Thursday, December 25, 2014

Heirloom Nativity


My son loves gag gifts so for Christmas this year I got him a fabulous rubber duck nativity set!  I picked it up at Hobby Lobby.  To make it even better I made a beautiful box for the set.  I sure hope it gives him a good laugh and that every year when he looks at them he will remember me fondly (or at least with a sigh and an eye roll).

This is the second time I've made this box and I really love it.  I did make a change this time and trim off the flaps that are on the lid so the pattern paper I used for the bottom of the box could show through the star cutouts.  If you leave the flaps on, the box is much sturdier but I was willing to sacrifice sturdiness for cuteness!  I used the Large Snowflake Box from the Winter Gazebo set by SVGCuts.com.

I used paper from the Close to My Heart Snowhaven paper pack.  I absolutely love this paper!  I also used a leftover embellishment from the Close to My Heart Yuletide Carol Workshop on the Go and some Close to My Heart Sparkles that I colored with a Copic Y28 marker to make them gold.  I'll let you in on a little secret...you can color those gems any color you want with an alcohol marker.  Once I found that out I quite buying anything other than clear ones.

The paper I used for the bottom of the box is from the Close to My Heart Paper Fundamentals Enchantment Assortment.  I really like this paper because one side has a glossy design that you can rub ink over and end up with a really cool effect.  I used Tim Holtz Barn Door Distress Ink to get the effect I was looking for on this box.

But...the best part is on the inside!

I think the cow and the donkey are my favorites!


Saturday, December 20, 2014

Sweet Baby Card


The daughter of my best friend in high school recently had a sweet baby boy - wow...how in the world did all those years go by?  I still remember holding her the day she was born.  It seems like just yesterday but I guess that time does have a tendency to rush by when you aren't watching.  I made her a mini album to capture his first year and in all the work of the album I almost forgot to make a card to go with it!  I recently ordered some new stamps from Close To My Heart.  There was a perfect one in the bunch - D1642 Cute Koalas - that turned into an adorable card.  This particular set is not in the current catalog but if you click on the link above you can order it on my website.

I used a new paper line that just became available on December 1st called Hopscotch.  The sentiment is from the Just to Say stamp collection that comes with the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge.  I love this set - it has a sentiment for every occasion.  I stamped the front image and sentiment in Momento Tuxedo Black and the inside in Autumn Terracotta.  I also outlined Baby with my clear Wink of Stella brush pen.

Copics used:
W0
W3
W6
E57
E59
E79

Deer in the Birch

I wanted to create a clean masculine card for my dad for his birthday this year.  I used some dies from Taylored Expressions for the birch tree panel and the fabulous deer.  I used watercolor paper for the trees so they would stand out and some black cardstock from Close to My Heart for the deer.  I really love our black cardstock.  It almost has what looks like a very faint shimmer and cuts so nicely!  It does have a white core so I just took a black marker and ran it along the edges and no more white showing!

I also wanted to try a new technique that I've been seeing lately.  I created the sunrise background using several Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  I don't have too many colors in my collection so I used what I had available and while it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for I still like it very much.  Lawnfawn has a really good video tutorial on how to use this technique.  Here's a link:  http://youtu.be/K7lPcQ8QQ_M

Monday, December 1, 2014

Bible Art Journaling - Romans 8:28



I finally received my journaling bible today!  My husband encouraged me to jump right in and I chose to art journal my favorite verse.  This verse has meant so much to me over the years.  It's the sort of verse that even when I am having an absolutely horrible day/week/month I can hang on to that promise.  I knew I wanted some fun hand lettering and also wanted to add some flowers to my page.  When I look at nature I am struck with how God can take something as homely as a seed and turn it into a beautiful flower.  Sometimes I feel like he does that with my life too.  There have been so many things that while I was going through them felt like they would never turn around but things always seem to turn out.  His promises are always true!!  

I'm not very good at hand lettering so I found some lettering online (unfortunately I couldn't figure out who actually created it) that I liked and then I traced the lettering on a scratch paper to fit the space I have in my bible and then slipped that paper under the bible page and traced everything with my colored pencils.  I debated stamping some flowers on the page but I was afraid the ink would bleed through the paper.  So I grabbed the Close to My Heart #S1411 - It's the Little Things (November Stamp of the Month) and using the acetate sheet only I traced the flowers and leaves using colored pencils.

To tell the truth I was a little afraid to even get started with this project but once I got going I had a great time and found myself completely immersed in what I was doing.

***My bible is the Crossway ESV Single Column Journaling Bible.  I purchased mine directly from Crossway through their website.  I had originally ordered it on Amazon but it was backordered for several weeks so I finally cancelled my order.  That is the first time I can remember Amazon failing me!