Delight yourself in the Lord

Week #7 Art in the Word prompt is Psalm 37: 4-6

"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass..."

Using Psalm 37:4-6 we are prompted to reflect on the verses and create any type of art to reflect what those verses mean to us. I think we must remain childlike in our relationship with God and so I used this happy little girl stamp made by Paperbag Studios with a floral background paper from Daisy D's and machine stitching to relay in a card what this passage means to me.

Gothic Arch Challenge: MOON is the theme

I'm still trying to get the hang of collage work and Gothic Arches. This week's theme for the Gothic Arch Challenge is "MOON." It is funny how things come together. When I read what this week's challenge was I immediately thought of songs and then Halloween moons. But I received some wonderful vintage photos in the mail as a sweet surprise from TAMI and this little girl is one of them. I had to use her on this week's challenge for GOTHIC ARCH CHALLENGE site. Check out more Gothic Arches from the challenge by clicking on HERE.

Edward - Nancy's Gothic Arch

I am absolutely thrilled and it is quite an honor for me to have won and am able to enjoy upclose EDWARD! This Gothic Arch was made by NANCY and you can view her fabulous work on her blog VINTAGE PAPERS
I won Edward on Nancy's blog and he arrived in today's mail. Isn't he grand?!!

Thank you Nancy. I think he is super!

Mask

I don't know what this card is supposed to represent other than I like the image of the mask (stamp is from Judikins) and it was a lot of fun to color and embellish.

The throne

This old chair is 'Bella's throne. It is her chair and if you choose to sit in it most likely she'll get up in it right on top of you. The chair isn't even big enough for her anymore but she likes it. Well, the other day Gabriel decided he wanted to sit with his big sister. 'Bella was NOT amused!

Googlie eyes

This dragonfly kept me company while I was out in the yard. He followed me around and then would let me photograph him from all angles. What a ham this fellow is! I think the front view looks like he has those funny googlie eyes on him (or is it a her?)

Autumn harvest

My little garden was a lot of fun to tend this summer. It is good that Paul and I do not have to rely on our harvest to survive the winter though. If that were the case, about all we'd have in our larder would be beans! The tomatoes and cherry tomatoes have been good but we've kept up eating them as we pick them. Yesterday I blanched and froze bags of green beans for the freezer though. So if you come to visit us this winter, it is a sure bet we'll have beans for our vegetable!

Get your motor running! Head out on the highway.

Every fall Paul and his buddy Steve attempt to relive their youth and take off on their motorcycles, heading south over the border into the Northeastern U.S. for a week long motorcycle adventure.

This stamp cracks me up. While Paul and Steve are very safety conscious motorcycle riders, I think inside this wild guy personifies their inner spirit. Don't ya love the glasses with the fake beak/nose?

I'll be tucking this card into Paul's saddle bags along with some trail mix.

So guys..."Get your motor runnin'! Head out on the highway. Lookin' for adventure...."

Ode to my Newfoundland Dogs

The most perfect surprise in the mail from a fellow stamper when we came home with our second Newfoundland puppy. Deborah sent me a Newfoundland Dog stamp! I love it. I've looked and looked for a good stamp of a Newfie that really looks like the dogs but never found one I liked. Well Deborah did. Today I've been making cards with it. THANK YOU DEBORAH! You can view Deborah's card link HERE for the most amazing cards! She's an incredible artist.

I used a gate fold layout for this card and it opens at the center. Bone Jour is computer generated. The dog bone paperclip was a gift from JAN. Patterned paper if by K& Company.

















I stamped these Newfies on glossy white card stock and used Tombow Markers to color lightly. It is hard to color a black dog. The paw print stamp is from See-D's rubber stamps.

















The sentiment is computer generated on Anna Griffin patterned paper. Card is made on two shades of grey Bazzill cardstock. I don't know who makes the pawprint ribbon, but I love it! :)

I'm sure there will be many more Newfie cards in the days to come.

Karen Lockhart Stamps

These three images are from Karen Lockhart designs. Pam and I exchanged some stamped images and these are three Karen Lockhart stamps Pam sent to me to color, embellish and make into cards. You can visit Pam's beautiful cards at her blog SMILEY COLLECTOR.

Strawberries stamp is Karen Lockhart designs. Patterned paper is from my scrap box of BoBunny papers from a few years ago. I love blue and yellow together and I think it sets off the strawberries. Hopefully you'll find the color combination a surprise but pleasing.

The Halloween witch from Karen Lockhart designs I colored with prismacolor pencils and added stickles to the stars and moon on her hat and dimensional glaze on her hat to make it glossy. The "trick or treat" sentiment is one of the little Michael's $1 stamps. The background paper is Wild Asparagus.

Is this PINK or what? I kind of like it but it might not be to everyone's taste. I colored this Karen Lockhart image with glitter gel pens and then added a bit of stickles to the flower centers and some dimensional glaze to the pitcher. The patterned papers are some BoBunny scraps that I found in my scrap bin. I haven't seen BoBunny in a couple of years. This has put me in the mood to look for some. The papers are so bright and cheery.

More Lockhart designs tomorrow. I have two more colored and just need to create a layout and make the cards. Until then, thanks for stopping by for a look.

In Stitches

The WEDNESDAY STAMPER challenge right now is titled "Stitches" and this card will fit the bill for the challenge, I think.

This was just plain old fun. I haven't used this House Mouse stamp in a long time and decided to use it on a gate fold card. If my camera worked I'd have photographed it instead of scanned it as you cannot see the special way it opens flat from this scan. Not sure yet if I'll put a sentiment inside. To be determined later....

Stamps used: "Mouse Bounce" House Mouse stamp by Stampabilities And the flowers are stamped using Close to my Heart stamps called Simple stitches.
Patterned paper: Wild Asparagus
Embellishments: buttons, stickles on the pin heads, clear dimensional glaze on the thimbles and machine zigzag stitching.
Image colored with Prismacolor Pencils.

Lesa honored me with the Nice Matters Award

How does one say thank you from the bottom of the heart for such a sweet award? LESA, who is one of THE NICEST people has just payed this award forward and selected me. Thank you Lesa. Love ya bunches!

I want to pay this award forward and name 5 ladies who deserve this award too. JAN, PESCALE, ETHEL, NANCY and STACY. These ladies have always opened their heart as well as shared their talents with me. Such wonderful cyber pals they are.

Gothic Arch Challenge

This is the first week to participate in the weekly GOTHIC ARCH CHALLENGE and our theme for this week is SCHOOL. I'm still trying to become comfortable with this form of art and am finding it challenging and difficult for me but a lot of fun too.

For my School Days Gothic Arch I used one of my favorite stamps from Paperbag Studios. I have to tell you something about this little girl. My husband carries only one photo of me in his wallet. It is my little school photo when I was in Kindergarten! (My mother gave it to him to have). Anyway, I look a lot like this little girl with the same haircut. hee hee hee :)

The background stamp is....can you read what it says? It is part of the Pledge of Allegiance. The stamp is from Stampabilities. Do the children still recite the pledge to the flag in school?

Patterned paper is from Basic Grey and Daisy D's.

Reading, writing and arithmetic are computer generated onto basic grey paper. Then I added the letter beads to spell out school days and found a small scrap of tape measure grossgrain ribbon.

I hope you enjoy.

Age and Treachery will Triumph

"Age and Treachery will triumph over youth and skill."

My husband plays golf with a group of middle aged balding geezers each weekend. Sometimes they take their teen / twenty-something sons with them. I think this card says it all for them! ;-)

This is the inside sentiment:



Stamps are by Art Impressions.
Colored with Prismacolor Pencils and a touch of glitter gel pens on the argyle socks and cap.
Patterned paper is Basic Grey Lucky from the Destiny collection
Brad and punches and that's about it.

