Through Many Dangers Toils and Snares....

Hello everyone and Happy Monday!

Today's TLC on SCS was Faux Burned Edges, and I imediately thought of the sheet music to the July 1 Release set by Our Daily Bread Designs. This card uses two of the new sets... Amazing Grace the Hymn, and Amazing Grace.

I used the instructions from the TLC227 to create the burned look to the edges of my sheet music. I then stamped just the words from Amazing Grace to the third verse of the wonderful old hymn. I thought the words of this third verse complimented the distressed, burned effect of the sheet music. I am at that point in my life where I can sing these words from my heart... "through many dangers toils and snares, I have already come, Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home". Wow!!! I love this old hymn and three of the new to be released sets from ODBD are related to Grace. What powerful sentiments and quotes are included! This may be my new favorite collection! I just love it!

Anyway... to make this card I stamped my hymn in Archival Jet Black on GPW and then heavily sponged with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap, Old Paper and Archival Jet Black on just the edges. I stamped the words to verse 3 on dp from Studio D "The First Blush". I tore, rolled and distressed the edges of this panel as well and sponged to age. The base of the card is very heavy metalic from The Paper Co, called Uptown Gold. While it does have a hint of old gold in it, it is mostly dark green. The bg dp is from the same dp pack, The first blush. Love this mat pack... everything in it is vintagy. I don't do vintage that much but for those times you want to... this pack is great! I used a hinge from Tim Holtz Grungeboard pack and sponged it with Sahara Sand, giving it a hint of green "patina", then I went over that with Ink it Up Copper and Choc. Chip. Added Copper Brads to the hinge, and used Prima Flowers, MS leaf Punches and a Stamen punch from Punch Bunch.

To read about and watch a video clip that will make you love this old hymn more than ever, please see Judy's fabulous post here.

To view and hear an incredible rendition of Amazing Grace by Il Divo, sung in the Coliseum in Rome, click here. Thanks to Anne (ardodd on SCS) for this link!




This card came together very quickly and I love how it came out! I hope it inspires you today! One day, we will be tried with fire... I hope you know that God's Grace will lead you home!

Grow in Grace and Amazing Grace Sneak Peeks

Happy Friday everyone!

Today I have another Sneak Peek for you of two more of the wonderful sets being released by Our Daily Bread Designs on July 1! I used the stand alone pop up card as my submission for The Next Level's project for this week. The card itself was easy to put together and I really had fun making it. Believe it or not, it does fold totally flat and fits in an envelope!

The July releases at Our Daily Bread Design are so special... and I have to say, these two are among my favorites. Did I mention that this release is not for 2 sets, 3 sets... but 5 new sets, and they are related... so this card uses the Image and sentiment from one set called "Grow in Grace" and the Sheet Music which is stamped lightly on the bg of my image panel is from "Amazing Grace". How could I not love these??? I'm sorry my sheet music doesn't show in the photo but it's there.

Anyhoo....My base is Bazzill Textured CS and I used GPW for a swiss dot embossed panel on the pop up part. I stamped the beautiful Dogwood image and the sentiment on GPW with Archival Jet Black. I stamped several extra flowers and I watercolored them with Our Daily Bread Design's new product... fantastic Inks... more about them soon! I also used Sahara Sand, Regal Rose and a White Signo Gel Pen. I sponged my colors on my GPW on the matting for my image and on the sentiment panel, as well as another piece that I used to cut out my scrolly QuicKutz die cuts. I had cut my sentiment with my long rectangle nestie and left it in the die while I sponged to give the framed effect. On the Label 4 panel that my Dogwood is mounted on I lightly overstamped the Sheet Music from "Amazing Grace" in Sahara Sand. I wanted only a light hint and that is what I got, so the photo doesn't show it at all. Sorry about that! I then spritzed all the sponged paper with Glimmer Mist in Iridescent Gold, and let dry. I cut out lots of dogwood blooms, curled the petals on my piercer and used dimensionals to adhere to my card. I added stickles to the centers of the flowers (which don't show) but I really do like how this came out. I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek... I am so loving these new sets I'm having trouble wanting to use anything else right now!!! LOL!

