Happy Graduation!

Having attended only one graduation this year, I only had need of one graduation card and here it is! This was for our Pastor's daughter, who just graduated from high school. She attended a private Christian school, where only two students were part of the graduating class this year. We've known "A" since she was nine and to see her present to almost 100 adults, speaking of the joys of her school time (both at the school and as a homeschooled student), how she has grown, by God's grace, academically, and her unwavering commitment to do what God calls her to moved us all to tears. It was one of the most moving and uplifting graduations I have ever attended and I was so blessed to be able to attend. She's also a sometimes stamping buddy so of course I had to make her a handstamped card!

"A" has a real heart for the Chinese and in addition to political science, plans to study Chinese at college in the Fall so I wanted her card to have an Asian flair to it. I used SU!'s bamboo background stamp for the bottom layer of the card. The flower and leaf stamps are also from SU! but the name of the set escapes me right now but it is one of my favs! The leaves were stamped in River Rock and the leaves with the flower was stamped in Old Olive. The flower was colored with a few SU! markers and then stamped twice. I cut out one of the flowers and attached it to the top of the first flower, to give it a bit of dimension. I also added a tiny bit of glitter to the top part of the flower. A few brads, a sentiment, and ribbon finished it off!

Enjoy!!

Pucker Up

A few months ago I picked up the jar and lime slice stamps from Odd Bird Planet. I love the idea of the empty jar that I can fill with anything and everything! This time around it was lime slices. I'm not sure a jar full of lime slices would taste all that good...well unless it was those sugar coated ones...ummm, yes, that's what my jar must be filled with, wonderful sugar coated candy lime slices! Now that sounds tasty!

The jar label is paper pieced and I used a masking technique to stamp the lime slices inside of the jar. The paper is from one of those giant packs of super inexpensive paper. Love these colors together with the lime slices, seems so summery! The little "just for you" tag is attached to the ribbon with a tiny safety pin, another favorite accessory of mine.

Now I'm craving something sugar coated so I better go on a hunt in the snack drawer to see what I can find!

Enjoy!

SALT Challenge - Rejoice

This week it was Ruth's turn to set the challenge on the SALT blog and she chose Rejoice. Her comments are below:

"The Bible says to Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS. This is a verse that I keep meditating on as its one of those that pops into your head, but is very hard for your heart to grasp sometimes.When we go through trials, or we can see others suffering, getting to the truth of this verse is vital.It doesn't say Rejoice for the sake of it, it says Rejoice in the LORD, the one who has saved us from the punishment we deserve, the ALMIGHTY one, who LOVES us so much."

I loved Ruth's comments, especially when she noted that we don't rejoice for the sake of it. This lead me to look for a verse that would focus on the reason we can rejoice, even in the midst of trials, and I found a perfect section in Romans 5. It reads:

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

We rejoice in God, even in tribulations because we know that He uses these times for our good. No doubt it is difficult to rejoice in the face of difficulties...heck, I have a hard time rejoicing when faced with every day minor issues! Many times I have been humbled to see friends going through great trials who continue to have a smile on their face, concern for others more than themselves, and lips are full of praise for God. Only the work of the Holy Spirit could produce such a person and it is a blessing for others to be uplifted by such folks. May we all strive to trust God through all our circumstances, continuing to rejoice in the Lord! (Thanks for this great topic Ruth!!)

For my ATC, I finally broke out the only set of Verve Visual stamps that I owe...a pair of sweet little birds. Amy has created some beautiful bird cards in the past and when I saw this set on her blog I "needed" it! ;-) I liked the idea that even the birds rejoice and sing God's praises so my birdie is singing a section of Romans 5. The paper and materials are all from SU!. The faux stitching, which I did a not so professional job on, is from a Papertreyink set, Faux Ribbon. The ATC is created in a way that makes it look like a mini envelope, with the scalloped top and silver ribbon holder "holding" the envelope closed. Adding a little tag on the inside would have been cute...Hum...maybe later!

