SALT Challenge - Who is my Neighbor

It's time once again for another SALT challenge and this week Lythan chose a great topic, "who is my neighbor." You can read her write up on the SALT blog... As I considered this week's challenge, while rifling through my assortment of Scripture verse stamps, I came across a darling Sweet 'n Sassy stamp (this is a retired set but you can still get the digital set of Scripture text here) that included a great verse from Romans 12:10, "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." What a great text to consider, especially in light of the current political climate in our country. I continue to be shocked and deeply disturbed by the behavior and comments made against anyone who holds to conservative views. Of course I understand that this can happen on both sides of the aisle. However, the difference I've noticed is how hateful some of the comments are when aimed towards conservatives....(Just this week a talk show host screamed about how she hoped a conservative candidate would go to hell) Even people I have known for years, and considered friends, have taken to name calling on public forums because a certain group of people hold to a different opinion. Is this an example of honoring others above one's self? Of course not, it actually reveals what is really in a person's heart. As the Bible clearly says, "the abundance of the heart speaketh the mouth." If you speak hateful comments then hate is in your heart. Matthew Henry had these helpful comments on the text in Romans, "These verses signify not only love, but a readiness and inclination to love, the most genuine and free affection, kindness flowing out as from a spring. It denotes the love of parents to their children; such must our love be to one another, and such it will be when there is a new nature and the law of love is written in the heart. This kind of affection puts us on to express ourselves both in word and action with the greatest courtesy and obligingness that may be. It should be a respectful love. Instead of contending for superiority, let us be forward to give to others the pre-eminence. And there is this good reason for this because, if we know our own hearts, we know more evil by ourselves than we do by any one else in the world. We should be forward to take notice of the gifts, and graces, and performances of our brethren, and value them accordingly. Be more forward to praise another, and more pleased to hear another praised, than ourselves." What a fantastic commentary and reminder of how we should not only treat our immediate and church family but the people around us, including our neighbor, co-worker, and friends. It can be difficult (especially for folks like me who have a hard time not speaking up and defending my beliefs and my right to hold to those beliefs) for Christians to not get sucked into the "insanity", wrapped up in an effort to depend our religious or political beliefs. But Christ calls us to something higher for if we get entangled in the same kind of bad behavior and/or speech then we are no better and any good we would want to accomplish would be lost. Let us therefore seek to love around us, not just those that agree with us, but perhaps even more those who don't. May God be pleased to give us the strength, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to accomplish such a task and then may He be pleased to change the hearts of those around us. In these uncertain times, let us not get entangled in meaningless arguments but keep our focus on Christ to be a light and help to our neighbors. My card today features paper from October Afternoon and stamps from Sweet 'n Sassy. Enjoy and please visit the SALT blog to see the team's beautiful work!

It's a Sketch Challenge

WooHoo!! Sweet 'n Sassy is once again the sponsor of this week's Splitcoast sketch challenge and I'm thrilled that I get to participate! You can find the challenge post here. I decided to give you a little peek at a soon-t0-be-released image...ohhhh...Have you seen SNSS's monthly flower stamps? They are wonderful! Next month (available on Novewmber 1), we'll have this beauty, the Chrysanthemum. The set will come with the flower image and five sentiments (you can see one of them on the bottom of my card).

I paired my image with some bright designer paper from s.e.i. (I confess it was nice to play with summery papers again! I already miss summer!!) and satin ribbon from Papertreyink. I also added a bit of glitz to the oval by applying a few sprays of gold Glimmer Mist over the image once I finished coloring. Rhinestones and a hat pin from Little Yellow Bicycle were the finishing touches! Enjoy and hop over to SCS to play along with the challenge!

