Flowery Blog Candy!

This is the first and only bottle of Primas that I've ever purchased and while I used one or two of the flowers, the rest of the bottle has remained untouched for probably two years in my closet. So...I'm passing them along to someone who will love them as they deserve and put them to good use! :-) To enter the drawing for the bottle of Primas, leave me a comment with the name of your favorite flower. You must enter by Wednesday, 12/3, at midnight. Enjoy!

Cupcake Challenge and Blog Candy Winner!

**Blog candy winner info at the end of this post!** A big package of Odd Bird Planet stamps arrived on my doorstep this week and this gnome stamp has been staring at me from the moment I opened the box...taunting me...just begging to be inked. Since I had some free time this week to create, I decided to participate in Taylor's cupcake challenge, see below, seeing that my cutey gnome would be just perfect for this layout!

I also used a tiny branch image, also from OBP, behind the gnome to fill out my circle and as my husband said, looking over my shoulder while I asked if the card needed anything else, "a gnome sitting in a cup, on a branch...that's just about all you need!" I needed to add just a tiny "gnome" sign...to remind him of what kind of creature he is. :-) The paper used is from Stampin' Up!, a new holiday print...fantastic patterns! Ribbon, which is a luscious stitched felt, is also from Stampin' Up!.

Head on over to Taylor's blog to check out the other creations and why not give this layout a try? Love it!

Oh yeah...the blog candy winner! :-) Sorry I took so long to get the winner posted, been away from the computer a bit with the holiday. The winner is....Jules P - Congratulations! Jules, please email me at ksdm@comcast.net with your shipping information and I'll get your package in the mail asap! For those of you who just missed out on entering...don't worry, I'll have another blog candy announcement posted tomorrow!

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is a re-post of a card I created last year, using Odd Bird Planet stamps. As you can see from my very quiet blog I've been taking a bit of a break, enjoying my husband being on vacation this week and spending time with the little ones.

I pray that you all have a blessed Thanksgiving and I leave you with this interesting bit of history about the holiday, copied from World Magazine:

The Continental Congress issues it's first Thanksgiving Day proclamation for December 18, 1777. The purpose? "That at one time and with one voice,the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor; and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please Him graciously to afford His blessing on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole."

Gives us all something to think about as we consider celebrating a day of thankfulness tomorrow...May God be pleased to grant you a peaceful, healthy, and spiritually prosperous day!

Blog Candy!!

See...No pencil shavings or dust bunnies as blog candy....it's really stamping goodies! :-) This first round of goodies consists of a mini bag of sparkly brads in black, yellow, green, and purple, black prima flowers, a collection of cardstock in different sizes (mustard, lime green, purple, black, newspaper print with spider webs, and black with sparkly circles) and a ghost mini album. These supplies are part of the Odd Bird Planet A La Tarte Halloween kit. You can see the projects I created with a portion of the kit here, here, and here. Here's how you enter the blog candy drawing. Tell me what your plans are for Thanksgiving...going out, staying in, cooking a big dinner, or opting for take out? Me? We're not in close proximity to our family members to we gather with two or three other families from our church. We've been doing this for about eight years and it's a total blast! We have about 12-20 people in attendance and we eat more, spread out over an eight hour period of time, than we should! Weight Watchers here I come! LOL! You have until Wednesday night (11/26) at midnight (EST) to enter! Enjoy!

SALT Challenge - Comfort in Suffering

This week on the SALT blog it was my turn to set the challenge. I actually came up with my topic when getting ready for the Hope challenge from a few weeks ago. When I was looking for scripture for Hope I came across a heading in my Bible that made me read further, “Comfort in Suffering.” Suffering? Doesn’t sound very appealing, does it? No one likes to suffer and yet everyone has suffered to some degree in their lives, affected by sickness, death, divorce, disappointment…the list goes on. What good thing can be gained by suffering?

Salvation....Christ willingly offered Himself up to the most horrific suffering ever experienced; the brutal torture and ultimate death on the cross to pay for the sins of His people. What He experienced was the epitome of suffering. Had it not been for Christ’s willingness to suffer in our place, we would be forever bound to sin and misery and face an eternal end far worse than any suffering here on earth.

The comfort of others...God can use our sufferings to be a blessing and comfort to someone else. Can someone who has never lost a loved one truly understand the grief associated with such a loss? Not entirely. But someone who has had the same experience can be of great comfort to a grieving individual since they can identify with such despair.

