I made this for the Williams Family.  Ormal lost his beloved wife, Pat last Thursday.  The funeral was yesterday, April 27th, 2016.  I used Heartfelt Creations Butterfly Medley paper to make this card.  

Here's another birthday card I made for a friend at our church.  It was made using Spellbinder and Heartfelt Creations dies.  Heartfelt Creations card stock was used for the layers.  The flowers were made from DCWV card stock.

 The tulle fir the bow came from JoAnn's.

Flowers I made a few days ago

 This is a card I made for a friend at church.  Her birthday was March 3rd.  Happy Birthday Mary Ellen!

This is an box envelope I made for a friend for her birthday.  It was a bit of a challenge figuring out this size.  I wish We Are Memory Keepers would make a bigger sized punch board all the way to 12 inches wide.  It sure would make things easier.  The card below I also made.  The card fit into the box envelope nicely.  I enjoy making both the cards and the envelopes.  The paper is DCWV and Heartfelt Creations Paper.  The die cuts and flowers and leaves are also Heartfelt Creations.  

February 26, 2016

This week has been busy as usual.  It has had its ups and downs.  But never can I overlook all the wonderful blessings the Lord has given us even in the disappointments of life.  I had tried out for the Heartfelt Creations Design Team this month.  The designs I came up with were beautiful to my husband, my friends and I.  Of course, they had probably seen lots of the same design during their time as a company.  So in all fairness they probably wanted something new and fresh, diverse and perhaps on the unusual side.  They also probably had a lot of people trying out for the Design Team as well.  It would be difficult choosing from that many people.  Was I upset I didn't make it?  Yes, at first.  But I had prayed much about whether I should be a part of their Design Team or not.  I had prayed for God's will to be done.  I had prayed that He would close the door to the Design Team if He had other plans for me and open other doors for me.  It isn't like I don't keep busy.  Taking care of our home and my hubby and adult children when they are home, laundry, meals, making cards for people in our church for their birthdays, making cards for other friends and family, teaching card making classes which includes making all of those card kits, helping with Awanas on Wednesday nights and singing with the Praise Team at our church on Sunday mornings keeps me very busy.  My goodness I'm still trying to put Christmas away.  The trees have been down for awhile now and a few boxes of ornaments and decorations have been put away.  But I still have several things to put away.  It really has been on the low end of things to do.  It will get done eventually.  I will make sure of that.  After all I don't want to go into Spring with it still needing to be put away.  I want to get my Easter decorations out soon.  Easter is not too far off.  My Mother is still living at the Carbondale Rehab and Nursing Center at the age of 91.  She has full blown Alzheimer's disease.  So there will be trips to take to Carbondale this year.  We also want to go visit Lindsay in Ohio this year too.  So perhaps if I was on the Design Team I wouldn't be able to go as much, wouldn't get to make as many cards for my ministry at church.  There would be deadlines to meet and pressure to come up with things that perhaps I don't know how to do yet.  So, as usual, the Lord knows best.  

I do have some suggestions for Heartfelt Creations.  I had made a box envelope and decorated it for one of my projects I sent into HC.  A week or so afterwards they had come out with instructions on how to make box envelopes.  They had one of their designers to give those instructions.  I couldn't help wonder if it was because of the envelope that I sent in. And if so couldn't they have given me honorable mention?   

I suggest that they display the projects that were sent into them by those who tried out for their design team onto their website.  They should place the person's name underneath their projects they sent in. They should list the names of all the people that tried out.  Or an e-mail would have been nice letting me and all the people who tried out know why I/we didn't make it.  They could have told us what we needed to do to improve our projects.  They could have told us what specifically they were looking for.  They could have told us they wanted people who have been on design teams before.  Most of the Semis have been on design teams before.  Some of them have been on their design team before.  They could have explained that they wanted people with more experience.  They should also let us know what they are doing with our projects.  I realize that I might have been the only person to mail mine to them.  I posted the projects online to their website as instructed.  But I felt it would be good for them to see my projects in person.  I sent them a letter with my projects so they could get to know me better.  And yet, I didn't get any kind of response from them.  I have to say I was very disappointed that a Christian Company could not  come up with a response of some sort whether it be through snail mail or e-mail.  I can only hope that they didn't throw away what I sent them.  The cards were beautiful.  I just hope someone gets good use out them.  I would not like it at all if they chose to throw them away.  A lot of work went into them.  