The Other Tag

Here's my third tag from class this past weekend. You know the tag that took me about 12 tries before I got it right, the one that I didn't complete until 11pm the night before the class, the one that had me buying numerous pieces of cardstock... Whew...I thought I'd never finish this one! And you know what's scary? This was the fastest tag for the class to create...why, of course! LOL! For this tag I used a Tim Holtz swirl mask (love those!), and then applied ink over the entire tag using a blending tool. Once I removed the mask, I was left with this lovely pattern. I then added a script stamp over the swirl, also from Tim. The snowman is from Tim's new die cuts and the snowflake embossing is also from one of his new embossing folders. I used Core-di-nations cardstock for the snowman. This paper has a colored core so when you sand it, the color shows through. This snowflakes look a little on the white side, they were actually more of a pale blue/green color. The final piece was a red paper scarf that was stamped with a Merry Christmas sentiment from Sweet 'n Sassy. Enjoy!

Christmas Tags

Oh boy...it's tag time again!! Remember last December when I participated in the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas challenge? You know that time when I stopped showering or feeding my family and spent 12 days locked in my studio? Yeah....that time. Well since then I've been demonstrating many of the techniques used on those tags in my Wholly Scrap! classes. I've taught one class every quarter this year and this weekend is the final class of the year! (I'm hoping Tim holds this challenge again this year because I could stand to lose a few pounds and not eating for 12 days could really help...)

This is one of the tags that I'll demonstrate this weekend (check back next week for the other two! Although you can see a snippet of the second one in the first photo). For this tag, I used Distress Crackle Paint, which is fabulous stuff! I should have taken a close up photo of the crackling, it's amazing. Once the paint was dry, I aged and distressed the sides of the tag and then added the music image, which is from a Tim Holtz set. I then used Distress Ink to color my holly image, which is from Outlines Stamps. Once I cut out the holly image and attached with foam tape, I used red Stickles to add some bling to the berries. The post card sentiment was actually much larger, with lots of swirls, but it was too large for my tag so I cut it down and added just the words. One of the things I adore about Tim's techniques is all of the different materials he uses...things like crackle paint, which I'd never consider using for any projects. Now that I've used it, I must find more projects for the paint...it's just so much fun!! Enjoy and be sure to check back next week for the other two tags!

Vintage Santa

I had posting duties for the Sweet 'n Sassy digi blog today and shared a card with this darling, soon-to-be released Santa image, which will be part of a holiday-themed stamp set!! You can check out the post, with full card details, here. Enjoy!

3-D Stamping

Another card from my class last week showcasing the 3-D stamping technique. For this technique, stamp you'll need a darker cardstock, such as kraft, along with a white ink pad and slightly darker ink color (I used Creamy Caramel from SU!) and a stamp positioner. To start, stamp your image in white ink on the kraft cardstock. Stamp your image on to the stamp positioner and then line up your image over the already stamped white image. Then move the positioner slightly off center so that a sliver (maybe 1/16") of the white image is showing. Remove the positioner and restamp the image using the darker ink. The results are pretty cool! The white ink creates a shadow around the image, giving it a 3-D look! I paired this leaf image, from Impression Obsession, with a tiny sentiment stamp and paper form Little Yellow Bicycle. (The script image in the background is from Tim Holtz) A few tiny pearls and big 'ol bow finished off my card! Enjoy!

Keep it Simple Sunday

How are you at keeping it simple when it comes to card designs? I have to tell you that it's a challenge for me! That's one of the reasons I like Keep it Simple Sunday...it pushes me to create quick and easy cards and I hope that my posts serve as an inspiration to you as well! Making your own hand stamped cards really can be fast and simple. For me, the biggest challenge is coming up with a clean layout and then reigning myself in when I want to add extra layers or embellies and I think that one of the best ways spark your own creative ideas is to look through magazines or catalogs. Lately, I've been really enjoying a Stampin' Up! catalog that I received from Mary Fish. Mary is a wildly talented SU! demo who has an amazing blog filled with beautiful creations. You should check it out! Tonight after dinner I decided to browse through the catalog and found a darling layout, similar to mine. (I rarely ever copy a layout exactly but rather see something that sparks that "ah-ha" moment and then a card design comes together in my head.) The thing that stood out tonight when I was looking through the catalog was a card with multiple layers of scallops. I love scallops (that's probably obvious!) and having more than one layer of scallops...why that's pure love! Since I had a few minutes to spare before the kids went to bed, I dashed off to my studio and had this card created in under 20 minutes. See...Simple!! This baby was actually created with scraps that I had sitting next to my work space so the cutting was done in seconds. I paused for a few minutes to consider the image and remembered that long ago I purchased some of these darling turtle stamps (called Turtle Tots) from Stamping Bella. This sweetie had yet to see ink! Once I stamped the image and colored with Copics I simply added a sentiment from Sweet 'n Sassy (they have the best sentiments!) and all those ruffled scallops! I also stamped the basket and heart that the turtle is holding twice, cut them out, and popped them up with foam tape for a little dimension. A sweet card made in under a half hour...how divine. Enjoy!

