Winter green Tilda

Do you have 'happy' and 'sad' stamps? I've noticed when I'm sad I reach for my Tildas. I've been paper piecing four of them the last two days and it soothes something inside of me. I seem to pull them out when I'm feeling a bit blue.

This fits a sketch challenge at Just Magnolia. I bought this gorgeous, wide ribbon at Michael's a few weeks ago intending to help use it to dress up a Tilda and went searching for a sketch this morning that would suit it. I know it is awfully large, but such a rich ribbon. You can see the sketch challenge here.

I used PTI's Damask Designs on gold cardstock from Gina K's, embossed in gold with gold tinsel embossing powder, to try to match the nature of the ribbon. Tilda is paper pieces with a piece of SU DP, sorry, don't know the type. It has tiny red dots in it, so part of her sleeve is red. Martha Stewart branch punch in two types of gold paper for some of the embellishments. If you look at the sketch there are five graduated circles on it, I used roses with a jingle bell to make a large cluster since I didn't have a large jingle bell and the height would make it near impossible to mail this card if I did. Then I used different sizes of rhinestones for the two smallest circles.

So what are your New Year's traditions? When the kids were younger we used to sit down and make a list of all the things we were thankful for from the previous year and what we would be praying for in the year to come. Its hard to corral them now that most of them are so much older, but I find today a good day to reflect on the blessings of the past year and there are many. Thanks for looking and have a safe, happy and health new year!

New Year's Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge #19

Happy Sunday stampers! This card is up a bit late today. . . we were up late last night. Combine the fact that I was laboring under the delusion most of yesterday that it was Friday, with an emotional bubble that burst late in the evening, and you have a late post.

Anyway, this is for challenge #19 with Stampin' Sisters in Christ, and our lovely hostess this week is Lisa who has chosen the verse from Psalm 25:4-5, "Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior and my hope is in you all day long."

The challenge is to create a New Year's Card. Lisa tells us that as we embark on the new year, let all of our resolutions include focusing on God's word and teachings and following the path He has laid for us.

Our sponsor this week is the Cutting Cafe and they are donating any three digi sets to one lucky winner. Check out the main blog here for more details, or visit the Cutting Cafe here. The owner donated some new year's digi stamps to the entire design team and I had a favorite picked out right away, the verse on my card, do you see it? What a great resolution and I thought it fit in so nicely with Lisa's verse. Because God is love and following the path he has laid out for me means in part loving the people he has placed in my life, more, and deeply, each year that passes.

The new year is a great opportunity to practice that! The penguin is a Memory Box stamp and the paper is from Papertrey Ink. Thanks for looking. Happy stamping!

Inspirational Penguin PTI blog hop

My computer is refusing to hook up to the internet, and that is where my PTI blog hop logo resides, so here is my post for the hop from my husband's computer, I'll try to add the logo later if I can.

My inspiration is going to seem a bit odd, but here you go. My youngest daughter made a clay penguin in school that she brought home right before Christmas break. He has lived right next to the nativity set since then and when I'm not looking, she moves him right in front and center instead of by the sheep and the cows where I had placed him. Notice where he is in this photo.

This is significant because not only is he the cutest little penguin, she made sure the whole family got to enjoy the penguin she made. This is big news because my youngest child has RAD. I don't have time to explain all of what that entails, but we've had her home with us for five years (she is eight) and I am seeing significant progress with attachment this year -- this is one sign of it. And that is a great Christmas present.

So using the penguin as my inspiration, I chose the little owl from the newest PTI set Tiny Treats: Valentines because of his outstretched wings remind me of the penguin (plus he's a bird too). I am going to give this card to my littlest daughter. I've had this in my head for a while, I'm pretty pleased with the card that resulted. Thanks for looking and happy hopping. P.S. . . . Stole the layout from a card by Melissa Phillips.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my friends. Wishing you joy and peace this holiday season.

My favorite reference to Jesus is Emmanuel because it means "God with us." Christmas is the time when heaven reached down to earth to deliver to us a savior, who lived here, with us, part of us, because God loved us so much. I find such comfort and peace in that word, Emmanuel.

Looking forward to a new year of celebrating our Lord and to stamping with all of you! Big hugs!

Some Big Family News

Do you see my smiling daughter? Do you see her smiling with someone else? Tonight we have happy family news! My dear oldest daughter is engaged to a wonderful young man she has been dating for seven(?) years. He is a part of the family already and now it is just going to be official.

I will wait until someone with better photography skills than I possess can take a close up of the ring, it is gorgeous. But not as gorgeous to me as those two smiling faces.

The only one who is a bit sad is my youngest daughter, who is only eight and thinks this will take away her big sister, who is very, very special to her. She wants them to come live with us when they are married. :)

Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 18

Happy Sunday stampers! The week zips by so quickly sometimes, hard to believe we're so close to Christmas now! But the reminder is the wonderful story in scripture that our hostess Kathy chose for this week from Luke 1:26-32.

"In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary.

The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored? The Lord is with you."

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David." (NIV)

This week's challenge is a sketch challenge. If you want to see the layout check out the home page here, where you also can catch a glimpse of the beautiful samples from other members of the design team. Our sponsor is Scrapbook News and Review magazine, filled with great tips for not just scrapbook layouts but papercrafting in general. One lucky winner will get a three month subscription.

My friend Linda in Maryland kept talking about all the snow they are getting this weekend, so when I went to my stamp table on Friday I had snow on the brain. Here you have yet another blue, silver and white card. I promise, I do have other colors in my stash. The one deviation I made from the sketch is that I incorporated my three dots or three little specks in the right hand corner into my circle otherwise they wouldn't have worked. Thanks for looking and we hope you get a chance to play along!

