Going Grey...and Yellow, Part Deux

Finally! Another installment of my "Going Grey..." series. I have had this image colored for weeks. Weeks, I tell ya! But I just needed the time/motivation which was kindly supplied by your friend and mine: Guilt! about being a week overdue on sending a thank you note. Oh, the shame. But have I mentioned busy season? I plead busy season. ;)


Soooo, this is the beloved Bee Tia by the ever awesome Some Odd Girl stamps. I {heart} her! She was a dream to color. I could do it over and over again. And I will. After busy season. :) Other than her innate fabulousness, I chose Bee Tia because the family this is going to started keeping their own bees last year. How cool is that?!? I know them through church, and they have been such a tremendous blessing to both me and my mom. Sooooo praising the Lord for them!


Okay. Back to Bee Tia. I trimmed her out and almost couldn't stand the wait to glitz up the fuzzies on her headband with Frosted Lace Stickles. (Learned the hard way that Stickles are the very last touch on a card.) I almost cried over discovering that I didn't have the right shade of grey ribbon (a problem I will remedy ASAP), and opted for this ethereal and oh so shimmery number from my stash.

And then there are the hexagons. Or "hexes" as I've taken to calling them. Yum! It took me hours to hunt down the Sizzix/Westminster Fibers dies. (Seriously, a trend this hot and no one else can make a punch or die? And Sizzix.com is the only place that carries them? For shame!) These dies are actually designed for quilters, but I am happy/grateful to say that they work beautifully on paper. I bought them in two sizes and used the 1" diameter (aka 3/4" sides) here. After an hour or two of hemming and hawing on exactly how to use my luscious little bits of Authentique Blissful papers, and devising how to run the patterns, voilà:


The alpha stickers are from October Afternoon's Farmhouse Collection, and came as part of a recent Studio Calico kit. I {heart} alpha stickers. A lot. I also love to be cheesily punny. So of course the inside of the card finishes the sentiment with "for BEE-ing so sweet." Hey, I warned you.

I'm entering this into the Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #129 to use something with wings, inspired by this scripture verse:

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Psalm 91:4

May all your days be blessed with the sweet friendship. May you take refuge in the truth and love of the Lord.

Going Grey...and Yellow

Grey. Yes, "grey" as opposed to "gray". I don't know why. I just like it that way. Grey. ;)
What's the first thing that Grey brings to your mind?

Greyhound? Italian version.

Grey skies?
Ya know they're gonna clear up. But in the meantime, how awesome & gorgeous!

Grey hair?(yes, sad to say I found my first a couple months ago...and promptly pulled it!)

Actually, it was silver and shiny, so there's hope it might turn out as lovely & thick as this.


Grey scale? (as in black & white)

I don't know what it is, but grey has been on my mind for months now. ETA: Actually, the idea to post the B&W of the card at the top of the post totally made me wonder if I'm not unduly influenced by my steady diet of NCIS reruns. I love the black & white scenes that flash at the return from every commercial break. I think there might also be a secret desire to head slap people like Gibbs. Just a little slap. And only if they really need it. Don't be scared: I'm resisting this urge so far...mostly. Kidding!!! I'm just a head slap admirer. It's purely a spectator sport.

***ding, ding, ding***

Grey matter!

So it is no big wonder that my crafting is going the same grey way. Here's a first taste. Not too much grey. Just think of it as the appetizer to a lot of grey based yumminess to come.

In this case, with a lot of golden honey on top. :D

Okay, seriously now. I received a very unexpected and sweet gift of some devotional books from a neighbor whose dog is friends with our dogs. (Dogs are great that way.) And this is the card I'm giving her to send a heartfelt thanks. I finally broke into one of my Studio Calico kits, using the grey & cream striped paper from October Afternoon's "Farmhouse" collection and some golden, glittery goodness by My Mind's Eye. Then pulling from my stash, I used a dark charcoal cardstock base, twill tape, a shimmery flower, and a gold tone cross charm tied on with PTI twine. I cut the glittery paper with a Labels1 Nestie and inked the edges with a Malted Milk Paint Dabber by Jenni Bowlin Studio.

I've long been a fan of grey, but I'm thrilled to say that now it's in a glorious and new way - as a color from God's palette. Praise the Lord for freeing me from the gloomy grey days of the past!

Always Thankful for Fall

I. Love. Fall.

LOVE IT!