Have a blessed weekend!

July Our Daily Bread Sneak Peek

Hello everyone!

I'm so excited to be bringing you my first Sneak Peek at one of the Five New Sets being released by Our Daily Bread Designs beginning July 1st! You are going to love these sets!!! This set is called "Let us begin".

I used a base of Sahara Sand (which I stamped lightly in VersaMark with a Canvas BG stamp) , then layered Georgia Pacific White and then a textured Silver paper.. My Lotus corner image is heat embossed in silver on GPW, which is then sponged lightly with Sahara Sand and matted on another layer of GPW. The sentiment is stamped on GPW, which I cut with my square Nestie and left in the frame, embossed in silver and then more heavily sponged in Sahara Sand for a marble effect. I love the emboss resist technique... especially with these natural tones. When I removed my Nestie frame I had the white matting all done for me. For my flowers... I stamped the left one three times, the right one twice. I cut them out and popped up closer parts for depth. The scrolls are QuicKutz and are cut from Sahara Sand stamped with Canvas, and the mat for my Lotus image panel is punched at the bottom with an EK Success Punch. The ribbon is a shimmery silver edged sheer and the little charm says "made with love"... which I though was appropriate for Mother Teresa.

You have got to check out the whole design team as we all give you sneak peeks this week... these new sets are just incredible!!! The links are in my left side bar... check them out!!! Be sure to be here on July 1st! That's all I can say for now... but you won't want to miss it!!! :)


This weeks Super Sunday Sale at Our Daily Bread Designs: All Prism Cardstocks are 25% off, while supplies last! This includes Prismatic Packs, Simply Smooths, and Metallics! Sale ends Saturday night, June 27, at midnight. Note: Sale prices will be reflected in your shopping cart.

Gatefold ODBD

Hello everyone! I wanted to just show one more quick sample I made using ODBD's Quiet Waters. I paired the stamp (on the inside) with Memory Box's Sweet Bay designer paper, Old Olive, Soft sky and Papertrey Dark Chocolate Card Stock. This was one of my first cards with this set but I thought I'd show it anyway, as we are about to start sneak peeks on the new ones! Yay!!!

This scene is colored with Prisma Pencils and OFMS, which gave a lighter effect than my watercolored ones, but I still like the look. I embossed the sentiment in clear after stamping in VersaMark and then Chocolate Chip. This set is so versatile... can be masculine or feminine... and I hope you have enjoyed all the samples from the whole design team! This is the most incredible DT ever so I hope you have visited the links in my side bar.


I used Old Olive Grosgrain ribbon as a belly band for the card. Ticket Corner Punch on the front with some little pearls in the corners, and some sponging in Chocolate Chip around most of the layers and done. A fairly quick and easy card to pull together.

I hope you have enjoyed these June sets and stay tuned for the July new releases soon to be unveiled... you are going to LOVE them!!!

Have a blessed day!


One More Thing Before I Go!

Have you signed up for the ODBD newsletter yet? Signing up for the newsletter will make sure you find out what the Super Sunday Special is each week! Today, Iwill tell you what the special is for this week: All Prism Cardstocks are 25% off, while supplies last! This includes Prismatic Packs, Simply Smooths, and Metallics! Sale ends Saturday night, June 27, at midnight. Note: Sale prices will be reflected in your shopping cart.

Women to Women Interview and GIVEAWAYS!

Hello everyone! Just wanted to call your attention to the Women to Women site this week! There is a fantastic interview with Lori McCroskey from Clear Dollar Stamps. It is fantastic! There is also a GREAT give away going on... so visit today to find out how you can win not one, not two, not three but FOUR sets of stamps... and they are fantastic sets at that!!!

Visit Women to Women to day to find out how!

Masculine Quiet Waters

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend! My Grand Kids are here and we are having a blast, but I had made this card a while ago and wanted to share it with you now. I wanted a masculine rendition of this fabulous June released set from Our Daily Bread Designs. If I haven't mentioned it before, I LOVE this set! LOL! I know I have mentioned it but I really do!