SALT Challenge - God's Righteousness

This week it was my turn to set the SALT challenge! Here's my write up from the blog... Last week we had a guest speaker at our church and his sermons really stuck with me as he raised some very common questions that I, and I suspect others, hear frequently when talking about God. One of those questions was, “Is God righteous?” The only way to effectively answer such a question is to head straight to the Bible. Romans 3:21 states, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.” Matthew Henry has these helpful comments on these verses, “Never was there such a demonstration of the justice and holiness of God as there was in the death of Christ. It appears that God hates sin, when nothing less than the blood of Christ would satisfy for it. The iniquities of us all being laid upon Him, though he was the Son of his love, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Mercy and truth are so met together, righteousness and peace have so kissed each other, that it is now become not only an act of grace and mercy, but an act of righteousness, in God, to pardon the sins of penitent believers, having accepted the satisfaction that Christ by dying made to his justice for them." The one thought that I walked away with from hearing those sermons was that God is good. There is nothing in us that deserves God’s favor, it is only His mercy and long suffering that sustains us, even through those times that we walk away from Him or ignore His kindness. It may be argued that we deserve whatever we want or that God’s requirements are too heavy, too hard. Yes, God requires something from us but it is merely faith, faith in the One who was sent to deliver us from our sins. Christ is the answer, He came to take away the sting of death to stand in our place and take the punishment that we deserve. How great is His love and how righteous His works! May God be pleased to show you the love of Christ today! We're blessed when you share your artwork and thoughts with us...If you feel inspired by this week's study and/or art please leave us a comment on the SALT blog with a link back to your blog or gallery...we'd be delighted to see your creations! For my ATC, I used a lovely stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy. The embossing on the ATC base is from Tim Holtz.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

How about a little Christmas tree card today? This is a card I demonstrated at a class last week at Wholly Scrap! And this sweet little tree was a blast to make! The technique we used on the tree is called acrylic resist and stay tuned for more of this look...I adore it, it's aged, it's vintage, it's all good! I started by using a Nestibilities die cut for the tree. After the tree was cut I used an embossing folder to add the texture. Then came the paint! I used a paint dauber, color Pool, to paint the entire tree. After letting it dry, I used a sanding block to remove the paint from the raised areas of the tree. Then came the aging! I used Brushed Cordoury Distress Ink and a blending tool to apply ink over the entire tree. Then came a damp cloth! I used the damp cloth to remove the ink from the un-embossed areas. And there you have it...a painted, embossed, and aged tree! My tree is paired with paper from Kasier Craft (wonderful vintage paper!) and giant eyelets from SU! Enjoy!

Keep it Simple Sunday

Hey...how long has it been since I posted a Keep it Simple card? Too long! I am happy to report that I am finally done with the large custom scrapbook project that I've been working on for the past few months. Whew...it was a ton of work but the end result was all worth it...the new Mom was thrilled! :-) I'll post photos of the completed album shortly... Since I had yet to post a Sweet 'n Sassy card this week and I really wanted to do a simple card for today's post, I decided to combine both while participating in a Splitcoast CAS (clean and simple) challenge, which you can find here. This week's challenge included creating a card using the Faux Letterpress technique. Gina K produced a video showcasing this technique, which you can see here. Let me tell you...I L.O.V.E. this technique! Not only is it super easy but produces great results and really adds that WOW factor to a card. This card literally took me about 15 minutes to create...who doesn't love that! The faux letterpress technique is super quick and then all I had left to do was stamp and color my Christmas tree image, from the O Christmas Tree set. I added a bit of brown ink to the edges of my stamped image and some faux paper piercing before adding the sentiment in black. The nice, big, satin bow finished off my card. How simple! Enjoy!

