CAS (Clean and Simple) Challenge

I found out last night that my good friend Julie is one of the guest designers for this week's CAS Challenge over on Splitcoast. Well how could I not participate! The challenge was Mother's Day or May Flowers and I decided to combine the two and great a Mother's Day card with flowers! :-) Flower stamp, sentiment, and buttons are from Papertreyink. Punched the square in the center of the card was created with a Nestabilities die. The flower image was stamped on the inside of the card; outside was embossed with the Swiss Dot embossing folder. Edges of my cardstock were aged with a blending tool and distress ink because all kraft cardstock needs a little bit of distress ink on the edges... Enjoy!!

Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge

Here I sit, sipping my jug of coffee and checking out all of the lovely creations that were posted on other blogs over the weekend, as well as reading some wonderful posts by non-crafty bloggers (two of them just had babies so I love to read about how things are going and seeing the photos of the wee ones) when I realized I had yet to post to my own blog! It might take a few more sips of coffee before my eyes start to fully open and my brain to begin functioning... Today I'm sharing a sweet wedding bells digi image, aptly named Wedding Bells, from Sweet 'n Sassy, along with a sentiment from the Wedding Sentiments set, which contains eight wedding-themed sentiments for only $3.50. My layout is from this week's Sweet Stop sketch challenge. These lovely black and white papers are from a new Imaginisce line, purchased at Wholly Scrap. (I'll be using these papers in a class next month!) I added just a hint of a pale yellow to help connect the color of my bells with the black and white. The image has been colored with Copics. Stop by the Sweet Stop to check out all of the other wonderful creations by the DT! Enjoy!

Keep it Simple Sunday

A quick post tonight...For today's card I used this darling image and sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps, a set I picked up at the recent Stamping Around event. The name of this set is Sewing Box - Hugs and is chock full of the most adorable stamps!! As a matter of fact, the entire Waltzingmouse online store is full of adorable stamps! (Note to self...go shopping...) My star image, which has been stamped on cream cardstock and then aged and colored with Distress Inks, is paired with a sweet piece of script kraft DP and a sweet gingham DP from Jillibean Soup. The button and twine are from Papertreyink. Enjoy and head over to Waltzingmouse...they have some amazing products!!

Speechless

I just walked in the door from a class at Wholly Scrap (hi girls!!) and sat down to check my email. A few emails down and I came across my Google Alerts email (an email that let's you know where your blog has been mentioned) and right on the top was Nichole Heady's blog. Um...hello....why was I mentioned on Nichole's blog? Girlfriends...I have died and gone to stamping heaven...My card, my little flower card (shown here), won the "Best Use of a Previously Released PTI set!!!" I can't believe it...simply can not believe it! I jumped out of my seat and yelled when I saw the post. LOL! Thank you Nichole, you just made my night...and my week...and my month...you get the picture!! You can check out the post for details on the stamp sets used and to see all the other beautiful work!! My sweetie friend Julie got an honorable mention too!! Yeah!! Thanks for letting me share...I'm so shocked I won and oh so excited!!

SALT Challenge - Honor and Respect

It's time for another SALT challenge! This week it was Stacy's turn to pick the challenge and she picked a verse from Romans, “This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor." She also has a great write up on honor and respect on the SALT blog. I chose to work with a portion of Romans 13:1, "let every soul be subject..." This section of Romans (vs. 1-7) focuses on Christians and civil government. Although this might seem like a difficult challenge, we know that all Scripture is given for our benefit so what can we glean from this portion? I'm going to take the easy way out and share some notes from my study Bible: Civil government is a means ordained by God for ruling and maintaining order in communities. It is one of a number of such means, including ministers in the church and parents in the home. Each such means has its own sphere of authority under Christ and the limits of each sphere are set by reference to the others. In our fallen world these authorities are institutions of God's kindly providence, standing as a bulwark against anarchy and the dissolution of ordered society. Because civil government exists for the welfare of the whole society, God gives it the "power of the sword," the lawful use of force to administer just laws. Christians must acknowledge this as part of God's order. However, if it forbids what God requires or requires what God forbids, Christians cannot submit, and some form of civil disobedience becomes inescapable. (For example, if government forbids the worship of God. As a Christian, we would be compelled to "disobey" this government imposed law, since this would be an overstepping of their God-given role in society). Christians should urge governments to fulfill their proper role. They are to pray for, obey, and yet watch over civil governments reminding them that God ordained them to rule, protect, and keep order. The verse I used is a reminder that every soul is subject to God, no matter how powerful their position. The second part of vs. 1 states that "there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God." If anyone in authority abuses their power or those under them they risk judgement from the same God that appointed them to their position. That judgement may not come in this lifetime but it will most certainly come in the next. "...for it is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord." This is a serious warning and should give everyone with authority over others a reason to soberly consider their own actions. God will hold that person accountable, not just for how they ruled, but also for how they treated those under them. Likewise, we may not always be happy about certain ruling authorities, however, we are still required to pray for them, and to show them respect, trusting that God is in control. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good." -Proverbs 15:3 For my ATC, I decided to channel Tim Holtz because...well....I love Tim Holtz...*smile* The idea for today's art was taken from his new book. I used a number of his new sets, along with a grunge paper swirl, cut using one of his new dies. (Yes, I've been doing just a bit of shopping at Wholly Scrap!!) The sweet little butterfly is from a Gina K stamp set, A Beautiful Life. Be sure to stop by the SALT blog to check out the amazing work posted by our design team...they outdid themselves this week!! And don't forget that if you're inspired to create something based on this week's theme, that you can leave us a comment with a link back to your blog or gallery. We'd love to see what you come up with! Enjoy!

