Zoom!

Well, with all the "stay at home" orders, Mom and I were not able to meet in person for our regular paper crafting session.  SOOOOO - we did it virtually via Zoom.  Worked well (once we figured out how to get Mom's mike turned on! :) )  We both had the HOTP Artful Card Kit called Sunshine and Smiles, so we decided to use that.  We each got one card made.  This is mine.  

Materials:

• ACK (Artful Card Kit)
• card blank (6.5" x 5")
• stamp set (Circle of Love from JustRite)
• red sheer ribbon from my stash
• black sharpie
• black paper scraps
• black ink

Method: 

1. After covering the card front with patterned paper, I inked all the edges with black, added the ribbon & tied it in a bow.
2. I layered a cut out sentiment on a die cut (both from the kit).  The die cut didn't have the black edge even all around, so I used a black Sharpie to even it up before adding it to the card front.
3. The butterfly embellishment completed the card front.

Inside:

1. A scrap of the patterned paper - with edge inked - formed the start of a border on the right hand side of my card.  
2. I started to put the big butterfly on top of the patterned paper, but it was so big it didn't work well.  I decided to add it to the ribbon instead.
3. I added some black strips to help solidify the border & give something for my sentiment to hang from.  The sentiment is stamped from the JustRite set (Circle of Love).  A small butterfly at the point where the two black strips meet completes the inside.

Tea-serving!

I couldn't resist making up this card.  The materials are from a HOTP Cardmaker's Personal Shopper kit except for the ink & ribbon from my stash & stamp from JustRite's Grand Sentiments set (on tag at upper left - everything else was pre-printed in the kit).  As you can see, I made it up as a Center step card - very straight forward.  Oh yes, I DID add some black Sharpie to some of the edges.  Here's the inside.  The four little panels behind the sentiment were placed there because I was taking inspiration from a sketch (May 2018 Card Map from PageMaps.com).

The inside uses more of the same materials:

Once that card was completed, I wanted to use up the rest of the materials (I'm tired of having bits of stuff left over everywhere!).   I started out with this card (stamp from HOTP Watercolor Roses set) on layerd labels cut with Spellbinder's Gold Labels Four & Labels Four die sets.  I inked the edges of the card & of the die cut to blend with the papers, and once again added some ribbon from my stash.

I DID finish the inside, though I forgot to get a picture.  Then I used the rest to make a couple of tags:

Cat House!

This card was made using stamps I got from a cardmaking magazine - images & words (Cardmaking and Papercraft Vol 204 (Jan 2020).  I heat embossed the stamped images with clear powder before coloring with my Inktense and Watercolor pencils.  The "wallpaper" is hand drawn on the plain white card after the main elements were in the room.  The patterned paper used for the mat was an old HOTP pattern.  I was working to fulfill a couple of challenges, so added two sequins to hold up the "picture" on the wall to fulfill the final necessary element of the challenge.  After taking the picture, but before I mailed it, I added "shadowing" by the plaque on the wall & the picture on the fireplace mantle.  That helped create a more cohesive look.

Instructions and Promises

Yesterday I discovered that though I thought I had completed the page on the right in 2017 (it's dated!), I never posted it - and it wasn't really complete! :)  This chapter is full of instructions and promises and I found I wanted to add a lot more to the page - and the facing page.  

Since I did the much of the page on the right a long time ago and didn't post about it, I can only guess about the materials I used there.  It's clear I had used clear gesso to protect the page.  I suspect I used watercolor pencils and water brush to draw and color the bread (since I don't think I had my Inktense then). The word "God" was stamped with brown StazOn ink (stamp from Sing Praise set by Inky Antics), and the rest of the words hand lettered with a brown fine-line marker.  I'm really not sure what I used on the background, but I'm guessing I used Distress Ink - and then something with a bit of shimmer - a spray or metallic gelatos - not sure.

As I worked some more on these pages, I first added color to the facing page.  I sprayed it first with Glimmer Mist (Sea Glass and Blue Icing) then added Distress ink (Salty Ocean) with a round sponge applicator. After that dried well, I added more stamped messages (Bible Promises stamp set from Stampendous and Memorable Messages from Inky Antics) & more hand lettering with my black Pitt pens.  I also decided to trace over much of the brown lettering on the original page, turning it black so the two pages went together better.

   

For thoughts about what these pages mean to me, check out my other blog here and here.  

Please note: I realized I had mis-quoted the passage on the right hand side of the page - corrected version is: