Pretty Poppies

It's been forever since I played along with a Splitcoast sketch challenge, so I'm patting myself on the back a little, because I found this one to be kind of tough. I had several images that could take up the longish space on the left, but what would coordinate for the smaller boxes on the right?

I really wanted to use my Stampendous "Poppy Scene" stamp on the left, but adding further to my problem was that the frame around the image was irregular. My solution? Doodling!

That's right - those boxes on the right were doodled with a Micron pen. I stamped poppies from a Technique Tuesday clear set, but they didn't look right. I settled on keeping the stems from that stamp, but then re-stamping the Stampendous one, and cutting out some of the poppies to glue on top of the Techique Tuesday stems. Then I used a sentiment from Hero Arts to complete the layout.

I always like a red/white/black combination (maybe because of my love for the Detroit Red Wings?), and I think this pops. Hah! Appropriate for "Pop"pies! LOL (I crack myself up.)

Enjoy the last few days of June. See you in July! OH - And look for a big Hambo Stamps sale coming up next week! 40% discounts on everything - spread the word!

Have a great weekend!

Supplies:

Stamps - Stampendous "Poppy Scene"; Technique Tuesday "Growing Wild" set (stems); Hero Arts "Everyday Sayings"
Paper - "Garden Party" by Pebbles (DP); Stampin' Up real red cardstock
Ink - colored with Copic markers; sentiment embossed with white powder
Dies - banner from Becky Higgins set

Bird of the Feathers

This card is a simple one. I love this fun feather print (from Love Nicole's "Delicate Floret" pad), but I didn't have any feather stamps or dies to use with it. But I DO have this bird die, which I paper pieced to match the feathers a bit. I quite like how it turned out! Unless you stop to think why the feathers are flying around, and then it seems, well... tragic. LOL Guess this poor birdie is going to need a new mate??

Happy Wednesday!

Sunflowers

I mentioned last week that I found some great deals at Tuesday Morning; this Stampendous "Sunflower & Ladybug" stamp was one of them. The large cling stamp was $2.99, I believe. I love deals like that!
The image was water-colored with distress oxide inks, and then cropped with a Spellbinders oval die. The Hero Arts sentiment finishes it off.

Have a great week!

Rusty Rose

If you're like me, when you flip through a designer paper pad, there's usually one or two patterns that you kind of say "Aaack! What in the world will I do with THAT??" This was one of those patterns for me. While I really love almost all of the prints in Love Nicole's "Aquarelle" pad, this one was quickly skipped past. And, as has happened before, what I originally didn't like ends up being a favorite. Go figure.

The thing that originally stumped me was the color combo, I think. Powder blue, mixed with rust, mixed with purples? Oh, and some olive green for good measure. I was trying the print out with different solids, and when I hit upon this SU rust color, I liked it! Suddenly, it seemed like the color combo made sense. I added this flower from the Penny Black "Enamor" set, which I colored with Copics. This is probably the first time I've used my Copic markers in at least a couple of years, but I'm happy to say they were still mostly juicy.

I added the Hero Arts sentiment, stamped on a banner die from a Becky Higgins (American Crafts) die set found at Tuesday Morning. There are 8 really useful dies in the package, for $4.99. Score!

Since I still have time, I will enter this into Jeannie's "Rose Garden" challenge that ends this weekend. There's time for you to play along too!

Have a great weekend!

Recipe: Pebre (Chilean Condiment)

And now for something completely different! I know this blog is called "Nothing But the Cards," so I hope you'll excuse a little detour. While pinning card ideas on Pinterest, I stumbled upon a recipe that I wanted to try, and I loved it so much I want to share it with you. But first a little back-story:

Last year, a friend was trying to prepare for his blood work and physical required by his health insurance. He works for the company, and would receive perks if his "numbers" (cholesterol, triglycerides, et al) were good. He decided to go vegan to prepare but wanted a support system, so he challenged me to go vegan with him for a month. I accepted his challenge, and did great for the first week, but then my family ended up at Chili's, of all places!, to eat. I asked the waiter what my vegan options were, and we ended up with just a few: a salad (no cheese!), rice, black beans and steamed broccoli. The black beans were served with a spoonful of pico de gallo on top, and let me tell you, they were the most delicious black beans I've ever had! And while my term as a vegan only lasted 2.5 months (yes, I met the one month challenge and then some, while my friend dropped out after about 4 days!), from that point on I order pico de gallo with my rice and beans whenever we eat Mexican.