Stamps: Verve snowflake set (sentiment), Stampin' Up Scandinavian Season

Ink: silver craft

Paper: PTI spring rain, Holly something flocked DP, PTI white, silver and shimmery white dp random

Other: rhinestones, silver tinsel EP, snowflake punch, paper lace, SU fancy brad, silver cord, Martha Stewart chunky glitter

Frosted Windowpanes . . . Stampin' Sisters in Christ #17

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ. This week's hostess is the talented Kristine, one of the challenge blog's founders. That makes her sound old or something . . ."founder." :) She's not!

Her verse this week is from Matthew 6:19-20 "Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal." And the challenge this week is to use 'treasures' on your card, gems, pearls, glitter, bling! Bling it up!

Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp. Any stamper who enters a card using bling is eligible to win the cutest little stamp set! I think I might create an anonymous account and enter to win it myself. :)

This card is blingy but you can tell I had winter on my mind because we have a good covering of snow and if you live where you get lots of snow you know all about the glitter it reflects when the sun is shining on it. Also, the other day my window in the kitchen was completed frosted over and I wondered if you could recreate that look in a card.

Not only does this card use a lot of bling or treasure, I also thought of what we as women so often treasure in our hearts . . . our homes. That's where our family is, that is where we hope to have love, togetherness, peace, rest and warmth. We will have all those things and more in our heavenly homes but I wish you all of that and more during this Christmas season.

So, for the card . . . I used Tim Holtz' distress crackle in Rock Candy for the first time a little over a week ago and I'm addicted. I think I need to get a gallon jug instead of the cute little bottle they sell . . . there has to be a gallon jug for refills somewhere.

I painted the crackle on a piece of acetate and pasted it in the opening of my card for my 'window.' In the close up you can tell that you really can see the scene on the inside of my shadowbox card, except when the light is reflecting directly off the crackle.

I stamped SU's backgrounder Fine Lace in white craft on white and embossed with white detail powder. Then stamped the wreath in silver and added silver tinsel embossing powder. Loaded it up with gems and stickles for my wreath's baubles.

I stamped the house from Stampin' Up's To You & Yours inking it in Brilliant Blue and then overinking with Not Quite Navy to tone it down. Then I toned it 'up' by using the dazzling diamond dust technique over the image. For that you press a versamark pad on your image, sprinkle with Irridescent Ice embossing powder and emboss. The whole thing sparkles amazingly, hard to capture in a photo. Stamped and added the sentiment, added a ribbon to complement the bling and voila! My winter scene. You are inside with your white wallpaper looking through the frosty window, framed by the wreath at your neighbor's house nearby, at twilight, which is why their house is blue. :) Thanks for looking, hope you're able to play along this week.

Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. This week's hostess is Ceal, who chose the verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

The challenge this week is to make a card or project using images of people such as children, men or women, to let someone know you are praying for them.

This is the same image I used in my last post, so a bit of an explanation is in order. We are redoing our kitchen and that's where I usually stamp. We're installing new cabinets and my husband is doing all the work himself. We've had no countertops or cabinets for two months now and we're moving closer to that happy day, slowly, but this weekend he's working on replacing drywall that had to be torn out to work on the pipes. Then it has to be taped and sanded. Then we paint. Then we start to put up new cabinets.

So everything that was IN the kitchen is now somewhere else in the house. There are very few places you can walk downstairs without stepping over a box of dishes or food items. And with the drywall installation there is dust over everything. Let me emphasize that . . . everything. So I used the items I had pulled out for my last project for this card, because any time I stamp I have to dig things out of boxes in the garage. It just makes stamping (and cooking) a bit of a challenge, but one day we'll all be put together again.

Back to the important stuff, Ceal's passage is a great reminder to us to spend some time in prayer this week. Did you know the bible contains 500 passages that refer to prayer? An important topic and one of our most accessible means of building a relationship with God. You can pray any time, anywhere. "If my people . . . humble themselves . . . " -- humility is the attitude to seek as you approach God when you pray. You can pray while driving in the car, while taking a walk . . . any time during the day, it isn't your external but your internal posture that matters. It is a good idea to have a quiet place in your home to pray, to get down on your knees, but prayer isn't limited to a time, location or physical position, so try to find yourself in prayer more often than not this week.

When I'm stumped over how to use an image, I always find a good sketch will help clear the roadblocks. I had all these pieces of things that I wanted to use, so I went to Priscilla Styles blog to look up this week's sketch challenge. The sketch for this week helped me out tremendously. You'll find the challenge for sketch #30 here. I turned the sketch on its side and moved the position of the little 'circle' in the sketch to be my sentiment. The image is double layered. I stamped the angel twice and embossed the frame in the frame in the bottom layer with irridescent ice EP. The whole card sparkles quite a bit IRL. Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Magenta, Clear Dollar Stamps (sentiment)

Ink: Distress inks in Faded Jeans, Broken China, Concord Grape, Weathered Wood, black craft

Paper: PTI white, SU shimmer white, black, PTI Spring Rain

Other: Rock Candy crackle distress paint, pearls, snowflakes, irridescent ice EP, rhinestone, prismacolor pencils, snowflake cuttlebug embossing folder, dazzling diamonds glitter

Tim Holtz 12 Days of Tags -- Day one

I know I'm a bit behind the times with posting my first tag for Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas. You can find his gorgeous creations here. I understand he is getting tens of thousands of hits every day. This is the third year he is presenting Christmas tags for twelve days. Today is day four I believe, but I just finished up my tags for day one.