While I know that the Lord is in control.  He has another plan for me.  It is a good plan.  And yet I have to admit I was rather hurt and disappointed for the first few days after seeing the names they had posted for the Semis.  I kept wondering what I had done wrong.  I still love Heartfelt Creations.  Their paper, stamps and dies are beautiful.  I will continue to order from them when funds allow.  But I hope next year they respond to those who don't get chosen with an e-mail explaining why.  I hope they explain just what it is they are looking for.  

Thank you to my family and friends who prayed for me during this time of anticipation.  Thank you to the Lord God almighty who knows what is best for me.  He is truly to be honored and praised and glorified.  I love Jeremiah 29:11 that says He has plans for us, plans to help us and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future.  My future is in His hands.  

This is a card I made for someone in our church.  It is made from Heartfelt Creations Peacock Paisley collection of paper.  The Heartfelt Creations Arianna Blooms flowers were die cut, shaped and glued together with hot glue.  Embellishments were added to the middle of the flowers.  A gate fence was die cut from the Garden Romance dies and attached behind the flowers.  The Happy Birthday sentiment is from a Stampendous set of stamps.  It was cut out with the Heartfelt Creations Luggage and Tags dies.  A Paper Studio Embossing folder was used to emboss four pieces of purple card stock to cover the front, back and inside of card before adding the top pieces.  This was a fun card to make and fairly simple.  

A box envelope was made for the 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 inch card.  It was decorated with Heartfelt paper and flowers.  The butterfly is from Art c stamps and dies.  The bow was made with tulle on the bow maker.  It was attached with hot glue.  

The next card is also made with Heartfelt Creations and Spellbinders products.  I love this design.  I hope you like it too.  

   

This is a card I was commissioned to make for a friend's brother-n-law.  I usually sell my cards with a matching envelope for $6.

This is a 6 x 6 card with a black card base.  DCWV card stock was used in silver, a bluish purple and red.  Each piece was embossed.  The silver card is embossed with a Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Cogs Embossing Folder.  The red card stock is embossed with a Paper Studio Embossing Folder.  And the blue card stock is embossed with the Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Watch Embossing Folder.  The red pocket was cut from an old Sizzix Pocket Die.  Two pieces of card stock was die cut and then glued together to make the pocket. A black button from my stash was added with a green piece of baker's twine tied in a bow.  It was glued onto the pocket with hot glue.     The Celebrating your special day was stamped onto white card stock with Heartfelt Creations Heartfelt Sentiments and then die cut with the HC Everyday Heroes die.  Three pieces of white card stock was cut with the Spellbinders Card Creator 5 x 7 Matting Basics A smallest die.  Bible verses were stamped onto the die cut pieces and then inked with Tim Holtz Distress inks - Weathered Wood, Crushed Olive, and Old Paper.  For the inside of the card another Bible verse was stamped from a Stampabilities stamp and then die cut.  It was also inked using the Tim Holtz Distress inks - Old Paper.  The Sentiment was stamped with a wood block Stampabilities stamp.  It was cut out using Spellbinders Labels 20 largest die.  It was attached with Scotch ATG tape as was the Bible verse.
This is an easy card to make.  