So when I saw this recipe for the Chilean version of pico de gallo, I was anxious to try it -- especially because I had most of the ingredients already and it looked very easy to make. Here is a link to the original recipe that I pinned: https://www.lafujimama.com/chilean-pebre/

Recipe: Pebre

Ingredients:

6 scallions, finely chopped
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1 small bunch cilantro, finely chopped
3-4 large garlic cloves, minced
3 T. red wine vinegar
1½ T. sriracha or spicy chili sauce
½ T. olive oil
½ T. crushed red pepper flakes
½ t. finely ground sea salt
water

Mix all ingredients except water in a medium sized bowl.

Add just enough cold water to barely cover everything, then refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Judging by comments left with the original recipe, pebre can be enjoyed with just about anything! (Toast was a popular choice, a la bruschetta, I suppose.) My kids immediately dove into it with corn chips, but I spooned some over the top of a bowl of Spanish rice, and it was one of the best things I've ever eaten!

The recipe DOES say that it's best enjoyed the same day it's prepared, and that was no problem in our house, as the 3 cup yield was DEVOURED immediately. In fact, I think my son drank the remaining "juice" left behind after scooping out the vegetables, though truth be told, if he hadn't, I would have!

If you try it, I hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did! If so, leave a comment and let me know how YOU ate it.

In Distress

I'm unable to read or hear the scripture on today's card, without automatically starting to sing the song in my head that we sang in rounds at summer camp. Does anyone else know the song? It is simply the words of Philippians 4:4 repeated over and over. Still, it's quite catchy, and an easy way to learn and remember the verse. This is one of the stamps in Verve's "Scripture Medley 1" set.

Craft cardstock serves as the base of this card, which I thought coordinated well with the distressed patterned paper from an old Making Memories "Travel" pad. I added a couple of cardboard buttons tied with cord.

While on the subject of distressed, I'll go ahead and share a bonus card I made in the same sitting:

This card makes me laugh, because in one photo I took of it, you would think you'd have to wash your hands after handling it -- it was very dingy looking. Thankfully the other photos came out better. This one also uses a patterned paper called "post mark" from the same "Travel" pad as the paper above, along with a craft cardstock base. The "thanks" is a stamp by Hero Arts.

I think the "thanks" card is appropriate, since you'll certainly want to thank me for the earbug, if you played the song on Youtube that I linked above. You're welcome! ;)

All My Hope

When I did a shout-out to Verve Stamps a couple of weeks ago, I pictured the freebies that had accompanied my order, including designer papers, a doily and a printed sentiment. The card above is what I was able to make with those things. I also used Stampin' Up grey cardstock for the card base, and old olive cardstock to frame the sentiment. I sponged "Worn Lipstick" Distress Oxide Ink over the doily.

I am entering my card in Jeannie's Dragonfly Journeys challenge, which is to include roses on your card. There are lots of them in the DP, so this is an easy qualifier. There's still more than a week left to play along if you have a rose project to share!

Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend!

Such a Joy!

When I heard that Verve was closing, I hurriedly placed one last order before everything was gone. I was excited to get a couple more scripture sets, as well as a nice general-purpose set called "Be Kind," from which this sentiment comes. Inside, I stamped "hugs and smiles" from the same set. I won't bother linking to the set now, since it has sold out and will no longer be available.