Those men...they'll do anything to win! Hee hee hee :)

Autumn Scarecrow

This is an image from a Merry Go Round swap hosted by TAMI. This was one of the images I received to create something with (a card, tag, altered item). I had so much fun coloring this.

The patterned paper is from my favorite = WILD ASPARAGUS! I colored the image with prisma color pencils. The scarecrow image is by Hero Arts Rubber Stamps (I'm told that it is now a retired stamp.)

Shhhhh...I'll tell you a secret though. For this swap this I decided not to make cards with each persons stamped image. I'm doing something special for each person with their image. So while this is one of the pictures that will be used, this is for me. I hope everyone enjoys their surprise. I'll post them after the swap is complete. I think they should be fun.

Thanks for stopping by to see my Autumn Scarecrow.

My very first Gothic Arch

Please be kind with your comments. This is the very first Gothic Arch I've ever made. Paul was kind of excited to know I was making something different from my usual cards and "style" (if I have a style) and told me he has always thought these were cool.

OK...I finish this and he looks at it for a long time and then says, (and I quote) "Uhhhh...nice." Translated that means, "I've seen better."

So I know that this isn't the best and I'd really appreciate helpful suggestions. I've wanted to do these for a long time but this is a whole new world of papercrafting for me.

The sentiment quote stamp is by Dawn Houser stamps
The lady reading is unidentified (but I really like this stamp).
Used double needle for border stitching.

Constructive criticism most welcome.

Caffeine Fix

For the next two weeks at WEDNESDAY STAMPER the challenge is for stitching to appear on your card. Since I love to machine stitch many of my cards, this was a fun challenge for me.

My dear daughter and son-in-law gave me something for my birthday that I've always wanted but never had...A coffee bean grinder! Wooo hooo! I'm so excited. Plus the goodie basket not only included the grinder but also a bag of starbuck's coffee, a beautiful pewter scoop, AND coffee stickers and tea charms.

Well naturally I had to make some cards to get my caffeine fix after this present!

The sentiment sticker describes me perfectly first thing in the morning. OK, I don't look as good as this Stamping Bella girl stamp but the sentiment fits my morning mood.

Card ingredients:
Stamp = Gumpabella by Stamping Bella stamps
Paper = Wild Asparagus
Colored with prismacolor pencils
Cuttlebug swirl embossed background
Ribbon and brads and stitching

Anatomy of the Butterfly

One more stamped acetate card. The "Anatomy of the Butterfly" stamp is from Tin Can Mail rubber stamps. I stamped the image in black Stazon ink on the front of the acetate and then on the backside applied green and yellow stickles.

I mounted the butterfly to this beautiful piece of pearlized card stock from "The Luxury Stack" from DCWV. I used clear Studio G flourish stamps in the corners and added some yellow and clear gems to them.

Last card for today. Thanks for stopping by for a look-see.

Bubble background technique

My good friend, Jan, surprised me with an envelope filled with her beautiful Bubble backgrounds. The gauntlet was thrown and it was my turn to create a card using her beautiful background paper. You can view Jan's blog HERE and see more of her fabulous cards using unique background techniques.

For my first card using Jan's bubble background I am using a small bird stamp from Stampin' UP! and a sentiment stamp from Close to my Heart. Using those stamps double mats, some brads and feathers I completed my first card.

The second bubble background card is drying so I'll post it later.

Thanks for stopping by. And thanks to Jan for sharing her incredible talents with me.

Tea Time

I made this card for a friend with whom I would love to stop by and share a cup tea. I'll enclose a tea bag with this.

I don't know who makes these stamps as I bought them unmounted in an online stamp sale. It is set of coffee and tea images and sentiments. I think I bought it a year ago and this is the first time I've inked any of them up.

The patterned paper is by Wild Asparagus and I used my cuttlebug embossing folder on the solid section for texture.

I think it is a bit too monochromatic. I painted the image with twinkling H2O's so the teapot and sugar and creamer bowls do have a bit of shimmer that isn't detectable in the scan.

Hmmmm....I may need to rethink this card. Oh well, this is my early morning card.