New Project

Well, howdy doody, Y'all!   It seems like it has been forever since I updated my blog.   For that, I do apologize.   Sometimes I get busy and don't mean to neglect it, but y'all know, it just happens.   I do believe that's what we call, "life getting in the way".   And, that's totally ok.

In my neck of the woods, we have been in a deep freeze.   Kinda like being in a freezer for a couple of weeks.   On January 25th it was really cold.  How cold was it?   It was just a smidgen bit below 0*.   I jumped outta bed and ran thru the house to check the thermometer on the deck and I almost fainted.   I grabbed my coat, sandals and camera.   Have camera, will shoot! 

I have been trying to sleep and keep one eye on the thermometer.  hahaha   That is making me tired.   These temps are NOT the norm from where I come from.   The way I see it, it kinda shoots down the "global warming" theory.   My theory is this,  God is gonna do what God wants to do.  We can blame it on global warming or we can say, "Ok God, YOU are in control, and we are along for the ride."   I'm lovin' the ride!   How 'bout you?

Well, in between watching the thermometer and napping, ggg, I have been working on some projects.   I thought I would share a small project with you.   I have had a great time working on this.   I am working on a set of Victorian style ornaments.   Just doing a month at a time.   I used a cereal box and covered both sides with glitter cardstock that I run thru my 5 inch xyron and then cut them out.   I used my sizzix ornaments dies and cut the glittered ornaments with my cuttlebug.   Then I found some free Victorian style images  and cut them out with my little scissors.   Most of the time now, I will cut them with my Cameo, but if I forget and print them before I have brought the images into my software, then I will just cut them by hand.   After I get the images stuck to the both sides of my ornaments, then I will bling them up with my glitter glue, faux stickles.   Well, here they are, I hope you enjoy them.

I took some old seam binding and made some hanging loops.   I also took a sharpie marker and went all around the edges of the ornaments to hide the white edges.   I am really loving making these ornaments.  I have a couple more months of ornaments in the works.    Keep an eye open for them to show up here before long.   I actually have several projects to show you in the next few weeks.

That's about it for tonight.  But, before I leave you tonight, I would like to take the opportunity to tell you again that God loves you!   The love that God has for His creation; us, is the ultimate Valentine!   There is no greater love than the love that God has for us, through the blood of Jesus Christ!   Christianity has been described as "one beggar telling another beggar where the Bread is".   We are the beggars sharing the message of Christ with other other beggars.   Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life that we are sharing!   Do you know someone in your circle of influence that needs to know about the Bread of Life?   If you do, please share.   Remember, someone once shared the Bread of Life with you.   I can't think of a better way to share a Valentine this year, than to tell someone that God loves them.

Stay warm, y'all!   God loves y'all and so do I!  hugs, Patty

Two Projects

Good evening, Y'all!!   I hope and pray everyone is warm, happy, and nestled in for a great evening.   It has been cold here again.   I just keep telling myself, a few more weeks and spring will be here, a few more weeks and spring will be here......anyway you look at it, warm and positive thoughts can't hurt, either.

I hope everyone has been busy crafting.   I have and am having a great time here lately.   On the January 16th, I posted a project that I had been working on, and had a great time on that project.   Afterward, I got to thinking, I should make that boot into a double sided ornament.  Well, y'all, I got busy and did just that.   I am hooked.   I loved the look and wanted to share it with y'all.

 

I love the looks of this.   The next one I make of this boot, I may make it as large as I possibly can still be able to do the print and cut on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of cardstock.   I think that would be great.   Maybe cut an extra layer for one or two layers.   Just to make it thicker.   We'll see, anyway,  I hope your enjoyed seeing my boot ornament.

