Love You Bunches

Hi, everyone!  Today's Friday Free4All Challenge over at Splitcoast is to incorporate the word "Love" on your project.  I was able to create this CAS card in less than fifteen minutes before I went to work....yay!!  I used the ODBD Custom Ornate Hearts Die Set, along with the "Love You Bunches" set and new ODBD "Heart and Soul" Designer Paper.

Thanks for stopping by!  See you bright and early Saturday morning for the ODBD New Release party!!!

Blessings,

Bless Your Heart

Hi, everyone!   I couldn't pass up the Sketch Challenge over at Splitcoast today......I actually started this card before work but ran out of time, so here it is finally.....a bit more CAS than the sample shows!!!

I have used some of the new designer paper from Our Daily Bread designs, called "The Heart and Soul Collection", along with a new February stamp set, "Bless Your Heart" (sentiment).  The die cut and stenciled heart is from the ODBD Custom Ornate Heart Die Set and the frilly border was cut out with the ODBD Custom Beautiful Borders die Set.  Did you know that you can pre-order the new releases now?!!!  What are you waiting for?!

Thanks for stopping by!  Only a few days until release day and ODBD's monthly Blog Hop...yay!!!

Blessings,

Hearts Galore from ODBD!

Hello, everyone!  I have two more Our Daily Bread designs sneak peeks to share with you today.  In a couple of days, I will be able to share some samples with the new gorgeous custom designer papers from Our Daily Bread design, the "Heart and Soul Collection", which is available now at the ODBD store!  If you haven't yet, check out the pre-order bundles available there!!!

My first card I used "Clean Heart" (scripture verse), the Flower Heart single (which is a larger version of the heart in the "Clean Heart" set), along with the ODBD Custom Ornate Hearts cutting dies.  The card design was based on this gorgeous card from Sharon aka shendrian's amazing gallery.  Sharon was dubbed Queen for the Day over at Splitcoast a few days ago.....congrats, Sharon!!  The heart image was white embossed on white, cut out with the largest die from the set; while the cardstock was still in the die, I sponged aqua ink around the edge and all over the image (embossing resist technique....the ink does not stick to the embossed areas.) Some of the flowers were colored with markers.

This is the inside view, which shows a sentiment from "Love You Bunches" and one of the new gorgeous cutting dies from the ODBD Custom Beautiful Borders Die Set.

My next card was fashioned after this awesome card by Doni High aka donidoodle, who was named Featured Stamper at Splitcoast this morning......congrats, Doni!!!  I used two different designer papers, tore a strip of each, sponged the edges, then adhered to kraft cardstock.  The heart and sentiment are from the upcoming "Heart and Soul" set.  The heart was colored with markers, stamped onto ivory and then cut out by hand.  The ivory mat was cut out with the ODBD Custom Ornate Hearts die set.

Here is an inside view of this card (which I will be saving for my hubby for our anniversary in a couple of months).  The large sentiment is from the "Love You Bunches" set and the Mwaah is from "Be Mine".  My hubby has been writing and texting Mwaah on notes to me for many years and I'm so excited that I now have two different stamp versions of it!  (If you're interested, there is also a Mwaah stamp in the "Be Joyful" set!)

Thanks for visiting today!

Blessings,

Altered Steno Pad Tutorial / ODBD Sneak Peek

Happy Saturday, everyone!!!!  Today's Inspiration Challenge is absolutely PERFECT to show off more of Our Daily Bread designs' February stamps and dies!  Pssst......if you are signed up for the ODBD newsletter, you know that ODBD has already shown the new sets and is offering HUGE pre-order discounts!  Check out the deets HERE!

The Inspiration Challenge at Splitcoast is to find inspiration from Integrity Graphics.......I flipped out when I saw this gorgeous prayer journal and used it to create my own altered steno notepad, using the small heart and sentiment from the new "Bless Your Heart" set and ODBD Custom "Ornate Hearts" Dies.  The background was stamped with "Brocade Background" red ink on red cardstock and the hearts and sentiment were heat embossed in white. The dotted lines were drawn with a chalk marker against a ruler.