I used distress inks in Faded Jeans, Broken China, Weathered Wood and Concord Grape. I use wax paper for the misting technique, it works just as well I think, as any other extremely smooth surface, when you're done, just crumple it up and toss it away. This is the first time I've used the distress crackle paint, kind of cool! I like it. However, I took his instructions too literally and really spread the stuff on thick for my first tag attempt and the paper could not hold that much moisture, it curled up and couldn't be salvaged. I wouldn't say spread it on like frosting, I'd say spread it on with a generous hand but don't make the layer too thick.

I didn't have a snowman image to use, as was illustrated in day one's example, but I like the Magnolia image with these color. I embossed it in black first, spread a bit of white over the entire image, then colored in lightly a shadow on the wings and the skin and face with prismacolor pencils. Then I overlaid frosted lace stickles on the wings. I also used the frosted lace stickles for the icicles at the top of the tag. Used grungeboard pieces painted with Stampin' Up's new platinum paint. The flourishes and snowflakes in the background on both tags were made using an Inkadinkado set.

Second tag I chose these Impression Obsession candy piece. Its a nice, large stamp and suits a tag pretty well I think. What I liked about making these tags is that you can think outside the boundaries of your paper, it expands your space, you're not mailing it like you would a card that has to squeeze into an envelope. For the candy, I also didn't choose to leave the images starkly black and white, but colored the candy pieces with two different shades of blue of Twinkling H20s, put on a fine layer of glue and then SU's dazzling diamond glitter. The snowflake embellishments are clear plastic, I think I bought the pack at Michael's two years ago. The 'joy' sentiment is from Papertrey Ink Believe, stamped in silver craft ink and embossed with silver tinsel EP. I notched the edges of the black paper and then brushed the edges with a silver gel pen. Thanks for looking.

Come Bearing Gifts

Happy Sunday stampers! Its time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. This week's hostess is Randi, and she selected this verse from Matthew 2:11 "After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother and they fell to the ground and worshipped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh." and a companion set of verses from Matthew 7:7-11 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give what is good to those who ask it."

The challenge is to make a project or card that includes an image of gifts or giving gifts somewhere in it.

Coincidentally, it also happens to be Lisa's birthday!!! Happy birthday Lisa! For my card then, I chose the only set I own that has birthday gift style images, an old Stampin' Up set called Something to Celebrate. I hope Lisa gets some nice gifts today on her special day.

Our sponsor at Stampin' Sisters in Christ this week is La La Land Crafts, they have some cute images to give away, check out the home page of the blog and take a look.

Another of Lisa's loves, besides paper crafting, is quilting. We consider all of the paper crafters who join us every week in our challenge part of our circle of friends and I searched the web to find a friendship quilt to post in honor of Lisa's birthday.

I found the quilt at the top of the post on a web site called www.scarlettrose.com/heartcircle.html. I believe it was a quilt stitched with blocks exchanged internationally between Japanese and American quilters. Isn't it gorgeous? I think the image might be under copyright, so after today I'm taking it down, but I liked the hearts used to create floral type circles . . . hearts, flowers, friendship, color . . . what can beat that? For the next 'gift' for Lisa on this combination challenge/birthday blog hop, visit Randi's blog here.

As far as the verse selected . . . I can remember as a kid at Christmas being much more excited about the large boxes that sometimes accompanied the gifts than the gift itself. Anyone remember Cuddly Duddly? The large dog? I received one when I was small that came in a cardboard car that was . . .ta dah! Large enough for me or my brother to sit in! We destroyed that car three or four days I believe, pushing each other around the living room. The stuffed dog is also long gone.

While nothing diminishes the pleasurable memories of those gifts, they were not permanent. Well-loved stuffed animals don't have a long lifespan. There is one gift, though, with an eternal promise, the gift of salvation offered through faith in and acceptance of Jesus Christ. The baby in the manger didn't come to this world so we could arrange family gatherings, fill our tables with special meals or give each other gifts, however nice those traditions might be. The entirety of the Old Testament is leading up to that special moment when heaven opened up and God sent down his only son to be our savior.

There is a lovely song by one of my favorite artists, Chris Rice, that blends our world's need for a savior with a welcome to this precious baby in the manger. This Christmas season, or any time of year, welcoming Jesus into your heart is the best gift you can give to yourself.

Here is a link to a site on the Chris Rice web site where you can listen to a clip from this song, Welcome to Our World:

http://www.chrisrice.com/music.php?id=6

A fun blog questionnaire

Don't you love making new friends through stamping and the internet? One of my new friends is Lisa Hjulberg, one of the senior design team members at Stampin' Sisters in Christ. She passed along this fun blog award today. The idea behind it is there is a questionnaire that you have to answer using only one word. Then you pass it along to a few other friends. So we'll take a shot at this using only one word . . .

1. Where is your mobile? Pocket

2. Your hair? darker

3. Your Mother? hampshire

4. Your Father? missed

5. Your favorite food? chocolate

6. Your Dream last night? forgot

7. Your Favorite Drink? pepsi (diet)

8. Your Dream? stamping

9. What room are you in? living

10. Your Hobby? stamping

11. Fear? snakes

12. Where do you want to be in 5 years? mountains

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something that you aren't? finished

15. Muffins? can't

16. Wish List Item? patience

17. Where did you grow up? DesPlaines, IL

18. Last thing you did? dinner

19. What are you wearing? jeans

20. Your TV? off

21. Pets? yes

22. Friends? smooches!!!!

23. Mood? relaxed

24. Life? content

25. Missing someone? Dad

26. Vehicle? varies

27. Something you're not wearing? coat

28. Favorite store? online

29. Favorite Color? pink

30. When was last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? today (yes, I know the answers to those last two questions are the same, can we all say 'hormones?')