I have another small project to share with y'all this evening, too.   While making the boot, I started running low on some of my dimensional foam squares/dots and I had actually started doing a google search and was going to place an order, because I wanted to try a lower dimension foam dots.   I got to thinking about some of the tools in my stash and how they could be utilized in a different way.   I had purchased a package of foam squares from the Dollar Tree for a dollar.  A pkg. of 30 pieces, assorted colors, at 4" x 6" in size.   I have a 2 1/2" Xyron machine.   I ran a piece of foam thru the xyron and peeled off the clear film, flipped it, and ran it thru the other side.  I ended up with a sheet of foam with sticky on both sides.   I can cut it to the size I want, easily, with a pair of scissors.   If I want it to be thicker, I just stack a couple of layers.   I know I am not the first one to think of doing this, but, if you haven't thought of doing it yet, I hope you will try it, if you have a xyron.   I even have a smaller xyron, 1 1/2" wide and I cut strips small enough to slide down in it and just pulled the strip out and has the tape on the back of it.   Then turn it over and pull it thru again, so there is sticky on both sides.   This is a really great idea for when you are running low or if you want to have a foam that matches the color of your cardstocks.   Anyway, here's some pics:

These are the foam sheets I have made into sticky sheets.   These are pink and blue.

I hope that this gives you an idea or two that maybe you haven't thought about.   Or maybe you had thought about, but just haven't done it yet.   Try it, you'll like it. (sounds like an old, bad commercial, huh. hahaha)   Ok, people, do not stampede your local Dollar Tree!   There are varying sizes and thicknesses of foam at places like Wal Mart, Joanns, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and other places.   All I have used in my xyron machines is the Dollar Tree foam, so keep that in mind.   I do not know how well thicker foam will go through the machines.   With all that said, have fun.   I have.

Well, that's it for tonight, y'all.   I pray for you to have a wonderful night of rest.   I hope and pray that you pray for those around you that you know are sick and hurting.   We all know of people that need our prayers.    It seems that my prayer list grows daily. 

Philippians 3:13b-14
13b- forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

When Paul had his Damascus Road experience, his whole life changed.   He done a complete 180 degree turn around.   From that day forward, he strained toward the goal of gaining Christ's approval.   Do you and I strain toward the goal of gaining Christ's approval?   But, before he could strain toward Christ's approval, he had to forget about the junk that he brought to the cross; failures and successes.   Most of us has a trunk load of junk.   We have to leave it at the cross.   If you are free in Christ, you are free indeed!   When we confess our sins, they are put away from us as far as the East is from the West.   We may even have a few successes along the way.   Whom do you give credit for those successes?   If you give God credit for any success, give it to Him, "then keep pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus".    Start each new day with the aim and intention of "straining forward to what lies ahead".   I don't know what my future holds for me, but I do know who holds my future.   I strain toward the goal of gaining Christ's approval daily.   I pray for His approval in all I do.   I pray that you do, too.

Hugs, and good night, y'all, Patty

Pics of some Swaps posted

Good afternoon Y'all!   I trust that you are enjoying this beautiful Lord's Day today!   How truly awesome it is to Praise God for His tender love and mercy, Y'all!   We had a great worship service at church this morning and I look forward to a wonderful time of praise, worship and Bible study this evening. 

I wanted to pop in and share a few pics of some swaps I was in for January.   I had a great time with these swaps.   It was just a few short months ago that I joined my first swap of all time.   Can I just say, "Y'all, I'm addicted", but I must also say, it's a great addiction.   It is part of my quiet time, alone time with the Lord.   So, I love it.   I also get to pray for whom ever receives my swap.   That makes my crafting so meaningful.   I know that any skill or talent I may have came from the Lord of my life, and I praise Him for that.

So, without any further ado, here are some of my pics:

The picture above is my tag that is all about Love .   I cut the tag on my Silhouette and then the hearts are a Sizzix sizzlit, (I believe) and it is a cut and emboss hinged die.  It does it all in one pass.  Pretty neat.   The little xo on top and the small heart in the middle and the ticket stub on the bottom were pieces I had bought.  They were in 13 inch strips for borders, so I snipped what I needed and used some more on another swap.  I really had fun with this.

The above pic is the image I put on the back of my tag.  I just wanted to gussie it up a little bit, too.   I had printed out several vintage images and used one.   I inked the edges and also darkened the whole image just a tad to give it a more vintage look.

