It's Digi Day!!

It's a Sweet 'n Sassy digi day over at Scrapbook News & Review! Today, the challenge was to use birds in your creation and although I failed to include a bird, I did make a card using a branch that could be used for a bird's nest...let's just say that Ms. Bird is currently out looking for twigs to build her house and a few worms for dinner! :-)

This fabulous Sweet 'n Sassy digi image is called Cherry Blossom Branch and is available for only $3.00! I have to say that this is one of my favorite SNSS images...I've seen a lot of branch images lately, and even own one, but they're all too small for my taste. This baby has some umph to it! The branches are wide enough to easily color and the flowers large enough to add shading. And of course the joy of digital images is that you can can make the image as large or small as you'd like! My sentiment is part of a new set of Happy Birthday themed sayings from Sweet 'n Sassy that includes four birthday greetings for only .99! My card layout is from this week's Splitcoast sketch challenge and my paper...oh dear my paper...is more of that oh-so-fabulous Jillibean Soup paper from Wholly Scrap! Yes, it's the same paper I used in my last post...I just can't help myself, I love those orange polka dots and the pale yellow floral papers together...divine, I tell you, just divine! My last little embellishment was to add tiny rhinestones, from Taylored Expressions, to the middle of each flower.

Head over the the Sweet 'n Sassy SNR page for your FREE digi download and to post a card for today's challenge where you have an opportunity to win more free digital images! Enjoy!

The Sweet Shop Challenge - SSS46

It's time for another Sweet Shop sketch challenge! I'm keeping with the Spring theme this week, especially as we're experiencing beautiful 60 degree, sunny weather this week! The kids are in their glory, finally able to run and play outside without coats! It was a joy to see them so excited to be outside yesterday. Today my card features an adorable toadstool digi image, aptly named Toadstool (available for only .99), from Sweet 'n Sassy. The paper is a new line that just arrived at Wholly Scrap from Jillibean Soup that features polka dots, sweet farm images, and even a music sheet from the song Old McDonald. Can't wait to showcase more of this fun paper line! Hop on over to The Sweet Shop and check out all of the beautiful creations posted by the design team! And I'm going to open the doors and windows and breath in this amazing Spring weather!!

Keep it Simple Sunday

Today's card is a sample of a card that I'll be teaching at Wholly Scrap in a few weeks. The class is focused on different coloring mediums; we'll use Prismacolor pencils, Copic markers, watercolor crayons, and chalks. If you're in the New England area, check out the web site for class times and descriptions! This flower, an image from Hero Arts (a stamp company that is becoming one of my favs and that our store to starting to carry), was my first attempt at using Prismacolor pencils and while I'm certainly no expert, I love how they work! The feel of the pencils and how they blend is wonderful. While I'm certainly no Asela Hopkins (her coloring skills ROCK!), it's obvious that with a small amount of practice my blending skills would improve. (When I'm looking at this photo it's obvious that I should have blended a little better! LOL! That's what I get for crafting at midnight! hee hee) I plan to use the pencils on more projects...I really like the softness of the pencils and think they work better with some images vs. markers. The background of the card was embossed with an embossing folder and the paper is from a new s.e.i. paper line called Happy Day. Button and twine is from Papertreyink and ribbon is from SU! I'll share the other cards from the class later this week (as soon as I make them!!!) ;-) Enjoy!

Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Day and CardPatterns Challenge

Today is the day for combining challenges!! (That's what happens when one is short on time! LOL!) Today's card combines the Sweet 'n Sassy digi day challenge posted on Scrapbook News & Review and the sketch layout from the CardPatterns blog. There is still time to participate in the SNR Sweet 'n Sassy challenge, which was to use pastel pink and yellow on a card. There is also a free digi download available for our members and opportunity to win more images for participating! My card is a little light on the pink color but it's in there...you just gotta do a little searching. :-) (It's found in that darling new sparkly paper from sei that I picked up at Wholly Scrap...I'm caving and have been shopping every time I'm at work...Houston, I think we have a problem!) My sweet sunflower image, Flower Bouquet, is a new digi image from Sweet 'n Sassy (available for only .99!), combined with just a portion of a sentiment from a retired acrylic set. This week's CardPatterns sketch is below, which is a sketch they're using to celebrate their anniversary!