32. Best Friend? hubby

33. One place that I go to over n' over? computer

34. Facebook? no

35. Favorite place to eat? home

Okay, now to pass along this award. I choose Traci Major, Beth Hartley, Belinda, Cheryl and Schirmy! It is always hard to choose just a few friends, but with the circles of friends that develop online, I think it will be passed along in no time at all to many others.

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop for November

Happy November blog hopping! This has got to be one of the world's worst photos, but it is rainy and gray outside and I cannot get a good picture to save my life.

A very small contribution to the blog hop, this is from the set 'Believe.' For this hop we were to show altered wrapping paper, packages or tags. I chose tags as the simplest item during a very busy week.

I embossed the tree in gold and in silver. One gold tree uses green highlights with some randomly scattered rhinestones. The red tree has one cluster of red rhinestones in the center flower. The silver tree also uses red as a foil and I kept the star at the top gold for a bit of metallic contrast. These are pretty simple tags that you could add to a package. Thanks for looking. Happy hopping.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Believe

Ink: Gold and silver pigment inks

Other: copic markers in red and green, red and green rhinestones, gold and silver twinkle embossing powder.

A thankful heart

Happy Sunday stampers! Our hostess for today's challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ is Helen, who selected an appropriate verse for this week from Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." I hope your Thanksgiving week is a harvest of memories with family and friends.

The challenge for the week is to make a card or project to help celebrate Thanksgiving, or you can create a simple thank you card. Our sponsor this week is Our Daily Bread Designs, check out the main blog here to see what you can win for playing along.

That's an interesting verse and I'm glad Helen selected it. There's a lot of food for thought in that verse. "Let us not become weary," that first part kind of ties into a devotional I read this week on Women to Women Sharing Jesus about authenticity. So many times we can pretend we have it all together, that we're super mom, super church goer, super do-gooder. I'd like to remove my cape . . . I'm not super at any of those things. I'm just someone who is trying and with the help of the Lord, I'll keep putting one foot in front of the other and continue to try. God knew we would have seasons of great energy but also seasons of weariness and that's the reason for the exhortation. Keep going! Don't give up! And it is an encouragement linked to a promise that at the right time in the right season, there will be a harvest.

One of the mindsets that can help you continue to run the race, when the harvest isn't even in sight, is a spirit of thankfulness. When you sit down to count your blessings, all the worries and weariness kind of gets crowded out of your head. The very fact that I can type this message means I have eyes that can see, fingers that move, a brain that can think and a computer to use to share these words and pictures. I'm thankful for the gift of my faith, my family, my friends, and more numerous things than I can mention. I'm sure you all are too. So a very happy Thanksgiving to all my buddies in blog land. Let's keep on creating and keep on encouraging one another. Thanks for all the encouragement you give to me, I do appreciate it so much.

Stamps: Memory Box wreath, thank you sentiment from ?

Ink: Gold craft

Paper: vanilla, various DP

Other: gold twinkle EP, ribbon, rhinestones

Mom's gift set

This gift set is for my mom. I used one of Lauren Meader's templates from Papertrey Ink and the notebook cover template designed by Nichole. The set includes the box, a set of eight notecards (charmingly posed sideways, don't ask how that happened, I don't know how to fix it) and a notepad for making grocery lists. I found a pair of comfy socks in almost the same colors as the cardstock that fits in the back panel. My mom is a regular patron at Hallmark. We'll give monogram notecards a try and see how these go over.

I used vanilla or cream, Spring Rain, Chocolate and gold craft ink with twinkling gold embossing powder. For the tone on tone blue I used Versamark frost. The set uses Take Note, Green Thumb, Fresh Alphabet, Guidelines Two and Simply Stationery. On the notebook cover I used the small flowery poof and on the box I used the larger size one from Green Thumb.

The butterflies are punched out using the Martha Stewart butterfly cluster punch. Note: I would recommend the number of butterflies used to decorate the box be directly proportionate to the number of times you smudge ink on it. Not that I would personally have any knowledge of that.

During the last product release, Nichole had a great tip for using sticky tape with glitter. A friend gave me a huge bottle of chunky Martha Stewart glitter which I haven't used yet, but this was the perfect project to try it out and I think it adds a lot. Hard to see it on the notecards, but what I did there and on the notebook cover was stamp the green thumb poofy flower around the edges using the versamark Frost ink and then centered the monogram.

No More Darkness Only Light

Happy Sunday stampers! This week it is my turn to play hostess for the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge.

You can travel back to the Stampin' Sisters in Christ main blog here to see all the wonderful creations by the talented design team.

The verse I chose is 1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV) "For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. "

Years ago I worked in downtown Chicago, commuting in from the suburbs on the elevated train, or the El as it is called locally. During my commute, we started above ground, progressed to level with the ground and then traveled underground, through tunnels. As the light source changed, so did the view of my fellow passengers. When you're outside, in the sunlight, the large train windows give you a grand view of the outdoors. In a tunnel, with no outside light source, the interior train lights cause you to see a reflection in the opposite window of yourself and the people around you. It is as though you're looking in a mirror but one with a the dark train walls as background, resulting in fuzzy images and muted colors.

I would often think of the verse from Corinthians, "For now we see through a glass darkly" while I watched the shifting shapes caused by the train's passage through tunnels and sunlight. Obviously I could see the person next to me in full color, 3-D, if I turned my head. That dim reflection in the trains' windows did not diminish their reality, it was simply my view at the time.

Our view of God in this life is veiled; we can't see Him clearly. But just because our view is dim, doesn't diminish His reality or His glory. When we get to heaven, we won't be looking through a dark glass or catching a brief glimpse in a mirror, we will see Jesus face to face. We will know Him and He will truly know us, as no being knows us here on the earth. We will see God's glory revealed in all of its indescribable splendor and majesty. How wonderful! I don't know about you, but I am really looking forward to that.