Tiffany Doodles Challenge - TD05

Hey, guess what? It's time for another Tiffany Doodles challenge!! Did you participate in last month's challenge? Did you know that you have an opportunity to win oodles of free digis if you play along with our challenges? Fabulous!! This month our challenge is to create a Fall-themed card. And what could be more perfect than a sweet little fox sitting in a pile of colorful leaves! Tiffany just created a darling Fall Critters set and you can find it here. For my card I opted to use the fox image, which was colored with Copic markers. I printed a second fox image so that I could color and cut out the leaves, popping them up with foam tape. I used a cutting tool and template to cut out a circle, ommitted cutting over the fox's head so I could hand cut out the head for it to pop up out of the circle. This sweet Fall paper is from Imaginsce, rhinestones are from Kaiser Craft. And now for the challenge details!! Here are the rules of the challenge: Start date: Today, October 7 End date: October 31, Midnight EST Winners Announced: November 1 Don't forget to add your card to the Tiffany Doodles Flickr Gallery! Tagged with: TD05 The Prizes! You have 4 chances to win up to 7 digis of your choice from Tiffany Doodles! 1st place - 7 digis 2nd place - 5 digis 3rd place - 3 digis 1 Random - 3 digis Want to see what the rest of the team came up with? You're in for a treat, their designs are amazing! For details on any of the team cards just click on their name to visit their blog! Tiffany Cammy Deirdre Donna Julie Lindsay Peet Ruby Shannon Vanessa Virginia Enjoy and be sure to stop by the Tiffany Doodles site to enter your card into the prize drawing!!

Stationary Box

Hey there blog friends! Today I have a super fun project to share with you...It's a stationary box and I demonstrated how to make this last weekend at a Wholly Scrap! class. It this not the greatest project! It would make a wonderful gift...maybe as a housewarming gift...You can find the complete directions on how to create this project on Splitcoaststampers. Just insert "box" into the search engine in the Resourse section. To start, the above photo is of the outside of the box. I used a SU! set for this project...this set is one of my favorites! This darling paper is from Creative Imaginations and the velvet ribbon is from American Crafts.

Here's the inside of the box, which holds a pen, pocket for stamps, mini note or address book, and pockets for tags, gift cards, and full size cards. (There is also plenty of room for envelopes)

The note cards...the design is the same on all of the cards and these measure 3" x 3.25". I used a few Nestibilities and SU! punches for the cut outs.

The tags...can I just tell you how much I love this ribbon...It's such a great color combo with the pink and red of the paper. These are standard tags that you can pick up at any Staples or other office supply store.

And here are the cards...Again, they were all the same with the exception of the sentiment, which I changed on each card. I kept the design very simple since we were mass producing to till the pocket. Doesn't that look like fun? You should try this project yourself...it's fairly easy and should take about two hours to complete. Enjoy!!

Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Release Day!

Hey guess what? Today is a big digi release day for Sweet 'n Sassy! Yippee!!! We've been so excited about the new SNSS acrylic stamp sets (I hope you've all been trying them out...they rock!) that it's been awhile since we've had a good 'ol digi release...just wait until you see these wonderful new holiday-inspired images!! I'm in love.... For my card, I used the super lovely Holly Wreath image. I think it's no secret that I have a thing for flowers and give me a wreath that's all decked out for the holidays and...well...hello baby!! I colored the wreath with my Copic markers and then used two circle Nestibilities to cut it out. The layout is one from last month's Mojo Monday and the paper is a new line from Imaginsce. Oh, and I added some Stickles to the berries...The sentiment is from the SNSS Christmas Wonder set. Hop on over to the Sweet 'n Sassy web site (hey, it's a new site and it's fabulous) to check out all of the new digis and enjoy!