Cascading Z Fold Tutorial and a sneak peek!

Hello my friends! I hope you are all doing well!  Thank you so much to those of you who prayed for my granddaughter!  It took several days, but she is now feeling fine again. Praise the Lord!  We had a great time together at our house for 10 days, and now I am at her house, helping her Mom and Dad pack to move July 2!  Never a dull moment, right?  LOL!  It's all good!!!

I also wanted to thank everyone who took my survey!  The results, while pretty much as I expected, did give me a few ideas of things to work on.  One request was for video tutorials, and I don't have a video camera so I can't really do anything about that right now.  Two others were for more no brainer cards.  I have been trying to do that lately... simplifying and making cards that are easier to mail... however I will continue to try to add more in.  If you've followed me for long... you know my style.  It's not so loaded up with stuff that you can't find the stamps... but it's also not clean and simple.  LOL!  I'd say simply elegant is my comfort zone, but I have been trying to do more CAS designs so I will strive to add more of those in to the mix!  It seems split down the middle whether you prefer full posts in the email or links to my blog so that was interesting!  The reason I like you to come to the blog is because while here you might see something else that interests you, or links to others who also might inspire you.... and of course... we ALL love comments that let us know you were here!  It can take a lot of time to write posts, especially with tutorials, and it's just nice to hear from you in the form of a comment.  I plan to leave it at the full post for now and we'll see how that goes.  The other request was for a few more tutorials.  With that said... today I have a mini tutorial for you... just a simple diagram I drew to show you how to make the fold for this card.  I hope you enjoy it!

Today's card is also  a sneak peek for you at some  fun new sets coming to you from  Our Daily Bread designs July 1!  I prepared a little tutorial sheet for you to see how to make this easy card, which I'm calling a Cascading Z Fold card.  I adapted the measurements to work best with the sizes of these awesome new banners being released July 1.

First.... a few details about what I used.  As you no doubt have noticed, pennants are all the rage right now... so keeping right on trend, ODBD has an awesome release of versatile and fun pennants coming your way!

I used a soon to release set called Pennant Row Banner, and an ODBD Custom Pennant Row Die set to create my banners.  I also used  past releases, To The Love Birds, ODBD Custom Bird Cage and Banners Die, ODBD Custom Fancy Foliage Dies, and the gorgeous designer paper from the Blushing Rose Paper Collection. 

Here is a chart I drew up to show you how to cut your paper, and where to score and fold.

Cut 12" card stock to 5 1/2"

Score at 4" and 8"

Mark a point on left side at 1 13/16" high

Draw line from top right corner of middle panel to this point abd cut

Fold on scored lines

How easy is that?!!!

So I used 12" Bazzill for my base, and decorated each panel with the ODBD Blushing Rose Paper Collection, sponging with distress ink on all layers.  I stamped the birdcage image from To The Love Birds with VersaMark on Acetate, and heat embossed with Medieval Metal embossing powder.  I used the Custom Bird Cage Die to cut it out.  I adhered that on the designer paper just offset a bit from the matching image on the designer paper itself to give depth and added interest without covering up the gorgeous paper.  I also embossed three birds the same way and cut them out with the custom dies, setting aside until my card was ready to be decorated.  I then cut three scalloped pennant rows from my Bazzill card stock as mats, and I stamped three of the different words from the Pennant Row Banner set with Blushing Bride ink, and cut them out with the custom dies.  I adhered them to the mats, and for the middle banner that says "inspire" I took little tucks between each letter to slightly shorten the total span of the row.  I decorated with pearls, the embossed birds I had cut out, a little May Arts lacey ribbon,  and a silk rose I air brushed with a pink marker to match the pinks in the paper, as well as some pretty flourishes from the ODBD Fancy Foliage Die set. 

Here is a photo of the little tucks I took for the middle banner to be sure it would fit within the folds on both sides of the card, without affecting the flags themselves.  I added the pearls to cover, but as you can see in this picture, you really don't need to.  I think the tucks look pretty cool and give some extra dimension to the banner.  In the photo below, don't confuse the scalloped ridges with the tucks.  The tucks are just in between each flag... the rest of the dimension you see is just the scalloped pennant row behind the lettered one.

 I shortened one banner word from "Blessed" to "Bless". You might ask me why did I do that?  Well...I wanted it to be a verb... an action word like the other two.  As I was making the card, I perceived it as being read from the front to the back, or in this case from the bottom to the top... so I was thinking... this is what we as card makers do! We believe in something... we inspire others as we create, and we bless others as we give.   Taking that idea even further...as Christians.... our faith often is the motivator behind our cards.  So I started with believe!  Personally, my belief in Jesus Christ as my Savior and only way to be redeemed to a Holy God IS my belief and my reason for doing what I do.  I then want to move on to the next step in my journey... to inspire others... whether that be creatively or spiritually or in some other way!  Finally... it's my prayer that my cards bless the recipients and even those of you who so faithfully stop by to view them here on my blog.