Here is a simple tutorial on how to decorate a steno pad.....I used a small one, but you can do this with any size:

Step one:  Using your scissors, cut one page out of the steno pad, making vertical cuts through the tabs because you want to keep this page intact to use as a template.

Step 2: Cut a piece of cardstock or designer paper to the same size as the entire page from the steno pad.

Step 3: Line up the page over your cardstock, hold in place, then punch holes through the cardstock, using the "template" as your guide. 

Step 4: If you plan to stamp on your cardstock, this would be the time to do it.  I stamped red on red with the Brocade Background stamp.

Step 5: I white embossed the small heart image from the "Bless Your Heart" set three times, then cut them out with the ODBD Custom Ornate Hearts die set.  The scripture verse (same set) was also white embossed onto the page.

Step 6: After finishing the embellishments, I used paper snips to cut vertical lines through the tabs at the top.  I then added adhesive to the back of the cardstock, including the back of the cut tabs.

Step 7: After lining up and adhering the lower portion to the top of the steno pad, I used the scissors tip to push each tab through the wire and pressed down on each tab to make sure it was adhered.

Here is the finished altered pad........are you ready to give it a try?  You will LOVE how easy it is to personalize your own steno pads for yourself or for a gift for someone else!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a very blessed and safe weekend!!

Clean and Simple "Clean Heart"

Hi, everyone! This is a ten-minute card I made this morning before work for the Friday Free4All Challenge over at Splitcoast. Today's challenge is to use only ink on your card and no embellishments.  The Breadsticks (design team sisters from Our Daily Bread designs) and I were given the go ahead to share the February New Releases earlier than normal, so I was excited to be able to use the "Clean Heart" set to make this clean and simple card.  I was originally planning to color in the flowers, but thought it looked great in black and white.....which is against my normal.  :)

Thanks for visiting with me today!  I'll definitely be showing more sneak peeks this weekend...yay!!

 Blessings,

Blessings for Baby

Hello!  This week's Featured Stamper is the fabulous Tina DeLong aka GardenDiva.....yay, Tina!!  Tina is having one awesome week......I picked one of her gorgeous cards to feature for ODBD Customer Card of the Day, she won the ODBD Shining the Light Challenge, and now she's been chosen for Featured Stamper!!!  Way to go, Tina!!!  It is an honor to help her celebrate today!  I cased this beautiful card from Tina's gallery to make a baby card for a dear friend.

For my card, I used the same embossing folder, but used the embossed side up.  The quote in the corner is from the Our Daily Bread designs  "Children's Prayers" set;  for the tag, I used the "Ornate Borders and Flowers" set (and custom cutting dies) plus the blessings sentiment from "Ornate Border Sentiments".  The shaker was created by stamping the "Canning Jars" image twice on white cardstock and again on a piece of acetate.  One of the jars (on white) was trimmed by hand in order to give a larger outside border (to hide the foam tape), then the inside of the jar image was trimmed to create the shaker border.  This piece was adhered over the acetate, then the whole thing was turned upside down to apply the foam tape around the edges.  Since the beads and buttons were a bit thick, I had to use two layers of foam tape so that there was room for everything to move around inside the shaker.  The beads and buttons were added, then the bottom jar panel was adhered to the foam tape to hold in the beads.

Thanks so much for visiting with me today!

Blessings,

Reach for the Stars

Hello!!  Yes, this is my third post for today!  With me, it's either "feast or famine"! :)

I was asked to be a guest designer for the Clean and Simple Challenge this week over at Splitcoast.....what an honor to be asked to join such an amazingly talented team!!  This week's challenge is a sketch based on this beautiful card by Jan Larson.  For my card, I used the Wood Background and birthday sentiment from the Dad set, both by Our Daily Bread designs. The stars were punched from a scrap piece of Bo Bunny designer paper, not sure which collection.

Once again, thanks so much for visiting with me!  It's greatly appreciated!

