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

Our Daily Bread Designs Stamping In Time:  On Assignment Challenge #32 – Easter

Basic Grey Challenge #42 – Easter/Spring

The Crafty Pad Challenge #117 – Easter

Creative Inspirations Challenge #57 – Easter

Delightful Sketches Challenges – Easter

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)