Here's a few more views:

And closed... it folds totally flat unless you have 3-D flowers or embellishments that are thicker.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial for a different fold that in my opinion is just MADE for rows of pennants!  :)

I so welcome and appreciate your comments!  They mean more to me and bless me more than you know!

I hope to see you back on July 1 for the release!

Blessings,

Taking a Look Back...

Today we're taking a look back at the June ODBD release.  To see all the creations the DT has created, you can see them all together on the ODBD blog.

For my card, I used Smell the Roses for my image, which is stamped with Memento ink and colored with Copics and hand cut.  I used the Cherry Blossom set for my sentiment, and cut that with a die from the ODBD Custom Vintage Flourish Pattern Die.  I also used a past release: Vintage Pattern Mini 1, which I stamped with Wisteria Wonder ink  and cut with the ODBD Custom Vintage Labels Dies.  The designer paper is from the ODBD Christian Faith Paper Collection, and is cut with the ODBD Custom Vintage Flourish Pattern die.  Behind the designer paper die cut I added 2 white corner dies from the ODBD Custom Decorative Corner dies.  The base of the card is Pistachio Pudding.  I used foam  tape to pop up just about all the layers.  The gold cording is my only embellishment because I wanted the image and dies to take center stage.  My rose looks blusih in the photo but in reality, it's purple and blends perfectly with the designer paper.

To recap... here are the new sets I used today:

Here are the past release ODBD products I used:

 

Please visit my DT Sisters to see all the wonderful creations they have made for you today:

 Grace(me) * Sandee * Stacy * Dawn * Lori * Cathy * Julie * Sabrina * Wanda *Chris

Thank you so much for stopping by and for your sweet comments, which always make my day!!!

Blessings, 

His Mercies are new every morning!

 Hello friends! 

I hope you enjoyed a wonderful weekend!  We had some great family time planned, with some boating/water sports on the lake.  However, the boys ended up doing that while my daughter and I  spent some unexpected time at urgent care with my granddaughter, who  had been having severe neck pain for a couple days, but yesterday she started complaining of ringing in her ears and dizziness too.   She is staying with me this week and it wasn't the best way to start the week off, but prayerfully, she will be feeling better soon!  Anyhow... I made a card early this morning while she was still sleeping.  I wanted to play in the Clean and Simple challenge on SCS, and this is what I came up with.

I used this month's release, Rose, and last month's release, Glory.  I stamped the image with Memento and colored with Copics.  I cut out the trio of roses and popped them up just a bit on thin foam tape.  I also tucked in a few sprigs of greenery from the ODBD Custom Fancy Foliage die set, and the border at the bottom is from the ODBD Custom Beautiful Border dies. 

The designer paper is ODBD Blushing Rose Paper Collection.  I love this pack!!!  The embossing folder is Embossalicious and is 6x6".  I love the partial embossing... it leaves room for a stamped sentiment but still gives dimension.  The only embellishment is my May Arts silk bow. 

I love this verse!  It's such a beautiful reminder of God's love and mercy for us!  Even when we have messed up badly... He loves us! He is a loving, gracious and merciful God... and He desires for us to have a relationship with Him, to delight ourselves in Him, and to find Him to be our all sufficient one!  What more refreshing feeling can there be than to feel His loving mercies new every morning! 

I did want to mention that ODBD and NCC are having a shipping special until June 20th.  Please read about it HERE

I am entering this in this week's Word Art Wednesday challenge, which is always anything goes with a Scripture or encouraging sentiment, or the free word art given each week,

Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,

With Thoughts of You and a Small Favor Please?

Hello friends!  I hope you have been enjoying a wonderful week!

I have a card to share with you that's a little different than my usual style.  As you know if you read my posts, I have been working on simplifying and "flattening" my cards, or at least some of them.  There will of course be those times when I just have to get my flowers and ribbons on!!! :)  However today, I'm using this month's ODBD new release with Cherry Blosom (for the floral image) and Rose Bouquet for the sentiment.  I also used a past release, Honeycomb mini which I embossed in gold fine detail embossing powder, as I did with the cherry blossoms.  I did this on watercolor paper.  I watercolored the cherry blossoms lightly and hand cut the branch.  I added one flourish from ODBD's Fancy Foliage Die set, and I added some sparkle to that with some gold Stickles and a Spica Glitter pen in gold. I also added one small corner die from the ODBD Custom Decorative Corners die set.   I used a Martha Stewart punch for the little butterflies, punching from a scrap of yellow parchment paper, and added gold stickles to them.  The base of this card is Soft Sky, followed with a layer of brushed gold from my stash.  I don't remember the make on it but it's shimmery without knocking you over with bright gold.  I love it and have used it a lot!  I hope I can find it again as I'm almost out.  So that's about it for this pretty simple card... flat, mailable but still a little elegance and shimmer to make you smile.

