The Lord Bless Card

Yay! We made it to Friday!

Today's card is a simple one that just involved some layering.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

- Jessica

Distress Oxide II

And because I just couldn't leave the distress oxide inks alone, here are a few more cards. Two use the same technique that I mentioned yesterday, only no shimmer top spray.

For the first card I used the stencil technique for the background. I also used the inks to stamp the diecut leaves.

For this next card I simply stamped the leaves onto the cardstock. I also smeared some ink and picked it up with a wet paintbrush to fling on some ink splatters.

This final card only used the ink stencil technique.

- Jessica

Distress Oxide Stripes

Well, we've made it through Monday! Ha. Hey each day closer to the weekend is a plus in my books.

Anyway today I have a couple more cards showing the beauty of the distress oxide inks. I took the ink pads and smooched the colors onto stencil. Next I spritzed the colors with a bit of water. Then I carefully placed a piece of cardstock over the stencil to transfer the color. Finally for the backgrounds I spritzed them with a bit of shimmer spray. I just loved how those backgrounds turned out.

- Jessica

You're The Best

Congrats, you've made it to Wednesday and are halfway through the week! :-)

Today's card is one I made right after I started purchasing the Distress Oxide inks. And boy do I love them. I'm only missing a few colors and they are definitely my favorite inks ever for their unique qualities.

One of the first things I wanted to try was stamping on dark cardstock. That is an area that I feel these really shine through. I mean I just love how that blue pops off that black cardstock. The creaminess of these inks is phenomenal.

I have a few more cards coming this month showing these inks in other ways. What's your favorite way to use them?

- Jessica

2018 One Little Word

Happy Tuesday! I know I mentioned last week that I was going to share my One Little Word then, but as I said yesterday I ended up sick with a cold. So...it got moved to today!

I've chosen a word now since 2012. Some years the word has stayed with me all year and other years it's faded into the background as the year progressed. One year I signed up for Ali Edward's class but then never actually made the album. This year I decided I'd like the reminders each month so I signed back up for her class. I'd like to work on an album but I'm still not sure if I'll do that or just use her prompts to inwardly reflect.

Here's a list of my previous words:

2012 - MOVE

2013 - TRANSFORM

2014 - DETERMINED

2015 - ABIDE

2016 - NEW

2017 - ARISE

Usually in December I start thinking on what my new word will be. Something that I feel called to. Many times it begins by making a list of potential words. Looking them up in the dictionary and thesaurus and slowly weeding them out or coming across new ones. As I started thinking on it in the last week of 2017 I knew one word was really coming to me for my spiritual life. But I also felt another one pulling to me for my every day physical life. Sooo...since it's my life...here are my 2018 TWO Little Words:

I want to simplify my physical life. I've come to realize the more chaos in my life the more chaotic I feel. It's like coming home to a messy house and it just completely drains me. I'm always reaching for something new but in reality I feel that I just need to strip it all down to the basics. I'm not sure what that means exactly but I feel it's something that I can work to adhere to in many aspects of my daily life. I want to explore and see where all it leads me.

My second word has been a word that has been popping up very often for the last few months of 2017. It's something mentioned a lot at church. It comes from this Scripture in the Bible: "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:14. I want to keep pressing toward that goal that my Lord has set for my life.

The more I think on these words, the more I see how they can be tied together in my life and work hand-in-hand. I want to keep them ever present and work toward a better life.

- Jessica

Faux Leather Technique

Good morning! Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I pretty much just was lazy and rested up after being sick with a cold all last week. I'm starting to feel better and hopefully can get back into a routine of normal things, ha!

Today's card is a one I made a while back but never shared on here. During Papertrey Ink's Stamp-A-Faire they showed a few new to me techniques and this was one, faux leather.

This was the first card I made while playing around. And while I don't think it ended up looking like leather, it was a great way to add texture. My mistake was not actually following the step by step process, lol. I just quickly read over it then tried it out. I didn't repeat spraying and crumpling the paper.

I do love though how this masculine card turned out. That's one thing I really struggle with as I'm drawn to very feminine designs. But every now and then I need a card for a guy and I may turn to this technique again for those.

- Jessica

Cross Stitch

Growing up I was surrounded by women who were creative in one form or many. While admiring them, I wanted to be like them and have my own creative outlet. I've tried many things over the years and I'm still not sure I've completely found my perfect creative niche.

But one thing I tried as a teenager was cross-stitch. Those patterns of squares, all that counting and endless stitches. I'm afraid I never perfected my craft and quite gave it up for years. But then I saw Jennifer McGuire using a die to make the holes for stitching...and suddenly I wanted to give it a try again.

I ordered the die and got started. In my mind of course I thought I'd be whipping up cards with stitching left and right. Imagine my surprise when after several hours one night I still wasn't finished with a card front! Ha! I finally finished this card and must admit I haven't tried another card yet. I do love how it turned out and it was fun to stitch while watching a movie. Maybe I'll get a few more stitched up this year.

- Jessica