"And The Two Shall Be For One"

Hello February...the "love" month.   Also on the list:
American Heart Month; • An Affair to Remember Month • Black History Month
• Canned Food Month  • Creative Romance Month • Great American Pie Month
• National Cherry Month • National Children’s Dental Health Month • National Grapefruit Month
• National Weddings Month
You see, we have a lot to celebrate and do this month.

Today, February 1, 2016 is National Freedom Day.   National Freedom Day celebrates freedom from slavery, and recognizes that America is a symbol of freedom.   National Freedom Day was established in 1948 to remind us that America stands for, and is a symbol of freedom for all people. The roots of this special day come directly from the end of slavery and the signing of the 13th amendment outlawing slavery.

Celebrate this day by reflecting upon your own freedoms that you enjoy by being fortunate enough to be in America. Millions of people in the world are not free.

So much for history this morning my friends, followers, visitors and viewers. I had the freedom to craft in my room this morning and .....
I have two cards I'm sharing today that I made for the Outlawz challenges (Sunday and Monday).  The two cards shall become one post for the same website...did you get it?  See the title of this post.
If you didn't get it...it is okay.  We shall move on.

Our first card was made with Neenah white cardstock cut at 4.25  x  5.5;   black Recollection cardstock for the first mat adhered to the white cardstock, cut 1/8 inch less than the base; gold Recollection cardstock was the second mat cut 1/8 less than the black; pattern paper from DCWV The Heirloom stack was used for the focal mat.

To embellish this card, I used the Spellbinders book die to cut out the book shape and used a piece of scrap paper that had the word love somewhere on it.  I used my Cricut Explore to cut out gold wings and the dove from Design Space .  The Spellbinders Romantic vine die and heart die were also used . I copied and printed the scripture sentiment using my computer and printer.  This will be entered in:

 Monday Greetings Challenge GCC020116, Love is in the Air (Add something with wings)

Our next card was made using Neenah white cardstock cut the A2 length as above followed by a piece of black Recollection cardstock for the mat cut 1/8 inch less than the base.  The top mat, which is the focal area is a piece of Ranger watercolor paper.  Here is where the challenge directions took place.

Let's create our own background paper using inks, stamps, paints, watercolors, etc. The theme is up to you, just keep it CAS.

Okay, I pulled out the Tim Holtz's distress inks, a stamp, embossing powder and started on this project.   CAS means you have to leave a lot of  "white" or open space. I stamped the poppy image using clear embossing ink and then applied silver embossing powder over the top.  After masking the poppy,  I used the daubers ( scattered straw, mermaid lagoon, abandoned coral, spun sugar ) to ink a certain space around the image but did not apply too much pressure on the paper.  I wanted the look to remain soft so that the main focal image (the poppy) would stick out. I used a Faber Castell Pitt pen in black to write out "happy day".  The last embellishment that I used were five silver rhinestones.  I did not color the flower because I thought it looked elegant enough against the soft background.  This one is for:  CAS Challenge - January 31, 2016  at the Outlawz.

Thanks for your time and viewing today.  Be thankful that you have the freedom to enjoy life.  Maybe you can do a "two-fer" today.  I already know some of you have posted two cards as of this writing.

Sending you a hug and LOVE,

Lois