I departed just a bit from the sketch by first creating a box, using my ScorPal to make embossed lines, for the four strips of paper to live in. My diamond shape was just two pieces of layered cardstock, the yellow being embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder, and my sweet flower bouquet was placed on top with dimensional tape. Be sure to head on over to the SNSS SNR page and the CardPatterns page for their challenges and giveaways!! Enjoy!!

SALT Challenge - Keep Youself from Idols

It was my turn to set the challenge for the SALT team this week and I picked a doosey! (I confess that I enjoy diving deep into Scripture and being challenged with difficult topics, ideas, and beliefs.) So with that intro...I give you the topic, "Keep Yourself from Idols." Here's my write up from the SALT blog: I John 5:21, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." The idea for this week's challenge came to me by way of a short blurb from a church bulletin, titled "Me, Worship Idols?" The paragraph in the bulletin was from a book by Ed Welch, The Journal of Biblical Counseling in a section that deals with addictions. (I want to note that although this section from Mr. Welch's book is dealing with addictions, my goal is to focus more on how we create idols of the heart that may not be as outwardly noticeable). "One of the most common portrayals of the human condition, and one which captures both the in-control and out-of-control experiences of addictions, is the theme of idolatry. From this perspective, the true nature of all addictions is that we have chosen to go outside the boundaries of the kingdom of God and look for blessing in the land of idols. In turning to idols, we are saying that we desire something in creation more than we desire the Creator. This sounds like strange language to Western ears, but idolatry is perhaps the most dominant image in Scripture and it abounds in potential applications. Did you ever notice how many Biblical stories could be summarized with these questions? Who will you worship? The Creator or the created thing? God or man? The Divine King or worthless idols? The basic story line of the Old Testament is about people who find idolatry irresistible. Then God, ultimately through Jesus, comes to rescue His people out of their enslaving practices." One of the things that struck me from this writing is that I too frequently struggle with idolizing my work, keeping a schedule, or something I deem, based on my actions, as more important than Christ. When I get very busy, I have a tendency to have a "just a minute" attitude towards God. Thinking, "I'll pray and read just as soon as I finish this thing" and of course more and more things come into my day but I too often fail to make time to spend with God. And isn't that a form of idolatry? It reminds me of the text in Matthew 26:16, "for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his sown soul." At the end of the day, although God, through His providence, may bring many distractions into our lives, is anything as important as Christ? The good, or should I say great news, is that Christ came into the world to break the power of sin, to enable us to do those things that we're unable to do on our own, if we would simply seek Him in repentance and faith. If you feel lead to create something based on this week's topic, please leave us a comment on the SALT blog with a link back to your blog or gallery. We'd love to share in your creation!! Card details: Stamped images from Sweet 'n Sassy and paper from Bo Bunny, found at Wholly Scrap.

Trees of all Shapes and Sizes

Hi all! Guess what? I'm back with Internet service - yeah!!! Still no electricity but I'm thrilled to have Internet service, phones, and TV back! The town has said it will probably be another day or two until we have our electricity back on...so that will make a full week with us running the house on just generator power. Oh, and cooking on the grill...that's been kind of fun...the hubby doing the cooking and enjoying summer foods like burgers and hot dogs...yum! My craft room doesn't have power so I haven't had much crafting time this past week so I'm sharing another card that I'll be demonstrating at an upcoming Wholly Scrap Technique Class. This sample showcases the 'spotlighting' technique along with stamp images from TPC Studio, the Woodland Whimsy collection. I thought an image of trees would be perfect since we have so many trees down from the storm! Here's just one that is down across some power lines close to the store where I work...

This was the sight all over our area the day after the storm. In one of our neighboring towns, they had over 50 telephone poles down. We were fortunate to not have many down near our house....although I think we have enough branches down to make a few more free standing trees! Enjoy!

Happy Spring?

Hi all! Have you missed me? ;-) New England was hit with heavy rain and crazy winds (gusts up to 90 mph!) on Thursday evening and we've been without power ever since! Thankfully, we have a generator that is hard wired into our home so we have limited power, heat, and running water. No Internet though...cry, cry, cry. Today we're camped out at a friend's house, who has power, so we can work. We expect that the power will be out for a few more days but are holding out hope that maybe today our town will "be on the schedule" as my oldest said this morning! As for today's card, this is the Splitcoast sketch from last week and was actually the card I was working on when the lights went out! This darling image is from Sweet 'n Sassy, as well as the Happy Spring sentiment (although I'm not too sure Spring is that close yet!) The sweet watering can was colored with Copics, ribbon is Papertreyink.

Enjoy and I'll be back asap!