I'm off to hit the hay! Been battling a most out of wack back for two days and lying completely flat on a heating pad feels marvelous so it's off to bed for me!

Hop on over to the SALT blog to check out all of the other beautiful creations based on this week's challenge. And please, feel free to play along and leave us a link back to your blog or gallery...we'd love to share in your creativity!

Chipboard Tuesday - Birthday Sparkle Challenge

This week's dip into the bucket of chipboard revealed an ice cream sundae...yum! I laughed when I pulled this out, thinking "what am I going to do with this!" Alas, I am not a designer whose ideas pop into my head very quickly! But after some thought I realized this would be great for a birthday card. And since I left the creation of this card until just a few hours ago (egads!) I knew I had to create something quick...and here she is!

I used a background stamp from SU!, that was retired ages ago. It has a bunch of birthday greeting messages, written in different fonts, covering the stamp. Since I adore fonts of all shapes and sizes I thought this would make a nice background. The colors were choosen from the SU! paper used to cover the ice cream sundae cup and scoop. I was initially going to leave the chipboard piece as is but then...I just couldn't! I'm sure you can all relate! The sundae was mounted on a pumpkin pie oval, which was attached to a lovely corragated strip of apricot paper. The bottom section of the card received a few tiny embossed circles thanks to my Crop-a-dile. And I know ice cream really doesn't have rhinestones in it but I simply had to glam up my scoop with a crystal cherry and tiny rhinestones at the edge!

You see those tiny rhinestones? I have been searching for something like this high and low and I finally found them in Taylor's new online store, Taylored Expressions. You receive over 600 rhinestones, in different colors, for only $3.99! (They're also available in clear.) If you're interested, hurry, supplies are limited!!

Your challenge this week? Create a birthday card that includes a bit of sparkle...Now this is an easy challenge so please play along! Leave a comment with a link back to your creation and I'll post any and all pieces on my blog next week.

Enjoy!

Ye Villiage of Wee Wooden People

A fun non-card project that I worked on earlier this week for my little ones. I read about a fun "seasons table" that a Mom had set up for her son, which included lots of little trinkets they would pick up from their adventures exploring outside as well as a set of the cutest little wooden people. She had a link to someone who sells them on Etsy and I almost ordered a set on the spot but stopped short when I saw she also sold the unpainted bodies. Figured I might be able to find my own unpainted bodies at my local craft store, saving me the cost of shipping. Headed out the next day and found myself a boatload of unpainted, wooden bodies! Spent an afternoon and evening painting these cuties. My oldest helped in the afternoon so where you see a blue face or red and green hair you know he was hard at work! :-) He seemed to only want to paint the heads so I needed to add the clothes later in the evening. I even included a bald Daddy to look like the real thing! hee hee

I left the little families set up on the coffee table where the boys would find them the next morning and I had visions of them playing peacefully for hours. Well...they played peacefully for about five minutes and then the yelling started about who had what and I believe the game ended when our little one decided they made much better projectiles then figurines! Ahh...so much for my visions...maybe they're better reserved for two little girls instead of two little boys...

Hope you all can enjoy my handiwork since it seems to have been lost on my children! ;-)

Chipboard Tuesday

Here it is...Tuesday! And I'm back with my promised challenge that basically consists of me blindly pulling a few pieces of chipboard out from that big 'ol bucket of chipboard pictured in yesterday's post. ;-)

I picked up the bucket of chipboard at my local Walmart because it was oh so cheap but when I got it home and started to look at it I wondered, "now what in the world am I going to do with all this?!" That's when my idea for a weekly challenge popped into my tiny brain! :-) This way I use up some of this chipboard, because I'm famous for hording, and my faithful readers are sure to get at least one new card posted a week, 'cause lately I've been too darn busy to regularly post or stamp! Now I'll feel responsible to post and, more importantly, stamp!

