Cards for Church: What?

Part 2 of a series on Church Card Ministries

In yesterday's post, I discussed the two prongs of our church cardmaking ministry - for church use and for fundraising.  The cards for church use are fully explained in that post.  I am going to focus a little more on the fundraising side.

We maintain THREE card racks.

The racks are stocked as follows: (I am using "section" to indicate one column - so the brightest part of the card rack above, to the left side of the photo, is 2 sections.  I am only including this as an indicator of the relative proportions of the cards that we create. Our proportions have come about by watching "sales" and determining which cards go the quickest.)

• Birthday (3 sections)
• Kids (1 section) - includes birthday, congrats, proud of you, etc.
• Thank You (2 sections)
• Miscellaneous (2 sections)
• Sympathy (2 sections) FYI - this section can be difficult to maintain as it can sit for a long time with average "sales", but if somebody passes away in the congregation, the cards will all disappear.  It is a good idea to have a "stash" of sympathy cards.
• Thinking of You, Thoughts and Prayers (2 sections)
• Get Well (1 section)
• Wedding & Anniversary (1 sections)
• Baby, Pregnancy, Baby Shower (2 sections)

We also have the third rack, hiding in the back of the photo in the shadows, that we pull out for holidays or special church occasions:

• Valentines Day
• Easter
• Graduation
• Confirmation
• First Communion
• Mother's Day - this is a good time to remember the "donation" principle of the church card ministry.  It's heartwarming to see children put in a hard-earned quarter to buy a card for mom or dad!
• Father's Day
• Halloween - we keep these fun, not scary
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas - Be sure to have these out in early November or else people will already have purchased their cards.  It's actually not our bestselling type of card - so many people buy bulk cards or photo cards, but it would be strange NOT to do Christmas cards in a church card ministry

FYI: We often do a few special cards for some "minor" holidays and occasions, e.g. St. Patrick's Day, 4th of July, or Back to School.  It's also fun to do teacher thank you displays with cards and other fun things like hand-crafted post-it note holders.

The purchase of our cards is on the honor system.  We keep a lock box on a table next to our card racks.  You may want to carefully consider this.  I know of one church that has had their cardmaking money stolen twice.  So far, our lock box has stayed put.  We like keeping it out at all times because we have people drop by all week long for cards.

We request a donation of $3/card or 2 for $5.  I think this is probably underpriced for what you get, and I know a lot of the "buyers" agree as they will donate more than is requested.  So it all works out.  We don't scare away anyone by a high price, but we tend to average higher than the price.

Stay tuned this week for more details on the preparation for the ministry and for the actual event!

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Set 264 - Yuletide Bits and Borders

I wasn't going to do any Christmas cards this week because I am preparing for our monthly church cardmaking gathering and we did Christmas cards last month.  But, when the SplitCoast Color Challenge came up with River Rock, Real Red and Old Olive and I remembered the Stampin' Up Dashing dsp from a few years ago - all my Christmas stuff came back out!

Someday I am going to learn to photograph glitter.  The red glitter on the snowflake is super sparkly and is a great match to Real Red.  There is also a clear coating of glitter on the snowflake strip that you can't see at all!

The sketch for this card comes from Technostamper.  I really like her sketches.  They are fun without relying on bizarre shapes and angles or on a million layers. 

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Yuletide Bits and Borders
• Ink: Stampin' Up Old Olive, River Rock
• Paper: Stampin' Up Real Red, Old Olive, River Rock
• Accessories: Art Institute Christmas Red Glitter, Martha Stewart Crystal Fine Glitter, spray adhesive

Cards for Church: Why?

Part 1 of a series on Church Card Ministries

The vast majority of my cards go to our church card ministry.  It's a wonderful ministry to be involved with - it's the perfect excuse to spend way too much time in my craft corner!  In all seriousness...I am doing something that I love, for a church that I love.

It's also an excuse to make cards that I would never otherwise get to make (and, of course, to buy stamps for those cards).  For example, I have two boys - a teen and a tween - but for church, I get to play with girlie cards.  Also...my friends are way beyond child-bearing years (sorry ladies!), but for church, I get to play with baby stuff!

And I LOVE the fellowship time we share when we all get together to make our cards.  It's such a fun time, we even have people attend who are not members of our church!  We all come to make cards and get new ideas and techniques - all without any sales pressure as so often happens in home parties and store classes.