I am entering this in the following challenges:

Word Art Wednesday: Challenge#136-Anything Goes

Bloggers Challenge : Flowers

Please indulge me for just a minute! 

As many of you know, I recently had a big problem with Feedburner, losing over 800 email subscribers.  I made several changes to my blog and got a new email server.  I have several options open to me and I need your input to know how to plan for future posts, content and means for people to follow this blog.  Whether you subscribe via email or some other means, or whether you just stop in occasionally... I'd really appreciate your input!

I have placed a survey with  4 short questions in my side bar.  I would TRULY appreciate it if you ALL would take a minute to  fill that out for my information and future planning for this blog.  If you are reading this via email, simply click the link to the TITLE of my POST and it will bring you to my blog where the survey is.  This is completely confidential but I cherish you taking the time to respond so that I can better serve you!

Thank you ever so much, and God's richest Blessings to you,

Thank you for being my friend!

Hello again sweet friends!  I do hope you are all doing well!!!

I am having more fun with the June release from Our Daily Bread designs!   This card is created with a brand new ODBD Custom Die called Asters and Leaves.  It is absolutely AWESOME!!!  I had so much fun creating this aster and decided to give it a country feel.  I used a Baked Brown Sugar base and then some wood design paper from the ODBD Rustic Beauty Paper Collection that released a couple months ago.  I also added a lavender strip of designer paper from the ODBD Christian Faith Paper Collection. Then I added a strip of loose burlap and a sentiment I stamped from the set called My Friend.  I also lightly stamped a floral image with Memento LuLu Lavender ink, from another snew set called Cherry Blossom.  I cut this with a previous release, ODBD Custom Recipe Card and Tags die.  I tied it on with twine, leaving the tails a little long.  I layered up my Aster layers and added Flower Soft to the centers for some extra dimension.  I LOVE these new dies... so detailed and even the veins of the leaves show up so nicely!  While this is another fairly simple and flat card, I do like how it came out and I hope you do too.

I like this sentiment as well.  So often... we have that special friend who just means so much to us... and often we don't stop to tell them that!  This would be a great way to do just that... coupled with a special note inside that tells just how special a friend they are!

When we are blessed to have a special friend... we want to spend time with them, to keep up with them whether by phone, internet or in person.  It's sharing our experiences and learning from each other that draws us closer.

This reminds me to of the most special of friends of all... and that old hymn that tells it so well:

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Lyrics by Joseph Scriven

1. What a friend we have in Jesus, 
 all our sins and griefs to bear! 
 What a privilege to carry 
 everything to God in prayer! 
 O what peace we often forfeit,
 O what needless pain we bear, 
 all because we do not carry 
 everything to God in prayer. 

2. Have we trials and temptations? 
 Is there trouble anywhere? 
 We should never be discouraged; 
 take it to the Lord in prayer. 
 Can we find a friend so faithful 
 who will all our sorrows share? 
 Jesus knows our every weakness; 
 take it to the Lord in prayer. 

3. Are we weak and heavy laden, 
 cumbered with a load of care? 
 Precious Savior, still our refuge; 
 take it to the Lord in prayer. 
 Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? 
 Take it to the Lord in prayer! 
 In his arms he'll take and shield thee; 
 thou wilt find a solace there.

---

I have also entered this card for this week's Word Art Wednesday challenge. 

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Have a Sunny Happy Day!

Hello friends!  I hope you are having a sunny happy day!

Today's Way to Use it challenge on SCS was to make a Sunny Card... and this is what I came up with.  I used a Tim Holtz stencil and SU! Daffodil Delight ink and sponged my sun rays on a white embossed layer from a box of Martha Stewart card bases.  I adhered that to a yellow base.  I stamped the fun sentiment from an ODBD set called Be Joyful over the sun rays, then I die cut some Asters from scraps of pink card stock, using  this month's release, ODBD Custom Aster and Leaves dies.  I just love these dies... I did a little curling of petals on my piercing tool, and sponged the edges a little bit, but basically just let the dies to the work.  I added a sprinkling of sequins just for fun.

I think all of us would agree that we just feel better when the sun is out!  People who live in very rainy dark parts of the world often suffer mood disorders and depression.  The sun seems to lift our spirits and give us a brighter outlook, even amidst trials and struggles.  As I was thinking about this today, I thought about what heaven will be like... where there will be no need of the sun... because the glory of God will lighten it!  He IS Light!