Have a great week!!

Blessings,

Sugar and Spice

Hi, everyone! I could not resist playing along with this week's Mojo Sketch Challenge since it was a simple design.  I used this sketch as an opportunity to create a baby card for some friends at church who are expecting a baby girl soon.  The stamped frame from Ornate Borders and Flowers was stamped in black, cut out with the ODBD Custom Ornate Borders and Flower Die Set, sponged the inside square with pink, then colored some of the ornate sections with a pink marker.  The flourish was cut out with the ODBD Custom Fancy Foliage Die Set, then layered with some Zva roses.  The sentiment, also from Our Daily Bread designs, is from the Little Girls stamp set. 

Thanks for visiting!

Blessings,

Lavender Seedpacket

Hi, everyone!  It's a melancholy day here in Indiana after our Colts lost to the Patriots last night, so, I'm trying to cheer myself up with a reminder that spring is right around the corner.  The new "Lavender" set paired with the "Seed Packet" set from Our Daily Bread designs is just the ticket!  Today's Featured Stamper over at Splitcoast is  Rebecca Deeprose....congrats, Rebecca!!  I chose this beautiful card from her gallery. The "Seedpacket" was stamped on white with Stazon Vintage Violet, then it was colored with markers and sponge daubers.  The Lavender image was stamped three times (using scratch paper to mask the sides of the seed packet.)  The Our Daily Bread Designs Seed Co. stamp is actually straight, but I curved it as I was placing it on the acrylic block, then used a Stamp-a-ma-jig stamp  positioner to place it where I wanted. Baker's twine and a button were the only embellishment....no paper piercing this time, folks!! :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy your Sunday!!

Blessings,

Lavender Window

Hi, everyone! After a rough week of power outages, driving on snow and ice, and being buried in paperwork after three "snow days", I'm so happy to see the weekend.....and very grateful to have electricity!!!  Today's Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast is to choose any item from Global Table.....I fell in love with the colors of these beautiful linen napkins.  For my card I am using the new Lavender stamp set and the ODBD Custom Windows Die Set.  For the lavender scene, the window die was traced onto white cardstock, then trimmed inside the traced line.  Once the scene was stamped and clouds sponged, the window cut out was popped up with foam tape over the scene.  I am also submitting this to the ODBD Shining the Light 2-0-1-4 Challenge...I used two oval punches, zero embossing, one bow, and four dies from the Window set.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Blessings,

Snowflake Circle Flower

Hi, everyone!  Wow, it was a cold blizzard of a day yesterday, which would have been fine by me, other than the fact that our power was out for twelve hours.....brrrrrr!!!  The Lord always looks after us, however, and no disasters occurred in our house during that time.  Today,  I'm home since most businesses around Indianapolis are closed due to the winter emergency status.  So, I was happy to be able to do some stamping this morning.......just because!  Most of my projects and cards are dedicated to a recipient, but this time I made a card just for fun!  The Clean and Simple Challenge is all about snowflakes and the Technique Lover's Challenge was to create a circle flower, so I combined the two and made a snowflake flower!

You can find the instructions on how to make the circle flower here.  After mine was finished, I cut a snowflake out of the same designer paper with the ODBD Custom Snowflakes Die Set to layer on top, along with a silver snowflake embellishment.  The flourish is from the ODBD Custom Fancy Foliage Die Set. The sentiment is from Our Daily Bread designs "Snowflake Sentiments".

Thanks for stopping by to visit!  Hope you are staying warm and safe!!

