive punch. I'm sending this card to my aunt the woodcrafter!

I'm not sure how often I'll post for the rest of the week. We're having guests for the holiday, and the focus needs to be on family this week. May your own week--wherever you live--be one full of happiness, thanksgiving, and love!

Supplies
stamps: PTI Silent Night
paper: PTI white, unknown wood paper
ink: SU cherry cobbler
accessories: various snowflake punches, glue pen