The above pic is of my ATC swap.   You will see some more of one of the borders I used.  I snipped off two of the xo's and used on these.   I had posted a mini tutorial back earlier in the month showing how to put small pieces in an embossing folder and keeping them from moving with a very tiny piece  of scor tape.  Well, the ATC's is what I used those on.  They are in the very center of the card.   I just wanted an element with embossing on it.   I cut the letters out with my Silhouette.   They cut like butta'.   I had gotten some Viva Decor Inka Gold Metallic Rub for Christmas in 5 diff colors.   The edges of the ATC's have four of those colors on them.   Gotta love me some Viva Decor!   Love that stuff, Y'all!

The last swap was a shaped Valentine card.   I had gotten this card from the Silhouette store and thought it was perfect for what I needed.   My Silhouette, again done a beautiful job.   The white pieces you see were cut with my Cuttlebug and various dies.   I believe that all of those pieces was cut with diff Spellbinder or Sizzix thin dies.   You see some really small hearts scattered around on the interior of this card.   They came from the exterior of the card which you will see in the next pic or two.   They were the perfect size to just pop on here and there.

See, you can see where all those little hearts were cut from.   It was such a shame to think about tossing them, so, I glued them on and them glittered them up.   Oh yeah, you knew I would get around to bling!   Love me some bling!   I also used my perfect pearls and went around the scalloped edge with gold.   More bling, y'all!   hehehe

Since my card wasn't a regular sized card, I needed to make an envelope for it.  So the above pic shows my envelope.   Then, I took out one of my embossing folders and my Grand Calibur because it has a larger area and got the folder just so on the flap and embossed with my Sizzix heart folder.   I enjoyed how that turned out.

Ok, so for this last pic, I decided my card needed a closure of some kind to hold it shut.   I had mentioned about some borders I had purchased and used some of this one.   I took what was left and folded it in half and glued it together and a made a band to go around it to keep it closed.   All of my swaps had purple in them.   Y'all, I love purple, what can I say?   So, I used purple and pink colors.   I think purple and pink says "Love" as much as red does.  

Well, that is the pics of my swaps and the story behind them, and I'm stickin' to it.   gggg   I hope and pray that my swap recipients enjoy them just half as much as I enjoyed making them.   Oh, and stay tuned, because I have some more pics of projects and you DO NOT want to miss them! (hehehe)

As I leave you this evening, I leave you with a message from Jesus, "I Love You, my child!"    No other person will ever love you as much as Jesus loves you!    Jesus is the best Valentine anyone could ever give or receive.   So, as we are thinking towards Valentines Day in February, that is my Valentine to you.

John 3:16-For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I pray that you will accept this Valentine in the spirit in which it is offered, LOVE!   Jesus loves y'all and so do I!   God bless y'all every day in every way!

Good evening and Hugs y'all,  Patty 

Print-n-Cut Layering Image

Good afternoon y'all!   I hope that y'all are having a craft filled day today and enjoying every second of it.  I collect images.   I love vintage images and all things vintage.   So, I was perusing my images and looking for inspiration.   I came across one that was going to take a mini challenge to get it done.   I printed the images and cut them out by hand and got them layered and it is awesome.   But, I thought, why in the world would I spend my time cutting out the images by hand, when I can cut it out on my machine.

So, I merged  the jpg image into my Silhouette Designer Studio.   I done "trace and detach" on the image.  That took away all the background image and left nothing but the images that was on the pic, so to speak.   I could then go back into trace with the smaller images and "trace outer edge", that gave me my cut lines.   There are many "tracing" tutorials on YouTube and Pinterest, so I am not going to try to teach you tracing.

I just wanted to try to show you, in depth, what I done.    I brought the images into my software and loaded them onto my 8.5 x 11 mat and put the registration marks on the virtual mat.   I then sent the virtual mat to my printer and below is the print out.  You can see the registration marks in the top two corners and the bottom left hand corner.    The cardstock is on my mat, and it is actually already cut.

The image below, is the white space left from pulling the cut-outs away.   As you can see, it cut very nicely around the images.   I love doing print-n- cuts, and this is the reason why.

Ok, below is some of the images.   My printer is running low of color ink, and of course, it showed up in these images, but I went ahead and cut them out, because I wanted to share with y'all, just how good the print-n-cut feature is.

More of the cut images below.

