ODBDSLC210 - Sponging or Stencils (Week 2)

Welcome to week 2 of the Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light challenge - Sponging or Stencils! You can see the first card that I made for this challenge here. Here is some more inspiration from me for the challenge:

For this card I have stamped the image, from Our Daily Bread Designs Apples, on X-Press It blending card and coloured it with Copic markers. I've then sponged around the edges of the panel with Distress Ink Peeled Paint. 

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, Our Daily Bread Designs Apples, and has been stamped on Bazzill textured green card on the smooth side. I've then made my own stencil using ODBD Fancy Foliage Dies and used that the sponge some patterns around the sentiment and on the other green panel using Distress Ink Peeled Paint.

This is what my stencil looked like once I had finished using it.

The designer paper (DP) is from ODBD Blushing Rose Paper Collection and I've added some green hemp twine around the top of the card.

For more inspiration for this challenge please visit my talented design team sisters:

Chris Olsen ~ Linda Carson ~ Diana Nguyen

Cheryl Scrivens ~ DJ Rants ~ Robin Clendenning

To see all the projects created for ODBDSLC210 or to join the challenge click here. You have until 8 pm Sunday, 3 August 2014 EDT to join us (or 8 am Monday, 4 August 2014 AWST). By participating in the challenge, you have a chance to be placed in a monthly draw to win a $15 ODBD Gift Certificate that can be used towards the purchase of stamps in the “stamps column” in the ODBD store; or to be spotlighted on the ODBD Blog at our next challenge! The random prize winner will be posted on the first challenge of each month.

Close up of the Apples image coloured with Copic markers

Another angle - you can see the glitter from the AtYou Spica pens I used on the image

My husband, two little girls and I are on holidays this week up in Exmouth, Western Australia (and will later visit Shark Bay). It's wonderful to visit friends that we haven't seen for a while and share our love of the LORD. Holidays are usually fun but sometimes things do go wrong and we have already seen God's hand over us in the short time we've been away so far. We feel so blessed to be able to travel around and visit God's wonderful creation. How awesome is our God!

Materials List

Copic markers: E21, C3, G14, E29, C5, R35, E23, E27, YG01, G43, G0000, Y23, N6, G12, E25, R59, R46, G46, 0, C9, R22 and Y11.

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Apples

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Ink Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain

Cardstock / DP: Bazzill textured green and brown, X-Press It blending card and ODBD Blushing Rose paper collection

Dies: ODBD Fancy Foliage Dies

Other: AtYou Spica pens, green hemp twine, X-Press It double sided tape and X-Press It high tack foam mounting tape.

Thanks for looking!

ODBDSLC210 - Sponging or Stencils (Week 1)

Hope you all had fun in last fortnights challenge - red, white and blue. I saw some fantastic entries! This fortnight the Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light challenge is Sponging or Stencils. Here is my card:

As you can see I've done a bit of sponging and stenciling on my card. The first thing I did was to make a stencil by diecutting the wavy edged die from the ODBD Pennant Row dies into a piece of sturdy card (I did try acetate but couldn't get my Big Shot to make a clean cut - but the card worked fantastically)! Here's a pic of the stencil:

I've sprayed some Starbursts onto a 5.25" square piece of white card. Then used my stencil (made from the Pennant Row die) and some texture paste to add rows of pennants. In the photo below you can see how the texture paste (the pale green stuff - it was white but it's either semi-translucent when dry or it sucked up some of the colour from the Starbursts) sticks out from the card - isn't it great?!

The red pennants are diecut using the other die from the same set, ODBD Pennant Row dies, and I have used ODBD Christmas Paper Collection 2013. I've added the words "Praise Him" to some of the flags using Our Daily Bread Designs Pennant Swag Alphabet. 

The verse is from Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Collection 13 and is also stamped on the ODBD Christmas Paper Collection 2013. I've then diecut the verse out using ODBD Vintage Labels Dies. Before taking the piece out of the die I have used it like a stencil to sponge some Distress Ink Walnut Stain around the outside.

The gorgeous little cross in the corner is also diecut from the ODBD Christmas Paper Collection 2013 using one of the dies from ODBD Ornamental Crosses dies. I have also sponged some Walnut Stain onto this piece before removing it from the die. 

For more inspiration for this challenge please visit my talented design team sisters:

Chris Olsen ~ Linda Carson ~ Diana Nguyen

Cheryl Scrivens ~ DJ Rants ~ Robin Clendenning

To see all the projects created for ODBDSLC210 or to join the challenge click here. You have until 8 pm Sunday, 3 August 2014 EDT to join us (or 8 am Monday, 4 August 2014 AWST). By participating in the challenge, you have a chance to be placed in a monthly draw to win a $15 ODBD Gift Certificate that can be used towards the purchase of stamps in the “stamps column” in the ODBD store; or to be spotlighted on the ODBD Blog at our next challenge! The random prize winner will be posted on the first challenge of each month.

