Agape LTC

Team Awesome Pants loves music and she is hosting another Praise and Worship LTC swap.  TAP made a CD of her favorite songs and asks participants to send her a number.  Then she sends the name of the track with that number and you make a LTC based on the song you got.

I participated in this swap last year and HERE is my blog post about it.

Again this year, I got a song that I didn't know.  It is really hard to make a card for a song that you have never heard before.  My song is, Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go.  I really struggled with an image to carve and ended up just looking for an interesting image of Jesus.

AGAPE: Track 2

I wanted to use old hymnal music for the background and I ordered some from Etsy.  While I was tearing the paper and gluing with the Matte Gel (under and over the papers) the princess realized that one of the songs was Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go.  Fun coincidence.

Once the glue was dry, I rubbed my Distress Inks & Oxides on my craft mat, sprayed with water, smeared my card thru, and let them dry.  Then I stamped my stamp on white tissue paper and glued that down with the Matte Gel.

I like how my cards turned out but I am disappointed that I couldn't find something that really fit the song. 

Joy LTC

This is my card for SpringChick's "Word of the Year" (WOTY) LTC swap.  I have never heard of WOTY but thought it would be fun.

As you can see my word is Joy.  I ordered handmade paper on Etsy and stamped my Joy on it.  I like the look of stitching around the edge of a card but felt like I didn't have time to do that.  I found these stitches cling stamps and used it to spruce up the card.  The handmade paper is glued to a scrapbook paper that looks old with some text and postage stamps.  I really like how they came out :)

Peacock Feather Snowflake LTC

All of my practice cards

I am participating in live4thepast's "Snowflake Flurries" LTC swap.  I started looking on Google for some kind of unique snowflake and found the peacock feathers.  I carved it up right away.  I knew I wanted to use Distress Inks for my background but I looked on Pinterest to narrow down the technique.  Then I found THIS.  It is beautiful and I had to try to copy it.

It took me forever to make this set of cards.  I don't think I have ever worked on one set for so long.  Tip of the day: don't work on a set of cards during Black Friday or other Christmas sales.  I ended up buying a lot of stuff with this card in mind.  I bought 2 Distress Oxide pads, ink daubers and case, a pad of Mixed Media paper, and the Tim Holtz drying tool.  The final card used none of these items.

Distress Ink on card stock

I started off rubbing Distress Inks on my craft mat, spraying with water, spreading my card thru the ink, and letting it dry.  I tried card stock, Bristol, and Mixed Media paper.  That didn't get the results I wanted.

I switched to rubbing the ink on the paper with felt and my new daubers.  I tried both inks and oxides on card stock, Bristol, and Mixed Media paper.  Again, I wasn't happy.   But I liked this better than the first try so I was going to stick with rubbing Distress Inks on card stock.

I decided that while I was working on this I would watch/listen to some Distress Ink videos on YouTube.  I guess I have never watched Tim Holtz use Distress Inks.  I just watch videos of other people using inks on their blogs.  The video was from 2008 and he rubbed the ink on his craft mat, sprayed with water, rubbed his card through the ink, dried the paper with his heat tool and tapped the card in the ink again, dried the card, and repeated the process until he was happy with the card.

Finished card, before the rhinestone 

I have never seen this with Distress Inks!  On the blogs I have only seen people rub the ink on the mat, spray with water, rub the card through, let then dry and they are done.  This 9.5 yo video was mind blowing.  So I tired this and was happier with the outcome.  I asked the Princess which background she liked best and this was the winner.

I stamped and embossed my stamp.  I also stamped the stamp around the edges and punched the corners.   At the last minute I decided to add a gold rhinestone.   I worked on this set of cards for two months and they are finally done!!