Ok, the pic below shows the four pieces that it takes to make this layered image.   You can also see how great the cutwork is.

This pic below shows on the far left is the small boot that I cut by hand and managed to get together.   Then, closest to it, is the machine cut boot that I got put together and then another boot that is unassembled. 

I will tell you here that I inked all the edges with markers that was just a shade or two darker than the images.   That, to me, really helps the layers pop.

This pic shows the layering of the images.

The pic below shows more layering.

A diff angle below, to show more of the layering.  You can see all four layers clearly.

This is the finished boot.   I forgot to mention anything about the bling.   How can I do a Victorian boot and not bling it up? ggg 

This final pic shows the size of it next to a quarter.    This boot is actually 5" tall.  The  small one I made by hand was 3.75" tall.   I really love making these layered images.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures and I hope you decide you can do the same thing.   Just Google, YouTube, Pinterest "vintage images" and "print-n-cut" and you will find more info than you knew even existed. ggg   Give it a try, it's fun!

As I leave you this evening, I ask you, "do you ever feel like you are being tempted by the enemy?"   If you do, let me tell you, then you, my friend, are in good company.  

Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Yep, you read that right.   Jesus was tempted by the devil.   So, when you and I are battling, every day, with temptations, remember, Jesus was tempted also.     The Holy Spirit had led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted in every way that you and I are tempted.   Jesus, in His humanity relied on the Holy Spirit's direction to face the temptations of Satan, the enemy.   Jesus had the opportunity to disobey His Father.    How may opportunities in a day do you and I have to disobey our Father?    On the other hand, how many opportunities do we have in a days time, to obey our Father?   We have the same help that Jesus had!    The Holy Spirit is our helper also.   The Father has a purpose for each and every one of us.    When we give in to temptation, sin, we allow the enemy to block God's purposes for our lives.   Call on the Holy Spirit to help you to resist the enemy!   When we call on the Holy Spirit, we are getting ourselves ready to walk in and live out God's purpose for our lives.    I pray for you to resist temptation.

I hope and pray that y'all have a wonderful night.   Good night, y'all!   Hugs and be blessed, Patty

Cards I made at Church

Good morning Y'all!   I hope and pray this morning finds each and every one of y'all blessed beyond measure, happy, healthy, and more than anything else, I pray for you to have joy in your hearts.   Joy in your heart says that now matter what my external situation looks like, God is with me and He will carry me through it!   I spoke with a very sweet lady this morning.   She had buried her sister-in-law yesterday, and in the morning, her daughter-in-law goes to one of the local major hospitals to find out where her stage 4 cancer originated and see where it has spread to.   The external situation looks very grim, "but God"!   When we can say, "but God", the situation has just taken a turn for the better.   This precious family has joy in their hearts that will sustain them through what ever comes.  "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"

We had our monthly Card Making Ministry at church last night.   It is always a great time of creativity, fun, and fellowship.   There is usually anywhere from five to seven there making cards, but due to some circumstances of illness there was only two of us.   But we decided the "show must go on", and it did.   The lady that is over this ministry truly has a servant's heart!   She has been doing this for several years and many people have been blessed by a card from the "Card Warriors".    We have a lot of fun, laughter and fellowship.   I have really enjoyed this time with the ladies of my church.   I took pics when I got home last night of my cards.   I wanted to show them to y'all.

The little penguin was made from an owl punch.    We just trimmed the tufts of feathers that look like ears from the owl and then you have a penguin.  ggggg   I love the owl as well as the snowmen.   Very appropriate cards considering we've had very cold weather and some ice and snow.    I hope you enjoyed looking at the cards we made at church.

As I leave you today, I would like to remind you once again, that joy in your heart is one of the blessings from God that is so amazing.   How can someone struggling with some of the tragedies that life throws at us have joy in our hearts while dealing with death and sickness.   It doesn't make sense to the world around us, and it is even unexplainable, unless and until you experience it for yourself.   It only comes from God and having a relationship with Him through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Paul knew that joy.   He said, "if I live, I will live for Christ; if I die, I will be with Christ (gain)!"   My friend, that is JOY!    I hope and pray that you, too, have that joy in your heart!