My stamping challenge related to that verse then, involves one of my favorite techniques or layouts, the shadowbox card. No more shadows, no more dim reflections when we get to heaven!

For your card you can use any theme, any colors, any images you like. I chose a saying from Sweet and Sassy stamps paired up with a Christmas set from Papertrey Ink.

First I stamped the Night of Navy cardstock in navy with the Belle Toile background, then used the star and swirl from PTI's Silent Night set in gold craft with gold tinsel EP. I cut out a few stars from gold moire DP. The sentiment is stamped on a piece of Graphic 45 DP in chocolate ink from PTI. I sponged around the edges of the sentiment so the words would pop a bit more and traced around the word 'light' with gold stickles.

I really enjoy making shadowbox cards, hope you get a chance to play this week too. For a good tutorial on their construction, check out this link to the resource section on SCS.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week, Layers of Color. They are offering a gorgeous set of butterfly stamps to one lucky winner, have a look on the SSCC blog home page.

I am also participating in two blog hops this weekend. The first is one post down, contributions for Operation Write Home and the second is for a faith challenge blog hop, two posts down. Thanks for looking and have a blessed week!

Hopping for Heroes

Welcome to this stop on the Operation Write Home blog hop. You should have arrived here from Celeste's blog here. If you didn't start at the beginning of the hop, or you need an explanation of the purpose and goals of Operation Write Home, please click on the Own Home Front link. They welcome handmade cards of all types for our nation's heroes serving in our country's military and your cards are welcome too. For today's hop I have two cards for Any Hero, to thank them for their service to our country and a Valentine's Day card for a service member to use to send home to their favorite sweetheart. From my blog, you will travel to see Karen's creations, her link is at the bottom of this post.

For the top two cards, I made a sheet of polished stone, using gold craft, Brilliant Blue and Riding Hood Red dye ink. You can use just pieces of a polished stone sheet to accent a card.

The card on top uses Papertrey Ink's Quilter's Sampler. I like a versatile set that suits almost any occasion, depending on the colors and layout you choose. I alternated a white shimmery paper with the polished stone, punched out some stars using a cuttlebug die. The sentiment is from PTI's button bits set.

For the second card I traced a star and used it as a template to cut them out of the polished stone paper, mounted them on gold moire and pierced around them. The white swirly paper was just a fancy sheet I bought once at Archiver's and finally used.

The third card is for Valentine's Day. If you would like to make Valentine's Day cards for the service members to use to write home to loved ones, the deadline for receipt of these cards is January 8th. For that card I used a Crafty Secrets set called 'Cherish,' embossed in gold. Then I used some of the newer SU shimmer paint in champagne but mixed in a droplet of Pretty in Pink reinker to get a slightly pink tone, painted on vanilla cardstock. I embossed the Manhattan Die on vanilla, mounted the pieces on Pink Pirouette and paired it up with prima roses dipped in champagne shimmer paint, some PTI buttons and blush ribbon.

I don't know anyone personally that is serving in the military, however I am a first generation immigrant and heard enough stories from my dad about living in a repressive society to really appreciate the freedoms we have in this country. Freedom doesn't come without sacrifice, and a handmade card is such a small way to show our appreciation. Many thanks to all who serve and to their families.

Thanks for looking, enjoy hopping and Operation Write Home looks forward to receiving your cards for heroes.

For the next stop on this blog hop you will want to visit Karen's blog here. She has such a pretty smile and a fine stamping talent, check out her skills with Tombow markers.

Friends of Faith blog hop

Welcome to my contribution for the Friends of Faith blog hop! And if you're just popping in and missed the beginning, you should start off here, or go to the Stampin' Sisters in Christ blog for the link to the next entry. There are lots of prizes and fabulous artwork to view on this hop, so you don't want to miss a single post!

This hop is sponsored by the Scrapbook News and Review Magazine's A Faith Perspective and the theme is: Thankful for Friends of Faith Blog Hop. Today, we're out in force on the internet -- showing our faith and giving the glory to God.

The verse that this hop is based upon is from Ecc 4:9-10a "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up."

If you did stop here, I should say I am not participating individually in the hop, but as part of the Stampin' Sisters in Christ blog, so you need to go there to follow along properly with the hop. That being said, there are some cool hop sponsors, like Layers of Color Stamps, Gina K Designs and Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Together with Scrapbook News and Review Magazine, these companies have donated some wonderful prizes for today's blog hop.

For my card I started off with this cute digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil. I so often just make 'girl' cards I thought I'd try my hand at a boy card. I think a beautiful expression of friendship can be between siblings. My three older kids are very close to each other; they can confide in one another, they keep each other accountable in their Christian walk and they help each other through tough times. Here you have an older brother reading a book to baby . . . boy? Girl? Doesn't matter really, they are spending time with each other, building their friendship.

I am participating in another hop on Saturday, for Operation Write Home, so if you click on my general blog link, you can see that post as well, just above this one. Thanks for stopping by.

Stamps: Mo's Digital Pencil

Paper: Doodlebug Designs, Neenah Solar White, SU cocoa

Other: prismacolor pencils and gamsol, froggie eyelets, PTI new leaf and aqua buttons, twine

Operation Write Home

Happy Sunday stampers! This week's challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ is hostessed by Candace who chose the verse from John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Jesus laid his life down to save us from our sins, to give us eternal life in heaven.

Our American armed forces lay down their lives every day to ensure we have freedom in our country. Their sacrifice was demonstrated in a heart breaking manner this week in Texas at Fort Hood. We can thank them in a tangible way using our skills as card makers, putting our hearts into our creations. This week's challenge then, is to support Operation Write Home.