Stamps for a Cause

I've been wanting to post about this special stamp set for weeks now! Have you noticed the badge on the left hand side of my blog? Sweet 'n Sassy has created this adorable stamp set, Make Lemonade, and is donating 100% of the profits to Alex's Lemonade Stand, an organization whose goal is to raise money to fight childhood cancer. ALSF was founded by Alex, a precious little girl whose life was taken by cancer in 2004. Since it's founding, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has been committed to finding a cure for all children with cancer. The foundation operates on the principle introduced by Alexandra “Alex” Scott - “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” I have a special place in my heart for charities that raise money to fight cancer; seeing my own Mother die at 37 from lymphoma and watching as a friend's two year old son endured painful cancer treatments (thankfully, he is now in remission) for many months. And with access to so many stories on the Internet, I have read too many agonizing stories of parents losing children to this terrible disease. It's heart breaking....so if you're in need of a sweet lemon and lemonade pitcher image, won't you consider purchasing this digi set from Sweet 'n Sassy...the cost is only $3.00. We're so thankful for any way we can help ALSF! My card today features the Make Lemonade image along with Jillibean Soup papers (from Wholly Scrap) and ribbon from SU!. And the layout is from this week's Sweet Stop sketch! Oh...pictures from yesterday's Week in the Life...Only one more day to finish out the week! My handsome boys ready for church...

My fabulous shoes! LOL! These are one of my favorite pair of sandals...They have a fun wedge heel... After church my hubby and oldest decided to try out the hoola hoop, courtesy of our neighbor's daughters toys. It was pretty entertaining...hee hee The new house being built next to us...sigh...it doesn't make us all that happy to have a house so close but we're hopeful that we'll end up with good neighbors and we'll be able to look back on our anxious days of listening to eight hours of hammering fondly. :-) We had some friends over for dinner and this little hunk of sweet love came along! Isn't she the cutest thing in the whole wide world? It makes me crave having more babies...How about her "smile for the camera" face, how cute is that? And my big boy made me so proud last night. He played with and entertained our friend's daughter the entire time they were at our home. He did all he could to make her giggle, brought her toys, played hide and seek, and patty cake. It was beyond precious to watch...now if he could just treat his little brother as well...humm.... Enjoy!!

Keep it Simple Sunday

Remember this little guy? I used him on a card that I posted a few weeks ago. This is another card that I'll be teaching at an upcoming Wholly Scrap stamp class, where we'll focus on the basics of stamping. We'll be using this fun Imaginsce paper line and Snag 'Em robot stamp. Simple card layout, showcasing basic layering, two quick cuts with Nestibilities, and a paper sentiment ribbon made from DP. The tiny piece of orange ribbon adds just a hint of a contrasting color. Also using just a few Copic markers - no shading - to color the robot. Keepin' it simple! How about a few more Week in the Life photos?? I'm been having such a great time with this process. It's really make me work to capture some of our basic routines, which has been really enjoyable to review in photos. Playing with Hot Wheels after breakfast...a favorite past time activity. Heading out for a drive (that turned into too long of a drive, resulting in cranky kids and mom! LOL!) I thought this was a fun shot, capturing Beanie in the mirror. Mulching flower beds...

Big boy helper! Boys watching a quick show while Mom cooked dinner. It was me and them alone yesterday as hubby was off with some friends.

Homemade calzones for dinner! They were really good, even though I totally stink at rolling dough and making an attractive seal...I lost too much cheese! Enjoy! I was lazy about picture taking on Sunday but got a few good ones...be back with those tomorrow!