For this card I used a Navy base from my stash, and the DP is from K&Co Citronella Pack. I loved the swirly blue because it is so water like... and the green just makes me think of a lush meadow. I stamped the image on H2O paper with Archival Jet Black Ink and watercolored with inks. The colors I used were Soft Sky, Bordering Blue, Blue Bayou, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa and More Mustard. The ribbon is from Michaels and reminds me of a tie my hubby has. I added Dew Drops from the 'Lily Pad" colors by The Robin's Nest.

Be sure to check out Our Daily Bread Designs every week for the Super Sunday Sale!

Every Sunday ODBD will offer a different item at a sale price at Our Daily Bread designs that will be effective for a whole week! Check back often to see what new item is up for special pricing.

For this week's Super Sunday Special it's a Punch-A-Bunch Frenzy! All Martha Stewart, Fiskars and EK Success punches are 25% off! There will be no rainchecks so make sure to get in on this fabulous deal, but hurry! Punch sale will end Sunday, June 21 at 12:00 AM EST. Then Sunday a new sale will be announced!!!

NOTE: Sale prices will be reflected in your shopping cart.
Be sure to be on the look out for the next Super Sunday Special announcement!

Enjoy the savings!!!

Have a blessed weekend!

House Mouse and Real Life Bees

Hi everyone!

A group of friends over on SCS have a weekly challenge. This week's challenge was to use Black, Gray or Silver, Yellow and Crystal Effects if we had it. We also were to create our own catchy sentiment. I don't have CE but I used Shimmerz (Angel's Wings) on my wings and antennaes. While you can't see the shimmer in the photo.... I sure did like how the real life bee wanted to be in this photo. He landed on my lilies as I was photographing this and I was thrilled!

I colored my image with Prisma Pencils and blended with Odor Free Mineral Spirits. The bow was made using the Bow Easy. The sentiment I came up with is on the inside and says "You couldn't BEE sweeter". I added a little bling and done. Just a fast fun one this week. I made this early this morning before I picked up my Grand Kids as I knew once they got here no stamping was going to happen here until next week! LOL! I love having them... we are having a blast!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Wisteria Blessings and a Super Sunday Sale!

Hello everyone!

Today I'm going to show you a card I made when I first got this set from Our Daily Bread Designs. I had also just gotten my new favorite BasicGrey paper pack, Wisteria. When I was flipping through the pages, this gorgeous page jumped out at me and I could just see the wisteria hanging over the stone wall to this old stone structure. I stamped the image on Aquarello Watercolor Paper with Sahara Sand and did a light color wash on it. Then I overstamped the sentiment with VersaMark and embossed with Gold embossing powder. I cut a few extra "stones" out of a second stamping to create a little wall. Then using my Fiskars finger blade I cut out the bottoms of the wisteria that would drape over the image and slipped the image up under the dp. I mounted the dp on a mat of gold and then a base of Mellow Moss. I then decided to use some Flower Soft (also available at the ODBD store) and to get the wisteria color I had to mix some of the light blue and light lavender. The vanilla worked out perfectly for the white wisteria. I also tried my hand at making a few "cut" flowers but dipping the flower soft wire in the glue and then in the mixture. I did two coats of that and tied them into my bow. The leaves are a Sizzix die cut and a Martha Stewart punch. This card will definitely have to be mailed in a box!

I hope you are having a blessed week! I'm picking my Grandkids up tomorrow and they'll be here for several days. What fun! I probably won't get much stamping done while they are here but I do have a few things ready to show you! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Before I go I want to tell you about Super Sunday Sale at Our Daily Bread Designs!

Every Sunday ODBD will offer a different item at a sale price at Our Daily Bread designs that will be effective for a whole week! Check back often to see what new item is up for special pricing.

For this week's Super Sunday Special it's a Punch-A-Bunch Frenzy! All Martha Stewart, Fiskars and EK Success punches are 25% off! There will be no rainchecks so make sure to get in on this fabulous deal, but hurry! Punch sale will end Sunday, June 21 at 12:00 AM EST.