Let's get on with this week's challenge! Week one brought these pieces from the chipboard bucket:

Hum...not really moving me. Not crazy about the bright colors or the "go team" tag...but I quickly realized that the inside pieces were 1" x 1" and instantly thought of creating something with "inchies" as part of my card. My favorite thing to do with inchies (maybe this is how it's done anyway) is to find a stamp that is larger than the 1" square and stamp only a portion of it onto my inchie.

I found that one of my Odd Bird Planet stamps would be perfect for this type of project. (I also decided to cover both of the squares with a plain white cardstock for a clean stamping surface.) I used just a portion of the birthday stack image on both squares, highlighting two different sections of the stamp, and then colored the images with Copic markers. Since this was going to be a birthday card, I used an OBP background stamp, I love cake, to create the bottom layer of the card. (I adore this background stamp, it is so much fun!) And I will confess that I tried really hard not to age the edges of my card but...I just can't help myself...I need brown on everything I make! I love it! hee hee

The middle section of the card was stamped with a few SU! stamps to create the argyle background and then a length of wide grosgrain was added around the center. Oh, and small white scallops are peeking out from behind the pumpkin pie cardstock. I also wanted a little color behind my inchies so I took a small square and cut it in half diagonally, creating a small frame for each square. And that, my friends, was easy as cake! :-)

Now it's time for you to play along! Create a card using inchies and leave a comment with a link back to your blog...I wanna see what you made!

You'll have until Monday, 6/16, to post a link and then I'll list everyone's creations here on my blog. Perhaps I'll choose a winning design and send off a little blog candy...maybe a hand full of chipboard! hee hee

**Teaser**

I'm introducing a new challenge, which will take place each Tuesday, so be sure to check back in tomorrow for more details...For now I'll just leave you with this photo of my new chipboard bucket...hummm....

What do you see?

I saw butterfly wings when I looked at this ladies skirt image by justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet.

A few month's ago Johanna released a kit that included a bunch of ladies (well...ladies for Johanna translates to birds dressed as ladies) torsos, skirts, shoes, handbags, fans, etc. It is the cutest set ever and it comes complete with paper and embellishments too! ( You can find them here.)

Our oh so talented design team kept submitting all these wonderful cards that showcased the images as something other than a bird in a skirt so I decided I needed to take a long hard look at those stamps and see what other image I could come up with besides the obvious.

I thought that one of the skirt stamps looked like butterfly wings so that's what I went with!

The body of the butterfly is actually the body of one of jj's peacock stamps. I simply used a marker to only color the body, leaving off the feet and peacock feathers. And, I did not know this at the time, but the skirt image lined up perfectly with the peacock body so they almost look like one stamp! Yippee - that was a happy providence! I stamped the wings twice, cut them out once, so I could add a bit of dimension to the wings by attaching the second set with dimensional tape. Watercolor crayons and an aqua painter were used to paint the wings and Copics to color the body. I had this fun SU! blue paper with the white dots that reminded me of a butterfly trail and that made for a nice background. The "grateful" sentiment is also just a portion of a larger jj sentiment stamp but the repetition of the three "gratefuls" fit perfectly along side Ms. Butterfly so I only used a portion of the stamp.

I think this was the first time I tried to "see" something in an image that wasn't what it was intended to be....I'm a purest, if it's a bird then all I see is a bird. (Maybe that would just make me simple minded! LOL!) This was a fun exercise and I think I'll try to "see" what other images I can find in my stamps!

How about you??

An Amazing Honor

I was contacted by Anne over at A Faith Perspective letting me know that I was their featured blog of the week! Wow!! I was and am so stunned and surprised! It's humbling for someone to recognize your work, especially when I don't feel like I'm all that crafty. I just follow what I learn from all the talented crafters out there...so...thank you to everyone whose blog I read and galleries I oogle over, you have all contributed to what I create and I am grateful!

And thank you to A Faith Perspective for noticing my wee little blog, it is a blessing to have been featured on your site!

Go check out their site...it's awesome and showcases some beautiful work by some very talented scrapbookers! Their goal is to highlight artists who incorporate faith into their work.