The mission of Operation Write Home (formerly known as Cards for Heroes) is to support our nation's armed forces by sending blank (handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

The challenge for this week is to make a patriotic-themed card for a soldier and as a bonus, donate it to Operation Write Home, so that a soldier may be encouraged by your words of thanks. Write a special message of gratitude on the inside and sign your name. They will be distributed to soldiers who rarely get mail, or just need encouragement. Be sure to put your card in an envelope and write “Any Hero” on the front. For more information on how to make a card for “Any Hero” click here (http://www.owhhomefrontblog.org/2009/09/anyhero-cards-q.html).

Please note that it is not required to donate your card in order to participate in the challenge. However, I do encourage it!

THE EXTRA CHALLENGE

OWH also collects blank greeting cards (any theme) that soldiers may send home to loved ones. For example: birthday, thinking of you, hello, etc. Various holiday cards are also needed. According to the OWH website, “miss you” and “love you” cards are most requested by the soldiers. To read more about card themes needed, click here http://www.owhhomefrontblog.org/2009/03/card-themeswhat-needed-most.html.

There are some rules about what you can and cannot use, for their safety's sake . . . for instance, no glitter! We don't want a speck of something shiny making our armed forces a target and visible at night. Also, standard A2 size cards are preferred. You don't have to include an envelope with an A2 card if you don't have any. However if you do choose to send a square card, please include a corresponding square-sized envelope for that card. Donations are always accepted to help pay for the postage required to send these packages to our brave men and women. So if you can slip in a dollar or two or five with your card, it is gratefully accepted.

One thing you CAN do . . .which made me happy personally . . .is you don't have to worry about bumps and lumps! Use those buttons! Make a pretty bow! The armed forces, when they send cards home to their loved ones, don't have to pay that extra postage for a lumpy card. :) I love ribbons, bows and buttons!

Candace has volunteered to collect the cards sent to her and mail them in a bundle to OWH. The link for her blog is here.

If you notice on my sidebar there are a few upcoming blog hops. One of them I will be participating in next Saturday and that is for Operation Write Home. You can sign up to be part of that blog hop too, it isn't too late, or just go blurfing next Saturday to see some awesome artwork and have a chance to win some great prizes.

Speaking of prizes, our sponsor at Stampin' Sisters in Christ this week is Paper Pretties. Thank you for donating that lovely stamp set which one lucky winner will receive for posting their creation on the SSCC blog. Thanks for looking.

ETA: My recipe . . . one of my friends thought I used Roses in Winter . . . I never could get the hang of two-step stamping, so I had that set at one time and gave it to a more deserving home!

Stamps: Penny Black 'the heart of the rose'

Paper: Neenah solar white, SU real red, brilliant blue, glossy white

Other: black craft ink, clear EP, sponge, red and blue inks, cuttlebug swiss dots folder, blue ribbon, post it notes for masking

While I've Been Dreamin' You've Been Singing Over Me

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from the Stampin' Sisters in Christ.

This week's hostess is Pamela and she selected Deuteronomy 31:8 "The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged." The challenge is to create a project, scrapbook page or card, to remind yourself or others that when God is unseen, it doesn't mean that He isn't there, He is always with you.

Scripture points to other scripture and when I read the challenge three things combined to help create my project. First, the verse that came to my mind to coincide with Deuteronomy and the challenge was 1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you."

Then I saw this little digital angel by Mo's Digital Pencil, sleeping so peacefully, without a care in the world and it seemed to exemplify trust -- he doesn't look a bit afraid, does he? And the third thing that came to mind was one of my favorite songs by an artist called Chris Rice called "Smellin' Coffee." I can't find a track to link for you to listen to, but one verse in that song says,

"I remember reading you're the God who never sleeps;

while I've been dreaming you've been singing over me, yeah,

Singing about my freedom waking me up to hear your song,

Now I can't dance hard enough, cuz yesterday is gone, gone, gone . . . "

All these combine to remind me that God is always there, even when I'm asleep or dreaming, whether I see Him or not. God is aware, He is in control and He cares for me. We can have peace in our lives if we truly do cast all of our cares upon Him. He goes before us . . . what a wonderful thought! Before tomorrow comes, God has already been there, He already knows what is going to happen and He will be there to guide us through it if we trust Him.

Almost forgot to add we have Cornish Heritage Farms as our sponsor this week and if you look at the main challenge blog there is a great prize you can win for playing along.

To frame my little angel I chose the sketch challenge this week from the Midnight Madness blog, which you can find here. My mind always seems to work better with stamping when it is 'organized' with a sketch. If I have a layout, I can think better, if that makes sense? And I had a lot of fun cutting into some paper scraps I had been hoarding, little bits and pieces of flocked Heidi Grace paper that I was saving for . . . I don't know what . . . this card I guess! I was leery of digital images, I usually like to watercolor, but I was brave and pulled out my prismacolor pencils and gamsol and I'm pretty pleased, seems to work well. Thanks for looking, hope you get a chance to play with your ink and stamps this week.

Stamps: Mo's Digital Pencil, computer generated scripture (Edwardian Script font, 18 pt type)

Cardstock: Neenah Solar white, silver, scraps of Heidi Grace flocked paper and other bits and pieces from my scrap drawer, white shimmer, blue shimmer

Accessories: prismacolor pencils, gamsol, SU dazzling diamonds glitter, rhinestones, silver ribbon, vanilla hardware, pearls, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, random star punch, petite scalloped circle nestabilities

Happy Halloween

So these two images don't seem to go together and they don't. :) My daughter wanted me to put up a photo of her with her pumpkin on my blog, so here she is with her creation. (She drew the face on paper, adults wielded the sharp carving knives!) And I was pleased to find portions of Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown online so she got to watch that for the first time last night. Neat to see all the portions that are usually cut when it is squeezed into a half hour TV timeslot with too many commercials. I like commercial free viewing!