NOTE: Sale prices will be reflected in your shopping cart.
Be sure to be on the look out for the next Super Sunday Special announcement!

Enjoy the savings!!!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge One Year Celebration

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you all had a fabulous and relaxing weekend! I ran a mile a minute it seems! We had so many things going on at Church yesterday I wasn't home long enough to turn around. It was a good day though!

Today I wanted to play along on the Penny Black Saturday Challenge Blog One Year Celebration. The theme was "celebration"... any sort of celebration was fine. I also wanted to try the Monday Technique Lover's Challenge on SCS, which was to make faux handmade paper. We all love those expensive handmade papers, and if we own them, we hoard them... so this was a great way to get the look without the cost! I sponged three colors of Acrylic Paints onto my GPW CS with crumpled up toilet tissue. I didn't worry about little bits of tissue adhering to the paper, because that just adds to the homemade paper effect. After that I used a Metallic shimmery gold and sponged on sparingly. While I loved the look... I didn't stop there. I had to try out my new Shimmerz Spritz that I won on Jami's (Sgt Stamper) blog and just received on Friday. (Thanks so much Jami!!!) I LOVE this stuff!!! It really adds a lot of shimmer to your project and dried quickly!

While it's been very cloudy here today, the sun came out for about 5 minutes and I managed to get an ouside shot of this card so you can see more of the shimmer than showed up on my inside shots.

The layout is pretty self explanatory. Creamy Caramel is my base and I used a Cuttlebug edge folder for the zig zag pattern, and Swiss Dots for the matted Label #2. The image itself is stamped on 140 lb Aquarello Watercolor paper and watercolored with SU! Markers in Certainly Celery, Creamy Caramel, Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue and Almost Amethyst. I used a Sizzix Die Cut to cut the balloons and little flower... and I spritzed them with the shimmerz too. The sentiment is from My Sentiments Exactly and is cut with a Nestabilities Tag Trio Die Cut and adhered with some sheer pink ribbon. A little bling and done! I love Penny Black and they are fun images to color. Our Church CARE ministry is asking for more cards, especially for kids and guys... so here is one.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a blessed day!

Ask, Seek, Knock in a garden sketch

Hello everyone! Today's Sketch over on SCS was just fantastic. I loved playing with it! I decided to use my Our Daily Bread Designs Ask Seek Knock set again, because I love the set and I thought it would work great with today's sketch.

I stamped the image on Aquarello Watercolor Paper twice with Sahara Sand and lightly colorwashed it. I cut out just the door frame so that I could pop it up on dimensionals. I also stamped a Stampendous Wall image in a continuous row to fill the second panel for the sketch. I then made two 3" medallions for the third panels of the sketch. To make them I cut a 3" square of white CS, then I used my Martha Stewart Edge Punch, centering on each side. When that was done I cut out the outside piece you normally have in a medallion, leaving just the lattice part. I lightly sponged them in Sahara Sand. I assembled this whole unit, popping it up off the card, matting the door frame onto a Cuttlebugged Always Artichoke panel which I hand cut to match the irregular shape of the door I had cut. Then I popped up the second frame on the first for more depth. I hope the side shot shows it.

My base for my card is Always Artichoke, then two different Anna Griffin Designer Papers. I used an Ornare Template to pierce the upper right corner. I added Primas and Hero Arts Gem Stones to the lower left. I used bits of Flower Soft as mossy greenery growing in the walls. To get this color I had to do some tweeking... I only had the baby soft pastel green and the Shamrock green, neither of which were right. I looked through my inks and found some True Thyme, so I mixed the two shades of FS I had in a container and added 1 drop of TT ink. Mixed well and I love the result... there are now various shades of green that go quite well with the CS.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to look and leave a comment! I appreciate that so much! Have a blessed day!

The Stamp Set, Ornare Piercing Template and Supplies and Flower Soft are available at the Our Daily Bread Designs Store.

Just a little cutie pie!

Happy Monday everyone!

Today I just felt like having some fun with a real feminine color scheme! This reminds me of my daughter's room when she was little. I love these soft colors together... and I don't think I'll ever get too old to love them! LOL!