 Rev 21:23

"And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

If we know the Lord as our Savoir, we have so much to look forward to!  We can't even imagine what it will be like to live in the very presence of The Light.... but I do know it will be wonderful.. even better than the sunniest happiest day we can imagine here on this earth!!!  

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope YOU have a Sunny and  Happy Day!!!

hugs,

God Bless You!

  Hello my friends!  I hope your week is going well!  I have been struggling with a fibro flare since we got home Sunday night, but today's sketch on SCS gave me the push I needed to get a card made.  The sketch was very simple but I thought it really let the image and sentiment take center stage. 

I used this month's new release from ODBD: Iris (for the image) and Rose Mini Set (for the sentiment).  The design paper is also from ODBD's past release, Christian Faith Paper Collection.  I colored the beautiful Iris image with Copics and added a paper lace trim, die cut with the ODBD Custom Beautiful Border Dies.  My only embellishment is the bow, which is a seam binding ribbon and lays very flat.  One more on my quest for simple and mailable!!! :)

I'll keep my post short today... I hope your day is blessed with all God's richest blessings poured out and overflowing!

hugs,

Welcome to the June Our Daily Bread Designs release!

Hello friends!  Welcome to the Our Daily Bread designs June Release!!!

 I hope you have had the chance to view the full release because THIS is my ALL TIME FAVORITE release yet!!!  If you haven't seen it yet, you can pop on over to the ODBD Blog and view it there!

Before I move on to  my card, here are the details on how you can win a prize this month:

 Three winners will be randomly chosen from the comments left on the designers blogs to receive a $15 Gift Certificate to the ODBD Store, to be used toward the purchase of ODBD Stamps.  You have until June 2, 2014 at 9:00 p.m. EDT to leave your comments!  The Winners will be posted on the ODBD Blog on June 3rd, so be sure to check back there to see if you won!

The card above is made using the Rose Bouquet set, and the Iris set (for the sentiment).  It also uses a new ODBD Custom Decorative Vase Die.  Back quite a while ago I had designed a vase and used it when the Hydrangea set was released.  Kelley asked me for a template of the vase and then Michelle added the fancy detail to the vase, and this die was the result.  It fits perfectly with this month's Rose Bouquet, but it also fits several other of the ODBD Florals!  I'm so pleased to finally see it as a die!  I hope you all like it! 

 To create this card I started with a 5x7" side open base, added an embossed layer which I created by rubbing a Darice embossing folder with Broken China Distress Ink and then ran through my Grand Caliber.  I then cut a Spellbinders Card Creator Heirloom Legacy die cut for my mat from white card and I stamped the Rose Bouquet  image twice on white card with Memento ink.  I colored with Copics and then cut out select roses to pop up for dimension.  I cut one Rose Bouquet image with an oval die from the same Spellbinders Heirloom Legacy die set, sponged with Broken China, and added the popped up roses.  The decorative vase was cut from white card, sponged with Broken China while still in the die, then lightly sponged around the edges to create dimension.  I added some tiny pealrs and adhered the vase to the oval panel.  I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Iris set and cut with a Spellbinders  Tag die.  I added a seam binding bow and done.

 For my next card I really had fun!  I have been wanting to create one of these card designs, and I thought this month's GORGEOUS designer paper, the Blushing Rose Collection was perfect for it!  This card is bigger than I normally make, but it measures 6x6".  For the front I used the new Galilee Rose stamp designed by Michelle Laycock.  I stamped with Old Olive and then colored with Distress inks and sponged daubers!  I went back with my distress markers and just highlighted  some parts of the image for contrast, but in reality, coloring this couldn't have been quicker than using the sponge daubers!  I used various papers from the Blushing Rose Collection, added a mat of the ODBD Custom Quatrefoil Pattern Die, and some seam binding. 

 For the inside of the card, I used the basic instructions found HERE. I did reverse my opening of the card, wanting the card to open from right to left, where as hers opened the other way.  I used more of the awesome Blusing Rose Collection design paper, stamped the Scripture from the Cherry Blossom Set , cut the panel with Spellbinders Labels 34, matted with Decorative Labels 34 and I decorated the message panel and "steps" with the ODBD Custom Beautiful Border die.  A little sponging around the edges to distress and I was done.  

I hope you have enjoyed my projects and are in some small way inspired to give these a try!

Here are the new sets and dies I used today:

 

 

Please be sure to visit my DT sisters so you don't miss a chance to win some ODBD stamps!

Grace(me) * Sandee * Stacy * Dawn * Lori * Cathy * Julie * Sabrina * Angie * Lisa * Silke * Audrey

*Wanda
 Blessings,