And for the second photo, a friend asked me how a pair of socks are coming along that I am knitting for another friend to give to her SIL for Christmas. She chose the sock yarn, Lornas Laces bittersweet I think is the color. One is done except for the kitchener stitch to close up the toe and the other is coming along nicely. Hope you have a great Saturday!

Finished gift, finally!

I finally finished the gift set for my SIL for Christmas that I had posted as a 'partial' for the blog hop the other night. I hope to make more of these for my other SILs and a few other people on my list, in different colors. :) The other night, the notepad still needed more embellishments, I hadn't made the notecards or the tea holder yet. What do you think? Too many dew drops on the tea holder? There are six notecards with envelopes in the holder, too few? Add a pen? What would you do differently? Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Take Note, Tea for Two, Fresh Alphabet, Simply Stationery, Damask Designs

Paper: PTI white, New Leaf, SU Pink Pirouette and DP

Ink: PTI New Leaf, Hibiscus, SU Going Gray, Black Stazon

Accessories: punches, nestabilities, decorative scissors, PTI buttons, ribbon, dewdrops

Templates: Lauren Meader's Recipe Wrap-Up, From the Desk Of, Nichole Heady's notebook cover

Autumn Card Swap

I don't participate in card swaps much. As you get older you realize how precious your time is, you only get so much of it! And I want to spend my time making gifts and cards for friends and family who appreciate it, to show my love for them.

There is one set of swappers that I 'play' with and that is a joint swap between the dorks and PSFers. :) We do two to three swaps a year.

I know there has been some confusion about this but yes, I have a group of online friends who chat together and we do call each other dorks, that's something we have in common! If folks are honest, they'd admit that we all do dorky things once in a while!

And we made friends with another online group of chatters, the PSF gals, who have that acronym because I believe one of the gals' kids asked her while on the computer one time, if she was talking to her "pretend stamping friends." That always makes me smile to think of it, all these folks who make cards and leave comments . . . are they really real? I've met some in person so I can testify they are! I think I hold the honor of meeting the most dorks, including Karen, the queen!

Beth started the first swap and now we've had different hostesses. The latest hostess was Pam (a PSFer) who ran a Fall-themed swap. And now that the cards have gone postal, I can put mine up on my blog.

I wanted to keep this card relatively simple. I used a leaf from an Inkadinkado set stamped using a combination of two Kaleidacolor pads, Cappuccino and Desert Heat. I cut out the panels and edged them with a Martha Stewart glitter to match one of the tones in the ink. Overstamped the leaves with a Northwoods sentiment embossed in gold. I colored white pearls with a walnut copic marker to match one of the brown tones and found this luscious satin ribbon at Mike's. I believe the PTI button in the center is melon, but it could be Summer Sunrise (I can't remember anymore) tied with copper cording. Paper is white confetti.

Thanks for looking!

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop!

The other day I was telling the kids about Saturday Night Live, the 'not yet ready for prime time players,' because they didn't know Second City began in Chicago. What does that have to do with the blog hop? Here you see a 'not quite ready to post' project but I wanted to play in the hop, so this is my work in progress. We had a water pipe break in the kitchen today, spraying everywhere and leaking buckets which I had to empty while DH went to the hardware store twice to get the items needed to fix it. We still have no water. So I had this idea in mind, but not enough time this weekend to finish.

This is a gift for my SIL for the holidays. Not very holidayish in color scheme, but I wanted something feminine. I love Mish's new Take Note set, and just picture this with a few more embellishments and Lauren's lovely 'From the Desk of' template set filled with notecards and a nice bottle of hand lotion from Bath & Body Works. I'll post again when its finished!

I have a different post right below this one with a completed project that I made for my daughter, a notebook inspired by Melissa Phillips lovely work. Thanks for stopping by, sorry I'm not done!

Stamps: Take Note Papertrey Ink
Templates: From the Desk of, and Notepad (one by Lauren, one by Nichole from PTI)

Papers: Stampin Up DP

Ink: Hibiscus and Green Leaf PTI

PTI buttons

Giving Thanks . . . in soft pink

Happy Sunday stampers! Its time for a new challenge from the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge blog. This week's hostess is Laurie! (a recent birthday girl) and the verse she has selected is I Chronicles 16:34 "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Our challenge is to make a card or project that expresses your thankfulness for someone or something they have done, or to make a card that encourages someone to be thankful.

And our sponsor this week is Rubber Stamp Shack. Be sure to check out the main blog here to catch a glimpse of what you might win. Also you don't want to miss seeing what the rest of the design team has created for this challenge, I think it gets better week after week!

My project uses one of the new notepads that Papertrey Ink just issued with their latest release. So handy for so many things! What you are seeing is the notebook cover, when you untie the ribbon on the side, it opens. My daughter is a faithful journaler as she reads her bible each morning. I watched her settle into her quiet time each morning before work when she was home from college this summer.

I know that one area in our lives that can always use a little encouragement is a reminder of what God has done for us, so I made her this little thankfulness journal/notepad so when she sits with her bible in the morning or goes to bed at night, she can jot down the precious gifts God has blessed her with that day or recently. I tried to make it as pretty and feminine as my lovely daughter is, and received a lot of inspiration from the Papertrey Ink designers and one in particular, Melissa Phillips. Check out her blog here.