So those are the selfish reasons for a card ministry, but why do we have a church cardmaking ministry?

For church use:
Upon request, our church card group makes cards in bulk.  There are so many reasons that a church may want to send cards, including:

• Thank you for volunteers, e.g. Sunday School teachers
• Outreach, e.g. Thanksgiving food baskets
• Get well, thinking of you, etc. for church members and friends
• Special occasions, e.g. Graduating seniors, newly confirmed youth

A hand crafted card just adds that special caring touch for each of these occasions.

For fund-raising:
Our cardmaking group meets monthly to create a variety of our cards for our "sale" racks.

These racks are always open - people can buy all week long.  Amazingly, we have people who are not even part of our church drop by to stock up!  We do ask for a "donation" of $3/card or 2 for $5.

It's the ultimate ministry! 

• Cardmakers get to do something they love.
• The people buying them get a personal handcrafted work of "art".
• The people receiving the cards know they are loved and cared for. 
• All of this - and the church gets a donation!

Stay tuned throughout this week for complete details on how to start and run a church card ministry so you can consider starting one on your own!

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Set 263 - Stipple Celebrations



I have one card to share today.  I deliberately stepped away from scallops, flourishes, flowers and glitter today (although I still used a little ribbon) to be sure that we have a masculine card on our church card racks.

The sketch comes from Stamping 411.

The colors come from the color throwdown.

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Stipple Celebrations, Inkadinkado Expressions & Frames clear set
• Ink: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, So Saffron
• Paper: Stampin' Up black, white, Old Olive dsp
• Accessories: Spellbinders label die, Stampin' Up Black Gingham, Marvy Uchida corner punch

SCS Featured Stamper 199

Set 262 - Live Your Dreams

Today's featured stamper on SplitCoast Stampers has a fantastic gallery.  It is full of fairly simple cards, but with totally unique touches.

There were many cards that I favorited, but for today, I chose this wonderful butterfly.  Eventually I want to totally copy her beautiful orange butterfly- but I did have to change it up for this challenge.  I chose to focus on the sentiment hanging on the twine.

The vast majority of my cardmaking is for our church card ministry.  We have an active group of crafters that creates cards for the church's use and also creates cards to sell for fund-raising.  We raise hundreds of dollars each month - and simply by doing something that we love to do!!  Stay tuned this week for daily posts on church card ministries.

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Live Your Dreams
• Inks: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip markers
• Paper: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip
• Accessories: Stampin' Up ribbon punch, label punch, Martha Stewart baker's twine

"Tee-Hee" Birthdays

I do so many serious birthday cards - probably because I have so many flower/leaf/flourish type stamps.  But sometimes, I just have to focus on the fun!

Pretty on the outside, but...

Take a close look at the words
in the puzzle!!  Tee Hee!

The fun birthday stamps on all of these cards are from DRS Designs.  They also carry a wonderful variety of "serious" birthday sentiments.  Their inside sentiments are my "go to" stamps!


So Many Candles

The layout comes from Mojo Monday.

• Stamps: DRS Designs
• Ink: black
• Paper: Stampin' Up East Coast Prep dsp, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Wild Wasabi, PaperTrey Summer Sunrise
• Accessories: PaperTrey Summer Sunrise Twill, Quickutz birthday candle die

Sense of Wonder

The colors come from Inkspirations.

• Stamps: DRS Designs
• Ink: black
• Paper: Stampin' Up Pear Pizzazz, Rich Razzleberry, Tempting Turquoise, white
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Pear Pizzazz ribbon, rhinestones from Michaels, Cuttlebug embossing folder
• Copics: RV69, V09

Geriatric Puzzle

• Stamps: DRS Designs (I actually find the outside phrase, but the word search is there)
• Ink: PaperTrey Ripe Avocado
• Paper: PaperTrey Ripe Avocado, MME Out and About
• Accessories: Sizzix Movers and Shapers cupcake, Prima flower

Friday Focus: Shimmer Paint

Do you want some easy shimmer and shine on your projects?

Stampin' Up sells Shimmer Paints which are actually Tsukineko's All Purpose Ink.  You can find Tsukineko's paints all over the internet, with more colors, and significantly cheaper than Stampin' Up, but I have to say that Stampin' Up has selected three of the best colors!  I have created samples of cards using each of their paints in a variety of ways.  Have fun!!