 This is the Sugar Hollow card and matching envelope I made last night and today.  I love Heartfelt Creations products!  They don't disappoint!  I made the mistake of adding the recipient's name and address to the envelope before I took the picture.  I added a pink post it note to cover my boo boo up.  We live and learn don't we!  The envelope is made using DCWV card stock for the base.  I cut down a pink 12 x 12 sheet of card stock down to 11 x 11 inches.  I made the sides a bit bigger than I usually do since there was quite a lot of dimension on my card.  The sides are 3/4 inches instead of my usual 1/2 inch.  Heartfelt Creations Sugar Hollow card stock was used to decorate the front and back of the box envelope.  Spellbinder's large Heart Circles die was used to cut the purple card stock.  The bow was made from tulle with my little bow maker.  The large flower was handmade using HC Arianna Blooms.  But I have to admit I used the small flowers from Michael's just so I could get rid of them.  I usually make all of my flowers.  I find that the small flowers go really fast and are always in short supply.  Thus I need to make some more.  For the back of the card Velcro was used to fasten the envelope together.  I button with Darice Baker's Twine was used for the closure in addition to the Velcro.  I love how this box envelope turned out.  I hope you do too.

The card was made using the Sugar Hollow Collection from Heartfelt Creations. This card was a lot of fun to put together for a friend at our church.  You can see elements from the HC Birds and Blooms Collection was also used.  Mixing these two collections makes for a great card.  You can also see part of HC Decorative Lace Border was used as a fence at the bottom.  That is one of my favorite dies.  It has been used quite a lot but never gets old.  Heartfelt has so many wonderful and fun stamps and dies.  If you haven't already check out their website at heartfeltcreationsus.  You're going to enjoy their website very much.  

These are the cards my class will be making Thursday night.

For the last few 5 days I've been working on putting together card kits for a class I'm having Thursday night, February 11, 2016.  I made 71 flowers in the last two days and around 40 leaves or more.  The kits are finally finished and I am ready for class.  Tomorrow will involve getting some cleaning done and putting some things away.  I'm posting pictures of the cards we will be making and of the flowers I made.  

This is a card I made for the Heartfelt Creations Design Team Tryouts.  The card is a 6 by 6 gate fold card.  I used Colorbok snow white 12 by 12 paper for the card base.  Cut the 12 by 12 paper to 6 by 12 inches.  Score at 3 inches, turn it and score again at 3 inches.  Fold the scored lines to make your gate fold.  DCWV lilac paper that can be sanded was cut to 2-7/8th inches by 5-7/8 inches.  It was then embossed with a We are Memory Keepers Embossing folder.  Two 5-7/8 inches by 5-7/8 inch paper was cut from the same lilac paper and embossed with the same embossing folder.  The paper was attached to the outside and inside of the gate fold card.  An 8-1/2 inch by 11 inch piece of purple card stock was was used to make the Victorian Medallion Three large die cut.  The Two large Victorian Medallion Three dies were used to cut the lilac card stock.  The two die cuts were layered together and attached to the left side of the gate fold card with the Scotch ATG tape.  A large Sizzix Heart die was used to cut out the white card stock.  It was stamped with HCPC 3639 Love Bird Hangout Precut set using the Misti.  I love the Misti.  You get perfect stamping everytime!  The stamped image was colored with Spectrum Noir Markers TN2, TB1, PL2, BP2, HB1, CT2 and CG2.  The flowers were cut out from Lilac card stock with the HC Sun Kissed Fleur dies.  They were shaped with the McGill shaping tools and mat.  They were assembled using the Adtec precision hot glue gun.  They were sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.  The leaves were stamped and die cut with the HC Classic Leaf stamp set and cut out with the HC Classic Leaf dies.  They were shaped with the McGill shaping tools and mat.  The leaves were attached to the card with hot glue.  The flowers followed the leaves using hot glue to attach them.  the bling used in the middle of the flowers came from JoAnns.  They were also attached with hot glue.  For the inside of the card I used the Victorian Medallion large die to cut the lilace card stock.  It was attached to the left side of the inside of the card with the ATG tape runner.  Make sure you line it up with the attachment on the front.  The HC Timeless Armour die was used to cut out the heart.  It was attached with hot glue to the middle of the lilac piece.  The thinking of you sentiment comes from the HC Heartfelt Sentiments cling stamps HCPC-3673.  It was cut out on HC Arianna Blooms paper with the HC Cut Mat Create 1B 2.25" x 2.25" inch die.  For the middle of the inside of the gate fold card I used HC Butterfly Medley paper cut to 5-6/8" by 5-6/8" inches and attached it with the Scotch ATG tape.  A Sizzix Heart large die was used to die cut a white piece of card stock.  It was stamped with the Stampendous Happy Valentines Day sentiment.  I used Tim Holtz Distressed Old Paper small ink pad to distress the paper.  The Heart was attached using the ATG tape. 