This was for the Penny Black Blooming Beautiful Challenge this week. It also is for the CCEE catchy name challenge here. Charlene chose the name Flowergal36 as the catchy name on SCS and the gals were to create a card around that name. Well... this has flowers and not only that but it has a cute image which is the style my friend Dawn loves... so here's to you Dawn!

The base is Certainly Celery, the Nesties frame is Pretty in Pink, and the dp is DaisyD's. I love this pack of paper! The ribbon is Certainly Celery and Pretty in Pink and the pearls are Hero Arts from the Our Daily Bread Store. I added Stickles to the flowers and the bee's wings are Shimmerz Angel Wings. I used my new Bow Easy for the bow. It's my first shot at it and I'm not sure I got it perfect... maybe I should have practiced first like the directions said! LOL! Oh well... it is a neat tool and for $6.oo how could you go wrong? They are back in stock at Sharon Johnson's No Time To Stamp site.

I hope you have a blessed evening! It's so hot here there's not much else to do but stamp! I finished my grocery shopping and after dinner, I think that's what I'll be doing...stamping! I need to work on Father's Day cards!

Ask, Seek, Knock in BasicGrey

Hello everyone and happy weekend!

Today I have another sample to show you of the newly released set called Ask, Seek, Knock. It is available now at the Our Daily Bread Designs Store.

There have been so many fun ways to use these new sets and I've had fun just playing with them! For this card I used Bazzill Basics Textured Black for my base, layered with BasicGrey Scarlet's Letter, then a gray BG which I ran through the bug, then more black and finally the sentiment panel is on GPW. I stamped the door image with Memento London Fog, then overstamped the sentiment with Stampabilities Black Pigment Ink and clear embossed. I love how the embossing stands out against the London Fog door in real life. Sorry it doesn't show in the photo. Since London Fog has a hint of greenish gray in it, I sponged it on the gray colors in my BasicGrey which really made them look great together. I also rubbed my cb folder with ink before running it through the bug. I tore the edges of the image panel and sponged London Fog on them as well. The Scrolls are QuicKutz. The yummy velvet ribbon and flower are both Prima. You can find Primas at the ODBD store as well.

Isn't this a wonderful verse from Matt. 7:7? What a comfort to know that seekers can find!

I hope you have a blessed weekend and thanks for looking!

An Award from Krystal and ten honest facts

Krystal gave me this award. Thank you Krystal! Your sweetness inspires me so much! Please be sure to visit her fabulous blog for lots of inspiration and pure sugar!

There are a few requirements to accepting the Honest Scrap Award and they are as follows:

1. I must thank the person who gave me the award and list their blog and link and

2. I must list 10 honest things about myself .

Well.... let me think:

1. I have been married going on 38 years to a wonderfully supportive husband who supports me in this incredibly expensive hobby! He is a dear through and through!

2. We have moved 18 times since we got married.

3. We spent our honeymoon camping on our way from NY to TX where we were going to finish our last three years of college together. What I learned: Tent camping in Aug. is NOT the best way to spend a honeymoon! LOL! We were broke students and didn't have enough for much else and didn't really care then.... Sometimes we think back on those days of having nothing but love and remember them with happy memories! There is something to be said for the "simple life"!

4. I am a PK (Pastor's Kid).

5. I accepted Christ as my personal Savior at the age of six.

7. I have one sweet daughter and two fantastic grandkids. Nathan is 11 and Lauren is 8.

8. They recently moved to the mountains of TN... just 2 hours from here and that is the closest I've been to them in the 12 years our daughter has been married. I'm so enjoying being able to visit on a whim!

9. We live in NC now and have been here for 10 years, which is the longest we have lived anywhere!

10. We love boating, fishing, bird watching, and of course I love all sorts of crafts... most especially paper crafts

Now I will pass this award on to: Becky, Barbara, Angie and Dottie.