FROST WHITE - a sheer wash of very sparkly color.

1. Apply on top of any color ink to make that ink sparkle!

I have previously published this card and instructions, but it is a fundamental technique to all of the following cards.  If you have seen this before...skip it and keep reading!

Here's how!

Shake the bottle well. Remove the cap and
apply a small amount to a sponge dauber.

First, ink your stamp with your chosen color,
then simply tap the dauber over the ink.
That small amount of paint will easily cover this stamp.

All the details on this card can be found in this post.

This technique of using a dauber to get paint from the cap of the bottle is used in virtually all the following techniques.

2. Paint on any colored cardstock to add sparkle.

The little turquoise bird is punched and then painted over with Frost White.

All details on this card can be found in this post.


3. Mix Frost White with Crystal Effects

Mix your Crystal Effects (or Ranger Glossy Accents) and a drop of Frost White in a separate pallette. It only takes a drop of Frost White.  Apply heavily to your stamped image with a paint brush.  You will get a more subtle shine instead of the glassy look.

4. Paint onto ribbon for a nice shine.

FYI - Tsukineko markets their All-Purpose Inks as fabric inks.

Edited to Add:

5. Faux Mother of Pearl -

Months after I put up this post, I found another fun technique - creating Faux Mother of Pearl.  Here's the card, details are here.

6. There is one thing that, in my opinion, does NOT work - painting onto white cardstock.  It doesn't stay sheer - it becomes almost gray.

CHAMPAGNE MIST - somewhere between a sheer wash of color and an opaque color.

1. Use on the edge of stamps or paper.

On this card, I inked the stamp and then daubed the Champagne Mist along the edge of the stamp (using the same techniques as outlined at the beginning of this post).

I also edged each cardstock layer with the paint:

2. Apply directly to a stamp for a subtle background.

I had intended to use the heart/flourish background stamp across an entire background but I did run into a problem.  I daubed the paint across the entire background stamp and then tried to stamp it.  Only half of the image stamp.  Apparently the first half had dried before I was ready to stamp.  I did try it again with a paintbrush and working very quickly - but the paintbrush leaves blobs of paint.  So, for this card, I simply cut out the stamped part and used it as an accent panel.

Also on this card, I inked the jar stamp with Crumb Cake and daubed the Champagne Mist on top just as I did on the cards in the Frost White section.


3. Painting directly on the paper.

I didn't get a card made with this technique, but I have a tidbit to share - the cardstock makes a big difference when you paint with Champagne Mist.

The bird on the left is Stampin' Up Whisper White cardstock which is semi-glossy.  The paint didn't stick so I got streaks and globs.  The bird on the left uses a different white cardstock which has some tooth to it and gives better coverage.


PLATINUM - shiny and opaque

This paint is VERY different from the first two.  It isn't sheer and sparkly, rather it is shiny and opaque.

1. Use on the edge of stamps

First I inked the stamp with Pacific Point, then I used a dauber to apply the Platinum paint to the edges.



2. Apply directly to the stamp - you get great silvery coverage.

All the details on this card can be found on this post.

In this case, I applied the paint only to the dove.

All the details on this card can be found on this post.


3. Paint onto chipboard.

This is an absolutely terrible picture because the card is actually white.  But I wanted to show you how much the Platinum paint shines and I don't have the photography skills to get the white AND the shine.  Sorry!

All the details on this card can be found on this post.



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I do hope that you have found some fun new ways to play with paint!!  I certainly had fun experimenting - now I am off to shower and wash my clothes due to the sparkles that cover me from eyebrows to jeans!

Some of the above cards were found in earlier posts and are linked to that post for the details.

Here are the details for the new cards:

Gently Falling with Crystal Effects - Set 257 for my goal of using all of my SU sets

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Gently Falling
• Inks: Stampin' Up Baja Breeze
• Paper: Stampin' Up Baja Breeze
• Accessories: Tsukineko Frost White, Ranger Glossy Accents, Martha Stewart snowflake border, Sizzix embossing folder (with a birthday set), Stampin' Up Whisper taffeta

Very Merry Shimmer Ribbon - Set 258 for my goal of using all of my SU sets

The layout for this card comes from Just Add Ink.