So when I was browsing blogland several weeks ago, and saw Sav's gorgeous card, I remembered that I had yummy Pyrus papers & embellies (that I scored a sweet deal on) that were crying to be used, and I knew I had to hop to! Here's the first one (oh yes, there are more autumn Pyrus cards to come).
A very sweet friend at church gave Mom & me some delish pumpkin bread - seriously the best I've ever tasted - and also was kind enough to think of me when someone offered her a Pecan Pie recipe. MJ knew that I was a bit nervous about my assignment to make Pecan Pie for our church Thanksgiving meal, and she wrote me such a sweet note and mailed it to me with a copy of the recipe. I don't know about you, but I rarely get snail mail cards/letters, and it just made my day to see that little envie among the catalogs and junk mail. Well, I must confess I've been remiss about getting a Thank You note out to MJ. So it's a couple weeks late, but I really wanted to make the card for her. Heartfelt and homemade deserves the same in kind, don't ya think? I do!
I used the aforementioned Pyrus papers, a long neglected Bubble Gum Tree stamp from Unity, dark kraft cardstock, Distress Inks, a brown Spica pen (which isn't showing its sparkle in this photo), a Hero Arts Sparkle Clear 2x3 sentiment set ("Thanks" is stamped inside), and lots of foam tape. If you look at the biggest bubble on the tree, you'll also see a little chipboard heart from the Pyrus Chip Sticker Shapes. The ribbon is by May Arts.

And here's my Autumn cross stitch, as promised (just please pardon the glare). The Winter one is still waiting to go to the framers, and I've missed my goal of having it up before the first snow (we got a taste of winter late last week...but being Ohio, of course the next day it was 20 degrees warmer. LOL!).
Blessings & love to all.

Join the fun over at The Odd Girl blog and link your best THANKFUL project.
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Thanks Berry Much

One thing I love about my church is that it's proof that good manners are still alive & well in today's world! Men (from ages 2-92) hold doors open for ladies, children mind their parents, and generosity abounds! And with that generosity is a very strong attitude of gratitude - for all the Lord's blessings, and the people He blesses through - and a great need for Thank You cards.

I made two of these cards, one for my friend Lani who was practicing embroidering with organza ribbon on a handkerchief, and followed the Lord's prompting to give it to me, not knowing that I had been searching for and drooling over hankies for months. (Neither of us could also know that within days of her giving it to me, I'd come down with a nasty cold. No, no, no! I didn't blow my nose into her work of he{art}! I put a couple drops of lavender oil on it and inhaled at regular intervals. I'd learned about using lavender oil this way last summer at a lavender farm in Michigan, and it's precisely the reason I was hunting hankies. I think it really helped, and plan to use it as a preventive all throughout cold & flu season.) The other edition of this card went to Diane who had me over to her house one evening for a delicious meal and hours of crafting fun & fellowship.

I used the adorable (and contrary to what my mom said, non-radish looking) "Strawberry" from Some Odd Girl, combined with the "Thank You Berry Much" sentiment, both digital and both colored with Copics. Being pressed for time, I kept the layout simple, letting color and pattern paper do the work. You can't see it in the photo (I hurried there as well), but the yellow die cut border and the background paper have touches of glittery goodness, which was also repeated with a Stardust pen on the "berry" part of the sentiment. (BTW, the ribbon wrapped object in front of the card is the stem of a lavender wand. I took the photo on my new nightstand. I love rolling/crushing the want between my hands right before I climb into bed. Yes, I've become infatuated with lavender! I just can't get enough.)

Thanks for taking a peek! May your day be blessed & I hope to see you soon. (((hugs)))

Pattern Papers: GCD Studios "Soul Food"
Copics: G05, G14, YG0000, YG13, YG17, YG23, R22, RV14, RV17, RV21, colorless blender

Blue Bird of Joy

I am seriously on my bird kick now. Stamped 3 cards this weekend, all birds.

Here's the first. I picked him to share today because of his vibrant colors - it's a little cool and dreary here in NE Ohio today, so this little guy cheers me up.

He is partially recycled, as the base of the card and the strip of patterned paper were made in an SU! class. But I goofed the flower that was originally in the birds place, so I tore it off and made my little friend here. He's stamped in Palette Black, heat set, and colored with SU! Wonder Color Crayons and blender pen in Tempting Turquoise and Mellow Moss (I think, could have been Old Olive). Then I used JudiKins Diamond Glaze, and trimmed him out once it dried. I mounted him on a scrap of dark olive textured paper, punched the corners with SU! Ticket Corner Punch, edge in more Palette Black to make it "pop" and then finished assembling. I think it's a little crooked, but I used the green Mono glue for the first time, and once it was on, there was no budging it!Pretty quick and easy. I love the way the Diamond Glaze gives glossy shine and dimension - not that you can tell from the photo :(

Note: Sorry for the low-fi image - still using cell phone cam.

Something to look at

Digi cam is still on the fritz....okay, I haven't been stamping - you caught me.

I snagged this pic from Michelle, and cropped, just to give you something to look at until I can carve out some creating time. This is a much belated thank you card that I made for Michelle, who was my super awesome Secret Sister months back. TFL!

Card base is a pearlescent (now I know I didn't spell that right!) light blue that I snagged either at Archivers or from Marco's Paper at Adventures in Rubber Stamping a few years back. Pattern papers are from Basic Grey. Faux stitching done with Signo pen and paper piercing. Chipboard flower from Making Memories, and (if memory serves, which it often does not) also from Making Memories. SU! Linen Thread (which I attempted to make white with ink).