Streams of Living Water

Hello everyone! I know I'm posting late tonight but I had a full day. Had my eye exam today and it took forever for my vision to come back right to where I felt like stamping. Anyway... the sketch challenge on SCS is my favorite sketch so I really did want to play, and I had this idea I wanted to try with this Our Daily Bread Designs set, Quiet Waters. It is available now at the Our Daily Bread Designs Store... it's a new release for June. I just love the verses included in this set and the scene is so fun to color. For this one I used a wet on wet watercolor but kept it pretty simple so that I could add the Flower Soft for texture. Flower Soft also is sold at the ODBD Store.

I stared my card with a basic black base, added a layer of brushed gold from The Paper Co. which I ran through the Big Shot with a Fiskar's Texture plate. My sentiment and image are stamped on watercolor paper with Archival Jet Black Ink. The watercolor is done with ink in the lids and some markers. I added some piercing at the bottom of the panels with a Nesties Edgeability template. The flowersoft I used is Shamrock Green for the trees and Spring mix for the flowers. Ribbon and bling finished it off.... pretty simple but I like it irl. I'm so loving these sets!

Thanks for looking!!! Have a blessed night!

Two New Our Daily Bread Sets... Available TODAY!

Hello everyone and happy June!!! Today is a big day... it's the day these two new Our Daily Bread Sets are available in the Store!

This set is called "Ask, Seek, Knock" and features a great old world door image and several wonderful sentiments. For today's card I chose to just use a sentiment and frill it up a bit... making it quite feminie. I think I was in a green mood as both my cards for today are in shades of green. Well... at least they match on the page! LOL!

Anyway... this card is on a base of mellow moss and then a mat of brushed gold from the Paper Co. and then the DP is BasicGrey Porcelain.

For my sentiment, I stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with gold on Vellum for some softness. Behind that I mounted a punched Medallion, and the tutorial for that is found here . I made mine 3 1/2" square instead of the 2 3/4" on the tutorial.

My frame is a brass stencil (Marianne Design - Holland) which I dry embossed and hand cut. Then I did it again with the gold layer and cut it just a bit larger as a mat. My cutting is not perfect but it's the best I could do. Boy do I love Nesties!!! LOL! To give some depth and interest to the frame I rubbed some gold metallic from Craf-T Products. The corners are pierced with an Ornare stencil from the Our Daily Bread Designs Store. I love the fine imprints Ornare make! I used two groups of tiny Prima Flowers (Fleur de paquet de trio). To them I added some gold cording and attached with glue dots. The frame itself is up on dimensionals.




This is the second set I wanted to show you today. This set is called Quiet Waters and I just love this one! There are so many different things that you can do with it! The sentiments are wonderful!

For this card I used the Recessed Window Frame technique. I had originally done this as a Spitcoast Technique Lovers Challenge but when I went to the resources page to link to it, I could not find it there any more. Perhaps after a given amount of time they remove them? If anyone is really interested I can try to email you the instructions. I will say that I had to change up the instructions a bit to accomodate my rectangular design. The instructions are for a square card. If anyone knows the link to that tutorial, please let me know and I will add it to this post. Anyway... this little window frame actually has some depth to it which I had trouble capturing in a photo, but the side view shows it a bit.

My inspiration for this card came from the designer paper, which is Karen Foster. It reminded me of a Monet or some other great piece of watercolor art, so that dictated my colors and my coloring.

I stamped the image on Aquarello 140 lb watercolor paper and did a wet on wet watercolor, just painting in a sort of sunset in the sky. I also had to bring the scene forward some to fit my rectange. To do that I just watercolored the scene forward to where I wanted it and then took a fine black marker and drew in lines similar to the stamped image. I think it blended pretty well.

This card is on a base of Mellow Moss, matted in So Saffron and then the Karen Foster DP. The sentiment is stamped on Memory Box Butterfield DP, punched with the SU! slot punch and ribbon was wrapped through. The ribbon came from Michaels but is a super match for mellow moss and it is wired so I could do some shaping without any glue at all. The little bronze flower and brad is from Hobby Lobby. I loved the soft colors of this dp and I hope you enjoy this set.

Now for some REAL inspiration, go visit Jane, Judy, Kathy and Lorelie
to see more treasures with these sets!

Thanks for looking! Have a blessed day!!!