Contrary to popular opinion...

...I have not fallen off the face of the earth. My husband (Lee) had surgery on Thursday and it's been pretty chaotic around here...well, not so much "chaotic" as "abnormal." When I fall of my schedule...watch out!

So, here I am to try and make up some lost time. I'm going to post two cards, both of which I made because of Thursday.

The first is the card I made for Lee when he was in the hospital. All day, during his surgery, I had a wonderful peace from the LORD that He would take care of Lee, and I wanted to convey that in my card.




I opted for a one layer card, which I don't often do. I love other people's one layer cards, but mine always seem to come out looking so sad. However, this time I actually ended up with exactly what I wanted. The base is Very Vanilla. I then stamped the leaf image from Lovely as a Tree and the "Blessed" from Fancy Flexible Phrases (retired) in Basic Brown and used my aquapainter to color the image using Really Rust, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip. Because I don't have the ink pads or reinkers for these colors, I scribbled ink from my markers onto a stamp box and picked up the color with the aquapainter.

At this point it looked rather too plain so I used a piece of scrap card stock as a straight edge and drew the box around the image using my Basic Brown Stampin' Write Journaler. I colored 1/4 inch white grosgrain ribbon with my Really Rust marker and tied it and some linen thread around the card. I added a stamp inside, "Each day of life is a precious gift of God. -Charles H. Spurgeon" from Refuge and Strength.

The second card I wanted to share is the one I made for my friend Naomi-Bell, who sat with me all morning at the hospital and kept me from falling asleep (we had to be at the hospital at 6am and I'm anything but a morning person).



I CASE'd this from Kristina Werner's blog (www.kwernerdesign.com/blog) you can check out the video of the original card here.

The base is Certainly Celery. I stamped the flower on Whisper White using Basic Black ink and colored the image using my Stampin' Write Markers. I punched out the flower using my Scalloped Circle Punch so it would be large enough that you wouldn't be able to see the edge through the opening. I attached the Regal Rose card stock to the Rose Red card stock using a temporary adhesive so I could punch my 1 3/8 inch circle out of both at once. I then detached them and centered the opening of the Regal Rose in my Scalloped Circle punch to create the layered effect. Stamped the "Thank You" and, after permanently adhering the two rose pieces, I tied on my ribbon using a trick I learned at Regionals in September...I'll have to share it as a tutorial sometime. I attached the entire rose section using dimensionals, as I hope you can see from this photo below. I took it without my flash so you can see the shadows, but it definitely changes the colors.

Blessed Card - Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Fancy Flexible Phrases; Card stock: Very Vanilla; Ink: Basic Brown; Accessories: 1/4" white grosgrain ribbon, linen thread; Tools: Stampin' Write Markers (Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip)

Thank You Card - Stamps: Time Well Spent, Much Appreciated; Card stock: Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Whisper White; Ink: Basic Black; Accessories: Stampin' Write Markers (Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, Summer Sun), black gingham ribbon; Tools: scalloped circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, crop-a-dile, dimensionals