Have a wonderful day, praise God in it, and be blessed, Y'all!   hugs, Patty

I accepted the Challenge...

Ohhhh, does that sound ominous and foreboding?   Well, I did accept a challenge and I wanted to share it with y'all.

It has been pretty cold in my neck of the woods the last few days, how about where y'all live?   I remember hearing on the news sometime Tuesday,  that every state in the United States of America had temperatures below freezing, 32*,  at some point and time that day!   Folks, that's a cold wave and a half!   I do hope and pray that everyone is making it through this cold spell ok.   Awh, before we know it, we'll be fussin' about how hot it is!   hahaha    Kinda look forward to that, too!

Now back to the "Challenge".    It's not a duel or a fight to the death or anything like that, it's a "fun" challenge.   One of the ladies on one of the groups I belong to posted this challenge for making a card:  It has to open down the front;  it has to have orange on it somewhere;  and it has to have coloring of some type on it somewhere.   Those were the only three criteria that I remember, hopefully I got it right.   Anyway, I had a blast working on this card.   It is picture intensive, but I can't help it, I feel like I grew by leaps and bounds during this challenge.   I think I may be able to leap tall buildings in a single.........well, no, not really, but I may be up for another challenge.   hahaha    And now, for the pics:

I used my Sizzix postage stamp die .  I measured how wide the die is and x that by 2.  Then cut my cardstock at just about 1/16th or so shy of the total width.  Then measured in from the cut sides to half the width of the die and that's how I got the fold.  You want to make sure that you have some hinges left on the sides of your stamp otherwise your doors will fall off. hahaha  Ask me how I know?  No, don't, just take my word on it, you want hinges!   I also used this die to cut the orange that was a requirement for the challenge.

I took another sizzix die and cut some closures, that will come a little later.

This just gives you an idea of the size as compared to a quarter.   I also took my distressing tool and made the card stock really supple then I inked it lightly with my brown ink.

This shows how it will close.

The inside shows where my coloring is.   I used my water color pencils and then a water blending pen to blend the colors.   I took one of the pieces I messed up, hahaha, and trimmed away the outside of the stamp and that is what I stamped my image on.   If you look closely, you can see a border of orange around the stamped image, I inked it up because I wanted it to stand out, so to speak.

I cut the orange in half and used it to cover the front of what I will call the doors of my card.   Then I used bisque colored perfect pearls on each little nub of the stamp.   I took the image I wanted to place on the front and cut it at an angel and the scor-taped it to the front, after I had inked up the edges a little.

 This is a little better pic.  I got the light on it a little better.

 And also this one.

Now, this is where I used the closure.  I made a little band to go around it to hold it shut.   Again, just plain white Georgia Pacific card stock, distressed and inked.  I glued the closure to the band and opened it out flat and used glossy accents on it.  I just put a single coat on it.   That really helped to make it look more like a belt.  I was happy with it.

Then, I used my perfect pearls and made me some little rivets on the closure to give it a finished look.

Just another shot of the closed, finished card.

And this is a close up of my little closure.  I am really happy with the whole thing!   Oh, I forgot to mention that I used different colors of blingy, glittery goodness on my flower on the front of the card.   It doesn't show up really well, but I did take notice of it in this pic, and I didn't want to forget the "bling"!

Well, this is my take on the Challenge.    I so loved doing it.   I am so thrilled with the outcome of it.   I hope that there is something here that you can use on your next project or in the future.

As I leave you this evening, I want to share a fav scripture with you:

Psalm 91:1 "Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty".

God is our shelter and refuge.   The writer of this Psalm trusted God to see him through any dangers and fears that may have come in his life.   This is the picture of how we are to trust God and give Him all our fears and exchange fear for faith.   We must dwell in and rest in the shelter and protection of Almighty God.

I hope that you have found shelter and refuge in the shadow of the Almighty!   God loves you and wants to be your safe place to fall!

I hope y'all enjoyed your visit here today.   I pray for y'all to have a blessed and peaceful evening.    I hope you come back soon, because I have soooo much more to show you.

Hugs and be blessed, Y'all!  Patty