My favorite card

This card was made using the Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine and the Spellbinders Sapphire Mini die cutting machine.

The base of the card is made from a 12 x 12 sheet of Colorbok Snow White card stock.  It was cut to a 6 inch by 12 inch size and folded to make a 6 inch by 6 inch size card.  Heartfelt Creations Arianna Blooms paper was cut to 5 and 7/8 inch four times to fit on the front, back, and inside of the card. Before adhering the front piece the center was cut out with the Spellbinders Heart Circle largest die The square piece of the Arianna Blooms paper was placed on the front of the card with double dimensional foam tape to give it a raised look.  The cut out Heart Circle was then added to the center. The flowers were made using the Arianna Blooms die (unfortunately, I don't have the stamp to match this die).  The flowers and leaves were shaped with the McGill shaping tools and mat.  They were put together using a precision tip hot glue gun.  They were sprayed with Tattered Angels glimmer mist.  The leaves were stamped and die cut from the Arianna Blooms paper with the Classic Leaf stamps and dies. They were also sprayed with the Tattered Angels glimmer mist.  The leaves were attached first with the glue gun and then the flowers.  The birds were die cut from the Birds and Blooms HCD1-756 Dies.  They were colored with Spectrum Noir Markers T3 and TB1.  They were attached with Dimensional adhesive and hot glue.  The fence was cut out on white card stock from the Heartfelt Creations Garden Romance dies.  The Happy Birthday sentiment was stamped with Stampendous ssc1141 set and was cut out using the Heartfelt Creations Luggage and Tag HCD745 dies.  The edges of the sentiment were inked with the Memento Rose Bud ink pad.  It was then adhered to the front of the card with hot glue.  The green bow that is attached to the front of the card is made of tulle from Joanns.

The inside birthday sentiment was stamped with Stampendous ssc1141-2011 stamp set on Heartfelt Creation Arianna Blooms paper and cut out with the Spellbinders large heart die. It was attached to the inside of the card.  On the back of the card the heartfelt and handmade by sentiment was stamped with the same Stampendous stamp set.  It was cut out with the small Heart Circle Spellbinders die.

    

This is an envelope box I made out of 12 by 12 DCWV paper.  The 12 by 12 sheet of paper was cut to 11 by 11.  I used the Martha Stewart score board to make the envelope.  Once the paper was cut to 11 inches by 11 inches it was scored at 4-1/8th and again at 4-5/8 inches.  You turn it and make the same score lines again and repeat the process two more times.  Make the folds and put together with the Scotch ATG runner. The flowers were made out of Heartfelt Creations Arianna Blooms paper.  They were cut from the Arianna Blooms die.  They were put together with a precision tip hot glue gun made by Adtec.  The pearls were purchased at JoAnns and placed in the center of the flowers with hot glue.  The leaves are stamped with the Heartfelt Creations Classic Leaf stamp on Heartfelt Creations paper and cut out with the Heartfelt Creations Classic Leaf die. The leaves and flowers were attached after the Spellbinders Heart Circle die cut was placed on the envelope.  The circle die was attached using Scotch ATG runner.  The leaves and flowers were attached using hot glue.  The white bow was made with tulle that was purchased at JoAnns.  The embellishment for the center of the bow also came from JoAnn's and was attached with hot glue.