Butterfly card

I made a birthday card today using some beautiful papers I got in a set recently.  The background is a gorgeous blue with a hint of purple and has gold metallic additions.  I really liked the papers so I used it as the basis of my card, and used the current challenge at Freshly Made Sketches as the pattern for what I did.  I kept the wings of the butterflies free so they have a 3-D effect and I love the way it turned out.

This is the FMS pattern I used:


And this is the card I made:

The butterflies are both die cut with metallic paper.  The inside of the card is plain... just the words "Happy Birthday"die cut from the same metallic paper as the butterflies on the front.

Roses

I have been very negligent about writing and posting in this online journal of sorts lately.  Maybe it's the hot weather, although I suspect is more laziness than heat!  Anyway, this week I made a card that was a challenge for me, using a new die I bought.  The die is a bunch of roses with lots of more intricate pieces, as you can see from this photo of the inside of the card:

I cut the roses out of some pink suede paper I had, then I cut the leaves from forest green suede paper and glued them on top of the leaf portions of the pink.  As you can see, the die is an outline of roses, and it has all those small parts that also get cut out.  There were so many pieces it reminded me of a jigsaw puzzle, so I thought I would use them also.

I cut the die from some gold metallic paper and glued it onto the front of the card, then I glued each piece of the pink suede paper rose petals and green suede paper leaves into the appropriate spots in the gold metallic rose outline.  Yes, it took a long time, but yes, it turned out beautifully!  I think I am going to try this out again, and maybe try it on some other dies as well.

Be still

I keep working on my skills for making masculine cards because that seems to be one of my biggest challenges, so when I wanted to make a card for a friend of ours (a man) who is discouraged, I thought of the current challenge at Freshly Made Sketches as a perfect setting for the card I wanted to make.  The challenge looks like this:


 
This is the card I made for our friend:

I used brown ripple holographic paper from Paper Wishes as the background on the striped paper and for the shield.  I chose a shield because it reminded me of strength from God as we wait for Him to help us in our difficulties, so it went with the Bible verse on the front.  Then I carried that theme into the inside:

The Bible tells us to be still and watch God meet our need, and it also says to be strong, so I felt like this design was perfect for the message I wanted to convey to our discouraged friend.

Guard rails on the road of life

Proverbs 11:5a The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight …

I was really struck by this verse this morning.  As I grow older I find myself reflecting on the events and experiences of my life and although I have regrets of bad actions and wrong decisions, I see my life as a straight road toward God and His will.  The bumps and curves are small in comparison to the over-all straightness of my life-road.  My righteousness, created in me by God when I gave my life to Him at age six, has kept me moving straight ahead.  I picture my “road” as a highway with guard rails along both sides.  The guard rails are righteousness and my vehicle is my blamelessness in Christ.  The road signs along the say show me getting closer to my destination, the heavenly city and my mansion.  The road continues on straight ahead … 

Father's Day card

The sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches was exactly what I needed to get my thoughts in line for a Father's Day card I needed to make. 



Here is the card I am planning to submit...

And the inside ...

I am going to add a message inside but have not decided on what it will be yet.