Blessings,

Beautiful Lavender Wishes

Hi, everyone!  Hope that everyone is all tucked in their homes safe and warm while the next winter storm passes through. So far we only have one new inch of snow in central Indiana, but it's coming down pretty heavy.  Here is a view from my front porch....our magnolia tree looks beautiful with it's new coat of snow:

Since our church was cancelled today, I did a little stamping instead.  Today's Featured Stamper over at Splitcoast is Joy Taylor aka joy131275.....congrats, Joy!  I chose this beautiful card to recreate, using Our Daily Bread designs' Canning Jars, Lavender, and Sentiments Collection 2.  Instead of doing a lot of fancy masking, I simply stamped the canning jar image, stamped the lavender image over it, then fussy cut the entire image.  To cover up the overstamped lines, I stamped another jar image and cut out part of the jar lid and adhered over the top.....easy peasy!  The sentiment panel was cut out with a circle die from the ODBD Custom Circle Ornaments Die Set, stenciled in yellow, stamped with a sentiment from Sentiments Collection 2, paper pierced, then popped up with foam tape.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Blessings,

Blessings in a Bottle

Hi, everyone!!  Today's Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast is to choose a photo from GirlGeek's Nitey Nite Pinterest board.....I fell in love with these gorgeous pajamas.....used to have some similar to this....back in my "thinner" days....nowadays my style is more about flannel bottoms and men's pocket tshirts! :) 

The "Apothecary Bottles" image and ODBD Custom Apothecary Bottles Die Set,  plus the bottle label from "Joy in a Jar", were released on January 1st from Our Daily Bread designs. The bottle was colored with a sponge dauber and blue ink.  The bottle label was stamped onto vellum, then cut out with the ODBD Custom Antique Labels and Border Die Set, then ran through a Xyron sticker maker, and adhered it to the bottle.  The embossed background was created by using an embossing mat along with the ODBD Quatrefoil Pattern Cutting Die, which pressed the design into the paper without cutting.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Our Daily Bread designs January New Releases!

Hi, everyone!!!  Happy New Year!!!  Today we are celebrating a brand new year, plus a brand new stamps and custom cutting dies from Our Daily Bread designs!!  Our team is so excited about this month's release and I'm sure you will be too!!

Three winners will be randomly chosen from the comments left on the designers blogs to receive a $25 Gift Certificate to the ODBD Store, to be used toward the purchase of ODBD Stamps.  You have until January 2, 2013 at 9:00 p.m. EST to make your comments!  The Winners will be posted on the ODBD Blog on January 3rd, so be sure to check back there to see if you won!

Grace
Chris
Cathy
Sandee
Dawn
Lori
Julie
Sabrina
Wanda
Lisa
Angie...you are here!
Audrey
ODBD Blog

Here are the stamps and custom dies I used for the projects below:

Apothecary Bottles; Apothecary Bottle Custom Die Set

Joy in a Jar; Antique Labels and Border Die Set

Canning Jars; Canning Jars Custom Die Set

Canning Jar Fillers 2; Lavender

My first sample for today's release features the Apothecary Bottles set, the Joy in a Jar set (label/sentiment), the ODBD Custom Apothecary Bottles Die Set, the ODBD Ornate Border and Corners Die Set (corner piece), the ODBD Custom Fancy Foliage Die Set, and the ODBD Custom Antique Labels and Border Die Set (cut out the jar label and the panel behind the bottle.)  The bottle and label were stamped onto vellum and colored using sponge daubers and coral colored ink.

My second sample features the Lavender stamp set, along with the ODBD Quatrefoil Pattern Die.  The lavender sprig was "fussy cut" with fine scissors and a craft knife, colored with markers, then adhered over the Quatrefoil Pattern background, which was popped up with tiny pieces of foam tape in order to give it dimension against the purple card.  The white sentiment panel was cut out with ODBD Custom Ornate Borders and Flower Die Set; the purple mat for the sentiment was cut by hand after tracing the outline of the same die.

In case you missed them earlier in the week, here are a couple of sneak peeks I shared, using the new stamps and dies shown above:

(Hint: I do not have the set, Canning Jar Fillers 1, which includes a jellybean image, so I used the regular bean image from Canning Jar Fillers 2 and colored them to mimic jellybeans!)

Thanks for hanging out with us today!  Hope you enjoyed all of the beautiful new stamps and dies!!

Wishing a happy and blessed New Year for all of you!!!  Mwaaah!!!