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Very Merry
• Inks: Memento black
• Paper: Stampin' Up Sage Shadow
• Accessories: Tsukineko Frost White, Stampin' Up white grosgrain, Stampin' Up embossing folder, Martha Stewart snowflake border punch
• Copics: RV91, RV93, YG93, YR00, B0000, E42, C00, Prismacolor brand PM-191 (matches sage)

Champagne Mist Ornaments - Set 259 for my goal of using all of my SU sets

The layout for this cards comes from clean & simple stamping.

The colors come from colourQ.

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Tree Trimming, "Joy" is from a Clear Dollar Stamps set of snowflakes
• Inks: Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Early Espresso
• Paper: Stampin' Up Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
• Accessories: Sizzix embossing folder, Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler seam binding, Nestabilities, Tsukineko Champagne Mist, misc gold brads.

Thanks from the Heart in Guava - set 260

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Thanks from the Heart, background stamp (old and unknown name)
• Inks: Stampin' Up Groovy Guava, Mellow Moss, Crumb Cake
• Paper: Stampin' Up Groovy Guava, Mellow Moss, Crumb Cake
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Mellow Moss Gingham, Tsukineko Champagne Mist

Pacific Point Snowflake - set 261

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Snowflakes, sentiment from Taylored Expressions
• Inks: Stampin' Up Pacific Point
• Paper: Stampin' Up Whisper White, Pacific Point
• Accessories: Tsukineko Platinum, misc silver ribbon, Stampin' Up punch, gemstone snowflake from Joann

Free Time on Thanksgiving

I had free time on Thanksgiving day because my husband does all the cooking!!

My children were very occupied with their video games as I allowed them more than their usual limited time.  (Apparently the necktie on my youngest is for good luck!)

So I wandered to my craft corner and in 15 minutes put together these fun little placecards.  They are nothing fancy, but the children at the table loved them!



I used Microsoft Word to create 3x3 text boxes. Then I typed each of our names in the bottom left corner.  I printed them up Stampin' Up More Mustard CS (to match my dishes).  I then die cut the turkeys, stamped the bodies in brown and the tails in a variety of colors (again to match my dishes).  A quick bow of baker's twine - and I had cheerful(?) little turkeys watching us eat!

Actually what I was really doing was trying to ignore my cats who spent the morning trying to catch a mouse in the family room where I was going to entertain my guests in the afternoon.  We live in the country....it happens.

• Stamps: PaperTrey Gobble, Gobble
• Ink: Stampin' Up Cajun Craze (I also used Concord Crush and Always Artichoke for other tails), PaperTrey Dark Chocolate
• Paper: Stampin' Up More Mustard
• Accessories: PaperTrey Dark Chocolate Baker's Twine

More Shimmer Paints

Be sure to check back later today for a complete Friday Focus on Shimmer Paints!

Here's a photo that highlights the silver paint.  I absolutely cannot get a photo that looks white AND shows the shine at the same time!

This layout is from this week's One-Layer Wednesday challenge which, this week, is found on the Styles Ink blog.  Jennifer pointed us to a very unique website of Christmas cards from which I selected this card.

The birds are done with a punch.  I used the negative to sponge the blue birds, then before I removed the stencil, I spritzed them with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl. 

The silver bird was punched out of the cardboard that comes with Stampin' Up designer paper packs.  (Be sure to keep this cardboard - it's a cheap way to gather thin cardboard for chipboard projects!)  Then I painted it with Shimmer Paint in Platinum.

The sentiment is from set 256 for my 2010 goal of making sure that all of my Stampin' Up sets see ink.

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Perfect Endings
• Ink: Stampin' Up Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue
• Paper: white, cardboard from Stampin' Up dsp paper packing for the punched bird
• Accessories: Tsukineko All-Purpose Paint Platinum (purchased from Stampin' Up), rhinestones from Michaels, McGill bird punch

Stressed to Desserts

Today's Free 4 All Friday Challenge on SplitCoast Stampers was "Just Desserts".

Somehow this sentiment seemed appropriate for today and the next few weeks!

• Stamps: Rubbernecker, the sentiment is computer generated
• Inks: Memento Black
• Paper: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade
• Accessories: Marvy Uchida snow marker (for the puffy whipped cream), Ranger Glossy Accents for the cherries:
• Copics: FYI - the colorless blender was used to draw the stripes in the ice cream bowl