I am entering my card in Word Art Wednesday #141 - Anything Goes challenge.

Both of my little girls love singing and it's such a blessing to be able to hear them - especially when they sing songs praising our Saviour! I love the verse that I've used on my card:

"The LORD is my strength and my shield;

My heart trusts in Him and He helps me.

My heart leaps for joy,

and with my song I praise Him!"

Psalm 28:7

We can put our complete trust in the LORD - He is our strength and shield. And our hearts should be full of praise and awe toward Him. The book of Psalms are so awesome - there is a song for every occasion. We can sing to the LORD when we feel "down", when we are on "cloud 9" and anywhere in between!

Materials used:

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Pennant Swag Alphabet and Scripture Collection 13

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Ink Walnut Stain

Cardstock: Bazzill textured Bitter Chocolate, Strathmore Mixed media card, Our Daily Bread Designs Christmas Paper Collection 2013

Dies: ODBD Pennant Row Dies, ODBD Vintage Labels Dies, ODBD Ornamental Crosses Dies

Other: Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst sprays Time Travel Teal and Rusty Lantern Lime, Golden Gel Medium Light Molding Paste, Helmar 450 quick dry adhesive and X-Press It double sided tape.

Thanks for looking!

Copic Class

I had an awesome time on the weekend teaching some lovely ladies about Copic markers. We did an "Introduction to Copic Markers" class and covered topics from types of markers to how to choose blending colours from the Copic colour wheel and a bit about the Copic colourless blender (and other exciting stuff!). I didn't get any photos during the class (we were all so busy "playing" with our markers!) but here are a few "before" photos:

This was my "Copic" table that I set up with examples of Copic products and ways to use the markers

The table all set up and ready to go :-)

This gorgeous little guy is "Baby Fairy Bug" by Mo Manning (digital stamp) - this was an example to show some of the types of blending that we learnt during the calss

The above and below images are photographed through the clear plastic stands that they were in; this is why there are some "unusual" marks across them - reflections!

Two more gorgeous stamps showing some more examples of blending with Copic markers.
The image on the left is from Whimsy Stamps - "Silver Fairy"

The image on the right is again from Mo Manning (digital stamp) - "Fairy Butterfly"

I am looking forward to the next Copic Class (will be in September sometime - date to be confirmed). If you're interested in attending any classes and live in the South West of Western Australia - send me an e-mail (link on left side bar), or check out my 

Card and Copic Classes page.

I have also started a Copic page - you can view it here.

ODBDSLC209 - Week 2

One week down and one to go on the Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light challenge - Red, white and blue. This week I decided to have a go at colouring some tiles! I can tell you - this was a trial and error lesson! Here is my tile:

I bought some glazed tiles at my local craft store and have used Brilliance ink (Graphite Black) to stamp the image and verse - both from Our Daily Bread Designs Cherry Blossom onto my tile. These stamps were quite easy to stamp onto the tile because they are cling foam mounted rubber stamps. I have tried some other tiles with clear stamps and found that I had to use a "rock-a-block" instead of the normal acrylic stamping blocks to get a nice image. 

I have then baked my tile in the oven for about 20 - 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius to heat set the ink. I could've used StazOn ink but I wanted to colour the image with Copics and StazOn and Copics do not mix!

The image is then coloured with a mixture of Copics, Copic Various Ink and Ranger Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Inks. I would like to coat the tile so that it is more durable; however, I am having problems sourcing a water based spray sealant (and the "paint on" ones don't seem to work very well) so for the moment ... it's just pretty to look at... and more experimenting to be done :-)

For more inspiration for this challenge please visit my talented design team sisters:

Chris Olsen ~ Linda Carson ~ Diana Nguyen

Cheryl Scrivens ~ DJ Rants ~ Robin Clendenning

To see all the projects created for ODBDSLC209 or to join the challenge click here. You have until 8 pm Sunday, 20 July 2014 EDT to join us (or 8 am Monday, 21 July 2014 AWST). By participating in the challenge, you have a chance to be placed in a monthly draw to win a $15 ODBD Gift Certificate that can be used towards the purchase of stamps in the “stamps column” in the ODBD store; or to be spotlighted on the ODBD Blog at our next challenge! The random prize winner will be posted on the first challenge of each month.

