Whom are you following?

Today I have another Bible Journaling page - as usual, for discussion of the meaning of the page, please see my other blog. For information about how I created the page itself:

• Basics: I started by applying clear gesso to the page to protect it as I worked.
• Illustrations: Today's illustrations were traced/drawn from images found on the internet.  I drew the outlines with Inktense pencils (except for the flesh colors which is a watercolor pencil), and then used a water brush to pull the color to create the images.  
• Background: For the background I used 3 different colors of green gelatos.  I scribbled them on my craft sheet & then used a water brush to pick up the color and color in the background.
• Lettering: Smaller letters were drawn with Pitt pens.  The larger letters are stickers.

Happy Mother's Day

Well, today's card is a little different.  I always like to do something special when I make a card for my Mother since she also creates cards.  This is one that sort of evolved.  The "belly band you see in the picture above is not really a separate belly band like you often see (and like might have been better used here - except that I wanted to make sure it stayed in place to hide the message).  This is just a couple strips of card stock that are attached to the back of the card.  I punched holes in the ends, threaded a piece of ribbon through each side & glued it to the back of the "belly band" before covering it with the patterned paper.

Card Front:

• Background: The background papers are old HOTP papers.  I covered the card with the diagonal striped paper.  Next I cut two white strips of light-weight card stock for the borders.  I added slightly smaller strips of a coordinating patterned paper to the white card stock borders before adding them to the card.
• Focal: The focal is stamped with a HOTP stamp from the Janie's Girls set. After coloring it with watercolor pencils & a water brush, I hand drew the lettering for her sign.  She was cut out & frame embossed with a Spellbinder's die from the Tile Works A2 Card Creator set.  I also used the die as a stencil to add color to the frame. After gluing in place on a mat (scrap of printed glossy card stock), I added some sticky-backed "jewels" before creating the "secret".
• Secret: The reason for the belly band is that the center piece is a bit loose - so that it can stand up like an easel card (the card also opens like a normal card).  This was created by folding a strip of cardstock and gluing it to the focal & to the card front in such a way that it can stand up as you see here (sorry I didn't take a picture of the mechanism!):

As you can see, there's a tag added with foam tape that the easel can rest against to keep it upright.

Here's the INSIDE of the card:

• Borders: The borders are made with scraps of the patterned papers & white card stock.
• Sentiment: I stamped the verse using a stamp from JustRite's "For All You Do Vintage Labels Three".  Then I used a rectangular piercing die (from Fun Stampers Journey) to form a frame and used my paper cutter to cut closely around the piercing.
• Finishing: I added a flower (stamped/die cut/molded using Heartfelt Creations Poppy set) & then added a jewel for the center of the flower, and more jewels at the top of the sentiment, and in the lower right corner of the card - on the border.

Cloudy Just For You

Today's card was created using a beautiful embossing folder that my Mom got in a paper crafting magazine - with matching stamps.  I embossed a piece of white card stock (spritzing it with water to ensure I got a good emboss).  Then I simply colored it in - mostly with chalks.  I used a bit of ink on a dauber for some spots, & markers to color in the stamped images on the balloon (from the coordinating stamp set).  Note that I also used a stamp from the coordinating set to add her facial features.

Lavender & Yellow

Today's card started with a magazine that I have eagerly been awaiting.  I signed up for it way back in January - and yesterday my first issue finally came.  Anyway, It had a lovely set of stamps/dies/embossing folder that I look forward to playing with.  Before I got to that, however, I pulled out the free papers that were included in the magazine.  They were mostly Easter designs, and I don't make many Easter cards, so I was trying to decide what I would do with them.  After pulling them out of the magazine & starting to cut them apart, I realized the papers had been printed in such a way that if I didn't want to use the blatantly Easter papers, they had printed the other sides in pastels that weren't Easter themed.  Yay!

I started working on what I could do with them and found things in my stash that would go with all but this lavender & yellow.  I suddenly thought of a stamping swap I had participated in awhile back.  Looking through the options, I came across this lady that just begged to be colored in lavender & yellow.  I don't know who made the stamp, since it came in a swap & I lost the paper that said, but I think it was the perfect thing to set the card front off right.

CARD FRONT:

• Background - I covered the card front with the patterned paper & then cut the corners with a corner rounder.
• Focal - I colored the stamped image with watercolor pencils & a water brush.  I rounded the corners & drew a dark purple line around all edges with my watercolor pencil - then pulled the color toward the image with my water brush. Then I matted it on a yellow piece of card stock.  I discovered I really wanted to see more of the patterned paper, so cut a piece just smaller than the focal paper - so the dark purple edge would show all around it.  I used a scalloped oval die (Spellbinder's) to cut the aperture & glued it in place over the focal.  Then I went around the scalloped inner edge with my watercolor pencil.
• Sentiment - from an old scrapbooking set in my stash

INSIDE:

• Border background - bottom & top of the card I added patterned paper & a smaller piece of the yellow card stock (as you can see), rounding only the outer edges of the paper/cardstock.  
• Sentiments -To the bottom border, I added a couple of sentiments I had from a Hunkydory Whopper Topper pad (Cute & Cuddly). Then I stamped a sentiment from a HOTP stamp set (Birthday Cheer). I finished it off with a little gold Smooch ink for the candle flames.
• Embellishing - I finished the inside with a flower made using Heartfelt Creations Blazing Poppy Stamps & Dies (& their Floral Basics shaping mold) that was held together by a small yellow brad.