Hello roses

I've been working hard at trying to find good uses for some paper and stamps I've had on hand for quite a while and I was very pleased with the outcome of what I tried yesterday afternoon.

I had a pink card base and when I was looking through a pad of flowered paper I had, I thought this rose-covered paper would be really pretty.  The black background really pops the roses off the paper.  When I added a backing of green and of creamy yellow I thought it made the roses look really pretty.  I have a set of label stamps and matching dies that I bought way back in 2015 and the small label was just right for the front so I embossed it on green cardstock and added a tiny silver "hello" sticker to the center.

For the inside of the card I used another stamp I have had since 2015.

I liked this card so much I think I am going to try some other variations with other sheets of the flowered paper pad.

Since I have used some old stamps I think I'll enter this in the Retro Rubber Stamp "anything goes" challenge for this week.

I even know just who I am going to send this card to!

Determination

II Kings 18:3-8 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord … he removed the high places … he trusted in the Lord … he held fast to the Lord … he rebelled against the king of Assyria and world not serve him … he struck down the Philistines.

King Hezekiah is a good example of what one does when determined to do what is right and honorable in following the Lord.  He did not just decide to do what was right, he acted on his decision.  He got rid of everything that might keep him from following through on his decision.  He removed things that would tempt him to sin (the “high placed” and idols).  He rebelled when he couldn’t do anything else, and refused to let outside influenced control his actions.  He destroyed (“struck down”) things that could cause him present or future distraction and trouble.  And he was proactive in his pursuit of doing what was right.  These verses tell us he not only trusted in the Lord.  He held fast to the Lord.  This tells me he was not naïve about the potential he had to give up and give in to the things that could tempt him away from his determination to follow God.

Not repairing my house?

II Kings 12:7b Why are you not repairing the house?

King Jehoash was a king who wanted to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  He saw that the temple was in disrepair because of the lack of interest on the part of the people and even the priests (too much attention paid to other worship instead of to the worship of God) so he told the priests to be repairing God’s house.  Yet after 23 years the priests still had done no work … just collected money to do the work.  And the king’s response really struck me today as I re-read this account.  There was no good reason to not be doing the repairs.  There was no lack of means, of supplies, or of personnel.  It was procrastination and/or pure laziness.  It made me stop and think again about my own life and what keeps me from reaching my own goals.  Although I never used to procrastinate, I see that tendency creeping into my life in these retirement years.  Why am I not repairing my own bodily house?  I can only say it is procrastination and laziness that keeps me from pursuing better physical and spiritual health.  I have no other valid excuse.

Rainbow and bird hello

I have had this multi-hello stamp for a long time and have loved using it.  It is a Stampabilities stamp from 2012 and I just never tire of using it!  I think it is because it can be doctored up to be either whimsical OR more formal, depending upon the background I use.  This week I thought I would try it over a rustic rainbow of gelato colors to make a cheerful and fun card.  After I put down the gelatos and smeared them just a tad, I heat embossed the greeting using some turquoise embossing powder, then I added those cute little bird brads.  I have a recipient already in mind for this! 

I am going to enter this in the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog.

Pineapple in many forms

I had a sheet of 12 x 12 in. scrapbook paper covered with pineapples, so I decided to see how many different cards I could make using that one sheet of paper.  Not only how many cards, but how different ...  And that is a real challenge for me, but seeing as I am trying to stretch myself creatively in my card-making, I knew this would be hard for me.  It was hard BUT oh, so satisfying!  I still have enough paper left to make one or two more cards, but seeing as at least one of the cards have an immediate use, I needed to document this even though I have not quite completed the final step!

Here are a couple views of the cards:

And a more close-up look at each one.  I'll start with my least favorite one, the Easter card:

I wanted to do something with some brown instead of yellow or green, but I think maybe a darker brown would have done better at bringing out the yellow pineapples in the background.  I went by a card I saw in a magazine that used light brown on top of a light yellow, but it did not turn out as I had wished.  At the same time, it does not look bad, just not quite what I had pictured in my mind.  I popped the die cut up off the front of the card to create some extra dimension.

This little girl with her yellow coat is a cute accent to the pineapple background, I think.  I also covered her shoes with Glossy Accents to make them look like patent leather shoes, which I think fit her outfit beautifully!

The card I made first was the original reason for starting this project.  I wanted to send a card to a new pastor on our staff at church, so I wanted to make a welcome card.  Pineapples seemed very appropriate for the occasion, and I was very pleased with how it turned out.

I covered the card with dark green card stock and layered some light green on top of that.  I put the pineapple paper on more dark green and cut out the word "welcome" with my Slice cutting machine in dark green and added some yellow glitter to it, then popped that layer up with dimensional tape.  I think it is appropriately not too feminine looking for the new male pastor.

For the last card  I used a bright yellow card base:

After putting together the set of squares of patterned paper with the "hello" I realized that the bright yellow was a bit too much, so before I attached the squares, I inked the houndstooth design with a stencil and some yellow ink.  It looks almost brown, but it is indeed yellow.  That make a huge difference in how the card looks.  I also inked the edges of the card with the same yellow ink to soften those edges a bit.  All in all, I was pleased with the outcome.

I guess I could call this set of cards my own personal "one sheet wonder" exercise!  I am pretty proud of myself at this stage!!

Yellow and gold Easter

I have been working on making some Easter cards using an old Stampin' Up Easter stamp set that dates all the way back to 2005, but I really like the sentiment in that set, and the bouquet of flowers that goes with it.  I found the challenge on the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog to be right up my alley this week, so to speak, so I am entering it into their Tic Tac Toe challenge.  I am using the row of yellow, heat embossing, and ribbon or twine.  And this is what I came up with:

I heat embossed the stems, leaves and flowers with gold embossing powder and lightly inked them with yellow and green, then I added a little bow of yellow and green and backed it on some sparkly gold cardstock.

The base card was a bright yellow and it seemed a little too much when I was finished, so I clear embossed a few blossoms to break it up.