We've had such rainy weather here lately, the photo is a bit dark, hard to get a good image when its all gray outside! We had one nice weather window this afternoon and took advantage of it to have a wonderful time at a local apple orchard. We came home with a half bushel of all different types of apples and three pumpkins.

The star is glitter covered chipboard, the scallops from a Martha Stewart punch on a shimmery vellum that overlays the music stamped BG. I used Tim Holtz antique linen ink for a soft, vintage look, not to mention DD is an elementary ed music major. The DP is from SU, but it matches perfectly with the blush ribbon from PTI.

The chiffon flower is handmade, there was a great tutorial on Priscialla Styles blog a bit over a month ago, you'll find the instructions here. I dyed the chiffon with Pink Pirouette ink and because the chiffon is so light and airy, you get a lighter shade of color when you dye it so again, it matches the ribbon nicely. A nice trick is to edge the chiffon with a bit of stickles for some extra shimmer, I think I used lacy white (?) stickles on this flower. I have two strips of PTI white velvet ribbon there as well, some pearls and a sentiment and some flourishes from the Stampin' Up set Elegant Notes. The little border around the pink paper is from a new PTI set, Take Note, helps frame things nicely. Thanks for looking and we hope you get a chance to participate in this week's challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ.

Virtual Stamp Night -- Preparing in the Okiya

On splitcoaststampers we're celebrating a VSN mini, or virtual stamp night mini, with five challenges to get your appetites whetted for the big weekend November 14-15 (I hope I have the dates right).

The theme for this VSN is masquerade, and each challenge had to fit in with that theme somehow. We also have 'masked' messages, so inbetween the <> marks below, see if you can figure out the secret. :)

I am one of the hostesses for a mini this evening and here are the details for my challenge:

One of the best books I've read in the last decade was Memoirs of a Geisha. Always hard to believe that it wasn't actually a biographical novel, but fiction. The geisha or maiko in the book spend a good deal of time preparing every evening for their work entertaining clients in the city's tea houses.

Their visual appearance is striking--the elaborate hairstyle, the gorgeous kimono and the white makeup that covers the entire face and most of the neck. The white makeup is all part of the costume, a mask of a sort that doesn't conceal the personality beneath.

The challenge to you this evening is to create a card that wears a mask, one that enhances the main image without hiding it, an accent.

You will need acetate and white craft ink. If you're very careful you can use your heat gun to speed up the drying time on the white ink, but make sure you don't hold it too close or hold it in one spot for too long, you'll melt the plastic.

When you stamp in white on your acetate, a few things to remember; first make sure your pad is nicely inked up.

Second, do a practice stamp on a piece of scrap paper.

Third, don't touch the white ink on the acetate until it dries or it will smudge! <(Ask me how I know this!)>
Fourth, if you do smudge it, a damp tissue will wipe off your first attempt at white stamping. <(Ask me how I know THIS! Sorry, I won't tell.)>

Another hostess suggested that if you don't have white craft ink, you could also < use another color, or use a white rub on.>

If you get a chance to play, check the thread in the VSN forum for details on how to post. Thanks for looking!

Breast Cancer Awareness

October is breast cancer awareness month and I when I saw the limited supply challenge on splitcoast to make a girly card, I thought of these stamps right away because I need to send a card to my SIL. She beat breast cancer ten years ago but this year has been struggling with a new form of cancer and just completed a round of chemo treatments.

I used the sketch from Midnight Madness challenge 24, you'll find details here. I made the card mostly in shades of pink, with just a touch of green (for the leaves on the roses on the robe).

This robe and bunny slippers just look so comfortable, don't they? Its a shame you can't tell from the photo, I used a variety of twinkling H20s to paint the robe so it looks as though it is made of satin. I have a wonderful pair of satin pajamas that is lined on the inside with flannel for warmth and this stamp always makes me think of those cozy pjs.

And can you see the roses by my window? The roses outside are almost gone now with winter on its way, so my DH brought me a mini bouquet of roses for the inside. I had to get those in the picture! Thanks for looking.

Stamps: Impression Obsession robe and bunny slippers, Technique Tuesday breast cancer set (ribbon), Stampin' Up Belle Toile (BG), Itty Bitty Backgrounds (roses on kiwi kiss paper)

Paper: Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, Neenah solar white, shimmery white paper

Ink: Black stazon, gold EP, white craft, variety of reinkers

Others: Martha Stewart edge punch, oval nestabilities, cuttlebug vintage die, gold EP, rhinestones, paper piercing tool, twinkling H20s

King of Kings

Happy Sunday stampers! Welcome to another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ.

This week's hostess is Lisa, who selected the verse from Luke 2:11 "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Our sponsor is Taylored Expressions and she has a beautiful set that you can win just by making a card to fit this challenge, which is to make a card or project featuring the nativity or other religious theme about Christ's birth.

I selected one of my favorite verses from the book of Isaiah, a book so full of promise so many years before the Messiah came. Anything in the bible set to music just pops out at me as I read it, does that happen to you? And what is more memorable than Handel's Messiah? Can you hear the choir singing the verse I used in my card? I expect you to be humming it all day long now!

I used the set Silent Night from Papertrey Ink for the verse and the star. Because this verse is set to music, in such a memorable, classic work, I used a retired music background stamp from Stampin Up beneath the verse, stamped off in Vintage Photo. Another PTI set, Damask Designs, makes up the background sheet beneath the sentiment and both layers are sponged with gold craft ink. Thanks for looking and we hope you play along this week.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Silent Night, Damask Designs, SU Music background

Paper: PTI Poppy, Cream

Ink: PTI Poppy, Black Stazon, Vintage Photo, gold craft

Other: Gold EP, gold ribbon (PTI), gold dots, nestabilities