I shared quite a few weeks ago now that I was attending a 6 week course on the Book of Psalms. You can see my post here about week 1. The course is now finished and I can now say that I really do look at the Book of Psalms in a different way! It was really interesting (awe inspiring and humbling!) to look at the Book of Psalms as a whole, and also at the individual Psalm level where each one points to Jesus. 

As part of the course, some of us chose to do an assignment - to delve a little deeper into the Book of Psalms and apply what we had learnt during the course. The question I chose was to "Write an explanation and application of Psalm 118 to a Christian audience". While it was a struggle at times, (and I was battling a horrible cold (that I still haven't got rid of!) I never cease to be in awe of how God put the whole Bible together - that each part of it was put carefully together to point to Jesus and what He did for us at the cross and through His resurrection. 

Psalm 118:22-23, in the light of the New Testament, speaks about Jesus, through His crucifixion and resurrection being the "stone which the builders rejected" (Psalm 118:22a) that has now "become the chief cornerstone (Psalm 118:22b) (Acts 4:10-11). Both Matthew 21:42-44 and Luke 20:17-18 quote Psalm 118:22-23 and then go on to say that "everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust" (Luke 20:18). This is warning people about God's judgement and that those who reject Jesus as the Messiah will be eternally lost.

But for those of us who do believe that Jesus is the Messiah - we can rejoice and celebrate Jesus' death as the "day the LORD has made (Ps 118:24) and the resurrection of Jesus is the LORD's doing and is "marvelous in our eyes" (Ps 118:23). We can celebrate, thank and praise God, for He Himself has become our salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection.

We, as Christians, can face each day, and even our darkest moments, and we can rejoice in the knowledge that through God's mercy and grace that He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins so that we may "not die, but live" (Ps 118:17a). Jesus is the stone that is to form the foundation of our lives. If we believe what He has done for us, in His death and resurrection, we may have eternal life with Him.

And this is why we should be giving thanks to the LORD with our whole hearts - as Psalm 9:1 says (that I used on my tile, above). 

Please note: some of the above is taken from my assignment that I wrote for the course. I used a range of references including: Baker, K (general editor) 1999, The Zondervan NASB Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Corporation); Mays, J.L. 2011, Interpretation - A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching - Psalms (John Knox Press: Louisville); and Wilcock, M. 2001, The Bible Speaks Today - The Message of Psalms 73-150 (Inter-Varsity Press: Nottingham).

Thanks for looking!

ODBDSLC209 - Red, white and blue

Our Daily Bread Designs are changing their Shining the Light challenges slightly - you will now have 2 weeks to enter each challenge! The challenge for this fortnight, ODBDSLC209, is a red, white and blue challenge. Here is my card:

I've stamped and coloured the flowers from Our Daily Bread Designs Rose. The vase is ODBD Decorative Vase Die and I sponged it with distress ink chipped sapphire before removing from the die. I have used ODBD Beautiful Borders Dies on the edges and the cute little flags at the top are diecut from ODBD Pennant Swag Die with the letters from the Our Daily Bread Designs Pennant Swag Alphabet stamp set. Both of these are new in the ODBD July release! 

For more inspiration for this challenge please visit my talented design team sisters:

Chris Olsen ~ Linda Carson ~ Diana Nguyen

Cheryl Scrivens ~ DJ Rants ~ Robin Clendenning

To see all the projects created for ODBDSLC209 or to join the challenge click here. You have until 8 pm Sunday, 20 July 2014 EDT to join us (or 8 am Monday, 21 July 2014 AWST). By participating in the challenge, you have a chance to be placed in a monthly draw to win a $15 ODBD Gift Certificate that can be used towards the purchase of stamps in the “stamps column” in the ODBD store; or to be spotlighted on the ODBD Blog at our next challenge! The random prize winner will be posted on the first challenge of each month.

Thanks for looking!

Floral Kiss

There is a competition over at Kit  and Clowder facebook page - but you need to hurry! Competition ends 5th July 2014! This is my entry:

It is a digital stamp from The East Wind Etsy store and I think it's named "Floral Kiss" and is currently available to Kit and Clowder members.

Copic marker colours I used are:
Hair: BG11, 13, 15, 18, 78 and N6, 8
Eyes: B00, 02, 05, 16
Lips: R30, 32, 35, 37
Eyeshadow: BV0000, 000, 00, 02
Skin: E000, 00, 11, 13, 04 and E93 for blush
Clothes: B21, 24, 26, 29
Flowers: Y11, 15, YR82, 65 68; R81, 83, 85, 89, W3; B12, 24, 26, B000, 02
Leaves: G21, 24, 28 and BG78
Also used a white gel pen and AtYou Spica clear.

Thanks for looking!