The Pre-Party Line Up

Happy Memorial Day! I hope that you're all enjoying your day off and having fun with friends and family! Us? We'll be busy building a chicken coup for our new baby chickens! Today's post is a sneak peek of sorts...a clue to one of the cards I'll be posting tomorrow for the big Blog Hop extravaganza! I'll be hosting not one, but two blog hops tomorrow and offering not one but two prizes! The first blog hop is to debut Sweet 'n Sassy's new acrylic stamp sets!! Can not wait for you to see all of the lovely creations made by the design team with these amazing news sets! Korin has redesigned packaging, added sentiments, and grouped some of her best sellers into one set...It's going to be fabulous! The second blog hop...well...I still have to be a bit secretive about that one but it's going to be just as fabulous! So can you guess who will be debuting on one of my cards tomorrow??? He's small, furry, has big ears, a cute pink nose, and is oh so adorable... Be sure to check back tomorrow...the post will be live by 6am EST!!

Keep it Simple Sunday

I have a sweet little card to share with you today...(it's really Sat. night but heck, it's almost Sunday!). This is a card that I'll be demonstrating at Wholly Scrap in a few weeks. It's another beginner stamping class so we keep things very simple. During the class we're using a new line from Imaginsce, called To Love & Cherish. It's a stunning line of all black & white papers and some darling little single stamps. For the cards we'll create during our class, I'm bringing in just a touch of pink. On this card, my pink is in the rolled flower and a decorative floral stamp behind the sentiment, which is from Papertreyink. Super cute and super simple! Enjoy and wishing you all a lovely Memorial Day!!

Our Craft Lounge Card

How about a non-sneak peek card today? This is a card that I demonstrated at an embossing class last week. While we explored all kinds of heat embossing techniques, I thought I'd also throw in a card that uses the metal plate for a dry embossing look. Remember dragging out your light box and stylus? I had to dig my supplies out of storage! The square design is something I've had for years, a plate from SU! (Wholly Scrap also has a good supply of the plates in house) I used the squares to create a border around my 5x5 card. This sweet watering card and floral image is from Our Craft Lounge, a new stamp line that Wholly Scrap is carrying. The name of this set is Growing Gratitude. I colored both images with my trusty Copics. I attached my sentiment with a little hat pin from Little Yellow Bicycle and attached that to this lovely satin ribbon (not sure who the ribbon is from...it's something I picked up at the store...) The tiny rhinestones framing the flowers are from Taylored Expressions. Enjoy and have a lovely weekend!! Be sure to check back in on Sunday for the Keep it Simple Sunday card! PS - I apologize for how dark this card is...not sure what happened there!!

SALT Challenge - Be Witnesses

It's time for another SALT challenge!! This week it was Hazel's turn and she chose a text from Acts. She provided us with such an excellent write up that I'm simply going to share snippets of what she wrote, along with my own thoughts, and would encourage you to head over to the SALT blog, to not only read her entire write up, but also to see all of the beautiful work the design team has created. The specific verse for today is Acts 1:8:"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 2 records how the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and as a result they were able to speak in languages understood by those around, telling them about Jesus. Peter spoke with such power, saying: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off — for all whom the Lord our God will call." The Lord called 3,000 people that day... The story in Acts is a powerful one, God gave those men special abilities for a particular time in history. Those gifts and that power were given so that men would know for certain that it had come from God Himself since, for example, none of us today would be able to instantly begin speaking in a different language. While the Holy Spirit no longer works in the exact same way as He did in Acts, that same power is available for us today. The Holy Spirit can give Christians the strength and courage to testify to others of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. More (or just as) importantly though is the power that the Holy Spirit has to transform a life. To transform a person's heart, thoughts, desires, and actions. I read an excellent quote a few months ago from a Christian writer and he said, "If I'm killing myself, I do not need to be rehabilitated. I need to be transformed. I need to be another person. Therapy does not make you another person. Rehabilitation rarely removes bad stuff. Transformation replaces bad stuff with good stuff. That is the difference." Only Christ has the power to truly transform an individual and the Holy Spirit works within the heart, before and after that transformation, to grant us the strength to put away our damaging sins and to sincerely follow Christ in heart and conduct. One last thought...Hazel looked up definitions of the word 'witness' and one of them is: "One who can give a firsthand account of something seen, heard, or experienced." In Acts, the apostles were witnesses to those around them of what actually happened to them and through them. As Christians we have a story to tell - a firsthand account - of our own experience of God's saving grace in our own lives and of the work of the Holy Spirit. My story is simple, "Believe on Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved...." Please stop by the SALT blog and if you feel led to create something based on today's challenge, leave us a comment with a link back to your blog or gallery. Thank you for visiting today!!

Exciting News

I have some exciting news to share...but this is all I can show you right now...You'll have to check back on June 1 to hear all about it...June 1 is going to be a big day...My 'news' and a Sweet 'n Sassy blog hop! There will be prizes given and cards galore to share!! Don't miss it!! I also want to let you know that I've started a blog for the store that I work at, Wholly Scrap. I've just made a few posts on the blog but one of them is a picture tutorial on the resist embossing technique. You can check it out here. Enjoy!

Everyday Miracles

It's day two of the Sweet 'n Sassy sneak peeks and I'm just all oogly about this next set, Everyday Miracles. I definitely have a thing for butterflies and Korin outdid herself with the beautiful images and sentiments in this new acrylic set, which contains two stunning butterfly images and a boatload of sentiments. For my card I used a reverse masking technique, using the left over piece of paper that I cut the oval out of for yesterday's card. I taped the oval mask onto cardstock and then used a blending tool to lay down a number of Distress Inks; Scattered Straw, Rusty Hinge, and Barn Door. Then before picking up my homemade stencil, I stamped three butterfly images. Once I removed the mask I added the sentiment. Since this was a good size oval, I kept the rest of my card pretty simple, only adding a few black rhinestones and a simple pattern paper from a new Basic Grey called Max & Whiskers. Enjoy and don't forget to check back tomorrow for more sneak peeks!!

True Friend

Happy Monday friends! I'm hoping that everyone had a lovely weekend! We spent much of the day Saturday running errands (after I taught a class at Wholly Scrap) and yesterday we were at church. Both days we experienced beautiful summer-like weather...love it! Well this week is going to be a busy one... I'm going to have lots of Sweet 'n Sassy sneak peeks this week, leading up to our big blog hop on June 1st, where we'll be showcasing our brand spanking new acrylic stamp sets!! I couldn't be more excited that Korin has decided to jump back in to the stamp pond! I adore the SNSS images and I even love the digi aspect (so easy to store and inexpensive) but there's just something about being able to sit down at my desk and inking up an actual stamp that is oh so satisfying. :-) Today's card showcases one of the things I love about having the stamp set in my hands...putting my sentiment directly onto patterned paper and being able to restamp just a section of an image that I want to cut out and pop up (two of the flowers). This lovely image and sentiment is from the soon to be released Poppies & Sayings set (the poppy image is also available as a digi image). I decided to break out the watercoloring tools last night to color my card. To get ink, I squeezed the lid of my Distress Inks onto the ink pad, which gave me a small pool of color. I then used an aqua brush to pick up the color and apply to my image. I adore watercoloring and had so much fun with this image last night! Two of the flowers have been popped up with foam tape. The dp is from a new Basic Grey line and the jewels are from Little Yellow Bicycle. And how about that fab punch at the bottom of the card? Isn't it divine? We used this punch at the last Stamping Around event and I purchased it the following week! It's a Martha punch and I love, love, love it! Be sure to check back frequently this week for more sneak peeks and some more exciting news... Enjoy!