Our final deliverance...Scripture tells us that we may be "burdened beyond measure, above strength, and despaired even of life." Our hope and comfort can not be found here on this earth but is found in the One who is able to deliver us from physical, and more importantly, spiritual death. As Paul states in II Corinthians 2, "Our hope for you (the church) is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation."

Suffering in this life is unavoidable but through Christ we have great reason to rejoice, in good times and bad. We can rest in knowing that God has a sovereign purpose both in our troubles and in the comfort that He gives us in them.

We invite you to join with us in celebrating the comfort found in Christ by creating a card, scrapbook page, or other project based on this week's theme. Leave us a comment on the SALT blog with a link back to your blog or gallery...we'd love to see your creation!! On my layout...Oh my goodness...I digiscrapped!!! It's a painfully simple and not very fancy layout but it was a blast to create! I would say that I'm hooked on digital scrapbooking...Can't wait to do more of it!!

This photo is of my mom not long after my parents divorced and she had to go back to work full time. She was diagnosed with cancer about six years later and passed away at 37, I was 15 and out on my own, supporting myself, at 17. To say that her death was and is a huge loss is an understatement and over the years I've had people express their sympathies by saying how hard my life must have been. I've never looked at it that way, there are so many people who have much harder lives than mine. Looking back I can clearly see God's hand in my life, directing my path and granting me protection and friends who have been like family. If God is truly God, then He must be in control of all of the details of our lives, even when we suffer and now, as a Christian, I can confidently rest in the comfort He provides and in the hope that one day I'll be with my mom for eternity.

Thanks for hanging in for my novel today... :-) I don't often share personal details but wanted to express how God has been the ultimate comfort to me in times of loss. I pray that it might be a comfort to someone out there...

Have a blessed weekend!

Decorative Tags

I don't often make tags instead of cards but I should probably change that habit as creating big tags are just as much fun as cards and could actually be used as a type of card as well as something to attach onto a gift. I have a few tag photos in the archives and this is the first one I have to share. This adorable bird image is from Odd Bird Planet as well as the cute, swirly sentiment. I love the tiny heart included with the image. Give you an opportunity to add just a hint of color along side the black lettering. If memory serves me correctly, the paper is Basic Grey, flower is from Stampin' Up! and has been died yellow (it started out white), and the ribbon is from my jar of misc. ribbons I have stashed in the craft room. (I save any and all ribbons, including those found on presents!) :-) Enjoy!! PS - Jules asked if I would share the cupcake template from the card posted below and yes, I'd be happy to Jules! Give me a few days as I have a huge amount of design work due this week but I'll get to it asap! PSS - And Sharon wanted to know if I'd be posting dust bunnies and pencil shavings as blog candy since that's what she finds when cleaning her stamping space! (Me too!!) First, Sharon, I laughed out loud when I read your message - too funny! And second, I really do plan on giving away stamping product and supplies! Hoping to have the first candy posted over the weekend so stay tuned...

Goodies on the Way!

I've decided that my stamp room needs a darn good cleaning and that is going to translate into weekly blog candy contests for my visitors! The contests will continue until my room has been adequately purged! Stay tuned...

The Missing Cupcake

My goodness, how could this have happened?? I forgot to share my very favorite cupcake card a few weeks ago! This was the last in the cupcake series and somehow this poor little card was forgotten! Isn't this fun? The design is from a layout I found in a CARDS magazine and I just adapted it to suit my images and paper choice. The background of the cupcake holder is embossed, which you can see better in the photo below. Wouldn't this be great as a birthday party invitation? The possibilities are endless!

Paper is from Martha and the background word image is courtesy of Odd Bird Planet stamps.

Enjoy your weekend and have a cupcake for me!

Paper Purse

A dear friend of mine recently had surgery on her shoulder...a "fun" surgery that will ultimately take her almost a year to recover from...She is also my faithful stamping buddy so since she is going to be out of commission for awhile, I decided to have her over for a special pre-surgery stamping night a few weeks ago where we would create something other than a card.

I found this great project via a link on Splitcoast Stampers. This template is from Andrea Walford's site and you can find it and the directions here. You might just want to make this cute purse yourself! And Andrea is a very talented stamper so have a look at here beautiful creations while you're there!

