Tuesday, April 19, 2011

God's Love and Faithfulness

I am on spring break and really enjoying sleeping in.  However, I have spent the last two days helping my daughter with her taxes.  We usually just do the ez form but all her friends had used some program and received great returns so she was sure if we did the same thing, she would too.  Well, I just don’t trust any program and what her friends say so I read everything.  It took forever and I am still not sure I understood it all.  It was in “Gov” talk.  We finally submitted it at 8pm last night.  Beat the deadline but I was exhausted.  I decided I deserved a real break today.  I lay around a bit but then started to do some clean up.  Finally I retired to my craft room for some true fun.  I have wanted to do a wonderful Easter card that showed what Easter is really all about.


I started with a white card base and a layer of deep purple.  On top of that I put a layer of some new Basic Grey cardstock I found this weekend at the scrapbook store.  It is labeled cupcake/make a wish/cup1103 so hopefully that helps if you want to find some.  It is a lovely decorative teal color.

For my top layer I decided to experiment.  I used a Spellbinder decorative label, laying it horizontal across the top of the paper, and cut it out.  Then I used a second decorative label and cut it vertically, with the top side overlapping what I had already cut.  I needed a little more at the top of the “cross” so I slid the vertical die up but actually laid it behind the cardstock and just tucked the top part through the opening and laid it where I wanted the top of the cross.  When I ran it through the die cut machine, I only ran it enough to cut that top part I wanted and rolled it back out so the rest of the die wouldn’t crease the cardstock around the cross.  It came out great!!  My tip to you is to experiment with making different windows using more than one die – who knows how it will turn out.  I put another dark purple layer behind my window but cut out the center so when I added it to the front of the card you could see that lovely Basic Grey design cardstock through the cross opening.  I lightly sponged the edges of the cross opening with purple ink.

For sentiments I used two stamps from Our Daily Bread Designs’ Faith set.  I stamped the word “Faith” in deep purple Brilliance ink right in the top center of the cross, directly on the Basic Grey layer.  It is subtle but still shows.  Then I stamped the verse in the same purple ink on a light lilac cardstock, cut it out with a die, sponged the edges with the same ink, and layered it on a dark purple die cut label.  I added it to the card with foam tape to pop it up.  I found some little ceramic calla lilies in the bridal department at Hobby Lobby so I tucked three of these with leaves behind the verse label.

I had planned to make a simple, elegant card to meet the requirements of a certain challenge, but I just couldn’t do it!!  It just looked too bare.  I had already failed by using more than 3 layers, so I went for it.  I added two decorative corner die cuts to the top corners and added some wonderful pearl swirls around the cross.  I found these swirls at Michael’s awhile back and absolutely love them.  Should have bought more since I can’t find them anymore.  I added two larger pearls on both ends of the verse label.  Then I made myself stop.  As lovely as all the color is on this “simple” card, it did still meet the requirements of Our Daily Bread Designs Shining The Light Challenge of “no color.”  Seem kind of confusing?  We actually couldn’t do any coloring ourselves.  We could use colored ink and could sponge some ink so I managed that.

Though our family did an occasional egg hunt, we always read the story of the crucifiction in the Bible and reminded ourselves of the true meaning of Easter.  The most memorable Easter for me is when my oldest daughter came to me and said she wanted to ask Jesus in her heart.  Even at the age of five she understood what Christ had done for her.  Easter is all about God's love for us and Christ dying on the cross for us.    With this card I want to say thank you to God for His sacrifice for me and my family.

I entered this card in the following challenges:
Our Daily Bread Designs Shining The Light Challenge #57 – No Coloring
Basic Grey Challenge #42 – Easter/Spring
Ooh La La Challenge #78 – Aqua, Bling & Sentiment
Phindy’s Friday Challenge #51 – Color Challenge:  Purple and Teal
Sentimental Sundays Challenge #51 – Celebrate Spring/Easter plus Sentiment
Top Tip Challenge #30 – Open Challenge plus Tip (You can create amazing windows in your card by cutting out with a mix of dies – this is how I did the cross window on my card)
Totally Papercrafts Challenge #62 – Springtime (can be anything)

16 comments:

Chris Olsen, Glowbug said...

Oh how beautiful Marie!! I just love your use of stamps and colors!! So elegant!! Beautiful take on the no coloring challenge. Thanks for joining the ODBD Shining the Light challenge this week.

Debbie said...

This is beautiful.. thanks for joining us at Creative Inspirations. Hope to see you again next week.

Hugs
Debbie

Anita said...

Stunning card! Thanks for joining us at Delightful Challenges.

Sabrina Jackson said...

WOW, so very beautiful Marie! I love everything about it! Thanks for taking the time to play along in this weeks Shining the Light Challenge over at ODBD! Hugs and blessings, Sabrina

Lisa M. (aka. Lisa @ Farm Fresh) said...

The colors on this are just beautiful! Thanks for joining us in our Easter/Spring challenge for Sentimental Sundays!

HappyCrafter said...

Wow!! THis looks great! I really like the lilies, and the overall effect is very elegant. I'm glad you joined us this week at Sentimental Sundays :-)

Maggie's Crafts said...

Great creation!

Thank you for joining The Crafty Pad this week!

Maggie
x

Betty Wright said...

Marie, this is beautiful! Wonderful colors and detailing! Lovely card! Thanks so much for playing ODBD Stamping In Time!

Jacqui P said...

Really pretty card marie, thankyou for joining us this week at basicgrey
Hugs
Jacqui x

Anne said...

What an elegant card, colours work so well. Thank you for joining us and taking the Phindy’s Place Challenge, do hope you’ll join us again this Friday!
Hugs
Anne

Asia King (aka Joanna K) said...

What a lovely Easter card! Thank you for joining us at Sentimental Sundays :)

Caroljenks said...

Beautiful card and fab Top Tip too - thanks :)

Thanks for joining in with Top Tip Tuesday's 'Open Challenge' this week :)

Carol x

Donna Ellis said...

How pretty, Marie! The colors are so striking, making this Easter Card one of a kind!

Silke Ledlow said...

Marie, this is one beautiful Easter card! The image is so neat and the pearls make it look very classy!!! Wishing you a wonderful Easter weekend...hugs ~S~

Anne said...

Fantastic card! Thanks for dropping into OLL to share it with us. Hugs x

Megan Metcalf said...

Stunning card! Thanks for joining us at Delightful Challenges.