Enjoy and thank you for letting me share my excitement!

SALT Challenge - Psalms

This week it was Lythan's turn to set the challenge on the SALT blog and she chose the Psalms. (You can read her entire write up here). I was thrilled with this challenge as I truly enjoy reading the Psalms. The Psalms deal with every kind of emotion and life situation, as well as herald the good news of the coming Messiah. I have always found the Psalms to be a great place for inspiration and encouragement.

Providentially, I was hindered from attending church this week so I decided to listen to a sermon on SermonAudio (wonderful place to download sermons, BTW!) The message I listened to happen to be on Psalm 24...how fabulous and perfectly timed is that? :-) My ATC (are you totally bored with my ATCs yet??) showcases the last three lines of Psalm 24, which scholars believe is set up as a question from an OT priest, "Who is this King of glory?" and a response from the congregation, "The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory!" Here's the entire Psalm (with a few notes from Sunday's sermon!) It was a good message! :-)

The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.

Notes - Verses 1-2 speaks of God's ownership. The earth and all it's inhabidents belong to God. He made all things, He sustains all things. As His creations, we are not free to act however we please but should seek to act in a way that glorifies the One who gives us our breath and has the power to take it away. That was so powerful to me, especially as we live in a world when everyone feels "in control" of their own destiny.

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Notes - Verses 3-5 speak of the future, of a life after death. The question is placed before us...who can ascend to where God is? What will be the result of those that do? These verses also give us a code of ethics, how should we live?

This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him,
Who seek Your face.

Notes - Verse 6 - None of us are any different, nauturally, than anyone else. No one deserves eternal blessings from God. And yet God is gracious and loving towards those who do not love Him and He changes the hearts of those who sincerely "seek" His face.

Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory!

Notes - These last verses speak to our worship. Humans worship, we were created that way. Everyone worships something or someone; money, our bodies, our accomplishments, God, false gods, etc. Based on historical evidence, it's believed that these last verses may have been a song that was sung by the OT priest and this congreation. The priest would start a "stanza" by asking a question and the congregation would respond with an answer. Would be an interesting way to sing in church nowadays, wouldn't it? :-)

Whew! By the time I finish my SALT posts...I have a mini sermon going! Sorry about that! LOL! I'll end now and get on with the crafty business...

ATC was created with one of my favorite Crate papers. The heart was cut from a piece of felt and "crazy" stitched to make it look "quilty." (Do you know why it's really stitched that way? I haven't a clue how to sew so this was my only option! ha ha ha) Twill ribbon is from Stampin' Up! and I stamped on the twill for some added decoration. My "joyful" tag is attached with a mini safety pin (I love mini safety pins!) and I decided to go out on a limb and add a tiny bit of bling with four crystal brads in each corner.

If you've made it this far...congratulations! And yes, I am this long winded in person, but I try to break it up with some jokes or something so your eyes don't glaze over. ;-) Enjoy and thanks for your patience with my long post.

Hey...read a Psalm today...you might find that you like it...and, if you're not exhausted after reading this post and still have energy to create something based on this week's challenge, pop on over to the SALT blog and leave us a comment with a link back to your blog or gallery. We'd love to share!

A Departure from the Norm

Every once in awhile it's fun to create something that is not "typical." This is the case with these two cards, created with justjohanna odd bird planet (an updated company name that Johanna recently launched) stamps and Daisy D cardstock stickers. I love using stickers on cards or scrapbook pages, it can really add some dimension and color to a piece and it sure does making creating quick and easy!

The top flower card was created using a corner piece, a circle (for the middle of the flower) and a heart cut in half for the leaves. The sentiment, which created the stem, is justjohanna. The bottom card was created by stamping the justjohanna lacy circle on a piece of patterned paper that resembles newspaper. The floral border was stamped under the circle and a heart and arrow was added to the top of the circle.

These are definitely different designs for me, not my typical "style" but I ended up liking them, probably because they were so different!

Why not try something that's not you once in awhile...It's fun!