The "Classy Label" die is also from Verve. When I stamped the sentiment, which is lined up at an angle as you see above, there was room left on the label for something else. This "Be Kind" set also included a stamp with a couple of solid flowers, so I chose it for the corner. However, the flowers didn't match exactly, so I got a purple pen and added some outlines to match the design on the patterned paper (from Love Nicole's "Blooming" 6x6 pad). I'm not sure I LOVE the result, but it DID make the flowers coordinate a little better, so I kept it. What's your vote, yes or no?

Metallics

I've decided that I really like metallic cards! The shine catches your eye and makes them look special. I might not have tried using solid metallic sheets had it not been for this background paper ("Delicate Floret" pad by Love Nicole) which I loved, but wasn't sure how to use alone. When paired with some solid metallic gold - WOW! (<---- that was my daughter's exact response.) I wish you could see in person how pretty this looks! My metallic paper is from a DCWV 6"x6" pad.

To go along with the papers, I embossed the Hampton Art sentiment ("Hope & Faith" set) using a champagne-colored embossing powder. It matches quite well and doesn't look gaudy, as sometimes TOO shiny gold does.

I used the trimmed scraps from the patterned paper to make a second card:

This time I used a really large Penny Black scripture (from "All Great Things" set), also embossed with the same champagne powders. I'm happy with how both cards turned out, and look forward to more opportunities to use metallics.

Clothed with Strength

Here is another of those easy cards where you let the pretty paper do all the work. Here, I used a floral design from the Love Nicole "Aquarelle" 6x6 pad, and stamped the Verve sentiment. This verse is included in the "Scripture Medley 4" clear set. (In real life the ink color is not purple as it appears in the photo, but rather a deep pink that matches the flowers.)

My kids get out of school today, so I while I HOPE to be clothed in strength and dignity, I will DEFINITELY be clothed in a sundress and flip flops in the near future! Have a great weekend!

Dream a New Dream

I mentioned in a post last week about getting some great deals at Verve, and this "New Dream" stamp is the one I picked up for 75-cents. However, it is probably sold out now because Julee Tilman, the owner of Verve, just announced that she's closing up shop. I'm SO sorry to see Verve go, because they had such perfect stamps for card ministry. In fact, I snatched up a couple more scripture sets before they were gone forever. Even though some of the scriptures will be duplicates of stamps I already have, I use them so often, it will be reassuring to know that I have back-ups in case I wear the originals out!

The paper is from the Pebbles "Garden Party" 6x6 pad, and the card is finished off with a butterfly die cut.

Happy Wednesday!

Walk by Faith

Gray is my husband's favorite color. Of all of the beautiful colors in the spectrum, he chooses gray. The fact that he's an artist would make me think he might be drawn to color, but that has not been the case. Then again, given Baskin Robbins' 31 flavors, or Cook Out's 40+ milkshake flavors, he'll choose vanilla every time. So the fact that he married me ... does it mean I'm dull? Or am I a classic?? I digress...

I don't make a lot of gray cards because I DO prefer color. However, in this case, I think the gray looks elegant. It's paired with navy blue card stock to frame the DP. (Love Nicole's "Bouquet of Color") The sentiment is from Hampton Art's "Hope & Faith" set, and says "I will walk by faith, even when I cannot see. - II Corinthians 5:7."

Have a great week!

More Color!

My friend Jeannie runs "Dragonfly Journeys," a challenge blog, and her challenge this week is called "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." It sent me looking for rainbow paper so that I could play along.  I found a perfect sheet in an American Crafts 6x6 pad called "#Summer" that allowed me to make two cards. This first one uses a strip of the striped paper, along with a sticker I found in my stash, which I popped up on dimensionals.

My second card uses the same paper:

This time, I added a tag with a die cut "hello" (Hero Arts), and stamped a sentiment below from Hero Arts' "Everyday Sayings" clear set. This is perhaps my most used set in my card ministry, because it contains nearly every saying I need, including "thinking of you" in 3 different fonts. Inside this card, I added a verse from Hampton Art's "Hope & Faith" set:

I AM truly glad, because today is the first day of June, and summer break is just around the corner. "Wonderful Joy" indeed! Wishing you joy as well!