The project was really easy and super cute when finished. And guess what is really fun? A standard size card, 4.25" x 5.5" fits perfectly inside! What a great way to give a stationary gift! My friend immediately filled her purse with cards and gave them to one of her friends as a birthday gift. Nothing makes a stamper happier than giving hand stamped gifts or seeing someone I stamp with give them...ahhh, it does a heart good! :-)

All of the supplies used in my project is from Stampin' Up! The paper, which is just beautiful, is from their newest release of holiday doubled sided paper. Love it!

Enjoy and why not try this project out this week...You'll love the results!

Playing with Backgrounds

What do you think about my blog change? Kind of fun, huh? I think this is a growing trend!! I found these wonderful, free backgrounds at The Cutest Blog on the Block. Check it out! I'm working on a permanent blog background change but that's still a few months away so thought I'd update things until my permanent fix is complete! I imagine that I'll be trying out a bunch of new looks through the holidays..It's like buying a new pair of shoes - only for free! :-)

Taylor's Cupcake Challenge

Taylor over at Taylored Expressions holds a sketch challenge each week and I finally decided to play along! The sketch was so cute I couldn't resist! :-) The sketch is listed below...

I decided to go with an Odd Bird Planet cupcake image along with the I Love Cake background stamp. Didn't alter the layout at all, really like it, will have to use it again! The tiny rhinestones at the bottom of the scalloped edge are actually from Taylor's store.

Thanks Taylor for the fabulous sketch!! Go check out all of Taylor's adorable cupcake stamps and creations!!

SALT Challenge - Hope

During the past few months the word "hope" has been bantered about in the media, by friends, family and neighbors. It seems many in our world hope for change in many things and it appears that their hope is based on a person or group of people. Is it wrong to hope that distressing times in our lives would change? Certainly not! The question is who or what is that hope based on? If our foundation of faith is in any individuals, whether that's one's spouse, a president, or employer, you will always be disappointed. No man or government will ever be able to meet the expectations of the masses seeking worldwide or personal peace or recovery from emotional, financial, or physical distress.

Psalm 146 states, "Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; in that very day his plans perish."

If we can't ultimately trust in men to solve our deepest problems who or what can we trust in? Is there a way to have hope and even joyful expectation of relief in the midst of great suffering and uncertain times?

Continuing in Psalm 146 we see the answer, "Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help. Whose hope is in the Lord his God. Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; the Lord raises those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous, the Lord watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow."

We see that ultimately it is the almighty Creator of heaven and earth that delivers real spiritual freedom, basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter, and relief for physical ailments and the broken hearted. Government, no matter the promises made or how charismatic a leader, can't adequately meet the physical needs of the people. Nor can they bring relief to the deep spiritual needs of a nation or individual. History has proved that point again and again. Simply put, men, minus a Godly moral and ethical mindset, lack the power and ability to accomplish such an awesome task and God will simply turn their efforts "upside down."

This week at SALT, Hazel challenged the team with "Hope." The timing of her challenge is perfect, her write up inspiring and touching. Please visit the SALT blog to see all of the lovely creations made by our design team. We would love to hear from you and see what you create based upon the theme. Please leave us a comment and link back to your blog or gallery.

We can have great hope, even in troubling times. Romans says, "...we 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." One will never be disappointed if one's hope is fully centered upon Christ.

"The Lord shall reign forever!"

Stacked Cupcakes

If one cupcake is fantastic, what is a big 'ol pile of cupcakes? Divine! On this card I used just the base from the cake image (two posts below) to create a lovely plate for my cupcake pyramid. I've got strawberry and chocolate frosted cupcakes and a few with a sugary coating...ohh, how delightfully yummy! For this card, I made a mini card on top of a regular sized card, as seen below. The card is held closed with a piece of chocolate-colored twill.I think I need to go find some chocolate...

Cupcakes Too!

Sorry I missed my "cake" post yesterday, came down with a cold and just felt lousy so I spent the majority of the day just relaxing. Feeling a bit better today and am ready to get back to the business of sugary delights! First it was cake, now it's cupcakes...just a mini version of a cake! I adore the Odd Bird Planet cupcake stamps! This little one, pictured above, is from a image that contains a row of cupcakes. For this card I cut out one to mount on top of my "I love cake" declaration! Background papers are all from the same Martha Stewart paper pack. Enjoy!